'Dolores Roach' actor Justina Machado still loves empanadas — though not the horror-filled kind

Justina Machado said she would “die” for her mother’s empanadas.

But her newest character, Dolores Roach, would kill for them.

"My mother has been making them since I was a little girl; we call them pastelillos,” the Puerto Rican actor said about the sweet or savory pastries.

The delectable empanadas of Machado's youth take a horror-filled and cannibalistic turn in the new Amazon Prime dark comedy series “The Horror of Dolores Roach,” which starts streaming Friday.

Based on Aaron Mark’s macabre podcast of the same name and the solo play “Empanada Loca,” Machado plays Dolores, a Puerto Rican New Yorker (also known as Nuyorican) who just completed an unjust 16-year prison sentence for marijuana possession.

She finds a place to stay with her friend Luis (played by Alejandro Hernandez), the owner of  Empanada Loca, an eatery in the predominantly Latino area of Washington Heights in New York City. It's the only pre-incarceration business Dolores recognizes that is left of her now-gentrifying neighborhood.

Dolores' first step to feeling human again after her long prison stint was to order a guava and cheese empanada, a meal that served as a memory key that unlocked all the parts she’d hidden of herself in the time she’d been gone. After that ceremonial meal, Dolores is back — and ready to reinvent herself in her old neighborhood. But instead, this event will lead her on a downward spiral.

Those familiar with “Sweeney Todd,” the spine-tingling musical from which Mark drew his inspiration, know that the empanadas will not be what they seem. They will also know that Dolores will become a chilling, greatly enabled psychopath along the way.

Dolores, who learned to be a masseuse behind bars, attempts to hide her struggles to acclimate to life after prison through her work ethic. With $200 to her name and no family or job prospects due to her criminal record, she’s constantly vying for an uneventful, steady and peaceful life and with Luis’ encouragement, she opens a massage parlor below Empanada Loca.

The lengths Dolores will go to in order to make a living underscore the burden of responsibility that is often placed on the formerly incarcerated as they attempt to rebuild their lives and find re-entry programs. Dolores still needs background checks to get a job should she want to work for someone else, secure housing and pursue higher education, and without the right support, it will be impossible for her to navigate the system.

Machado said she connected with the show’s depiction of life after prison for women of color like herself and the racial disparities behind arrests.

"I’m from the inner city of Chicago. It was around me consistently, every day," she said. "I don’t come from middle class; I come from working class. I was first generation in the States, and it was just how it was. I knew nothing different.”

In the show, while he means well, Luis becomes a liability through his impromptu scheme to obtain fresh meat for the empanadas. Dolores wants to continue working as a masseuse and eventually return to college. Still, she must play both sides, to ensure Luis’ plan and his tendency to barrel through decisions he may have only half thought through don’t jeopardize her new life.

The Prime Video series follows Dolores, people from her past life and the gentrifying millennials who now reside in her old neighborhood as their lives intersect on the street, her makeshift massage parlor and at Empanada Loca. For Dolores, much of that time is spent trying to define herself in connection with or in contrast to them.

For Machado, a longtime collaborator of Gloria Calderón Kellett, the show's Latina executive producer, Dolores’ compounding rage and disillusionment was part of why she was drawn to the character.

“I’d never seen anything like it. It was layered, and it wasn’t about being likable or lovable. It was just about playing this great out-there character that must be guarded and relatable simultaneously. And I thought, ‘Wow, that’s going to be a lot of fun,’” Machado said.

The show does its best to walk a fine tonal line between horror and comedy to provide social commentary, but it relies on Machado’s strength to transport viewers into a gentrified Washington Heights and a critique of the criminal justice system.

As Dolores, Machado proves her ability to embody a character with only a hooded purple sweatshirt, a massage table and a powerful story.

Yet, the series, which she’s been linked to since 2021, proved a unique challenge for Machado, with many significant scenes hinging on doing the unthinkable to support herself and Luis.

“No matter how incredible the part was, it was heavy," said the veteran actor known for her roles in “Six Feet Under,” “Queen of the South” and the reboot of “One Day at a Time,” which was co-created and produced by Calderón Kellett.

"It took me a little bit, maybe a month or so after we stopped shooting, to kind of get out of that world to feel a little normal again,” Machado said. “If you see the show, Dolores always has something happening. Everything is heightened.”

It’s painfully human to focus on the uncomfortable bits for her or the audience, but Dolores’ story must be seen, according to Machado. She hoped it would be eye-opening for “the people who have misunderstood and have the wrong information, and now they know better.”

“It’s always great to shine a light on those things," she said in the interview with NBC News, referring to the injustices in the prison system, "while telling a really incredible story at the same time. I’m glad I got to play her.”

As for empanadas, she still loves them, though the flavor she had on the show when she first got out of prison is not her favorite. “Everybody I know loves guava and cheese, but that’s not my go-to,” she said. For her, make it chicken and cheese.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com