Fernanda Andrade – NeXt

By: Jamie Steinberg

Q) How did you come to be a part of the show “NeXt?”

A) It was an audition. I got the script and, at the time, it was the middle of pilot season. I was reading a bunch of other scripts and had just actually tested for another A.I. show, believe it or not. So, I couldn’t audition for “NeXt,” which I liked more. [laughs] When that didn’t go through, I came back and it kept being a back and forth where I felt like, “Am I ever going to get to audition for this?!” But then finally we worked it out and I met everybody. It was definitely one of the best audition experiences that I’ve had. It just felt like the right fit.

Q) How was your character Shea Salazar originally described to you?

A) They send you a breakdown. I actually don’t remember what it said, but I do remember it mentioning she was a really tough, driven woman and that she had had this dark, violent past. That, along with reading the pilot script (which was so good), the character just seemed so interesting. There really was a complexity to her. So, I was pumped.

Q) How does she feel about her husband being a stay at home dad?

A) I think Shea is really grateful. She is an immigrant who came to this country and made something out of nothing, like so many people. She worked really, really hard to become this really high-level professional. She is the youngest person to have her own cyber crime unit at the FBI. She’s obviously come from nothing, but succeeded in this country. I think she worked really hard at building a loving family. It was something she didn’t quite have where she came from. So, I think not just her job, but her family was a dream of hers to build a family like she does and to have a loving husband like Ty (Gerardo Celasco) and an incredible child like Ethan (Evan Whitten). I think they are really her haven, her core and what drives her to do everything that she does – even before NeXt comes around. Also, I found it interesting on a personal level to be playing somebody who is like so many people that I know. I know a lot of really badass working women and there are sacrifices that they have to make. You always hope that you get a partner that is in it with you like Ty. So, he does spend a lot more time with Ethan, but I think they are very much a team.

Q) Did being a part of this series give you any pause about using technology?

A) [laughs] I wish it did. I think the more that I learn about it, the scarier that it is. At the same time, it’s this almost conscious helplessness. I know the dangers of it and the possibilities that it poses and yet I’m talking to you on my iPhone and I have a computer. It really hasn’t stopped me from doing the things that I’ve always been doing. And I think that is what makes this show extra terrifying – because we have structured our everyday lives around this technology. And that’s not just our computers, phones and our electronics. Artificial intelligence has fully infiltrated our educational system, our agricultural system, our justice system. It’s really “helping” us everywhere. We’ve really structured our lives today in a way that we’ve made ourselves extremely vulnerable if something like came in on a superhuman level like A.I. (like we explore in the show) would come to fruition. We would be at a far disadvantage and it would really would be a race to catch up, which is what you see Shea and Paul LeBlanc (John Slattery) do. This thing is so much smarter and so much faster than everybody that it is a race against this invisible monster and this ticking time bomb of a clock.

Q) With such an intense series, how did you shake off a long day of filming?

A) [laughs] They were really long days, but I think I knew going into it that it was going to be a really intense experience. So, I was really excited about it. I think despite it being an intense subject matter and an intense experience in general, I loved it. It’s what I look for and I feel it’s what I’m made to do. I’m really grateful and excited to be a part of something like this with such great actors and great people. Even the most challenging days were extremely rewarding for me, personally.

Q) What are some episodes that you think fans should look out for?

A) Oh man! I mean, as you have seen from the pilot episode, the stakes are high and things happen fast. I think every episode has that feeling of “oh my God” or “oh no” tension that is so fun to watch. I think every episode has that in it. Some of my favorite were episode 5 and 7, on a personal level. Everyone is incredible. The more that you watch it, the more you see NeXt kind of seeping into everybody’s personal lives and turning us against each other. It becomes just full of conflict and exponentially more fun to watch.

Q) What do you think it is about the series “NeXt” that will make it a fast fan favorite sci-fi thriller?

A) I think it is this idea that super-intelligence can be built. From what I understand, all of these experts have told us that it’s possible and available. It’s just a matter of who is going to do it. I think that in itself is terrifying. When it dawns on us, as an audience, that it is happening to them it is immediately a thrilling ride of getting ahead of this thing and stopping it in order to save humanity. For that alone, it just gets you going. But I think what keeps you, at least for me, is that Shea is driven by the love of her family and wanting to protect her family and the people that she loves. I think that is very clear from the get-go. It’s a very personal story for her and I think that’s what drives her through the whole season. I think that will be very easy for people to understand. We are living in a world that looks very scary right now. We’re getting a glimpse of how important love, home and those connections are and how important we are to each other and how we are a part of a bigger human family. I think all of that plays in with a really fun show to watch. I think there are a lot of parallels that came out after we shot this that we had no idea would happen later. We shot this before the pandemic and it’s really wild to see how many parallels of real life are in the show. So, I think those will be fun, but also scary things to see. But at the end of the day, these are people that are fighting for the people that they love and for something bigger than themselves, which is the well being of all of humanity.