Yalitza Aparicio Didn't Know the Language She Spoke in 'Roma' Before Filming

Yalitza Aparicio strikes a pose on the cover of Teen Vogue‘s Young Hollywood issue, available now.

Here’s what the 25-year-old Roma actress had to share with the mag:

On not seeing people like herself in film growing up: “I never got to see people who looked like me or like any other people that I grew up with. That, over time, made me lose interest in cinema and to really focus on things that I considered to be more like reality because everything that I saw in film just seemed completely like fiction.”

On the hardest part of filming Roma: “There were many things. One of them was just being surrounded by cameras and trying to forget and not get so nervous, to be able to just act and do the things that were being asked of me. Something that I always forget to say in interviews is that I actually had to learn Mixteco. I don’t actually speak Mixteco. The person who taught Mixteco to me is Nancy [García], who plays Adela in the film. Because we didn’t have a script, we had to practice right before the shoot every day in how to pronounce it and how to get it right.”

On her sudden rise to stardom: “It has been overwhelming. A lot of actors who have a lot more experience than me come up to me and tell me that in fact my experience is a really overwhelming experience, that everything that’s happening is really big. I’m very aware of the fact that this might not happen again, so what I really try to do is ground myself in appreciating every moment and taking full advantage of what I can learn from every single moment I’m living through.”

For more from Yalitza, visit TeenVogue.com.