'All Rise' actor Jessica Camacho on starring in 'Watchmen' and shooting her harrowing death scene in 'Another Life'
Jessica Camacho, who plays public defender Emily Lopez on CBS's legal drama 'All Rise' is not new to television, but for Camacho, who previously worked on shows like 'The Flash' and 'Another Life', Emily is quite different from her previous roles.
Camacho spoke to MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) in an exclusive interview about her biggest roles this year.
Camacho finds that despite the different genres, her challenge is "to make the character as truthful, as honest, and as real as possible."
Even when she is playing a character out in space, as she did in 'Another Life', "it's still a challenge to make my character, the material, and the world believable, which is not always easy."
She believes that what people want to see is their real emotions, realizations, and journeys reflected on screen. Camacho wants her characters to be grounded in reality so that her viewers can "latch onto the truth of what I'm feeling and experience it along with me."
In Netflix's 'Another Life' which released its first season this year and has been renewed for a second season, Camacho plays Michelle Vargas, a brash crew member who is ready to do whatever it takes for the benefit of the crew, even for those she disagrees with.
Camacho agrees that Michelle is vastly different from Emily of 'All Rise', but believes that the two characters are renegade spirits who are "driven by an intense need to achieve their goals" and share an inner strength.
Michelle's death scene in 'Another Life' was quite harrowing for viewers to watch. With the ship malfunctioning, Michelle has to go into the exotic matter containment unit where there is a pressure buildup.
Michelle goes to the particle accelerator to do a manual override but is exposed to the exotic matter, bleeding from everywhere, and dies a slow, painful death.
Camacho says the drama queen in her loved shooting Michelle's death scene, "I get to rise and scream and cry, and it was intense. You really try and put yourself through the motions, pretending that your flesh is ripped from you and understand the fear that comes with that."
Camacho was also in HBO's 'Watchmen' in its pilot episode, playing Pirate Jenny. She spoke about her experience working on the show and said, "They didn't tell us a lot about what we were working on, just the essentials that we needed to know to play the characters".
She was blown away when watching the episode with the audience. Camacho says she went through the process just trusting Damon Lindelof, the director.
She agrees that it was a special project, adding "being included among that roster of talent was so humbling. Working with Regina [King] and watching the way that she committed to her role was really inspiring."
'All Rise' airs on CBS on Monday nights.