Melissa Barrera opened up about her upcoming film Your Monster at The Hollywood Reporter‘s studio during the Sundance Film Festival on Friday.
In the horror rom-com by Caroline Lindy, Barrera plays Laura, an aspiring musical theater actress whose boyfriend breaks up with her while she’s recovering from cancer surgery. As Laura faces her heartbreak, a monster comes out of her closet and the pair spark a romance akin to Beauty and the Beast.
Barrera took on the role after a close friend, who is also friends with Lindy, encouraged her to appear in the filmmaker’s debut feature film. “He called me, and he was like, ‘So there’s this friend, she’s an actor and a director. She’s doing her first feature, and she’s going to send you the script. It’s going to come your way. And I just wanted to call you beforehand to vouch for her that she’s a good person, and she’s very talented,’” she recalled. “I was like, ‘OK.’ Already you’re intrigued if it’s coming from someone that you trust.”
Her friend vouching for Lindy was beneficial, as Barrera’s priority while choosing projects is making sure that she’s working with someone she’ll feel comfortable with. “To me, it matters a lot who I work with, if they’re good people that I care about that it’s not just about if the script is good, if the director is an asshole, I’m not interested in going through that,” she noted.
There was another key reason why Barrera was interested in starring in Your Monster: “This movie has comedy, romantic comedy, horror and musical theater. All the things that I love in one. It was a no-brainer.”
The film also allowed her to return to her acting roots. “I hadn’t done comedy in a while, not since I did comedy in theater in Mexico, but I hadn’t done it since I was doing stuff in the U.S. So, I was interested in doing some comedy again.”
After becoming a scream queen through her roles in the Scream franchise, Bed Rest and the upcoming film Abigail, Barrera has been exploring projects outside of the horror realm — but that doesn’t mean she’ll be done with the genre anytime soon.
“I don’t think I’ll be able to get away from horror, and I also don’t want to,” confirmed Barrera. “I love the genre so much. It’s so much fun to make. Also, I think a genre that people show up to the theaters for no matter what. No stars have to be in the movie for people to show up. I think that just goes to show how big it is, and I think a lot of great directors start as horror directors. There’s just something about it.”