Adria Arjona
A “bankable” talent is so much more than just a pretty face.
In music, people like to use the expression: “making it your own”. This is a greatly underestimated ability. A look at Mariah Carey’s early career can illustrate what the expression means and how such specific talent can easily be taken for granted.
If asked who the musician “Harry Nilsson” is, most people on Earth would look puzzled. Ask someone if they have heard the power ballad “Without You”, and millions of people would automatically say something along the line: — Yes, of course, it’s that Mariah Carey song!
Well, legend has it that Pete Ham and Tom Evan, two members of a band named Badfinger wrote it with their girlfriends in mind. It was included as one of the songs in the band’s album, in 1970. It was unnoticed. Until Harry Nilsson heard it, reimagined it and released it in 1972. It was a “massive” international hit. Some 180 artists recorded their own versions.
Then came Mariah Carey, and released her rendition in 1994. Since then, till this day, she is the only one that most people even think of regarding “Without You”. It’s like anyone else who recorded it before her, never existed. In instances where people hear any other previous version than hers, they actually think that the artist copied Mariah. That includes “Harry Nilsson”.
That’s what it means to make something “one’s own”. Mariah Carey made Without You “her own”.
When it comes to film (television or theatrical releases) a similar phenomenon applies. Either the talent can be perfect for their parts, or way in over their heads.
There are big budget movies, which may boast internationally famous faces and co-stars, but still don’t “quite cut it”. The main actor in the leading role may be physically attractive and endorsed by powerful agents or directors, still the “shoes” that she or he is supposed to “fill” are way too big. It’s like lighting a match or candle in a long, dark tunnel. As opposed to switching on the light system in a big sports arena.
One way to put the latter, is that the talent in question can “carry the film” (the movie or TV show). The audience takes it for granted that they belong in the leading role. In fact, people are interested in the actor or actress first. In a way these individuals “radiate” in such a captivating way, that people just can’t stop looking at them — and don’t want to. This charisma “spills over” to the characters that they are playing. And that, by extension, makes the story and film “cool by association”.
Such “magnetism” and “presence” can convince banks and private financiers to fund a production, knowing that the individual will draw audiences in the millions, who are willing to pay money to see the performer talk, walk, frown, cry, smile etc.
Adria Arjona is such a type of “bankable asset”.
In one of her latest productions, Emerald City, Adria Arjona takes on the classical role of “Dorothy” in this modern-day version of the “Wizard of OZ”. Her delivery is as flawless as it’s reasonable to use that word.
That’s what makes Adria Arjona so much more than a pretty appearance. Regardless of the production, Adria is not acting, she is her character(s). She makes the roles “her own”.
