Sasha Calle on ‘On Swift Horses’ Queer Representation, Bonding with Daisy Edgar-Jones & Her Path to Hollywood

When Sasha Calle was 18, she bought herself a plane ticket to Los Angeles and moved from South Florida with the dream of becoming an actor. The now 29-year-old is days away from the theatrical release of her star-studded film “On Swift Horses,” cementing her as a must-see rising talent. 

“It’s a trip,” she says in a moment of reflection.

Calle stars in “On Swift Horses” as Sandra, alongside Jacob Elordi, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Will Poulter and Diego Calva. The story follows Muriel and Lee (Edgar-Jones and Poulter), a married couple who settle in California following the Korean War. Lee’s brother, played by Elordi, enters the picture, creating a slew of drama, all while Muriel begins her own self-discovery and develops feelings for a neighbor, Sandra.

The role was one Calle wanted so desperately that she didn’t allow herself to think about it too much. 

“I have this thing with auditions that’s kind of like a boomerang: I just kind of throw it, and if it’s meant to come back, then I catch it, and this one was one of those that came back,” she says.

Though the script went through various changes beyond what Calle first read, her love for Muriel and Sandra’s relationship is what kept her invested. 

“It’s a queer film set in the ’40s and a time of oppression and a time where it was dangerous to be yourself. It was dangerous to love someone that looked like you or had the same parts as you,” Calle says. “And I find that these stories are so important to tell, and sadly, they’re still relevant today. But I really hope that people can watch the movie and feel seen, because I definitely felt that with Sandra. I think I knew that that’s why I needed to play her, because I just felt her so close to me.

“She’s a strong gay woman who loves women, and she loves music, and she feels like she’s in her body and she’s proud of who she is,” Calle adds. “What’s not to love?”

As a musician herself, Calle got into character through sharing songs back and forth with Edgar-Jones, as well as with director Daniel Minahan. While Minahan’s choices were time period specific, such as “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine” by Jimmie Rodgers, Calle and Edgar-Jones focused more on feeling.

“Daisy was really lovely in just creating a friendship with me, because I think that’s required. You’re connecting with someone. You’re falling in love with someone on the screen, so having comfortability is the hope,” Calle says. “We both love music a lot, and we made a joint playlist as we were filming and that was something that tied us as humans, and I think also tied our characters.”

Calle previously was best known for playing Supergirl in the 2023 movie “The Flash.” As a teenager in South Florida, the daughter of a single mom, Calle initially focused on music, “my divine force.” 

“I never had money to really pay for any classes or training, and I lived in a place where arts weren’t really [a focus]. I just didn’t have the resources to do what I loved,” she says.

She applied to the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in L.A. for college and initially was rejected. 

“I was heartbroken. I called the college and spent an hour talking to them about how they needed to let me in,” she says. “At the time, I was raising my little brother with my mom, I was working the same job as my mom, and I just felt in my chest that I needed to create art, and I just needed somebody to believe in me and I needed to learn.”

Calle would eventually land herself a spot at AMDA, from which she graduated in 2017. Ahead, she stars in the upcoming crime thriller “Rip” with Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Steven Yeun and Teyana Taylor, and is currently filming the second season of the Colin Farrell-led series “Sugar.” The show is filming around L.A., and a recent day on the job took her back to a street right near AMDA.

“It was one of those moments of ‘Wow, 11 years ago, you were just starting in this college and you had no idea, and you only just wished,’” she says.