Can you fly?
That was the question posed to actor Sasha Calle, 22, by director Andy Muschietti, 47, right before he told her she’d gotten the part of Supergirl in the upcoming DC movie "The Flash." Calle, who was born in Boston and is of Colombian heritage, will be the first Latina to play the role.
Muschietti called Calle on video conference, and she realized she’d gotten the role when Muschietti brought out the famous blue-and-red Supergirl outfit onto the screen to show her. She instantly became emotional.
“You’re Supergirl,” he said.
“Can I freak out for a second?” she asked, and then turned to announce the news to someone in the room. “I got it,” she said, off camera, and did a dance in her chair before returning back to Muschietti and saying, “I’m probably not going to stop crying all day.”
Calle shared the video to Instagram Saturday saying she was still processing the news. She wrote in Spanish, “A Latina superhero?! On what planet?! Well, on this planet! What joy and what pride.” She then thanked her mom, and said, “I adore you with everything I have. You are an example of a superhero.”
According to Dateline, Muschietti saw more than 400 actors audition for the role. It was Calle’s mix of toughness and vulnerability that set her apart. “The talent pool was truly amazing and it was very hard to make a decision, but we finally found an actress who was destined to play this role,” Muschietti told Dateline.
Calle is best known for playing Lola Rosales in “The Young and the Restless,” a role she has played since 2018. She gained attention last year when she received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for outstanding younger performer in a drama aeries.
Though Calle is young, the road to Supergirl was a long one. She has lived both in the United States and Colombia, and her family fell on hard times when Calle was in high school, according to a 2018 interview with Soap Opera Digest. After drama school, 'The Young and the Restless' was her big break, and Calle said in that same interview, “I can buy food!”, and that, “I used to look at my bank account and everything (was) a concern, and now it’s just so different. I was struggling a lot before I booked Y&R.”
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In thinking about her career, Calle told her drama school magazine, “You really have to acquire patience and you have to focus. You’ll have to pick up side jobs you may not like. You’ll go through many frustrations, tears. Heck, you might get a big break quick, who knows. But I had a whole year and a half of constant rejection and over 100 auditions before I booked Y&R. You can’t take anything personally and you have to move, move, move.”
That big break looks like it has come. Calle ended her Instagram post on Saturday with, “Dreams do come true, huh?”