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Jackie Cruz - From Orange Is the New Black to Inspiration in the World of Entertainment

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August 1, 2018

Orange Is the New Black Actress & Singer

“Never put a time limit on your dream.”

In short: Jackie Cruz is an actress, singer and activist, best known as Marisol “Flaca” Gonzales in the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black. She joined Brian Rose in London in 2018, just before the show’s sixth season, to talk about representation, prison reform, her near-fatal car accident at 17, her debut music and immigration in America.

Jackie said the biggest thing the show gave her was a voice. She had been shy and avoided politics, but being on a series that raises prison reform, LGBTQ rights and equality made staying quiet impossible. She credits her mentor Carmen Perez with giving her the confidence to speak out.

The conversation also covers her move from the Dominican Republic to Los Angeles at 15, a crash that left her needing brain surgery, the music she was releasing as a solo artist, and why she tells people in Europe that she is Dominican first.

Key takeaways

Representation drives the show’s appeal. Jackie believes Orange Is the New Black works because viewers see all colours, sizes and ages of women on screen, something she says Hollywood had not offered her.
Prison stories change minds. She said working on the show changed her view of people in prison, and that anyone can get trapped in the system over a small mistake.
Create your own opportunity. Her advice to her younger sister and aspiring actors is to keep auditioning but also make their own work and team up with hungry, talented people.
Recovery began with one child’s kindness. After her accident, a young girl in the rehabilitation hospital told her she was beautiful, which Jackie says restored her belief in herself.
Success can arrive late. She described a break in her mid-20s after about fifteen years of effort, and said she never wanted to put a time limit on her dream.
Speak up, whatever your age. Jackie urged young people to use their voices on injustice, pointing to children and teenagers who have spoken publicly.

Finding her voice through Orange Is the New Black

Jackie told Brian she grew up in the Dominican Republic until 15, saw no one on American television she could look up to, and struggled to get roles in Hollywood because casting directors did not know what to do with her look. She quit acting for five years to focus on music, then booked her dream role at her first audition back, told to arrive with no makeup.

She described the show as a pioneer in diversity, binge-watching and global streaming, and said it was written and produced largely by women. For season six she explained that the story moves to a maximum-security facility, with more tension between guards and prisoners.

Prison reform and what the show taught her

Jackie said she once judged people in prison harshly, but the show lets viewers see why people end up inside and the injustices they face. She described women she knows through the Women’s Prison Association who were treated harshly after small mistakes, and argued that people should get to know prisoners before judging them.

She also spoke about making an episode about prison labour, saying the work paid very little and that her own family history of sewing clothes mirrored her character’s story.

The accident, recovery and music

At 16 Jackie left home and, at 17, was in a car crash that she says left her needing brain surgery and a long recovery. She described waking up with a shaved head and a changed face, feeling very low, and then finding purpose in the children’s hospital where she volunteered. She went on to rebuild her strength and pursue acting and music.

Her debut album is called Hija de Chavez, after her original family name, and she said the songs draw on her own story. She named influences including Selena, Whitney Houston and Billie Holiday, and said music had always been her first love.

Being Dominican and American

Jackie told Brian she tells people in Europe she is Dominican because that is where she grew up, though she also loves her American upbringing. She said she was saddened by the separation of families at the US border and by the political divisions she saw at home, and called for people to focus on human beings rather than parties.

She said these themes inspired her production company, Unspoken Film, which she wants to use to tell stories of women who have not been represented.

Who is Jackie Cruz?

Jackie Cruz is an American actress and singer, born in Queens, New York, who spent her childhood in the Dominican Republic before moving to Los Angeles at 15. She is best known for playing Flaca in Orange Is the New Black, and in 2018 was preparing her debut album, which included the single La Hora Loca. She speaks on prison reform, immigration, LGBTQ rights and gender equality.

Frequently asked questions

What does Jackie Cruz say about prison reform?

She said working on Orange Is the New Black changed her view of people in prison, and that people should get to know prisoners rather than judge them, because anyone can get trapped in the system.

What happened to Jackie Cruz when she was 17?

She said she was in a serious car accident in Los Angeles that required brain surgery, followed by a long recovery in which a young girl at the hospital helped her regain her confidence.

What is Jackie Cruz's album called?

Jackie said her debut album is called Hija de Chavez, which means daughter of Chavez, after her original family name. She had also released the single La Hora Loca.

Why does Jackie Cruz say she is Dominican in Europe?

She said she grew up in the Dominican Republic, so she answers that way when asked where she is from, while also being American and loving the music she grew up with there.

Where can I watch the Jackie Cruz interview?

You can watch the full Jackie Cruz interview free on this page, with the full transcript below the video.

Jackie Cruz on Wikipedia

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Full transcript: Jackie Cruz on London Real

5:26 This is London Real. I am Brian Rose. My guest today is Jackie Cruz, the actress, singer and activist. You are best known for her role as Marissa Flaca Gonzalez in the Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black, which is about to start its sixth season. Your activism focuses on prison reform, immigration, LGBTQ rights and gender inequality.

5:53 You’ve also just released your first single La Hora Loca from your upcoming solo debut. Jackie, welcome to London. Oh, thank you so much. You’re really good with the Spanish. You said my tea saw it very well like that.

6:05 Yeah, from San Diego. So I grew up, you know a lot of Spanish, yeah, and learning the language, and so, yeah, I love it. Yeah, thank you so much for having me on the show. No, it’s my pleasure. How is London treating you?

6:17 And, you know, what does this city kind of mean to you? What does it represent, and when you get here, what’s it feel? Well, it feels very New York to me, and I feel like New York definitely stole a lot from you guys, so I guess I feel really comfortable here. The fashion, you know, you guys love fashion, and I can’t wait to go shopping. I just got here.

6:38 My luggage is over there in the corner, so I’ve only been in a few hours in here, maybe two days last time I was here, so I didn’t get to enjoy London. So tonight is the game, and everybody keeps telling me I need to go out and feel that energy, so I’m gonna really enjoy London tonight. Yeah, you’re gonna get something that you won’t feel probably for a long time, and it’s nearing the finals of the World Cup. You know, they created the game of football, as they’d like to remind people.

7:07 Yeah, and I think the last time they won was 66, so that’s what I heard. They’re gonna be crazy. Yeah, shutting down all the roads. Yeah, it was hard to get here, but I’m here. Yeah.

7:17 Here. You were just in Germany, and you were in Berlin, and then you were at Cologne. Yes, for the Pride Parade. What was that whole experience like? Oh my gosh, it was incredible.

7:26 I mean, I got to go share that experience with a few castmates, Danielle Brooks and Natasha Lyonne, and man, it was just so dope. In Cologne, we stayed at a beautiful hotel in front of the cathedral, and I got to put a little lock it in the bridge, you know, loved, liked it. It was just really cool. I got to experience the people, and they’re so kind, and LGBTQ community is so incredible, and I love all the support they give our show, and to go and receive their love, and to give out love, which was just a beautiful thing.

8:01 What’s it like, you know, for them to meet you? I mean, the show really is, is that a voice that was never expressed as far as kind of who they are, and since it’s long-form content. I mean, you know, you guys are representing a lot of these discussions and arguments and nuances of this culture right? I mean, yeah, what’s it like to represent that? Well, the great, you know, I was, I’m shy, really.

8:24 So the, I think the greatest thing that Orange Is the New Black gave me was my voice, really, and I have this platform now that I get to, you know, talk about what I believe in and fight for what I believe in, and before, I was maybe a little shy and insecure and never talked about politics. You know, I don’t get involved in that and then I had to, you know, what I mean? I’m on a show that brings awareness to these problems, prison reform, you know, equality, LGBTQ, you know, all these, you know, things that we need to talk about, and we’ve broken so many barriers that I cannot stay quiet.

9:04 So I think, yeah, the best thing that orange gave me was my voice and I get to share my own story. You know, I’ve been through a lot, and it’s kind of cool, too. Before, I didn’t want, I didn’t like talking about, you know, my past, but after I shared my story, people seem to, you know, feel like, wow, she did it, maybe I can do it too, and I think it’s just so beautiful to feel that I, you know, can inspire people because of, you know, my past. Talk to me about the conversations in Germany versus, say, LA or New York, which I know you spend time in.

9:40 Like, are people talking differently, especially, you know, at the Pride Parade? Does it feel like a different vibe, or what? The Pride Parade? We just danced. Okay, you know, it was a lot of booty poppin’, FL had it, you know, we got to dance to my song too, which was amazing.

9:56 La Hora Loca, which is available. You know, all day, you know, put that out there, and it was like Natasha’s first time hearing it. Danny’s heard it maybe once, and they were all so proud of me. You know, Natasha was like, your win is my win, you know. Danny was so proud of me too, because she’s also a singer, and she’s been believing in me since day one, and I believe in her too, you know what I mean?

10:21 So it was just cool to share that experience with your castmates, and you know I’ve seen them grow so much too, so it’s you know, I feel like Orange Is the New Black. I was such a kid when I started, and I’ve grown up just like Flaca. Like, I feel like she’s maturing through the seasons, just like me, you know? And they write a little bit of you and in your character, so I’m just really excited about this season too, and what Orange Is the New Black has done for me in my life.

10:48 You know, it’s opened so many doors, even including, like, you know, activism. I work a lot with Carmen Perez. I don’t know if you know what she is, something, right? She’s my mentor, and she’s the one who gave me, like, the confidence and the strength to, like, know what I’m talking about, and definitely, you know, she inspires me to fight for what is right and so much injustice in the world that we need all voices, and I’m just one of them. Why is that show so popular?

11:16 You must ask yourself that. Some, you know, why? Because people are finally seeing themselves on television. Representation, that’s why it’s popular. I’m gonna be honest with you, I can’t tell you that I grew up, you know.

11:29 I grew up in the Dominican Republic. I was born in Queens, but I’ve, you know, I grew up until I was 15 in the Dominican Republic, and there wasn’t anyone on TV, an American TV, that I could say that I looked up to or say, oh, I can do that, cuz she’s doing that. You know, it felt impossible, but you know, I had this impossible dream, and my mom said, you know, you have the talent, so let’s move to LA, and we moved when I was fifteen, but I studied, you know, since I was seven years old, and I played, you know, an instrument, the saxophone, for ten years.

12:07 You know, I was the nerdy girl in the marching band, but it was a lot of fun, you know, and Hollywood was not easy when I got there, because of representation. I was not getting roles. I was this brown-skinned girl with long curly hair, and they didn’t know what to do with me, because I didn’t look what they’re used to seeing in Hollywood, which is mostly the Mexican, you know, ethnicity really, and I’m Dominican, so we all look different, and I feel like that’s why our show is popular, because we have the whole world in our show, like, all colors, all sizes, all different types of women, all ages.

12:48 There has never been a show like this, and we pioneered not only in diversity, but, you know, binge-watching and, you know, global streaming. I feel like that’s what Netflix did, and we were the guinea pig, and I’m so happy. I feel like the godmother now we all do, because, you know, when we go to the Netflix parties, everyone is so excited to meet us, because besides us, in House of Cards, we’re like the ones who kind of started Netflix. You’re the worm?

13:16 It’s the most-watched show on Netflix. Yeah, rich, man. Well, now Stranger Things, but I think, yeah, our fans love us. Hello, and they continue to love us and show support. I mean, six years doing this show, we have so many stories to tell, and who knows how long we’ll go.

13:34 But if it doesn’t go any longer, if it does, I’m just blessed that it went this long, and you know, I learned so much, and I grew up, and I am inspired by Jenji and all the writers from Orange Is the New Black, written by women, produced by women, mostly, mainly strong female characters, long-form content. Yeah, I mean, you know, this is a rarity, right? And it comes through on the screen. Yeah, it does. It’s authentic, because I Jenny Houston didn’t choose you because of the way you look.

14:04 She chose you because of what you brought to the table and how she felt when you, when you spoke those lines. You know, and I remember going in, and I was told to wear no makeup, and that was already hard. You know, ‘cuz in LA, in Hollywood, you feel like you have to be beautiful, you know, ‘cuz that’s all I saw growing up, and I was told to come in with no makeup and with these two lines, and I missed acting so much, because I quit, because I wasn’t the right type, so I focused on my music.

14:37 That’s what made me move to New York, and it was my first audition after five years of not auditioning, and I booked my dream role, which I feel that I worked my whole life to get there, and it’s meant for. I felt like that our roles are meant for each and every one of them. Us who got it, because we all have a different story and we’re all making something out of whatever orange did for us, you know, and your TED talk, you said that you look to women who lead with their hearts and not what their looks, can you explain that, and is that who you were?

15:09 You’re working with, yes, though. Yeah, like, we all, all of us on the show lead with our hearts. I mean, I’m telling you, we’re raw. Like, okay, Flaca wears eyeliner, maybe lipstick once in a while but honestly, she leads with her heart too, and I’ve grown, so I’ve become confident playing Flaca, because, like, I told you, I wasn’t the cool kid in school. She was.

15:32 I got to play that, you know. I got to kind of kind of live out my dream. She’s my alter ego. I got to be popular, you know. It was really, it was really cool to experience, you know, that life, you know.

15:46 Flaca is life, and I feel like we do have a lot in common. She’s ambitious, just like me. She tries to find the light in a dark place, kind of like I did when I was in the hospital. At a point I was very depressed, but I had to find that light you know, and that light happened to be this eight-year-old little girl who, you know, is still in a wheelchair, and we’re still friends. Mele Marino, I love you.

16:12 If you’re watching, I’m sure she is, and I’ve written a song about you know, how she kind of saved my life, and saw the strength in me and my heart, and told me I was beautiful when I felt ugly, and that was, I think, the most important thing she ever did for me, that, you know, made me believe in myself and gave me the strength to carry on and continue my dream and not put a limit in, you know, the time limit in my dream, because I’ve been working on this my whole life, and I got my big break, you know, mid-20s. Serious break. Yeah, you said no in the lottery.

16:47 Yeah, right, yeah, but then also you kept winning. So, if we’ll get into that, this represents real women, right? I mean, this show shows all sorts of different types of women, and again, it’s not this typical Hollywood archetype, where, sure, they might have a character, but they’re always super pretty, or there’s something, yeah, or something, or something. I mean, and that’s why people are watching it, because it’s real, and it represents their moms and their aunts, and, you know, different sexuality issues and gender and all that stuff.

17:12 How come, how come it took so long for something like that to happen, and it also hasn’t really been recreated very well. How do you guys have the magic stuff? Jenji Kohan is the magician. Jen Jian and Jenny Houston, I mean, creating such an incredible cast and believing in us, giving us a chance. You know, we, this is most of our big breaks.

17:34 There was only like maybe three or four known people in the show. Laura Prepon, Kate Mulgrew, Natasha Lyonne, and maybe Jason Biggs, you know, and I believe it was scary going in there, be like, oh my god, this is real. First, we thought it was just, you know, web series. Netflix is something that wasn’t big at the time. I mean, even when I got the role my mom was like, I’m gonna have to pay to watch you.

17:58 Like, just ridiculously, you know, now she’s happy, you know, but before, I was just like, she didn’t understand, and we all of us didn’t understand. We would sit in a room and say, what do you think is gonna happen with this show? You know, and it’s just like the writing and the casting, and you know, and also the set. Like, yeah, I’m playing a woman in prison, but also, you know, she’s not stereotyped. Maybe she might look it, because, you know, we’re in prison, and she’s wearing this eyeliner.

18:27 Maybe it’s a facade it’s for her to look hardcore, but internally she’s sweet, and she loves her best friend, and she’s just trying to survive in there, and even trying to make the best out of it. You know what I mean? Maybe it’s her, you know, her silly YouTube channel. But again, she’s looking for the light in a dark place, and you know she’s a leader, and I feel like I’m also a leader, and I’ve grown just as much as Flaca has grown onset, you know what I mean?

18:55 And I think that she’s waking up. She’s getting woke right now, cuz we’re in a new place. It’s not Litchfield anymore. Season six is, you know, how do you say, the guards, you know, the power tension between the guards and the prisoners. It’s intense.

19:13 It’s intense, and it’s worse, you know, because we’re in a different facility, you know, maximum, so we’re gonna show, you know, what the show’s been showing since day one. Then justice, you know, that’s what’s the key to our show, and, you know, it’s, I don’t know, it’s inspired me to open up my own production company, because here I am in a, you know, a hit show, and everyone thinks that it’s so easy for me now in Hollywood, but it’s not, because Hollywood is still so behind, like you said. Why did it take so long to have a show like this?

19:53 Hollywood is very behind, but it’s waking up, you know, with the Me Too movement, you know, we have to continue to layer in that Me Too movement with women who were in car sir, you know, we are the voices for them. You know, that’s why I can’t stay quiet. Talk to me about the incarceration and the fact that, you know, most, the show happens in the prison, and I guess we’re always kind of fascinated with prisons, right? And I guess maybe it cranks up the volume on everything that happens there.

20:19 Everything’s more intense. Why do people like to watch that, and what have you learned about prisons? And then what do you think about with prison reform, and how we need to look at people in prisons? Well, this is the whole thing. I felt like, being on this show, it changed my mind completely.

20:35 Yes, I visited prisons before. Yes, I’ve had family in prison before, and of course I was like, oh my god, they’re terrible, they’re bad people, they’re this, they’re that. This is what our show does. It, you get to see the human. You get to see why they got in there, and you get to see the injustice.

20:55 Like, literally, if you could go to prison for something really small, and you could get stuck in the system, you know what I mean? I am actually speaking to someone in there right now, and it’s, it’s, it’s terrible, and she made one mistake, and anyone could have made that mistake, and now she is not treated like a human. They treat, they treat her like an animal, and it’s true. It’s true. It’s messed up, and guards, you know, some, not all of them are good, you know what I mean?

21:27 Just like there are bad people in prison, and they’re bad people outside of prison, you know, but I believe there are a lot of innocent people in prison, and it’s beautiful to watch their stories, and instead of judging them, get to know them first. And I feel like, I never feel like my show is like, I’m a show, and it’s about women in prison, and it’s a stereotyped show. I don’t feel that at all, because it’s reality. There are all types of women in prison, and we’re showing you the truth, you know what I mean?

21:56 And I feel like maybe we’re bringing away, I mean, for Obama to talk about Orange Is the New Black, that, you know, when we first came out, that was huge. That, to me, seems like you know people are watching, and we’re bringing awareness and we’re starting conversations, even in the LGBTQ community. Like, I get emails from little girls saying, you know, I watched the show with my mom, and it, you know, helped me come out to my family, and they understand me, and I’m not alone, and all these, you know, beautiful things, and we’ve inspired TV pretty much.

22:30 You know, people are starting to make more diverse shows and all types of shows, and it’s just really cool to be a part of the beginning of that. You know, I think it’s just, so it’s the long-form storytelling, so they can really get to know who you are, and then who wants to say your character, and now you’re your kind of heroes to some of these little girls and boys that kind of want to understand. I mean, you’re probably, well, these characters are some of the few ones they’ve actually been able to spend a lot of time with and understand.

22:57 Yeah, they really are. Not just a movie or something. I mean, in a movie, you only have so much time. Yeah, you do. So much, yeah.

23:04 It always has to be limited, right? That’s why I feel like, especially with this binge-watching, people aren’t like, you made it overnight, because season one, literally, the next day, people knew who I was. That’s crazy. But it took me like 15 years to get. Right, right.

23:20 And I want to hear about your story. We’re going to get through this, for sure. Prison reform: if there’s one thing that you think people should just think about or focus on when it comes to a prison reform, what is it? Or is it just the fact that we should try to look at these people differently? It’s, it’s yeah, that’s the thing.

23:37 You need to maybe yeah, look at them. They’re just like us. We’re human beings. Like, I know that there are bad people in the world, I understand this. I get it, and you need, you know, but locking people up in a box, it’s just insane, you know, no windows, you know?

23:55 Like, it’s just, I’ll tell you a story. It was Christmastime. I am a part of, you know, I work a lot with the Women’s Prison Association, besides the Justice League, with Carmen Perez, and this woman, you know, was arrested during Christmas, and it was just, maybe it was something that she knew, you know, if you know something and you don’t, you know, talk, you know, turn them in or something, you can get it. So that’s why she was in there. Kishida, what didn’t snitch, right?

24:30 So she was arrested during Christmas, and a lot of people were not there, so they didn’t bring her water, so she had to bathe with milk for five or six days while she during Christmas, and she was a teacher. You know, she’s a good human being. You know, she, she was, she made a mistake. She, she told the truth, really, and she got in trouble for it, you know what I mean? And it’s, it’s just heartbreaking how easily you can get trapped in the system, and she ended up going to max, you know, and she’s get worse.

25:07 Things always get worse there. Yeah. And I don’t really want to get too into it, because there’s so many stories. This one girl was getting beat up by two women, and she threw a rock at them, defending herself, and she got arrested for assault with a deadly weapon, and she’s just protecting herself. You know, there’s just so many things that you could get going.

25:31 I mean, even my own, my own character, Flaca, she got arrested for selling fake acid I mean, a teenager. And now black hasn’t max, so I’m telling you, you just get stuck in the system, and if you looked at them different, and you felt for them, and you knew who they were, maybe, maybe, maybe things will change and that’s what the show is about. Hmm. And this next season, you’re going to a maximum, so everything, the intensity, just it’s just like season one, at least in season one, at least for my character.

26:05 I can’t talk for anyone else. She was, she was already comfortable there. She was just like, she knew who she was. Her first scene was fighting Taystee, you know what I mean? She was established.

26:13 Now we’re like fish out of water, you know what I mean? It’s like all these, you know, different things happening, you know, and you feel alone, and I think the hardest thing is not having, you know, who I can’t even go in too deep, because, you know, I get my little squirrel. You said before the beam on the show is a lot like a master class, and can you tell me what it’s like being on set, being around the writers and the actress says, or what did you mean by that?

26:41 What I mean about a master class is, you know, it was my big break. I mean, I did two things I had to, two things that I did before and is a new black, I did The Shield, two lines, rape victim, terrible, right? and then I played the gangster’s girlfriend, and it was one line, and it was no, and then I started to cry. So this was like my big break, and it was again two lines. So I just felt like I needed to give it my all, because I didn’t know what I was getting myself into, and when I found out who was in the show, I just felt like it just felt hopeful.

27:16 This show, I just felt hopeful, because the writing was so good, and you know, you had to go in there prepared, you know, because no one knew who was staying. It was like Survivor, so that’s what I mean by a master class. Like, you know, Jenji Kohan had a show called Weeds. It was a success, so you just had to be prepared, and the writers were incredible, and, you know, the producers, and they were into you. Every single character, they were into you. black, I had two lines or three lines, and, like, maybe in seven episodes I didn’t, you know, I was sprinkled, and then season two, I was sprinkled a little more.

27:58 Season three, I was really sprinkled. I got, I left my backstory. Season four, I became a series regular, and continued on my character. Just keeps growing, as, as have, you know, I have, you know, and now I feel like a pro, you know. I’m in there and I feel confident, and I know my character, and, you know, now the directors kind of ask you, what do you think, which was cool, because before it was like, what do you think?

28:24 You know, so I just feel more prepared and established, and I get to work with the most beautiful, you know, women in the world who are so intelligent as well and we get to feed off each other and grow with each other. That’s what I mean by master class. Yeah. How many more series are left? Do you reckon six is a lot?

28:45 Telling you, I don’t, I really don’t know. There are so many stories to tell, but regardless, this show, I already made history. So I think Orange did what it would, it needed to do already. So I’m just proud to be a part of history on Netflix and in globally, pretty much, and always be remembered for that, and it opened the doors to live my other dreams. You know, I don’t believe that you don’t have to, you know, do just one thing.

29:15 I’m also, I like this year, I’m like, you know, what? I think I’m a visionary, and I started writing all these ideas, and I have this incredible author, Carol Garlic who’s writing my feature right now, which I’m doing a short for it at the end of the month, and it, you know, I directed a little short myself, and, you know, I’m writing my music. My album is gonna come out soon, and and I just think that that’s orange gave me the confidence to continue to work on my dream, and singing has always been my first love, but that does not take away from my acting.

29:48 I believe they go hand in hand. Like, literally, I feel like my music is almost like for movies, so I actually wrote a song for an independent movie that I just filmed called All the World Is Sleeping, with a director called Ryan Laysan, and the other actress, her name is Melissa Vedera, and she’s on a show called Vita in stars, which is also an incredible show, and yeah, I got to write the song. The director heard it, and it’s gonna be at the end of the credits.

30:17 Wow, so this is just, it’s, it’s gonna be a wonderful year, so these other creative outlets just help you be better all around. Yeah. And I’m just, you know, I, this is what, you know, confidence, I guess, feels like. Before, when I first got into Hollywood, I would just, you know, at the Oscar party, you know, I would just sit around. I would see, like, all these incredible people.

30:43 Like, I saw Salma Hayek, and, like, just thinking about it, you know, gets me nervous, and I had the courage to say hello, and I was like, Salma, and she’s like, yes, cuz, you know, she’s tiny, and she’s like she’s like, who are you? And I said, I’m, I’m [expletive]. I want to show I’m Jackie enough. Like, I’m gonna show, called Orange Is the New Black, and she’s like, oh, who do you play? And I said Flaca.

31:06 She’s like I don’t watch the show, but I’m going to watch it now because of you. And I was like, oh my god, and I just thanked her. I said, you know, people don’t give you enough credit. You’ve opened the doors for so many Latinas, and I just want to thank you. And then she thought that was so sweet, and she was like, whis, you know, people, someone grabbed her, and she’s like, bye, you smell so good, and I’m like, thank you, but like, you know, that was the kind, you know, woman, but everyone else was just a little cold, you know.

31:35 So it just felt really cool to, like, meet someone like her, and I sent her flowers the next day, and I wrote her a note, and you know what she did? She took a picture of the flowers and my note and posted, like, a picture of me almost looking like a superhero, and she said, I’m so proud of her, future of our Latinas, and she wrote my name and she’s like, watch this girl, and, you know, she’s the up-and-coming. And I was just like, wow, Salma Hayek. So that was like a cool experience, but, you know, I was, I just felt like I didn’t belong, and, you know, why do I feel that way?

32:13 I feel like I’m just really authentic and really real, and a lot of people aren’t real in Hollywood, and I feel like that’s why I don’t, I felt scared, but now I don’t care. I just walk in the room, and I just, you’re just like, you’re just, you know, that everyone is, they’re human beings. I don’t know why we like, but I want to feel like approachable, you know what I mean, because Flaca, you know, when my character, when people see me on the street, they’re like, hey girl, they don’t know where they know me from, but, you know, then they’re like, oh my god, you look like that girl, and then I’m like, yeah, I am, and they’re like, holy s*** and I said s***.

32:50 I’m sorry, and they hug me, and then, you know, they take a picture, and it’s just so amazing, and I always want to be like that. I can’t tell you, I don’t think there’s someone that says that I was mean to them. Maybe one time I said no, because I was crying on the phone for a personal thing, and I was like, yeah, but other than that, like, I just want to feel approachable, and I want you to believe that whatever I did, you can do that. That’s what I want you to believe, and I want to open the doors for people like me, represented, you know, person in Hollywood, and I don’t, you know, my little sister is 11 years old, and she’s watching me on TV, and it’s not impossible for her now.

33:29 She is. She speaks Mandarin. She speaks Spanish. She is so confident, and sort of like her role model, and it’s so amazing to have that, you know, knowing what you know now about LA, how would you give advice to, like, your sister or even to the younger you on what to do differently, and do you live there now, or New York, because of that reason? Well, the doors were definitely shut and locked when I lived in LA.

33:58 You know what I mean? Cuz I wasn’t, I told you the type. I continued to play the gangster’s girlfriend, and barely, because maybe I was good at acting, you know, I got the role because of my chops, not because of my look, which was cool. I think everything I’ve gotten is because of my, you know, my talent, not because of the way I look, which is a blessing, you know, and I think we should continue that in Hollywood, and forget about the look, and just go for, you know, the talented person, you know what I mean, instead of the stereotype.

34:32 And I just, yeah, if the advice I could give my sister is just to make your own opportunity. Don’t wait for someone to hire you. Like, do your own short, like, work with people who are hungry, like, right now, my team, my crew, like, they’re NYU graduates, like, they’re hungry, they’re talented, they’re creative and they see my vision, and they help me, like, make it possible. So pretty much that’s the advice I want to give. Don’t worry about them saying no.

35:04 Continue to audition, because it’d be great that, if you get a show like Orange Is the New Black, so it could open doors for you, but that don’t let go of, like, living your dream or creating your own work. You know, create your own opportunity. That’s what I believe in, and that’s what I’m continuing to do. I don’t wait for the phone to ring. Make the call, right?

35:24 No, I believe in yourself, right? Number one, and say yes to you, you know what I mean? If, God, I don’t know if I believe in God, what I do, and if he put whoever did put this passion in your heart, I’m telling you, that is exactly what you’re meant to do. Just don’t, you know, worry so much. Yes, there’s gonna be bad times in your life.

35:46 I mean, I could tell you a million bad things that happen in my life, but now I get to share that story, and now I go back, even, you know, when I was told to come in with no makeup, I went back to the time where Mellie told me I was beautiful with no makeup, and I was like, it’s not about the way you look, like it’s about what you give, you know, about who you are, and people see that you could be beautiful and still ugly you know. And I’ve met a lot of people like that. And all yeah, I want to hear a bit more about your story, because in my opinion, there’s a reason you’re here and on this show, and it has to do with some things that happen to you, and you were younger, and I think that gave you a character and maybe a depth of your acting that is why you’re here today.

36:30 Maybe you think the same thing too, and so for people that don’t know you’re born in Queens. Yes, so New Yorker, and you always wanted to be an actress? Well, after I saw The Bodyguard in the Dominican Republic. Okay, it was all dubbed in Spanish, even the light went off, you know, because in my country the light goes off. It’s terrible.

36:51 Like, ah, safe. Well, Alou, like, that’s like all the light left, and then it came back on, cuz they’ve turned on the generator, and she was singing. What was the song? I’ve always, yeah, that’s what came on it, and I was this little girl, just like, I think I even cried, and I just walked, you know, my mom was carrying my brother, and she, we walked home, and I had told my mommy jeido said come back there, yak please. I want to be an actress and a singer, and she’s like, okay.

37:23 So she put me in classes and she saw it, you know, that I had something. So that’s pretty much what sparked it, you know what I mean? Hold on. Selena, I think I was six or something. Okay.

37:36 Then Selena, you know, passed away. Selena Quintanilla, yes, and I, I think I watched her last performance in my Abuela’s house, my grandma souse sitting on the floor, her old TV, and I was just mesmerized by her dance and her singing. A big pop star, right? And she died young, twenty-three years old, right? And I saw that she was, you know, from Texas, but also Mexican, and she got to, you know, sing in English, but not too much, you know, not too much in English, but also Spanish, and that was something that felt, you know, possible for me.

38:09 And now, maybe 15, I don’t know, years later, I did a song, a cover, for her, Como La Flor, for her 20th death anniversary, and her family saw it, and they invited me to pretty much like this concert that they have every year for Selena, a festival, and I got to sing with Los Dinos, which is her sister, who hasn’t played the drums in maybe seven years, and her brother, and I got to sing Como La Flor de with Los Dinos, and at the end I started to cry, because having Selena fans like you is probably the best compliment you can get, because she’s so incredible, and people are very judgmental about who sings for music, and you know after I sang, they were screaming flat guy. It’s kind of incredible for me, cuz they knew, yeah, you know? Flaca is a part of me, so you know, if you know flat guy, you kind of know me a little bit.

39:09 You know, she’s a little feisty. She says what’s on her mind a little more. She’s a little more confident than I am, you know, maybe a little too confident, but I really, you know, appreciate, you know, what this show has given me, and it brought me to sing with, like, Selena’s family, who was an inspiration for you as a little girl. Yeah, right? I saw a movie about her, made-for-TV movie.

39:34 Yes, Selena. Yeah, yes, yeah. Hello. Yeah, yeah, I was really good, amazing. So she inspires you.

39:39 You’re down in the Dominican Republic, but is there a bit of a New York kid down there? I mean, that’s shaky. Yeah, every summer I go to New York. I have it. I talk a lot with my hands, cuz I was raised with my Italian family.

39:52 Okay, sit see, and Uncle Peter, they’re probably watching. Nicety. I love you. Very live upstate, and every summer, if I was a good girl, I would leave the DR and go visit them. Okay, and I believe I did fifth grade with them, and a little bit of high school with them, and then I moved to California when I was fifteen.

40:13 Okay. What did New York give you? New York gave me, wow, it’s just, you feel like New York, like you walk those concrete streets, like you take the subway everywhere. You’re like, you feel the people. Every day you see talent.

40:32 Every day, like, people are amazing. Like, I’ve seen, like, 20s, you know, like while I’m walking, you know, to my work, because usually I take the train to go to the studio. Sometimes, in the beginning, now, now that I have a car, and now they, like, take me up, go, but we would take the train, and, like, I would see, you know, people playing the guitar and singing, the drums, like, all these inspired and creative. When you’re walking down the street, I just feel like it, it made me dream more, and never give up.

41:08 It just, I just, I just felt it was possible, just because I’m surrounded by people who want the same thing, you know? And it’s such a live city, and it never sleeps, and I haven’t slept in a minute. I literally went from, you know, Orange Is the New Black to making my album. You know, who knows what’s the name, right? And so, you know, with New York City, you’re surrounded by hustlers.

41:32 People are making things out. That’s it. It gave me house, right? And you can believe it happens. You can believe you can make it happen when you’re there, right?

41:38 Yes. And like everyone’s in your face on the street, and they’re all there, and if they’re in Manhattan, they’re chasing some kind of dream, right? Right. Yeah. Okay.

41:45 And it’s also really cool that it’s all different types of people. Like, there’s business, you know, it’s not all actors. You know, that’s what’s cool and different about LA. It’s like, when you go to dinner in LA, there’s a director, a filmmaker, an actor, you know, the waiter is trying to be an actor. Everybody’s doing the same thing, which just seems kind of boring to me.

42:05 So what New York just, it just gave me, I was so versatile, and it just felt so alive, and theater world, you know, you just go and watch people, like, you know, share their heart and soul in the theater, and she’s so beautiful. Yeah. You just get so inspired. Yeah, and I think my first Broadway show was later in life, and it was Danielle Brooks took me to see Rocky brother, but the first time I ever went to Broadway was with Danielle, and she ended up being in a Broadway show, The Color Purple, which she killed, you know.

42:38 And I believe she was nominated for a Tony. Wow. Yeah. No, New York has the rawness. If you just get on a subway car, you’ll see shape, different shapes and colors of people, different occupations.

42:47 Yeah. Where I was very recently, and I reminded how much I loved it. Not like LA. So you moved to LA when you’re 15, your mom takes you there to help you pursue your dream? Right, right, right.

42:58 Up, straight up. We, she was my doctor. Well, she was a doctor in the Dominican Republic, so when we moved to California, she became no one, you know, because they don’t really accept that unless you take all the courses, which she did, and even after she passed, all that, they didn’t want to accept her degree from my country. So again, she’s had to start from zero. So we lived in a small little studio apartment, and I went to a performing arts school called a Hamilton Music Academy.

43:29 I had to audition, and they’re like, oh, here comes another Latina, and I’m like, please let me try out, and you know, I got in, which was really cool. And I pretty much, I went to high school, I went to night school, I went to summer school, and I pretty much finished high school at 16, and my last year I just did performing arts classes. Okay, and health, because I didn’t do, I needed that to graduate. And what did you out in New York? Okay, what did you want to be at that point, an actress or a singer?

43:58 Both. Singing was always my, you know, first love, but the great thing about that school, like, everybody does everything. Like, if you’re a performer, you did, you know, acting, Chamber Singers, dance team, we did everything, so the school kind of trained me, and my mom, you know, put me in that school so I would have those free classes. And, you know, Fiona Apple went to that school. You know, Mele Hirsch went to that school.

44:23 All the B2K went to that school, like, all these, like, famous kids went to that school, so it just felt like I was in the right place. Okay. A lot of talented kids go there. What happens when you’re 16? Well, this, let me tell you something.

44:36 My teacher had her favourites too, so I never was in a play or anything in high school. I was in her favorite, so of course, like, your dream feels like, damn, my own teacher doesn’t even want to put me, like, in a play. I felt, like, really sad, you know what I mean? But I feel like I’ve been working my whole life to get there, and when I moved with my mom, it was like the first time me and her lived alone, and she’s really young, you know, so she’s like my sister, and everywhere we go, she’s like, ah, she looks like your sister.

45:10 Like, I’m over it, really. She’s, and then she’s like, Jackie, she’s funny, too, she’s like, at this office, they figure my niece, okay? They didn’t want to hire parents. I’m like, mom, you’re such a, like, you just don’t want people to know her age. You know, it’s funny, but anyways, at 16, you know, she said her boyfriend was moving in, and I was like, your man is moving into her little studio?

45:36 My bed is already in the kitchen, you know? So I was working in two, in the coat-check, you know, at this underaged club. I been working in clubs since I was fifteen. You know, I did coat-check. I was a go-go dancer.

45:49 I did all these crazy things, and then I told this girl that I met at the club. I said my mother, you know, is moving in with this, you know, boyfriend of hers, which ended up being her husband of 15 years. I, that’s my sister’s father. Okay, which he just found out that we have different dads, and she’s like, can we just not talk about it? Anyways, that’s another story.

46:12 And I went home, and I said, you know, mom, I don’t like your rules. I know you changed your whole life for me. I’m so ungrateful, right? And she became no one for me, and teenagers are so terrible, and I moved out, and then things got bad with this girl. Like, she lost her apartment, and the car, the car that I was impressed, you know, she was driving her Honda Civic.

46:35 She would drive me to school. This is our friend, you moved in with, right? Okay, left, left house at sixteen. Then I’m gonna go live with this other girl. Whatever, I’m gonna go live with this other girl, and that’s pretty crazy.

46:46 Yeah, we were on our way. We got free tickets to Wango Tango, and I was starting to, like, miss school. I was starting to be a little rebel. I got my, you know, belly ring, you know, pierced. I got a tattoo.

46:58 I was doing all these things because I was very closed, you know. My mom had me in school all the time, wanted to make me, you know, good, and I was, you know, with my Christian family, the Italian family, who, you know, showed me my values, but I think they were too, you know, protective, and I couldn’t wear, like, you know, things showing my shoulder, and I was just, you know, I wanted to be a teenager, right? So I kind of repressed it. Yeah, it was time for freedom.

47:25 Now, you’re 16 without a parent in LA? That’s crazy. And we won these Wango Tango concert tickets, and on the way there, she started racing the guy who was taking us to the freeway, and then I remember saying, are you crazy? What are you doing? And I was not wearing my seatbelt, and she was, and she was, what?

47:43 She actually had a knot in her seatbelt? It wasn’t even working, as he felt that well, and nothing happened to her, and the car flipped. We got an accident. The car flipped three times, and I went out the window, so my whole life changed. Pretty much like this girl that was my supposed friend was calling her mom because she didn’t have a license.

48:04 She was 16, I was 17, and I believe it was a guy in a bicycle, which, if he ever sees me, I hope he hits me up, because I’m dying to meet him. He saved my life. He called 911. You’re on the phone, the ground, on the ground. I got up, and she’s calling her mom.

48:22 She’s calling no one. On the end, nobody’s calling the ambulance, and this guy saw me and he called the ambulance, and I was rushed to emergency, where I had to have brain surgery. And if I wasn’t dying, I probably wouldn’t have, wouldn’t be here right now, because I didn’t have money. I didn’t have insurance, you know, and my mother didn’t have a job, really, at the time. We were living off of pesos, you know?

48:46 She was renting an apartment in the Dominican Republic, our old apartment, and getting pesos, converting him into dollars, and that’s, we lived in such a small place, it wasn’t the same, you know, because to live in my country, I mean, the dollar goes a long way, and I’m not here, you know. So it was, it was really hard. It was really hard, and, and that’s why, when, when you know our parents move here from other countries, they want us to have a better life than they did, and give up their dream, you know, so you could live yours in a bigger way.

49:17 And I’m just so grateful to my mom. And then, after that, the woman, serious accident, like brain surgery. You’re in a coma? Yeah, I had kidney contusion, broke two vertebrae. I had a blood clot in my brain, so they had to, you know, shave my long, beautiful hair, and I woke up two weeks later with a shaved head, cross eyes, scarred face, crooked face, because my sixth nerve was being pinched, so that was like my vision, and then my face was paralyzed, only half of it, so I couldn’t smile, and the doctor didn’t tell me if I was gonna get better, so of course my dream died at the moment I woke up from this nightmare, you know, and I saw myself in the mirror, and I looked at myself crooked, and then I just, I wanted to give up, and I tried.

50:05 I tried suicide a few times, like taking pills I had. They had to give me medicine to throw up all this, because I was just really depressed, because, you know, all the, I was, I thought, you know, you have to be beautiful to make it in Hollywood, and the beauty that I had was taken away, which was my hair, and, and you know, my face was all scraped up, so I was, you know, depressed, and I, you know, as I told you before, this little girl came into my room you know every day, and then one day I turn around and I’m like, who are you? And she’s like, you had brain surgery too, huh?

50:40 And I said, yeah, what’s up? And she’s like, cuz I had an attitude back then, you know, when you’re, you know, after brain surgery, you’re not the same. You know, it was just your brain, you know, you have to learn everything again, and even, like, being a human. I had to, you know, that’s why I went to a rehabilitation center. They had to see that I was stable, that I wasn’t suicidal, that, you know, I didn’t have brain damage.

51:04 I could do math. That I could, you know, find my way home if I was lost. They had all these tests for me, and and I was the best one in that, you know, Children’s Hospital. So you’re 17, you’re hanging out a bunch of kids and learning how to walk again and learning how to remember, and this little girl told me I was pretty, and after that, I became a volunteer, because she was scared of the doctors. I was one of them, and she wouldn’t eat if I wasn’t next to her, and she, I painted her nails, and she would call out for me.

51:35 And there was this other little girl, Mimi, who I haven’t, um, I haven’t found yet. I found Mellie again. We’re friends. We go clubbing. Actually, she’s awesome.

51:44 And this little girl Mimi, who I believe, I hope she was better, you know, when they would stretch, she has like a one-in-a-million disease, and they would stretch her legs, she would cry, because it hurt, so she’d cry out for me, and I would just hold her hand, and it was just the most beautiful thing, and Then, while all this is happening, you know, there was this other volunteer. His name is Oscar, and my mom, he’s very cute teenager, and my mom was like, she’s gonna look like this one day. She brought, like, my portfolio, and you know, I look terrible right now, and she’s trying to hook me up with the volunteer.

52:19 You know, oh my god, but you know, that’s how moms are. She just wanted me to feel, you know, beautiful as well inside, or wanted, or, you know, I was a teenager. I told you. So it was just really hard, because that’s the age where you’re finding herself, you know, and you’re insecure, and I was already insecure before I had the accident, so it was just a struggle, and then I went back to the Dominican Republic, where, might be us, you know, Thea modeling, P.M. et de Luci, they waited for me with open arms.

52:49 These ants, you have to name them, or else they get mad. Okay, gotcha. Yeah, so you come from a strong, like, woman, like an inner circle, right? And what’s that like? Well, prepared me for orange, didn’t it?

53:02 I guess so, huh? Yeah, cuz all my aunts have different attitudes, and I know how to deal with all types of women. So you went back, and they took care of you? Yeah, I literally, Maivia bathed me, and it was in a, you know, might be a Lucy, and I hope she’s watching right now, and I always, I’ll never forget that, you know, being a teenager and kind of being a baby again. I had, I was being babied.

53:28 You know, it’s terrible, you want to do everything for yourself. You know, I was living alone, like, I didn’t want that, but you know I had to start over, and they baby me a lot, but they also were like, my mother was like, you have to make it even more, because you’re not supposed to be here. Literally, my mother was told by the doctor that I wasn’t gonna make it, and she said goodbye to me with a priest. She didn’t eat for a long time until I woke up. Yeah, a lot of terrible things happen throughout that time.

54:00 She lost the baby she was carrying, his Werner, when that happened. So and so, how do you go from back in the DR, your answer, taking care and your bathing, you how do you push through that, because that could have been, that’s all we, that’s all she wrote, yeah, I mean, that’s what I’m saying. Mellie, the little girl from the hospital, just switched on my, like, brain, and I said, this is stupid. I can walk again. I can see again.

54:25 Everything came back, all my senses. My hair started to grow out. I was just feeling good again, and I was just like, I’m gonna get better, and I started, you know, to feel better, and to believe that I was gonna get better, and I started going in the gym, and from walking, I started running and doing ab workout in my, her hair started to grow out. It was like a hospital mullet, but I was like, don’t touch me, leave my little ponytail. And I went back to LA, and I, I took these head shots, and I sent them out, my mother and I, to a lot of agencies, and we didn’t get phone calls back, you know, because again, I was still not the type that they were looking for, and I ended up getting an agent who’s incredible, Kendall Park from Jack Lippmann agency, and at first he was just like, I don’t know what to do with you, and I take kids, and you’re too old.

55:17 I was 18. I was like, I could play 15, you know. So literally my first role, I was a 15 year old. Okay, so you got back into it? No, because that was your dream, and your do it, and your family doesn’t quit.

55:31 I’m guessing no. My mother became the doctor. My Tia is a doctor. My other one owns business model in Decorah Sione’s. She’s an artist.

55:40 Like, I, this other one has a real estate company, like every one of my Diaz does something, you know what I mean? And every dream they had, it’s happened, you know what I mean? So why wouldn’t it happen for me, and what I want to do? So just don’t quit. Yeah, and never put a time limit on your dream.

56:00 Listen, I could’ve gave up singing, you know? All you see right now are these, you know, young kids, but my music is just for me, really, and hopefully you’ll like it, but you know, it’s almost like therapy, and my album is called Hija de Chavez, which is daughter of Chavez. A lot of people don’t know that my real last name is Chavez, and I chose Cruz, and it’s deep within my family, but honestly I chose it because it was something that I got to choose for myself, just like my haircut.

56:32 It’s the first time I feel that I, that I am me, and I wasn’t me even when I started, you know, Orange Is the New Black. I became who I am now, and I’ve grown, and I’ve, you know, I’m comfortable in my skin, and I didn’t understand why it took me so long for my music, you know, to come out or to find my sound, and I think it’s just about the timing, and this is the right time. Literally, I moved from LA to go to Miami to work with a Selena Quintanilla producer, and he stole my money, my mother’s money.

57:08 She took a loan out, and he stole it. It was $10,000, so I had to get, you know, two waitressing jobs, lied to my mother, which I call it acting, you know, my practice, and eventually I paid her back, but like, this guy said you know, what it’ll be good for you, New York, and I ended up believing another stranger, and it ended up really happening. I, my music actually was happening in New York. My song was on a show called Seven like a TRL. You know, I was waitressing, but it felt like my dream was reawakened, and then I miss acting, and my first audition was Orange Is the New Black, and I quit for five years.

57:50 It’s just a crazy story, but it seems like that was supposed to happen to you. Someone feels like you paid your dues along the way. I did. This happened, right? I did, and that’s what I want people to understand, that, like, even if you’re going through a hard time, if you lose your home, if you, you know, you lose your job, if you’re trying to make ends meet, like, I, like, I ate ramen noodles for months, like a year almost, when I was in Miami.

58:15 I didn’t have money, really, cuz I was just trying to pay my mom back. You know, I lived in an apartment with, like, four girls. You know, it was like a one-bedroom, so a, you know, I did pay my dues, but again, like, don’t give up. Like, this is a part of your journey, and you’re gonna be able to sit down, talk to someone, you know, like yourself, and get to share that journey and inspire others. You know, I did not realize how important it was to share my story.

58:41 All of us have a story, you know, each of us have a story, and this is the reason why, you know, orange, you know, gave me this voice, and I’m gonna tell you what happened to me, and give you that hope. I get to talk to you know, high school students, college students all over the world, and, you know, tell my story and inspire these kids, and literally, one time I was in a deaf school, and I had 400, you know, and I saw, you know, they were doing sign language while, you know, I was talking, which was pretty awesome, and I knew just a little bit, cuz I’m feel great. I took, like, a sign language class, which was hilarious, because I, I said hi, it’s nice to meet you, but I meet, I did it wrong, and it was the f-word, everybody was like, they were dying, so that was how like, you know, cracked, you know, the ice right there.

59:35 But 400 of them I took selfies with, and I’m not telling you, each one of them told me their story, you know? They had someone next to them who, you know, explained to me what they were saying, and I had this one person who had seven brain, you know, yet surgery for his brain seven times, okay? And he’s like, you, you inspire me so much, and this and that, and I want, I want to do this, and I’m like, of course you can, and, and I got to inspire him, you know what I mean?

1:00:04 And he inspired me, so I feel like it’s a gift, give and again, it’s, I’m approachable, and I want you feel that, because I want you to believe that your dream is just like mine, and it can be possible. Orange gave you this platform, and you said when you’re here in Europe, you don’t tell people you’re American, you say I’m Dominican. Hmm. why, and what is America mean to you today? You posted some things on your Instagram, and I know you want you like to be vocal about things that bother you.

1:00:33 Can you walk me through? Well, you know, I, yeah, when people say where you’re from, I always say a Dominican Republic, because that’s where I grew up. That’s who my mom is. My dad is, when my grandma is, my grandpa is, my Diaz are, so that’s just who I am. Yes, I’m American because I also grew up in America, and you know, I love, you know, the music that I grew up listening to.

1:00:58 It’s not just Spanish. It’s, you know, both, and that’s what has inspired my music, just to combine both, but you know, how I feel as an American right now is just really sad. It’s really sad that what’s happening in my country, the separation of families, you know, the dreamers, DACA, like all these things that, like, I get, like, my stomach hurts because I’m one of them. I am them, you know what I mean? Like, I’m a dreamer.

1:01:28 We are all dreamers, and it’s just so sad to understand that we have children, you know, right now in cages, and going to judges, and and like being a two-year-old, or a one-year-old, three-year-old, and a judge talking to you, and you have no one to represent you, and why do you need that right now? I don’t understand. I don’t understand what’s going on, and with America right now. You, I like to speak Spanish when I’m in Europe, so people don’t start asking you back, America from… yeah, because you have to defend it.

1:02:03 I feel I don’t have to defend it. Like, they start talking to me about politics, or they think that maybe I agree with what’s going on. They don’t know. They just literally, I had an email, like, Americans warning, and in London, you know, be careful, because, you know, Trump is coming to visit, and there, there might be violent times. There’s gonna be gatherings, and the thing is, like, I walked the front of the line, you know, in the marching, when the Women’s March.

1:02:30 I’ll walk in London. I’ll walk anywhere in the world to fight for what I believe in, and right now I’m not happy with the situation in America, separating families at the borders. is just, it’s just ridiculous. Prison reform, prison reform, talking about things that’s going on there. Trump is here, I think this week, and yeah, and how do you feel about that?

1:02:52 What do you think this town is gonna say to him? Well, I, I feel like, since I got a warning, I don’t think they’re gonna be there. They’re excited that he’s coming. doesn’t sound like it. No, yeah, so I, so I, but I’m with you.

1:03:05 I am with you. I’m with you tonight at the game, and I’m also with what you believe in, because I’m not happy. I’m not happy, and I’m from the Dominican Republic, and I’m thankful, you know, about the opportunity that, you know, that America has kind of given me, and I feel like everyone deserves that, and we are all immigrants, pretty much, when we go to America. So it’s just, yeah, it’s, it’s saddening. How does this play out?

1:03:37 Like, I’m not there anymore, so I just hear this from Americans when they come over here. They talk about how they can’t go to a barbecue without everybody arguing. It’s really divisive, but, like, you know, well how do we move forward here? I mean, I’m telling you, New York is even scary, and that’s the, like, capital of the world, where you can go and be free and dress how you like and talk how you like and you know, talk about what you believe in, and right now, I ride the train still to this day, you know, and it’s not the same.

1:04:07 It’s, the same people are getting into each other’s faces. Like, I’ve seen maybe four or five like fights already because of someone speaking Spanish, because of the color of your skin, because of a bunch of things, and a woman even came up to me, like, people just want to fight now. It’s just weird, like, they’re, you know, and I feel like that’s what, you know, he’s winning in a way of, like, separating us, and that’s what they want. They want us to fight so they can control us, and that’s, that’s not okay.

1:04:43 I feel like we need to come together. Now, this is about human beings. It’s, it’s not about, you know, Democrats and Republicans anymore. It’s about human beings, yeah, and what’s right and what’s not okay, and it is our problem, and I’m tired of people saying it’s not our problem, you know what I mean? We’re a powerful country, and we should be helping the world instead of ruining it.

1:05:09 What are we going with gender and equality and gender fluidity? I mean, a lot of people are trying to get their heads around this and trying to understand it. The administration is obviously doing the opposite thing, but where are we going, backwards again? I mean, make America great again. When was it so great, you know?

1:05:26 And that’s, that’s something that has inspired my production company, Unspoken Film. I’m pretty much, you know, I want to share the stories that are unspoken, about mostly women. Like, I want to start from, you know, back in the day, even in the 1900s. Like, I want to show you why I look like this, why it’s hard for me to work. I am all kinds of things, you know, come from the Dominican Republic, you know what I mean?

1:05:51 I’m a mixture of everything, you know, including, you know, Native American, including Spanish, including Italian, including African, you know, African, you know, and, and that’s why, you know, I look different, and that’s maybe why it’s hard to get a job in Hollywood, because they don’t want to accept, you know, our, our history, and our history, pretty much, is, you know, all the, our faces, you know what I mean? And the reason why we look a certain type is because this is our history. I come from, you know, pretty much colonisation and rape.

1:06:29 You know, that’s my ethnicity, and I want to show you why, you know, go back to the stories. We were always there, just never represented, and our children need to know our history, because definitely the history books aren’t saying, you know, our history, and what’s great, you know? I just watched John Leguizamo’s play Latin History for Morons, because I’m living – oh yeah, and woman, yes, we won a Tony Award for that. Okay, he does, he’s so good. He is so good, and I and I know him, right?

1:07:03 And he’s pretty much an idol for me. If I wanted, you know, he’s somebody that I want to be like, you know, as an actor, his career is long, and he’s just, he’s so talented, and he could make you cry, laugh, get angry, you know, all emotions of the world, make you feel something, and when I went to that play, I was going through something, which I’ll get into in a minute, but when I went to that play, while everybody around me was laughing, I was crying, because pretty much he was just saying, you know, they, they took away, they stripped us from our culture, from believing that, you know, who we are is wrong, and becoming, you know, this Christian / you know, I am a Christian, but I just felt like they wanted us, they whitewashed us in a way, you know what I mean?

1:07:57 And it’s still happening till this day, and even in my country, is just so racist, still, and while everybody is laughing, you know, pretty much he did this play because someone called his son a [expletive], and I in his school, and he went to his father’s house and said your son called my my son a [expletive] you know, if he’s gonna call him any names, he better say the right name, he’s ass big, you know, and he said all these names, and everybody was laughing, and I was like crying, because I felt for that. I’ve been called that you know, and at home, you know, I grew up also, you know, I told you, upstate New York, and a lot of them were mostly Italian, and they were Puerto Ricans, not a lot of Dominicans, and yeah, I just felt like yeah, was called those names.

1:08:49 I was, maybe there were two or three Spanish people in my class. I was the only Dominican, and I want it to be something else. That’s why I’ve changed my name more than once. I was Italian. I was the Santa’s testa.

1:09:03 I was, you know, Rose. I was so many names just to fit in in Hollywood, and the moment that I became myself and who I wanted to be, that’s when things started happening for me. Yeah, tell me about you. What do you do every day to make sure that it’s a good day for you, a successful day? Do you have regular routines?

1:09:21 You do. Do you have something that just gets you centered? Well, the morning, every I have. I’m not a morning person, but when I wake up, it’s just the first thing I think about is just how am I gonna get to where I want to be? And I just, I write, you know.

1:09:38 I just focus. I don’t know. I just, pretty much, if I could be in the studio every day, I am so so now we built a studio in my own home, which is just like a computer and a mic. That’s all you really need, and shoes, big speakers, and what does the studio give you? Why do you need that so close to you, just you know, because before it’s hard to get in the studio.

1:10:00 To get studio time, if you don’t have, you know, the funds, it’s hard to, to get in the studio and work with somebody who wants to listen to you, and wants to help you find your sound. And right now I’ve been lucky enough to work with a few producers, one being Andre Harris, who’s produced Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, which is my favorite, and even, sure, and Justin Bieber, like, all these incredible artists, but again, he was so way at the top that when I went, you know, in his studio, I held back, because I was like, I, you know, I played it safe. So then I met this other writer who was helping me write in Spanish, because I, a little more help in my Spanish writing, and his name is Fifa, and he’s a rapper, and he was like, what do you, what is it that you want to do?

1:10:51 What do you want to write about? And I told him my story, and I told them I’m not just writing songs about, you know, being sexy or whatever. I want to write songs about what’s happened to me in my life, about, you know, how, you know, my accident, about, you know, love, about, you have a Chavez, why, why my album is called like that, and, you know, my, my music is vibey, and it’s got all different types of genres. The thing in common in my album is my voice, so just like an actress, I don’t want to be in a box, and that’s what, you know, I audition a lot for the same thing, so that’s why I had to create my own work, and that’s why I’m creating my own.

1:11:30 I signed myself. I have, I own, production company, and I don’t have a genre in music, because again I’m inspired by Elvis Costello, Tracy Chapman, Whitney Houston, Billie Holiday, so many, you know, different types of the doors, you know, what I mean. That I have a rock and roll song, but my voice sounds the same, pretty much, in all of it, and that it just sounds unified, and you got that studio there, so you can just go in, lay some tracks down. Just always be creative.

1:12:04 Yeah, and maybe, like, rent, like, an amazing studio, which I got really lucky to work with Serach Studios, which is at a Record Plant, and that’s where, like, Michael Jackson has recorded, like, Black Eyed Peas, like all these incredible musicians, and literally, I was in the mic where Michael Jackson sang, and I got to do my single there. So I would write the music, recorded at home, do, like, a demo, and then rent the studio for, like, the day, or, you know, have Ciroc studios help me out with that, and just record all my vocals over, and get that big sound that you want in, in like the best studio, which I think that’s smart. Yeah, I know Lil Wayne has a, you know, recording studio on his bus.

1:12:50 He’s constantly writing and recording, even when he’s touring. Yeah, you know, that’s intense, but I guess that’s what an artist does, right? You’ve lost, lea creating, so that’s something you do every day. You’re thinking about your long-term goals, and you want to create every search term goals, like, right now my goal for this month is to shoot my lyric video, which I plan to do on the 17th, with a dancer, her name is Larson Thomas Thompson, and I’m gonna have a surprise, you know, cameo on there for my lyric video, and then at the end of the month I plan to shoot my short, which is bass in the 1900s.

1:13:31 Okay, sounds exciting. Yeah, how short is it gonna be? I believe it’s like 10 minutes. Okay, cool, don’t look for to that, and I got to cast it, you know, and I got to pick the director, and I’ve been looking. I wanted to direct it, but then I was like, you know what, I’m starring in it, and I really want to focus on the work of, like, being good at that, and then I’m gonna direct my next short.

1:13:54 Don’t wait for the phone to ring, make the phone calls. That’s what she’s doing. Okay. If I were to ask your friends and say, what is, what’s Jackie’s superpower? How is she able to do all these things and make all these things happen?

1:14:05 What would they tell me? Well, I want to tell you what Danielle just told me while we were in Germany. She’s like, you know what, you’re an authentic hustler, like I’m a, like, a good hustler. Like, I don’t cheat people or anything, but, like, I know how to get what I want, and also help people get what they want, it as well. So, like, if I’m winning, I want my whole team to win.

1:14:29 You know, I like to give credit where credit is due. You know, I, I don’t steal from people. People’s ideas, and that’s what I learned in Hollywood really early on. Actually, this year, I’m a completely different person. I’m not the same Jackie, and anyone could tell you that who has seen me now and has known me for a minute.

1:14:49 I’ve just become more confident. Someone stole my idea for the short that I’m about to shoot, but again, she, she stole it, and remember how I told you I cried at John Leguizamo’s thing, because it was a brown story, and she stole it and made it a white story, and then I got an audition for it to play the role that I wrote for myself, and then the role is not even, I can’t even get it, because she’s Mexican, he’s not even the role that I was you know, rope, because that’s what they do in Hollywood, instead of working hard and figuring out how we can find this they just go for the easy, right? Like this, but I’m gonna go for, like, what’s right, and I think that my short is really relevant, and what happened to me, how it was stolen and changed, and actually it’s a, it’s a big movie, and I’m still gonna do mine, because I have the heart.

1:15:44 Good, good. What would be, well, know what was the, what was the best day of your life, and the worst? Definitely my accident was the worst. Just waking up two weeks later and knowing what happened to me, and the best thing I think was just getting words as a new black, just getting that phone call that I got two lines, and I didn’t know what to expect, and I got to work with, you know, Danielle Brooks, that was also my first person that I got to work with, and we got to basically kind of kill each other in the first scene, which was really dope, and I got to work with, like, a big, you know, director, and it was just a good, incredible experience, and even the boyfriend I had at the time, terrible person.

1:16:39 He was like, you’ve never been this happy with me when I got the role. I was just like, what is wrong with you? So that got, you know, it took me a year or two to realize I need to cut that yeah, definitely out of my life. Good move there. Yeah.

1:16:56 So this positive thing, you just turned it into more and more positive things. You got more and more confident. You’re doing things the right way. You’re taking an excuse, like, I, on Orange Is the New Black, she tries to find the positive, you know, in the darkness, the light, you know, and she continues to do that, and she’s ambitious, and again I told you I’m growing up just like she did, and she’s, she’s making me. I’m not gonna tell you everything that’s on my mind, but I’m definitely gonna tell you what I believe in and, and you know, fight for it.

1:17:27 What scares you? You know what scares me? It, like, today I just, you know, dying before, like, I get to live all my dreams, because I know that, like, I had brain surgery. I don’t know how I’m gonna be in the next 10 years. Who knows if something wrong happens to me, and my head’s been hurting a lot, so I was just like, what if I die before I get to do?

1:17:52 So I feel like I live every day like it’s my last, and I feel like I’ve gotten older in this last year because I want to do so much, and I don’t want to say I’m afraid of dying, but I’m just afraid of, like, not doing everything I want to do, because this life is so sure, and I feel like I don’t have enough time to do everything I want to do. So that’s why every day, like, I haven’t been on a vacation in a minute. This is my vacation for me. You know, I get to do this, and then, you know, later on I’ll get to enjoy the game.

1:18:24 You know, just do little things. You know, I took myself to the Cathedral in Germany. Like, I take myself on dates. I want to see the whole world too. You know, maybe the car accident was the best thing that happened to you?

1:18:36 It was. It was cuz I see life very different, and I think it’s really cool to not live the same life every day, you know what I mean? Like, I know that we need money, we need to survive, but, like, why, why not live what you, why not do what you want? This is, this life is too short. You won’t be satisfied.

1:18:56 I tried, and I would cry. I was a waitress at this club, and, and during New Year’s I would cry. It was like I don’t belong here. I think I was still, you know, a waitress actually when Amy Winehouse passed away. She’s someone that I really looked up to.

1:19:12 She passed away while I was waitressing, and I was crying all night, and I was like, that was someone that I wanted, you know, to talk to one day, you know, and I feel like she needed a friend, you know, and this Hollywood could really take you down, and you’re right that the accident was a thing that happened to me, because if I made it back then, again, I wouldn’t be here today, because I was already following the wrong path. I was surrounded by people that weren’t good, and maybe I would be dead by now. So I think that it was meant for me, and I made it later in life, because I was more mature, and I think to go to be in Hollywood, you have to be a little mature.

1:19:55 I think it’s really hard when you’re a kid star, you know? All these people, like, glorify you, and you feel like you’re different, but you’re not. We’re all the same, and that’s maybe something I want to change. Maybe, you know, I’m meant to do this, because I want to open that lane for us, like, make it not hard for my sister, like it was hard for me, you know, for the underrepresented person. Like I mentioned before, what keeps you awake at night?

1:20:21 Well, you know, as much as I want to live my dream, I also, like, I want a family too, so that’s, you know, something I dream about all the time. Make you see awake, because I’m like, how can I do it all? Beyoncé is doing it all, you know, exactly, so it makes me feel like you can’t, you know, it’s just hard. It’s hard, because I also want to be a parent that’s there, cuz, you know, my mother was, you know, she was good, but she was doing the best she could, but that doesn’t mean she was there.

1:20:57 And I tried, you know, she, I give her a hard time I always do, because she, you know, she’s like, I paid for all this, I did all this, and she moved here for you, you know, this and that, and you know, and I still gave her a hard time, and I was like yeah, but you were never at any of my place, but you were never at this, but what was she doing working two jobs so I could live my dream? You know what I mean? So I get it now. I did not get it before, right?

1:21:23 Jackie, I always asked everyone a few questions that they hadn’t asked you. If you could pick up the phone right now and magically call the 20 year old Jackie Cruz or whatever she was calling herself back then, and give her some advice. Now she would have already been through the accident, should have been coming back. What would you tell now back to the rest of the show. I just, I just would tell my little self to, like, it’s coming.

1:22:16 Don’t give up, and don’t be so hard on yourself. I used to be so hard on myself. I was like, I’m such a loser. I felt like a loser because I didn’t make it, and I’m this age, it’s stupid. That’s stupid to believe that I don’t care if I’m 90 years old.

1:22:30 I’m gonna win Oscar one day. I’m gonna work for it, you know? yes, well, that’s a Grammy, Anna Tony and Ann everything, all that Hey Rita Moreno did, and that’s one of my big idols. So right, and right now she’s on a show called One Day at a Time, which, you know, was created by an incredible, you know, Cuban woman, Gloria Calderon Kellett, and she’s writing more stories, and she’s incredible, and she, she told me you know, I want to direct one day, and she told me if I ever want to shadow any of her directors, that the door is open and to send her music.

1:23:11 And, you know, finally I feel like we’re building a community, you know, Latin, in the Latin world in Hollywood, it’s still very, you know, a lot of competition and a lot of talk but, you know, at least we’re getting people in the right places. You know, that’s what I want. I want to be in the right place to make those right decisions, to give opportunities when, when, when everyone else is saying no on that same advice point. What was the best advice you’ve ever received?

1:23:38 Could have been from an acting coach or a producer or your mom or one of your Tia’s? But best advice for, from my acting, or any, or best advice? Okay, that’s advice but even acting advice might be interesting. Oh, just so many. Besides my mother, I already mentioned, she helped me not give up because of all the struggles that I went through in life.

1:24:15 I told you it’s a part of my journey, and I go back to each one, and I’m just like, oh, that’s why the accident happened. Oh, that’s why he stole my money. Oh, that’s why I’m homeless. Oh, like all these crazy things, and it’s just like, yeah, you know, my mother just said, I’d just kind of like never put a time limit on your dream. Kind of came from my mother’s advice.

1:24:41 Everything’s for a reason. Yeah. Final, peacefully, just stupid to say, but even all the loves in my life, all the, the heartbreaks in my life, it was for a reason, and, and now I know exactly what I want, and I’m writing about it, and I feel like, you know, my music is therapy, and the reason why my album is called, I said, you had the Chavez. I met my father when I was 23. I didn’t, you know, I searched for him my whole life and, and you know, he wasn’t a part of it, and an ice, and he didn’t really believe, he was upset that I didn’t finish college, and that I was trying to be a singer, and that he didn’t think it was gonna happen, so I said, I’m gonna make it one day, and I’m not gonna use your name.

1:25:29 It was me, you know. I hated him at one point. I don’t hate him now, but again, that’s another thing that makes me a good actress when I want to, like, get to a level, I think about the terrible things that happen to me, and you know, I go back, and I put myself in that position, and I try to incorporate, you know, my past with you know, the, the character I’m trying to portray. Like, you know, this, this summer I told you I worked in a movie called All the World Is Sleeping, and I play this, a character who has an addiction, heroin addiction, and she comes from money, and we’re trying to show that it’s addiction as a disease, and it could, it could happen to anyone, you know.

1:26:13 And her name is Toaster. And again, I had to go back, you know, to, she has so many things, you know, that I get to show that I haven’t showed through Flaca, you know, so it was really cool playing her, and I had to go back to all my struggles again, and it’s gonna give me what I’ve always wanted you know. I am funny just because I like to make people laugh, you know, but there’s, I’m pretty deep too, you know, and I’m excited to show that, and I feel like we see a little bit of that in season six.

1:26:46 Yeah, looking forward to that. Last question. To that 20 year old that’s watching us, who or anywhere around the world who wants to make a difference, you know, in this world, and wants to just go out there and do something big, you know. There may be, there, don’t know, they’re frustrated now. They see a lot of fighting, and you see a lot of this.

1:27:02 They see a lot of that injustice, you know. What do you tell them? Speak up. No voice is too small. I give an example of the little girl, Sophia Rose.

1:27:11 She’s six years old. She saw the Pope. She said, can you help me, Mike, can you make sure that my parents are not taken away, you know what I mean? She, she spoke up to the Pope, and that, you know, broke his heart, and her story pretty much, you know, inspired the world. No voice is too small.

1:27:32 If you believe something is wrong, speak up, you know, and if you get in trouble, at least you know, you’re fighting for, for a cause, you know. And yeah, I use my platform, but I also want to get in there in the streets and not just March, but you know, I’m working with the Justice League right now. If you go into my Instagram, I, of this little girl whose parents got taken away from her, and her sister had to go with her because her sister’s not well, and she shakes, and she says, I’m gonna wake up in the morning, and my mom won’t be there, and she’s a little girl.

1:28:11 Imagine, you, you know, your child because you weren’t born in the same place. I mean, doesn’t this even make sense? It’s just, yeah, it’s terrible. That’s why I feel like, if you believe something is wrong, no matter how old you are, look at Emma Gonzalez. That’s her last name, right?

1:28:32 She spoke up. She went through something completely traumatizing. You know, I feel like the Millennials right now, because of social media, they, you know, they they want to do the right thing, and I feel like they’re, they’re using their platform in the right way, even though weren’t, you know, America is in a weird time right now, but I feel like, me, we will get better. I do. I believe in that because of, because of the youth, and that’s why we need to continue to use our platforms, the right way, and that’s what I want to use my platform.

1:29:08 And it’s like, if I make, our, create art, my art is about something. It’s not, I’m not writing about a sexy song and trying to be sexy so I could sell you. know, that’s not really. Yeah, my songs are fun, you know? Even the song out right now, Loud.

1:29:26 I look, I, it’s about a past relationship that, you know, I pretty much, you know, believed in him, you know, but I started, you know, to pay the bills, and then, you know, the person got a little lazy. I’m not saying they took advantage, but I’m saying, like, nobody paid my bills while I was, you know, working on my art, so the song is, if you want to be with me, you’re gonna have to work, you know. It’s, it’s fun, but I’m still talking about, you know, I’m independent, you know, and, and I want women to know also, you could do anything you want, anything, you know, and I did.

1:30:01 I guess it’s just my family. I grew up with strong women. Actually, the men are the weak ones in my family. How could they not be with such strong women? Er, yeah, my, yeah, my uncle is still asking for money, further his own kids.

1:30:19 You know, it’s, it’s, it’s terrible, but again, inspiring, you know, and that’s why I am who I am. I had, I did have a male figure in my life, my uncle Peter. You know, he, he’s in his 70s now. we don’t agree on a lot of things, you know, because he’s in his 70s, so probably assume who he voted for it. So during Christmas, we have discussions, you know, but I feel like it’s, it’s, it’s also amazing that I get to talk to, you know, the older generation, and, and explain to them why, why I’m doing this when I live with them.

1:31:00 I, I didn’t want to be Latina. I wanted to fit in. I try to change so many things. My hair, you know, make it straight, which is straight now because I like it. You know, I like my bangs straight, but like just everything.

1:31:15 I stopped tanning. You know, I just wanted to be lighter. You know, it’s just this terrible thing in my country in the Dominican Republic that the lighter you are, the more opportunities you get, which is ridiculous. It’s ridiculous in my country, where I mean the Dominican Republic as well, and now, you know, it’s, it’s still happening in America. Well, you’re using your platform in an amazing way.

1:31:39 You know, you’re really putting everything out there and putting these ideas out there, and I think everybody who’s just listened or watched us can realize, like, there’s a lot more to you and to the, you know, the the 20-30 minutes, hour on the screen of what that character is, Amanda. There’s a whole life behind that performance. That’s why you are where you are, you know. And there’s all this thought and all this powerful energy behind the writing of the series, the making of it, and with you, there’s a big why with everything you do, and there’s an urgency, and most of us been through, like, some s*** can I say?

1:32:12 Yeah, yes, yeah, twice. Again, the focus, you know. Diane Guerrero wrote a book, you know what I mean? She, she’s, she’s one of those children, you know what I mean? She wasn’t locked up in a cage, but she had to fend for herself.

1:32:26 I don’t believe that’s right, you know? She has a powerful message, and thanks to Orange Is the New Black, like she said, she’s one out of a million that’s happening to a lot of people right now, and she gets to be the voice for that, you know, and I get to applaud her and share her story as well, you know what I mean? And all of us became confident because of Orange Is the New Black, because our show is bringing awareness to what’s wrong, you know, in prison, you know, and how they’re treating people.

1:32:54 It’s pretty much slavery. I mean, my episode is about making underwear, and literally, I don’t want to say the name with a huge brand. Pretty much, you know, got their underwear from prison very cheap, because we got, what, a dollar an hour or fifty cents an hour. And it’s so funny, because Flaca’s backstory is called Fake It, and then Fake It Some More, and my mother always used to say, Fake it till you make it, you know what I mean? So, like, she would buy me things, you know, and then, you know, they won’t be real, the real brand, you know what I mean?

1:33:39 So it was so kind of crazy that my story was very much so like Flaca’s. Like, all my aunts sew clothes. They would make me clothes, and, like, pretend it’s, you know, a Calvin Klein. You know, reach out. I told the writers I was like, how the heck did you know that?

1:33:58 So it, you know, even when Flaca was arrested, you know, it was intense for me, because I had a traumatic moment when I was three years old, and I saw a family member get arrested in front of me, you know, and that was traumatic, and I remember that. So I just remember that, you know, and it got me there. Yes, you’re constantly drawing on your experiences. Exactly. When does new series come out?

1:34:26 July 27th. soon. Very soon. Yeah, we just saw the trailer. I’m excited.

1:34:32 I’m a fan of the show as well, so, you know, I try not to read too much. You know, I know what’s going on with my character, but I don’t, you know, I like to be surprised, and I will be glued to the TV for 13 hours. It’s gonna go, binge it, of course. When does the album come out? You know, my own boss.

1:34:52 Yeah, so I’m great. I’m ready. I wanted to come out after summer, even though my music is very summer, you know, but I plan to release another single this month, and another single the next month, and hopefully by the end of August, September, I could release the whole album. Okay, I love it. Jackie, thank you so much for the time.

1:35:12 Thanks for telling us your story. So my driver had such a long interview where I got to, like, express myself. I mean, I just think it’s important that people see what’s behind what they see on screen. And yeah, and the truth is, there’s a lot behind there, and you know, I can easily see why that’s the worst day of your life, and then why it’s the best day of your life, and it shows, and everything you do, you know, constantly creating. There’s an urgency about it.

1:35:33 There’s a big wide to what you’re doing. You’re super grateful to be where you are, but you also use it as a responsibility to get out there and kind of put a voice out, or maybe you wouldn’t have a few years ago. I’d love to see how confident you’re gonna be in another two years. It’s getting scary. Yeah, we all, all of us are just becoming this power thing, I don’t know, like, a lot of, like, Natasha Lyonne has her own TV show that’s coming up that she created, you know.

1:36:02 Laura Prepon is directing again Orange Is the New Black. Like, we’re all doing, you know, Diane wrote another book. Like, we’re all doing our own thing and it’s gonna be, like, in ten years. I’m just excited to see what we all do, because this show has made history, and also changed all of our lives, and we were chosen for a reason. I mean, we all have specific stories and, and, and we represent, you know, what I mean, and that’s why people love us.

1:36:29 When people see me on the street, they’re like, I’m their home girl, and I want to continue to be that as I grow. Well, we’re gonna be watching you. Thank you, so thank you so much for the time. On London Real, we say it’s about the journey. It’s very excited to see your stuff, and then when I listen to music more, because I’m gonna start making music, to how it’s never too late, right?

1:36:49 Just get them a good mic, a little thing that covers, you know, the sound, and you know, and I live in a place now where there’s a lot of, like, police and a lot of, like, ambulances. and I actually, we’ve been using that noise in, yeah, we use that here, would not take, exactly, it makes it real, right. Alright, thank you for that advice. Alright, I wish all the busts, and thanks so much for the time, the

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Jackie Cruz - From Orange Is the New Black to Inspiration in the World of Entertainment

Orange Is the New Black Actress & Singer

Key takeaways

Finding her voice through Orange Is the New Black

Prison reform and what the show taught her

The accident, recovery and music

Being Dominican and American

Who is Jackie Cruz?

Frequently asked questions

Full transcript: Jackie Cruz on London Real

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Jackie Cruz - From Orange Is the New Black to Inspiration in the World of Entertainment

Orange Is the New Black Actress & Singer

Key takeaways

Finding her voice through Orange Is the New Black

Prison reform and what the show taught her

The accident, recovery and music

Being Dominican and American

Who is Jackie Cruz?

Frequently asked questions

Full transcript: Jackie Cruz on London Real

Latest Episode

Dubai Real - Episode 4: The Art Of The Deal

More Like This

Dubai Real - Episode 4: The Art Of The Deal

Dubai Real - Episode 3: Inside The Deal

Dubai Real - Episode 2: Billionaires’ Row

Dubai Real - Episode 1: Why Dubai Never Stops Building

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