Michelle and Melissa Macedo’s newest role explores the serious topics of body dysmorphia, disordered eating, society’s obsession with transforming and diet culture through a horror lens, just in time for Halloween.
In their new film, Thinestra, twins Michelle and Melissa, 37, play Penny and her evil doppelgänger, Penelope, respectively. Penny is struggling with body dysmorphia and begins to take a weight loss drug, which results in her literally “birthing” Penelope.
The sisters exclusively spoke with Us Weekly ahead of the film’s premiere at the Sitges Film Festival in Spain on Saturday, October 18. The film’s cast also includes Mary Beth Barone, Annie Ngosi Ilonzeh, Brian Huskey, Jared Bankens, Gavin Stenhouse and more.
Michelle said that she and her sister discussed being present on set when the other person was filming and how important showing up for one another, in that way, was for a challenging role like this.
“Obviously, we’re very close. We live 10 minutes away from each other. We talk every day, so we both helped prepare together,” Michelle told Us. “There was a lot of gross aspects of this film. And it being just very … it was emotionally draining anyway, but it was good to have each other as support on set, for sure.”
Michelle told Us that she hopes people walk away from the film “[seeing] themselves in Penny.”
“How hard people are on themselves, and the things people say to themselves that they would just never say out loud to a friend, and it’s very hard to forget that,” Michelle said. “It’s like, ‘Would I say that to my best friend? No.’ That is very hard to forget and become fully aware of the self-talk we have towards ourselves. So if anything, I hope that helps people be kind and be kinder to themselves, just a little bit.”
Melissa expressed similar sentiments.
“No matter how much we try to be someone different, or to be this different version of ourselves, it will be so much less painful to try and accept who you are where you’re at,” Melissa told Us. “And I really hope people can find some sort of love and compassion for themselves after watching this movie, because it can be brutal.”
As twins, Melissa and Michelle told Us that they have spent their entire lives encountering people that feel the need to comment on their similarities and/or differences, despite how unwanted their opinions are.
“People will say, ‘Oh, you look like this,’ or ‘You look like that.’ It’s like, well, we just are who we are,” Michelle said. “If you think we look more alike or not, great, you can think that. You don’t have to say everything out loud. People have to me even been like, ‘Oh, you’re wider than your sister.’ or ‘Why is your body different?’ Or, it’s like people really expect sameness with twins.”
Melissa and Michelle not only act, but they also make music, something they’ve been doing since they were children.
“We’ve been doing music together forever, and we’ve always had a love of writing. We grew up in a really musical household. Our family plays instruments and stuff, and it’s always something that we always related on,” Michelle said. “I think it really helps fuel the other because, for example, when the strike was happening, during Covid, during all that stuff, when we couldn’t be on set and we couldn’t be out auditioning, music was a really good release.”
Melissa said for her and her sister, music and acting are both “great expressions of artistic integrity or creativity.”
“[We] went to school and did theater and then came out and, like, started auditioning and everything. And it both fuels our souls,” Melissa told Us. “I wouldn’t imagine my life without one of them, and I love both of them. But what’s great is if you’re too tunnel vision and one like, it helps you back up and be like, ‘OK, get some perspective. Go to the other one.’ It’s a good balance.”
Melissa told Us their new EP, which is dropping in November, is timed to the release of their film as well, because the music is kind of “creepy Christmas music,” and their film is set around Christmas time.
“We’ve always loved how sometimes Christmas songs are kind of creepy and magical, and have this other element to them,” Melissa said. “We shot the film, and then up until now, we’ve been recording the EP and working on music. Another example of, like, doing something and being like, ‘OK, let’s take a breath.’ I love this idea of recording more of these songs. So balancing it has been fun.”
For their favorite onscreen twin moment, both Melissa and Michelle said it would have to be Stanley Kubrick’s 1980s classic, The Shining.
“What I love about that is those twins have so much power. They’re little girls, and they’ve created like … it’s so spooky, and that’s just iconic,” Melissa said.
“And twin little girls have so much power. They have their own language going on, their own communication style. Nobody knows what’s going on,” Michelle seconded. “We were in a Wombats video a long time ago as the Shining Twins. Common like twin tropes that people [dress up] as [for] Halloween. But, The Shining is amazing, even though it’s cliche.”