Dania Ramirez

Interview By: Jacques Prudent
JacquesPrudent@TheCinemaSource.com

It must be amazing when you find out you got an acting job playing a villain on a huge comic book movie franchise, and it has to be a wild and crazy feeling when that franchise is the final installment of the mega popular trilogy X-Men. I don't even know what you call it when you find out that you will be acting alongside and kicking Halle Berry's ass in X-Men: The Last Stand. Dania Ramirez got to experience those feelings first hand when she got the job of playing Callisto, a member of Magneto's (Sir Ian McKellen) brotherhood.

If you don't know Dania Ramirez, you should take the time to get familiar with her because she has had some very decent roles - 2 Spike Lee films, 25th Hour and She Hate Me, among other smaller projects like Fat Albert. X3 is her biggest film to date and she is proud of it. And just so you know the confidence that is stirring inside of this rising star, when approached with the question of being ready for crazy fans and super stardom, Dania responded, 'Am I ready' I was born ready!'

Callisto is an X-Men character, who definitely isn't as fully developed as most of the other characters running around this film, but Dania did not tackle the role blindly, she had to do her research and find out exactly who she would be. 'Of course I got the comic books they send me to read and I was in the internet trying to find out as much as I could.' Director extraordinaire Brett Ratner also had specific ideas on how he felt the character should be and Dania got to play around with the role.

There was actually a time when this film did not have a director attached to it and that had the actors concerned of course, but when Brett Ratner signed on people were relieved and what word comes to peoples minds when they think of Brett and the way he works' 'He's a perfectionist. If there is a strand of hair on the side that wasn't there on the last three takes he'll be like Go back, look there's a hair there. He's a perfectionist he likes it to look right, to feel right, he wants you as an actor to try it every single possible way you can possibly try it. He likes coverage. He likes to have his options.'

So how does one prepare to kick Halle Berry's ass' The young Latina says that her and Halle definitely practiced for their fight scenes. 'That was kind of nerve racking, because you don't want to hit Halle in the face before her close-up.' Dania says. Halle Berry wasn't the only super star Dania worked with. 'There were so many amazing people.' Says Dania and anyone who sees what actors are involved in this film can see that she is not exaggerating. The Last Stand boasts a cast made up of award winning individuals from Halle Berry, and Sir Ian McKellen, as well as Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart. Many might feel that working with such a cast might be intimidating and according to Dania they would be right. 'It's intimidating before I actually got on set with him for me because I am kinda starting out and here is Sir Ian KcKellen and my first scene in the movie I'm kinda challenging him, but he made it so much fun. He is so giving as an actor. He's such a professional.'

Dania did most of her own stunts and she did get hurt but growing up she was a tomboy so getting hurt and ignoring it was nothing new to her. Dania feels that she has some of the hardest physical things to do in the film. 'There was always something wrong with me. I hurt my wrist but nothing major.' Not being part of the huge stunts, the fiery explosions and things of that nature was something most of the actors got used to. 'I think in this one the explosions and things are bigger so it's really hard to kind of risk the actors' health for insurance purposes, so they didn't have us around for a lot of things.

Keeping a lid on the project didn't seem as tough as some might think simply because of the fact that there have been so many changes to the script along the way that nobody knew exactly how the movie was going to turn out, especially not Dania because she didn't even receive a script. They brought her in and told her want to do and what her lines were going to be, so nobody got any spoilers about the film beforehand from any of the actors.

X-Men 3: The Last Stand is already fleshing out to be one of the most anticipated films of the blockbuster season and with all the new characters being introduced in this film and with a breath of fresh air like Dania Ramirez who seems to have a substantial role in this film, you can almost hear her phone ringing off the hook with directors who want her to play roles and her mailbox filling up with scripts for her to read because with a talent like hers, you can see that Dania does not need a mutant power to reach the stars.