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Venezuelan-American Daniela Nieves is no stranger to high-stakes drama, but Netflix's Pulse takes it to another level. The Every Witch Way and Vampire Academy star plays Camila, a med student thrown into the deep end at Miami’s busiest trauma center—just as a hurricane hits.
With chaos inside and outside the hospital, Camila is figuring out where she belongs, and Nieves couldn’t be more excited for fans to watch her journey unfold. In an exclusive interview with HOLA! USA she told us, "I think what's fun about [Camila] is that everyone else has so much history in the medical field and with each other and in the hospital, but we really see Camila from day one—this is literally the first time she's in this hospital, she's meeting everybody," she shared.
For Nieves, stepping into Camila’s shoes brought back memories of her own big leap—moving to LA at 19. "I packed up my car, moved by myself, found some girls on Facebook, like 'can I live with you?' and just felt so like, I had no idea what I was doing, but I had to fake it." "Especially having Hispanic parents, it was like, 'No, I got this, mommy! It's gonna be fine,' and I would go into acting classes—oh my God, those acting classes. Those were painful to watch if you would've seen me as like a new person there," the 27-year-old continued.
Reflecting on how she's different than Camila, she shares, "I feel like Camila is one of those people that in high school, she like was in every group, like in, you know, student government and this and that, and the sports thing, and she could just do it all. I don't think I could be that person."
The intensity of Pulse isn't just in its script—it also found its way into the production, and while she notes she really did have a blast, the hurricane days shooting with Chelsea Muirhead as Sophie Chan stand out the most. "The hurricane days that we had to shoot outdoors, and we were like, 'Dude, we trauma bonded! Like that was traumatic.'"
The scene involved some serious weather conditions. "It was like this intense rain. Me and Chelsea only had, I think, 1 or 2 days to—no, it was only one day during the hurricane scenes, but they were in tents. We were freezing, and you have to do it so many times and then switch around, so you're doing it all day, getting wet," she recalls.
As for the person she’d call in an emergency? "I would have to say, I know my mom would be butt hurt to hear this, but I would have to say my dad just because my mom gets really nervous, and I think she'd panic," she admits with a chuckle. "So I think my dad and I have like a thing where we're like, 'Just keep it between us until we really have to tell her.' So probably my dad."
I think that I grew up feeling very proud of being Venezuelan and that whole culture, and I think it really comes out in the way I speak, the way I express myself." - Nieves
Nieves also opened up about her journey into acting, a journey that started when she was just a child dancer. "When I was younger, I kind of was thrown into it in a way, not really—my parents were like, not stage parents at all," she reflects. "But I started working because the owner of my dance studio worked with Univision. They were like, 'Oh, we need like a little girl to do soap operas, like being in this telenovela.'"
Her confidence at a young age got her the part. "I just had this insane confidence," she says. "I was like, 'Oh, I can do this. I'm the girl. I'm a star. Like, are you kidding me?' And I just, I think that I got ahead at that age because I was so confident. And then, as an adult, I was like... this is not what I thought it was. Like, this is actually really difficult, and there's so many people doing this, and I'm actually really aware of all the things I need to learn and keep working at."
It's a sentiment that’s all too familiar for many, especially in the entertainment world, where staying true to yourself is key. "As an adult, I think it's harder to keep that confidence in yourself, in your abilities, and in what has—what's like your thing, like what's like your personality that you can bring to the industry that's different from other people."
Growing up in Miami, Nieves has always felt a strong connection to her roots. "Being from Miami, I feel like being Latina was like... I don't know. It's just normal. Like, 'Oh, lo Colombiano,' or 'la Venezolana,' whatever," she says. "And it's like, I think that I grew up feeling very proud of being Venezuelan and that whole culture, and I think it really comes out in the way I speak, the way I express myself."
As she’s grown older, she’s realized just how much her heritage impacts how people connect with her. "And as I've gotten older, I've realized that that's what people like about me, and they'll express that to me, like, 'Oh my God, I love how you talk. I love how you do this and that,'" she says. "And so even though it can be hard to hang on to that sometimes, I think that I've been very encouraged—I've been really lucky actually to be really encouraged to hang on to that my whole life, really. So yeah, I love that."
Looking ahead, Nieves is manifesting something fun and lighthearted. "I really wanna manifest, and I've been saying this—I wanna do like a really stupid comedy. Something that you're like, 'This is the dumbest movie, but it's so good,' but it's just the craziest things happening and just fun and funny and lighthearted."