Analesa Fisher is a Standout in Netflix’s ‘Metal Lords’

Emerging as one of Hollywood’s most exciting new voices, nonbinary actor Analesa Fisher shines in Netflix’s coming-of-age film Metal Lords, which premiered last month.

Written and produced by Game of Thrones duo David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the film follows teenage misfits Kevin (Jaeden Martell) and Hunter (Adrian Greensmith), who decide to start a metal band and set out to win the Battle of the Bands competition. Apart from highlighting the importance of metal music, Metal Lords also talks about various other issues including mental health, first love, bullying, self-doubt, and more.

Fisher plays the role of Kendall, a young woman who isn’t comfortable in her own skin but desperately wants to find herself. Through a connection with another outsider, she learns that fitting in doesn’t have to be your goal in high school, and that being yourself is much better than being the same as the rest of the crowd.

Previously, Fisher has appeared in TBS’ Chad, Freeform’s Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists, and they also have an extensive voiceover career, providing the voice of characters in video games like Lost Ark, Cookie Run: Kingdom, and Phantasy Star Online 2. They are also a writer and are currently working on a three-part, young adult book series titled The Only Series.

OFM caught up with Fisher to talk more about Metal Lords, upcoming projects, and nonbinary representation in Hollywood.

Can you begin by telling us what you enjoyed the most about being a part of Metal Lords?

Honestly, the coolest thing that I always come back to is that D.B. Weiss, who is the creator of this super fantasy-driven show on HBO, decided to make his passion project, which was a coming-of-age movie about metal. To be a part of it is an honor that I think I will take to my grave in and of itself.

Why should people check out the film if they haven’t already?

What I really like about Metal Lords, I was telling this to someone else recently, is that D.B. did a great job of breaking high school stereotypes. You’re thinking, “Oh, there’s the popular kid, so he’s going to be mean.” He’s actually the nicest kid in the whole movie. There’s my character, Kendall, who is one of Kevin’s love interests. You think she’s going to be this Manic Pixie Dream Girl type. Not at all.

Just in general, the whole movie does a great job of culminating this idea that it’s a high school full of struggling kids trying to figure out who they are, which is pretty much every high school, and they use metal and the catharsis that metal brings to people to show them you don’t have to do what’s in pop culture and media to feel your most authentic self. Be who you want to be, and it will make you happy.

Do you have any memorable, behind-the-scenes moments you would like to share?

Yes! We didn’t get to hang out too much because of COVID, but something that we did do the day after the movie came out, we played Dungeons & Dragons together. D.B. and I are huge fans, and he guested twice in our campaign. Then Tom Morello came to one of our games as well. So, that was a lot of fun. It was cool to share that with a bunch of nerds, especially D.B. because he’s such a big D&D fan.

Can you talk more about your character, Kendall? Would you say you personally connected with her?

Kendall and I, we vibe on a level that’s a little bit deeper than just surface. When I first got the audition for her, I was like, “I’m in no position to accept this. I’m this nonbinary skater kid who looks like they’re 12 years old. I’m not the pretty wallflower who’s a popular girl,” and that ended up kind of being what they liked.

There was this fragility and vulnerability that I brought to it because I wasn’t comfortable, and neither is she, at all in who she is. She’s still trying to figure out who she is as this high schooler who’s going along with what all the popular kids think. As much as I thought I couldn’t do it, I think it was a very cool exercise in being like, “Just trust your instincts. You’re a lot more like people than you think.”

Metal Lords obviously revolves around the importance of metal music, but it also talks about a lot of other issues high schoolers face. Overall, what do you hope audiences take away from the film?

More than anything, I hope they take away the message ‘be who you want to be.’ Life’s way too short, and you’ll notice while watching the film that so many of the kids are struggling and most of the reason is because they’re hiding. They’re scared of what high school is going to be like if they’re their true authentic self, but anyone who’s out of high school will tell you, “Man, I wish I had just done that thing I was really into. I wish I had fully embraced that thing I was hiding from everyone because I thought people would call me a dork.” None of it matters. We’re floating on a rock in space; go enjoy metal music.

How has the film been received by audiences?

Really great! Pretty much exactly what we expected. The metalheads love it for the cathartic feeling, but they also understand that it is a movie targeted towards younger people, and it’s this story about kids almost discovering metal for the first time. While it does have a lot of super heavy metal moments, it is still a movie solely about these kids trying to figure out who they are and things like that. So, people really like it. It’s funny, it’s fun, and there’s good music!

Were you a fan of metal music before signing on?

No. I didn’t know anything about it, honestly. Literally at all. When we were stuck in quarantine, I did a bunch of research and read a bunch of books about the history of heavy metal and stuff like that. Then the song that they wrote for the film, “Machinery of Torment,” I think we listened to it maybe 150 times when we were filming, and I still love it. It’s an amazing song, so I think people should give different kinds of music a chance.

I read that throughout this project, D.B. helped mentor you. Care to share some advice he offered?

He’s just a great guy. I didn’t think I would get along so well with another writer, and I take on pretty much any mentor that I can get in this industry, but he helped me a lot with my books and kind of my future as a writer in and of itself. Some advice that he passed along to me was, “Just keep doing it.” He was like, “Don’t stop. Just keep writing.”

He would give me notes and stuff about the script, but he was always like, “Take it or leave it. You know what’s best,” and I thought that was really refreshing. It’s something that I pass on to all my friends. I’m like, “Just do it. You’re going to have it if you write it. You’re not going to have it if you don’t write it.”

As a nonbinary actor, you have gone on record saying you felt very lucky in getting the opportunity to play Kendall. How so?

A lot of times in Hollywood, as a nonbinary actor, you get stuck in that box where you can literally only audition for nonbinary roles, and I’m very grateful not only to everyone on the movie, but also my manager and representation, who don’t stick me in that box because they know as much as I do from talking to me, being nonbinary means that my gender is a spectrum.

There are days that I want to put on a dress and be as girly as possible, but there are days that I want to be an absolute masculine dude. Then there are days where I don’t want to be perceived as anything but, like, a fish. It’s a process of learning in and of myself, so I’m grateful to not be locked out from different roles just because of how I identify.

How does Hollywood need to step up while casting nonbinary actors in movies?

I think they need to get to know the people behind what they’re asking. I’m finding that a lot of what casting is doing right now is, they’re looking for androgyny because that’s what they think being nonbinary is, and they’re not asking the right questions. Bless their hearts. If you don’t know, you don’t know. If you’re not nonbinary, or you don’t have a nonbinary friend, you have no idea, but we’re not a trend. We’re not pop culture, where people are trying to figure out what makes us feel the most comfortable in our skin. So, just talk to them and open it up more.

Have you always had a passion for acting and storytelling?

Yes, pretty much for as long as I can remember. I was the kid who was locked in my mom’s room still playing pretend at 14 while my friends were off doing weird middle school stuff (laughs). I was writing on scratch paper weird wizard shows and things like that. Getting the opportunity to see it to fruition and to keep doing it makes me the happiest I’ve ever been.

In addition to acting, you are also a writer, and you mentioned earlier that D.B. helped you with your books. You are currently working on a three-part, YA series titled The Only Series. What can you tell us about that?

It’s basically a three-part YA book series about three different teenage girls from three different time periods that are overcoming specific traumatic events. For anyone that’s seen Fear Street on Netflix, it’s like that anthology of the different time periods. It’s essentially a book series for teenage girls, or even just young kids in general who want tools they can incorporate to help heal trauma. The first book is set in 1995 and deals with loss, death, and a traumatic event that happens to the main character.

The second book is set in 2005, and it deals with the rise of social media with MySpace, mental health issues, abuse, high school relationships, and then the third one is set in the year 3001. It’s all about saying goodbye, leaving home for the first time, and how traumatic that can be when you’re lunged out of the nest like that. We see all the characters through to the end. We see them through getting the help that they need and the trauma healing that they need. It was something I wanted to give back.

What are some future goals you hope to accomplish with your career?

My biggest goal, and I speak it out into the universe every day until I make it happen, I want to play Gwen Stacy/ Spider-Gwen in the Marvel cinematic universe. Other than that, hopefully I can continue to get my writing out there, be able to keep telling stories, and continue to not be put in the box. I want to show the rest of Hollywood that we need to stop putting people in boxes.

You are also passionate about bringing awareness to Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis, and the American Heart Association as it relates to heart disease. Can you talk more about that?

I say it’s a funny story, most people don’t think it’s funny, but my siblings and I all have chronic illnesses. My sister was born with a heart condition, and she’s had, I think, five heart attacks now in her life. One of them, she was pronounced dead for literally 12 minutes, which was horrifying. She’s now a big advocate for heart disease and the American Heart Association, and I’ve been following her in those footsteps for a long time.

Then when I was 12, I woke up feeling paralyzed one day, and I was diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Didn’t know kids could get that, so suddenly, my mom has two chronically ill kids and one healthy one. Then about two years ago, my brother got really sick, and he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. My sister and I were at his bedside in the hospital when he was not doing well, and we pretty much looked at each other like, welcome to the club (laughs).

All of us are pretty much trying to bring awareness to chronic illness, visible and not. Most people look at my sister and think she’s perfectly healthy. She’s like, “I literally have a pacemaker in here, so I’m not.”

Before we wrap up, are there any other upcoming projects or anything else you’d like to mention or plug?

I can’t talk about anything that’s coming out soon, especially on the voiceover front, but there are some very exciting things coming up that I think people are going to be super jacked to see!

Stay up-to-date and connect with Fisher by following them on Twitter and Instagram @analesafisher. Metal Lords is now streaming on Netflix.

Photos courtesy of Storm Santos and Netflix