We’re going into the NYOTA archives to find some of our favorite interviews that weren’t originally shared on the site.

“Never give up and surround yourself with things that inspire you.”

Inde Navarrette

Inde Navarrette is a breakout actress who has proven her notable versatility in film and television. After acting in projects like “13 Reasons Why” and “Wander Darkly,” Navarette is now playing Sarah Cushing in the hit CW series “Superman & Lois.” She talked to NYOTA about stepping into Sarah’s shoes each episode, acting alongside Emmanuelle Chriqui, and being a part of the Superman legacy.    

What initially sparked your interest in acting? Was it a certain television show or movie?

I would say I’m fortunate enough to where I never really saw myself doing anything else. I had a young mother, and so the movies that she enjoyed watching were the ones that I grew up on. So, my favorite movie as a kid was Gladiator with Russell Crowe. That, and films like that, where it gave you this sensation of ‘Oh, shit, like, I can do this,’ it kind of sparked an inspiration.

Then, as a young kid, a lot of people would compare me, looks-wise, to Natalie Portman, so I started watching a lot of her films like Léon: The Professional. I just really tapped into the fact that kids can do this, and they can do this well. So it’s something that I really enjoyed doing, but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to really tap into until I was about 13. Sixteen is kind of where I got my first job, and then from there, I just fell in love.  

You can currently be seen in Superman & Lois on the CW. There have been many iterations of superman but he’s not often shown with family and Smallville community members in this way. How does it feel to be a part of the Superman legacy through this project?

I didn’t realize how important it would be to me until I got to see how much it meant to other people. I didn’t grow up around comics, so seeing how much Superman means to people is new for me. For example, we just did PaleyFest, and I really got to see it in person. I’ll drive around Vancouver with Alex (who plays Jordan on the show), and we’ll just see people wearing Superman shirts, or people who get really excited about the boys and the lore that has to do with that. And Tyler, I mean, how much he has on his shoulders to really play the character and play it correctly, and Bitsie, who plays Lois, they’re nailing it in every way that they possibly can with everything that they’re given. So, for me, playing a character that’s never been seen before, I kind of get this freedom to do what I want. However, at the same time, playing it true to what a kid would be like in that world is difficult, because I don’t live in Smallville. I don’t live in a world where aliens could attack, and Superman could fly in. So, it’s definitely where you have to take imagination by the piggy tails and kind of just go.

Sarah is a character with a lot of layers, and along with being a young woman who is finding herself, her character has touched on mental health and has pulled herself out of a very dark place. What do you do to step into her shoes when filming?

I just thought it was really important to have moments where you play truth to the ugliness of what it’s like to grow up. There’s a moment where Sarah cheats on Jordan, and to her, she doesn’t see it as cheating. She doesn’t understand why going to camp and kissing somebody else who is a girl is an issue, because to Sarah, it doesn’t mean what it means to Jordan. Then slowly, she has to figure that out and take it as a lesson. Oftentimes, as a young girl, you can learn a lesson in not the best way, and you can have the not-correct support system, and it becomes trauma, it becomes shame, it becomes all of these really negative things. So, what was beautiful for Sarah was that she had her mom and her dad to lean on. She has her sister, she, at times, will have Jordan, not obviously in that particular sense, but it’s just figuring out how to truthfully tell the world what it’s like to be 15 in kind of an ugly way sometimes, which is the truth.

You and Emmanuelle Chriqui (Lana Lang) have a special on-screen bond as mother and daughter. Is there anything, in particular, you do off set to create a genuine bond that shows up on-screen?

I think we’re really blessed with the fact that we have such a phenomenal cast on-screen and off-screen. I do credit a lot of the scenes that Emmanuelle and I have together to who Emmanuelle and I are off-screen, and how much we’re willing to give. Sometimes you can be paired with an actor or an actress where there’s no chemistry, and that doesn’t necessarily mean you know, sexual chemistry or anything, or attraction, it’s just chemistry. Emmanuelle is such a grounded performer, to the point where you can have those moments and really go deep and feel safe enough to play a mother-daughter relationship so truthfully, and all of the scenes that Sarah and Lana have are because we both feel incredibly safe enough to have those conversations, and to really ‘go there.’

In particular, in Season 1, episode three, there’s a moment where Lana asks, ‘Why did you do that? I just need to know why you felt the need that you didn’t want to be here anymore?’ and that’s such a deep subject to talk about, and to play it truthfully, as a vulnerable moment. I remember on the day specifically, there were moments where Greg Smith who was directing the episode, kind of was like, I really want Sarah to let go and there are times where as a person, you want to hold things in, you don’t want to go there, it’s really, really, really difficult but in order to do my job in a way that I want to, I want there to be an area of truth. There was a moment where, I think we were on the third take, and he came over and said, ‘Inde, I really want you to go there,’ and we started the scene, and I just didn’t feel that connection. Then, I think Emmanuelle put her hand on the bed, and all of a sudden, she gave me this look, as I looked up in the take, and everything just came down.

It’s in moments like that, where you can capture it on screen, where you just suddenly see a person falling apart. To have Greg and Emmanuelle and the team that we do, you’re just able to capture those moments in such a really beautiful way. So I do, I credit a lot of the scenes that we get to the atmosphere that everybody creates on set.

The episode with Sarah’s Quinceañera had a lot of ups and downs, but it did shine a light on Latinx culture. Do you feel that moments like this in Superman & Lois help push diverse stories into the spotlight?

Yeah, cause I never had a Quinceañera. I moved around a lot, and so I wasn’t in the area, and I grew up with a single mom whose culture didn’t have Quinceañeras. I mean, my mom’s Australian, so she didn’t have that. I grew up with Mexican culture on my dad’s side of the family. I don’t want to say that I didn’t at all, but I unfortunately never had a Quinceañera. So, when it got to the point of Season 1 going in, me and Todd Helbing (who is the show creator), were having conversations and I said, ‘How old is Sarah?’ and he goes, ‘14’ and I said, ‘Is she going to be turning 15 on the show?’ and he said, ‘Yes,’ and I said, ‘Well, in my culture, we have a Quinceañera.’ Then we never talked about it again.

Season 2 comes around, and I’m still new to the industry. I don’t ever want to step on people’s toes, plus, there’s this culture on set whenever you’re like, ‘I really want to be here, I really want to stay here. I don’t want to push the boundaries too much. I don’t want to ask for too much. I don’t want to be that person on set that’s trying to make it all about them in that sense.’ So, I humbly went to Todd and was like, ‘I really don’t want to act like I’m begging to have this whole episode be about me, or be about the Cushing’s like whatever you want to do with Superman is what we’re going to do but-’ He stopped me in the middle of that sentence and he said ‘The Cushing’s are such a pivotal and important part of the story and it’s already in the storyboard of what we want Season 2 to be, it’s already in there.’ I was like, wow, this is a person who really cares. I mean, whenever we were filming the episode, I had two of the writers zooming me on a constant basis, being like, ‘Is this correct? Is this correct? Is this what the dress should look like? Is this what should be said? What song would you like?’ 

It was such a collaborative experience, and it was really meaningful to see Sarah get to be a girl for a sense and kind of just put on the dress and wear the dress, that I almost caught on fire. It was so cold, I was sitting down, and I had like eight kidney wraps, which is where they wrap stuff around your body to really keep you warm and insulated. And my dress was obviously very big, and it’s next to five different heaters. So all of a sudden, the costume team and I are like, ‘We smell something burning.’ So, we look over, and you just see my dress smoking a little bit. We had to back away from the heaters.

But that aside, the episode was really important for Sarah, because that’s such a traumatic moment to find out that your dad cheated, specifically at the time when you’re supposed to become a woman. That’s what a Quinceañera is: it’s your family and your culture and your neighborhood, and everybody recognizing you as a woman, and to have that taken away from you, that’s really detrimental. So, it’s important to tell diverse stories, but it’s also really important to tell them in a manner that’s true, and not just slapped with the sticker that’s like this is a diverse moment. You actually get to see it from the inside out rather than the outside. 

Something Superman & Lois does well is letting the teenage characters, like Sarah, make mistakes and wrong decisions and learn from those situations. Do you feel that in Season 2, Sarah has grown as a character and is coming into her own?

I think she’s the kind of person who has to make the mistake to learn the lesson, and we see that when she isn’t empathetic to Jordan about Aubrey. But it’s through situations like that where a person decides who they want to be. Do they want to stick with hurting the other because of what they believe themselves, or can they put themselves aside? I am curious to see what Season 3 brings.

What advice do you have for aspiring actors?

Never give up and surround yourself with things that inspire you.

This story first ran in Issue 28. Read more from the issue here.