Melissa Barrera is ready for action

Melissa Barrera is nary alien to a definite benignant of espionage. Dangerous ones. Sometimes starting successful the acheronian of night. One peculiar covert cognition she regularly took portion successful is 1 galore daughters person had to instrumentality with their resolute mothers — Black Friday shopping.

She recalls crossing the borderline from her hometown successful Monterrey, Nuevo León, successful the wee hours of the greeting to McAllen oregon Brownsville successful Texas to people primo deals astatine the big-box stores.

“It felt similar a treasure hunt for me,” she recalled. “In my mind, it was similar a mission, getting the things that we had to get. I similar challenges and being fixed instructions. That was precise satisfying for my property type.”

That acquisition prepared the Mexican histrion for her relation arsenic a spy juggling concealed identities successful Peacock’s “The Copenhagen Test,” premiering Dec. 27. The espionage thriller stars Simu Liu arsenic an quality expert whose encephalon has been hacked, putting his thoughts and memories successful the hands of chartless perpetrators. Barrera co-stars arsenic Michelle, a spy tangled successful the web of deceit.

“It was a challenge. I’d ne'er done thing similar this before, successful the consciousness that you truly don’t cognize who Michelle is,” said the actor, who chatted implicit Zoom from Barcelona wherever she’s filming different thriller, “Black Tides.”

“It was besides confusing for maine arsenic an actor, due to the fact that we didn’t person each the scripts astatine the beginning, truthful I had made up who I thought Michelle was — and past I would get much scripts and I was like, ‘Well, that goes retired the window.’ It was a changeless construction.”

Those Black Friday missions weren’t the lone ways successful which Barrera was innately prepared for the role. Growing up, she devoured the Jennifer Garner spy bid “Alias.” She spent hours arsenic a teen watching and rewatching episodes connected DVD. It was Garner’s ass-kicking crook arsenic Sydney Bristow, and her galore stealthy change egos, that planted a effect successful Barrera.

“I was obsessed with that show,” she says. “As a young teenager, I was like, ‘I privation to beryllium a spy.’ I would probe online: ‘How bash you get recruited arsenic a spy?’ That’s however obsessed I was.”

She longed for intrigue, for covert operations, for wigs. Not conscionable the benignant of spy concern that equates to elbowing señoras astatine Best Buy for a profoundly discounted TV. And past came “The Copenhagen Test.”

“I conscionable thought that it was truthful fun, the relation playing wrong the relation playing that happens,” she said. “I work the scripts, and they were truly good. And I got to beryllium a spy. I was like, this is simply a no-brainer for me. I’ve been asking for this since I was 12, truthful it was a imagination travel existent for young me.”

From “Episode 101” of “The Copenhagen Test”: Melissa Barrera arsenic Michelle and Simu Liu arsenic Alexander.

A spy bid is conscionable the latest successful a agelong wishlist of roles for Barrera, who got to flex her melodramatic broadside successful “Vida,” her vocal and creation prowess successful the philharmonic “In the Heights,” and dive into shriek queen territory successful “Scream V” and “Scream VI.”

“I deliberation it’s invaluable for Latinos onscreen to bring successful immoderate of their inheritance erstwhile it fits, and erstwhile it doesn’t, there’s nary request to propulsion it — I’m representing Latinos conscionable by being there,” said Barrera, with a motion to ongoing discussions surrounding Latino inclusion successful Hollywood. “[Yet] I’ve ever wanted to research each parts of myself. I’ve ever wanted to effort antithetic things. I deliberation it’s been happening, due to the fact that I bash judge that immoderate you enactment retired into the beingness comes to you.”

It’s not conscionable imagination acting roles that Barrera puts retired into the universe, hoping it produces thing good. The 35-year-old is an outspoken advocator for Palestinian rights, wearing her beliefs rather virtually connected her thorax — during our telephone she sports a hoodie with the operation “words not actions” successful the signifier of a watermelon, a awesome of perseverance and absorption for Palestinian people. She’s ne'er shied distant from utilizing her voice, successful peculiar for this circumstantial quality rights issue, and it’s travel with its consequences.

Two years ago, Barrera was fired from the forthcoming installment of the Scream franchise, “Scream VII,” arsenic good arsenic dropped from her bureau for posts she shared and wrote connected societal media calling Israel’s attacks connected Gaza acts of genocide and taste cleansing.

“Gaza is presently being treated similar a attraction camp,” work 1 of her Instagram stories successful pursuing the events of Oct. 7. “Cornering everyone together, with nary wherever to go, nary energy nary h2o … People person learnt [sic] thing from our histories. And conscionable similar our histories, radical are inactive silently watching it each happen. THIS IS GENOCIDE & ETHNIC CLEANSING.”

Her firing drew wide attraction and captious treatment implicit what was viewed by galore arsenic the latest signifier of Hollywood blacklisting. Last year, Barrera spoke to De Los astir the backlash, saying, “It wasn’t casual to beryllium labeled arsenic thing truthful horrible erstwhile I knew that wasn’t the case. But I was ever astatine bid due to the fact that I knew I had done thing wrong. I was aligned with quality rights organizations globally, and truthful galore experts and scholars and historians and, astir importantly, Indigenous peoples astir the world.”

Over a twelvemonth later, her stance hasn’t changed. In fact, that play changed everything for Barrera.

“I’ve ever had that interior inquietude, that benignant of yearning for equality and for justness and for eliminating immoderate benignant of prejudices and racism and colorism, which is precise prevalent successful Mexico,” she explained. “But I honestly deliberation it was Palestine that did it for me, that crumbled everything for me. After that, it’s been a earlier and aft successful my mode of reasoning and my mode of viewing the world; successful my mode of viewing the manufacture and the mode that I privation to determination forward.”

As Barrera moves forward, utilizing her level to talk up for injustice is inextricable from her consciousness of aforesaid and her spot successful Hollywood. What she brings to the surface is her afloat self, careless of the role; to play a spy, oregon a shriek queen, oregon immoderate different quality takes knowing who you are and what you basal for. Now, much than ever, Barrera is firmly grounded and acceptable for action.