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I started kite boarding when I was 13. My dad was a kite boarder, and I begged him to teach me until he finally agreed. He made me wait because it can be dangerous.
My dad taught me to kiteboard when I was 13, and around the same time, I happened to just fall into being an extra on a set and fell in love with acting and making movies.
At about 17, I decided I wanted to take kiteboarding seriously and compete, so my agents were like, 'Just keep sending in a few audition tapes anyway, just for good stuff.'
Horror movies can be - I don't wanna say not real, but so over-the-top: you can get scared 'cos things are loud and in-your-face, but these are real emotions that I'm using.
All my Dominican friends live in an area called Los Venaga. Their houses are shacks. They'd invite us over to dinner, and we'd sit in plastic chairs on the dirt inside a house.
When you look at the roles I've done and the roles coming up, they're all strong. I guess I'm more drawn to that than that kind of submissive role females can be categorised as.
To this day, I haven't seen 'Jaws.' Because I was always in the ocean, when I was a kid, my mom said, 'See the movies that you want to, but I'm telling you, do not ever see Jaws.'
I grew up watching horror movies with my dad. For as long as I can remember. I grew up loving being terrified. 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' at sleepovers. Hiding behind my fingers.
Cape Town, South Africa, was pretty incredible. That's probably the coolest place I have ever been, and the kiteboarding is insane there. It's so windy, so you can get massive air.
I'm working on a movie called 'Labor Day' with Kate Winslet while still balancing kite boarding. Being an actress and an athlete is a challenge, but I'm excited to see what happens.
It's really cool to be able to do both. I get a chance to be in this film with these amazing actors, the coolest people ever, and I try to kiteboard as much in my free time as I can.
I grew up in the indie world and that's what I'm used to, but there's something really incredible about having money behind a film and having the time to do as many takes as you want.
I grew up in the indie world, and that's what I'm used to, but there's something really incredible about having money behind a film and having the time to do as many takes as you want.
Stick up for what you believe in and never, ever feel that you can't say something or speak your mind. I think that would be the best advice. Be strong. Be confident. That's really all you need.
When you watch a film, a huge part of it is the music and the coloring and everything that comes together to create such a unique film. So, reading the script, I had no idea what it was gonna be.
There are a lot of times where, filming 'It Follows,' I'm fighting against a guy dressed in a green suit for special effects, and I'm just like, 'No. There's no way this is going to be pulled off.'
I love horror movies. It's so fun being absolutely terrified. It's damn hard to shoot, though. I didn't realize how difficult it was to make a horror movie as an actor. Physically and mentally, phew.
A lot of times, I'll get roles where it's the dumb blonde or the cheerleader, and I just have no interest - and it can be a great movie, it really can - or the mean girl; those things don't intrigue me much.
If you've got people around you that are like, 'Oh, you're so good,' this and that, it becomes unhealthy. My friends are like, 'You look like a doofus.' I'm like, 'Thank you. Thank you for that.' It keeps me grounded.
I used to be a professional kiteboarder. People were like, 'Oh, my God, are you scared of sharks? Are you scared of injuries?' You can't be scared. If you're scared, then you can't do it. You can't train to be the best.
I have to say, working with Dan Stevens in 'The Guest' and seeing his transformation was incredible. Also Kate Winslet. Off set, she's loud and sweary, but when she walks on set, she has this calmness and is so centred.
For me, I grew up doing kiteboarding where no girls are doing it, and you had to prove yourself. You just had to know that you could do it, too. It's the mentality you had to have to make it. I work hard like anyone else.
I have a weird thing with knives. I don't like knives very much. Like when my parents are cooking in the kitchen and using knives to chop vegetables, I can't be in the same room. For whatever reason, knives just terrify me.
Signing up for 'It Follows,' I didn't have any idea it was going to turn out the way it did, but seeing it, the music and the feel of it definitely was pretty amazing, getting that kind of throwback feel to classic horror movies.
It fell into my lap. I grew up doing dance classes. And one day, a film production company contacted my dance school looking for background dancers. I wasn't looking for it. It just happened. And I found myself on set. And that was that.
I've cracked my head open before; I've had some great injuries. So I have to do it on the side now. I cracked my head open kiting before a competition in New Caledonia. The water was shallow, and I missed a trick and hit my head on a rock.
I'd really love to work with Quentin Tarantino. There's so many people that I'd love to work with, but there's something about Quentin, and one of my all-time favorite films is 'Kill Bill.' Something along those lines would be such a blast.
With a project like 'The 5th Wave,' you do something you would never do in your normal life; I would never have had S.W.A.T. training or boot camp, and there's something really cool about learning stuff like that that's really fun about our job.
Before acting took off, I was a professional kiteboarder training for the world circuit; with a sporting activity, you have to be determined, and it taught me to have a thick skin, which came in use after going to so many auditions and being told 'no.'
My dad took me to see James Brown live, and that's so cool, cause I don't think many people my age can say they saw James Brown. I'm pretty proud of that. That's the thing about me that no one really knows. I had to have been 6 or 7, but I remember it vividly.
SOLOSHOT is such a brilliant idea and an athlete's dream. It has given me the ability to film myself training without anyone's help - it's perfect because I can go to the beach, set up my SOLOSHOT, and not have to rely on anyone to stand there and film me from the beach for hours.
My grandma passed away from cancer, and actually, when I was 18, I had an experience with melanoma - it's in the family. I had that experience where everything comes into perspective. It's the weirdest thing, 'cause you're like, 'It will never happen to me,' and when it does, it's like, 'OK, wow.'
With kiting, you have to land a trick, and in that instant you know whether you won or lost - I knew I could become the best in the world if I trained. But with acting, there are different variations; there's not a right or wrong way. It's so hard because it's so out of your hands. I have no idea what's going to happen!
I have a rule now that I can only watch a movie twice. By the third time I was watching 'The Guest,' I was hating everything about it, but the first time, I loved it. The first time you watch it, you watch it as a whole. And the second time, I think you can learn a lot. By the third time, you are just picking everything apart.
I went from living in the Dominican Republic - every day, my mom and I would cook, or we'd go hang out with the kids - to flying a private jet to Chicago with Zac Efron and Dennis Quaid. People had champagne, and they were going to these amazing restaurants. It was a culture shock. It's important, I think, to have that. To see both sides.
There's some freedom that you get with indie films that you don't get with the big-budget ones. There's just a different style. I hope I can switch back and forth for the rest of my career, but I've kind of grown up on indies, and there's nothing better than working with these directors so closely and and being such a huge part of the process.