Robert Kojder chats with Carmen star Melissa Barrera…
There’s a strong chance you know the name Melissa Barrera from the recent Scream legacy sequels. It’s understandable since she excels at fighting back against Ghostface and shading in her character with grounded PTSD and a winning bond with her sister, played by Jenna Ortega. However, she is a talented performer all around, previously having a major role in the cinematic adaptation of Lin Manuel Miranda’s Broadway hit In the Heights. And that’s just talking about her American career so far.
Here, she stars in Carmen, an experience similar to a musical but not quite. It comes from celebrated dance choreographer Benjamin Millipied (Black Swan) making his feature-length directorial debut. Somewhat intentionally devoid of characterization, it forces Melissa Barrera to tap into emotion through body language and dancing, viscerally translating that into audiences while a Shakespearean Bonnie and Clyde-reminiscent romance unfolds with co-star Paul Mescal across the Mexican border and into Los Angeles.
Melissa Barrera’s performance is hypnotically captivating, meaning it was wonderful to receive the opportunity to discuss the process and what it was like working alongside Benjamin and Paul. There’s also a Scream question tossed into the mix. If you gravitate toward Melissa Barrera and her craft, be sure to check out Carmen; it’s strange, abstract, and bizarre but entirely transfixing with a beautiful score from Nicholas Britell. Enjoy my interview with Melissa Barrera below:
It’s lovely to meet you. I love your work.
You too, thank you!
Carmen has minimal dialogue, and aside from the beautiful visuals and score, it relies on you and Paul Mescal to deliver these expressive performances through body language. So much of this film feels designed to make the viewer feel something rather than tell a traditional, straightforward story, and you all succeed at that. So what was the biggest challenge of overcoming such minimalistic and sometimes abstract storytelling to elicit such a visceral emotion?
The biggest challenge was getting out of my head because I am very cerebral and like clarity. So this was a very different experience because I just kind of had to trust Benjamin Millipied’s vision of “don’t worry, we don’t have to really say anything about Carmen leaving and her mother; we don’t have to explain any of that. Trust me.” I asked, “How will we establish who she is?” I was constantly asking him how it would be clear. He said, “Trust me, this isn’t that kind of movie. It going to take you on a journey.”
That was the biggest challenge for me; just letting go and trusting Benjamin’s vision and going on the journey, which is the kind of journey we ask audiences to go on when they see our movie. Let yourself go and experience this viscerally because it is very powerful and unconventional. I had to let go of everything I knew about storytelling because this is something completely different.
You also touched on another question I was going to ask. Did Benjamin allow you to make up details about your character that didn’t necessarily make it into the movie so that you could have a frame of reference or something additional to portray the character?
Benjamin let me do many things I wanted to do. He was very generous in letting us experiment and improvise a lot. There are a lot of themes in the movie in Spanish that have some improv in there. He would trust that I knew the character and what needed to be said in the most concise way possible. He was a very collaborative director.
Did you know what Nicholas Britell’s score sounded like when performing the various dances and singing? Or did he craft the score around the performances?
I think he did the score later, but he had already done the songs we danced to. So I was familiar with the songs years before we shot the movie. The music also inspired Benjamin to do the choreography and create the story too. It was music first and then build off of that.
Benjamin is most known for doing the choreography on Black Swan; he is a celebrated choreographer, so were you eager to work with him?
I was a fan of Black Swan. I loved that movie and knew his work from that, but I didn’t know anything else he had done. So when I saw that he was making his directorial debut, I wondered if he had directed anything before. And, of course, he had done a bunch of short dance films, and they were so beautiful and mesmerizing that I said, “Oh, this man has his own visual language, and he’s going to make something really special.” So I was on board from the get-go. I knew this would be unique and very cool, and I wanted to be a part of it.
There’s a moment right before the love scene where you and Paul Mescal embrace one another, and I just felt such an overwhelming reaction watching that and feeling their connection and what they’re going through. So can you talk about building that chemistry with Paul?
It was so easy. Paul is so great and such a lovely man. We spent much time together before we started shooting because we were both in Australia by ourselves. We had many rehearsals, so we got to know each other in a complete way, learning each other’s body language. You see each other make a fool of yourself. You’re dancing and feeling stupid and then laughing and joking around, but also in these intense moments of deep connection when you’re so in sync, and everything works out, and you finally nail that step or that lifter. It was a beautiful time that we got to spend together, and we got to know each other so well that I think we built on that unspoken cosmic connection that the characters have in such a whole complete way in the rehearsals that when we got to set it felt like we’d known each other forever and that we really knew each other on a deep level.
That is exactly what Carmen and Aiden (Paul Mescal) are; two people that the moment they lay eyes on each other, there’s this recognition of “I know you; I was meant to find you.” So that’s where it comes from. You’re waiting for them to come together. That’s why you felt that visceral reaction of that embrace because you’ve been waiting for them to do that. You’ve been waiting for them to find each other, and Benjamin did such a beautiful job building that tension and chemistry and “Will they, won’t they; what’s going to happen with that attraction and magnetism that they have.”
And as far as I know, Paul is not a dancer. So what were the challenges, or how long did it take to get that final stunning dance sequence right?
We rehearsed a lot. We were rehearsing every day for, for like, six to eight hours. It was a lot of time in the studio, and we knew the dance was very important. We had two dances together; the moonlight dance and the final sunset duet. So, we just spent all the time we felt we needed, and we had extra rehearsals if we felt like we had the energy. He was also practicing boxing. He would go boxing, and then I would work on the other dances by myself, and then we’d meet again, and we’d continue, and it just got easier and easier. It got to the point where we felt like we could do it without thinking about it and just feeling it and having fun, and then we started shooting, and we couldn’t rehearse anymore. So we would like to find time between setups to review so we don’t forget. It was an amazing experience; Paul was not a dancer before, but now he is
Before we go, I want to ask one question about Scream VI here. While watching it, I couldn’t help thinking, I wonder if she wants to do a movie where she does get to let loose and be the Ghostface killer. So is that one possible direction you hope the movies go? Embracing the killer within?
I would love that. It would be my dream for Sam to be Ghostface. And I think many people think that’s where it will go, which is why I sadly think it won’t happen. But I’m hoping that if we get to do a 7th, it will be as exciting as 6.
Either way, I’m happy to see what you and Radio Silence do next. Carmen is great too. I also love In the Heights too. That’s an amazing movie. And thank you so much for your time.
Thank you so much, Robert. It was so nice talking to you.
Many thanks to Melissa Barrera for taking the time for this interview. Read our review of Carmen here.
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
