Melissa Barrera is conscious that her profession has made her one thing of a “style actress” — however whereas she has no intention of working away from her movie roots, she is all the time trying to broaden her profession horizons. After a starring position within the sequence “Vida,” Barrera got here to theatrical prominence in 2021’s high-profile “Within the Heights” (a musical) and two “Scream” sequels (decidedly horror) in 2022 and 2023. She then doubled-down on horror with final 12 months’s well-received “Abigail” and the indie “Your Monster.”
“I really like horror. It’s tremendous enjoyable. And there’s so many nice horror scripts,” Barrera mentioned on “The Seeds” podcast, praising horror administrators as among the largest “threat takers” within the trade. However she added that she needed to “stretch” as an actress. “I even have by no means preferred placing myself in a field of any type, and I do know that I’ve a number of different expertise that… I wish to showcase, and I wish to like play with. So, I really feel like I might get bored — I do get bored simply if I’m doing the identical factor or the identical style.”
As a Latina actress, Barrera mentioned she has needed to work tougher to get thought of for sure roles all through her profession.
“You form of must battle for extra room,” she defined. “Individuals [are] not essentially searching for those who appear to be you for a task, however you bought to form of try to… knock on the door and be like, ‘Hey, I do know you’re not searching for me. However like, possibly, would you thoughts? I’ll simply do it, and should you prefer it, possibly.’”
Barrera mentioned that there’s a internet impact anytime a Latino performer is added to a manufacturing’s solid that advantages greater than only a single actor. She used the casting of the fifth “Scream” installment for instance. “The massive purpose that I needed to get that position so badly was as a result of I knew that this character was going to have a household, and that if I acquired the position, then that meant extra alternatives for different Latinos within the different roles. In order that’s form of factor that you consider,” she defined.
Barrera will subsequent be seen alongside Simu Lui within the Peacock sequence “The Copenhagen Check,” bringing her into a brand new style: espionage motion thriller. A launch date has but to be introduced, although a trailer was proven on the NBCU upfronts final month.