How Bay Area 'Star Wars' fan rose to the top as Lucasfilm executive: Meet Athena Portillo
She discusses how she went from a 'Star Wars' fan as a little girl to a top executive: "I just love film. I still do to this day."
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- It's not everyday one gets to tour Lucasfilm in San Francisco's Presidio with a top executive.
"I just love film. I still do to this day," expressed Athena Portillo, who was quick to point out the meaning of her first name.
"Goddess of wisdom and war and what I usually say is, 'I'll outsmart you and then I'll kick your butt,'" she warned us.
Perhaps that's why, as a child, she identified with Princess Leia, one of the Star Wars characters.
"I actually do have photos of myself as an 8-year-old wearing a Princess Leia costume that my grandmother created for me," she recalled.
"I remember watching the Empire Strikes Back in the theater for the first time and developing my first crush on Luke Skywalker."
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So imagine, years later, that obsession turning into an internship at Lucasfilm and later shifting toward visual effects.
"I feel that was pretty much my upbringing, observing, listening, learning," Portillo recalls. "I was always more of wait and see, a bit more patience, never ask for anything, it will come to you if it's deserved," she added.
Much like Luke Skywalker who learned to have patience.
Portillo credits her parents and grandparents with giving her the tools to learn and grow.
"Always figure it out. I grew up with that. Maybe that's why I always have that mentality of always having a plan B,C,D because I have always been to to figure it out," revealed Portillo.
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Lyanne Melendez: "Your grandfather moved from Nicaragua to escape the Somoza regime."
Athena Portillo: "He had to, Somoza took all of his land, took everything that my grandfather had built. The type of work ethic that they installed in us and the strength. We saw that.".
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Today, Portillo is the Vice President of the animation division for Lucasfilm.
"Having a strong work ethic, being detailed-oriented and organized and a bit of OCD is kind of like how I mentored and trained the production team to be and it means a lot to me when someone says 'oh your team is so buttoned up, they are so organized," she said proudly.
Portillo and her team have won numerous awards and the Hollywood Reporter named her Women in Entertainment Power 100. Even at that stage she doubted her accomplishments and self worth.
"I was questioning myself and someone actually said, 'Oh, they probably just wanted you in there because they needed a Latina in that picture,' and that hurt. But then of course, I had really nice people say 'Are you kidding you've been with the company for almost 20 years, you've done so much', you do belong there, they actually grabbed me by the shoulders, you do belong there. It's almost like that scene in Airplane, 'You do belong there!'" she said.
For Portillo, it means a lot to mentor Latina girls.
"It has been awesome being asked to be at panels to talk about that very topic and when I have young ladies coming up to me saying 'if I can see that you can do it, that means that we can as well, you've opened up a door that it is possible," expressed Portillo.
For any college graduate Portillo strongly recommends doing an internship. While she graduated with a degree in journalism, she quickly found a passion for visual effects.
"You know it's never too late to join ABC7 news as a reporter," Melendez said.
"That would be so cool. That has always been a dream, seriously, she revealed.
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Young and skilled, Portillo says she would like to delve into other projects.
"Feature animation, live action television and video games will be great," she added.
"I feel very lucky that I have the team at Lucasfilm animation and I love my job, I say it everyday. I feel very fortunate to have this," she said with a sense of pride.
