Meet Daniel Zovatto, the Latino Actor from Netflix’s ‘Woman of the Hour’
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 10: Daniel Zovatto attends the Los Angeles premiere of Netflix's "Woman Of The Hour" at The Egyptian Theatre Hollywood on October 10, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Since the movie’s release, Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut, Woman of the Hour, has been at the top of the Netflix charts. The movie follows the real-life story of a woman who crosses paths with a serial killer during The Dating Game, a reality TV show. In Woman of the Hour, Daniel Zovatto, originally from Costa Rica, plays the real-life murderer.
Zovatto, 33, stepped into the role that required him to be both nice and scary and saw it as a challenge. “It seemed like a really exciting, cool challenge to go and do with Anna, who had full trust in me,” he told PEOPLE about the role.
The movie is based on the true story of serial killer Rodney Alcala, who appeared in the television show amid his murder spree. Alcala is confirmed to have killed 7 girls and women during the 1960s and 1970s but is suspected of having been involved in around 130 murders.
Growing up in Costa Rica, Zovatto fell in love with movies – and wanted to emulate actors like Leonardo DiCaprio from a very early age. His mother, Sylvia Blanco, appeared on a local talk show, which inspired Zovatto to want to go for it. “I remember watching What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and then Basketball Diaries, and I was like, who is this? This is the same kid? And my little kid brain, I didn’t compute what that was, but my mom’s like, ‘This is acting.’ And I was like, ‘Holy s—. Well, I want to do that,” he also told PEOPLE.
Thinking of that Zovatto moved to New York City to pursue a career and theater, and later to Los Angeles where he appeared in Beneath (2013), and made his television debut in an episode of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013). He also appeared in It Follows (2014) and Don’t Breathe (2016).
His biggest role yet, in Woman of the Hour, however, is one Zovatto was happy to leave behind, particularly due to the subject matter. “I wasn’t sleeping much,” Zovatto told UPI. “Going back to your own routines and what I like as a person, little by little, it starts to just be something that you did.” And not just that, something he did really, really well.
Woman of the Hour, starring Anna Kendrick and Daniel Zovatto, is now on Netflix.
