Prime Video’s ‘Drawn Together’ Stars Tease a “Darker and More Extreme” Sequel After That Intense Cliffhanger

Editor's note: The following contains major spoilers for Drawn Together.

In the Prime Video romantic thriller Drawn Together, or Enfrentados: Marfil, Marfil Cortés (Ester Expósito), the daughter of a Spanish business tycoon, is kidnapped and released with no explanation. While searching for answers, her father assigns bodyguard Sebastian Moore (Hugo Diego Garcia) to keep her safe, but Marfil is determined to keep living her life. She also insists that Sebastian teach her to fight so that she can protect herself, but the more she breaks down his walls, the more they’re drawn to each other and the more dangerous the threats become.

Collider recently got the opportunity to chat with co-stars Expósito and Garcia about the relationship between Marfil and Sebastian, and how it will continue in the sequel Drawn Apart, or Enfrentados: Ébano. During the interview, they discussed why they thought the cliffhanger was the perfect way to end the first film (which is adapted from the novel by Mercedes Ron, who also wrote the Culpables trilogy) and the higher stakes of the continuing story, the reveal of Sebastian’s secret, shooting the ballet, the dance scene that Expósito improvised, the physicality of the fight training, Marfil and Sebastian’s first kiss, and what’s next for them in their careers.

Ester Expósito and Hugo Diego Garcia Love 'Drawn Together’s Cliffhanger Ending and How It Sets Up the Sequel

"Our favorite part is the ending of the first movie."

COLLIDER: To get right into spoilers, thank you for letting us all know at the end that you will continue telling this story for a second film because, otherwise, I think people would be very upset. How do you feel about the cliffhanger at the end of this? Were you excited to leave fans with a moment like that? Are you worried about how fans will react?

HUGO DIEGO GARCIA: We love it because I feel like we’re stopping right at the peak of the movie with the best moment.

ESTER EXPÓSITO: Yeah. Our favorite part is the ending of the first movie. We love how it ends and how it leaves everything hanging in the air. And we love the second movie because everything is so much darker and more extreme.

GARCIA: The stakes are higher and it’s more intense. The pace is quicker.

EXPÓSITO: People are going to love and won’t expect that level of action and thriller.

GARCIA: When you watch the beginning of the movie where you’re in the classic romance tropes, and then you go to the second movie, you won’t even be able to believe that it’s the same thing that’s come together.

Ester, I love that Marfil is a very smart woman, and she immediately realizes who was responsible for kidnaping her as soon as she hears his voice. How did you feel about that reveal and about the role that Sebastian played in all of this?

EXPÓSITO: It was hard for me to understand how she forgives this so quickly, but I think things are so quick and intense and extreme at that moment. In the end, she has love for him and I think she understands that it started as a job. It wasn’t personal. And then, they connected, they fell in love, and it’s not his fault. She’s a very empathetic and mature girl. She’s not someone with a lot of resentment or pride.

GARCIA: And also, they don’t have a lot of time.

EXPÓSITO: They don’t have a lot of time for regrets.

Hugo, how did you feel about that secret and how Sebastian was keeping that from her? Even though they got closer, he still was holding back that bit of information.

GARCIA: It’s very interesting for an actor. Playing a secret is acting inside an acting role, so I think it’s interesting. It’s also a character that has a lot of interiority. Everything is under the surface, so it has to be in your thoughts and in your body, but you cannot show it, so it has to be contained. I think it makes for good acting. It’s interesting.

Ester, I love the little bit of dancing that we get in this. I’ve been a dancer since I was four years old, so I love that we got to see that. I just wish we could have gotten more. How much of the ballet were you able to do yourself, and what was the biggest challenge in doing all of that?

EXPÓSITO: Ballet is so difficult. I wish I could have more time to prepare. I had a few sessions. We didn’t have more than one month to rehearse and prepare everything. But I love ballet. I think it’s one of the most beautiful things. So, everything that has to do with that, I just did my best. Of course, I had someone helping me and doing the most difficult things. I love dancing, but I’m better at Salsa and Bachata and Latin music and rhythms. So, [when she’s dancing around her apartment], it was my idea to put that song, and I just improvised that choreography on the day on set. It was so fun. I love that they let me dance to that song because I think it fits so well with the classic vibe of a movie from the ‘80s and ‘90s, with those hits that we all love and know.

GARCIA: So, it’s like you’re the co-director of the movie.

Did you have any mishaps when you slid across the floor in your socks?

EXPÓSITO: No. Sometimes it was better than others. Sometimes it didn’t happen. But thankfully, I never fell down or anything.

GARCIA: The socks were great.

EXPÓSITO: No, I was great.

GARCIA: True. Okay.

You did make the ballet look great.

EXPÓSITO: Really?

I’m probably the only person that watched those scenes for your arm extension because the arms are just as important as the foot placement in ballet, and I thought you pulled that off.

EXPÓSITO: Thank you. I feel relieved, truly. Thank you.

Training Together Offscreen Added to Marfil and Sebastian’s Physicality Onscreen in ‘Drawn Together’

"It really helped both the actors and the characters."

Things get physical between your characters with their fight training. What did you most enjoy about your characters really getting to know each other while communicating on a physical level instead of using actual words?

GARCIA: There’s some truth in physicality that goes beyond words and it’s tangible. It’s another way of knowing someone. And also, it helped us, on a personal level, to connect because we would train together. I would also teach her things in boxing. It really helped both the actors and the characters in a sense.

When you watch those moments with them, you see storytelling without having any dialogue. I thought it was so interesting to watch how their relationship progresses in how they’re interacting with each other.

GARCIA: Yeah. The montage is pretty cool. It’s also reminiscent of those movies from the ‘80s, including Rocky, where you have this moment of music and you see time passing. I think it’s pretty cool. I’ve always loved that since I was a kid.

Ester, was it fun for you to do those scenes?

EXPÓSITO: Yeah, very fun. It was my first time doing something like that. I had had fight scenes before, but not training, boxing, and self-defense. I was learning it in real time, behind the cameras with [Hugo], because he used to be a boxing coach and he loves all of that. He really taught me a lot of that, which helped us to connect and to build the chemistry. It was fun to learn about all of this at the same time as my character.

GARCIA: It’s a funny story, we were in a club in Madrid. I didn’t have friends [there]. I arrived in Madrid without knowing anyone, and Ester was so nice that she invited me to a club one of the first weeks. She almost got into a fight with a bunch of guys.

EXPÓSITO: Two guys.

GARCIA: I was like, “She’s not scared.” And then, at 3 or 4am, she had so much pent up rage that we ended up in a smoking room, training. I gave her a mitt session, but without the mitts, and just with my bare hands. She started boxing and she was wearing high heels, and it was intense. She hurt my hands. It was a very memorable experience.

Marfil and Sebastian’s First Kiss in ‘Drawn Together’ Is a Powerful Moment That Surpassed Expectations

"We love how they edited that."

From the way that it was all shot, there’s something so interesting about your characters in the elevator before they kiss when you can see each other in the reflections. What was it like to find that first kiss between them, especially knowing how long the audience is waiting for that moment to happen?

GARCIA: It’s such an important moment in every movie, but especially in a romance and especially here because the build-up was so intense. They cannot be together, so it makes it even more special and even more intense than pretty much any other romance. And it helps that there are all those mirrors. I also think that they really managed to do it well with the editing and the choice of music.

EXPÓSITO: We love how they edited that.

GARCIA: Yeah, it’s a powerful moment. If I put myself in the audience’s seat, I know what to expect, and it surpassed our expectations.

Before they are intimate together, Sebastian turns off the cameras. Hugo, does he just not care about the consequences by that point? Does he care about her more? What do you think was going through his head when he makes that decision to just turn the cameras off?

GARCIA: I think he thinks that he’s going to contain it and be able to just have this moment because he cannot resist it. It’s burning. He has this burning desire and these feelings. I think he thought that he would be able to contain that and just allow this moment to happen. And then, he realizes it’s impossible and things are getting out of proportion.

Marfil’s life unravels all at once, as she learns that Sebastian is really FBI, and then she learns about who her father really is. Ester, how do you think she feels at the end of this film, stuck in that car? She still doesn’t even have all of the information yet.

EXPÓSITO: Yeah. I think she feels so lost and angry. The love she feels for [Sebastian] is bigger than anything, so I think she manages to forgive him. She doesn’t have much time to get the explanations she needs or she wants. She’s in a very delicate position. Even at the beginning, she never really feels fear. Of course, when she gets kidnaped, at that precise moment. But after that, she doesn’t feel fear. She’s not scared. I think when she’s in that car, after everything that happens and she’s been told that she’s going to her dad but her dad’s not there and she’s alone with this guy, it could be the first time she feels real fear and she’s really starting to get really scared.

Hugo, how do you think Sebastian feels about being so close but not being able to get her back? That moment is so heartbreaking to watch because he’s literally right there.

GARCIA: It’s a nightmare for him. It works for the audience because the stakes and the pressure are so high. He’s almost there. He can almost smell her and almost touch her, but she disappears. It makes it so dramatic and powerful and extremely frustrating for him. Heartbreaking, even.

There are moments in the film, throughout the film, where certain things are said in English. Was all of that scripted that way or were you able to do that when it felt right?

GARCIA: Sebastian being from the FBI, we thought the character was American. Marfil is studying in New York, so they’re bilingual. For me, it didn’t make any sense being French or even Spanish because he’s not one of those, so he had to be American. His second language had to be Spanish, and his first language had to be English. So, those moments of him being spontaneous, it had to be in English. I think it was cool that we had that freedom. We discussed that with the director, Óscar [Pedraza], and he was down.

Ester Expósito and Hugo Diego Garcia Have Some Exciting Projects Lined Up for the Future

"There might be some good collaboration coming up."

Do either or both of you know what you’re going to be doing next? Are you currently working on something now? Do you know what your next project is going to be?

EXPÓSITO: I have a very exciting movie that I’m going to be shooting this autumn in Spain, but I can't tell anything about it yet. I’m releasing something that was going to be out this autumn, but it’s going to be next year, a movie that we premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. The movie is called Dante. It’s a Spanish independent film that’s really punky and dark and twisted that I love. It’s so different from Marfil, from that character, and I love to do different things. That will come out at the beginning of next year, I think. I also have an American movie that I did at the beginning of this year with a friend of mine, Danny Ramirez. It’s called Baton, and I don’t know when it’s coming out yet.

GARCIA: I’m going to be the next James Bond, but it’s not out yet, so you cannot say anything. No. I have a few projects that I cannot talk about. Right now, I’m focused on writing my next feature. And [Ester’s] agent did confirm that [she was] going to be in it, so it’s a done deal.

EXPÓSITO: In your dreams.

GARCIA: For real, I’m writing. There might be some good collaboration coming up in the future.

Well, I’m glad that we’re getting another movie, with Drawn Apart, so that we will get the rest of this story because the cliffhanger had me screaming.

GARCIA: That’s good. That’s what we want. We want people screaming.

Drawn Together is available to stream on Prime Video.