There’s Another Side to ‘Culpa Nuestra’ Star Nicole Wallace You Haven’t Seen Yet

Nicole Wallace is about to be living the best of both worlds, especially since she feels like Hannah Montana sometimes.

While most audiences know her for her work on Spanish-language shows and movies, particularly Prime Video‘s mega-successful Culpables trilogy (including the final film, Culpa Nuestra, aka Our Fault, which just released) and Netflix’s Raising Voices, she’s also fluent in English, as she’s half American.

Following her newly announced deal with Amazon’s Prime Video, Wallace is ready to introduce audiences to another side of herself with the English-language series Postcards From Italy, which is currently being filmed.

Wallace tells The Hollywood Reporter that her character in the show is “very different from anything I’ve ever done. [I’ve] never done like a rich New Yorker, so I’m feeling very much like Gossip Girl, which is great because I love it.”

Below, Wallace reflects on bringing the Culpables trilogy to an end with Culpa Nuestra and the scenes she’s most proud of from the franchise. She also teases her upcoming projects, Postcards From Italy and The House of Spirits, as well as shares the biggest challenge she overcame in the industry.

Since the Culpables trilogy has been a large part of your life the last few years, how does it feel to bring the franchise to a close with Culpa Nuestra?

It’s weird, I think. At the same time, since [Skam España] was my first project, and it was two and a half years of my life, which now doesn’t seem like much, but when you’re 18, it felt like my whole life. The grief of finishing projects is something that, as an actor, you kind of have to learn to deal with very early unless you just go crazy. So that obviously helps, but at the same time, it’s so different because this is such a big part of all the opportunities that I’ve started to have and it’s very different. It feels bittersweet, honestly. 

As the actress who brought Noah to life on the screen first (there’s also a London-set movie series starring Asha Banks), what are you most proud of seeing this character’s story end?

Honestly, just knowing that there’s this very powerful and amazing and strong character that’s gonna live on for so many young girls is something that I’m very proud of. And not having that disappear in any of the movies was something that was very important for me, especially in the third one, ‘cause I do feel like they’re a little more mature and that’s why I think this one is so fun. I’m very proud of just seeing how able I can be to carry on a franchise like this and such big movies, which in the moment when we were filming didn’t seem like big movies, which is why I think it made it easier. 

Is there a moment or scene from Culpa Nuestra or the first two films that you’re most proud from a performance standpoint?

In the third [movie], it’s easier just because there’s not as many emotional scenes. Well, there’s one special moment almost to the end where she’s saying goodbye to Nick (Gabriel Guevara), which I’m very, very proud of because there’s a lot of subtext and sub monologue that I was using, and a lot of it that had nothing to do with Nick and more of the whole baby situation (Laughs). But especially in the second one (Culpa Tuya), there’s a scene where I’m in a cemetery and Nick and I are having this very big fight and it’s the moment she’s like, “If you don’t stop lying to me and the trust is gone, this is gonna end.” That was a very beautiful scene for me, especially because the day that we were filming, it was very dark, I was very tired, and a lot of it I had to film with a double, because we were double shooting, so I didn’t even have an actor to film it with. So those moments put yourself to the test, like how far can you go without even someone to give you a line. 

In this final film, there are quite a few scenes where your character doesn’t have much dialogue, and you’re really acting through your emotions and facial expressions. How do you approach bringing a scene to life when you can’t rely on the dialogue?

That’s my favorite kind of acting and my favorite scenes are when I can do that, just because you don’t always have the pleasure to write your dialogue or to be able to work with the director, with the writer on the dialogue. Sometimes it is very much like, this is what you have to say. So when you don’t have that, you can kind of just invent the inner dialogue, and it’s very fun and real. And I think for this one, it was very interesting because I do think there’s so much of that tension between both of them [Nick and Noah] and so much that they’re not saying to each other, which is what makes it so much more deep. 

I grew up on a camera. I didn’t learn how to do theater and stuff like that, so I learned how to act in those types of scenes where I had to do very small microexpressions. Because when you learn to act in theater, you learn to do everything bigger. When you don’t have that, I had to just learn by being on set. I think that’s why I feel more comfortable with those, honestly. 

Seeing the way the Culpables trilogy skyrocketed, not only in streaming numbers but with fans, what do you reflect on regarding the success of the show, but also the success you’ve seen as an actor? 

The success is never in your hands. It’s something that comes with a lot of momentum and being in the right place and time for a film to come out and just people being very eager to watch that type of movie and with that type of female lead. So I’m not good at being like, “Oh, good job, this is because of you.” (Laughs.) But at the same time, it does help. It’s obviously a little push and being like, well, you are doing something right and just keep going. 

With your recently announced talent deal with Amazon, I assume that’s a goal for any actor, so what do you make of that?

Honestly, I’m trying to still figure out what my reaction is. I’m super grateful, obviously, but it’s crazy. I’m in my head, I’m just this 23-year-old little actress from a little town in Madrid, Spain. So every time I talk with people, they’re like, “Oh, that hasn’t happened in a very long time, like this is not something that’s very normal nowadays.” So it’s very weird, but I’m very happy, very excited, very grateful. 

Under the deal, Postcards From Italy will also be your first English-language show, so what are you looking forward to most with that series?

It’s just so fun. I’m excited for … it’s weird when you’re bilingual and when you have both nationalities, you kind of feel like you have two lives and I always say that I’m kind of Hannah Montana in that sense. So it’s good to just feed the other side and make it feel seen in some way as well (Laughs). And it’s just a fun show. The crew is amazing. I’m having the time of my life filming it, so that’s just something that I’m already happy with, but the storyline, the characters, the actors are amazing. Working with Jessica [Yu, director] is a dream. 

Can you tease anything for fans about what they can expect with Postcards From Italy?

It’s a comedy, so it’s a very different register of mine that I haven’t … I mean, in Cupables, there is a little bit of that comedy, which is why I’m so excited to just be able to do it more. And then there’s a lot of romance. Beneath all of that, there is this amazing character, and it doesn’t seem like it, but it’s a grounded theme that we’re talking about [in the show], and my character [Mia] is so fun! She’s very different from anything I’ve ever done. [I’ve] never done like a rich New Yorker, so I’m feeling very much like Gossip Girl, which is great because I love it. Also, it’s in Italy! Everything is beautiful here; the language is beautiful. It’s just fun. 

You also already filmed The House of Spirits (La Casa de los Espíritus), which releases next year. What are you most excited about regarding that show?

It’s an honor to be in that project. It’s my mom’s favorite book [by author Isabel Allende]. It’s a classic. I heard of it when I got the project, but I never read the book, and just being able to go into a character that is so deep and there was so much that I could have fun with and work with. It was amazing. The characters and the actors that play the characters are insane, and the story is so raw and so important. Just being part of that conversation is a huge deal for me. It’s a very, very, very different character. … I’m also doing an accent, which is another challenge that I’m excited for people to judge me (Laughs). And yeah, it’s a beautiful work of art. 

You’re half American and Spanish, but people know you for your work on Spanish-language shows and movies. As you start doing more English-language projects, what are you hoping to show fans and audiences about this other side of you?

Just range in general. One of the things people are normally scared when doing this type of trilogy and being in this type of project is that you can get boxed into this type of YA projects, romance and that type of stuff. And that was one of my worries when I started the [Culpabes] projects, but with this [Postcards From Italy], that’s why I’m excited for people to see me in different things and [shown] to a bigger audience in the U.S. I know a lot of the U.S. also watched Culpa Mia and Culpa Tuya, so to also be able to give them a project that is in English and that hopefully they can just not read subtitles (Laughs). 

Do you have a dream genre or role that you hope to do in the future?

Oh, so many! I’m looking forward to next year, because I would love to do musicals and also feed my dancer and my singer that is still inside. I would love to do horror. Honestly, I’m just excited to do interesting stories about complicated and deep women and work with amazing people that I admire and respect. But a dream role would be Star Wars or to be in Tangled or something like that. 

What’s one of the biggest challenges you’ve been able to overcome to help get you to where you are today?   

I think finding out so young how dark and how complicated the industry can be. And as a young woman, how difficult it is to be respected and to be trusted and taken care of on set and just in general as a young woman. I’m obviously not happy that it has to be that way, but I am grateful that I learned it now instead of maybe [when I’m] older and it’s harder to kind of process and learn. Just knowing, also, not everyone is going to be your friend on set and not everyone is going to be a nice person that you are happy to work with. That’s something that I’ve really learned this past year and been like, “Oh wait, OK, I can still be professional and I can still do my job and I can still be excited for the project and I can still feel good about it.” I think that is very important in the industry, and because it can be very romanticized. I just saw this interview with Emma Watson and she was talking about it. I mean, it happened to me so early [in my career] and I’ve been very lucky with the projects that I’ve done and I’ve had a family, like starting up with Skam. So knowing that that’s not always going to be the case, but then when it is, just being so happy and so grateful. 

Looking ahead, where do you hope to see yourself career-wise in the next five years? 

Doing more films, working with my sister at some point — she’s an amazing director — working with amazing female directors and honestly producing some cool stories at some point. I’m getting into developing and how that world works, and it’s so interesting and so wonderful. There’s so many amazing actresses who are opening that path for other young women, which is great, like Margot Robbie or Reese Witherspoon or Jenna Ortega with Wednesday. 

If you had to describe what makes Nicole Wallace, Nicole Wallace, what would you say? 

The first thing that came to mind is my friends and family. I think that’s kind of what makes me who I am. I’m trying to think who I would be without all of them, which is an amazing question as well. I would just say I’m a very human, human (Laughs).