Masiela Lusha Talks ‘Sharknado’ and ‘George Lopez’ [Exclusive Interview]

The Sharknado movies have become an annual tradition. When the fifth installment of the Syfy Channel movie series debuts in August, viewers can catch Masiela Lusha reprising her role as Gemini, cousin to Ian Ziering’s Fin Shepard.

I recently spoke with Lusha about what it’s like to be a part of television projects with huge fan followings like Sharknado and George Lopez.

When viewers tune into Sharknado 5: Global Swarming on August 6th, they’re going to get a very different Sharknado experience.

“It definitely gets broader and international, but it takes on a totally different level of physics and science,” Lusha disclosed. “I had to read the script a few times to fully wrap my mind around all the nuances of that, but it’s going to be a lot of fun. I think it’s a different Sharknado than what the audience is used to.”

Even though she assured me that there will be plenty of amazing stunts in Global Swarming, Lusha didn’t get the chance to show her risk-taking side like she did in Sharknado: The 4th Awakens.

“I’m pretty much confined in one space, so I’m beating up sharks within the vicinity of ten feet around me,” she revealed, despite being sworn to secrecy about the film’s plot.

That’s a big change for Lusha, who got the chance to jump off the Stratosphere for her first Sharknado movie.

Lusha said that initially, producers were hesitant to let her do the stunt herself, but their lack of confidence is what made her want to pursue it.

“When someone tells me I’ll be too scared, I’m just completely on board,” she insisted.

The crew filmed all night, planning to shoot the leap from the top of the tallest hotel in Las Vegas at 4:30 in the morning.

She recalled that when she got to the top of the Stratosphere with director Anthony C. Ferrante, she was confident she could pull off the stunt as long as she didn’t look down.

Unfortunately for her, the next thing she remembers Ferrante saying was, “‘Okay, Mas, I need you to look down at the entire landscape of Las Vegas, take a deep breath, and jump… and one more thing – don’t scream.’’’

“We did it twice. It was fun,” she said. “No screaming necessary, and that was it.”

When The 4th Awakens premiered, the cast live-tweeted the original broadcast, and Lusha says the cast will be on Twitter once again when Global Swarming makes its debut.

“I think the lifeline of Sharknado is social media,” she said. “It felt like we were watching it together, globally. It was really nice.”

However, when it comes to getting feedback from fans online, she noted that although it can be a “lifeline,” it can also be “brutal” and “harsh.”

Lusha told me she doesn’t let negative feedback get her down because she tries not to take herself too seriously. Once she’s done putting the work into creating a character, she just has to let go.

“Art is messy. It is ugly. It’s unpredictable, but that’s what makes it art,” she said. “Because anything that’s too perfect is science. Anything that you can calculate into a mathematical equation — that is perfect every single time — that doesn’t exist in art. So for that, we just embrace whatever reaction as part of the messiness of art.”

That doesn’t mean that all feedback is negative, though. Fans of George Lopez were thrilled to see her reunite with her former costars on an episode of Lopez earlier this year.

“It shocked me to see how quickly we just fell back into a rhythm without any warmup,” she said about working with her former TV parents George Lopez and Constance Marie. “It wasn’t enough for fans. They immediately started asking when the show was coming back.”

Be sure to catch Masiela Lusha on Sharknado: Global Swarming airing Sunday, August 6 at 8/7c on Syfy.

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