Your Monster is a horror movie, just not in the way you expect. Starring Melissa Barrera, a 34-year-old actor whose scream queen credentials are pretty high considering that she starred in Abigail and two Scream movies, the genre-hopping comedy from writer-director Caroline Lindy does, indeed, have a large, lurking creature with male features who hides in a young woman’s bedroom. However, the monster (Tommy Dewey in costume) is cuddly in a platonic and romantic sense. Closer to Jason Segel than Jason Vorhees, the furry, cereal-eating roommate offers love, support, and a different kind of love and support that takes the film beyond a PG-13 rating.
What’s scary about Your Monster is actually the real-life horrors facing its protagonist. After a cancer diagnosis, the demise of a long-term relationship, and a career setback, Laura (Barrera) cries so much on a daily basis that it has to be presented in a montage. Moreover, Laura has to audition for a play that its director, Jacob (Edmund Donovan), her ex, originally wrote for her. When Laura loses the part of Laurie to a different actor (Meghann Fahy) and is given a background role instead, the ensuing nightmare is so compelling and horribly hilarious that you sometimes forget about the monster subplot altogether – until it comes roaring back into the theatre storyline.
In a grounded performance emphasising her character’s vulnerabilities, Barrera excels in ensuring Your Monster is primarily about a woman battling a harsh, cruel, upside-down world. Barrera is also downright funny in a nuanced role that involves dancing, singing, and threading multiple tones into a cohesive, creature-related whole. In doing so, it touches on Barrera’s past work such as In the Heights, Carmen, and, yes, the Scream movies. (If you’re wondering, Your Monster, a film about a woman’s unjustly sacking, was shot before Barrera was unjustly sacked from the Scream franchise, allegedly for posting pro-Palestine messages on social media.)
In mid-November, Barrera spoke to Dazed about defying expectations with Your Monster, how it’s a film about a woman finding her voice, and why more artists need to publicly show their support for Palestine.
My favourite bit is when you think Laura is going to do a really big, snappy speech in front of her ex-boyfriend, to humiliate him. But it’s like in the real world where it’s hard to say the perfect thing at the perfect moment.
Melissa Barrera: When she finally lashes out at Jacob in the middle of a rehearsal, in the real world, if anyone had a phone and recorded her, it would become viral. She’d be made fun of on the internet. She’d become a joke and labelled a Karen. She’d be labelled hysterical.
I think it’s so beautiful in this movie, because we’ve been with Laura up until that moment, and we know what a narcissist and asshole Jacob has been. When audiences see that bit of the movie, they clap and whoop at the screen because they’re so happy for her. It doesn’t seem as embarrassing for people who are living this with her, because they’re like, ‘Yes, stand up for yourself! It doesn’t matter if you’re doing it in a weird way, where you’re making weird voices.’
Does that mean you’ve sat in with many audiences?
Melissa Barrera: This is the movie I’ve done that I’ve seen the most. Not to brag, but I feel like it’s resonated everywhere. Audiences are very vocal while watching this movie. The first time I saw it with an audience was at Sundance. The gasps, the yelling at Jacob – I’d never experienced that in a movie before. When audiences feel so invested that they’re yelling at the screen, it’s a great sign.
Are you looking to do more comedy?
Melissa Barrera: Yes. It’s a very joyful environment. You’re literally just laughing all day on set.
You said in April that you’d be up for doing something in the Scary Movie franchise. The Wayan brothers recently announced that they’re making a new one.
Melissa Barrera: Well, I didn’t say that I’d be up for it. I said that I’d be open to it if something happened to come my way, because I found those movies very funny when they came out. I feel like I’m a very open person. I don’t close myself off. I like to leave every avenue open to whatever opportunities come. If it’s the right thing at the right time, and it feels right, like it might be fun or a challenge, then I say yes.
But there’s been no talks about it at all. It’s not anything that I’ve been approached about. I think it’s just something people were wanting to happen.
So you’ve spoken to zero of the Wayan brothers. Not even one of them.
Melissa Barrera: Zero.
“[Artists] are inherently political, and I think even silence is a choice” – Melissa Barrera
What’s the trick to doing Laura’s bad acting? Is it something you can rehearse?
Melissa Barrera: It was a challenge, the auditions, and when she’s recovering from the surgery. I really wanted it to be believable. I focused on the breath. When you’re out of breath, you can’t be present, and you can’t sing well.
Are you quite a technical actor with different tricks, like what you say about breathing?
Melissa Barrera: I think so. There are lots of things you can accomplish with breath. If you have to play drunk, dizzy, or like you’re about to puke, there are lots of tricks of the mind and body that help induce certain kinds of feelings and reactions, to make the portrayal seem more honest and real.
Does that come from your dancing background? Or doing films like Abigail?
Melissa Barrera: I’ve picked up things from different stages in my life. I learned a lot while working in soaps from a lot of very experienced soap actors in Mexico. I learned a lot in theatre, as well as from my teachers in acting school at NYU. I love watching interviews with actors I admire about their processes, and then trying things that they say.
Do you have examples of those videos?
Melissa Barrera: I’ve tried to copy a lot of Meryl Streep’s techniques of staying in character in between the breaks of a scene, so that you don’t lose the emotion. I love listening to how Kate Winslet prepares for roles.
There’s an old interview of Alan Cumming where he’s talking about the inner monologue, and how we’re always thinking of different things. I could be having a conversation with you, and I’m talking about the movie, but I’m thinking that I forgot to pick up my dry cleaning, and that I have to call my husband to tell him to pick it up before they close today. He was talking about that inner monologue that is completely senseless, and it doesn’t have to have anything to do with what is happening in the scene, but it informs the depth of the character.
I’ll remind you to pick up your dry cleaning at the end of this interview.
Melissa Barrera: Thanks.
Your Monster is a film about being an actor who’s unfairly kicked off a project, and then finding out who your real friends are. I don’t know if that was something you thought about when rewatching the film after what happened with Scream.
Melissa Barrera: I hadn’t thought about, you know, getting kicked off a project unfairly. But I had thought about how this movie is about Laura finding her voice, and that many women and many people in general are told, ‘Don’t do that, because you’ll embarrass yourself. You’ve got to keep it together. Don’t cry in public. Don’t talk too loud’. All these things that keep us small.
This movie is about Laura finding her voice, and I found my voice in the last year. I definitely see a parallel. I hadn’t thought about that aspect of it, but definitely. Everything is perfect. Everything always happens at the right time, and comes out at the right time.
At Dazed, we’re hugely supportive of Palestine. Increasingly it seems that more and more public figures feel emboldened to share their support for Palestine, which is great – quite recently, Andrew Garfield said it’s the most important thing we should be talking about. After your sacking from Scream, the reaction – especially from young people on the internet – seemed to be overwhelmingly in support of you, and I think that encouraged other people to speak up as well.
Melissa Barrera: I definitely don’t regret anything. I’m happy that I spoke when I did, and I stand by everything that I said. I haven’t posted or said anything without thinking it thrice over. Everything has been very thoughtful. I’m proud that I said what I said, and I stood my ground. I’ve gotten a lot of heat because of it, but I also got a lot of support because of it. I think I found the right people, you know? It was a life filter that really revealed a lot about a lot of people.
It breaks my heart that it’s been over a year, and we’re still seeing innocent people getting bombed every day. That, to me, is the most important thing. Why is that still going on? We can’t turn a blind eye to that. I feel very comfortable in my position, and I’m happy that more and more people are coming out and speaking up on it, because I think that’s our jobs as artists. We are inherently political, and I think even silence is a choice. In your silence, you’re being political. I think it’s inevitable, and I’d rather say that I stood up for justice and liberation and human rights.
With Your Monster, it seems like you’re a very flexible, genre-hopping performer. Is there anything you feel scared to do as an actor?
Melissa Barrera: No, I’ve always wanted to keep my career exciting. Well, actually, I am scared of something. I wouldn’t want to do a demonic possession thing. That’s the one thing I wouldn’t ever do.
As a victim or the demon itself?
Melissa Barrera: Whatever. I don’t want to be there because I know that strange things happen on those sets. You’re opening doors and portals, and I don’t want to be a part of that. I grew up very Catholic, so I have a lot of respect and fear for that. That’s the one thing you’ll never see me in – a possession movie. Anything else? Sign me up.
Thanks so much for your time, and don’t forget to pick up your dry cleaning.
Melissa Barrera: Thank you, Nick. I’m going to text my husband.
Your Monster is out in UK and Irish cinemas November 29
