There are a lot of upcoming horror movies to look forward to on the 2026 movie calendar, but may I put you on one that might not be on your radar? Slanted is about a Chinese-American teenager who decides to undergo an ethnic modification surgery to follow her dreams of becoming prom queen. If that premise sounds wild to you, two of the movie’s stars are with you, and they talked to CinemaBlend about what ultimately got them on board.
Slanted is an independent film from first-time feature from filmmaker Amy Wang that’s been called “Mean Girls meets The Substance” and is already critically-acclaimed for the conversations it sparks. Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, who plays the best friend to the protagonist, said this about her first reaction to her new project:
I read the script and I was like, ‘Absolutely not. This is controversial.’ You're gonna take a beautiful Asian woman and then replace her midway through the movie. Like, actually, the actress is gone.
In the movie, up-and-coming actress Shirley Chen (from Quiz Lady and Didi) plays Joan Huang, whose self-hatred for living in her own skin and trying to fit in at school get the best of her when she’s presented with the opportunity to become white (played by newly bonafide scream queen Mckenna Grace). While it seems like an easy fix for Joan at first to be accepted by her peers, it’s not long before it becomes a nightmare that she must grapple with. As Ramakrishnan continued in our interview:
Article continues belowBut, I had a great conversation with Amy about the film and you know, we were talking, getting to know each other. She's asking me about one of my favorite films. And, we had this conversation about how the best movies, the ones that I love so much are the ones that are controversial because they spark conversation. And, guaranteed, no matter what, this movie will spark lots of conversation between people. And I think that is what art is. That is what great filmmaking is. And, that’s advice I'm definitely gonna take with me for the rest of my career because Amy's right. The whole point is to be controversial. That's cinema.
From the outside, Slanted could definitely rub some people the wrong way. As the actress shared, she wasn’t sure about a movie that literally replaces its POC actress with a white actor for most of the movie. However, as someone who’s seen it, the plot device allows for the audience to really grapple with Joan deciding to lose her identity and the consequences in her choice.
Ramakrishnan’s role of Brindha is pivotal to the film because of how the transformation affects their friendship, and hurts her. The actress is coming off of the ending of her Netflix hit Never Have I Ever a few years ago, which centered her as one of the great South Asian characters on TV. Since it ended after four seasons, the young actress recently appeared in Freakier Friday and lent her voice to The Twits.
In the same conversation, we talked to Shirley Chen, who said reading the script “reminded [her] a lot” of her younger self, who thought she might suddenly have “blonde hair and blue eyes” when she turned 16. Amelie Zilber, an internet personality who plays the high school popular girl Olivia, told CinemaBlend she was “quite scared” to play a “white power villain,” but she ultimately had to put aside because she felt like the movie needed to be made and it would be an “honor” to be part of it.
You can check out how Slanted plays out when it hit theaters this Friday, March 13.
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