Xochitl Gomez Caught Your Attention With Her Dancing Skills. Her Voice in ‘Cat in the Hat’ Is Next

Xochitl Gomez has already accomplished more than most 20-year-olds, having portrayed a Marvel superhero, starred in a Netflix series and won the Mirrorball Trophy.

These feats are not lost on the actress. But there was another goal that Gomez has been working towards for some time that she initially thought “should be a no-brainer,” but hadn’t worked out in her favor yet.

“I’d always wanted to do voiceover because I’m such an animated, fun person. I was like, ‘It just fits the vibe, right?’ And it would just never really happen,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter over Zoom from her place in Kentucky, where she’s currently filming the adult road-trip horror movie titled Bad Influence. “I was like, ‘OK, maybe it’s just not going to happen for me. Other people can have that. Leave it to the pros.'”

That was until she got a call to audition for the new animated The Cat in the Hat, released Friday, from directors Alessandro Carloni and Erica Rivinoja. After a roughly three-hour-long scratch session for the character Gabby, the older sister, and a months-long wait, Gomez finally landed her first voiceover role.

“I was not expecting this, but I was the first person to be cast in the family because Gabby’s such an important character that they were like, ‘We want to get this character down and everyone else will just fill in the blanks,'” she says. “I was just like, ‘OK, this is a really cool opportunity and I’d love to get this because that would also mean that we have a Latino family in the front and center of this movie.'”

Growing up in the industry, visiting sets with her mom who worked as a set decorator, Gomez was used to admiring those around her, both in front of and behind the camera. “I’ll never forget, we were on the set of Hansel & Gretel and my mom was doing the reshoots and they had this animatronic troll and it was a huge troll and it was all real. I got to sit there and talk to the guys who do the mechanics of it to make it move,” she recalls of one childhood experience.

Now, she’s finding herself working alongside those she once idolized, such as Benedict Cumberbatch and Elizabeth Olsen in 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and now Bill Hader, who she calls the “legend of voiceover,” who’s voicing the titular cat.

There’s no doubt it’s a lot to process at such a young age, especially when you’re not prepared for the exposure that some of these projects offer and “having people debate things about me and my hair and my skin tone,” she says.

But it’s just fueled Gomez to use her voice more and reach for opportunities, such as competing on Dancing with the Stars with pro Val Chmerkovskiy in 2023 and ultimately winning season 32. “I have to say that show really, really expanded my fan base,” the actress admits.

“I’m here filming in Kentucky and people in Kentucky know who I am and they’re excited and wanted to take a picture with me because they saw me on Dancing With the Stars and they got to see my quinceañera on national TV,” she adds.

Gomez was mindful of the opportunity the show gave her to represent her culture and help others feel seen. And it helped having encouraging words from her veteran co-stars, like Olsen, in the back of her mind: “If you have an idea, don’t be afraid to bring that up, say it.”

That mentality also helped propel Gomez to organize an open letter to Hollywood in January, calling for an increase in Latino voices in greenlighting rooms and lead roles onscreen. Though proud to use her platform to advocate for her community, she tells THR that she’s been surprised by the lack of conversations the open letter sparked among industry peers and leaders.

Below, Gomez opens up about learning the importance of voice inflection from her work on The Cat in the Hat, the dream role she’s manifesting and the challenges she faced getting support from fellow Latino actors for the open letter (“I was very shocked by how many people were just trying to get me to stop.”)

Being on set at a young age and seeing how many people it takes to bring a production to life, how do you feel like it shaped your perspective of the industry?

I loved being in the prop houses because I got to always be on the Warner Bros. lot or be at Omega. There’s all these different prop houses, and I knew everybody who worked there. I’ll never forget, there was this one incident because set decorators have to tag the items that they want. And I was seven and I was super into the bright-colored stickers and I accidentally took them all off and I got in trouble. That was possibly the only time I’ve ever gotten in trouble in that environment. I was just like, “Oh, this is serious. This is a real job. This is a real thing.” And it really put in perspective what all of the moving pieces are.

The Cat in the Hat is a new animated iteration of a beloved classic story. What were you feeling stepping into the project, especially as your first voiceover role?

I was just like, OK, I need to be super prepared. I need to come up with all the kinds of beats and pauses and little breaths and things that I can do before and after, because I didn’t know what I was getting into. When I heard that I was going to be in the session with Bill and be next to the pro, the legend of voiceover, I was like, “I got to be super, super mega prepared.”

I think doing voiceover has really taught me a lot about my voice and inflection, and that has carried a lot through filmmaking. I’m here doing this movie [Bad Influence] and there’s a lot of screaming and yelling, but also really important things that need to be said and a lot of paragraphs, and it taught me how important it is to fluctuate how you say things and how you pause and where you take a breath because all of that matters.

With your character Gabby, did you have creative freedom to bring your own touches to her?

For me, I kind of raised my voice just a little bit, just a little excited. But also, especially at the beginning, she’s very sad and a little depressed over the fact that she’s had to move from everything that she’s known because her mom has a new job. So I had to really drag all that out and be very dramatic because I don’t do any of that. In my personal life, you’d never catch me doing any of that. So I had to really tap in and try new things that I’ve honestly never done before.

It’s been 10 months since your open letter, calling for greater Latin representation in Hollywood. Since then, has it sparked conversations with anyone in Hollywood or execs?

I’m going to be honest, I was a bit shocked, but not as many people as you’d think. But you know what? There’s still time. I’m happy to talk about it at any time with anyone who wants to ask me. I was definitely shocked by the nothingness of it all, and I was also shocked by how many people were not interested in me talking about it. When I first brought up the idea, I was like, “Hey, we’re all talking about this and we’re all putting it up on our platforms, but let’s just say it all together.”

I was very shocked by how many people, when I was asking for people’s help, were just trying to get me to stop, and honestly, people that I look up to saying, “What are you trying to do with this? What is your goal? Do you really think that this is going to do anything?” At this point, I had three different conversations with people who were trying to shut me down. I would just start answering the phone and I’d be like, “If you’re going to tell me to stop and you’re going to tell me that this isn’t important, just hang up the phone. I’m going to pick up the next line.” Because at that point, I was just trying to get something done if I could.

As you look ahead, do you have a dream role you’d love to take on?

Rom-coms! I think that’s definitely coming back in the circle, but I would love to do one that’s really special, really tender in the heart. I was really touched by Eternity, which isn’t necessarily a rom-com, but something in that world; it feels really special.

Aside from acting and dancing, do you have any unique hobbies or talents?

I do martial arts. I’ve done that for a little bit. I did swim team for a little bit. I played tennis. I was really sporty, so I did a lot of that. But other than that, I mean, Rhinestoner. Certified rhinestoner. (Laughs.) A certified solid core girly. That’s about as good as it gets.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received that you’ve actually used?

The thing that Elizabeth Olsen had told me was just ask questions. Don’t be afraid to put your own ideas out there. That really shaped who I am today on set because I realized that the things that I have to say matter.