Rosa Salazar is no stranger to cutting-edge techniques in film making. As the cyborg in Robert Rodriguez’s Alita: Battle Angel, she had enormous, expressive eyes thanks to motion capture. Now, in the genre-bending adult animated show, Undone, she stars as the troubled Alma Winograd-Diaz, who, after a near-fatal accident, discovers she can travel through time. Alma’s world is brought alive through rotoscoping, a technique where animators draw over live footage—remember Richard Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly?
“The techniques are vastly different,” Salazar says. over a call from Los Angeles, California. “While both have their challenges, shooting for rotoscope is much more demanding — mentally and physically.”
With rotoscope animation, there is no set, Salazar says. “We have a studio space that is completely green screen with grids everywhere and tape on the floor. We have to do everything with our imagination and our trusty guide, Hisko Hulsing (director).” Three cameras on tripods, and a stripped-down crew of about six to eight people due to the pandemic were all they had, she comments.
There is a lingering question in Undone about the truth of Alma’s powers. “In the first season, the question was: is she crazy or is she gifted? Is she hysterical or does she have some sort of shamanic ability? In the second season, we dive more into that question and what we discover is that it is a combination of those two qualities.”
The 36-year-old actor describes Alma’s superpower as an undying devotion to figuring out the mysteries of her family. “That could be her superpower in any dimension.”
Stills from the film | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Describing season 2, which drops on April 29, Salazar quotes the director, saying, “Hisco puts it the right way. In the first season, we were learning how to drive a car while building it. Everyone said, ‘We’ve got something special.’ In the second season, Hisco says, ‘We now have a Maserati and we are going to put top down and set it on cruise control’.”
From an emotional standpoint, Salazar says in Season 2, we are going to see Alma going on a journey into the complexities and the secrets of her family. “Alma is going through her parents’ lineage, while also trying to fix the mistakes that were made and secrets that were cultivated in her family, only to find that it is a never-ending loop.”
While the cosmos was the limit in the first season, Salazar says, “The second season is incredibly more visually expansive. A lot of people are going to be jaws-to-the-ground ‘oh my god, this is beautiful.’ It is one of those beautiful artworks on television. It is one of the funniest and emotional journeys from a unique point of view of a Jewish Mexican girl.”
Admitting to be an overthinker with certain things, Salazar says getting to play Alma had a hint of the magical. “Undone came to me in such an ‘Undone’ way. I went in to read for another great animated project a long time ago. The casting director, Linda Lamontagne, who is a genius, said, ‘That was a good read, but I want you to read something else.’ And she opened this drawer, a mythical drawer in her office and pulled out episode one, season one of Undone. I read it in front of her, which was funny and awkward (laughs). I hadn’t rehearsed, I hadn’t practiced. We put it on tape. Then I met with Kate (Purdy) and Raphael (Bob-Waksberg, creators) and I said, ‘this is something I need to do. I feel it’.”
For an actor, Salazar says if it is not a hell, yes, it is a hell, no. “And this was a hell, yes. I have done projects for what I think are the right reasons. If, however, I am trying to stack up reasons why to do a project, then there are probably a lot of reasons why I should not do it. We would all benefit a great deal from listening to our intuition.”
For all who are wondering if that insane psychedelic fever dream, Brand New Cherry Flavor, will have a second season, Salazar says, most probably not. “It is a limited series. That portion of Lisa Nova’s story came to an end.” But, Salazar does promise further adventures with the cyborg with expressive eyes. “Alita, I will work on getting that sequel till my dying breath.”
Undone is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video
