When learning how traumatic of a childhood Elpidia Carrillo had growing up it’s amazing to think that she’s turned out the way she has in the current era. The deaths of her family members and the need to simply survive had to have hardened her up a bit and made Elpidia a bit more leery of people in general. But somehow, against a lot of odds, she was discovered when she was still just 12 years old, and her career began to move forward in a big way as she was first cast in several largely unknown movies and then paired with famous actors from around the world. Of course the one role that a lot of people are bound to associate her with is one that made her ultimately famous despite the fact that she’d already been seen to star with some very big names. The role of Anna in Predator was one that a lot of people can easily recognize and will no doubt point to once they know who she is. Anna was a part of the guerrilla force that Dutch and his men were sent in to neutralize and as a result she was captured and taken with them once Dutch’s group started to move out. Unlike the others however she wasn’t targeted as she wasn’t in possession of a weapon, which people would later discover is about the only thing that saved her character since the predator was all about hunting for sport and sizing up the most dangerous among the group.
Strangely enough while Elpidia performed the role her experience boiled down to knowing how to survive among a bunch of big, stupid, macho alpha males who she appeared to think were ruled more by hormones than anything else. It’s kind of a rough way to look at things and not entirely professional, but it’s also an opinion and she was entitled to it like anyone else. The point of it though is that she is the only actress in the movie and as such it could be kind of intimidating for some, but she was as stoic as she could be about it and obviously had to get by somehow. Thankfully in the movie she’s not exactly a damsel in distress, as she does clock one of them with a heavy branch and is only seen to be traumatized when Hawkins is swept away in a sudden spray of blood as the predator took the first of the soldiers out of the equation. The fact that she and her people know at least a little bit about the predator and the fact that it comes around every now and again is kind of creepy since it’s likely to have become legend, but it’s also something that could have understandably pissed Dutch and his men off since she might have been good enough to mention it earlier. Of course, she was traumatized and they were still the enemy so that kind of negates any real need to feel like sharing too much.
Elpidia has continued to act since Predator and even before the movie had already gained a good deal of renown, though the movie did make her popularity jump even more for a while until her career started to level out a bit. She’s remained a prominent actress in her own right, and she even had a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ scene in Predator 2 when Danny Glover’s character is being given the explanation of what the predator is and how much they’ve discovered about the creature. Her picture shows up on one of the monitors, ostensibly in a debriefing session, and is then gone within the next scene. That’s as far as the character of Anna went even though the connection was made in Predators again, which indicates that maybe the timeline was altered somehow and the character was taken in a different direction after her time in the jungle. Of course it doesn’t make a lot of sense that she would go from being listed as a Guatemalan guerrilla fighter to being described as an Israeli sniper, as this is what’s been put down in the Predators movie concerning the role of the only woman in the group, played by Alice Braga. It does feel accurate to say that things might have become a little confused in the Predator timeline.
As for her career, Elpidia has never really been seen to climb the ranks as she did with her role in Predator, though she has remained fairly steady in her work, only taking a short break between 2010 to 2013. She did return though and has been a steady presence ever since. Likely as not though, unless she does something spectacular at some point, she’ll always be remembered for her role in Predator first and foremost.
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