Ten actors to watch graced the stage at Newport Beach Film Festival’s Honors Brunch on Sunday, but only one was there on the heels of making her first English-language feature film, Wild Horse Nine.
Even with 34 credits to her name, Mariana Di Girólamo described the process of acting opposite John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell in the critically acclaimed dark comedy as going “back to school.”
“I feel young,” the 35-year-old actor said the day after Wild Horse Nine was screened as a centerpiece of the Southern California festival. “It’s like back to school. It was a challenge to do this in English for the first time. And it’s not only another language; it’s Martin McDonagh’s own language, that I’m in love with.”
The latest from the Oscar-winning writer-director McDonagh (In Bruges, Three Billboards, Banshees of Inisherin) follows two CIA agents and longtime friends visiting Easter Island just weeks before their professional handiwork will lead to Chile’s violently oppressive right-wing coup in 1973.
Di Girólamo plays a student leftist who has no idea what’s coming, but in her innocence, reminds Malkovich’s jaded character of his dormant humanity. Her supporting character provides the beating heart of the film, which would be quite bleak without her shine.
“It’s the most important part of the story for me,” McDonagh told MovieMaker for the upcoming issue hitting newsstands next month, hailing Di Girólamo as “a future living legend.”
Mariana Di Girólamo’s Unique Wild Horse Nine Challenge
Meanwhile, the actor was busy lauding the complexity of McDonagh’s writing while being honored in front of Newport Beach Film Festival attendees.
“He’s able to talk about these things, for example, what happened in Chile in 1973, but also with humor and people are going to be entertained, so I had to dive into his own language in English,” she explained. “But I was in the best hands with my coach Penny, Martin, John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, and that beautiful island Rapanui, so yeah, it was challenging, but I was in the best hands possible.”
While speaking to MovieMaker about the film for the upcoming issue, cinematographer Ben Davis provided some additional insight as to why McDonagh’s movies may be a particular challenge for a Spanish-speaking actor making her English-language debut.
“When you work with Martin, the words of the script are very detailed and precise, and they don’t get changed. You don’t get on set and go, ‘Oh, maybe we should say this instead.’ That doesn’t happen,” he said.
“He gives his actors absolute freedom to do, in terms of performance, whatever they want,” he added. “But every word, every pause, every full stop, every comma is there on the page, and that’s what you’re seeing when you watch the film, because he’s a proper playwright.”
Wild Horse Nine hits theaters on November 6, and is a fresh contender for award season consideration with a 94 percent approval rating, so far, from critics counted on Rotten Tomatoes.
You can read more about the Newport Beach Film Festival here and read more of our festival coverage here.
Main image: Mariana Di Girólamo with John Malkovich in Wild Horse Nine. Photo by Searchlight Pictures/Diego Araya Corvalán, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2026 Searchlight Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
