Posted in: Peacock, TV | Tagged: fear the walking dead, M.I.A., The Walking Dead

M.I.A.: Danay Garcia on Embracing Dual Roles, Gisella, FTWD & More

M.I.A. star Danay Garcia spoke with us about her roles on Peacock's crime drama, working with Shannon Gisella, her FTWD legacy, and more.

Danay Garcia is one of the most versatile character actresses on screen since bursting onto the scene in the 2005 film Danika, which landed her roles on CSI: Miami, CSI: New York, and her breakout role as Sofia Lugo on the Fox crime drama series Prison Break in seasons three and four. Garcia would land her biggest signature role on AMC's Fear the Walking Dead, the first spinoff of the Robert Kirkman-created live-action universe after the original The Walking Dead, playing Luciana Galvez from seasons 2 to 8, appearing in 98 episodes. Her latest is the Peacock crime drama series M.I.A., which follows a young woman, Etta Tiger Jonze (Shannon Gisella), who dreams of a life in Miami's glittering sub-tropical kingdom, but when her family's drug-running business shatters in tragedy, however, Etta embarks on a dangerous journey through Miami's neon-lit underbelly that will define who she is and what she's ultimately capable of. Garcia spoke to Bleeding Cool on how she got involved in the Bill Dubuque-created series, working with him and showrunner Karen Campbell, approaching her dual roles, and how Gisella had the presence as a lead beyond the typical novice, the series' revenge themes, and what her time and legacy on Fear left on her life and career. The following contains spoilers.

M.I.A. Star Danay Garcia on Transitioning to the Peacock Crime Drama from AMC's Fear the Walking Dead, Working with Shannon Gisella, and More

BC: What intrigued you about 'M.I.A.' and how did you get involved?

Garcia: Oh, audition. They threw me in casting, and I read the script. I'm like, "What do I have to do to be in front of whoever's casting this?" I literally flew myself to LA and was able to audition in person, which was such a treat. I was about to get a first-hand idea of what they wanted, and it was the beginning of a journey.

What's it like working with Bill and Karen as creatives?

Oh, my goodness. Karen is the first female showrunner I ever had. All my showrunners before were male, and Karen was such a badass, like she could see problems before they arrived. When we had like a very intense scene, she right away called for a rehearsal, and I was already like, "Thank gosh," because it's so complex figuring it out on the day, it would have been very hard, but the fact that we can rehearse this before, you already saved a lot of time for later. She was able to see things ahead of his time. With Bill, he created this entire universe. I feel like I understood his world before I even met him. I mean, living those characters really said a lot about how he sees us, so it was just really special.

Since you're playing dual roles as Leah and Carmen, how did you approach each? Were you too careful not to have one be too much like the other?

Yeah, the way that I did it was I just separated them, and I treated them as different people, because they happen to be sisters, but they are. I highlighted one character first and created the entire world, and then, after I understood that, I did that to the other one. What I realized in that process is that I'm really playing four characters in this season. I'm playing present Carmen, flashback Carmen, present Leah, and flashback Leah. Since they are two different people, they are really four. I'm like, "Oh my gosh! Leah, as a mother, is not Leah now, in the flashback." I focus a lot on the hair too, like physicality. I want Leah to be looser, and she's still looser later. Understanding them individually was the key for me to go deep with them.

What's it like working with a younger talent like Shannon and the way she carries herself on screen?

It was great. This is her first job, and what?! I mean, seriously, that's a lot, but she was so given and so there, present, and that is one thing about this job. You need to be present daily, every single day. You can't think of anything else, but today, and she really had it down. Connecting with her throughout the journey of Carmen, Etta, and Leah, it's like a lot of energy is coming at her, even for me. She was the same person, and I was coming at her from different angles. It was such a crazy acting exercise, and having her receive everything that I was giving to her was such joy. I could not have had a better scene partner for that.

As far as the series embracing South Florida culture and getting to the mindset, how'd you best approach inhabiting that world, and balancing the cathartic nature of the crime drama format?

This series has a lot to do with revenge and revenge, because this dark world really takes over a family. What really attracts it is not just revenge (for the sake of it), it's revenge, because it's rooted in love. It's like you go on a revenge journey because love was broken. They killed this love bubble that was created. That's why it goes so hard in the opposite direction to get this revenge. It's justified by how deeply you loved in that place, and so you forget that these people do drugs, because the love and the human experience are more powerful than what they do (as criminals). You focus on the characters and how they operate versus who does the drugs. The drugs and what they do are a distraction to hype the stakes up.

Final question, and I wanted to change the subject. How do you feel about your lasting legacy on Fear the Walking Dead as Luciana and your time on that franchise?

It was the best. I had seven amazing seasons on the apocalypse. I feel like I'm the artist today, because of them, the apocalypse, and [the show's] fanbase. I understood the fanbase through in that universe, like nobody else, like nowhere before. I don't even know how, I don't know my life before that, honestly. It just defined me so much. Tom, this is the first job I have done after seven seasons on the show, and I really didn't know where I was heading. Like, "Where am I going after this?" It's an apocalypse, like there's nothing more apocalyptic than the apocalypse, so jumping in after that experience was such a genuine and interesting transition. If you're in The Walking Dead, everything was all the apocalypse, and you could see it right away. In M.I.A, the apocalypse is inside us. It starts getting out as episodes flow, and it taught me a lot of storytelling being on Fear that allowed me to be now twins and being able to see in different dimensions. Once you live the apocalypse, you're ready for a lot of crazy stuff.

M.I.A., which also stars Cary Elwes, Brittany Adebumola, Dylan Jackson, Alberto Guerra, Maurice Compte, Gerardo Celasco, and Marta Milans, is available to stream on Peacock.

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