When did you realize you wanted to make movies?
I wanted to write; I didn’t know I would end up directing. I wrote No sé si cortarme las venas o dejármelas largas (I Don’t Know Whether to Slit My Veins or Leave Them Long), a producer read it and loved it. When I told him I wanted to make a movie, he said, “You are very young, and it is a lot of money.” He proposed doing it in theater for 10 weeks in Mexico City, and we ended up doing 16 months. That’s how the idea of making the movie with the same cast came about. At that time, it was one of the highest-grossing films in the country. From there, it has been about creating and consolidating larger projects that can take a bit of Mexico to other parts of the world.
How was La casa de las flores (The House of Flowers) born?
Netflix contacted me because my movies were ranking very well on the platform. They wanted me to do something for young people, but I really wanted to do a story that talked about family ties. That’s how it was born. It wasn’t very difficult to sell. I said I wanted to do something with a family structure that owned a flower shop because I love flowers. They quickly bought the idea, but the process took almost two years because I am the creator and director of all the episodes.
Something very curious is that my first movie and my first series premiered on August 10th. I think it’s good luck. When the series came out, immediately that night I knew that my career was going to change.
Did you create the character of Virginia with Verónica Castro in mind? What was it like working with her?
I didn’t create it with Verónica in mind, but she was my first choice. I convinced her after 10, 12 years of not doing television, and it was incredible. She was very generous, very funny. It was fascinating to experience this reinvention of television hand in hand with her—who is an icon—explaining to her that the topics we are touching on in the series, such as homosexuality, drugs, codependency, are topics that are present today in many projects. She would say to me, “How can this be said? Can bed scenes with three people be shown?” and she would blush (laughs).
What can you tell us about the second season of The House of Flowers?
I can’t reveal much because it’s secret under contract, but we started filming at the beginning of the year in Spain and then in Mexico. Verónica will not continue in the project. Her commitment was for only one season. After the success, an attempt was made to continue with her character, but we did not reach an agreement in which she felt comfortable and could work in the story. The connection with Verónica remains wonderful, so hopefully soon we will come up with something to continue working and collaborating together. For now, we will premiere season two in 2019 and season three in 2020.
Why make Perfectos desconocidos (Perfect Strangers), a remake of the Italian movie about friends who expose their secrets when they read aloud messages that arrive on their cell phones during a dinner party?
I saw it as a celebration of a global phenomenon in which versions have been made in 15 countries. I wanted to be part of the phenomenon, to experiment and reinterpret an idea. I adapted my script to the Mexican or Latin American idiosyncrasy. We are more intense, festive, and very passionate. We have a culture and reference to the white lie where we seem to not be doing anything to anyone. That went very well with the discourse of the movie.
