Marta Milans, the Madrid-born actress, plays a money launderer for a drug trafficking organization in "M.I.A.," a new nine-episode crime thriller premiering on SkyShowtime. In an interview with the Spanish newspaper La Razon, Milans discussed her character and the show's approach to portraying women as villains.
"M.I.A." is set around Key Largo, Florida, and follows Etta, a young woman drawn into crime after her family is murdered. Milans described the story as a contemporary, female version of "The Count of Monte Cristo," the classic Alexandre Dumas revenge novel, one that she believes almost anyone could imagine identifying with. She said drug trafficking functions mainly as a secondary backdrop that moves events from behind the scenes.
Playing Caroline, the operation's financial mastermind
Milans plays Caroline, who launders the organization's money while maintaining a lavish lifestyle that includes a mansion, a yacht and a prestigious real estate firm. She said Caroline wants to preserve her clean corporate facade even though she knows her empire rests on the opaque proceeds of narco-trafficking, and that the show does not try to make that moral compromise look appealing. Instead, she said, it portrays it bluntly and shows how it eventually touches every level of a family.
Asked whether crime fiction risks romanticizing narco-trafficking, Milans said it can happen and that it is essential not to glamorize the world of the cartels. She said many productions approach the underworld from an attractive angle that makes viewers sympathize with criminals, but that "M.I.A." does not move in that direction.
Female villains breaking a taboo
Milans praised showrunner Bill Dubuque, who previously created "Ozark," for his sensitivity in capturing female psychology. She said the women in "M.I.A." have an overwhelming strength and are decisive and even amoral, adding that it is usually hard to see women being portrayed as scheming or Machiavellian onscreen but that the show breaks through that barrier. While the men in the story carry out the dirty work, she said, it is Caroline who operates as the financial mastermind pulling the strings from the shadow of the skyscrapers, producing what she called a brutal and fascinating family rivalry and tension.
Shannon Gisela's turn as Etta
Milans credited Shannon Gisela, who plays Etta and appears in around eighty percent of the show's scenes, with carrying the drama's dramatic weight and displaying admirable vulnerability. She also pointed to other fascinating female characters, including Lovely, a Haitian immigrant played by Brittany Adebumola who becomes an indispensable ally to Etta, and a mentor figure who trains her in the systematic elimination of her targets. Milans said all of these women are formidable and united by an unbreakable determination, and that Caroline fits that same amoral pattern.
Miami's dark side and a diverse cast
Milans said Miami has an undeniable dark side tied to human trafficking and narco-trafficking, noting that entire neighborhoods were built on money laundered during the 1980s. As a Hispanic actress, though, she said what captivated her most was the city's Latin cultural vibrancy and the contagious optimism among its immigrant community, many of whom feel deep gratitude for job opportunities and the chance to build a better life in the United States.
She also spoke about the production's largely Latino cast, calling it a privilege to join as a recently naturalized American citizen. She said working alongside Alberto Guerra, Mauricio and Gerardo Mejia brought a rich diversity of accents to the production, and that the mix of Cuban, South American and Miami-born Latino performers created a musicality in the footage that she does not experience in Los Angeles, where she also lives.
Where revenge meets justice
Milans summed up the show's core idea as the notion that killers are not born but made by force. She said Etta's tragic circumstances push her to become an executioner seeking to restore her family's honor, and that viewers become complicit in her crusade, rooting for her to complete a list of twelve criminal targets marked for elimination. She called it a basic human impulse, arguing that most people would cross that same moral line if faced with the same desperation.
