[MUSIC PLAYING] GINA RODRIGUEZ: Acting
is just like boxing. It's mind over matter. You can't give up. If you get knocked down,
you pick yourself up. You have to believe that
you are going to win, or you get your butt kicked. My dad started teaching me to
box when I was three years old. Not too many people
expect a cute little girl to know how to box. I guess I'm kind of a fan
of breaking down barriers-- you know, knocking down
stereotypes-- small and strong, beautiful and fierce. My dad used to always look
in the mirror and say, today is going to
be a great day. I can and I will. So I do it. [LAUGHING] Come on, Pops. [LAUGHING] [MUSIC PLAYING] Growing up, I never
saw myself on screen. I wasn't in TV shows. I wasn't on the
cover of magazines, and I sure weren't
on the billboards. And I would drive
around with my pops, and I would be like,
Dad, that girl is so beautiful on the billboard. And he would say, yeah,
that's one type of beautiful. You're another
type of beautiful. I'd be like, Dad, whatever. You crazy. You crazy! I always knew I
wanted to be an actor. I left home at 16
to follow my dreams. But often, I was offered
the same old cliched role as a Latin maid or a pregnant
teen or a gangbanger. I didn't want my
ethnicity or skin color to limit me to the
same stories that had been told a million times. It was crazy growing up
with arroz con gandules in the house and my
grandmother speaking Spanish and me
responding in English, and then going out into the
world and eating hot dogs and hamburgers, and almost
shying away from my culture and trying to
assimilate, because it felt like that's what was
going to be acceptable, and that's what
people understood. You know, that visibility and
that relatability on screen is necessary for one to feel
like they deserve to be here and they deserve to
be part of the larger conversation in society. But that was my experience. I didn't want my
ethnicity or skin color to limit me to the
same stories that had been told a million times. So I just said, "no,
thank you" to any role that was a stereotype. I didn't get into this
industry for the money. I definitely did
not become an actor so I could buy Louis Vuittons
and Chanel bags or Jimmy Choos. But don't get it twisted,
I love me some Jimmy Choos. I became an actor to
change the way I grew up. I have two older sisters. One is in private equity,
and the other is a doctor. I never saw Latinos
working in private equity, let alone being the CEO
of a private equity firm, or doctors-- just as we don't see
little girls boxing. I kept my nerve. And I waited for
characters that were like the women I saw
in my household-- strong, educated, fierce,
independent women, women that were not limited by
anything, nor would they allow limitations to stop them
from following their dreams. They were always trying. And on "Jane the
Virgin," I get to play a strong, smart, independent,
funny romantic novelist and teacher. Yeah. SPEAKER: Yeah? GINA RODRIGUEZ: With
these incredible people. SPEAKER: Yeah? GINA RODRIGUEZ: And I
get to kiss Tyler Posey and dance with Britney Spears. SPEAKER: Don't talk
to me about that. GINA RODRIGUEZ:
Oh, it's starting. [MUSIC PLAYING] I want to use my
art to make sure that little girls,
the next generation, get to have role models on
TV, in film, on the cover of magazines, and on
billboards that look like them, that represent them. As for me, when I was
younger, my father used to whisper in my ear, you could
be anything you want to be, Gina. You could be the president. Who knows? Maybe one day I will. [MUSIC PLAYING]
