About this Artist

"I have spent two decades in the world of acting.

I always wanted to be an actress, and that dream became a reality thanks to the support and effort of my parents. My dream grew beyond anything I ever imagined or planned. When I was fifteen, film director Manuel Martín Cuenca chose me to star in what would become my first movie. Thanks to that project, I won a Goya Award for Best New Actress. That’s how my exciting career began.

I started traveling around the world working on films, television series, and theater productions with directors such as Luca Guadagnino, Jordan Scott, David Trueba, Alberto Arvelo, Ridley Scott, Asif Kapadia, Koldo Serra, Mélanie Laurent, Cédric Klapisch, Andrés Wood, and Claudia Llosa, among others. They became my mentors and guides.

Acting has been and continues to be my life, but a few years ago I began to take an interest in other things that fill my heart. My husband and I led the Dudamel Foundation to create opportunities through art, culture, and music, allowing young people to shape their creative future and become role models in their communities.

I wanted to become a film director because of my two great passions: acting and creating opportunities. For a long time, I felt the need to tell and shape my own stories to approach truth from a different perspective. In this documentary, I see the perfect opportunity to develop those stories."

—María Valverde