Early career and first lead role Espinosa appeared in the short film
Cuidado con el Tren, written and directed by Ignacio Ortiz in 2004, and in the films
Sea of Dreams and
La Vida Inmune, in 2006. At age 15, after six months in a workshop with Maryse Systach and Clarissa Malheiros, Espinosa starred in her first lead role in
La Niña en la Piedra (Nadie Te Ve), which was co-directed by Systach and José Buil and is the last chapter of the trilogy about teenagers in Mexico that started with
Perfume de Violetas (Nadie Te Oye) (2001) and
Manos Libres (Nadie Te Escucha) (2003). Espinosa was nominated for the
Ariel Award for Best Actress for her work in the film. Espinosa and Systach re-teamed for the film
El Brassier de Emma. In 2006, Espinosa performed in the short film
Ver Llover by
Elisa Miller, which was screened at the
2007 Cannes Film Festival and won the
Short Film Palme d'Or. She was also featured in
Capadocia playing the character Paty, and also joined the cast of the
telenovela Bienvenida Realidad, produced by
Epigmenio Ibarra for
Cadenatres in 2011, in which she played Vanessa, a lesbian teenager.
Breakthrough role with Gloria (pictured) in the film
Gloria. Espinosa landed the lead role of the film
Gloria in 2014. The film is a biopic about singer-songwriter
Gloria Trevi, and her relation with her manager, record producer
Sergio Andrade. The movie chronicles the rise and fall of the singer's career, detailing Trevi's first encounter with Andrade (who became her mentor), her brief tenure in a band, her rise to musical stardom, a sex scandal involving minors, and her imprisonment in Brazil. Espinosa won the role after a month-and-a-half casting process, stating that "I do not know how many actresses were [on the castings], or who they were, but once I got the role I knew it was a big responsibility, because it is a character who is alive and has a lot of fans, I had to do it well. It is a very complex character, full of nuances, with great force". Espinosa took singing lessons and had to learn Trevi's accent. Also, to fully prepare for the role, the actress was assigned a choreographer and worked with the film director to find the right tone for the scenes. Espinosa watched Trevi's interviews, concerts and films to be able to play her. "The role was meant for me", Espinosa said to
Noticine. Sofía Ochoa Rodríguez and Verónica Sánchez of
En Filme were "surprised by [Espinosa's] performance" as it was "very close to Gloria Trevi's, albeit with a nasally accent, and cadence which lets through the hoarse, sarcastic and melancholic style that permeates on every one of the songs the actress sings. Her acting work and physical resemblance let her move naturally from comedy to pain, loneliness to longing, to the easy smile, to the dance, to the jumps on stage and the twinkle in her eyes". In contrast, David Noh of
Film Journal International was not impressed by Espinosa's acting, saying that she "lacks appeal and is quite ordinary in a role that calls for some of the electricity the very young
Jennifer Lopez managed to ratchet up in her musical biopic,
Selena". Gloria Trevi praised the work of Espinosa in the film, stating that "it is shocking to see yourself on film, the girl [Espinosa] did an extraordinary job". Espinosa won the
Diosa de Plata and the
Ariel Award for Best Actress for
Gloria.
2015 to 2017 In 2015, she played Graciela Arias in the film
Los Crímenes de Mar del Norte, based on the true story of
Goyo Cárdenas, the strangler of
Tacuba. The following year, Espinosa played Mexican singer
Lola Beltrán on
Hasta Que Te Conocí, based on the life of Mexican artist
Juan Gabriel, for which she had to perform the track "
Cucurrucucú Paloma", Beltrán's signature song. Espinosa co-produced, co-wrote, and starred in
Los Bañistas, a film that had a limited release in Mexico (10 copies) in 2016. In the film, directed by Max Zunino, she plays Flavia, a young protester who gets involved with an older man, Juan Carlos Colombo. Espinosa's performance was met with positive reviews, such as the one written by Luis Fernando Galván of
En Filme, stating that the actress "effectively embodies the hope for social renewal from a convincing performance where she goes on a trip into a social space with the intention of finding her place in the world and helping others to do the same". and according to John Hopewell of
Variety, "follows a young woman (Espinosa) from Mexico's stifling upper middle-classes who, pregnant, escapes to Berlin and finds a kind of father figure and freedom in a Berlin club drag queen chanteuse and a final sense of her individual identity". The film was written by Espinosa and Zunino and won five awards at the 10th Works in Progress
Guadalajara Festival. In 2016, it was announced by
Variety magazine that Espinosa would join Mexican actors
Demián Bichir and
Diego Luna in the film
The Black Minutes; in the same year, Espinosa played Rocío in the TV series
Las Trece Esposas, produced by Blim and inspired by
One Thousand and One Nights. Espinosa also had a
voice role in the American
animated film
Kubo and the Two Strings (2016) and a role in
La Gran Promesa, directed by Jorge Ramirez Suárez.
Theater work Espinosa funded with fellow actors Belén Aguilar, Fernanda Echevarría and Armando Espitia the theater company
Conejo Sin Prisa and debuted an adaptation of
Paula Vogel's play
How I Learned to Drive on May 15, 2017, at the Centro Cultural del Bosque (
es) in Mexico City. Espinosa was joined in the cast by Belén Aguilar, Fernanda Echevarría, and Armando Espitia. Later that year, Espinosa was cast as Ana in the play
Después del Ensayo, an adaptation of
Ingmar Bergman's film
After the Rehearsal. The play was directed by her father, Mario Espinosa, and also featured actors Juan Carlos Colombo and
Julieta Egurrola. ==Filmography==