Olivia Goncalves (from left), Savannah Nicole Ruiz and Diana Maria Riva in a scene from "Gordita Chronicles," a brand new comedy on HBO Max.
Lara Solanki/HBO Max
Diana Maria Riva, who grew up in Cincinnati, mentioned she will determine with Adela Castelli, the boisterous Dominican-born spouse and mom she performs in “Gordita Chronicles,” a brand new HBO Max comedy collection.
“She rang true with girls in my household,” Riva advised The Publish. “I’m Latina, my mom is from the Dominican Republic, I’m first-generation … there have been issues that resonated with me so far as this type of lady and what she stands for … relating to household and supporting household.
“So she wasn’t a stretch for me to attach with.”
“Gordita Chronicles,” premiering June 23, revolves across the Castelli household: husband-and-wife Victor (Juan Javier Cardenas) and Adela and their daughters: precocious, 12-year-old Cucu (Olivia Goncalves) — endearingly nicknamed “Gordita” (“chubby”) — and her older sister, Emilia (Savannah Nicole Ruiz), who’s actually into American popular culture (together with Tiger Beat journal). It’s 1985 when the Castellis transfer from the Dominican Republic to Miami after Victor will get a job because the vp of promoting for an airline firm.
They’re in for a tradition shock of seismic proportions, all narrated by an grownup Cucu (Dascha Polanco) as she reminisces about her life and her household.
The ten-episode collection is partially based mostly on the lifetime of author/creator/co-producer Claudia Forestieri (“Selena: The Sequence”) and is executive-produced by Zoe Saldaña and Eva Longoria (who directed the pilot). It makes use of a lightweight comedic contact to underscore the realities every member of the family confronts (micro-aggressive racism, highschool peer pressures) as soon as they settle into their new lives to pursue the “American Dream.”
“There are exhibits meant to go and train a lesson or enlighten; this one … is enjoyable and it’s comedy however there’s a really common aspect of what [Forestieri] wished to verify got here by way of,” mentioned Riva, who additionally co-stars in “Useless to Me” on Netflix. “Whether or not you're of Dominican descent or Italian descent or Jewish descent, or are first-generation or fifth-generation, have we not all had a chapter in our lives after we’re beginning one thing new and it’s tapped into our fears and vulnerability?
“What we see [in ‘Gordita Chronicles’] is all of us within the household looking for our place on this new world … about attempting to slot in. It makes for a profitable present while you’re not shutting folks out however permitting them in on this journey, to narrate to it, in a technique or one other — possibly not with the small print of the story, however [with] the emotion.”
The ’80s fashions, hairstyles and mores perform because the present’s uncredited co-stars, with Mr. Espresso, Grape Nuts cereal, Michael Jackson, “Teen Wolf,” beepers and Gloria Estefan all discovering their means into the storyline.
“They did a pleasant job with the subtlety of the ’80s as an alternative of going for the massive, apparent, loud jokes,” Riva mentioned. “Our manufacturing designer [Amy Lee Wheeler] did such a stupendous job of bringing genuine gadgets to the set. When Olivia, who performs Cucu, needed to dial a quantity on the rotary telephone, it took her like 10 minutes as a result of, as a great little actress, she determined to make use of her actual quantity.
“Savannah, who performs Emilia, got here out at some point with this steel chain belt that was wrapped twice round her hips, the best way we used to do it, and she or he simply appears down and appears at me along with her arms within the air and deadpans, ‘I don’t get it? Why wrap it twice?’
“For anyone who was raised in that period, you’re going to have the time of your life with this throwback; if not, you’ll simply watch and chuckle at what we known as model and issues we did for enjoyable that weren’t with a cellphone or a pc,” she mentioned. “I might put an outfit on and assume, ‘How did we put on this?’ It was mainly a pillowcase with a belt round it. I don’t understand how anyone discovered that flattering. There’s an episode the place [Adela] will get into Jazzercise and figuring out — it’s loopy generally but in addition very humorous.”
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