Posted in: Exclusive, Interview, Lionsgate, Movies | Tagged: lionsgate, Off The Grid

Off the Grid: Camargo on Action, Changing Origins, Martin & More

María Elisa Camargo (Warrior) spoke to Bleeding Cool about her American feature film debut in the Lionsgate action thriller Off the Grid.

Ecuadorian actress María Elisa Camargo has been a powerhouse in Latin American entertainment since bursting onto the scene in The X Factor Colombia in 2005. Developing her passion as a performer, she made her on-screen acting debut in 2006 in the TV series Floricienta, becoming an international success, appearing in 30 projects. Camargo's gained traction with American audiences, appearing on the HBO Max series Warrior and lending her voice in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022). Her latest venture is her American feature debut in Lionsgate's Off the Grid, which follows Guy (Josh Duhamel), a brilliant scientist who develops revolutionary technology his former employer, a morally bankrupt company, tries to weaponize. He goes off-grid to safeguard humanity. When the company sends a strike force to find him, they make their biggest mistake of all – they weaponize the man they are trying to catch. Armed with unrivaled brains and brawn, the wild genius turns guerrilla warfare into a deadly science. Camargo spoke to Bleeding Cool about her role as Josefina, the friendly resident barkeep who bonds with Guy despite his brooding nature; working with director Johnny Martin and writer Jim Agnew on creative changes to her character, and how Martin went above and beyond for her.

'Off the Grid' Star María Elisa Camargo on Josefina's Journey and Being the Film's Heart

Bleeding Cool: What intrigued you about 'Off the Grid?'

I love I am usually not even in the audience for an action movie, but when I read the script, I realized that this is one of the few action stories where there's so much human connection involved. There is so much that moves the main character, and since I'm Latina and I'm all about the emotions, that's usually my trademark and what I bring to the table because of what I've done and who I am.

It was fun to see, even though the character wasn't originally Latino but Italian, which is similar. At first, I was like, "I can bring this to the table, I'm not used to seeing a strong character like Josh's be moved and change his narrative. because of how he feels about a person he meets when he escapes." He also develops this father-son relationship with a kid. It's mystic and mysterious, this connection I've had in my life, where you don't need that many words. It spoke to us like a love story, a connection story, in such a different and mysterious way. I liked that the tension had to be so high, and I appreciated them taking the time to write something like this (relationships) in the middle of bombs and special effects. I thought I could bring that as well to the story.

What did you like about playing Josey, and how does it compare to your other roles?

Josey was a journey because I had to change her reality and context, especially for many times. After all, we were shooting in Italy. then it was Spain, and I am a nerd. I like to dig into the culture of the characters. Hispanics are not all the same. A Spanish person and a Colombian are so different, so I had to change her reality, and that's something that hadn't happened to me with other characters. With Josey, who later became "Josefina," because "Josey" is such an American name, I had to tell Johnny if the final situation for this character was that she's going to be Latina, her name can't be "Josey" just because. This is something they must tell her because they can't say "Josefina." Anyway, all these things I had to discuss with the director at the last minute, because I was supposed to be a girl from Mississippi.

Originally, I was going to be removed because I'm not even an American girl, but I fought for it. Johnny had my back, stood by me, and supported me. As she became this Latina, I had to build from scratch within hours. This became my biggest challenge in creating this backstory of why she is there. She's Latina, in Mississippi, undocumented, and she had to run away. There must be a special mystery, a mystique about her, and she cannot be this plain character, at least not for me. There was little about her story you got to find out, but the only way to make her multi-layered was to create this backstory. Usually, I have months to do this in rehearsals. This was the last minute, so that was the craziest part about Josey, but it was the most challenging and the best also, because now I have stronger tools in my set.

What do you like about working with Johnny, and how do you compare him to other directors you've worked with?

Oh my God, you cannot even compare. Johnny has been the most fulfilling and rewarding human experience I've had. I never expected my first-ever Hollywood movie to have such a human component to it because, from the moment I did this challenging audition, I didn't have the tools. I didn't have anyone to read for me, so I had to do it myself in a crazy, silent way, listening to the silence and the whole thing. I had to build…I mean, I had to do a lot of crazy things. It's not the usual audition where you feel 100 percent sure, but Johnny saw something in me.

I've been in L.A. for around eight years, and it's so crazy not to feel seen until you feel so immensely seen. He was so adamant about my work in general, how compelling he found it, and how convinced he was that it was me from the beginning to the point of this character changing completely. Everybody else was being recast, not me because he wanted to defend me and do this movie with me so much that I couldn't believe it. I've never felt this supported, and in Latin America, I do have a career where I feel like, "Oh, that should be obvious because people already respect my work." If anything, I would have thought in these circumstances, they would have just gotten rid of me without any struggle. Throughout the year, he fought for me to keep me there to the point of adjusting, so the character became Latina. It's a weird thing that she's a Latina in Mississippi, but then he made me improvise this whole story, and we just created the character from scratch together.

It's been such a beautiful friendship. [Johnny's] direction was so exquisite; I've never worked with a director so passionate and so committed to every story to every character, especially to every human being, so I cannot compare him. He's been an angel to me throughout this whole process, making my biggest dream come true and on set. He's militaristic, strong, and passionate like a Latino, even though he's Brazilian American, so I can connect to that. [Johnny] would sometimes be a little scared, and we would take his volume and passion as aggression. That's exactly my language, so I feel we connected in every sense so beautifully, that's why. This character of Josefina, even though it was built at the last minute, had the soul that it ended up having.

Off the Grid, which also stars Peter Stormare, Michael Zapesotsky, Ricky Russert, Ana Golja, Talia Asseraf, and Monya Tebji, is available in theaters, digital, and on-demand.

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