Meet 'Alien: Covenant' Star Callie Hernandez
The 28-year-old actress talks swimming holes, playing cello, and her love of Texas.
Callie Hernandez may be fighting for survival in Alien: Covenant, which hits theaters this month, but offscreen, she's celebrating her carefree Texas roots.
Age: 28.
Lives in: Los Angeles.
You know her from: La La Land (2016).
What do you do in your downtime? I love swimming holes. I really like this place called Deep Creek Hot Springs in Southern California. But that's kind of a secret, so maybe don't print that. [Editor]
Go-to getaway? The first time I went to Joshua Tree, I got out of the car while it was raining and I smelled this familiar smell. It was this ancient shrub called the creosote that reacts to water in the desert and lets off a musky, earthy smell. It was the first time I got homesick. (Austin, Texas, is my hometown.)
Hidden talent? In high school, I walked by the orchestra room and I remember hearing them tune, and I was like, Oh, yeah—that's what I want to do, play the cello. I talked to the teacher and she said, "You're a little late to the game," which, you know, inspired a lot of confidence. She told me, "If you can learn how to play over the summer, then you can be in orchestra." So I did.
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[pullquote align='C']"You don't know you have this bizarre Texas blood until you leave."[/pullquote]
Hometown pride: We Texans have a complex. My grandmother overnighted a Folgers can full of Texas soil and made my mother put it underneath the hospital bed when I was being born (in Jacksonville, Florida) to say that I was born on Texas soil. You don't know you have this bizarre Texas blood until you leave.
Follow her: @cheap_mango.
This article appears in the June issue of Marie Claire, on newsstands now.