Based on the hit Spotify podcast, The Horror of Dolores Roach will be available to stream on Prime Video beginning Friday, July 7th. When Dolores returns to Washington Heights after sixteen years in prison, she turns to an old friend who helps her get back on her feet. Both she and Luis will do whatever it takes to survive in an unjust world, causing them to venture down a darker path than Dolores ever imagined.
Justina Machado plays the leading role of Dolores Roach, and Alejandro Hernandez stars opposite her as empanada shop owner, Luis Batista. Machado is most well known for the sitcom, One Day at a Time, but she has worked on several other projects such as Six Feet Under and The Purge: Anarchy. Meanwhile, Hernandez recently finished filming New Amsterdam, which ran from 2018–2023. The cast of the show also includes Kita Updike, K. Todd Freeman, Ilan Eskenazi, Jeffery Self, and Jean Yoon.
Justina Machado and Alejandro Hernandez chat exclusively with Screen Rant about their natural onscreen chemistry and how their previous work compares to their roles in The Horror of Dolores Roach.
Justina Machado & Alejandro Hernandez Talk The Horror of Dolores Roach
Screen Rant: I love the dynamic between Dolores and Luis. How was working together?
Justina Machado: It was great. It was just instant. We just got each other. The characters just got each other, and the way we work just got each other. We don’t really know each other, to be honest. We started to get to know each other. A lot of people think that, “Oh, you guys had such great chemistry! Did you guys hang out?” No, we didn’t have time to hang out. Sometimes, two people just have the chemistry together. It was just a lot of fun to play that back and forth between Dolores and Luis.
Alejandro Hernandez: I went in there with all my work prepared beforehand, and I came in ready to play. With Justina, I knew I had to reach her level. It was such a great experience, because like she said, we didn’t really spend a lot of time together. We just understood each other in so many ways. She reminds me of so many people in my family, so it felt like I’d known her for years. Once we stepped foot on set, it just worked, man.
Justina, I always enjoy seeing you in sitcoms. I loved One Day at a Time, and I was so excited to see you pop up in Superstore, but this one has that horror-comedy element. Do you have a preference between laugh-out-loud shows and a project like Dolores Roach?
Justina Machado: No, not at all. I have no preference. And I think that’s why it’s fun to do both. I did Six Feet Under, where we open with death every episode. So it’s not a new genre for me. What’s new about it is a story that we’re usually not a part of, and a story that’s unexpected, and wild, and fun, and grounded. You’re crying, and you’re laughing, and you’re shocked, and it’s all of these wonderful things that are happening. It’s fun to play both, and it’s even better when you get to marry them both together.
Alejandro, you’re coming off 64 episodes of New Amsterdam, and Luis is such a different character than Casey. Did you enjoy getting to branch out and do something new here?
Alejandro Hernandez: I was glad that I actually had a part that I could really sink my teeth into. New Amsterdam was a wonderful experience, and I was able to bring a certain amount of myself to that part. But with Dolores Roach, I was able to really dive deep into certain aspects of myself that can be quite scary. I was able to go to places that I’d never been before. It was just a wonderful, wild experience. It was awesome to do a job and to work on a character that was so out of the box.
About The Horror of Dolores Roach
The Horror of Dolores Roach, based on the hit Spotify podcast series of the same name, is a contemporary Sweeney Todd-inspired urban legend of love, betrayal, weed, cannibalism, and survival of the fittest. Dolores Roach (Justina Machado) is released after an unjust 16-year prison sentence, and she returns to a gentrified Washington Heights.
Dolores reunites with an old stoner friend, Luis (Alejandro Hernandez), who lets her live and work as a masseuse in the basement under his empanada shop. When the promise of her newfound stability is quickly threatened, “Magic Hands” Dolores is driven to shocking extremes to survive.
Check out our other interviews with The Horror of Dolores Roach cast:
All eight episodes of The Horror of Dolores Roach drop exclusively on Prime Video on July 7.
Source: Screen Rant Plus
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
