Maria Belon on racial criticism and casting of Naomi Watts

Belon made this clear when asked if it bothered her that her family was being portrayed by English actors instead of Spanish ones.


“I am fed up with this question all the time,” Belon said quite strongly. “This movie is not about nationalities, not about races, not about colors. It’s about human beings. One of the conditions we put is that there should be no nationality for the family. I don’t care if they would be black, brown or green skin. I wouldn’t care about anything.”

 Belon said she was involved in the making of “The Impossible” for several years and that she did have a say in the film’s casting. When Bayona asked Belon who her favorite actress was, she replied Naomi Watts because of her performance in “21 Grams.”

“When I saw her in ‘21 Grams’ I thought (gasp) what is this woman about?” Belon said of Watts’ performance. “When he (Bayona) told me that Naomi is going to portray Maria I was like okay, then I’ll go around the world to the other end and I hide. I don’t want to meet her, I don’t want to disturb her.”