How so?
I’m on the shyer and quirkier side. I’m also not a murderer! Madison is also a little more strategic than I am — I don’t make a lot of strategic decisions like “Ooh, this movie is going to make me into a star, and then I’m going to do that movie” — my brain doesn’t function like that. Sometimes I wish it did.
You have “Blink Twice,” Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut, coming up in August. You’re in the Amazon Prime series “Criminal.” And you’re starring in and executive produced “Los Frikis,” inspired by true events about teenagers who inject themselves with H.I.V. to escape the oppression of 1990s Cuba. Is there more?
Season 2 of “Andor” is coming out hopefully next year. I think people are going to freak when they see it. It’s so much bigger, smarter — Tony [Gilroy, the showrunner] really outdid himself. And then I have “El Sombreron,” which is the first time I’m going to be working with a Guatemalan director and filming in my home country — I’m half Guatemalan, half Puerto Rican, and I feel very much half and half. There’s a big debate on the internet over whether I’m Puerto Rican or Guatemalan, and I’m very much both. You live in a limbo when you’re mixed. If I go home, they’re like, “You’re not 100 percent Guatemalan,” and when I come here, they’re like, “You’re not American,” even though I’ve lived here a big chunk of my life. And then I go to Puerto Rico, where I was born, and they’re like, “But are you Puerto Rican?” I’m a little bit of everything. People need to leave me the [expletive] alone.
What has it been like to be involved in a “Star Wars” series, with a fan base that scrutinizes even the tiniest details?
It definitely affects you — I’m not going to lie — because you spend so much time creating something and then someone can bash it in three seconds. But I really try not to pay attention to it. I have no control over it.
You were a dancer in middle school and high school. Would you ever want to return to the stage?
I really want to go! There’s a theater opportunity in Miami I might do this fall; it’s a one-woman show called “The Second Woman.” The idea of being in a theater is just so beautiful. When I was studying at the Lee Strasberg Theater & Film Institute in New York and auditioning for theater, there weren’t that many opportunities for Latin American actresses — Horton Foote or Tennessee Williams plays were all white women, and they weren’t that open to hiring outside of that, at least when I was auditioning. Now, it’s very different.
What are your hobbies when you aren’t acting?
I love boxing. I feel like I could be a contractor in my next life; I love fixing stuff, roofing, plastering walls. I’m also picking up the guitar now that no one’s telling me to! My dad is not happy — he’s like, “Are you kidding me, dude? I begged you to play when you were a kid, and now you want to play?”
