I started talking to Danielle Larracuente when I was in the UK and I quickly had to apologize for the background noise. It was 11PM and I felt horrible about the buzzing she was hearing in the background. Nine times out of ten most people would be annoyed by the static but not Larracuente. “Sometimes you just gotta do what you got to do,” insisted Larracuente. “So just make it work.”
“… I always want to keep expanding and opening that door and challenging myself… “
Make it work. For emerging actor Larracuente, 32, the chance to star opposite an idol, Jennifer Lopez, in This is Me… Now, she seems to be making it work while keeping the Westchester-raised Latino beauty grounded… for now. With roles on TV shows like Bosch Legacy, the new Quantum Leap and Magnum P.I., Larracuente gets a crack at the big screen as part of a star-studded cast (in addition to Lopez, think Jane Fonda, Trevor Noah, Post Malone, Sofia Vergara) that is sure to push Larracuente to a whole other level.
At a very young age, Larracuente started in beauty pageants. Her parents would give their daughter a camera or a mirror, and she’d be reciting things. Pageants led to commercials then a big break in 2001, landing the starring role of Young Nala in The Lion King on Broadway at age nine, a role that Larracuente credits with shaping her life. “[The role] taught me so many things on the stage and off,” insists Larracuente. “I always say as an actor, if you want to learn how to act, go do theater. That’s where you learn your chops. All my success, I owe to that.”
After The Lion King, there was an SNL skit with Jimmy Fallon and commercials for the Women’s National Basketball Association. When Larracuente turned 15, she moved to Los Angeles to further pursue acting, with a few small guest-starring roles to come her way. Larracuente then took a break from acting to be a mom and pursue a degree, earning a Cosmetology License and B.S in Psychology. “I became a cosmetologist and I worked in that field for a little bit and then after having my son in 2016, I just remember looking at him and saying, ‘How am I going to tell him to go after his dreams?’ And I’m allowing others to not let me go after mine. So I had to sit there and make a plan. Okay, I’m going to do this [pursue acting] because this is what makes me happy.
“Both my mom and my stepfather are attorneys. They’re both like, ‘Become an attorney, it’d be great money.’ And I worked in a law firm with them for a bit as well. And I’m like, Oh, I hate this. I needed to develop a plan, and how I was going to combat a lot of this stuff. And I tell a lot of my industry friends, actor friends, it’s all about your community and I started step-by-step, getting people in my life that can help me with this goal. And now I’m so grateful I’m here at this moment, right? With the best people around me who support me, who love me, who have my back, who bring my name up in rooms that I’m not in. You know what I mean?”
Larracuente returned to the industry with a recurring role on Starz’ Vida; guest spots on NCIS, Home Economics, and Good Trouble. Larracuente then lands the role of Paulina Calderon on the Bosch spin off Bosch Legacy. Which brings us to Jennifer Lopez, a huge source of admiration and inspiration for Larracuente. Playing in a movie with her idol. Surreal.
“It was like a pinch me moment, I’m not here in this world. I couldn’t believe that she was standing in the same room as me and like the first scene out, If you guys have watched the movie, and if you have not, you better watch it,” laughs Larracuente. The first time Larracuente took notice of Lopez was in her role as Selena Quintanilla, known professionally as Selena), in the 1997 film Selena, the Mexican-American singer who was shot and killed at the age of 23 by a family friend. Larracuente was enthralled by Lopez, and she was able to relate to her on many levels. “She came from New York, she’s Puerto Rican, she’s curvier, like it was everything. I remember the first day I was on set, my scene was only with her. I was so nervous… But I can’t say enough about her. She’s beyond lovely.”
Acting seems to run in the family. Larracuente’s son, Benson, 7, has a role on the Sofia Vergara Netflix series Griselda. “Anytime I was auditioning he’s like jumping in front of the camera and acting and tada!” laughs Larracuente. “In my eyes this is like him trying out for soccer or him trying out for basketball and I want him to try it out… the minute he says he’s out, he’s out. He has so much fun.”
I’m currently watching This Is Us again, into the final episodes, such an epic show that Larracuente happened to be a part of. Benson was born in 2016 and by 2019 she was taking classes, starting from scratch, and wrote on a piece of paper: I want to be on This Is Us. “I think everybody who wants to [have a career] in acting should watch This Is Us before you even think about acting, because you’ll learn everything you need to know. And being in that room, I learned so much from them [the cast], their professionalism, their vulnerability. For the actors to be at that caliber and be so nice and welcoming and genuine and want to get to know me and ask me questions, it was everything.
“I remember watching an episode of Morning Joe on MSNBC and Mika Brzezinski said one of the things that women don’t do enough of is believing in themselves; they don’t believe they can do it. So they’re not convinced that they can do it. They project that maybe I’m just not good enough and won’t actually get it whatever it is, in business, in life, even in love.” But when I hear Larracuente’s story, it just blows my mind to know that as a young, ambitious Latina actor, she’s actually, well, doing it.
“It’s a daily thing for me, a daily reminder of myself, the fear does not go away. I do think scared every single day. I’m always scared. There’s always moments of doubt. And I just constantly keep moving forward. So it’s just about having courage.”
For Larracuente, sky’s the limit for what’s next. “I don’t want to be put in any box,” insists Larracuenete. “I want to do as many versatile, different, scary roles that I can do. I always want to keep expanding and opening that door and challenging myself. I want to be in a period piece, I want to be in an action movie, I want anything that I can get my hands on, I’m open to learning, taking on the role.
“As long as you have that desire in your heart, and do everything in your power to just keep opening that door and planting seeds. And they don’t bloom right away. I have planted a lot of seeds, I’m always planting seeds. And sometimes I’m staring too hard waiting for them to blossom. If it’s in your heart, and go for what makes you happy… My dad always says something to me.
“And it’s so funny when I have my down days. He says acting is like the DMV, you take a number, you get in line. But if you get out of line, they’re not going to call your name. When I have my moments, if I didn’t get that part and really wanted that part.
“My dad says, ‘Don’t get out of that line.’”
Interview Moonah Ellison
Story Bill Smyth
Images Jared Schlachet