Text 1: “A Not-So-Plain Jane from Spain” by Jennifer Orodoñez, Newsweek January 17, 2005 When Paz Vega got the call that she’d won a starring role in a big-budget Hollywood movie, she thought the gods must be crazy. “It was shocking,” she says. “It seemed impossible.” Vega, an onyx-haired actress from Spain, spoke hardly a word of English. But that wasn’t a problem for James L. Brooks, who was making a comedy called “Spanglish,” his first film in eight years. Vega plays Flor, housekeeper to a privileged, mixed-up family headed by Adam Sandler and Téa Leoni. “When I got here they gave me my schedule for the next two months, and I started to cry,” she says. “I was not sure if I could do it.” And English wasn’t Vega’s only problem. She had to be coached on her Spanish, too — so she could deliver her lines like a Mexican. Brooks, a director who is notoriously hard to please, initially hoped to find an actress with Mexican roots, but says that Vega simply nailed the part in the five-hour audition. “Flor’s face just has to entice us,” Brooks says. “We have to feel like we know what she’s saying, without really knowing what she‘s saying.” Vega says she’s still hitting the books hard. Ultimately, she would like to eliminate her Spanish accent entirely. “I don’t want to play only Latin women,” she says. “I want to have roles in English.” That could take a while. In the meantime, don’t be surprised if some “Spanglish” fans start brushing up on their Spanish
