Stephanie Beatriz ‘determined to not look beautiful’ in ‘Twisted Metal’

Stephanie Beatriz had one request when she agreed to star in “Twisted Metal,” the new apocalyptic series on Peacock.

“It’s the apocalypse – please don’t put lip gloss on me!” Beatriz, 42, told The Post. 

“I struggle when I watch television [set in a dystopia] and the world is on fire and everything is awful, and you’ve got an actress coming in and her hair is perfectly waved, and her skin looks gorgeous,” she said. “Especially as a new mom shooting it — I was like, ‘F–k it. Slap on some black eyeliner. I don’t want to sit in the hair trailer. You can comb it, but that’s it!’ 

“I was really determined not to look beautiful,” she said.

“Twisted Metal,” co-starring Anthony Mackie (“The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”), is based on a popular PlayStation game of the same name. It premieres July 27 and is helmed by Michael Jonathan Smith (“Cobra Kai”) and executive- produced by “Deadpool” writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. The series is set in a futuristic wasteland — but unlike HBO’s Emmy nominated “The Last Of Us,” it’s a comedy.

“I just really love their humor. Anyone who has seen ‘Deadpool’ knows that [Reese and Wernick] do that gallows style of humor so well,” Beatriz said. “Reading the scripts … I couldn’t believe what I was reading. It was hitting all the notes for me.

“It was so funny, so dark, so extreme, so unhinged. I wanted to be part of it so badly.”

The plot follows John Doe (Mackie), a chatty milkman who is tasked with a mission to transport a mysterious package across dangerous terrain. Soon, he teams up with Quiet (Beatriz), a car thief. 

“During the audition, you could tell that Anthony and I were going to have the chemistry that was needed. Our characters are antagonistic and butt heads,” Beatriz said. “I think we brought that to the series [and] it’s fun to watch.

“He’s one of the best actors I’ve ever met,” she said. “He’s very driven and professional, and he’s a delight. The crew loves him [and] he can tell a story like nobody’s business. Like his character, John Doe, he has the gift of gab. He loves to chat. For audiences have gotten a taste of how funny he can be, but he’s really silly and funny and unafraid to look like an idiot.”

Beatriz, best-known for “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and the Disney film “Encanto,” said that “Twisted Metal” is a new step in her career. 

“Certainly on ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’, I got a taste of action stuff – fight choreography, and stunts,” she said. 

“We didn’t do that much of it on ‘Brooklyn.’ But on this series, we do a hell of a lot. I was dying to get into doing more of that,” she said. “In the last 10 years, you’ve really seen a shift in who can be allowed to be action stars or superheroes. Anthony is a great example of that. He’s a huge star. 

“To have the opportunity to learn from him and alongside him was thrilling to me. I wanted to do more action in my career, and I was able to do some of it in ‘Twisted Metal.’”

This interview was done prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike.