“Selena was somebody who looked like me, who I can relate to and I feel like we had a lot of the same experiences. She was so warm and charming, she made you feel like she was part of your family.” – Christian Serratos
Selena: The Series debuted December 4 on Netflix and our own Dave Morales sat down to speak with Christian Serratos about portraying the “Queen of Tejano music” Selena Quintanilla.
Christian Serratos has made her mark as an actor with popular roles such as ‘Suzie Crabgrass’ in Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide, ‘Angela Weber’ in The Twilight Saga, and fan-favorite ‘Rosita Espinosa’ in The Walking Dead.
Selena’s music and influence reached millions of people across the globe so we asked Serratos what playing such an iconic figure meant for her. “I looked up to Selena my entire life and I am a die-hard Selena fan, like most people in the Mexican-American community and especially in Texas,” said Serratos.
Serratos radiated passion and excitement for the role when speaking about her dedication playing the titular character. “I was just so honored and grateful for the opportunity, grateful to everybody. I just felt prepared and in the right place in my life to dedicate everything I could and put everything I could into playing her. I’m really excited for the fans to see what we’ve created,” said Serratos.
When asked how she prepared for the role Serratos mentioned, “Because I was such a Selena fan I felt really well equipped to take on the icon Selena. Our first season is so incredible because it gives us the backstory, it gives us the version of Selena that was coming into her own, finding her identity as a person and as an artist.”
That’s right, Selena: The Series will have another season. While the first season focuses on Selena’s early years it’s unclear what the second season will be based on.
Serratos further discussed how she absorbed as much information as she could on Selena, even from what little video documentation there was from her earlier years. “I had less to go off of for that first half so I had to really hyper-focus on the little that I did have. There was some footage of her accepting a lot of awards when she was younger so that was super helpful,” said Serratos.
Mimicking a well-known artist’s accent, mannerisms, and dance moves can be difficult so we asked Serratos how she tackled such an immense task. “Her dialect was ever-changing. She was from a very specific region in Texas and I wanted to adequately portray that. Her stage presence for dancing was ever-changing so it was really fun to perfect all of that,” said Serratos.
Assuming the role of a well-known figure can be daunting for an actor. For Serratos, she never let the role get to her and stayed focused on getting it right.
“I’ve had moments where I’ve seen other people on set react to me as Selena and that always was a great indication if I was doing my job. I really had no moment where I looked at myself and realize what I was doing or who I was playing because I was just in the Selena universe,” said Serratos.
“Selena was somebody who looked like me, who I can relate to. I feel like we had a lot of the same experiences. She was so warm and charming, she made you feel like she was part of your family. Serratos concluded her thoughts by saying, “She was a Pioneer in so many different ways in terms of her charisma, business mindset, her goals, her crossover, everything she did was way before her time. She did it all during a time where it was much more difficult for women of color and that’s something that I really admire.”
Selena: The Series is now streaming on Netflix and look for Part 2 of the series to come out in 2021.
