Daniela Vega

Height: 170 cm

Daniela Vega Hernández is a Chilean Transgender actress and lyrical singer. She was born in San Miguel, Santiago, Chile. She was the first child of Igor Vega, a printing owner, and Sandra Hernández, a housewife. After a time, the family moved to Ñuñoa, where her brother Nicolás was born. At the age of eight, one of her teachers discovered her talent to sing opera. She began performing in small productions in Santiago, which developed in her a taste for arts.After finishing high school, she started making a life as hair stylist. In her spare time and without any other formal education, she got involved with the local acting atmosphere. One her first plays was "La Mujer Mariposa" (The Butterfly woman), where she starred.In 2014 she got notoriety when she appeared in the video clip of the songwriter Manuel García's song "Maria". The same year she made her filming debut in La Visita (2014) (The Guest). 2017 has been a prolific year in her career. The play "Migrantes" was chosen as one of the best in the Festival Teatro a Mil. She also starred the Chilean movie Une femme fantastique (2017) (A Fantastic Woman). The film was released in the 67th edition of the Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Berlin International Film Festival) and was critically acclaimed, eventual winning Best Foreing Language Film at the 2018 Academy Awards (Oscars). Show less «

[on Sebastián Lelio] Of course Sebastian and I love each other very much. Part of the final product...Show more »

[on Sebastián Lelio] Of course Sebastian and I love each other very much. Part of the final product and the way it came up has a lot to do with the relationship we had, including putting a lot of love into it. The moviemaking process... there are a lot of people involved and there has to be a connection among every single one of us to be able to create this work [but] it was difficult. Of course, there's a lot of diversity in terms of the color of our skin, and the same thing is true when it comes to experiences. There are so many tones and different colors, there's so much diversity. I experienced violence against me [in my life], but it was a different kind of violence from what you'll see in Marina's life. Everybody can experience something like that, but it may be different in intensity for different people. Show less «

[on her career plans] I've acted in a much smaller film recently, in which I play a cisgender woman....Show more »

[on her career plans] I've acted in a much smaller film recently, in which I play a cisgender woman. I would like to play a mother or a pregnant woman. My body of work can expand because I like challenges. I think I could play male roles. I don't limit myself. Show less «

[on playing the role of Marina Vidal in Une femme fantastique (2017)] I did create a backstory for h...Show more »

[on playing the role of Marina Vidal in Une femme fantastique (2017)] I did create a backstory for her. I incorporated a lot of resilience into her. When I discovered that I was a woman and I wanted to share it with the people around me and with the world, I discovered that women have an enormous capacity for resilience. The story of Marina and Orlando, of Marina and her sister, and her passion-a combination of waitressing by day and singing in the club by night-had to have an added element of resilience or else she would have fallen apart in those situations. I gave her a sense of endurance and courage so that she would stay strong and stay dignified. Show less «

[on the possibility of an Oscar nomination for Une femme fantastique (2017)] It's like living a drea...Show more »

[on the possibility of an Oscar nomination for Une femme fantastique (2017)] It's like living a dream, and you don't wanna wake up. And I'm giving myself to whatever the future would like to gift us with. It would be wonderful to be nominated, it would be wonderful to win but it's really too far in the future to think about that. If I get nominated, I'm going to have the most beautiful dress made that the whole world will see. Show less «

[on carrying on some of her personal experiences in her Une femme fantastique (2017) performance] I ...Show more »

[on carrying on some of her personal experiences in her Une femme fantastique (2017) performance] I was a victim of violence in school, and I could understand how to use that darkness and transform it into art. Show less «

[on her opera singing in Une femme fantastique (2017)]: It's my real voice in the film. My grandmoth...Show more »

[on her opera singing in Une femme fantastique (2017)]: It's my real voice in the film. My grandmother, my father's mother, was blind. She taught me to listen to music, to the television, to the birds and the trees and the sound of water. She taught me to listen even though I could see. I find a lot of poetry in that, and it ended with me opening my ears to both sound and to music but also recognizing the most important thing to hear is silence. Like that song, "Enjoy the Silence"-that made real sense to me when I was growing up. I seek out hard things. I tried to imitate other singers. It was a self-discovery for me to move from imitating others to me growing to sing in my own voice. The opera was difficult and it felt like a personal conquest. Show less «

My body is available for any type of character-but those characters have to first be offered to me.

One doesn't work for awards. One works to be part of time, to leave a mark, a legacy. I work so that...Show more »

One doesn't work for awards. One works to be part of time, to leave a mark, a legacy. I work so that the day I die I can be remembered-but not for awards. Show less «

The mission of the movie Une femme fantastique (2017) is to make sure that people's emotions can be ...Show more »

The mission of the movie Une femme fantastique (2017) is to make sure that people's emotions can be reconnected, because many times they're actually silenced. The end goal of the movie is to make sure that people ask questions, not to provide them with answers. It's to make them reflect. I want them to raise questions. Show less «

[on meeting Sebastián Lelio for the first time ] We realized that we had many things in common-our ...Show more »

[on meeting Sebastián Lelio for the first time ] We realized that we had many things in common-our shared love for cinema, our worldviews, a moral code. "I went home thinking I wanted to chat more with him. He conceives women as worthy of portraying-and being a woman is the most beautiful thing that could have ever happened to me. Marina is a resilient woman-like all the ones I know. Show less «

[on depicting transgender issues in film] Creating visibility is a part of the task, but it's not th...Show more »

[on depicting transgender issues in film] Creating visibility is a part of the task, but it's not the task. The task is to dignify, and before dignity comes rebellion. Show less «

As actors, we have to have the flexibility to create emotions and experiences to translate them into...Show more »

As actors, we have to have the flexibility to create emotions and experiences to translate them into the character. A character is going to be rich when this character has a lot of emotional layers that you can navigate through. Show less «

[on the success of Une femme fantastique (2017)] I feel like I'm playing. I feel like a diva from th...Show more »

[on the success of Une femme fantastique (2017)] I feel like I'm playing. I feel like a diva from the '40s. I have a lot of fun with makeup and hair. I think that creating art comes from a very deep, poetic, and contemplative place, and then the presentation process is such a frivolous one. That said, the combination of the two is very fun. I take very seriously the creation process, but I take the red carpet, the dresses with the trains, the hair, and the makeup very lightly. Show less «

[on the possibility of the Marina Vidal character being played by a cisgender performer in Une femme...Show more »

[on the possibility of the Marina Vidal character being played by a cisgender performer in Une femme fantastique (2017)] I personally feel that females have a resilience, and I think it doesn't matter whether they're trans women, or trans men. I think that trans men and women may have slightly greater resilience. I think that the personal discovery and that comes with the process, and the personal discovery of ghosts that are inside of us, and the self-knowledge that it creates means that trans people may be able to access a greater resilience. That being said, it's not a competition between cis and trans people, but rather a placing on level playing field, an even ground. Show less «

Daniela Vega

Daniela Vega's FILMOGRAPHY

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