Entertainment

Cult comedy drew actress to 'Nacho' role

06:54 PM CDT on Thursday, June 15, 2006

By STEPHEN BECKER / Movies Editor

Ana de la Reguera would make many a monk rethink that whole celibacy thing.

In Nacho Libre, she plays the beautiful newcomer Sister Encarnación, who draws the attention of the friars who run the orphanage at the center of the film, which opens today.

The 29-year-old native of Veracruz, Mexico, stopped in Dallas last week to talk about the film, working with Jack Black and the legend of the Lucha Libre.

Director Jared Hess' Nacho Libre is a follow-up to his cult hit, Napoleon Dynamite. Had you seen Napoleon before you signed on to do Nacho?

Daniel Daza

Ana de la Reguera plays a nun in an orphanage who cheers on a monk turned wrestler in Nacho Libre.

Of course! I love that movie. One of my favorite genres in film is comedy. I was real excited to be in this one because I love Napoleon Dynamite. It was a completely different movie: It has no bad words or anything sexual. It's just humor, and that's really hard to make.

You've done a lot of work in Mexican television. Have you acted much in English before this movie?

No, this was my first American movie.

How was that for you?

Well, it was harder. You don't hear yourself the same, and I really had to study my lines. But when I got on the set, Jared was like, "You know what, I think you should say this, and change this for something else." So I was like, "Really?" I studied this so hard, and a minute before shooting I'd have to change my lines. ... But I just tried to do my best and not complain. I'm a professional, and I want to work more in English films, so I have to get used to it.

When you were living in Mexico, did you ever go to watch the Lucha Libre?

Just before we did the movie. But I had seen it on TV, and the luchadores go to parties and you see them with their mask, and they never take it off. It's part of our culture, I just wasn't a follower. ... It's a whole fantasy going out there with the costumes and colors and the people just yelling and having fun. Now I really admire them, because it's a hard job to do.

Are there any women wrestlers?

Of course! I wanted to learn to fight, but maybe another time.

Well, that's always another career option.

Yeah. Men find that sexy, too. I don't know why.

If you were going to be a wrestler, what would your wrestling name be?

La Jarocha Veracruzana! La Jarocha is what they call people from Veracruz.

In this film you play a nun. Did you grow up Catholic?

Yes, I grew up in a Catholic school, so that wasn't hard for me. I was used to the religion and the nuns and things like that.

Some people here who went to Catholic school say the nuns were really mean, but your nun seems especially nice.

Yeah, well, I had some mean nuns, too. But I had two who were really nice, so there's always an exception.

So how often did you have to stop and re-shoot a scene because Jack was cracking everyone up?

He was working so hard to be funny in every single scene, and so I didn't want to mess up the shot. So I tried to contain it and not laugh. But the hardest part was when you saw the crew laughing. I would see a photographer [moving his camera] and I was like, he's not even getting the shot!

Did you help Jack at all with his Mexican accent?

A little bit. He really listened to me. When we were talking, I would catch him really looking at me and listening to my accent. I would show him some words, and he'd keep speaking the words that he likes. Like entonces. He liked entonces and said it all the time. It's not in too many takes, but he would always say, "entonces!" But when I was learning English, I liked certain words, too.

Such as?

Well, it was a bad word, actually. When I was 15, I moved to New York as an exchange student, and I loved to say [in exaggerated American accent], "What the hell?" I don't know why, but I would always say it around the family I was staying with. "What the hell are you talking about?" I liked repeating it all the time. I liked the sound and musicality.

E-mail sbecker@dallasnews.com