Exclusive interview: Sonia Mena Talks Tell Me Lies, Connecting with Their Character, and More

Sonia Mena has audiences talking about their performance in the must-see new series, Tell Me Lies.

The coming-of-age drama follows a tumultuous but intoxicating relationship as it unfolds over the course of eight years. When Lucy Albright (Grace Van Patten) and Stephen DeMarco (Jackson White) meet at college, they are at that formative age when seemingly mundane choices lead the way to irrevocable consequences. Although their relationship begins like any typical campus romance, they quickly fall into an addictive entanglement that will permanently alter not only their lives, but the lives of everyone around them.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to chat with Sonia about Tell Me Lies, connecting with their character, and more.

PC: How did you discover your passion for storytelling and the arts?
Sonia: That’s a good question. I’ve been doing it for a while. I did plays when I was very little, and then I was in a dance company for most of high school. I was studying that, and then I fell out of love with dance and back in love with acting when I got to college. It’s weirdly always been there. My dad is a storyteller too. He was a journalist, and now he’s writing a novel. Maybe that was somehow subconsciously ingrained in me as a baby. Who knows?

PC: In addition to acting, you’ve also written and produced. How has your work behind the scenes impacted the way that you approach your work and vice versa?
Sonia: I’m really interested in learning about every single department. I’d love to run my own set at some point. I’m not sure in what capacity, but I want to know how everything works. The thing that taught me the most about filmmaking was learning how to edit. It helped me understand how everything is put together.

PC: Tell us about Tell Me Lies, your character, and what drew you to this project.
Sonia: Tell Me Lies follows Lucy Albright and this relationship that she has when she goes to college that becomes this very toxic, all-encompassing love story that a lot of people can relate to.

I play Pippa, who is one of her best friends. We’re all going through a lot and making a lot of very questionable choices, which I think makes it really fun to watch. These are flawed people that don’t make the greatest choices, but they are trying really hard. It’s fun to watch them make these huge messes.

I was really, really drawn to the breakdown that Meaghan [Oppenheimer] wrote. I recognized a lot of myself. Externally, I’m very, very different. I move in the world very differently than Pippa, but internally I’m like, “I know what you’re hiding. I have that too. I get it.” So yeah, it was exciting to see. I haven’t seen a character written like that before. Meaghan’s writing is so detailed and it has so many layers and that’s exciting to work on.

PC: This is actually the longest that you’ve lived with a character. What’s been the biggest takeaway thus far?
Sonia: We all lived together in the same general part of Atlanta while we were shooting and basically only knew each other. There was this cool duality happening where we were making the show and then we were also kind of at summer camp. We all hung out together. That fed into the relationships that we see on screen because we really knew each other and there was a true friendship underneath everything.

PC: The show tackles a lot of universal themes. Was there one in particular that hit home for you? What do you hope audiences take away after they see it?
Sonia: The feeling of being really lost and trying to figure out who you are. That really spoke to me. I remember, if not being that person, going to school with that person. Pippa is trying to hide so much of herself and learning how to share more and more of herself.

In terms of what I hope people take away, probably what not to do. [laughs] Don’t do what we do. It’s fun to watch what we do, but don’t do what we do.

PC: We’re halfway through this season. What can you tease about Pippa’s arc for the back half?
Sonia: You will eventually learn who she is and who she was before Baird, which is exciting. She’s juggling a lot and she really starts to come undone, so there will be a lot of unraveling that should be fun.

Also, she and Lucy are losing their sh*t. They start to lean into the troubled pop star aesthetic—the makeup gets intense, the hair gets crazy, the clothes are crazier—and that was a lot of fun to find. I’m excited for people to witness her physical transformation and emotional demise.

PC: You’ve handled that arc with so much nuance. How did you create the space for yourself to dive into that journey?
Sonia: Oh, thank you. A lot of it was getting onto the set and feeling it at that moment. It’s funny because you know in your mind that you’re making a TV show that people will see, but when we were on set, it felt very small and familiar. It didn’t feel like this big crazy thing to dive into her dark, dark places. It was fun.

PC: You’ve always used your platform to bring much-needed stories to the forefront. As you look ahead to the next five to ten years, is there a dream role or story that you would love to bring to life on the stage or screen?
Sonia: That’s a tough question. I feel like a lot of roles and parts that I wanted to play are only starting to come out now. The kinds of things that I go in for have been changing so radically. I don’t know if there’s one particular story that I’m itching to tell.

There are some screenplays that I’m personally working on right now, but I think I’m just excited to see more and more roles that I never got to see growing up. I’m seeing more and more of it, which is exciting. We’re telling stories about Mexican people where it’s not just about the terrible things that happened to us. We’re strong, which is what I love about Pippa too. We’re just people telling stories without having to be the model minorities.

Make sure to follow Sonia on Instagram. Watch Tell Me Lies on Hulu today.

Photo Credit: Emily Assiran