Frida Kahlo never explained her homosexuality so neither did we, says documentary director Carla Gutierrez.

In an exclusive interview, Frida director Carla Gutierrez opens up on retaining the Mexican painter’s voice in the documentary and playing up her art.For everyone asking how many documentaries on Frida Kahlo do we need, we certainly need the latest one. Directed and edited by Carla Gutierrez, Frida (2024) is told from the perspective of the legendary Mexican painter, through not only her pictures and self-portraits, but also her voice. All the words one hears across the documentary are from her letters, diaries, essays, and print interviews – taking her pioneering device of self-portrait to a whole new level.One can imagine that for Carla, the primary challenge of making Frida went beyond the Herculean task of assembling every word that belonged to her. It also entailed hunting for a voice that felt like it was coming from beyond the grave. “We had a lot of interviews inviting people who knew Frida. There were some who described her voice as a bit raspy, but not very low. As you can see in the film, she smoked a lot. So that explains the raspy voice,” said Carla in an exclusive interview.But when it came to Frida Kahlo, not any raspy female voice would do. It demanded gravitas, a depth of emotion, and most crucially, a character. “We knew we wanted to find a voice actor who had the maturity, who went through a lot of pain in her life, but also never lost the freshness, passion, and curiosity of a young girl who interacted the world in such an intense way,” said Carla, insisting that the voice needed to capture what made Frida Kahlo the painter we know today: duality, contrast, range.With the help of casting director Luis Rosales in Mexico, a search across film, television, and theatre actors, landed them Fernanda Echevarría. “The feeling she put in her audition really felt like it came from Frida. Then we took her voice against the edit of an image of Frida, and it felt like Frida came alive for us,” said Carla, who then worked with her closely during the recordings and guided her through the voice acting. “I asked her to think like she was talking about the end of her life to a friend or telling me all her secrets,” added Carla.