Actress Melonie Diaz (right) plays Eva in the thriller Cold Wallet. Credit: Well Go USA

In the heist thriller Cold Wallet, actress Melonie Diaz (Fruitvale Station) plays Eva, the brains of a ragtag team of vigilantes who seek revenge against a billionaire after he destroys their lives in a cryptocurrency scam.

Coincidentally, around the same time Diaz was going to make the movie, her husband invested in GameStop when the 2021 short squeeze happened. Diaz didn’t know much about the stock market, but was fascinated by the fact that an online community on Reddit were the ones that triggered the market’s volatility.

“We got to see the highs and the lows and the fact that normal people can control the amount of money you make or don’t make,” Diaz, 40, told the Current. “Stocks and crypto and all this stuff have always been a game of the elite.”

During our interview, Diaz talked about what she likes about her character in Cold Wallet, why it took her a few years to get back to feature films and why making movies featuring Latino narratives is so important to her.

Cold Wallet will be available on VOD on Feb. 28.

Why do you think crypto lends itself to a thriller? Anytime I read about the topic, it goes over my head.

When I first read the script, it was also over my head. I mean, I hear these buzz words, but I still don’t know what it means. Can anybody explain it? But that made me more interested in the world.

What was going on in your mind when you saw what was happening with the GameStop stock?

I remember a lot of people were going on Reddit and were like, “Keep going! Keep going! We’re going to keep the power!” I was really attracted to the idea of a group of people betting against these Wall Street guys. I was really interested in that aspect.

So, did you keep going?

No, we stopped. I grew up pretty poor, so I was like, “I’m happy with what I have.” It wasn’t for us, but I can see how people get really addicted to it. It’s like gambling.

What did you like most about your character in Cold Wallet?

I thought it was really interesting that my character is a normal person who decided to take her power back. She can control what she needs to control. She’s a badass. There wasn’t any kind of character description when I read the script. She was just a strong character on the page. She’s the smartest person there. She knows what she’s doing.

Do you naturally gravitate to strong female characters?

I think I do. I played a witch on Charmed. She was pretty strong, but not like this. [Cold Wallet] was new territory for me, which is also why I wanted to be a part of the movie. I had never really seen somebody like her before.

You haven’t been in a feature film since 2018’s First Purge. Was that because of your shooting schedule for Charmed?

We shot Charmed for 10 months of the year. There were 22 episodes the first two seasons and the last season was 18. It takes a lot of time. Also, during the last season, I had a baby. So, [Cold Wallet] is my first feature since then.

What else catches your attention when you read a script?

I really gravitate towards characters and stories that move the narrative for Latino people. I think the choices that we make are super important. When I was growing up, I didn’t see characters that reflected people like me. I need to play parts and be part of worlds that are positive for us; worlds that reflect different sides. I don’t want to keep playing the Marias and the nannies and the house cleaners. I think Eva is so much more than that. She’s a really complex character. I’m looking to play more people like that.

Since you’re on the inside, does it feel like the industry is becoming more diverse? The numbers really aren’t increasing when you look at studies of Latino stories in Hollywood.

I feel like sometimes there’s a lack of opportunity. But I also feel like you have to keep fighting for the things you want. For a while, it felt like there was this wave of diversity in TV and film, and it was really saturated. Now, it feels like nobody gives a shit fuck anymore. I don’t know how to change that. We have to really encourage writers and showrunners to keep creating better stories.

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This article appears in Feb 19-25, 2025.

Sanford Nowlin is editor-in-chief of the San Antonio Current. He holds degrees from Trinity University and the University of Texas at San Antonio, and his work has been featured in Salon, Alternet, Creative...