Who Is Yvette Monreal from ‘Rambo: Last Blood’?

If John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone)’s niece looks familiar, you might have seen Yvette Monreal on TV shows like Faking It, The Fosters or Matador. She will be in DC Universe’s Stargirl TV series, not to be confused with Disney+’s Stargirl movie. This weekend you can see her in Rambo: Last Blood as Rambo’s niece Gabrielle.

Monreal joined Stallone for the Rambo: Last Blood press conference in Los Angeles. During the talk, she shared a bit about her upbringing and how she landed the role in Stallone’s fifth Rambo outing. Rambo Last Blood is in theaters now.

Yvette Monreal relates to Gabrielle in ‘Rambo: Last Blood’

Rambo stepped in as a father figure when Gabrielle’s father abandoned her. She lost her mother to cancer so her grandma (Adriana Barraza) fills in as best she can. 

“I was raised with a very traditional Mexican mom so I can relate to Gabrielle a lot,” Monreal said. “The family is very strict and my family, my upbringing growing up was very strict. I wasn’t allowed to date. I wasn’t allowed to go out past five o’clock. I think I had to go straight home so my upbringing was very strict.”

There was a Rambo figure in Monreal’s life too, although maybe without the knife. 

“I feel like that’s why my character was so relatable but I did have a stepfather who it was easier for me to go to,” Monreal said. “We did things together. We explored caves together, things of that nature so I feel like it was really relatable to this movie.:

Yvette Monreal met Sylvester Stallone at the audition

At first, Stallone was just set to observe the auditions. He ended up reading Rambo’s lines for her, so she auditioned against the real Rambo.

“The first time I met Sylvester Stallone was in the casting office,” Monreal said. “I had to do a chemistry read. It was me against two other girls and when I first walked in, I was reading with someone else but I guess it wasn’t up to par so he jumped in.”

Stallone put Monreal at ease. 

“He started reading with me the scenes in the movie and I wasn’t really nervous at first,” she said. “I felt very comfortable. It felt really mellow in the room.”

Yvette Monreal experienced Rambo action right away

After landing the role of Gabrielle in Rambo: Last Blood, Yvette Monreal was thrown into the deep end with Rambo action.

“One of the first scenes we did was when [Rambo was] saving me,” Monreal said. “So I was very nervous once I actually got the part but we did a lot of action scenes first. He was always there, just telling me, ‘You’ve got this.’ He was very comforting. I could just tell he was there, he had my back. That’s what I felt.”

Gabrielle is the reason Rambo returns to violence

It seems like Rambo has finally settled into home life. It’s not his own family, but he has people he cares about and he can just tend to the farm with them. That is, until something happens to Gabrielle. Then there’s no stopping Rambo.

“For me, Rambo symbolizes a father figure,” Monreal said. “My [character’s] dad left me when I was about 10 years old and so when he comes back to his ranch, he steps in. He shows me how to ride horses. I think he steps in like a father and that’s why the violence and everything, I feel like it’s very motivated. He has a reason. This is the first time he’s ever cared for someone like me.”