We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Andrea Meireles a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Andrea, appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
I remember that when I was a child, maybe I was six or seven years old, at school the teachers told us to learn poems that we would then have to recite in front of the whole class, and I remember taking it very seriously, I would rehearse for hours in front of the mirror, I would dress up and try different ways of saying it, and then I would recite it in front of my mother. She has always been my number one fan, the one who has always supported and encouraged me the most and I remember feeling enormous nerves and excitement when I had to stand in front of the entire class to recite the poem. I ended up so elated that I just wished I could do it again. At that age is when the school let us sign up for theater classes, too. My school had many extracurricular activities, I have to say, when I was a child, I signed up for everything. I did rhythmic gymnastics, basketball, volleyball, computer science, athletics… I had to try everything, I was in some activities for a few years, I left others and tried new ones, but I always signed up for theater, year after year, always theater. Until one day it was just theater. So, I can say that today I am an actress because of the theater, the theater was my first love, the reason to everything. The nerves and excitement of being on stage, in front of an audience, telling them a story…. that feeling, what it made me feel in my body before, during and after… that’s when I realized that this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, and luckily, my parents always supported me.
Andrea, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I was born and raised in Spain, in Leon, a city in the north of the country with approximately 130 thousand people, it is small, but it is very worth visiting. Let me tell you that coming to New York City with a population of more than 8 million people, completely alone, to pursue my acting career has been the most difficult challenge of my life, but also the most enriching experience and I can’t complain, I’ve been working a lot in recent years, I made my off-Broadway debut with the play “Our Home on Ludlow” written and directed by my talented friend Martin Chamorro, with whom I have had the pleasure of collaborating many times. With this play I won my first LATA award for best supporting actress. Also, under Martin’s direction we did another play called “Un Reflejo” and it was my debut as a co-writer with him. We won an award for best production and best actress. We worked together again on “Fragmentos de Silencio” – an experimental, very visual and immersive play that takes us into the consciousness of a bride, who, due to social oppression to get married, reaches a frenetic moment to escape from an imposed marriage. This play won several awards, including best play at the Frenzy Fest 2023.
I also really like working on independent films. I got my role as Isabel Sanchez in the short film “For Lila” written by Kaitron Bryant and edited by Malik Myers who was also the casting director of the film. It is currently in the festival run and I won an award for best supporting actress at the Independent Shorts Awards, January 2025, LA. I had to work on the Mexican accent with dialect coach Jennifer Rodriguez, she is from Mexico, and she helped a lot to understand Isabel’s world. I am amazed by the reception this short film has had, the number of awards and nominations the cast and crew have won so far, and it still hasn’t been officially released. I can’t wait for you to see it!
My last short film “In Absentia”, written by Jasmine LeCount-McClanahan and directed by James Martin and Deidry Gomez, a short biographical film about the life of the director (Deidry Gomez), where my character Nataly must face the difficulties of having a father with dementia, while creating a life for herself. It is currently in post-production. It is my first biographical film. Deidry was very open, she told me the story of her family, she opened the doors of her house for me. I couldn’t be more honored to tell her story.
Finally, I am currently working on a series for Instagram – “Un Abogado en Nueva York”, written and directed by Martin Chamorro, which I invite you to watch, they are short episodes, with a very interesting plot that takes unexpected turns. Everything revolves around the figure of the lawyer, but they present fictional stories based on real cases. It’s very good!
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Everything I learn from being an actress. This profession has taught me to be more empathetic, not to judge and to understand the life circumstances of each person. To think about why they live, think or behave in a certain way. Every time I start a new work, I do a very detailed investigation of the world in which my character lives so I can then create the character and understand why she is the way she is. To give you a few examples, I recently did a call back for a play that was about the Spanish Civil War. To prepare for the audition and understand why my character behaved the way she did, I had to read, watch interviews, documentaries and put myself in the context of the time. I had studied the Spanish Civil War in school, but never from the point of view of the citizens, perhaps from a more political point of view or the reasons why the conflict broke out. And after this audition I feel like I learned and understood much more about what happened and why it happened and how the people felt and the consequences of the war and what it did to the Spanish people. I understood it from a more human point of view. What I mean by this is that as an actress I must research and delve so deeply into a topic to be able to bring that character to life, that after each audition or work I feel like I know much more about a particular world that perhaps I didn’t know before. The same thing happened when I worked on the short film “For Lila” with my character Isabel Sánchez, a Mexican woman from Apatzingán who after the murder of her husband had to take on a journey with her daughter to the United States looking for a better future. Thousands of people go through this situation every day and I have never stopped to think about what they really go through to get here. Everything they must sacrifice, everything that pushes them to leave their country, to give their children and themselves a better life. And with “Our Home on Ludlow” my character Anna, a woman abused by her husband who lived in 1900. I had to listen to many testimonies of abused women but also place everything in 1900. It was a very painful process, everything I had to see and hear. It was necessary. I understood perfectly what the so-called “battered woman’s syndrome” means, that we often tend to judge them… because they decide to stay in that situation, and we have no right to judge them. You have to live it to understand that it is not easy to get out of there. What I’m trying to say with all these examples is that being an actress makes me a better person. Human beings are fascinating, their behavior, their background, their way of living and seeing life. Being lucky enough to make a living from this profession is a blessing. It fills my soul and telling these stories, all kinds of stories, making them visible, makes me feel that I am contributing something good to this world. We can make people understand and we also make people be seen.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
The business side of acting. It’s not just about learning the craft and being the best actor you can be. It is necessary to learn the business side from the beginning. We, the actors, are the product and we must know how to sell ourselves. Our headshots, resumes, reels are our letter of introduction, and I think it is important to emphasize this from the beginning, from the moment you decide to be an actor. I started to give importance to it when I finished college, when I arrived in NYC. I would have liked to learn it sooner, it would have saved me a lot of time! haha
I agree, we must first learn to be an actor, to be an actor. But we also need to learn how the industry is run from the beginning. Learn to be an actor and also a businessperson. Getting an agent is essential to take the next step in your acting career.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.andreameireles.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annmeireles/
Image Credits
photos 1-2 For Lila ( Kaitron Bryant, Malik Myers)
photo 3 Fragmentos de Silencio (Martin Chamorro)
photos 4-5 In Absentia (James Martin, Deidry Gomez)
photo 6 Limpia (Jesahel Newton-Bernal)
photo 7-8 Our Home on Ludlow (Martin Chamorro)
photo 9 Un abogado en Nueva York (Martin Chamorro)