L-R: Shemar Moore, Nadine Velazquez, Bill Bellamy, 2016 – Liquid Soul(NEW YORK) — Nadine Velazquez is showing a tougher side in her new movie, The Bounce Back, and says her bad breakup helped her create the brazen character of Kristin Peralta.
In the film, Velazquez plays an outspoken therapist who is convinced that Shemar Moore’s character, Matthew, is a fraud. Nadine believes that Kristin’s edginess is due to her brokenness.
“She’s very outspoken about her beliefs and I think she’s a little bitter,” Velazquez tells ABC Radio. “She certainly has an edge to her. If feels like there is something not complete about her because I think that she’s broken so when Matthew challenges her and her position on love, she’s a skeptic.”
For Nadine, playing Kristen came at a tumultuous, yet appropriate time in her life. “At the time I was in the middle of a breakup that was really bad,” she explains. “So I was very, very able to relate to the part of it.”
However, the actress, who played Catalina Aruca on My Name Is Earl and was featured as Denzel Washington‘s love interest in Flight, says this character also helped to move her away from the conventional “leading lady” roles that she was used to playing.
“The director didn’t want me to play the typical, happy, cute, leading lady,” she says. “He was like, ‘You know what? It’s very rare we see your face carrying a role like this,’ and also, ‘Don’t be afraid to be a strong character, a strong woman in it either.'”
The Bounce Back hits theaters on December 9.
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