Danay Garcia stars in Peacock’s M.I.A., a crime drama set against the vibrant and dangerous backdrop of Miami. The series follows Etta Tiger Jonze as she navigates loss, revenge, and survival after her family’s murder, uncovering dark secrets along the way. Garcia takes on the dual roles of Leah and Carmen, two sisters whose connection becomes central to Etta’s journey through Miami’s criminal underworld.

I spoke with Danay Garcia about M.I.A. where she discussed building the emotional differences between the two characters, Carmen’s guarded nature, and the complex relationships at the center of the series.

Hi Danay, how are you doing?

Danay Garcia: I’m doing great, so happy to be here.

Are you excited for everyone to see the show? 

Danay Garcia:  I am so ready and excited, really. I can’t wait until this comes out.

In the first episode, you died, and I was like, “What? I need to see more of her. She was so good.” And then the surprise happened, and I was really happy to see more of you. How did you establish clear internal distinctions between the two characters before stepping on set? 

Danay Garcia: The way that you watched it is exactly how I shot it. I actually shot Leah first, and then I jumped into Carmen. I was so happy we started with Leah because we understand where Etta comes from and how she was raised and how the mother operates and what happened, how she built this whole thing and how good she was. So I was able to just focus on Leah and her world until things collapsed. Then, when we switched to Carmen, you really see her already as a strong, established woman.

She manages a club, and she has her job, her house, her routine… She’s very successful too, so it was really awesome to go from one world to another, not just have it happening at the same time, you know? Both characters are already very established at what they do and how they do it. It’s not characters finding themselves and not knowing who they are. No, in this case, you come in and you know what you get. That was really helpful for me because I was able to create a story behind how they got to where they are today. So that worked, but it was so fun.

Did you build separate physical vocabularies, like different movement, posture, voice, or did the differences come more from the psychology?

Danay Garcia: Yes. With Carmen, she’s a former Marine. She’s more strategic with things. The way she dresses, it’s all like when she goes to work, she’s ready to fight, she’s ready to hang out, she’s ready to be in control, and she’s always comfortable but very slick, very symmetrical in a sense. Even her hair is very symmetrical. The whole thing, makeup, is the same every day. She doesn’t have to think about it. She’s a very methodical person. 

With Leah, she’s more like a mother, so she’s more loose. She’s always outside. She’s not perfectly symmetrical. She’s more ready to clean a boat and go fishing and help. She’s more hands-on, so I was able to kind of bring both energies depending on what they do. 

With Leah, I was more loose, and with Carmen, more rigid. Also, being in a club at night, it’s darker, so you’re in a different time zone, up at 4 o’clock in the morning dealing with crazy people. So it was a very strategic kind of body language that you have to bring to the table.

Then Carmen meets Etta, and they are deeply connected. How did you approach portraying that emotional aspect?

Danay Garcia: Well, when Etta comes to Carmen’s world, it’s not an instant connection. I feel like it has to be earned. We’re going to understand later why Carmen really shut it all off, and she’s very careful about how she opens her heart because obviously it was very broken. Etta coming into Carmen’s life made her feel things that she was not used to feeling anymore, like love and connection, so she shuts it off at the beginning. Little by little, she starts understanding that this is part of living, too — feeling, not just working. That’s Etta’s contagious energy, right? She starts winning you over.

It’s Carmen’s journey to finally open up and say, “Should I give it a shot again with my heart after being shattered? It’s a beautiful arc that these two women have to go through to earn the right to be family, chosen family, especially after the betrayal. She was ready to become a mother, be part of a family, and now suddenly Etta comes and she has to step into those shoes again. 

It’s really hard for her because there’s a lot of feelings of betrayal, anger, and grief too.

Danay Garcia: And Etta doesn’t know anything that’s going on with Carmen, so she has to be very careful how she puts her aside because she has no idea. It’s very obvious that Etta has no idea what happened between the sisters, but she’s in the middle of it, and she’s just so open. So it was a beautiful, very complex story of the heart. Very, very complex, but with so much heart.

What was the feeling that was most central to your performance as Carmen?

Danay Garcia: Trusting was something that I remember going through the scripts and being like, “Oh, here she trusts a little bit more.” “Oh, here she wants to trust, but she’s not ready for that.” So it’s the push and pull of how much she is going to open up for her to come into her world. The moment she opens, [Etta] breaks the rules, and I’m like, “No, trust is earned. I’m not your mother. I’m not going to forgive everything you say or do.”