PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Damn, dudes. If you haven’t checked out Brand New Cherry Flavor yet, you should. You’re in for a real treat. This completely original, ballsy, gory, gross horror series from Netflix is INSANE. Plus, there’s kittens. A lot of them. To celebrate the release of the show, I chatted with stars Rosa Salazar and Catherine Keener about what intrigued them about the show, and what they hope people take away from it.
PopHorror: This show is bonkers, and I love every minute of it. Rosa, what intrigued you about Brand New Cherry Flavor, and made you want to be a part of it?
Rosa Salazar: Well, Nick Antosca and Lenore Zion, the minds that they are. The scripts were, like you said, bonkers. It seems to be the word to use for the show. I love horror. I am a huge Cronenberg fan, so shout out to every outlet who has made that comparison. I get turned on every time I read that. I have been looking for a really great horror piece for a long time. There’s a wide spectrum of horror out there. I love it all. But I was looking for something like this, more of an art piece, something where I could be… Something where I’m gonna be covered in goo for five months is essentially what I wanted to do.
When you get lucky, you get to a place in your career where you can make choices. You want to make them wisely. There’s so much content. There’s so much out there and a lot of it people throw on, and then they scroll through their phone, and they’re doing their Amazon shopping, what have you. I wanted something that would cut right through that. I wanted something that would blast right through that. And here comes this script, filled with kittens and Boros and vampires and real life predators like Lou. And I just said, “Listen, whether this is your cup of kitten blood or not, you’re definitely not going to be texting. Whether you vibe with it or not, you’re going to be captive.” And that’s what I wanted. I wanted to reach through the screen in a Cronenberg way and just go, “Hey! We’re doing something over here, and it’s different and it’s fun and it’s exciting!” I think that we all needed something like this to just smack us through the screen and go like, “Hey! Get off your damn phone for 30 minutes.”
PopHorror: That is awesome!
Catherine Keener: I feel like it just caught fire, and the blast off—when we said blast off—we were all going for it. Boro’s ride was to just sort of go with her. Slow her down a little bit from her ancient wisdom and just slow her roll. We’ll get to it. Hiccups first. You know, that kind of stuff. Rosa just… She did blast off. She’s incredible, incredible. And for me, it’s her ride. She picked the front car on the roller coaster, and I’m just like, “All right, move over!”
PopHorror: What do you hope people will walk away with after watching this series?
Rosa Salazar: That I worked with Catherine Keener twice!
PopHorror: Right?! She’s the queen.
Rosa Salazar: That’s it! She’s the queen! For me, I hope they limp away, and I hope they sit there like this, “Uhhh…” Like I said, I want people to be affected. I want people to be shaken. We’re all shook from the past several years, but I want them to be shaken by something fun and artistic and different. We only heightened this story. Nick Antosca and Lenore Zion, they made this crazy story. I feel like it’s only heightened slightly from what is happening right outside and what has happened in this industry for years.
Catherine Keener: And what’s happening in the world.
Rosa Salazar: How seedy and how dark it can be. How it can chew you up and spit you out. I also hope that they realize that here is a brand new character who is completely amoral. It’s not even about a strong woman, an amoral woman. It transcends that. It’s less about, “You fucked with the wrong girl,” and it’s more like, “You fucked with the wrong filmmaker.” That’s what I want them to walk away with. Here is a true artist who is yes, myopic to a certain degree, but it’s all about the art. It always comes back to the art. And I want them to walk away with this new character and a show where every single person is unforgivable, but we’re still there, and we’re still around to watch it because that’s real life, baby.
Catherine Keener: I agree with you, Rosa. I think there’s an encouragement here to defy the negativities, defy thieves of your intellectual property. Defy them, and just stay focused on what you believe in. What you really want to do and how you really want to manifest. How you see the world, and how you see things in your work. And I think there’s a strong case for that. Not to put too much meaning on it. But there is that.
Rosa Salazar: It is funny that the moral of the story is, like, believe in yourself to a crazy degree.
Catherine Keener: Exactly!
Thank you so much to Rosa and Catherine for taking the time to speak with us. Brand New Cherry Flavor is available now exclusively on Netflix.
