Trivia for
Maria Full of Grace (2004) More at IMDbPro »

• Catalina Sandino Moreno became the first actress ever to be nominated to Best Actress at the Oscars for a role that it is spoken entirely in Spanish.
  
  
• The film originally had been selected by Colombia to be its official choice for the 77th Academy Awards. It was rejected because it was considered to be not Colombian enough and the film "El Rey" by the Dorado Brothers was submitted instead.
  
  
• Although the first part of the film is set in Colombia, it was actually filmed in Ecuador.
  
  
• Catalina Sandino Moreno did not practice swallowing pellets during rehearsals. Since the character of Maria did not know how to swallow them, Moreno and Joshua Marston agreed that it would be more realistic for her to try swallowing them for the first time on-camera. The pellets were made of easily digestible substances but neither Moreno nor Marston will reveal what exactly they were made of.
  
  
• Catalina Sandino Moreno prepared for her role by working in a Colombian flower plantation for two weeks cutting roses. She did not meet with real drug mules because she wanted to appear to be as clueless to the process and the consequences as Maria was.
  
  
• This is Catalina Sandino Moreno film debut. An anonymous admirer who had seen her in a play told her mother about the open casting call.
  
  

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