Melissa Barrera Says Benjamin Millepied, Natalie Portman 'Took Her In' While Filming 'Carmen' (Exclusive)

"It was the other side of the world. I can't — like the nicest people ever," Barrera recalls of shooting Carmen in Australia

Melissa Barrera was welcomed with open arms while making Carmen.

While out at the New York City screening on Monday for her new film, the actress told PEOPLE how director Benjamin Millepied and his wife Natalie Portman treated her like family while filming in Australia in 2021.

"I was by myself completely. So Ben and Natalie took me in and we went to Byron Bay for Christmas and New Year's. It was like a very family kind of thing," the Scream VI star, 32, shares of the experience. "It was the other side of the world. I can't — like the nicest people ever."

Barrera also joined in on some of their other family activities while Portman, "who was shooting Thor: Love and Thunder" at the time, came to visit. "We were hanging out on the weekends a lot. We got on a boat one day and we spent like the entire afternoon, just on the boat, chatting and eating [in Sydney]."

Related:Paul Mescal and Melissa Barrera Fall in Love, Dance Through the Desert in 'Carmen' Teaser Trailer

As for working with the famed choreographer on his first foray into filmmaking, Barrera says she was a fan of Millepied, who co-wrote the stylized musical drama, before landing the role.

The French ballet dancer choreographed and performed in director Darren Aronofsky's 2010 movie Black Swan, which is when he met Portman, who starred in the film.

"It's very experimental in a way, the way that he works," Barrera describes. "And it was very cool for me because not being a dancer, I was kind of just — he was leading me and I was just following him and he was very patient with me and also very encouraging of me."

The process overall, she says, "was very chill. Benjamin was a very relaxed, very easygoing guy."

The reimagined classic opera follows "a young and fiercely independent woman" named Carmen "who is forced to flee her home in the Mexican desert following the brutal murder of her mother," the film's synopsis officially reads.

During the time it took to complete the Sony Pictures Classics film, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last September, Barrera has garnered recognition in other successful projects as well.

Getting her start in what she calls the "actors' boot camp" of telenovelas in Mexico before making a name for herself in Hollywood, Barrera then starred in the 2021 musical In the Heights, followed by leading the new Scream films, beginning with 2022's Scream, which she shot after Carmen.

As PEOPLE's first digital cover star, Barrera said in the March 16 interview that she was "painfully shy" as a child in her hometown of Monterrey, Mexico, where she went to school at the American School Foundation of Monterrey.

Related:Scream VI Star Melissa Barrera on Marriage, Hardships and Knowing Your Worth

"I grew up going to see my classmates in theater perform, always wanting to be a part of that because it felt so cool," she recalled to PEOPLE. "I would be a little fan in the hallways, watching middle schoolers and high schoolers that were in the show." Over time she built up the courage to participate in her school's theater department. "I just fell in love with the whole process of auditioning and bonding with theater people," she says. "They became my friends."

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Now that her dreams have come to fruition, Barrera isn't letting it get to her head, though she is trying to slow down and enjoy the process.

"Living in the moment is something that I struggle with," she told PEOPLE. "My mom is always there to remind me to pat myself on the back, hug myself and speak to myself in the mirror to congratulate myself on how far I've come. I'm trying to change my mentality."

Carmen releases in theaters in New York City and Los Angeles April 21.

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