Gigi Saul Guerrero’s Bloody BINGO Adds Oscar-Nominated Adriana Barraza to the Cast
Josh Millican
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Golden Globe® and Academy Award® nominee Adriana Barraza (Amores Perros, Babel) will star in Bingo, the upcoming film in the Welcome to the Blumhouse slate from Blumhouse Television and Amazon Studios, directed and co-written by Gigi Saul Guerrero, currently in production.
Adriana Barraza 
Gigi Saul Guerrero
Synopsis:
In the barrio of Oak Springs live a strong and stubborn group of elderly friends who refuse to be gentrified. Their leader, Lupita (Barraza), keeps them together as a community, a family. But little did they know, their beloved Bingo hall is about to be sold to a much more powerful force than money itself.
Barraza plays the lead character of “Lupita,” a strong and stubborn “chingona” (bad ass) who grew up in the barrio of Oak Springs, a neighborhood formerly full of crime and dangerous characters. Lupita has dedicated her life to cleaning up the neighborhood, and creating a community the residents could be proud to call home.
Bingo presents an exciting, seldom-seen collaboration in Hollywood between esteemed Mexican actress Barraza and Mexico City-born and raised Guerrero, a rising genre filmmaker named in Variety’s 2019 Latinx to Watch in a film that draws on their heritage and places a veteran actress at the forefront of a fun horror-thriller story.
Prime Video launched the Welcome to the Blumhouse program in October of last year with Black Box, The Lie, Evil Eye and Nocturne which are currently streaming on Prime Video.
About Adriana Barraza:
Born in Toluca, Mexico, Golden Globe and Academy Award nominee Adriana Barraza is considered one of the most accomplished and respected Latina film and television actresses in the entertainment industry. With an award-winning career of over 40 years in film, television and theater, in 2018 Forbes Magazine Latin America named Adriana the most influential Latina film actress and one of the 100 most powerful Latin American actors of all time.
Adriana began her career as an actress with Televisa networks in Mexico. Her incredible gift as an actor led to her long time working partnership with the legendary Mexican director Sergio Jiménez, aka El Profe. Known in Mexico as “La Maestra Barraza”, Sergio and Adriana created the Actors Workshop in Mexico City. Together they taught and developed their own version of Method acting which led to Adriana’s accomplished career directing telenovelas, and coaching some of the most successful Latin American actors of our time. In 1999, Academy Award winning director Alejandro González Iñárritu (The Revenant, Birdman) cast Adriana in her big breakthrough role as the mother of Gael García Bernal’s character in the film Amores Perros, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2006, she re-collaborated with Iñárritu in Babel opposite Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Gael Garcia Bernal, and became one of only 6 Mexican actresses to ever receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Some of Barraza’s most notable credits include Cake opposite Jennifer Aniston, The 33 directed by Patricia Riggen, Drag Me to Hell directed by Sam Raimi, the worldwide hit Dora and the Lost City of Gold, Rambo: Last Blood opposite Sylvester Stallone and currently can be seen in the successful short film Bibi opposite JM Longoria and directed by Víctor Dueñas. Barraza has also had an incredible career in television and has starred in successful series that include Capadocia, The Strain, Silvana Sin Lana, Dueños del Paraíso, Al Otro Lado Del Muro and Snowfall.
Most recently she was one of the leads in the critically acclaimed Showtime original series Penny Dreadful: City of Angels created by Academy Award nominee John Logan and executive produced by Academy Award winner Sam Mendes. She also stars in the worldwide success We Can Be Heroes directed by Robert Rodriguez. The film was released Christmas Day on Netflix and has become one of the most successful Netflix original films of all time. Next, Adriana will star in the lead role of Lupita in the Blumhouse/Amazon Prime feature film Bingo, directed by Mexican actor/director Gigi Saul Guerreo. The film, which co-stars Tony Award winner L. Scott Caldwell (The Fugitive) and Richard Brake (Game of Thrones), is a suspense horror about a group of strong and stubborn elderly friends who refuse to get gentrified. Their leader, Lupita, keeps them together as a community/family. But as the story unfolds, little do they know that their beloved bingo hall is about to be sold to a much more powerful force. She will also soon beginning filming a new lead role in the coming of age drama Monica about a transgender women who returns home to the midwest to care for her estranged dying mother. The film will star transgender actress Trace Lysette (Hustlers, Transparent), Oscar nominee Patricia Clarkson (Sharp Objects), Oscar winner Anna Paquin (The Piano, True Blood) and Adriana. Barraza is the Founder and Artistic Director of her own successful acting school in Miami, FL, The Adriana Barraza Acting Studio, considered one of the 10 top acting schools in the nation. Instructors included her husband Arnaldo Pipke, Neher Jacqueline Briceno and daughter Ana Carolina Valsagna Barraza.
As previously announced, Bingo is one of the upcoming films in Amazon Prime Video’s Welcome to the Blumhouse program of horror-thriller films highlighting female and emerging filmmakers, and diverse casts with new and established actors in unexpected roles.
Are you a fan of Gigi Saul Guerrero and/or Adriana Barraza? Are you excited to see how Bingo develops? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram! You can also carry on the convo with me personally on Twitter @josh_millican.
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