Genesis Rodriguez insists she was the perfect choice to play Will Ferrell's love interest in his new Spanish language movie Casa De Mi Padre - because she grew up making the telenovelas the film parodies.

The actress spent her first six years in showbusiness working on telenovelas, and she's convinced her resume helped her land the role in the new comedy.

She explains, "It was my first experience on film and sometimes you get dialogue that you can't say because it's so unbelievable. But it's kind of fun because you get all sorts of crazy situations and it trains you. You could be blind one week and wake up and you can see.

"My most extreme situation was I was born with a birth defect in a soap opera, so I had a gigantic nose and buck teeth and my ears stuck out. My character goes through an extreme makeover and she changes in to the villain because she's beautiful. I wish I was kidding but it really did happen.

"I had incredible acting challenges. I went to the University of (Latin TV soap network) Telemundo."