‘Twisted Metal’ Actress Stephanie Beatriz Reveals Her Pick for Best Road Trip Partner (Exclusive)

Twisted Metal recently exploded onto Peacock, and viewers are in for an absolute blast with the action series. From start to finish, it’s full of epic car chases and battles, just like the iconic video game it’s based on. The series stars Anthony Mackie as John Doe, a delivery driver — known as a milkman — who is on a mission to cross an embattled, post-apocalyptic United States on a run that will change his life.

Along the way, John encounters a number of quirky and bizarre characters but finds a travel companion in Quiet (Stephanie Beatriz), a woman who is out for revenge on self-appointed U.S. policeman, Agent Stone (Thomas Haden Church). Ahead of the series premiere, PopCulture.com had a chance to chat with some of the Twisted Metal cast, including Beatriz. Interestingly, while she’s playing a notable character from the video game, she revealed that she didn’t actually play the game much as a kid. “I didn’t have a PlayStation when I was growing up, but I had friends that did and so I’ve logged many an hour hanging out on couches, eating too much pizza and drinking too much soda, playing video games.”

During our chat, we asked Beatriz who from the cast or crew she would pick as her ideal road trip partner, and her answer came as a little bit of a surprise. “I mean, honestly, I feel like Michael Jonathan Smith, our showrunner, MJ, would be a great road trip partner,” she confessed. “He’s so funny. I mean, his sensibility is all over this show, but that dumb gallows humor, that’s MJ and the writing staff in general was just phenomenal for our show.”

Beatriz continued, “It was a bunch of people that are either nerds or love nerds, so people that loved the show but also loved the game. I don’t know, I just feel like … honestly, our writing staff, I feel like I would put everybody in a passenger van and then let different people choose music, let different people sit up front, let different people choose snacks. I would say my perfect road trip partner from our show would be the entire writing staff… everybody in a passenger van.” She later quipped, “I 100% would love to buy them all margaritas. That seems like a great idea.”

Twisted Metal was filmed on location in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Beatriz told us that being on set “was the same as the show… Fun, ridiculous, unhinged.” She added, “There were times where we were just losing our minds laughing or just … there was a moment, I think it was myself and Mike Mitchell were dying, just mobbed, sweating. I’m laying on the concrete. They put a bag of ice down on the concrete so it wouldn’t be so hot. It was absolutely … all parts of it were nonsense, crazy fun. We had a blast.”

Praising the city where they shot the show, Beatriz said, “I love New Orleans. I love that city. It definitely has a piece of my heart forever. I think it’ll always be in my life now. Working with people that are based in New Orleans, a lot of our crew is based in New Orleans was phenomenal. I just think Louisiana in general was a really great place to shoot, but New Orleans is definitely special.”

Finally, echoing some comments from Church, Beatriz spoke highly of working with Richard Cabral, who plays her brother, Loud, in Twisted Metal. “Richard’s so awesome. He’s such a gifted actor, he’s so real. He’s so honest. I think he makes people better when he is around them. I think he’s just a cool human being.”

She added, “He’s just one of those cool human beings and to me, working with him was such a gift because he’s such an open, immediately connected actor and he really is just giving it all the time. He is super vulnerable and just open and that’s the kind of stuff that I love too. It was phenomenal working with him. Twisted Metal Season 1 is now streaming on Peacock.