Exclusive Interview: Diany Rodriguez Discusses The Valet and Using Her Platform for Social Good

Diany Rodriguez is a rising actress and a co-founder of CREAT who has made it her mission as a creative to use her platform and craft to bring much-needed stories to the forefront. Her latest project, The Valet, is no different.

Starring opposite Eugenio Derbez and Samara Weaving, The Valet finds Diany stepping into the shoes of an activist who is fighting for her community and against gentification.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Diany about her career, The Valet, and more.

PC: How did you discover your passion for acting and storytelling?
Diany: I don’t think that I discovered it. It has always gone hand in hand with my passion, which is being service-minded. I’ve always looked at storytelling as a way to connect with humanity and serve it in a way that I feel very equipped to do. I’ve never seen myself as a performer or an actor per se. I’ve always seen this career as an opportunity to give back through donating and doing social justice-minded things with the money that I’ve earned.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Diany: I look at the career of someone like Cate Blanchett. I feel like she’s the Meryl Streep of my generation. She’s a chameleon. I would love to transform myself into a performance and have people not recognize me.

Also, Zoe Saldana. She’s a fellow Latina. She’s also quietly been the face of three huge blockbuster franchises. If I could quietly be the face of a Marvel franchise, a Star Trek franchise, and an Avatar franchise, I’d take it.

Jameela Jamil is someone who has had a huge amount of influence, and I would like to emulate that as well. She’s steering people towards donating to Planned Parenthood. Sure, you’ll recognize her from The Good Place, but she’s also sharing links about how you can help get clean water to different Sub-Saharan countries.

PC: You’ve had a lot of success throughout your career. When you look back, is there a particular moment that stands out to you?
Diany: I did an episode of New Amsterdam. It came at a time when I had two other big projects coming out. It was quite overwhelming. I didn’t know what to do, and I didn’t know how to dress.

The specific storyline on New Amsterdam was about a young lady who has to carry a pregnancy to term and deliver a stillborn baby because she’s gone too far into her term to be able to have a C-section or have a pill-induced abortion. She has a miscarriage. She’s just so far along. She literally has to wait for her body to go into labor and deliver a dead baby.

Not only was it really difficult and coincidentally very relevant to today with forced-birthers trying to make humans with uteruses have babies they can’t take care of, but in that particular instance, filming was very difficult. It was triggering for a lot of people on set. Everybody handled it with care. It was a very lovely, though difficult, filming process. Once the episode aired, I was not prepared (in the best possible way) for the response from audiences and medical professionals—in particular those from facilities that provide cuddle cots, which will keep your baby in a condition where you can hold it before you have to bury them.

The response from people on social media was so overwhelming, beautiful, and thoughtful. I’ve always been very aware of whatever influence I have and have been very responsible with it. But that was a case in which the story was very personal to me and a lot of people. It really taught me how careful I need to be when I pick up projects, how intentional I need to be, and how much care and sensitivity I have to have with other people’s stories.

PC: Tell us about The Valet, your character, and what attracted you to this role.
Diany: My character in The Valet is very much me. She’s a community organizer. Her specific fight in the movie is anti-gentrification. She’s not necessarily opposed to new opportunities coming into her town, but she’s fighting for the people who have been there—the small businesses and the people who built this community and deserve to own a piece of that growth pie. They’re being undercut by specific entities that come into their community. If you’re going to undercut people, you should give them a huge piece of the pie. They should be paid up front for their willingness to allow other entities to come in and change their community. My character Natalie is fighting that fight.

PC: The movie is this perfect blend between drama and comedy. You’re known for the dramatic roles that you’ve brought to life. How different are those two disciplines?
Diany: Oh my gosh. They’re so different. Most people know me from The Blacklist, which is more in line with what I usually do, which is drama heavy. The Valet has been such a lovely gift because Natalie is very much like me. I get to be funny, goofy, and silly, which I am. I’m not very serious. I’m intense—don’t get me wrong—especially when we’re talking about social justice, but I’m not a serious or necessarily emotional person. It’s been so fun to get to do something that’s very close to me and do it for the first time in my career on such a large scale.

Comedy is so different from the other disciplines because you have to have audience buy-in. They’re not going to think you’re funny if you’re not funny. It’s very much a science. A lot of comedy has to do with the audience feeling safe and laughing either with you or at you. You always have to be aware of that. I’m really lucky to have gotten to do it.

PC: Your costars have said that this project is a love letter to the Latinx community and the working class. What has it meant to you to be a part of a project that’s pushing these inclusive stories forward?
Diany: It’s meant so much. Eugenio [Derbez] and Ben [Odell], our producers, create worldly-minded art. It’s bigger than just a movie. It has a message. When I knew they were attached, I figuratively did a bunch of back flips. It’s hard to describe what Eugenio has meant for the Latin American culture. He’s a huge deal. The leaps and bounds that he has made in his career over the last couple of years has been pivotal, especially as far as visibility for the Latin American culture goes. Because you have Eva Mendez, Eva Longoria, Jennifer Lopez, but you also have Eugenio. Finding out that he was attached and he was a producer, I was like, “Who do I have to call to be a part of this project?”

The script changed a lot once Trump was elected. Or let’s say he was pushed by illegal means. Once he was in office, the whole script changed and they found a clarity of focus and a real voice. They knew specifically that they wanted to use this movie as a tool to bridge the gap between cultures.

At the premiere, I kept going over to hug them and thank them. This project has meant so much to me. I’m constantly striving to not only do what I can to further my own agenda as a Latina woman but also further the agenda of trying to keep other cultures from being so hard bothered. There’s more that binds us than separates us. We’re different and beautiful, but we’re not all that different.

We should be celebrated and revered for our differences. You should love us and understand us because we’re also fallible, lovable, wonderful humans, lovers, wives, husbands, children. We deserve to be celebrated for our differences and similarities. That’s what this movie does.

It’s also a comedy, so please go and laugh. Leave a little room in your heart to celebrate the people that you traditionally don’t take the time to notice. I mean this for all of us, myself included: take the time to make real eye contact with the blue-collar workers that you may not have noticed, and weave room in your heart for them.

To keep up with Diany, follow her on Instagram. Watch The Valet to Hulu.

Photo Credit: Kellen Houde