‘Superman’ star Isabela Merced is owning her power onscreen — and IRL

Last year, Isabela Merced was living a double life. By day, she was running around the set of “The Last of Us” in Vancouver — dodging Infected, WLF soldiers and Seraphites alongside co-star Bella Ramsey.

Then, after wrapping what was sometimes a 15-hour workday, she’d be on a flight 4,500 miles away to Atlanta — doing costume fittings and fight training to become Hawkgirl in James Gunn’s “Superman.”

“I didn’t know I could do that,” she tells De Los. “I proved to myself that I’m capable of more than I think.”

The Peruvian American actress has the kind of career that any young actor would aspire to: She made her Broadway debut at 10 years old in “Evita,” earned critical acclaim acting opposite Benicio del Toro in “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” at 17 and starred in the live-action film adaptation of the massively successful “Dora the Explorer” franchise when she was just 18.

In the last year alone, she’s grown into a certified action star, making waves in huge franchise entries like “Alien: Romulus,” “The Last of Us” Season 2 and “Superman.” At 24 years old, her filmography of formidable heroines, scrappy spitfires and multifaceted young women in major blockbusters has put her on a path that’s been largely inaccessible to so many of the Latino actors who came before her. It’s why she also has her sights set on producing, hoping to provide more opportunities for her community in front of and behind the camera.

Yet this month, she’s turning her focus away from the screen and toward her other creative calling: music.

In 2020 she released her debut EP, “The Better Half of Me,” which showcased her bilingual prowess through soulful Latin pop tracks, written and produced alongside her brother, Gyovanni Moner, during quarantine. Now, she’s revisiting the project in a collaboration with the Grammy Award-winning Peruvian artist Tony Succar. Their new single “Apocalipsis,” released Friday, transforms Merced’s 2020 song of the same name from a slow jam to a modernized salsa groove fit for a Miami nightclub.

With “Superman” now out on digital platforms, Merced spoke with De Los about donning Hawkgirl’s helmet, working with Succar on “Apocalipsis,” and what’s coming up next.

It seems like everything is kept pretty under wraps for these massive superhero movies. How much did you know going into your “Superman” audition?
Initially, I had no idea who I was auditioning for because everything had secret names. I think mine said “Cyclone” in the script. I didn’t actually find out who I was until the day of the camera test with the [Justice Gang].

Oh, wow. How did they tell you?
They didn’t want to make it obvious that they were about to tell me, so it was all really mysterious. I’d been doing all the fittings, and the fight training, and then I got pulled into James [Gunn’s] trailer with the producers and everyone, and they were like “Do you want to be Hawkgirl?” As soon as I found out, I was really, really excited because I was like “Oh thank God, it’s someone I know.”

What was your connection to Hawkgirl before this?
I grew up watching [the “Justice League” animated series] and the character is canonically Latina, so I loved that. Her history is really complicated, and it gets even crazier when you get into the comics, but I was a huge fan of her in the show, and I drew a lot on my memories of Maria [Canals-Barrera’s] version of her. I mean, they’re two different characters, but they’re still of the same spirit because they share memories of their past lives.

What made you most excited about this version of the character? Did you connect with her at all?
She’s the only young woman in this group of guys, in an industry that’s mostly headed up by men, and in a movie that’s mostly led by men. It was a really cool opportunity to exercise a different way of being in that kind of environment. She’s kind of the unfiltered and disconnected, doesn’t-care-how-she’s-perceived version of me, and that was really cathartic to play.

Isabela listened to punk music to get in the mindset to play Hawkgirl.

(Jason Roman)

Because you also have a music background, I’m curious about whether you use music as a tool to get into character?
Oh, yeah, definitely. Every character I play, I make a playlist of songs that remind me of them, and I’ll play them before I go to film. With Hawkgirl it was a lot of punk music that I was discovering, with all these really strong singers. Then there were songs that Bella [Ramsey] and I really loved by Adrianne Lenker that informed our experience a lot as Dina and Ellie [in “The Last of Us”]. There was some ‘80s music in there too, maybe some early 2000s, but in general, just really soft, sweet, romantic songs.

You’re releasing a salsa remix of your 2020 single, “Apocalipsis,” with Tony Succar. How did that come about?
I mean, “remix” almost feels like an understatement because it feels like a completely different song. That’s thanks to Tony, who’s the first Peruvian to win a Grammy. He came to me with this opportunity four years ago, and we recorded the song, but I was signed to a label and we weren’t able to release it. Now that I’m free and independent, and he won his Grammy, he wanted to put it on his EP, and I was like, “Hell yeah, let’s do it.” He gave me the freedom to do the video for it, and I’m really happy with how it turned out. I got to dance for it, and I learned all the choreography in an hour and a half. It was crazy, but I’m really excited for people to see it.

How would you describe your music taste? And how does it connect to the type of music you want to make?
It’s hard to pin down. If I’m looking at my most recents, it’s Hermanos Gutiérrez. But it’s also Dick Gaughan, Big Thief, Los Mirlos, which is a Peruvian band, and the Andrew Oldham Orchestra. There’s no through line there other than good music. I already have a lot going on with acting, so if music could stay something fun and light for me, and not so disciplined, I think that would be nice.

Is there a musical or an idea for a musical that would get you excited about returning to Broadway?
Have they done a Selena musical? No, I think I would have remembered that. But that would be cool, getting to dance on stage. It would be like a concert-slash-musical theater experience, kind of like what they did with Gloria Estefan’s “On Your Feet!” If it was made by the right people with respect to her life and her legacy, I think that could be dope.

But honestly, if I were to do something on Broadway, I would love for it to be an original composition. I’m currently working on one right now. I’m producing it, and also going to be in it. Things are moving along really well, and it’s another project with friends. I think we have to take more bold chances when it comes to Broadway, because everyone’s trying to reach a younger audience — but I think the most efficient way of doing that is by allowing the younger audience to bring their stories forward and tell them.

You’ve mentioned that you’re getting into producing. What kind of projects do you have in the works right now?
I’m producing one movie that’s shooting in September called “Psyche.” I’m really excited about it. We have Latina director, and also the project I’m supposed to do next after that is going to be directed by a Peruvian woman. So there’s some really, really cool s— that I’ve been trying to do, where I’ll have more creative control and freedom — but also a lower budget, so, you know, roughing [it] compared to what I’ve been doing the last few years. But I’m excited to get to the root of why I love to do this and feel it fully.

Your career is so interesting because it’s just getting started, and yet, it’s not the kind of career that many Latino actors have historically been able to achieve so early on. How do you process that?
I’m in an interesting position because I think Hollywood is really comfortable picking Latino actors who are sort of white-forward or mixed before they’re willing to cast Indigenous people. And look, I’ll take anything I can get, because, girl, I’m just trying to work in this economy. [Laughs]

But I think being aware of that is really important because when I go off and do my own projects, and have the power, I can hire people that look more like the people that I grew up with, or that look like my family. But it doesn’t always happen that way. Financing is hard to get, and when you’re trying to bring people on, they want someone who’s already known, and Hollywood just hasn’t given many of those opportunities to people of certain skin colors.

Because you’ve grown up in this industry, I’m curious what your experience has been like learning to speak up for and advocate for yourself?
Something I’ve learned is that there’s always a power struggle going on, whether that’s on a personal level, or on a bigger level, or even socially. I think we’re constantly fighting for power. And because of that, we can become very defensive. So I think the biggest challenge for me wasn’t necessarily what I went through, but how I reacted to it: by choosing to keep an open heart and still love freely and trust in people because of how I was raised. I think we all have a choice to make when we’re harmed, and that’s to either close up and harm others, or to keep going. It sucks, but I won’t let that dictate the way I move through life.