[NOTE: due to technical difficulties, this newsletter was posted to our newsletter website on Friday, but was not sent as an email, which is why you’re receiving this today. Apologies for the wonky timing, but we should be all squared away by this coming Friday!]

National Latine Heritage Month continues, and this week we have an exclusive interview with Lilimar, the actor behind Valentina “Val” Ortiz in Inside Out 2. Pretty cool that Riley’s inspiration in the highest-grossing animated film of all time is a Latina!

Inside Out 2 is available on Disney+ now, but there’s still time to enter our Inside Out 2 giveaway to try and snag one of two digital copies of the film! Details about the giveaway are below!

Who are your Latine inspirations? If you want to share them, or any other questions, comments, or thoughts about pop culture and/or the Universe, reach out to us here, or write to us at tmsclubhouse@gmail.com!

INTERVIEW: Lilimar Redeems the “Cool Girl” with Val Ortiz in Inside Out 2

by Teresa Jusino

Cuban-American actor Lilimar has been acting most of her life, getting her start in live-action on Nickelodeon shows like Bella and the Bulldogs and her start in voice-over in the Peacock animated series, Cleopatra in Space. Now, she’s lending her talents to one of the biggest films of all time, playing Valentina “Val” Ortiz in the Pixar juggernaut, Inside Out 2.

I had the chance to chat with Lilimar ahead of Inside Out 2’s arrival on Disney+. Check out our convo below!

TMS: What drew you to Val in the first place? What spoke to you about her, and how did you get into this role?

LILIMAR: I received a special little audition in my email box, and I didn't know very many details about really what it was. It just felt like something that was in my voice range and I definitely had it in my little voice toolkit. as I say. And I was like, okay, I could do a run at this. I got this.

I really, really love characters that are very grounded, and it's fun when you get to use your own voice for the most part. So, I gave it a go, forgot about it, never heard back, and then maybe like a month later it's like, Hey, remember? It's Inside Out 2, just thought you should know. You're in! And I was like, Oh, that's not insane at ALL!

And I was just very happy to do kind of the — I love playing “cool girls,” but it was nice to step away from any kind of mean girl trope. There was so much intention behind Val, so it was refreshing.

TMS: She's an older girl. It could have easily been something where Riley felt really intimidated by her, or bullied by her and, and she was just so supportive. The whole team seemed supportive. Something else I noticed is that the hockey team is multi-ethnic, which I thought was really great. Was that the intention going in, or did they cast first and then kind of design the characters around who they cast? What was that process?

LILIMAR: I'm not too sure on everything behind the scenes, but at least for me, once I came in I was able to immediately have like, there was a mood board up. I got to see Val, the team, what they had designed for some of the locations. So it was kind of more, you know, We have this in mind. It's been designed for a long time. There's a bunch of details in there already, so who kind of has the voice to really bring that to life? I think that was the situation here.

But yeah, that was something I appreciated too. Once I saw the team for the first time, I was like, Oh, this is great. Like this is lovely. And I think there's a lot of people out there that still don't really understand just what that means to people. The more we have this, the more it really does look like the country that we're in because we're all here. So, it's beautiful to see that too. Yeah.

TMS: You’ve spent most of your childhood and adolescence as a performer. As an adult watching a film like this, which is really about the transition from being a kid to going into your teenage years, was there any part of the film that spoke to you in particular? That resonated the most with you?

LILIMAR: Funnily enough, it just made me very happy to be able to have [this film] on a big screen and have that many people watch it. I think at, at least for me, there was so much in my particular adolescence (laughs). [It was] very unique and one of a kind. There was so much of it that I didn't really like unpack until, you know, into my twenties.

So, to have that out there for kids to look at, for kids to immediately see, Okay, whatever my situation is, however I feel about it, I need to go inside and see whatever's going on. I need to interact with my body and my mind. It's always giving me messages through emotion and I shouldn't reject it. I shouldn't, you know, pretend it's not there and I shouldn't demonize it. It's not a villain. It's working with me. It's nice to have, you know, a super cute cartoon [doing] the job to just let you know like, this is friendly. This is you, this is all a part of you. And I don't know, just seeing that in there, I was like, This is so special.

TMS: You mentioned the “mean girl” tropes. What's your experience been of the roles you get and like the contrast between other projects and a role like this, which seems to go out of its way to be like very supportive with the girls, even when there's conflict?

LILIMAR: Absolutely. During my career I've played a lot of like “cool girls,” and I get that character a lot, and sometimes I think it's within my usual demeanor maybe. But it's really special and I feel like it's very real when you have a cool girl, which essentially I think is just a girl that's sitting pretty in her confidence that she really builds up for herself. And not everybody likes that, which is, you know, a truth. But it's beautiful when we get to see that not be villainized. Because a lot of the time it's like the villain is a cool girl, is very confident, is all of these things.

And it's like confidence doesn't have to come from vitriol. It doesn't have to come from stepping on other people, stepping on other women in particular. And the earlier we teach girls that your girls are going to be the ones that understand exactly what you go through throughout life, the better. Whether it's, you know, class systems, race, all these other things, it's very important to feel like girls are there for each other. So, to have the “cool girl” actually be cool? (laughs) It’s really nice!

Keep a lookout for the video featuring the complete interview with Lilimar on the TMS YouTube channel! 

INSIDE OUT 2 GIVEAWAY!

Inside Out 2 is finally on Disney+!

Thank you to all of you who entered our Inside Out 2 giveaway! We will be announcing our TOP 2 referrers who will each receive a digital copy of Inside Out 2 in our October 4th newsletter.

Good luck!

Thoughts? Ideas? Reply here, or write to us at tmsclubhouse@gmail.com to tell us how we’re doing and what you’d like to see!