Why Cristina From The Old Ways Looks So Familiar

For fans of horror movies, fans have tons to choose from on Netflix — and just in time for the spooky season. From classics to new releases, streaming platforms give viewers access to hundreds of terrifying titles, and Netflix is one of the first places people go when they're in the mood for a hair-raising watch.

One of the most recent additions to Netflix's horror catalog is the demonic horror movie "The Old Ways," which first premiered in 2020. It tells the story of a reporter named Cristina Lopez (Brigitte Kali Canales) who travels to her birthplace near Veracruz, Mexico, to research the local tribal culture and witchcraft. Things take a turn when a group of locals kidnap her and accuse her of being demonically possessed, and she soon learns there may be some truth to the claims.

The star of "The Old Ways" has been acting since the early 2000s, though she's since started gaining more leading roles in recent years. Here's where you may have seen Brigitte Kali Canales before.

According to IMDb, Canales's first role was in a Venezuelan telenovela called "Olvidarte Jamás," where she played a woman named Dulce in one episode. Her career really kicked off in 2010 and she landed roles in several short films, she was in an episode of "The Glades," and she appeared in the 2010 film "Promises" as Goldigger 3.

In an interview on the Meisterkhan Pod YouTube channel, Canales described how she first got involved in the acting world. "I actually wanted to be a singer," she explained. "I wanted to do music, whether I sang or I played in a band, that's kinda just what my focus was. And then I got into a high school that was this art school, and they had a musical theater department and a theater department that kind of shared classes and teachers. So as I was doing musical theater more and more, I started leaning towards more theater classes ... Even though I still did the musicals and everything, I think I wanted to get grimier with the material. So when I finished high school, I continued in the theater department, and I went off and did it in college."

She went on to explain that she started taking advertising courses to get a more "realistic" degree, but eventually, she started booking so many acting gigs that she felt no one could tell her to stop working toward her true dream.

Aside from the popular Netflix horror film that's currently streaming, Canales has appeared in several other big projects over the years. As mentioned previously, she appeared in a 2010 episode of "The Glades," a popular A&E police procedural drama. In 2014, she landed a role in the hilarious sitcom "Mom" starring Anna Faris and Allison Janney, where she lent her voice-over talents in an episode. The following year, she was in one episode of the thrilling drama series "Bloodline" as a woman named Cristina Colon.

In 2017, Canales landed a role in the Ansel Elgort-led action film "Baby Driver," which also featured Jon Bernthal, Jon Hamm, and Eiza González. She played the role of a young mother who gets caught in the middle of a car chase. That same year, she was in the crime thriller "Thumper" as a girl named Rhonda who lives in a low-income community that's ravaged by a drug crisis.

Canales' role in "The Old Ways" is her biggest to date, and it's impressive to see how far she's come as an actress since she landed her first gig.

Horror fans are likely familiar with the grotesque, dramatic, action-packed series "The Walking Dead." For devoted fans who've also watched the series' spinoff, you probably recognize Canales from her time on "Fear the Walking Dead." She was a recurring character in Season 6 of the series, and played a pregnant woman named Rachel whose husband Isaac (Michael Abbott Jr.) comes across Morgan (Lennie James), and leads him to their camp. Although Rachel died by the end of the season, her baby (a girl also named Morgan) lived on and was adopted by Morgan and another survivor named Grace (Karen David).

The director of "Fear the Walking Dead," Michael Satrazemis, praised Canales for her acting in the Season 6 finale, telling CBR, "Brigitte's performance at the beginning — Rachel — was another feat of stamina. We shot all of her stuff in one day. And she had to stay a train wreck, crying, constantly dragging herself across the ground, walking with a limp. I thought her performance was so tight. It's very hard to have that kind of stamina and stay that emotionally engaged."

Canales's talent definitely isn't going unnoticed, and the praise for her latest film "The Old Ways" further brings out her acting chops.