After playing Elena Alvarez on the TV series reboot of One Day at a Time for four seasons, Colombian American actress Isabella Gómez was ready to try something on the opposite end of the spectrum.
“I loved the idea of doing a horror film,” Gómez told Remezcla during a recent interview. “I’ve been doing sitcoms for a really long time, which I adore, but I was excited to spread my wings a little and try something different.”
The project Gómez landed on was Initiation, a horror-thriller set on a college campus. In the film, Gómez plays Kylie, a sorority sister who is caught up in a series of murders that start with the death of the school’s star athlete.
“Once I started reading the script, I couldn’t put it down,” Gómez said. “The idea of a whole cast hanging out and doing night shoots and being covered in blood and running around sounded like a good time to me.”
As she continues to pursue more roles post-One Day at a Time, Gómez said she hopes to do “a little bit of everything” and work on as many different genres as she can.
“I think the beauty of acting is when you get to step into so many different worlds and characters and different scenarios,” she said. “I would never want to be put in a box and seen solely as a comedic actress.”
While Gómez is open to experiencing new things aside from comedy, sitcoms won’t be far behind. Her next TV role will be on the HBO Max reboot of the late 1980s TV series Head of the Class. Gómez will play Alicia Adams, a high school teacher who wants her students to focus more on life and less on their GPAs.
“It’s so bizarre for me to say that I’m playing a teacher,” Gómez said. “But it’s super cool.”
