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Land of Girls is by all accounts escapist tv. The enjoyable and frothy—but nonetheless substantive—dramedy tells the story of three technology of girls (grandmother Julia, mom Gala, and daughter Kate) as they begin life anew in a small city in northern Spain amid a shocking panorama, attractive folks, and loads of wine and meals. However as Eva Longoria's Gala is compelled to guard her household from her husband's shady enterprise dealings, it is her daughter, Kate, performed by newcomer Victoria Bazúa, who turns into the emotional core of the Apple TV+ series.
On the entire, Kate's considerations are that of any teen, like navigating a relationship and determining her future. However, as viewers be taught throughout a flashback within the second episode, there's one other lens wherein she views the world too: She's transgender. “Remember when you told us you were going to transition?” says Kate's father, Fred, within the scene. "I simply couldn’t take all of it in. However your mother made it crystal clear that if I had any objections, then they have been my issues, not yours.”
The way in which the scene is handled—as another common, heart-to-heart dialog and never a Very Particular Episode—would have been exceptional on TV years in the past. Actually, Fred solely mentions it to be able to clarify why he needs to guard his daughter. “That's all your mom and I ever wanted,” he says, earlier than including that he loves her.
It is a candy and shifting scene that just about brings Bazúa to tears after I deliver it up. Like Kate, Bazúa can be transgender and really a lot pertains to her alter ego's journey. “I wasn't conscious of what my own parents were going through at the time of my transition,” the Mexican mannequin turned actor tells Glamour. “Because it's not only a transition for us, it's for the whole family. So getting the opportunity to have that conversation as Kate and with her father was moving.”
Attending to that scene wasn't straightforward. Discovering an actor who's trans and will additionally play Gala's daughter whereas balancing the required comedy and drama was a tall order, Longoria says. “[Co-creator and showrunner] Ramón Campos and I were so committed to being authentic and casting a transgender person, but it was hard because that age is usually when they're transitioning or when they're not quite transitioned,” she says.
For Bazúa, she was very younger when knew she was transgender. “When I expressed to my parents that I wanted to transition, that that's who I was, I think I was 2 years old,” she says. “I was like, ‘Mommy, I’m a girl.’ Mentally, I accepted myself when I was seven; and then the whole process of uniforms, estrogen, and hormones happened around 12, before puberty. I never really went through male puberty, I guess.”
Whereas Bazúa was good for the a part of Kate, there was one small subject that had be discovered: “She was in Mexico, which was a problem because of the accent,” Longoria says. “A Mexican accent is very different than a Spanish accent, and then I have an American accent. We solved it by explaining where we lived in Mexico and New York; so that's why I'm American, and my mother is from Spain. Victoria was so perfect that we changed the story for her. You couldn't tell this was her first time acting, ever.”