Exclusive Interview: Paola Nuñez Talks THE PURGE Season 2
The Purge Season 2 is three episodes deep on USA, with new episodes dropping on Tuesdays through December. If you haven’t gotten in on the action yet, take my word for it: You’re missing out! If you want to know a bit about what makes The Purge Season 2 so exceptional, follow the link below.
Related Article: Top 5 Reasons to Get Excited About THE PURGE Season 2!
During a set visit last September, I had the privilege of interviewing series star Paola Nuñez. She plays Esme Carmona, an employee of the New Founding Fathers who monitors activity on Purge Night. When something unusual catches her eye, her curiosity sends her down a rabbit hole of intrigue and mystery—one that will test her core values and moral center.
Synopsis:
Based on the
hit movie franchise, The Purge revolves around a 12-hour
period when all crime, including murder, is legal. Season 2 explores how a
single Purge night affects the lives of four interconnected characters over the
course of the ensuing year, all inevitably leading up to the next Purge.
Hailing from Blumhouse Television and UCP, this season of the anthology series
opens on Purge night but dives deeper than ever before into what the Purge
world looks like the other 364 days of the year.
Enjoy our conversation below!
Dread Central: For our readers who may be meeting you for the first time on The Purge Season Two, can you tell us a little bit about how you got into acting and your journey thus far?
Paola Nuñez: Yeah sure, I’d love to. My name is Paola Nuñez. I’m Mexican and I started acting when I was nineteen. I’m from a little town in Baha called Tecate. When I was nineteen, I moved to Mexico City and studied acting there. I’ve lived in Mexico my whole life until five years ago when I decided to move to the States. I started working and the first thing I did was The Sun for AFC. after The Sun I did Queen of the South, and I just finished Bad Boys 3. Now I’m here working on The Purge.
DC: Gigi Saul Guerrero directed some episodes this season. She’s making a great name for herself as a Latina female director. What was it like working with her?
PN: It was great; we didn’t know each other, but it was great to be together. I can’t believe she’s that young and super focused and she knows exactly what she wants. She’s super confident on set, being surrounded by men, older people, and you know you have to have that confidence, especially when you’re that young and a woman. You have to come to set with an energy and hold your ground which she did, and I admire that.
DC: I was on the set of Culture Shock when she was filming that and I was surprised at her style of directing because she’s actually yelling directions to the actors from behind the camera, whereas you always imagine everyone being silent. Was she like that with you as well, yelling directions to you while you were acting?
Paola: Yeah, totally. She was having fun, so much fun, and you can tell that. What I admire most about directors, it’s weird, when you have a director that you sense doesn’t know what he’s doing. Automatically you just don’t trust him and his point of view and you don’t respect him and think, “Well, I guess I’m on my own”. But when you see that clarity, that’s what happened to me as an actor; I’m going to do whatever you tell me to do because you know what’s up, and Gigi was like that. She gained my respect on the first day. I was like, “Yeah, I like you!”
DC: Let’s talk about The Purge specifically. The whole concept behind The Purge is that you take this one night to get all your aggression out and you’ll be great for the coming year. When we meet your character in the first episode, you’re a proponent of The Purge; you’re a part of the system and you come to the conclusion that it’s ok; you separate yourself emotionally, but it feels like that is changing for your character. You’re starting to think The Purge might not be the answer it’s sold as, am I correct?
PN: I don’t remember where I discovered that something was wrong.
DC: I think it was around episode two, looking into Professor Adams, retracing her steps…
PN: Ok, perfect. So, I think before Professor Adams [played by Avis-Marie Barnes], I think my character was completely involved and a believer in the system. She dedicated, not her entire life, but a part of her life to this, because the interesting thing about Esme is, she’s not just coming from a place where she’s doing this for people because it’s what she believes in. She’s coming from a place that’s full of guilt and she needs to something to make her feel better. And because I didn’t protect people in the past, I need to do this to make me feel better. So really, she’s not coming from a healthy psyche and that’s why she’s here. So, as soon as she sees something that’s not right, she’s scared because it’s like, “Oh, maybe this isn’t what I thought it was.” So, she feels betrayed and she’s like, “I hope this is not what I think it is…” But a part of her knows something is not right, and maybe this father figure that she has is the end of her faith. It’s just going to betray her again like it did in the past. Like I said, it’s not coming from a healthy place, it’s coming from her past, and that’s why she reacts that way because, the way she reacts is not even healthy. It’s like I have to get him, and now she wants the truth and now she wants to avenge the system after she finds out.
DC: Let’s talk about the system because, thematically, catharsis seems to be a huge tent pole of The Purge; the whole idea that when you get your violence out, it actually makes you a better person. But it seems like the Professor’s research is pretty much the opposite, that when people participate in The Purge it actually opens the door for even more violent behavior. If we lived in a world where The Purge was real, what do you think would actually happen? Would it make society better or would it send us tumbling into complete anarchy?
PN: I definitely do believe that violence creates more violence. I don’t think I’d be able to kill another person but I’m not a mother and I’ve heard a lot of people say, “Yeah, if someone hurts my kid I would be able to kill that person”. I kind of understand that but I do think that if we start killing people, that’s not going to start anything and yeah, that would create something that is unhealthy in our society. Also, that’s definitely not the answer because we would be destroying our whole existence, right? Let’s be honest, if we think about it, we start creating a list of all the people that shouldn’t be in this world, that should be purged, you start with one person and then you start thinking about it and realize someone is going to want to purge me, someone is going to want to purge you, so on the first night everyone is just going to purge each other and destroy the world. That’s a stupid answer but at the same time it’s so real, it’s talking about intolerance in general.
DC: I don’t think that’s a stupid answer at all, especially in the last couple Purge films, I think they are making it very clear that it’s the rich targeting the poor, and I haven’t seen that stated as overtly in season two. It seems like everyone is dangerous, kind of what you were just talking about. So, I don’t think that was a stupid response at all. Have you seen all the other Purge movies, and season one?
PN: I’ve seen a few and what I really liked was the first time I saw the original Purge, what I really like about movies is after seeing a movie it becomes a conversation. You know when you go see a movie and your walking out of the theater talking about how hungry you are and you don’t even mention the movie? I think that’s a bad sign. I think movies should be conversations and The Purge does that. You ponder if purging is something that will fix the world, fix it by violence, and what you might do. It’s funny to think, if I purge on this holiday, what do I do for the rest of the year? Would I be scared about being on someone else’s list, and would that help me behave better as a human being? Those conversations make you talk about our reality. I mean, we are getting to the point now where we are so intolerant and insensitive to everything. You can’t think a different way or I’m going to attack you; social media and all that power, just because you have a different thought. Stand-up comedians can’t even make jokes like they used to because everyone is digging up things from their past. What was said fifteen years ago. And they’re going to want to hate you and destroy your entire life because of it.
DC: The pendulum swings both ways. Things will probably normalize, but right now we really are in a sensitive state.
PN: I always think we’re going to come to a better understanding but right now everything is so drastic and intolerance. I think the theme of this decade is intolerance in general, and I think that’s why The Purge is so important right now. It’s such an interesting movie, such a subject to touch, like how intolerant are we are feeling so much separation between us that we can’t even sit down and say, “I don’t understand but I get it.” But now you can’t sit down with friends and have a normal conversation without it being super-heated up…politics, right?
DC: Well, Dread Central is a horror website so I’m curious: Do you like horror movies in general and what are some of the first horror movies that made an impression on you?
PN: Evil Dead, is one. It’s one of the first movies that I saw. And of course, I remember Child’s Play. I couldn’t sleep after Child’s Play for a week, so I decided I didn’t want to see more of that because I got really scared. And so, when a horror movie comes out I just prefer not to watch it, because I have insomnia, so I know everything that disturbs my nerves a little bit, that’s just going to prevent me from sleeping. So, I respect that genre so much that I don’t even watch it.
DC: What’s the last horror movie you saw that gave you nightmares?
Paola: The Others, I think, and two years ago I saw The Exorcist again and it’s an amazing movie. The acting is incredible, the photography is great, it’s so good. Now that I saw it again, I think it’s my favorite horror movie ever.
DC: If someone asked “What makes Season 2 of The Purge so special?” or, “Why is this worthy of my time?” how would you respond?
PN: It’s so special, even if you’re a fan of the franchise, you get to see what happens between Purge nights. It’s the first time you get to see how people behave in this alternate world between purges, so what happens after you’ve gone and purged someone? Who cleans the city after Purge night? Think about it. Those little things are so cool to watch; it’s like, “Oh right, I never thought about that!” And there are repercussions: What happens to people that purge? How are they able to handle the fact that they purged? Are they ok or not ok with it, and what happened if someone wanted to purge you and couldn’t and you had to live with that for the year, until the next Purge night? should you be scared or not? Those questions, people are going to get answers throughout the other 364 days of the year.
DC: Well Paola, thank you very much for your time! It was really nice talking to you, I enjoyed your insights.
Are you a fan of The Purge franchise and/or The Purge Season 2? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram! You can also carry on the convo with me personally on Twitter @josh_millican.
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