In the new animated film Swapped, Justina Machado lends her voice to Calli, a fiercely protective mother who would rather keep her son safely tucked away than let him explore a dangerous world. In our conversation, Machado reflects on her own immigrant upbringing of “lay low, get in no trouble,” how that connects to Calli’s “hide today, alive tomorrow” philosophy, and how fear-filled love shapes the character’s journey toward empathy, unity, and letting go.
Calli is written as a loving but deeply fearful parent whose entire worldview is built around survival and caution. The buddy comedy follows a small woodland creature (voiced by Academy Award-winning Michael B. Jordan) and a majestic bird (voiced by Juno Temple) — natural sworn enemies of The Valley — who suddenly swap bodies and must team up (while walking in each other’s feathers and fur) to survive the wildest adventure of their lives.
“The mothers I’ve played in the past they wanted their kids to be out there in the world and to see what it’s like to be in somebody else. Penelope was all about empathy and compassion and understanding other people’s lives and plights and all that,” Machado said. “Callie is different in that she doesn’t want her son to go out of the, you know, the safe space, and doesn’t want him to explore. Wants to keep him safe, and things keeping him safe is keeping him sheltered from the rest of the world and the rest of the animals and and and the rest of all of that, just keeping him with his and that’s I’ve played before.”
While Swapped is an animated film centering on fantastical woodland creatures, the voice cast grounds its story in recognizable emotions about fear, family, survival, and learning to trust others. What’s more, the diversity in the cast allows its audiences to hear themselves in the characters. As such, Machado’s voice allows the Latino community to hear themselves in Calli.
“It’s really magical. That’s what I love about animation, is it’s like, it’s, it’s a whole different it’s it’s even when I watch and I’m like, wow, that’s me,” Machado said about being able to hear herself as Calli. “That’s so cool. Look at that character. That’s my voice. Oh, wow, that so it just, it’s a very fulfilling, cool, exciting, magical experience.”
The fact that Caloo, a Pookoo and Ollie’s father, frames the “hide today, alive tomorrow” philosophy as the reason their community has survived for so long hints at something deeper than simple caution. It suggests a kind of generational trauma, where fear has been passed down as wisdom and survival.
Machado connected that idea to her own upbringing, saying, “I think anybody who comes from an immigrant family understands that. I come from a family that migrated from Puerto Rico to the States, and their philosophy was always ‘don’t make trouble.’ It’s not a philosophy I agree with, but those were things that were said to me when I was growing up, which is why I can relate to Calli.”
Netflix’s Swapped is currently streaming now.
