The “terrifying and brutal” scene that traumatised Eiza González: “I had a real crisis”
If you want to impress people by being the first in your group to talk about a movie you reckon could win an Oscar way before anyone else does, then it might be worth keeping an eye on Iron Jane, an upcoming female bodybuilding drama starring Eiza González.
The Mexican actor has been sharing updates on the physical transformation she’s had to endure for her part as the lead in the film, which apparently tells the story of a woman trying to chase body perfection while her grip on reality spirals. It has drawn early comparisons with the likes of Hilary Swank in Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby, who picked up a ‘Best Actress’ Oscar award back in 2005.
But then González has some history with demanding characters and scenes, as her work on Netflix’s Three Body Problem in 2024 showed all too well. The sci-fi show from the creators of Game of Thrones ran for just one season and focused on a group of scientists who discover an extra-terrestrial civilisation and race against other countries to make contact.
In it, González played Dr ‘Auggie’ Salazar, a nanotechnologist and a member of a mysterious group of friends known as the ‘Oxford 5’ – she was nominated for industry awards for her performance in the series, but one moment in particular took its toll on her.
Auggie is enlisted to board a ship that is going to be destroyed, but first, she must secure data on board… Unfortunately, her nanofibre technology ends up killing everyone on board – she explained to Digital Spy how hard she found it to film, saying, “It was terrifying and brutal. As a human being, the empathy kind of kicks in. It was hard for me, for a long time, to not judge her. It was really complicated. I had a real crisis within Auggie, because there were things that I ultimately agreed with, and others that, in a moral way, I couldn’t agree with.”
Adapted from a series of popular Chinese sci-fi novels, Three Body Problem caused some controversy over there, as although Netflix is blocked in China, viewers used VPNs to watch it. Once they did, there was quite some discussion over the gender-swapping in the show and complaints about cultural appropriation. In the main, though, it was seen as a well-done update of the books written by former computer engineer Liu Cixin.
González, though, still struggled with the moral choices made by Auggie, adding, “Sometimes that’s the most challenging part as an actor, where you come face to face with things that you would not feel inclined to do. So it was challenging because I don’t naturally feel like I would have allowed her to do that, but yet she chooses to.”
Aside from Iron Jane, González has this year been seen in the Guy Ritchie flop In the Grey alongside Henry Cavill and Jake Gyllenhaal, the Vince Vaughn crime comedy Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice, plus Boots Riley’s comedy I Love Boosters.
That one told the story of a group of San Francisco shoplifters who try to teach a fashionista a lesson by stealing her clothes and selling them off at a lower price. Although it lost about $10million at the box office, it’s a worthy follow-up to Riley’s acclaimed Sorry to Bother You from 2018.
