Alice Braga, The New Mutants and The Suicide Squad Star, is Having a Huge Month

After months of everyone staying home (especially in Hollywood and in the film industry), getting back to a work life which is some semblance of normal is going to be a change of pace. For Alice Braga, getting back to work has happened rapidly and the Brazilian actress has been relentlessly (and deservedly) in the spotlight. Braga stars in the last of the X-Men franchise’s films The New Mutants which hits theaters at the end of the week. In late July, she reunited with the cast for Comic-Con @ Home’s virtual New Mutants panel and earlier this month began a virtual press junket. At the same time, she was featured at one of the highlights of DC FanDome when she participated in The Suicide Squad‘s panel, unveiling the first look at August of 2021’s DC Comics movie where she plays Sol Soria.

“It was great. It’s so wonderful when you get to recount your castmates and then just talk about the fun moments on set,” Braga said of connecting with her New Mutants castmates at Comic-Con @ Home. “I love being on set. If you ask me like, ‘What’s your favorite place in the world?’ It’s ridiculous, but I’m going to say being on a set. Nobody believes me, but I love it.”

Braga’s family, ranging from her mother and father, actress Ana Marie Braga and director Ninho F. Moraes, to her aunts and uncles Sōnia Braga, Júlio Braga, Héllo Braga, and Maria Braga, has worked in film. Her world is comprised of filmmaking which is a major reason why she loves it so much. Braga will be recognized to many for her roles as Anna in I Am Legend or Frey in Elysium. “I was raised in one because of my family and I just loved the magic of it,” she explains. “That’s why I became an actress and just to reunite with them and laugh with them, it was adorable.”

While fans will have to wait just less than one full year to see Braga in The Suicide Squad, the wait for her work as Dr. Cecilia Reyes, mutant powers and all, in The New Mutants is finally almost over after years of delays. “Both films, [The New Mutants] and Suicide Squad, the cast was great. So, what do you ask for more? I mean like they are great people, great human beings and also, they’re great in the film. I think both those in different ways, because its different tones of films. I think the fans are going to be excited.”

Another thing both New Mutants and Squad have in common is they will be taking what seems to be wholly original approaches to their respective existences in the super hero genre.

“I think [The New Mutants] a new type of superhero film in a way that, because he has a psychological thriller vibe, there is some horror, I think it’s already a plus that you kind of on your edge all the time,” Braga explains. “You’re trying to figure out what’s going on. It’s not only ‘Action. action, action, action!’ When the action comes, it’s kind of scary, but at the same time, it feels like you’re on a roller coaster like ‘Oh my god! What’s going to happen?’ I am a big fan of films like this because it keeps you on the edge, but at the same time, there’s excitement of you rooting for those characters. You kind of engage with their questions and their pains and their doubts. At the same time you’re rooting for them to survive. So, I think it’s going to be a fun ride for the fans.”

It’s unclear if Braga or the cast and crew of The New Mutants will return for sequels as the merger between Fox and Disney may have killed director Josh Boone’s trilogy vision. “I think once you join a field like this, you always talk about possibilities, but I love Josh’s idea for the future,” Braga admits. “I really hope this movie gets a sequel because I really want people to just see where these characters go.”

The New Mutants hits theaters on August 28.