Melissa Barrera says that from Mexico she had always “idealized the Hollywood industry.” So when she got the role of Carmenwhich finally premieres this Friday in Spain, saw how her life could change. The actress was reluctant to accept roles of Latin immigrants. She didn’t even read them. But this one had something different: “By having music, dance and mystery we could open the conversation to another audience.” It was a project that made her eyes shine. And that opportunity and that role still excite her today, although she recognizes that she is no longer the woman she was six years ago. In this time, Hollywood has shown her its worst side.
Last year, Barrera (Monterrey, 34 years old) suffered a bitter disappointment with the industry. In November, and after starring in two films of the saga Screamshe was fired from the seventh installment for being one of the most active voices against Israel’s attacks on Gaza and in defense of Palestine. Now she admits via video conference to EL PAÍS that there were times when she was afraid of being “evicted” and of not being offered more roles in that Hollywood that she had perceived as ideal from the other side of the border. “With time, the scales fall from your eyes. It’s not all so pretty,” she admits.
“In Carmen, which ended up being filmed in 2021, “It was the first time I felt special in a process, that they were really watching me,” she recalls about a project that from the beginning sounded like a curious mix. In this free adaptation of the opera and the novel by Prosper Mérimée, the classic tragic romance crosses its plot with an impossible love story. The protagonists are a Mexican woman and a rebellious American border guard with the then unknown face of Paul Mescal. Each part of the puzzle is atypical. There is the original work by Bizet, which serves as inspiration, and the direction of the French choreographer Benjamin Millepied, famous for Black Swan and Natalie Portman’s ex-husband. But also the songs of three-time Oscar nominee Nicholas Brittell (Succession) and Mexican singer Julieta Venegas, and a cast that includes Spanish actresses Rossy de Palma and Elsa Pataky. And all filmed in the deserts of Australia.
“It was a really cool project. The vision of a choreographer is different from the rest. The script went through 20 versions and ended up being very different from the original. It is a very experimental and artistic work,” explains Barrera, who has mixed dance and acting throughout his career. “It has always been a part of my life. It is a return to my roots. I look for projects that are related to dance. And they look for me. In the theater in Mexico, in the musical In a neighborhood of New York (by Lin-Manuel Miranda) and even in the horror film Abigail. It’s the universe telling me: we are with you, we are taking care of you and you have taken the right path.”
Dancing also led her to participate in the very early stages of preparation for the controversial musical Malinche Nacho Cano, as shown in the Netflix documentary about his creation, although Barrera, who has a sister living in Madrid for three years, remembers that she only participated “in the development with Nacho in the United States. First in Miami and then in New York,” so she has remained aloof from his journey in Spain. This week a judge charged the composer with allegedly illegally hiring immigrants for the musical in Madrid.
In Carmenprecisely, Rossy de Palma’s character, a kind of mentor for the tragic protagonist, explains that dancing heals. Barrera writes those words on her skin to describe her life: “Whenever I feel saturated or overwhelmed by any situation, I know that if I go back to music, I recharge my energy and regenerate myself.” The performer has needed those words a lot since November.
Every day, and almost without fail, Barrera climbs into his stories messages of support for Palestine or criticism of Israel’s attacks on Gaza. He shares everything from account numbers to help NGOs to videos showing the bloodiest massacres. He has been doing this since the conflict broke out in October and, just a month later, the production company Spyglass decided to dispense with the services of its star to Scream 7They argued that they had “zero tolerance for anti-Semitism and incitement to hatred, including false references to genocide and distortions of the Holocaust,” something they had perceived in Barrera’s messages in which he pointed out that “Gaza is being treated like a concentration camp.”
“It was a very hard time,” she recalls. “It’s very difficult when you feel that the good guys are losing. You wonder how it’s possible that because you’re fighting for justice and for good things, you have such bad consequences. It makes you question absolutely everything, but it also made me hungrier to fight to create that change and to open my mind. I thought: what am I doing here? Why do I depend so much on a single industry when I can go to Europe? The United Kingdom has supported me a lot. I wanted to create my own industry and eliminate that monopoly that has so much power over people.” Then the impetus to move into production and make decisions was born in her: “I don’t want to depend on anyone else, it pushed me to be more proactive and put together my own projects, produce, direct and not wait for someone to open the door for me.” Among other things, she decided to leave Los Angeles and set up her home permanently in Austin, Texas, from where she connects to the video call with EL PAÍS.
Barrera’s dismissal was followed by the departure of Scream 7 from her fictional sister, Jenna Ortega (on the rise after Wednesday), and director Christopher Landon, who supported the actress. In their place, they decided to pull from reliable classics and call back the former star of the franchise Neve Campbell and its creator, director Kevin Williamson. “There was a moment when I thought: is it all over? I wondered if I was going to have to do something else. They are going to completely block me and I won’t be able to do anything. But, thank God, no,” she remembers while admitting that she feels calmer because in these months “the wave has changed” in her direction: “I knew it was a matter of time. For some of us, it was very clear from the beginning and we began to express it.”
That does not mean, however, that today he sees his work differently, and that when he reviews Carmen She sees a girl with a lot to learn: “I thought that if I got there I had already done it. But once you fight to be there, the blinders fall off and nothing guarantees you a return to work. I feel that Hollywood can be too superficial and individualistic, that admiration has gone away. I love the work I do and telling stories, but there are many problems that come from deep within, and people who are starting out really want to change, to open it up and tell other kinds of stories, to be more open to opportunities, more tolerant, welcoming, safe… There are many things that are not so nice, but the nice thing is that it has a lot of power to tell stories that reflect the world and create positive change.” She even sees it with a certain optimism. When asked about whether Scream could return in his future, he answers: “Who knows.”
She acknowledges her “privilege” and yet protests because she believes that Latinos continue to seem to Hollywood “the last to be considered, the last minority, and that in many states they are not even a minority.” Barrera wants to break that glass ceiling by opting for roles not originally written for Latinos and discarding those others that are included in the casts to fill a quota. That is why she hesitated with Carmen: “When I went to the US, I didn’t want to do stories about immigration or drug trafficking, because they continue to feed stereotypes. It’s something very relevant and delicate, which continues to create debate, but there are many more Latinos. When I received these auditions, I rejected them. But I liked this concept.”
Barrera sees herself reflected in her character, and believes that because she is a woman and a Latina, her words have also been judged more harshly. She liked Carmen’s power and the twist that the director gave to her tragic and famous ending. She remembers that empowerment when Millepied reduced his salary so that she could have a good salary: “Carmen is a woman who dares. In the original story, she dares to be sensual, to seek pleasure, she is brave. She raises her voice, she stands up front, she exposes herself and it goes badly for her. There are consequences because the people around her do not like it. We have to change that. Benjamin wanted to give power to women. From the beginning he made me feel important and one of them. We need that kind of ally.”