Even Melissa Barrera Didn't Know 'Wonka' Was a Musical

“Wonka.” “Bad girls.” “Joker: Folie à Deux.” “The color purple.” Hollywood may not be talking loudly about its recent rise in big-budget musicals – remember these stories of audiences who do not realize that recent remake of “Mean Girls” was, in fact, a musical? – but that doesn't mean the classic genre isn't still making its way into movie theaters.

Actress Melissa Barrera made her own Hollywood debut with Jon M. Chu's dazzling “In the Heights” – very, very it's more of a musical – but it still sees the strange ways in which the industry obfuscates and outright hides the kind of films it makes.

“It feels weird, I'm not going to lie, it feels weird to reject musicals, because before, every movie was a musical and [audiences] I loved them and they were great, and I don’t know what happened, the tide turned and there’s this rejection,” Barrera said in a recent interview with IndieWire. “Maybe it’s a question of quality. Maybe the quality went down, and then people started not liking them, and that's why they now judge everything that comes out.

One thing that doesn't help matters? A tendency to hide that certain films are musicals in their marketing. Barrera pointed to Todd Phillips' upcoming “Joker” sequel, a musical follow-up to his Oscar-winning hit, as further evidence of very strange intentions on the part of Hollywood brass, the kind that annoy audiences even further.

“Right now, in the sequel to 'The Joker,' they're trying so hard to say it's not a musical when, man, it is. Come on ! “, she says. “We already know how many songs there are in the film. It's a musical, so that fear, like if the trailer didn't include any songs and stuff like that,… I think the audience also rejects the idea of ​​feeling manipulated, and so I think that doesn't just makes things worse. They release a trailer where there's no music, and you're like, “What is this?” What is this ? and then they release the latest trailer a week before it comes out, and then they have music in it, and everyone is confused.

Even Barrera herself has found herself confused about some of the genre's recent offerings. When asked about the recent hit musical “Wonka,” Barrera admitted, “I didn’t know it was a musical. I had no idea.” Still, the film was a smash hit, so she has some hope for the future. (She's also “very excited for 'Wicked,' obviously.”)

“I love musicals,” Barrera said. “I would just do musicals if I had the chance. I love them so much and I hope there is a resurgence, and I hope they become popular again with the right creative voices behind them and the right production and execution and talent. I just feel like it has to be a combination of everything. Before, in the golden age of Hollywood, even in the golden age of Mexican cinema, everything was a musical, but every actor was a triple threat. All the actors could sing, dance, act, they were good at it and they were charming. I think we need to invest in talent.

And Barrera herself is eager to get back into the musical game and has some ideas for possible dream roles, like Giuseppe Verdi's classic tragic opera, “Aida,” which has been adapted for the screen several times, but not in the contemporary era.

“I want to do more musicals. One of my favorite musicals that I think would make an amazing movie is 'Aida,'” she said. “It was my senior show in high school. I played Ameris, and I just think, imagine this show, visually, just spectacular I just think it would be amazing, and the story, the music, everything about it.

Barrera has other ideas as well, including a very fun mash-up of his comedic dreams and a nod to some of Hollywood's most successful musicals.

“If we talk about what I would do to want to do, I just feel like I would like to do something different than what I've done, so I've done musicals, I've done horror and I've done stuff more dramatic,” she said. “I would love to do a straight comedy. I would love it.

She stopped to laugh, seemingly combining her two great desires into one bad little idea. “You know what I’d really like to do? What is my dream? “, Barrera said. “I would love to do a movie like 'Grease,' where I'm 35, playing a 16-year-old, and everyone else is in their 30s and playing high school. It is what I want.”