Q&A: Melissa Barrera survives, on screen and in Hollywood

By SIGAL RATNER-ARIAS
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Since her breakthrough role as Vanessa in the film adaptation of “In The Heights,” Melissa Barrera has been working non-stop on the big and small screen. Starting Thursday, she can be seen in “Keep Breathing,” a Netflix miniseries about a woman battling the elements as the lone survivor of a plane crash in the middle of the Canadian wilderness. It’s a wide variety of roles for the Mexican-born Barrera, one of very few actresses defying what roles a Latina can play amidst the lack of representation discussion in Hollywood. She calls the series a “survival show about surviving your mind, surviving your insecurities, your childhood traumas.”