'Selena' creator Moisés Zamora says he 'did not reach out to' the singer's murderer Yolanda Saldívar before filming new Netflix series
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Libby Torres
Dec 2, 2020, 06:50 IST
Moisés Zamora is the creator and showrunner of Netflix's "Selena: The Series."Dima Otvertchenko and Vinnie Zuffante/Getty Images
"Selena: The Series" creator Moisés Zamora revealed in a new interview with Insider that he didn't reach out to the singer's murderer before filming the show about the singer's life, career, and untimely death.
Yolanda Saldívar shot and killed Selena Quintanilla-Pérez on March 31, 1995. The singer was only 23 years old.
Saldívar, who was president of the singer's fan club, had been accused by the Quintanilla family of embezzling membership funds in the weeks before the singer's death.
Even though Saldívar is only featured for a moment in the new series, Zamora said he did "a lot of research" into the former nurse for preparation.
The showrunner told Insider that he wanted "to understand her psychology a little bit more."
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Fans of Selena Quintanilla-Pérez are likely all too familiar with the story of Yolanda Saldívar, the former nurse who became the president of the singer's fan club — and in 1995, shot the singer dead in a hotel room.
Along with being president of the singer's fan club, Saldívar was also a close friend of Selena, who reportedly called her "mom." Before her death, Selena, known as the "Queen of Tejano music" thanks to her hits such as "Como La Flor," "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom," and "I Could Fall In Love," had even promoted Saldívar to manager of her namesake boutiques in Corpus Christi and San Antonio, Texas.
The family confronted Saldívar in March 1995, and several weeks later, the singer met up with Saldívar to take her to the hospital, after the former fan club president said she'd been sexually assaulted during a recent trip to Mexico.
While Saldívar's violent crime and eventual conviction have made her a major character in Quintanilla's life story, she's not prominently featured in the first part of the new Netflix show "Selena: The Series," which follows the singer from early childhood to the cusp of superstardom.
Part one of the two-part series ends well before her untimely murder, although Saldívar's character does make a brief appearance in one scene as an eager nurse asking to start Selena's fan club.
Creator and showrunner Moisés Zamora told Insider that he didn't contact the real-life Saldívar before filming the series.
"I did not reach out to her," Zamora added. "I did do a lot of research, especially when it came to...how she was able to ingratiate herself into this family and work for them."
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The showrunner continued that his main goal when it came to developing Saldívar's character was "trying to understand her psychology a little bit more, but no, I did not reach out to her."
Rather than focus on Selena's death, Zamora said he was much more interested in detailing new parts of Selena's life, family, and career along with centering the Chicana perspective in his new Netflix show.
"It was very important for me because I do care about representation," the Mexican-American filmmaker said. "Being self-aware that as a creator of this story, I needed to make sure that the Mexican-American female perspective was very present in the writing and the directing."
Zamora added that he accomplished this goal by ensuring that "the majority of the other writers were of Mexican-American descent and were women writers. So yeah, for me, it was very, very important."
Part one of "Selena: The Series" premieres December 4 on Netflix. You can watch the trailer below.
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