Spooky Season Doesn’t End for Goosebumps’ Stars Ana Yi Piug and Isa Briones

Mixed Asian Media - November 28, 2023

By Melissa Akiko Slaughter

Halloween may be over for some, but for the ones who watch The Nightmare Before Christmas in both October and December, spooky season lasts year-round. For those folks, the new Disney+ series Goosebumps can still ring in the holiday season, and cut through the noise of Christmas tunes.

Goosebumps is filled with mixed representation. Not only does it star mixed actors Ana Yi Puig and Isa Briones as Isabella and Margot respectively, it also features actors Françoise Yip and Lexa Doig as their mothers. Ana’s Isabella is a high school loner, a nerd who doesn’t have a lot of friends and takes that frustration out via the internet. Margot is also a nerd, but in a different way. Isa’s Margot is a type-A child, smart with a lot of heart, who’s dealing with the separation of her parents. Comics-writer-turned-screenwriter Mariko Tamaki, who is also mixed, wrote two episodes, including a Margot-heavy feature. The series does a wonderful job of taking separate stories and updating them for a high school horror.

I chatted with Ana and Isa via Zoom to talk about the show, representation, and what the original Goosebumps books mean to them.

*THIS INTERVIEW HAS BEEN EDITED FOR CLARITY AND LENGTH.

Ana Yi Puig: I grew up reading all of the Goosebumps books! I was in elementary school when they kind of blew up. I also just love Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark. Anything that was young spooky tales.

Isa Briones: This one is such a special series because it hits right at that time when you're not quite old enough to be watching horror movies. But it's the first time you're reading a book by yourself. Your parents are not reading it to you, and you're like, “Wait, I'm a big girl. Now I get to read scary books.” It honestly feels like the beginning of growing up. This means I'm an adult.

Melissa Akiko Slaughter: This show takes place in high school, and it feels like it really leans into the archetypes of high schoolers. You have the nerdy kid, you have the jock, you have the loner. Where did you feel like you belonged in high school?

IB: I was home-schooled for a while, and was traveling around with my parents [actors Jon Jon Briones and Megan Johnson Briones]. So I was never around kids because my parents are theatre people. All my friends were adults. And then I got to second grade, I went to school for the first time. I felt like such a nerd! I had nothing to talk about with kids. I was such a huge musical theatre nerd. I only wanted to sing Into the Woods in the yard.

MAS: We would have been friends!

AYP: I think my high school experience was very niche because I attended a performing arts high school, and I actually moved out of my home to go to that high school. I'm from Gainesville [Florida], and we didn't have a great performing arts high school around. And there weren't really resources to pursue a theatrical career. So one day a family friend told my dad about Douglas Anderson, which is a school in a neighboring city about two hours away, and I went there.

AYP: I do relate to Isabella — and I actually think Margo and her are comparable in this way — this kind of over-achieving, perfectionist tendency, and this pressure to be the best. Which I also think is comparable to the Asian experience in general. Franklin [Jin Rho], who co-wrote my episode was really adamant about not leaning into any Asian stereotypes in a school sense. “I can work hard, and I can be invisible.” It doesn't have to be a perpetuation of the model minority. It can be that this is a shy girl who doesn't know how to connect with people. I think Margot's much more developed emotionally in that way. But I think the friendship that we create with each other by the end is a real testament to that kind of uncomfortable stage in school where you don't know how to talk to people, and you don't know how to have friends.

MAS: I agree. It’s so rare to see mixed characters accurately represented onscreen. What was that experience like for you? And how was it having mixed Asian moms?

AYP: I have the utmost gratitude for Disney and Sony for handling the casting with such respect and kindness. They asked us so many questions. “What would make you feel most comfortable?” My dad is from Puerto Rico, and my mom was born in China. They made such an effort to make me feel like my home was reflected. Ian Ho, who plays my little brother Alan, is also mixed. I've never been in a pretend family that reflected my own. And I think it's particularly empowering and very lovely that two young Asian women can exist in a friend group. And it's not questioned, and it doesn't need to be addressed. There can just be two Asian friends. It's always been, “There can be one. It can be the token one.” And it doesn't have to be that way.

IB: There's a lot of racial dysphoria that you go through as a kid, and throughout your entire life. I'm still working through it. But in the acting sense, growing up, I didn't see mixed families on screen as much. When I started acting I was 9, and you have to fit into a family when you're that young. And I just didn't fit into any of them. Because it was either a fully Asian family or blonde, blue-eyed. I was nowhere near either of those. Especially I didn't see my family, an Asian dad and a white mom. Never.

But now we're in a place where when Ana and I are cast, they didn't even look for two Asian women. They just were like, “You guys were who we wanted. And we're going to create the family around you as you are.” And that is so affirming as someone who is often hearing, “You're not enough.” But in this moment it was like, “You are. You are perfect. We chose you and we're gonna build it around you.” And that really was very healing.

You can watch all of Goosebumps on Disney+ and Hulu. And follow Ana Yi Puig (@anayipuig) and Isa Briones (@isacamillebriones) on Instagram.