EP: 612 - Isabela Merced Interview (uncensored)

Madame Web is out in Theaters & Star of the Film Isabela Merced stopped by the Cruz Show. she told us that her Sidney Sweeney & the cast had a great time filming, she talked about her Peruvian roots, singing karaoke, and getting mistaken for Becky G

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
What's good. This is well marcetand you're checking out the Cruise Show podcast.
Make sure to subscribe, rate andshare. Let's go. Hey Real
ninety two three, LA is newhome for hip hop and so that I
met said is on the Cruise Show. We're here. I'm so happy to
be here. We're happy to haveyou here. Are you crazy? Wait?
Whatever? My mom and I wouldcome out to LA. We would
get rental cars, and the rentalcars always came with the radio stations,

(00:22):
and you were definitely one of theradio stations we would always listen to.
You appreciate that No. Ninety twoto three is legendary in the city.
Yeah, legularly in the city.Absolutely, you know, Madam web congratulations,
thanks here. Yeah, that's bigtime, right, big times is
a big deal. It's huge.I play and as soon. So she's
obviously very Latina and in the moviethey're addressing a lot of real topics.

(00:47):
I'm I have the pleasure of workingwith Sidney Sweeney and so Le's o Connor
and Dacota Johnson, and we allkind of have our own issues going on
in the movie, but mine's I'mvery very independent and alone because both of
my parents were immigrants, and soI came here and I'm here illegally in
the movie, and in two thousandand three, that was a very different
climate to be an immigrant, andI was only two years old. I

(01:08):
don't really remember. But I lovethat we're going back in time and kind
of viewing the world as it wasthen. Wow. Yeah, and it
gives that real look on what wasgoing on. You see a Beyonce Crazy
and Love poster in the background ofthe movie. They have a Martha Stewart
reference, which is so incredible.She is training goes into becoming not the

(01:37):
fun time, but you know what, actually it does get fun at times.
There's a lot of waking up earlyin the morning with the sun and
then going to run doing like evenat one point we're doing football drills like
we were doing like leg work andreally yeah, because you know where you're
a spider, you have to beagile, you have to be quick.
My favorite part though, was pickingout my pose, my landing post,

(01:57):
because you know every superhero has theirpose. Yeah, yes, exactly,
you got it, you got it. Yeah, they don't see you coming
because they think you're asleep, right, they come to check on you exactly.
I I'm still breathing. Yeahses didit take until you finally got your

(02:21):
You know, I had a cheatsheet. I looked at the comic books
for what I saw, and she'sa g like she spends a lot of
time obviously in the air, butshe also is very low to the ground
and I like that. Like thatto me, that was very unique because
that's a spider, you know,they stay close and hidden. And so
I tried this pose on the ground. You see it in the trailer.

(02:43):
I dropped to the ground, oneleg up, one leg out, and
then shoulders kind of asymmetrical, andthat's just kind of every movement I did
was not symmetrical. It was veryasymmetrical because spiders they move each limb individually,
and that's kind of how I thoughtI should approach it. But Sony
approved, So here we are.I was gonna, says, to approve,
they have to prove everything absolutely.Yeah, Hey guys, I'm gonna

(03:06):
go I'm gonna breathe for a second. Is that exactly exactly? They encourage
going to the bathroom, though,which I love. That is so nice
of them. In are you scartof spiders? You know what? It
depends on the size. It dependson the size. If I see a
little bitty one like okay, fine, like I let it outside. But

(03:27):
if it's a big one, likea quarter size, yeah, I'm going
to the cops. Like absolutely,you won't believe this. There's a spider
in the room. What does itmean for you to be a Latina superhero?
It's everything you know, exactly,and a Peruvian one at that.

(03:53):
They mentioned better in the movie,which they also didn't endure pure coincidence.
By the way, when they don'treally have to write, they can bank
on Okay, she she looks Hispanic, she has a Hispanic name. That's
pretty much what we need. Butwhen they when they mentioned more, that's
that's always great. You know.I think the reason why Pedu keeps getting
mentioned is because it's because it's sucha unique place with so much to offer

(04:16):
and so much rich history. Theyhave the inc of past and everything the
regions like, it's it's lit,it's lit, and and everybody should want
to go there, and and ofcourse you can write stories about it because
there's so much history. So Ilove I love being for that. Let
me give you the past now,if you want to say lit, go
ahead, said, Okay, popit out, even if we were live,

(04:41):
fuck it you can pay the fine. Man feels so bad. You're
from Ohio. I'm from Cleveland,from Cleveland. So having a name like
Isabellamer said in Cleveland, what's thatlike? You know, my name actually
changed. I changed it to separatekind of like my professional life and my
personal life. But also as Omashamy grandma who was talking about earlier,
the one who brought her purse everywhere. And so I'm really glad that I

(05:05):
grew up in Cleveland though, becauseI could to see both sides of the
same coin, and both sides ofmy culture were really infused in my life
because my mom, like at first, she forced me to go to Peru
to go to school during my summerbreak, and I hated it. I
was so mad. However, afterbeing there and being kind of like just
immersed in that environment, that's whenI fell in love. So I'm glad

(05:27):
my mom made me go to schoolthere during my summer break and like really
gave me an appreciation for for myculture. I was bullied for other reasons,
not for that though. You know, kids are mean, kids are
but you know what it made mefunny and it made me quick. You
know, I think the most importantthing to not getting not getting bullied is

(05:49):
to be open, to be inthe butt of the joke and being self
deprecated, you know, don't lethim know it bothered you. That's a
good key to being in the publiceye as well. I think that,
right, I think it applies.So thank you to my bullies. You've
prepared me for much bigger remember myfirst name basis of course, of course,

(06:15):
absolutely first name. I can theydon't, they don't deserve the clouds.
No, yesterday's bullies prepared you fortoday's comments exactly, and I try
to avoid those as much as possible. People feel really entitled to speak on
public figures, lives, and bodiesin particular, So right, right,

(06:36):
Well, I mean you probably do, but it's like the insecurities kind of
supersede the like ability to discern properly. Yeah. Do you take a lot
of social media breaks? Yeah,I mean you'll see on my Instagram I'll
take like a month in between.But when a movie comes out, I'm
on, I'm on, I'm postinglike I got to promote that, especially
the projects I'm proud of, especiallythe people in this cast, like Sidney

(06:59):
Sweeney and Celeste have been my absolutelike rocks throughout all of this. The
friends. Yeah, absolutely, andthat's a rarity. You know. Sometimes
you're thrown into an environment they're likebe best friends, like they're playing with
dolls or something. But we actuallywe actually like each other, so that's
nice. It can be confusing whenon camera everyone's so sweet and so helpful,
and then off camera sometimes it's differentand you're like, wait, I

(07:21):
thought we were friends, maybe we'renot. I try not to take it
personally. You know it will happen. But at the end of the day,
I have to also respect people whowant to keep their private lives private,
you know, even when we're workingtogether, because it is a job
after all. You know, noone owes me a friendship just because we
work together. So that's a greatBut I'm happy that Celeste and Sydney and

(07:42):
I found each other and chose eachother. That's right. Oh that's awesome,
yo, So Madam web on Valentine'sDay, everybody watch it. It's
gonna be crazy. It looks sogood. The Traders fire I love I
saw the movie. Thank you.I agree. I second that I said,
we must transcribe that right and putit on the poster. No,

(08:03):
I would love that. Actually,I think it's a really really good movie.
I think it's fresh, it's somethingnew and not what people would expect.
It's grounded. Again. It takesplace in two thousand and three.
I know two thousand, like theearly two thousands trends are popping right now,
but this script was written in liketwenty twenty one, so it was
ahead of the trend. I thinkit's perfectly placed. This year is a
great time for it to come out. And I love the Spider My favorite

(08:26):
movie lately has been Spider Man intothe Spider Verse. I think somebody killed
that. I love Miles Morales.If this movie does well, it's a
potential to see more Spider Verse characterscome to life. That's right. And
I don't know, like a solomovie would be great. Aya godas Son
solo movie would be amazing. ButI kind of love the idea of us
sticking together, Like you don't reallysee that. You don't really see the

(08:48):
group kind of sticking together, Andit would be really cool. If we
want to see us more, wegotta go see us more. That's what
I'm saying, like I haven't reallyhonestly, Eva Longoria, Jessica Alba,
like j Low. They've done thework, So my job now to just
show up and do a great jobso they know, like the Latinos are
reliable and they can keep hiring uslike that. Play Peruvian food? What

(09:09):
do we need to know? What'sthe best? Okay? The best?
Talk to you? Are you askingfor restaurant recommendation? Dishes? I likes
fire your manager X manager based onmy homie. So sorry, letd So

(09:33):
how do things end with your manager? He's going to start managing a different
project more to manage. Yeah,I bring you into a dirty line.
I love the tho. Yeah.I have a lot of friends out there
that I've met, I mean throughmusic, but I've never met in person.
Yeah, I want to do wise. What's fire? What's what's it?

(09:56):
Okay? Well, obviously you havese and you have uh, you
have loc ato that my mom doesreally well. Peak got honest, are
like this dessert that you have totry? They like little prouvi and donuts
and the sauce they put on themis insane. Okay, peak out it
all the way you ever had apisco sour. Pisco sour is like our

(10:16):
drink, and the Chileans try toclaim pisco but no pisco. Okay,
mistaken were born in Salchi pupos.I think we're born Peru. Yeah,
I think it's like little chop upand happened to make them like octopus and
baas everything. They sell you everythingbecause what you do is you like to.

(10:37):
We like to. So you goto the disco and you dance,
and you do all that until fivein the morning and you go and right
outside they got the tents of likeSalchi papas waiting, salchipo hot dog.
It's yeah, yeah, yes,but they feed you well for a nice
price. That's also what I love. It's like the sola is the currency

(10:58):
is so nice. Yes, firedto my guys. And purple corn.
It's a purple corn drink. Youhad a lot to learn. I'll send
you a break down. It's notpurple lean, it's purple corn. They
might have made it that way.We're going I'm gonna try it fired.
Do people confuse you for Becky gAbsolutely, you know what, though not

(11:20):
as much in like the white spaces. I think in line spaces, in
line spaces. They absolutely do.They do. So the Blancos got it
right. Yeah, yeah, theykind of do excellently. I think they're
trying extra hard to like not confuseus. Don't want to get fired if
we get it wrong. You don'twant to get it wrong. You got

(11:41):
to get it right, guys.Okay, no one call her Becky G
and every and then, whereas myLion fans are out there with posers of
Becky G like sighing, hilarious.Right, of course, we're the most
disrespectfuls Okay, we have to unpackthat at some point, maybe not in

(12:01):
this interview, but there's something tothat absolutely solve the world's political issues as
socio economical purple corn, Come on, let's go. What's up? Jack?
And you made your Broadway debut atten? Would you ever go back
to Broadway? I absolutely would.I'm actually such a like a theater kid.

(12:24):
Really, I'm kind of disguising myself. You know, I've kind of
focused more on film lately, butin my heart that's what I love.
A karaoke night. You get afew drinks in me, I'm singing show
tunes and it's very fun. SoI would love to do that I feel
like theater kids always get this revof being like corny Andy, would you

(12:45):
like I'm corny? Yeah, I'mdefinitely corny, but there's nothing wrong with
that. I'm a romantic like Ilove, I love just the world.
I don't like violence, like Ilove to dance. Let's dance battle that's
not actually better? Definitely a cancer. Then I'm definitely a let's all do
I cry a lot? What's yourgo to karaoke? So you said it's

(13:07):
a show to Yeah, you know, it depends. It depends on the
audience. You got to read theroom. Yeah, you could do take
me or leave me. You coulddo like suddenly see more. These are
crowd pleasers, but my favorite right, But Mulan Rouge is amazing. I
really love Mulan. It's Nicole Kidmanand sisters. That's what you're thinking.

(13:31):
I don't know is Mulan Rouge?Absolutely it is. Yeah, I don't.
I don't get a lot of likereferences. Yeah, as much as
I'm here, I'm not here.It's weird interesting, But you care.
But I bet you know a lotabout what you care about. You know,

(13:52):
you're very focused on what you knowabout what he cares about. That's
good. At least you better.Yeah, that's goods aboarded me. My
friends from seven years haven't. That'sbecause it's been seven years, you know
too much. Seven years. Butwho's counting, right? You can track
how long we've been friends, sohe can cut off and so sweet discussion

(14:16):
write yeah, figured this out?What's up? Let you okay? I'm
okay. I blame Did you wantto ask her if she's single? Is
that? I don't know? Butgoing back to Peter Levend, Ohio is
completely different, right, I mean, I'm assuming favorite part about growing up
there, the people, the people. I still have my friends from there.

(14:39):
I just went on vacation with myfriend Caroline, who I grew up
with. We would do mud fightsin the neighborhood, walk around barefoot,
dressed up in her grandma's clothes,and knock on the neighborhood neighbors doors and
we were just up to no good. And the fact that I could then
bring her on this vacation that SeanWhite invited me to to go snowboarding,

(15:00):
and I could bring her there andwe could see, like, wow,
the homies have come so far.I mean, she was a little bit
scared at first. She was like, this, fancy fan, I'm scared,
like I'm scared of going to saythe wrong thing or speak too loud.
And I was yeah, and Iwas like, I know exactly how
you feel because I was here nottoo long ago, and to be able
to bring my people into these spaceswhere we felt like we never belonged is

(15:20):
so special. What did you tellher when she said I'm scared to say
the wrong things? I told her, well, I love you because you
say the wrong things. I love. That's what I love about my friends.
Like, we're not worried about comingcorrect, We're worried about coming authentic.
That's it. You don't have toremember nothing when you're telling the truth

(15:46):
exactly. You know what I mean. You don't know. You don't have
to remember how to act when you'rejust being yourself exactly. Nothing wrong with
because that's when you attract things thatdon't That's when you mess up. That's
when you mess up. How doyou get to spoil your family with your
success? How do I get toswim? Well, I've bought a house
recently, and I'm hoping it'll bemy mother's one day, But for now,

(16:08):
I'm just living with them right now. I invited them over and I
have my three dogs. And Idon't know, like I've always considered myself
somebody who puts family first. That'sjust kind of how I roll. And
yeah, I don't think that wasthat might have been instilled in me a
little bit, however, Like itjust feels right. The more I learn
about life, the more I learnabout how isolating this industry can be,

(16:32):
It's like, that's that's where I'mfocused on. Was that your definition of
success being able to make my familykeep them safe? Absolutely? Absolutely,
like yeah, knowing they're okay,I'll be okay. Sounds so soppy,
No, but it's the truth.It's your truth. It allows you to
move freely. Yeah. Yeah,my dogs too. I love my dogs.

(16:52):
I mean the world to me.Yeah. You bought the cript back
in Oh No, in La.Then we got the sunshine tax. You
know this is crazy, Like noone you said, oh yeah, got
it, got it. I've seena commercial about it. Trust me,
I don't own a home. Hey, so as said, congratulations, Madam

(17:15):
Webb. And I'm sure you're extremelyhappy with the final product. Right,
do you get to watch it?Are you critiquing even when out. For
sure, I critique because there's somany components that go into it that are
out of my control. So I'mtrying to be I'm trying to be as
objective as possible, and I dothink that it is a good movie.
Oh yeah, you should trail itlooks crazy. Congratulations, Thank you,

(17:36):
Yeah, fucking lit all day.Thanks Bellamer said let's get a Cruise Show
real ninety two three. Hey JackingRich from The Cruse Show. Thanks for
listening to The Cruise Show podcast.Make sure to subscribe, and hey auto
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