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Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Ginny & Georgia,' 'The Waterfront' star Humberly González was told she could play the 'best friend' or 'the help' early in her career
From Ginny & Georgia and The Waterfront on Netflix, to receiving a BAFTA nomination for voicing Kay in the Star Wars Outlaws video game, there's nothing Humberly González can't do. The Venezuela-born actor, who moved to Canada with her family as a child, brings her infectious energy to any role she takes on, making her one of the most exciting stars to come out of Canada. While González was someone who grew up in drama classes and putting on plays as a kid, there was a shift when she was accepted into the National Theatre School of Canada, making the move from Alberta to Montreal. In her third year at the school, Don McKellar wrote a short film for her class, which was the first time she was ever on a set, and she "fell in love." "I loved the restarting of it all, the props, the continuity, the direction," González told Yahoo Canada. "And I learned a lot from Don McKellar, he taught me to make it minimal and small, and just to think the thought and really play it through." "I think that, for me, was a 'aha' moment that I was like, 'Could I go into TV and film? Could I be in a movie one day?' That seemed surreal and unattainable, maybe, but I was curious about it." While González initially dreamed of a career in theatre, she never looked back after her first time on a film set. "I started mostly in commercial work and that gave me the skill set on how a set technically moves. ... I think I did so many commercials I could sell you anything," González said. "But after I booked my first one-liner, or couple lines, on a TV show, shortly after that I booked my first video game, which I loved so much." "Come 2017, I ended up going back to school, to the Canadian Film Centre, and when I graduated from that, that was 2018, it was non-stop." But while González has navigated great success, she recalls getting "really anxious" before auditions, particularly early in her career when auditions were always in-person. "There's a million people that all kind of have the same wardrobe, the same hair, maybe the same look, and I was like, 'Wow, what are the odds that I'm going to book,'" González recalled. "It was very nerve-wracking at times." "I started gaining confidence the more I showed up and I kind of played this game with myself that this was just for fun. I got to go do what I love, so don't put pressure on yourself. Don't show up being desperate. ... I'm just going to show them what I can do. So I showed up with my bigness and my smile and my warmth, and I always broke the ice with a comment or a question, and that allowed me to kind of take charge of the room a bit more, and not apologize for being there, which was something I really had to get over." González has played several queer characters in her career, being that Latinx and queer representation for many who haven't been able to see themselves on first "big role," where she was a series regular, was the short-lived Utopia Falls. The Canadian sci-fi show, created and directed by R.T. Thorne, with Joseph Mallozzi who served as showrunner, is about a group of teens who audition for a performing arts competition in the colony of New Babyl. That leads them to discover cultural relics, discovering hip-hop and breaking down secrets of the colony. While González played the role of Brooklyn, she actually auditioned for every lead character in the show. "Once I stepped foot into [Brooklyn] I was like, 'Oh no, this is so much more me,'" González shared. "I remember talking to R.T. Thorne. We hopped on the phone before I did the final callback and he was just like, 'She's got swagger, she's confident, she's witty.' And I was like, 'So just be me. Got it.'" The show was also choreographed by the legendary Tanisha Scott, who's worked with artists like Rihanna and Beyoncé. González admitted she was sore for three days after just the dance callback for the show. "They kept me behind after doing the choreo, which I didn't nail completely, but I gave it my best, but they kept me behind and they said, choose any song of your liking, and we want to see you dance in your style," González said. "I chose the salsa song that I just improvised to." But what really appealed to González was that she got to act, sing and dance, everything a triple threat theatre kid wants in a project. "[Utopia Falls] is so underrated, because we have so many POCs," González highlighted. "This came out during a really tough time. ... It was right at the start of COVID, ... the production company that owned the rights dissolved. It was just bad timing, except it was the perfect timing at the same time, because people were home watching the show during Black Lives Matter. And here we have a Black creator with Black leads, talking about justice, talking about human resilience, talking about what matters." "Honestly, I'm so proud to have been a part of that show, even today. Now that my profile has risen and people are looking back to my work, there are people re-watching Utopia Falls and I'm getting comments on my recent posts like, 'Is there really just one season of Utopia Falls?' .... Maybe we need to revamp it. Maybe we could bring it back. ... We could make this show again, with maybe a bit more money and support, and I think it would do so freaking well." Moving on to the CW show In The Dark, starring Perry Mattfeld as Murphy Mason, a blind woman who tries to solve her friend's murder, González played the ex-girlfriend of Brooke Markham's character Jess. González highlighted that it was "healing" for her to step into the role. "It just brought me closer to myself as well. I wasn't out. It was something that I knew for myself, but was too fearful to put myself out there because, not that I wasn't even ready, I just didn't know how to label myself. Or I felt pressure to have it all together before I did," González shared. "I wasn't sure if I had to do this like long post and talk about it. I also felt fearful of not being queer enough, because I didn't look a certain way, or because of who I was openly dating. And all of those fears that I realize now are also other people's fears." "But playing Vanessa in In the Dark, who was bisexual and was open about that, I was like, 'Oh my God, how do they know?' It was very healing for me to play into a role that was so close to who I am and nobody else knew, but I could play it so authentically without other people knowing that this was truly me. And then ... Utopia Falls was also another queer character that they didn't have to have any labels at all. No one even cared. It was just normalized. It was truly love and nobody talks about all of these labels. And that was even more healing for me, because ... I really fell into that so easily and I'm like, I wish the world was like this. And I was like, why can't I just exist as I am? I don't need to give excuses or explanations." González also hit a TV milestone when she got to play a doctor on the show Nurses, something that seems like almost a right of passage for an actor. But the show's abrupt ending still leaves a lot of questions for the show's fans, and González herself. "We really don't know [why it ended]," González said. "We also filmed through COVID, ... which was honestly terrifying because we didn't have a lot of information about what the virus was." "We had to get tested three times a week, we'd have someone pick me up and take me to the clinic and do the test and go back home. We had to wear masks and shields and wash our hands and not talk to anyone. It was the weirdest time to be filming a doctor show. I was playing a doctor during COVID. I can't make this up. ... We did have a COVID episode, which was our final episode in Season 2, and it was such a mirror to life." But González also took the time to put a lot of research into her character, Dr. Ivy Turcotte. "It was definitely overwhelming at times, but it was such a neat opportunity to really, as an actor, put myself in their shoes and have so much empathy for it," González said. "I was nervous, because being a doctor is not easy. I had to look like I'd been training for years of my life to know exactly how much medicine to put into that person's bloodstream while they're also bleeding out. And then on top of that, my character was also an addict, so I had to kind of play off that I was maybe high, ... it was just a lot of things. It was such a beautiful acting challenge. I really enjoyed that show, and I'm so grateful that I had a job during the craziest time of the industry, truly." González's work in video games was notably recognized when she was nominated for a BAFTA for Star Wars Outlaws. She also made history as the first Latina lead in the history of the franchise. "The Latino community and the Hispanic community really came through on this one," González said. "I started getting all of these messages and beautiful recognition that they're like, no you're Latina, you're a lead and you're in Star Wars. ... We don't ever get an opportunity to be in that space. You have now opened this door and allowed us to dream bigger, that it is possible, that we are wanted in these spaces, that we can be leading woman material, leading man material." "I didn't even think I could get to that when I started out. I mean, I got told, maybe you'll play the best friend, you'll be the help. ... And that drove me crazy, because I'm like, there's no way that that's it. So I refused. I was like, no. I get to be a doctor and I get to be the lead in Star Wars, and I get to be in two Netflix shows at the same time. The ceiling is not what was built for me, I broke through that pretty early on, and I hope that people can see that with resilience, hard work and kindness, you can really get there." As González described, pushing against typecasting was something she committed to not tolerating from the beginning of her career. "I had those conversations pretty early on with my team. I was like, I'm not going to play something that is going to be a harmful stereotype for my people. I also don't want to almost play outside of my hit. I know that I'm ambiguous, and I could probably be a lot of different races, but I want to be Venezuelan, and I want to put that in the scripts," González said. "I wasn't in that scarcity mindset or desperate to say yes to everything just because they wanted me. I really want things to feel aligned." "That could have been a risk for sure, if I was pushing too hard and someone was like, 'Well if she's saying no to these projects there's nothing else.' ... I don't think that there's nothing else and I actually think that I can do anything you put me in. ... I can do drama. I can do sci-fi. I can do horror. I love action. You can even put me in period pieces, which I haven't done yet, but would love to. I just thought, if our job is to be a storyteller, I don't think the body that we're born with, and the shell that we are, should be a reason to not book something. ... I also don't just want to be Latina. I just want to be a human that's a part of a show, and she just happens to be Latina, not just because she's Latina." González has essentially become the Netflix Queen, starring in not one but two incredibly popular shows on the streaming site, Ginny & Georgia, which has reached its third season, and one of the hottest new shows of the year, The Waterfront. For Ginny & Georgia, which quickly became a hit for Netflix, González stressed that it's really the talent that makes the show. "When we all got cast for Season 1, we weren't this big yet. I think the show really took a chance on great talent, and 90 per cent of our cast is Canadian. There's something to say about the gifted people that are artists here in Canada," she said. "Everybody grew together, including Brianne and Antonia. ... The scripts were incredible. I remember, ... every time we had a read through, we were like, 'This is amazing!' ... I don't know how they do it, but every season just keeps getting better and better and better. They're refining. They have an amazing creator. It's just the writing and Sarah Lampert's mind, I'm so proud of her. I remember her being like, I was 30 and depressed writing the show on my couch, and it was my first time pitching to Netflix. She really had nothing to lose, but everything to gain. And it's so incredible." A highlight for the show is the relationship between the characters played by González and Waisglass, Sophie and Max. "We hit it off right from the start," González said. "I think for Sarah, this was a very new experience as an actor, that she had to have a love interest who's female, and she had never gone there. And I think we had to trust each other a lot. We had to make sure that we were on the same page." "So grateful we had intimacy coordinators and so many females on set that we could turn to, so that we felt protected and taken care of, and we were allowed to play so much. We had the privilege of shooting Season 1 outside of COVID, so we all got really close through that first season. We'd go out and have parties and hang out, and then things changed, and they shifted, because once COVID came, we had to kind of be separated. We couldn't really interact. We couldn't hang out anymore. But thank goodness we had that first year to solidify those connections." And for a period of time, González starred in the No. 1 and No. 2 most popular shows on Netflix, once The Waterfront was released last month. With the series created by Kevin Williamson, who gave us Dawson's Creek and The Vampire Diaries, Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer, González knew she was in good hands with the project. "When I saw the team. I saw that it was Universal Studios for Netflix. ... And then they have Holt McCallany and Maria Bello cast. And then I heard that my chemistry read was going to be with Jake Weary, who's also an incredible actor. I was just like, ... 'yes!'" González said. "And my only hesitation was, ... I got in my own head about being Latina and I'm like, do I fit into this North Carolina fishing family? ... How does a Latina end up there?" "Kevin let me know that they always intended Jenna to be Latina, which is amazing. So really, without knowing, I had a bit of a leg up, and they really did want me. Jake and I were the only two actors who did a chemistry read over Zoom, and that was really cool to know. And it was just one of those chemistry reads that once I hung up the call I was like, I don't know who else it could be. I'm sorry, but that was the best chemistry read of my life, and it was only through Zoom. If we have that much chemistry through a computer, please put cameras in front of us. ... It was such a seamless relationship from Day One, it was so great to work with actors who know what they're doing, who trust their choices, who are so generous and kind." While González has already accomplished so much in her career, her next goal is being in a movie musical, particularly after coming close to starring in Jon M. Chu's In The Heights film. "I auditioned for In The Heights and I actually got to meet John M. Chu over Zoom," González revealed. "Melissa Barrera ended up getting that role and she's incredible, and I'm even honoured that I got to go out for something that big, shot in New York." "Lin Manuel Miranda, anything he touches, it's gold. I would love to be in a musical movie. I hope that it can also be with Latin roots, in some way. And listen, if it's not out there, maybe I'm just going to have to write it. Maybe Lin Manuel Miranda wants to collab. Maybe it'll have to do with Venezuela, which hasn't been done. We have such a rich culture and music, specifically gaita, which is our Christmas music, and I've always [envisioned] it, seeing gaita on screen, which I haven't yet. So maybe it's something I have to create."
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Lights, camera, elbows up: Movies to stream on Canadian Film Day
Finding a Canadian movie can be harder than finding pure Canadian orange juice. Scroll through the options screening at Toronto's downtown Scotiabank cinema this weekend and you'll find no end of U.S. fare, including Snow White, A Minecraft Movie and A Working Man. The only Canadian offerings (sort of) are Freaky Tales, starring Pedro Pascal, and Novocaine, with Jack Quaid. These co-productions have some Canadian money in them, but little in the way of Canuck talent, locations or plot. So what's a Canadian to do? Well, the various streaming platforms offer a wealth of sometimes hidden Canadian gems. Some of those platforms are even free, or offer free trial periods so you can check out their CanCon before you subscribe. There's also an initiative happening this month known as National Canadian Film Day. Launched in 2014, it takes place on April 16 and has always been a patriotic celebration of the nation's film industry. How Canadian Bacon movie predicted Canada-U.S. relations 30 years ago The Spoils documents the unravelling of an exhibit of Nazi-stolen art That feeling may be a little more intense than usual this year, with the organizers promising 'a massive, celebratory, elbows-up explosion of Canadian film.' Events will take place across the country — and, through the auspices of Global Affairs Canada, around the world as well. The Canadian Film Day website even has a searchable list of screenings and events. A search in Toronto finds a free screening of Forces of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie, at the North York Central Library; a free screening of Johnny Ma's To Live To Sing at the Cineplex Fairview; and 'Elbows Up for Canadian Culture,' a town hall event at the Scotiabank (yes, the same one showing Snow White). It features Yannick Bisson, Don McKellar, Mary Walsh and Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers discussing the Canadian films that have affected them, and what Canadian culture and stories mean to us. The website also has links to the various streaming platforms. Here is some of the Canadian gold you can find there. (Be advised that some of these movies appear on more than one streaming service.) I Like Movies: Chandler Levack's feature debut is a love letter to movies, but also to the golden age of renting them from the likes of Blockbuster, and not the streaming option you'll be choosing. Starbuck: Quebec filmmaker Ken Scott's crowd-pleasing 2011 comedy is about a man coming to terms with having fathered 533 children, thanks to a sperm bank's administrative error. It's so good, he remade it two years later with Vince Vaughn. But the Canadian version is better. The Grand Seduction: Is there anything more Canadian than a comedy about health care? Don McKellar directed this 2013 film, a remake of Quebec's La Grande Séduction from 2003. Take your pick. My Internship in Canada: Patrick Huard (from Starbuck!) plays a Quebec politician who must cast a pivotal vote when Parliament becomes deadlocked over an international crisis. Philippe Falardeau directed this 2015 comedy. Bon Cop Bad Cop: This 2006 buddy cop comedy comes with its own unique Canadian twist, pairing an officer from Ontario with one from Quebec (they're called because a dead body was found on the border) for bilingual hilarity. The Sweet Hereafter: Nominated for two Academy Awards, Atom Egoyan's 1997 searing drama is based on a novel that was set in New York. So of course he moved it to Ontario. Sleeping Giant: Three teenage boys cope with boredom and coming-of-age antics on the shores of Lake Superior. Director Andrew Cividino made this 2015 feature-length version of his earlier short film. Oscar Peterson: Black + White: Canadian documentary maestro Barry Avrich made this excellent 2021 doc about jazz icon (and fellow Montrealer) Oscar Peterson, featuring a who's who of celebrity fans of the great pianist. Fubar: Canada's top entry in the mock-rockumentary category is this 2002 tale of two head-bangers, filmed and set in Calgary. Strange Brew: One of the great TV comedy spinoffs is this 1983 cult hit about two hosers and a brewery. One of Max von Sydow's best roles — and yes, we know he was also in The Seventh Seal. Turning Red: The Mouse House is not known for its Canadian content, though it did have Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis reprise their Strange Brew characters as a pair of moose in 2003's Brother Bear. But Turning Red, an animated film from Canada's Domee Shi, is a real Canadian love-in, set in Toronto's Chinatown in 2002. Sugarcane: Nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary feature at the recent Oscars, this hard-hitting film follows the investigation into a residential school in British Columbia, and the effects that has on the lives of survivors and descendants. One Week: When a man learns he's dying of cancer, he follows the advice of a magic Roll-Up-The-Rim cup and heads across Canada on a motorcycle. Cameos include Gord Downie of The Tragically Hip, and the Stanley Cup. Stories We Tell: Sarah Polley delves into her own family history in this moving 2012 documentary, unpacking the lives of her parents and story of her biological father. Scarborough: This 2021 drama, set in the sprawling Toronto suburb, is adapted from the Trillium shortlisted novel of the same name by Catherine Hernandez, and tells a story of several children in a low-income neighbourhood there. Pontypool: Set in the (real) town of Pontypool, Ont., this 2008 horror-thriller imagines a zombie apocalypse spread not by a virus, but by language. It's wickedly smart. Men with Brooms: Writer/director Paul Gross heads up a stellar all-Canadian cast in this 2002 romcom centred on the sport of curling. But you knew that. Manufactured Landscapes: A 2006 film about environmental pollution that is ironically absolutely gorgeous to behold. Director Jennifer Baichwal uses the large-format photography of fellow Canadian Edward Burtynsky to examine a kilometre-long clothing iron factory in China, a shipbreaking yard in Bangladesh, and other almost impossibly vast human creations. Project Grizzly: This National Film Board doc from 1996 follows the efforts of Troy Hurtubise, a Canadian inventor obsessed with building a bear-proof suit to let researchers get close to grizzlies without endangering their lives. It's funny but also inspiring to witness his determination. Roadkill: This rollocking road movie from 1989 is the directing debut of Bruce McDonald, and the acting debut of Don McKellar, who also wrote the screenplay and plays an aspiring serial killer having an existential crisis. Dawson City: Frozen Time: This 2016 documentary chronicles the bizarre story of the 1978 discovery of 533 reels of nitrate film buried beneath the permafrost in a decommissioned swimming pool. It turned out to be a treasure trove of lost footage from the era of silent movies. WolfCop: Once described in the pages of National Post as the 'top 79 minutes of Canadian cinema,' this story of a cop who is also a wolf is a delirious fun throwback to the '80s, right down to its pitch-perfect use of Gowan's 1987 hit Moonlight Desires. Cube: Long before Saw, Circle, The Belko Experiement, The Maze Runner or The Platform came this low-budget 1997 film from Vincenzo Natali, about a group of strangers trying to figure their way out of a mysterious maze that keeps shifting like a Rubik's Cube. Clever and clearly inspirational! Slash/Back: It's The Thing meets Attack the Block, as extraterrestrial invaders make the mistake of landing in Pangnirtung, an Inuit hamlet of some 1,500 people, just a smidgeon below the Arctic Circle on Baffin Island in Nunavut. Aliens vs. 14-year-old girls: Guess who wins? Tu Dors Nicole: Stéphane Lafleur's nostalgic comedy might take place in the 1980s (there's a dot-matrix printer) or the year it came out (2014); either way, it tells a lovely, touching story of 22-year-old Nicole bouncing around in her parents' suburban Montreal house one summer while they're away. Backcountry: Adam MacDonald's 2015 thriller never lets up, as a couple goes camping and everything that can go wrong eventually does. MacDonald patiently, perfectly breadcrumbs out hints and ill omens as Alex and Jenn slowly get deeper into the woods, and trouble. Black Christmas: It might be taking it too far to say that Canada invented the slasher genre, but this 1974 movie predates many of its better-known siblings, and features such Canadian icons as Margot Kidder, Lynne Griffin and dual citizen Andrea Martin. Blood Quantum: Jeff Barnaby's 2019 horror is a clever First Nations twist on the classic zombie genre, set on a reserve where the Indigenous inhabitants are immune to the disease, but must contend with white refugees looking for help.
