Melissa Barrera Felt 'Safe' with 'Carmen' Costar Paul Mescal: 'Easy to Connect with Him' (Exclusive)

"He's so supportive and comforting, and you just feel safe with him," the actress said of her costar

Melissa Barrera is thankful for her onscreen journey with the "best partner," Paul Mescal.

Speaking with PEOPLE at the premiere of their film Carmen on Thursday at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Los Angeles, the 32-year-old actress praised Mescal, 27, as "so supportive and comforting; you just feel safe with him."

"It's so easy to connect with him. And it was beautiful to get to share this with him," she added.

Barrera also sang her recently Oscar-nominated costar's praises as a creative and well-rounded individual, including his turns onstage, his athleticism and more.

"He can move, and he's strong and very graceful," she said. "So even though he had never danced in this capacity before, he's a natural. And he's one of those actors that are just good at everything. Probably he could do anything."

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Related: Paul Mescal Talks Indie Roles — and Which Movie Franchise Universe He'd Like to Join

Based on an 1845 novella by French writer Prosper Mérimée, Carmen serves as the big-screen directorial debut for French ballet dancer and choreographer Benjamin Millepied.

The film follows "a young and fiercely independent woman" named Carmen (Barrera) "who is forced to flee her home in the Mexican desert following the brutal murder of her mother," per an official synopsis.

Carmen arrives in the U.S. via a "terrifying and dangerous illegal border crossing" and is shortly afterward confronted by a militia border guard who kill her companions.

After two of the militia members turn against each other, Carmen and one guard, military veteran Aidan (Mescal), "are forced to escape together" and flee toward Los Angeles to find Carmen's mother's best friend Masilda (Rossy de Palma).

"Carmen and Aidan find both solace and their unwavering love for each other in the safety of Masilda's magical refuge," but the pair are chased the entire time by American police searching for them, according to the synopsis.

In her Thursday interview with PEOPLE at the L.A. premiere, Barrera shared how Millepied, 45, and his wife Natalie Portman treated her like family while filming in Australia back 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 actress said 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, 41, who was shooting Thor: Love and Thunder at the time, came to visit.

"We were hanging out on the weekends a lot," she said. "We got on a boat one day and we spent like the entire afternoon just on the boat, chatting and eating [in Sydney]."

Carmen is now playing in select theaters.

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