American Carnage: Allen Maldonado on Embracing Themes & Traveling

Allen Maldonado is an actor who knows what he wants and making the best out of any situation he’s in, no matter where the project takes him. His latest horror comedy American Carnage focuses on a group of youths who are detained following a governor’s executive order to arrest the children of undocumented immigrants. They’re offered an opportunity to have their charges dropped, provided they volunteer to provide care for the elderly. The Heels and The Wonder Years actor spoke with Bleeding Cool about why he accepted the role of Big Mac, how Diego and Julio Hallivis’ film resonated with him, and the European vacation he got to enjoy along the way.

Bleeding Cool: What interested you in American Carnage?
Allen Maldonado: The script and it had a great message underneath the horror. My character is the comic relief, and he has a lot of fun in this particular film. He has little action so far from the role, the message, and the opportunity to go film in Spain. Those three things were very major in my decision [laughs].

BC: How do you break down the set that Diego and Julio Hallivis ran?
Maldonado: It was an incredible set. It was great. I personally was training for a marathon at the time. So in between takes, I was taking a lot of naps. So it was very nap-worthy [laughs].

BC: Can you break down the chemistry with your co-stars? Did you hang out with any of them? 
Maldonado: Since we were in another country, away from America, and within our normal routine, we had the opportunity to spend a lot of time together outside of just filming. When we filmed, it was an amazing chemistry. Everybody got along. Everybody was just laughing and joking and just really experiencing Spain at the same time, making a fun horror film.

BC: Did the pandemic affect filming? What did you do when not filming?
Maldonado: We shot this before the pandemic, so we shot this time right before the world ended. We got up out of there [laughs]. We filmed this in the late summer to fall of 2019. We got to experience Europe in between. On the weekends, I would travel to France, Italy, and different places. I got to see the rest of Europe alone with Spain while we filmed.

BC: What are some of the sites that you saw? You said you got to tour Spain right during filming?
Maldonado: All over Madrid since I was training for a marathon, I ran so far that I made it out until the city ended. Literally, there was nothing but dirt and desert by the time I got to the end, and I had to turn around while I trained. I was doing 100-mile months in Spain. So aside from seeing all of Madrid, Barcelona, Italy, and Paris. I had a great time just going all over the place I could in Europe.

American Carnage which also stars Jenna Ortega, Jorge Lendeborg, Jr., Bella Ortiz, Jorge Diaz, and Eric Dane, is in theaters, on-demand, and digital.