We were joined back on the Popternative show by Lily Santiago (La Brea) who stars in the new Netflix mystery crime series, Untamed. Created by by Mark L. Smith (The Revenant, American Primeval), the series also stars Eric Bana (Dirty John, Troy), Sam Neill (The Twelve, Jurassic Park), Rosemary DeWitt (Smile 2, The Boys), and Wilson Bethel (All Rise, Hart of Dixie). Untamed premiered on July 17 with all six episodes.
The series follows special agent Turner (Bana) for the National Parks Service whose murder investigation sends him on a collision course with the dark secrets within the park, and in his own past. Lily plays Naya Vasquez, an ambitious, former Los Angeles cop and new member of Yosemite’s ranger squad. She arrives to the park to find a new life with her 4-year-old son, Gael. She soon joins Turner in the investigation and begins learning more about the park.
One scene in particular Lily discusses is where her character Naya is exploring a cave on her own and becomes trapped. She tries to squeeze her way towards an exit hole and become stuck between rocks, with panic and terror intensifying:
“My body forgets that I’m playing pretend and it gets really scary because ultimately, I am fighting for my life in that moment. They changed around the schedule, so next thing I knew it was like, ‘tomorrow we’re filming the cave scene.’ And I was like ‘no, I’m not ready,’ just emotionally. It was a first for me in how to prepare for something emotionally [and] physically. I knew in the moment I couldn’t actually prepare for it.”
Watch the full conversation with Lily Santiago below.
Untamed is streaming globally on Netflix.
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