'Orange is the New Black' actress Selenis Leyva recalls struggle it took to achieve success

<p>Selenis Leyva plays&nbsp;Gloria Mendoza in the popular Netflix series "Orange is the New Black" and spoke on campus Wednesday about her career.</p>

Selenis Leyva plays Gloria Mendoza in the popular Netflix series "Orange is the New Black" and spoke on campus Wednesday about her career.

Selenis Leyva, an actress best known for her role as Gloria Mendoza in the Netflix original series "Orange is the New Black," spoke Wednesday about challenges she has faced in her career as well as her breakthrough role. 

Levya described the obstacles she encountered as a Latina woman and aspiring actress, as well as lessons she learned, to the audience of approximately 50 students in Page Auditorium. The event was sponsored by Duke University Union and Mi Gente, Duke's undergraduate Latinx organization. 

“I am not an overnight success," she said. "Although most of you know me in my role as feisty, sassy badass Gloria, I have been working as an actress for over 20 years. My dreams and the struggles of wanting to be a successful actress—it’s been a long and bumpy journey."

Freshman Claudia Wrampelmeier said she appreciated Leyva’s discussion of how race and gender affected her career.

“Her perspective as an Afro-Latina woman and being so successful [means] she has a very good outlook on what it means to struggle," Wrampelmeier said. "And then what it means to overcome, but still be frustrated by the struggle that she and other people like her face."

Levya said she wanted to pursue acting since she was five years old, but was told when applying to high schools in New York City that she had “no chance” of getting into the competitive LaGuardia High School of the Performing Arts.

She said a guidance counselor told her, “Someone like you doesn’t have a chance. Let’s look for a school with a secretarial program."

Although she was eventually accepted to LaGuardia, Levya continued to face difficulties as a Latina actress. She remembered being skeptical when her father predicted she would become a successful telenovela actress.

“The people I saw on television didn’t look like me. The women had fair skin and long, flowing hair. The person who maybe resembled me was the maid,” Leyva said. “She wasn’t intelligent or articulate, and she was suffering—I knew even then that’s not who I would play.”

Leyva said she entered acting with high hopes, but became disappointed by the limited roles she was offered. She explained that she often played servants and older women in supporting roles. She added that she was preparing to quit acting right before receiving the call for "Orange is the New Black." When she learned the role was for a Latina inmate, however, she felt demoralized. 

 “Wow—this is exactly why I need to quit the business—a show about women in prison, a Latina in prison," she said. "On Netflix? My career is at an all-time low."

Her experience, however, on "Orange is the New Black" has been unexpectedly rewarding and successful, Leyva said. She described her shock when she was offered a seven-season contract on the show. 

"I didn’t know what to do with myself so I just sat in the furniture section of TJ Maxx and I cried and I cried," she said. 

Leyva added the upcoming fourth season of "Orange is the New Black," which returns June 17, will feature the Latina prisoners on the show more heavily and address racial issues more than earlier seasons did. 

She said that she draws on her experiences to help play her role and to encourage herself in difficult times, adding that thinking of her family helps give her motivation to perform. 

“When I have to go in deep for those Gloria moments, I just think about everything that’s pissed me off!" Leyva said. “I also can’t fail. I have a father who is Cuban who risked his life coming to this country on a makeshift vessel. I have a mother who is from the Dominican Republic who came to this country without knowing the language … I have a daughter who’s watching me closely. You’re watching me. My transgender sister is watching me. How could I give up?”

Leyva imparted some words of advice to the audience, which was mostly composed of Latina students.

“If there’s anything that you’ll take away from this moment—other than that I thought Netflix was going to bomb—it’s that you are enough," she said.

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