Gentrification ‘is a form of cannibalism.’ ‘The Horror of Dolores Roach’ makes it literal

There’s a new item on the menu at Empanada Loca, and it’s to die for. “People can’t stop eating it,” laughs Justina Machado of the secret ingredient at the center of her new, “Sweeney Todd”-inspired dark comedy, Prime Video’s “The Horror of Dolores Roach.” “If only they knew.” Oh, but they will …

In this urban legend, Machado portrays Dolores, released from prison after serving 16 years for dealing weed. But upon her return to her old Washington Heights neighborhood, she finds her ex is gone, along with everyone else she once knew. The bodegas have been replaced by bespoke shops, and the sidewalks are filled with folks who look like they stepped out of Lululemon ads. She is jobless, friendless and homeless until she runs into one of the few remaining OGs, Luis (Alejandro Hernandez). He’s taken over his late father’s restaurant, Empanada Loca, and lets her stay in the basement for free. Out of desperation, she sets up a masseuse business under the shop and begins to get on her feet again. But when her righteous rage and desperation manifest in murderous behavior on the massage table, Luis finds a way to dispose of the bodies that benefits them both.

Based on a Gimlet podcast of the same name, Blumhouse‘s “The Horror of Dolores Roach” also stars Kita Updike and K. Todd Freeman, and features guest spots from Marc Maron and Cyndi Lauper. For Machado, it’s the latest addition to her other notable television roles that include Penelope Alvarez on the Netflix and Pop TV sitcom “One Day at a Time,” Darci Factor in the CW dramedy “Jane the Virgin” and Vanessa Diaz on the HBO drama “Six Feet Under.” Machado, 50, spoke to The Times about her experience playing a woman on the verge, and how we all have a little bit of Dolores lurking inside of us.

In the pilot, Dolores serves as a de facto narrator. She tells the audience: “I’m just like you, if everything went wrong.” Is there a little serial killer in all of us?

Justina Machado: It’s funny. I’ve never wanted to kill anybody, and I really mean that. I’ve never been like, I really want to kill that person! I think of consequences. I’m one of those people. But feeling as desperate as she does, post-incarceration, coming out and not having any money, any friends, any family, not knowing where to go, dealing with gentrification, dealing with trying to survive? Yes, she’s like you, but if everything went wrong. And I’ve known people like her. Not serial killers, but who grew up in my neighborhood, and everything went wrong, and they’re now in a very different position. So it’s an extreme, but you can see it happening.

Here, cannibalism is a metaphor for the whitewashing of a neighborhood. Gentrification cannibalizes what came before it, so why not turn the offending cannibals into tasty fried snacks? It’s a darkly funny way of satirizing urban reality.

Machado: Absolutely. But we’re not hitting anybody over the head with some message. There’s a bigger story going on, but these are things that people can relate to, to gentrification, surviving. And you’re right, it is a form of cannibalism. Creator [and co-showrunner] Aaron Mark always says this, that the first “penny dreadful” novels were about cannibalism, a society eating upon itself. And then the “Sweeney Todd” musical was about betrayal. “Dolores” is about survival.

Had you been a fan of Gimlet’s “Dolores Roach” podcast before learning of the series?

Machado: [“One Day at a Time” co-creator] Gloria Calderón Kellett and I were thinking about doing a podcast together, and so she suggested a couple of podcasts to listen to. “The Horror of Dolores Roach” was one of them. So I started listening to it. And right away, I said, “Whoa, I would love to play a part like that.” And then I got the script, and I started mouthing the words out loud. I was lying in my bed. And I started reading it, and I was acting it out. And the rawness of her, the freedom of playing somebody like that — someone with no boundaries, no limits, no box. It’s just somebody coming out of prison. And it was important to me that it’s not a Latino story. As much as I love to tell those stories, it just happens to be a brilliant story with Latino leads, so that was a big draw. There weren’t flat stereotypes; it was just this outrageous, eccentric, phenomenal script. And I was dying to be a part of it.

But the setting of the empanada shop, and Dolores and Luis being some of the last remaining Latino folks in the neighborhood, does lend a fresh perspective to the horror genre.

Machado: It’s so refreshing and exciting as an artist, as an actor, as somebody who’s been doing this for quite a while, to walk into a project like this where my ethnicity has nothing to do with it, but it enhances it at the same time. It’s very rare that you don’t get boxed in when there’s Latino this and Latino that [in scripts]. And it can alienate a lot of people who are like, “Well, I don’t know if I can relate to that.” I have no idea why people think that, because growing up in this country, I related to everybody, and everybody was white on television. I didn’t see a Black family until “The Cosby Show.” So it’s interesting when it’s the other way around, they’re like, “What?! How am I going to relate to that?!”

Machado, right, with Alejandro Hernandez in “The Horror of Dolores Roach.”

(Jasper Savage / Prime Video)

Did you approach this series as a horror story?

Machado: I never thought of it as horror. I thought it was funny. Really funny. That’s why when we were shooting, it was really important to all of us for the humor to come out. … And I’m the kind of person who, like, gets scared at horror movies. I got PTSD from the freakin’ “Exorcist.” I’m like, “No more!” I know “Dolores” is in the horror genre, but I think it’s in the fun horror genre.

From “Get Out” to “Swarm,” the horror genre has been increasingly diversifying in terms of storytelling, perspective and talent. “Dolores” seems like the next step.

Machado: Of course, and it shows you that people want to see themselves up there, or people want to see stories told through other gazes. So it’s fresh because usually, not only would this probably be a white cast, but my character would probably be a white man. Forget ethnicity, nationality, race, color. A woman in this part is a big deal. I’m not Mrs. Lovett. Alejandro is Mrs. Lovett.

There aren’t many female serial killers, let alone shows about them. “Monster” is all I can think of off the top of my head.

Machado: And [Charlize Theron] won an Oscar for that. So let’s hope “Dolores Roach” wins a lot of stuff.

This television adaptation of “The Horror of Dolores Roach” still embraces its theatrical roots. It’s partially set in a playhouse, and even when it moves out of the theater, it feels very close-up and real-time, like a live stage production.

Machado: Aaron, he lives, breathes, loves theater. He went to New York from Texas to write musicals and plays, and he started this off as a one-woman play with Daphne Rubin-Vega [an executive producer on the TV series]. They developed it and found this character together. Then it went on to become a podcast, and now a series, but it still reads and breathes like a play. Because the essence of Aaron is that he’s a playwright.

“We have some gore, but it’s more about what we tease,” Machado says of the “Sweeney Todd”-inspired “Horror of Dolores Roach.”

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Dolores is deadly, but you make the viewer empathize with her. How did you find sympathy in this character who’s essentially slaying her customers?

Machado: I didn’t really think about the killing part. It also helped me a lot [that] she dissociates a lot when she does kill. So that was a good tool that they put into the script of her dissociating, kind of going somewhere else. It gave me permission to kind of take it into another realm. I’m not quite sure how it works. I just know that I inherently knew how to do it. I don’t know what that says about me. [Laughs.]

But I do love how relatable she is, and how endearing her relationship is with Luis, no matter how twisted. They bond by their shared history in the old neighborhood, and while everything’s changed, they’re still standing, together.

Machado: The relationship she has with Luis is interesting. And I’ve seen those kind of relationships, you know, the back-and-forth banter, the meeting each other’s toxicity, the being mean to each other, but also not being able to be without each other. So there were certain things that I could relate to because I grew up seeing that stuff. … And I’ve known people that have been incarcerated and have come out after many years and can’t get a job and don’t know what to do. A lot of them end up back in jail. The system doesn’t rehabilitate, so it’s a difficult thing.

“One Day at a Time” was a groundbreaking show in many ways, as a reboot of the original but with a Latina spin. And you also got to work with the amazing Rita Moreno, who played the matriarch.

Machado: That was a magical, magical show. That is so sad that it went away when it went away because it truly was magical. I think we could have done more seasons. It was one of the shows where everybody loved each other. You know how rare that is? Everybody had everybody’s back. We were doing really important work telling a story about a Latino family, and we were entertaining people at the same time. It was really funny, really heartfelt. And it was a great time in my life.

“The Horror of Dolores Roach” moves so quickly. There’s something wonderfully spontaneous about the brisk pacing and the rapid-fire dialogue between Dolores and Luis.

Machado: I think Alejandro added a lot in the way of stuff that we say as Latinos. You know, little Spanish things here and there. And that spontaneity you feel, I do think has to do with the pace. We were shooting in this small window of time. I mean, we literally shot these eight episodes in like two and a half or three months. It was a very tight schedule. And the story of Dolores, from her getting out of jail to the end of the eighth episode, it takes place over like three weeks.

The alienation Dolores experiences when she’s released from prison is so palpable. Her neighborhood is full of artisanal delis and yoga studios.

Machado: From the first time I read the pilot, that was in there — her coming out, the yoga class, the dog daycare. She’s like, “What the?!” The dog in the stroller, which I’ve seen in L.A. many times. All of the things hitting her senses at once.

There was even cinematic beauty in the close-up shots of unsuspecting customers eating those mystery empanadas. I’m still haunted.

Machado: Oh, I love that. That just does so much, doesn’t it? Watching people bite into the empanadas, the stringy meat, and you’re like, “Oh, God!” You don’t need any other gore. I mean, we have some gore, but it’s more about what we tease. You know that they’re eating human flesh, and the close-ups on the mouth are the greatest because it’s so gross.