Adria Arjona says she was offered her role in Star Wars: Rogue Squadron almost immediately

Puerto Rican born actress Adria Arjona is one to watch. 

The 28-year-old actress who first gained notoriety after she played Emily on season two of  HBO’s True Detective has now bagged herself a coveted role in Patty Jenkins’ upcoming 2023 film Star Wars: Rogue Squadron. 

Gracing the cover of Flaunt Magazine, she talks about landing the role of a lifetime almost immediately after auditioning (and just weeks before the pandemic) Arjona said she thinks this role is ‘the one.’ 

Revealing that she had auditioned for the Star Wars related role imaginable over the years, she said that things just fell into place this time. 

‘I met everyone, tested, and then I found out really early that I got the job. That usually doesn’t happen. I found out right away, which was so exciting and nerve-wracking: [I was] just a big ball of emotions.

She continued to say that it was a lifelong dream, calling it ‘such a complex and beautiful and creative world that I’ve just been dying to be a part of for so long,’ while gushing, ‘I was waiting for the perfect one: I really believe this is the one.’ 

First getting introduced to acting back in high school, she says she used acting as an escape.

‘I can hide under a mask, I can hide under the name of a character and I can hide under this role,’ she said about acting while revealing that she was very shy growing up.  

‘There’s so much of me in every character, but I manipulate my brain to think that it’s not… that’s why now, I don’t feel shy when I’m on set or where I’m talking about a character.’

She continued, ‘It’s me, but I’m hiding behind this mask. There’s many alter egos that come out when you do that. It’s really hard when I have to perform just as Adria. That’s quite challenging.’

Saying that she gets character inspiration from everywhere she said that the lockdown has been challenging on account of having to be in the same place for so long, ‘It’s messed me up.’  

‘I’m so used to walking in the lobby of a hotel and seeing a bunch of faces—that’s where I get my inspiration for characters. I like observing how people move, speak… the way that they walk, the way that they react to their partner or friend,’ she shared. 

Speaking about her most recent acting role in the upcoming Marvel film Morbius opposite Jared Leto, Arjona said that his transformation into Doctor Morbius was ‘one of the wildest things I’ve ever seen,’ as she talked about the secrecy surrounding the project, much like Star Wars. 

‘They definitely hired the wrong person: I am the worst with keeping secrets. I get so over-excited that I just want to share everything, she said about her new project which will be directed by Wonder Woman 1984’s Patty Jenkins. 

Landing the role of Dorothy in 2017’s NBC show Emerald City, Arjona talked about being the first Hispanic Dorothy to grace the screen, while unpacking the struggle that Latina actresses face in the industry when it comes to representation. 

‘It was hard because [viewers] never expected it to be a Latin American playing Dorothy,’ as she talked about feeling pressure from the media and flirting with the idea of quitting acting afterwards.  

Making the decision to just ‘go with it’ – referring to her decision to lean into the idea of playing a different type of Dorothy based on who she was –  she said it gave her a newfound sense of power to reshape the narrative of Latina actresses in Hollywood.  

‘It’s hard, especially when you know that there’s not that many of you being this successful. I have this immense responsibility, within myself, that I want to really reintroduce what a Latin American woman is to the world. I want to do that by picking roles that show who we truly are,’ she said. 

‘We’re constantly being portrayed either as sexy, tough, [the one] who’s imitating the man or a victim that is scrubbing a bathroom floor…There’s so much more to us, there’s so much more.’

Adria continued, ‘I think talking about representation and really making it my duty and my responsibility to tell those stories, to portray those characters that show Latin American women on a pedestal and redefine them: I think that’s really important.’