Isaac Hernández on Bringing Ballet to Berlin With ‘Dreams,’ Steamy Scenes With Jessica Chastain and the Film’s Timely Message: ‘Immigrants Are Complex Human Beings’

variety.com:

Ellise Shafer When Isaac Hernández was cast in Michel Franco‘s upcoming drama “Dreams” alongside Jessica Chastain, he immediately felt the weight of the story on his shoulders.

Premiering at the Berlin Film Festival on Saturday, “Dreams” follows Fernando, a young Mexican ballet dancer who crosses the border into the U.S. — leaving everything he knows behind and narrowly escaping death — in order to be with Jennifer, a wealthy philanthropist.

He believes she will support him as he pursues his ambitions, but his arrival disrupts Jennifer’s world, putting their future in question. “I felt a huge responsibility to do justice to a story like this,” Hernández tells Variety over Zoom from New York City. “I felt quite honored, to be honest, that Michel thought I could do it.” Franco — the Mexican auteur who collaborated with Chastain on 2023’s “Memory” — first met the dancer-turned-actor when he was invited by Hernández’s sister, Emilia, to watch him dance at a festival the siblings organized in their home country.

At the afterparty, Franco pitched Hernández the project and offered to send him a draft of the script in a few months. “He kind of gave me the outline of the story,” Hernández says. “I found it daring and interesting, to say the least, so I said, ‘Of course, send it to me.'” A dancer since he was 8 years old, Hernández has been part of the San Francisco, English and Dutch ballet companies and is now one of American Ballet Theater’s principals, making him the first Mexican dancer to achieve the feat.