Melissa Barrera is conscious that her profession has made her one thing of a “style actress” — however whereas she has no intention of operating away from her movie roots, she is at all times wanting to increase her profession horizons. After a starring function within the collection “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 yr’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 said on “The Seeds” podcast, praising horror administrators as some of the most important “threat takers” within the trade. However she added that she wished to “stretch” as an actress. “I even have by no means appreciated placing myself in a field of any form, and I do know that I’ve rather a lot of different expertise that… I need to showcase, and I need to like play with. So, I really feel like I’d get bored — I do get bored simply if I’m doing the identical factor or the identical style.”
As a Latina actress, Barrera stated she has had to work tougher to get thought of for sure roles all through her profession.
“You form of have to struggle for extra room,” she defined. “Folks [are] not essentially wanting for those that appear to be you for a job, however you bought to form of try to… knock on the door and be like, ‘Hey, I do know you’re not wanting for me. However like, perhaps, would you thoughts? I’ll simply do it, and in case you prefer it, perhaps.’”
Barrera stated that there’s a internet impact anytime a Latino performer is added to a manufacturing’s forged that advantages greater than only a single actor. She used the casting of the fifth “Scream” installment for instance. “The massive cause that I wished to get that function so badly was as a result of I knew that this character was going to have a household, and that if I received the function, then that meant extra alternatives for different Latinos within the different roles. In order that’s form of factor that you concentrate on,” she defined.
Barrera will subsequent be seen alongside Simu Lui within the Peacock collection “The Copenhagen Test,” bringing her into a brand new style: espionage motion thriller. A launch date has but to be introduced, though a trailer was shown on the NBCU upfronts final month.
