In our final interview for Diablo, we chat with Alanna De La Rossa who plays Elissa, the daughter of a crimelord who gets kidnapped by Scott Adkins’ character Kris.
Today we’re talking about your new movie Diablo. How would you describe Elissa and what really appealed about playing the character to you?
I would describe Elissa like a strong girl with brightness, energy, and also with a lot of emotions. But like, yeah, strong and brave. I would describe her like that. I think without Elissa, the story would be real and would be like how it is.
What drew you to playing her?
The action and also the way that she confronts every situation in the movie. And how she connects with every single character of the movie. But also, how I create the character with Ernesto helped a lot. It was more of the action and the whole story, how it works and how it tells. It’s really interesting.
Awesome. How did you work with Scott Adkins in creating the relationship dynamic between your two characters?
I love Scott and it was such a weird feeling because the first time we met, it was in a meeting, Zoom meeting, and with Ernesto. And two weeks later, I met him in person when we started doing the pre-viz of the movie, when we had a lot of rehearsals, practices, fights and stuff. And it was a weird feeling because I felt like I knew him for a long time ago. And it was like, “I want to be with you all the time. I want to hug you. I want to talk to you. You’re such a sweet teddy bear. I love you so much”. So, it was a really loving connection, but weird at the same time. And when we were on set, we were just having fun. That was the interesting part of everything, you know? And then when they said “Action”, you can see the strong connection, the strong environment of the two characters. But also, he’s such a professional guy, such a professional actor, such a talented person. You can tell when we were on set how he was so passionate, so professional when he was doing his work. And I was like a little sponge trying to absorb everything and learn everything that I could.
Do you see any of yourself in your character?
Yeah, of course. For sure. I created Elissa by myself and then I made this new idea to Ernesto and he loved it. But also, one of the things that like, it’s from two things that are from 100% from Alanna that I put to Elissa. It was first that she’s super mature. That’s one of the things that characterizes me. Because most of the people that I know, they’re like, “oh my god, Alanna, you’re super mature. I love the way how you talk. I love the way how you think”. And that’s one of the things that I love by myself. So, I was like, OK, why not to put this for Elissa since this situation happened? And she needs to think like an old girl. She can’t think like a 15-year-old kid. So, that and also that she’s cursing all the time. That was an idea that I had with Ernesto and with Scott because she hates Kris at the first moment of the movie. And I was like, “what if she’s cursing all the time”? Like, I love it. It doesn’t mean that I curse all the time, but I curse in my mind and sometimes when I messed up. So I was like, that could be Elissa, and I love it. So that was two things that like describe Elissa and highlight this little connection with Alanna de La Rossa.
How was working with Ernesto as a director?
Perfect. It was incredible. I learned a lot. This is my first movie with him and he’s such a professional and open-minded guy. And I love it how I was sending everything up. Like, I had ideas. I had new things to put into the movie and the only thing that he said was “yes”. Like, he said yes to everything that I said, and I love it. We make such a great connection. We were like a team. It was Marko, Scott, Ernesto, and me all the time trying to make this movie better and put our hearts on it. And he’s such a great guy. I love him so much. And I’m so grateful to him to make it real and trust my talent, you know? Trust me to interpret Elissa.
So, was there any physical training that you had to do to prepare for this role?
Yes. Two weeks before we start shooting the movie, I had multiple practices with Sons. I had already a little knowledge about how to defend myself, how to shoot and manage guns and weapons because of Dominique. That was my last movie and also because of a lot of series that I’ve done in Colombia that ask about being trained. And also, I practiced with Scott. He taught me a lot of things, how to defend myself, basic things of technique and stuff. You can tell when you’re seeing the movie, you’re like, damn, “this girl is ready. This girl is prepared. She’s trained”. So yeah, I’ve had a lot of practice. But also, that’s one of the main things that I loved about Diablo, that I need to train. I need to defend myself and I learned a lot about that.
In general, how do you tend to prepare for a role?
There’s a lot of things that I do. But one of the most things that I love to do, and it’s a rare thing because I think they don’t do it often. It’s just a thing. It’s just me, I think. But every time that I get a new role, and it’s a big role as Elissa, and multiple roles, I make this notebook, and I personalize as my character. So, I buy the book, and I’m like, “okay, so how will my character write?” And I write my character. How would she personalize the notebook? So, she would put stickers. She will break the notebook into different situations, like how she would write. How, it’s like the little journal in my character. I have the script, and I put little annotations about every single scene in my character in the notebook. And that’s the notebook of my character. So that’s one of the ways that I prepare myself. And you see me in set, and it’s my iPad, my water bottle, and my notebook all the time with those three things in set. And also just I have little references in other movies. For this one, I watched different action movies with different women, girls fighting so I can visualize myself doing those type of things.
The finale of the movie in the factory seemed very precarious. How was it to put that together and feel safe doing that?
It was crazy. It was two days straight of shooting those sequence. And it was long, hard. I think it’s one of the hardest scenes of the movie. Because not only action, also emotionally, I end up super tired. I didn’t have voice. Like, my throat was dying but I saw a little bit of the scene. It was 100% fire. It was really good. And also, I got to heal so strong and so crazy that, everyone thought that they called the police and everything to set because they thought they were killing somebody. They were thinking some little girl was dying. And also, Scott was like, “girl, are you OK? Why are you yelling like that?” And I’m like, I’m in the situation, I’m acting but it was really hard. It was really emotional. And that’s one of the parts that I feel with, like, Kris, a really strong connection. Me as a character, Elissa, and also with Kris, was like, damn, it’s so hard. It was really hard.
What do you look for in a script to really be interested in a role and in a project?
First, I would say that it’s a challenge for me. Like, if it doesn’t ask for more, I don’t like it. I wanted to take it out of my comfort zone and to ask me more and be hard because I like hard things. So, for this one, Elissa was 100% out of my comfort zone. It was challenging. It was hard. It was a whole different thing and a big responsibility for me. So. that’s why I said yes and that’s why I get obsessed with the character, obsessed with the script. And I was like, I want to be in this role. I want to be in this project. Because everything is such a hard thing that I wanted to make it real. And I wanted to make it hard, you know? And yeah, I think that’s one of the important things.
How would you like audiences to respond to the movie?
Just to have fun, I would say and to connect with every single character. Connect with Elissa. Suffer with her and yeah, have fun. Watch it with your family. Watch it with your friends. Admire the fights and just like it and have fun.
Yeah. Well, thank you so much and of course, have great success with the movie.
Thank you.