Sam: What’s the biggest transition coming from Mexico City to New York? What did you take with you? What did you leave behind?

Alejandra: I think the biggest transition is cultural. New York has this magnetic hustle. Everyone’s doing something, getting better, creating. It never stops. Mexico has another kind of pace, so I think that was the most challenging thing.
New York can also be a very lonely city. You’re surrounded by people, but you need to be really okay being by yourself. Everyone’s busy, doing their own thing. You meet someone in a bar, you’re like, “Let’s be friends,” and then you never see that person again.

 

What am I bringing from Mexico? My calmness. Knowing who I truly am. Knowing who I am in this city that you can get lost in.

Sam: What are you excited to explore creatively now?

Alejandra: I’m currently working on my first script for a feature film. I’ve only written short films before. I’m just starting, and I’m really excited. I think New York has been motivating me a lot to get into that.

Sam: How’s dating in New York? Has it been an episode of Sex and the City or Girls?

 

Alejandra: A hundred percent an episode of Girls. No—a mix of Girls with Sex and the City. You get these crazy people. It’s so exciting.

 

You get people from all around the world. In Mexico, at one point you’re like, “I know everyone. What am I doing here?” Or someone’s friends, or someone’s ex. It’s like a small town compared to New York. Here, people have different experiences. It can be very fun, or it can be quite the experience.

Sam: What’s the film you’re writing about?

Alejandra: It’s kind of coming of age, but not for teenagers. It explores the idea of a breakup and how we always think someone else is wrong and we’re right. You play these parts where you’re like, “He was the one who fucked up.” At the end, we’re all living our experiences, and the point is to be okay with ourselves.

It’s about this woman finding herself in her new life and learning who she is and what she wants.

Sam: Is it close to home?

Alejandra: For sure. It’s close to home.

Sam: Does living in New York feed into your writing?

Alejandra: A hundred percent. Here, you’re constantly exposed to different people, different lives, different experiences. You can see them; you can actually be in them.

Writing makes it way more fun because you’re like, “Oh my God, I’m going to put in this story of my friend that I saw, or something that happened to me.” There’s always something happening here that’s very exciting.

Sam: What’s something you find incredibly seductive that someone else might not even notice?

Alejandra: Being calm in a crowded room. Coming into a room with a lot of energy and being calm in it. Just steady. That energy of finding calmness—I think that’s amazing.

Sam: What’s your favorite color?

Alejandra: Green.

Sam: Your favorite animal?

Alejandra: An elephant.

Sam: Your favorite body of water?

Alejandra: The ocean. The sea.

 

Sam: If you woke up in an all-white room with no windows and no doors, and you didn’t know how you got there, how would you feel?

Alejandra: Panicking. Like, fucking panicked.

Sam: The color represents how you see yourself. The animal is what you want in a partner. The body of water is how you view sex. And the white room is how you feel about death.

Alejandra: Yeah. I need to work on that.

Sam: Assuming you get booked as the pretty girl often—beyond the pretty girl, what kind of woman would you love to play now?

Alejandra: I’m going to correct you on something, if that’s okay. My first two roles were based on that. After that, I’ve gotten beautiful women, but also very intricate women. Women who have fucked up, who have lived through really rough situations or are mixed up in really rough situations and have overcome them. I think I’ve gotten really lucky with the other roles I’ve been cast in.

Sam: What’s exciting to you about playing those women?

Alejandra: They’re all super different. I was doing a series in Colombia, and the amazing, fun part about acting is that you can be in situations you wouldn’t want to be in in real life. It excites me to say, “Oh my God, I was kidnapped, and I have to be in this situation.”

I would never want that in my real life. But experiencing that adrenaline, that anguish—what do you do with those really tough feelings? How do you move with them? How do you explore them? I think that’s brilliant.
I also just did a film in London that explores a woman who is not a girl’s girl. She’s deeply entangled with the patriarchy, but she’s also suppressed by it. I’m a feminist, and exploring that and empathizing with her was challenging, but also very beautiful.

Sam: What does being a feminist mean to you?

Alejandra: All women deserve equal rights. Trans women, every woman. Equality for all.

Sam: Are you a girl’s girl?

Alejandra: I am now a girl’s girl. It took me a long time to find true friendship and to realize how powerful having women in your life is. It’s one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever gotten.

Sam: A SOAP girl is a specific kind of girl. It’s not just someone who shoots for SOAP. She’s your imperfect dream girl. She’s stylish, sits like a man, cunning, sexy, chill, funny. She’s you. She’s an idea, or maybe a specific person. Do you know what I mean?

Alejandra: They put her on a pedestal—they idealize her. It’s not perfect. It’s a human being.

Sam: I wanted to ask you something, but it’s a weird question.

Alejandra: There’s no such thing.

Sam: In Issue 02, we did a story on bush identities. Every time we’ve shot nude since 2020, you’ve had a bush, trimmed in different styles. I want to bring back the bush. As a fellow bush supporter, what’s your story?

Alejandra: There’s a story behind that. I was shooting for Playboy, and before that I had to send Polaroids. There was nothing there. When I booked the job, they said I had to fly to where Dalí used to live. Then they said there was a very specific request from the photographer: he wanted me to have something there. He didn’t want it to be like a thirteen-year-old.

I understood that if you’re craving nothing there, you’re craving something of a girl who hasn’t become a woman. So it’s kind of weird.

Then I was rocking with it. You have different kinds. I like it trimmed.

Sam: The bush identities we did were named after their look. What would yours be called?

Alejandra: Oh my God. I would say the Charlotte Gainsbourg. I think mine would be called Charlotte Gainsbourg.