We sat down with singer/actress Paulina Cerrilla. After a successful run on The Voice, she has taken her talents to the big screen. Her latest film, Tell Me I Love You is a modern romantic comedy that not only showcases her musical side but solidifies her acting chops. The film is a sexy, romantic comedy revolving around three young bandmates–straight, gay, and fluid-living together as a musical tribe in a borrowed beach house in Malibu. As they work tirelessly to record their first album and catch a break in the cutthroat music industry something very unexpected happens…heart-stopping true love. Who commits to whom is the ultimate question. The Texas native opened up to Occhi about her unique journey and aspirations to not only make her mark on Hollywood but more importantly make a difference in the world.
You went from successfully gaining an audience online with your covers, to a strong run on The Voice. Who inspired you to make music?
I’m Latina, and I always grew up with Spanish language music in the home. That’s definitely what started me out on this journey. I absolutely adore Shakira. I think she’s such an intelligent songwriter as well. If you read her lyrics, in Spanish especially, they are so profound and incredible. I consider myself to be a musical chameleon. I’ve gone through so many phases. If you look through my stuff you can see when I was a kid, it started with Latin music. Later, I super got into R&B, thinking I’m going to be the next Mariah, maybe Christina(laughing). I listened to all of that for years and that’s what I wanted to do. The first time that I got signed was when I was 12 and the label decided to take me in a direction of R&B mixed with the rock and Spanish language. That’s when I picked up the guitar and I started doing these acoustic covers, which is when all of the YouTube stuff started blowing up. That was where I started to take inspiration from Sara Bareilles, Jason Mraz, and John Mayer. I think the main thing for me was lyrics. I’m a big lyrics person. No matter what genre, it always comes back home to the lyrics. What I always say with songwriting, is that the melody is key. That’s what’s going to stay in the people’s heads but for the people that do look for it, I do look to provide that extra layer of meaning. It’s for those people looking to go a little bit deeper.
You did a great job in this movie. Despite playing a musician and getting the chance to sing, you did not come off as a singer who just happens to be in the movie. You encompassed the character. How did you land this role?
That’s a really funny story. I went on the audition, and remember thinking that I would never get it. The description was something like, “Latina mid-twenties, and plays the violin.” I was having this back and forth with my management. Even though I am 100% Mexican, they seemed to think that I didn’t look that way, and that’s ok. I do have fair skin and red hair. What they had me do was dye my hair black and get a spray tan, to have a look that was closer to the role. I hated it. “Latina” comes in all shapes, sizes, and colors. The actual audition was when I had recently dyed my hair back to red and I just said, this is who I am and this is who I’m going to be. I hadn’t told my representation at the time, that I dyed my hair back and washed the spray tan off. I went in as myself. This is what Latina looks like. If they’re going to like me, they’re going to like me for me. So I went in, I didn’t bring a violin, I brought my guitar. I sang an original song that I had written Spanish lyrics to. I was so surprised and so stoked that I was finally able to play a part that is so close to home and not have to change anything about myself.
What type of role would you like to take on next if you had the choice?
I’d really love to push myself. I do love doing the music movies, having done two up to this point. As much as I love doing them as they are close to who I am, I’d love to try something different, maybe a period piece. I’d like to push those boundaries which would be very interesting.
What’s next for you?
Well, that is a wonderful question (laughing). Lately, I’ve been focusing a lot on music. My bread and butter right now is songwriting. I’m also releasing stuff as a singer. With songwriting, I’ve been fortunate enough to have my songs do well. One of my songs was on a Grammy-nominated album. I just had a single released for Disney back in March. I plan on continuing to song write. I am such a creative person that I don’t believe that I could keep that all in, but I absolutely plan on releasing my own stuff and hopefully some more acting in the future.
For more information please visit Paulina’s website
Images provided by Sicily Publicity
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