Photography by Nick Thompson
Styled by Oliver Volquardsen
When you see Eiza González walking down a red carpet, you wouldn’t know it, but she might just be one of the busiest actors in the business. In late 2022, after wrapping an 11-month shoot for her upcoming Netflix series The Three Body Problem, the actor flew to Mexico to film La Máquina, then moved to London for a year (where she is now) to play the only female role in Guy Ritchie’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Next she heads to New Zealand for the upcoming movie Ash, followed by a stop in Croatia to shoot another project. But that’s how she likes it. “Who else gets the opportunity to say that they can travel the world to do what [they] love? I cannot, in any shape or form, complain. I’m actually incredibly grateful.”
It’s clear that González has a fervent love for a profession that people spend their whole lives chasing. She also has a shrewd eye for selecting her projects. Based on some of her biggest credits—Baby Driver, Alita: Battle Angel, Hobbs & Shaw, Ambulance—one might assume that she had a penchant for action thrillers, but she dismisses that observation, saying that most of her decisions are “director-based.” Upon closer inspection, her filmography is, indeed, stacked with projects helmed by kinetic, acclaimed industry figures. Edgar Wright, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, Guy Ritchie—the pattern isn’t in the type of film but in the caliber of work by those behind the camera. “You’d recognize a Guy Ritchie movie from a mile away,” says González, recalling how grateful she is to The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare director for “taking a risk” on her. “He has allowed me to do things that no other director has ever allowed me to do. One that I can probably mention without being a spoiler is that he allowed me [to] play a full British character, and I have to do a British accent.”
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Later this year, González will play a lead in The Three Body Problem, a highly anticipated science fiction series from Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Liu Cixin. González views taking on the role as a “huge responsibility” and “slightly scary,” but rewarding and a way of challenging herself. While the series is unlike anything she’s ever done, she also believes it’s unlike anything that’s ever been done. “After I educated myself, read the scripts, and read the book, there was no way I couldn’t be part of this show. I have never seen a show like this. There [isn’t one show or one movie] that I can reference…I would have to reference seven different types of sci-fito explain our show. I think that, to me, it was a no-brainer. It was groundbreaking.”
With all the work she’s done since beginning her career at 16, and now being 33, you’d think González would be ready for a break—but no. She’s not a veteran actor disillusioned by the film industry. Instead, she’s still as bright-eyed as the day she started—maybe even more so. “I’m so happy; I’m so physically tired, but I am thrilled. And I’m finally being part of projects that really spark my curiosity, and make me feel fulfilled.” She’s booked, she’s busy, and she’s got every door open to her. And she’s taking advantage of all of them.
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González—now also a Bulgari ambassador—chalks up her work ethic to her upbringing in Mexico City. “I come from a culture where we work, work, work, work, work. In America, some of the hardest working people that you’ll see—underpaid—are Mexican people or Latin people. We have been always taught to work and work harder, and then after you work harder, work even harder [than that].”
She attributes most of this mentality to her mother, who used to tell her: “You’ll rest when you die.” In a recent full-circle moment, González and her mother were going through family heirlooms at her childhood home, and found, among them, some Bulgari pieces. “[My mom] had this moment where she said, ‘It is so mind-blowing to me that your grandma gave me this, and I bought these. Your father gave me these necklaces, and now you are a brand ambassador.’” González joined the Bulgari family in 2021, a move that she describes as “personal,” even if she didn’t realize in the moment truly how much. “Every single decision that I make when it comes to my career has to be aligned with what I believe and what I like. I wouldn’t be able to carry designs that I don’t like, or I personally don’t feel connected with.”
“Every single decision that I make when it comes to my career has to be aligned with what I believe.”
When reflecting on the role, she looks to her fellow ambassadors Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, and Priyanka Chopra (“all women that I think are multifaceted”) to paint a picture of the Bulgari girl—inside and out. “If you pay attention, we are all…chameleons who are willing to be a different woman every day. That’s the beauty of jewelry. It is a look in itself,” she says. “Anne is just a ray of sunshine, and so is [Zendaya], so is Priyanka. All these girls are beautiful, energetic, independent, and smart, but always kind. You see them being lovely to everyone, and it just trickles down.”
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As the brand celebrates the Serpenti line’s 75th anniversary, González sees the benchmark as a foregone conclusion of the jewelry house’s innovation. “They find ways to redesign and revamp the brand, bringing it to a newer generation, a new decade, a new style, a new look. It never stops being unique, but at the same time identifiable.” She continues, “I see jewelry the same way I see directors. You can identify [the artist] by a piece of their art.”
When asked if her admiration for directors could one day inspire her to step behind the camera, she doesn’t hesitate with her response. “I think that later in my career I really want to evolve into more of a director because I also really want to prioritize becoming a mother, and giving my children time, whenever that happens,” explains González. But even the prospect of starting a family and beginning another full-time job as a mother doesn’t dissuade her compulsion to work. “I think a part of my soulwould die if I ever stopped working. I don’t have it in me.”
For now, she’s building a portfolio as a hands-on producer (“like what it means to produce, not executive producing”), though, she admits, the gratefulness and humility that she has for her job was also, at times, a hindrance to her progress. “After a while, I checked out of this mentality of what this industry sometimes inherently creates within you because of the way that it’s systemically built, which is like, ‘You should just be grateful to be here,’ and it was more like, ‘No, I’ve earned this place. This place is mine. No one gave it to me. I worked my ass off.’ When I transitioned from being at the mercy of it and more into I am going to create, I focused and started to do it. I’m doing a couple of projects, which has been really exciting.”
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Similar to some of her contemporaries like Margot Robbie and Selena Gomez who have also moved into the production sector, González is focused on telling women’s stories— something that she’s passionate about on and off screen. “I think that a lot of the conversations [about womanhood] happen around either superficial questions, or are about what you have coming up, or what you’re going to do or achieve. I think that girls out there might read an interview like this, and feel like, ‘Oh, my God! She’s unstoppable.’ It can come across as unattainable. There always has to be a balance, especially now more than ever, within these types of conversations about the level of losses that come with this industry.” She specifically calls out documentaries like Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me and Pamela Anderson’sPamela, a Love Story as examples. “You see how you get on this train, and you can’t stop the train because it won’t stop for anyone; therefore, you can’t get off the train. But [you don’t see] what that looks like, personally, especially as a woman, and how complicated that is, and how scary that is, because we are thrown into this.”
“I’ve earned this place…no one gave it to me. I worked my ass off.”
González recalls her own upbringing as a teen star in Mexico—she starred in the telenovela Lola, érase una vez and in the popular teen drama series Sueña conmigo—and the pressures of fame at such a young age. “I grew up in the public eye the same way that a lot of these pop culture kids did—I did it in a different country, but I did it as well—and the no-tolerance rule for mistakes at such a young age, and how hard that can be, actually dampens the desire of people to want to follow their dreams; it becomes something scary. Because I’m sure that if I’m a girl at home, and I am Selena Gomez’s biggest fan on planet Earth, but I’m seeing that she’s being dragged through the wringer, you’re going to be like, ‘That’s too scary. I don’t know if I want to do that.’”
Social media, she believes, is a particularly strong factor in this distortion of reality. Seeing someone on a screen, through a filter, in curated moments, can create a false narrative—and reading the comments can break someone’s spirit. “We need to stop with this idea that we have to show [ourselves to] the world, and prove that we’re a role model. It doesn’t matter. The world is messy and everyone’s figuring it out as they go. You don’t have to show everything [as] positive all the time. But what you have to do is honor yourself, honor what you need, and honor your happiness,” says the actor.
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Reflecting on the common themes of online criticism, González hones in on the topic of dating. While she recognizes this is an issue that impacts everyone, “let’s be real; it happens way more to women than it happens to men.” She continues, “We grew up with all these idols, and when men did something crazy, they were like, ‘He’s cool. He’s a badass. He’s a heartthrob.’ They like to use the word heartthrob for men when they’re breaking girls’ hearts and having different girlfriends. But if a woman is in search of her forever partner, and she’s not one to settle because she knows better, because she’s a hardworking woman and knows her value, and she’s like, ‘I am not going to settle for the bare minimum,’ and she moves on, then, as Taylor [Swift] says all the time, you are [called] a slut, you get slut-shamed, you get called cattle, and you get minimized.”
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“Yes, I am ambitious, and yes, I date, and I go out, and I will not stay with someone if they’re not making me feel and be a better version of myself. If that takes me going through 150,000 people, I will, because I deserve someone who is going to make me a better person.”
After 17 years in the industry, González has found satisfaction in doing what she believes is right. “I’ve always done, and I will always continue to do, what aligns with the woman I really am, which means I am going to continue to make decisions throughout my life that will align with the values and morals that I have, and my standards, and my expectations, which are pretty high. I am not going to settle for less, ever.” Because, regardless of her success, she will always “keep being the same girl [from] Mexico City.”
HAIR Daniel Martin
MAKEUP Valeria Ferreira THE WALL GROUP
MANICURIST Edyta Betka using Manucurist
SET DESIGN Madeleine Hunter and Josie Hunter
LIGHTING Benjamin Kyle
PHOTO ASSISTANT Benjamin Kyle and Ian Tillotson
SET DESIGN ASSISTANT Jack Needel
