Backstage at the Gotham Independent Film Awards on November 30, I caught up with the Chilean actress Catalina Saavedra (“The Maid”) just moments after she pulled off a shocking upset by winning the Breakthrough Actor Award over the much higher-profile actors Ben Foster (“The Messenger”), Patton Oswalt (“Big Fan”), and Jeremy Renner (“The Hurt Locker”), as well as Souleymane Sy Savane (“Goodbye Solo”). Considering that the last five winners of that honor — Catalina Sandino Moreno for “Maria Full of Grace” (2004), Amy Adams for “Junebug” (2005), Rinko Kikuchi for “Babel” (2006), Ellen Page for “Juno” (2007), and Melissa Leo for “Frozen River” (2008) — went on to garner Oscar nominations, and that Saavedra didn’t even have an agent at the beginning of the night, her win was a big deal!

Today, “The Maid” was nominated by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for the Golden Globe for best foreign language film, so I thought now was as appropriate a time as any to share with you the video of my chat with Saavedra. In it, she shares her amazement at Gotham honor and the many others bestowed upon her performance (including a special jury prize at Sundance and a Satellite Award best actress nod) and she talks about the character she plays, Raquel, a woman who has served as a family’s live-in maid for 23 years but who feels like neither a member of the family nor a servant, but who, when the family decides to hire additional help, engages in a series of increasingly frantic acts to try to hold on to her position.

Video: Catalina Saavedra, Scott Feinberg, and Saavedra’s translator backstage at the 2009 Gotham Awards. Credit: Rob Perri (video), Dr. Harvey Kliman (post-production).