Nicole Wallace Shifts Gears: Symbol of Streaming Success and Global Life After "Culpa Mía"

Nicole Wallace is at home behind the wheel. In Culpa Mía, she powers her Porsche sports car to victory in a street race, and now she is shifting into her professional gears. With lead roles in Postcards from Italy and the motorsport drama Throttled, she has become a major symbol of high-speed streaming. The Culpables films are a streaming phenomenon […]

Nicole Wallace is good behind the wheel. In Culpa Mía, he powers his Porsche sports car to a street race victory and is now switching gears professionally. With starring roles in Postcards from Italy, and motor racing drama Throttled, the streaming icon is hitting top speed.

The Culpables movies were a phenomenon that brought star Nicole Wallace to audiences around the world.

After playing the role of Nora in the Spanish version of the teen drama Skam, she landed the role of Noah in Culpa mía (My fault), the first installment of the Culpables series from writer Mercedes Rahn. The series follows a love story between Noah and Nick (Gabriel Guevara), the son of his mother's wealthy new husband. Culpa tuya (Your fault) and Culpa nuestra (Our fault) earned more than 100 million viewers on Prime Video with three Spanish-language films, the broadcaster says.

How Steven Moffat and Sue Verto obsessively recreated 10 Downing Street for Channel 4's 'Number 10'

Who's in charge at Skydance International - at least for now

Now that he has taken on the blockbuster role, he is doing more romance and moving towards English language movies and series. Even if a fourth Culpables movie does appear (Ron's fourth novel in the Culpa vuestra series came out earlier this year), Wallace's next act will take him beyond Noah.

Culpa mía was the start of a rollercoaster ride for Wallace. "I knew it was a great book, but it didn't. Imagine if it could have turned into all this." "I wanted to be this independent, strong woman in this kind of film that I hadn't seen before," says the Spanish-American actress. "Now, there are a lot more characters like Noah in romantic movies, and I'm happy and grateful for that, but I think he was one of the first ones I ever read."

As Nick and Noah's lives unfold over the three films, they grow up on screen, and Wallace says there's a version of the character he'd most like to play.

“There's a moment in the third book and the third movie after they hook up for the second time, and she leaves and cries in the car before he wakes up. It's very interesting to me because of who he is. She is vulnerable, emotional, and loves with all her heart, but she is very strong in what she has to do to protect herself. And even if she loves this man, she'll leave him because that's what she deserves."

"From that point on, the rest of the third film is full, not of love, of what lived with this person," he adds. "There's a part of the movie that feels very mature, but it's still very Noah."

For Ron, Wallace's performance stuck to his books. "Nicole was the best choice to bring Noah to life," says the author. He showed deep understanding and genuine affection for the character. He also understood the importance of Noah's journey and progress throughout his three films, allowing the character to evolve naturally, but also retain the qualities that readers love about Noah.

Wallace says that Culpa nuestra is his favorite move from the Culpables series, and that it seemingly wraps up the story, but Ron's fourth book, Culpa Vuestra, picks up on Nick and Noah years later. This raises the tantalizing possibility of another installment of the film, though nothing has been confirmed.

With three movies in the rearview mirror, is there more to Noah's Tank Game? "I think it's very strange," Wallace said when asked about a possible return. He says he hasn't read the new book or had any discussions about reprising the role. "They're a lot bigger and I don't think I'll connect to it in the same way.

"This project is a huge thing in my career and life and it changed everything for me; I will feel very strange when I go back to it. Last year I was doing the first show for the first time and I closed a season and endured the sadness of letting it go and remembering the good and bad parts."

Wallace says that after the culprit, there is a clear path ahead. "I'm excited to show more and prove myself again in other ways."

Turning to a prestige period piece is a surefire way to show range. Wallace starred in The House of the Spirits, a Prime Video series adaptation of Isabel Allende's classic novel, produced by Anora FilmNation Entertainment in association with Fabula, the production label of Pablo Laren.

She is one of the three actresses who play the ethereal Clara at different stages of her life in the drama. It is an epic intergenerational story of a family through decades of violent change. Clara is a clairvoyant with telekinetic powers and is the beating heart of the story. In the series, Wallace casts Francesca Turco, who plays Clara as a child. He then hands him over to Dolores Fonzi, who plays an older version of the character.

He has to choose between "Haunted House" and a film project that was on the table. His gut told him to choose Allende's adaptation, and his reaction to making the episode and evaluating the script collection shows that he made the right call.

"I cried when I got the call and was told I was going to play her," she says. "We're in a moment where there's so much coming in, so much production, it's hard to find [projects] that are going to stick. It's the kind of show that stays with you."

Wallace plays the young Clara at a pivotal point in her story, as she confronts love and the supernatural forces that shape her world and marries Esteban Truba, played by Alfonso Herrera (Azarque).

"She's at a very interesting time in her life, when she's found what she wants and why she's on earth, and she has that calling. But I wanted to shine a lot of light on her, because I think women have lived through these relationships and terrible moments in history and somehow they're still connected to love and still connected to each other," Wallace says.

Clara's relationship with Esteban is stormy. She does not conform to the social norms of the day and advocates women's empowerment and suffrage while he is a cruel businessman and womanizer. In fact, Herrera was kind. "He was very scared and very careful, even in our kissing scenes, because of the age difference," Wallace says. For me, it was great to see this from him. Not because I want him to feel bad, but because he thought too much about everything. "He wanted to respect not only me, but the scenes, so it was honest."

Postcards from Italy will be his first English-language project to reach an audience. Directed by Oscar winner Jessica Yu (The Only Murders in the Building), the story follows a privileged young woman from New York's West Side who makes her way through Italy. Wallace plays Mia, a spoiled heiress who is sent by her grandfather to Palermo, Sicily, without money or the usual luxuries, to work as a realtor in the family business.

"It's a very different record for me," Wallace says. It's a comedy and I've never done a comedy. Mia is also the first character I play who is not too young. Even with Clara, even though she feels very mature and has kids, I'm still playing a 20-year-old. This is the first time I'm playing a 24/25-year-old, [which is my age. "This is what people will see from me for the first time."

"When I speak another language, my whole personality changes," Wallace says of the move to acting in English. I'm proving myself again because people like certain sounds in one language and then don't like them in another, so anything can happen.

Next up for Wallace is Throttled, based on Lauren Asher's first Dirty Air book series and set in a fictionalized version of the high-stakes world of Formula 1.

For Wallace, this is his first US project and another English-language role. She stars opposite Josh Heston in Off Campus, which means the producers have recruited two hard-hitting actors who have made their own stars in the YA world.

"It's a romance, but it's very sports-oriented, so it's very new to me," Wallace says. She plays the role of Maya, the sister of a Formula 1 driver.

He's a math major, he loves F1 and knows all about engineering. She falls in love with her brother's competitor [Noah Slade Houston], so there are conflicts of interest and family loyalty going on, but it's also about a woman in a very male sport. I'm excited to dive in and [explore] how he experiences everything."

"I am a good driver. "I love speed and, yes, I love driving." The star did well in Culpables, as it is full of flashy fast cars as well as romance and drama.

Wallace, who saw F1 up close as part of his research, says the sport evokes a sense of familiarity. "It feels like making a movie," he says. "There are actors who are the face of it, but there are hundreds of people on the other side who make it all work."

Last year, Wallace inked an exclusive talent deal with Amazon's MGM Studios, and now he's looking to tap into some of the producer's smarts as he considers his own projects. "I've pitched things," he says. That was a very important thing for me, to be able to learn only from the inside and also from the best."

In terms of production, Wallace breaks down what interests him. And there's something about female rage that I'm very interested in. It's a very exciting moment with shows like Furious. And I love fantasy, I'm a fantasy person."

He will also relate to the young adult genre. I'd love to be able to do independent work, and I want to do horror, action, sci-fi and all that, but I still want to be true to the people that have been around. "I still want to do YA," she says.

Since The Culpables became a global hit, Wallace says, "it's been a rollercoaster with stops."

What does a broken star do during those pit stops? Wallace rides his horse, hangs out with friends (the ones he had before he was famous), goes to the movies, and enjoys blockbusters and indie films (he's excited about La bola negra, Spain's nominee for this year's Best International Oscar, which recently won the People's Choice Award in Toronto).

Embracing more mainstream pictures, he watched Spider-Man: A Brand New Day five times in theaters, and says it struck a nerve. He says: "I came out of the cinema feeling eight years old. "That feeling when you watch a movie and feel like your whole personality and world has changed. It's been a long time since I felt like that and I realized, "Oh, this is why I like to act and this is why I'm an actor."

With Spanish and English series and movies now on his IMDb page, Wallace can start planning the next step. She has a singing career and wants to do musical theater, but on screen, it's a career plan that can be done in both franchises and festivals. She also wants to work with her sister Chloé, who is a director.

"I love a big job, from a franchise that has a remake and doing The House of the Spirits, and I still want to do those things, but I also want to make gritty, low-budget movies."