The Alien: Romulus star is taking the world and beyond by storm.
It's a question many of us have pondered in the middle of the night, but Isabela Merced has lived it: if you had to face a xenomorph or one of the infected from The Last Of Us, which would be worse? For Merced, who plays Dina in the second season of the show and stars in Alien: Romulus, it’s the infected. “[But] it depends what state, right?” she tells Empire, having thought about this extensively — Merced is a deep researcher about all of the projects she works on and played the whole game. “There’s the dumber ones, then there’s the Clickers, then in the game you have the Stalkers... But the Bloaters are ter-ri-fy-ing!
Oh my God. My heart’s racing now just thinking about it!”
In Alien: Romulus, Merced plays Kay, one of a group of space colonists who run into aliens on a derelict space station. She’s the youngest of the group, and Merced says she was inspired by Sigourney Weaver’s iconic performance — think “Ripley’s daughter”, she says; “It was definitely inspired by her spirit.” As a huge fan of the original films, she appreciates how loyal this new one is — especially when it comes to the special effects. The team made use of animatronics and old-school costuming, which means when Merced’s character meets an alien, the alien is in the room. Sometimes it was remote-controlled; sometimes it was a very tall person in an alien suit looming over the diminutive 5’ 1” Merced. “There was not a point where I was just used to it!” she says, laughing. “It is just terrifying all around."
"I’m geeking out every time I try on the supersuit! It’s just the coolest thing in the world to me."
Right now, Merced is filming Superman, playing Hawkgirl, a classic DC superhero with wings who fights hand-to-hand combat, but in this reality Merced is flying through the air on a harness, trying not to panic. As for whether she can tell us anything about Superman, she says, “I can feel James Gunn’s eyes boring into the back of my head,” so we’ll take that as a no, but she says she’s worked out how to wear the flying harness and breathe at the same time. She’s also loving the experience. “Honestly, inside I’m just a nerdy guy. I feel like that’s who I actually am. I’m geeking out every time I try on the supersuit! It’s just the coolest thing in the world to me.”
It’s been a fast-paced rise to get to this place where she seems to be the go-to casting decision for big-budget blockbusters — including Madame Web and Transformers: The Last Knight in 2017, which she considers to be her big break despite starring in the Nickelodeon series 100 Things To Do Before High School at the age of 13. “Transformers was a smooth transition into an adulthood career,” she says. Why is she so drawn to these huge projects? “I don’t know,” she says, “[But] every time I do one, I get more comfortable with being myself in these intimidating spaces. It allows me to see myself as somebody in the future at a higher position than just an actor.”
Her interest in acting developed when she was six years old and found Shirley Temple and Judy Garland movies — she loved how close the older films were to theatre, and she grew up as a musical-theatre kid who made her debut on Broadway at ten in Evita — but one day she would love to produce. “I really like control,” she laughs. “It’s a gift and a curse!” Apparently in the scheme of what’s more terrifying, being in charge of an entire film is way lower on the list than a xenomorph or a Bloater.
The TV Show: The Office (US)
"It's my comfort show. You notice a new joke every time because it's so clever. My whole Youtube 'recommended' page is The Office."
The Album_: Here In The Pitch_ – Jessica Pratt
"I have tickets to see her in June, so I'm trying to know all the lyrics before I go!"
The Book: Torera! Memoirs Of A Bullfighter – Conchita Cintron
"She's Peruvian and the introduction is by Orson Welles because he was friends with her. I have my version of Peru that I've know all my life, [but] I wish I could have seen the Lima that they were talking about in the book."
Alien: Romulus is in cinemas from 16 August.
This article first appeared in the August 2024 issue of Empire. Photography by Sam McGuire, shot exclusively for Empire in Los Angeles.