Forget Carmen Sandiego. Where in the world is Adria Arjona?
On any given day, the Puerto Rican actress might be traveling. “Frequent flyer miles are off the chart. If you ever need a flight, I got you,” she says, laughing. On this particular Sunday, Arjona has parked herself for a Zoom interview in an airport lounge in Budapest – a couple of weeks after walking a red carpet in Hawaii with her boyfriend Jason Momoa – and waiting for a flight to London to film “The Thomas Crown Affair” with co-star/director Michael B. Jordan.
This is the life of an in-demand movie star, who jokes she’s become an expert in napping “just out of desperation, or survival.” After breakthrough roles in “Hit Man” and “Blink Twice,” this year Arjona appeared in the Emmy-nominated Season 2 of the “Star Wars” show “Andor” and stars (and executive produces) in the unconventional screwball comedy “Splitsville” (in select theaters now, nationwide Sept. 5).
She plays Ashley, a life coach who admits to her husband Carey (co-writer Kyle Marvin) that she’s cheated on him and wants a divorce. Carey turns to married friends Julie (Dakota Johnson) and Paul (director Michael Angelo Corvino) and learns that they have an open marriage, which sounds like a good idea for everybody until the situation turns into a love trapezoid.
She couldn’t relate “at all” to Ashley (“I am as monogamous and as boring as you get”), but Arjona confesses she’s had the most fun in her career playing “kooky” characters, “things that are a little bit off center and not 100% common for a Latin American woman to play.” She next stars as a trailer park “mama bear” keeping her kids safe from a threat that escapes from a military base in the upcoming horror flick “Onslaught.”
Arjona, 33, talks about “Splitsville,” those Wonder Woman rumors, and her secret to a happy romance.
Conversation edited for length and clarity.
Q: The opening scene of “Splitsville” is wild, where Ashley and Carey are enjoying a pleasant drive until they witness a gnarly accident. When you read the script, did it stop you in your tracks or did you dig it?
Adria Arjona: I loved it. It’s one of the best opening sequences I’ve ever read, to be honest. In the first 10 minutes, the movie just slaps you in the face and it’s like, ‘All right, are you going to jump on this roller coaster or what?” It’s funny, it’s dramatic, and then there’s like an action element to it.
But you can easily imagine someone weighing their life decisions, as Ashley does, after something this bonkers.
Ashley is with such a wonderful human being, and for some reason it’s not working for her. She has no real excuse of why she needs to leave, and in a way she takes him for granted. She wants to experience other stuff and it’s heartbreaking, but it’s also so truthful. I’ve had girlfriends and we’ve had conversations like this. There’s nothing wrong. There’s just nothing right, either. And those are sometimes the hardest relationships to say goodbye to. You can stay with that person forever, but no one’s growing.
You’ve enjoyed this really interesting breakthrough period in Hollywood. Are you seeing the results of that now?
I’m still a human, so there’s times you get a little bit overwhelmed, but 90% of the time I just feel so grateful. Everything that I’ve worked so hard for is now accessible to me. I’m so grateful to be in “Thomas Crown” and reimagine that movie that we all love so much with a brown woman and Michael at the center of it. I’m really grateful to those filmmakers that took a chance on me early on. And because of them, I’m seeing the fruits of their belief in me.
Is it joyful or annoying that you’ve gotten to the level of stardom where James Gunn follows you on Instagram and all off a sudden you’re being fan-cast as Wonder Woman? He does admit you’d be “great.”
I really take it as a beautiful honor that audiences are saying that it’s me. I look really cool to my 15-year-old brother. He’s been calling me way more often, so please keep it going! And James Gunn is family. I’ve known him for so long. (His film) “The Belko Experiment” was my first big thing.
Jason’s a guy familiar with the DC universe. What have you found is the key to having a healthy, loving relationship in the year 2025 and avoiding actual Splitsville?
I mean, being monogamous (laughs). I guess that’s my answer.