Andy Garcia still believes in the American promise of prosperity for all. “If you come here and work hard, you have a future,” he said. “There are always obstacles, but opportunities are there.”
Born in Cuba in one or more ways Garcia, 66, understands the world of his patriarch, Billy Herrera, in a new Latin-speaking take. “Father of the bride” Streaming on HBO Max. The inspirational reinterpretation highlights the intergenerational plight that immigrants and their American-born children face when trying to communicate with each other. The comedy of director Gaz Arazraki and screenwriter Matt Lopez also avoids portraying Latin Americans as monoliths.
As his latest protagonist, the most well-known veteran actor on the turns of “Untouchable,” “The Godfather Part III,” and “Ocean’s Eleven,” is the proud self-made Cuban architecture whose eldest daughter is about to marry a Mexican. A lover who is drawing a house.
At the same time, Elera’s wife Ingrid, played by singer Gloria Estefan (Garcia’s longtime friend and Cuban asylum seeker), announced that she wanted a divorce, telling Billy about masculinity, work ethic and marriage. Rethink your inflexible beliefs.
On a recent sunny afternoon at a golf club in the Toluca Lake district of Los Angeles, Garcia looked casual chic with a light blue button-down shirt and beige slacks. Occasionally emphasizing his anecdotes in Spanish, he talked about his father’s thoughts on his profession, embarked on inclusion before it became a Hollywood priority, and stayed on the “menu” of the entertainment industry. rice field. These are excerpts from our conversation.
You had substantial success long before the conversation about expression became as prominent as it is today. How was it when you started your career?
It was very difficult for someone with a Hispanic name, because you were never considered. There were exceptions to rules like Raul Julia and José Ferrer before him. But for unestablished people, it was very difficult to think of anything other than the Hispanic part. When I started in 1978, I had only 5 studios, 3 networks and 5 PBSs. There was no cable. You were a typecast and the part they were writing for Hispanics was mainly gang members and maids. But they didn’t consider me a gang member role because I wasn’t physically correct. In their minds, the only member of the gang was Chicano in the case of Los Angeles.
When did you feel like you were starting to break through despite your disability?
I was a member of an improvisational group, so I was fortunate enough to get started. The casting director saw me here and there, and I landed small things here and there. However, it was very difficult to achieve. It took a long time from 1978 to 1985 to get the essential parts of the story. When I arrived “Untouchable(1987), I didn’t have to work as a waiter anymore.Before that I was doing it too Straw group, Provides all the ancillary dialogue of the movie. That was my post-waiter job. It kept my only child in Pampers at the time.
Did your parents encourage or worry about your choice?
My dad was very worried that I would leave my family [fragrance] A business that I worked for a lifetime and was growing rapidly. As a business lawyer, a farmer who worked hard to give children opportunities and trained them to take over the business, it’s very difficult for him to know that I’m moving in the other direction. was.
It’s not that he wasn’t supportive, but I know he was suffering because he didn’t understand what the industry was. That wasn’t the case for my kids.I have Two daughters of an actress.. They grew up in it. They understand the pitfalls.
My dad didn’t have the concept of entertainment business or acting. For him, the actor was Humphrey Bogart or Clark Gable. I think he said deep inside his heart, “I love my boy, but not Humphrey Bogart.” [Laughs] Meanwhile, my mother said, “Go and fly. If you break your wings, go back and recover before making a decision.” She was more reckless.
In “Father of the Bride”, there is a scene where your character and Gloria talk about the difficulty of communicating your native Spanish to American-born children. Did the dialogue personally tell you?
yes. Growing up We spoke Spanish at home, but we also grew up in Miami. Everyone spoke Spanish there. No matter how much we speak Spanish, my kids struggled with it because they always like English because of the environment. They will become more Americanized. They can understand and speak it, but they are not very fluent. If you don’t do it well every day, the language suffers when you practice it. As parents fall into the English-speaking pattern, we have a lot of responsibility for not rooting it as it should be. This interview can be done in Spanish, but it is spoken in English.
Did you become the father of the bride in your family?
Two of my daughters are married. [There was] A wedding on June 11th, a movie, and another wedding on July 9th. I’m a bride’s dad three times in 30 days. When we watched the movie together, my youngest daughter said, “Dad, you’re not like this guy in the movie.” And I say “really?” That was her impression.
Do you agree with her, or does Billy and his spirit remind you of yourself?
He is a fusion of the traditions of everyone I have ever known, including me, and those who came from a conservative background. There is a spirit that happens to immigrants (in our case political asylum seekers). This country comes with a basic understanding that it is a place where you can express yourself freely, with all the flaws and warts. And pursue your dreams. We fled with our parents like many Kubana to this day, seeking freedom and opportunity for our families. And when you come here, you have a specific responsibility to respect that freedom, have a strong work ethic, and make yourself and your family better. It’s all the rage in the story of immigrants.
It’s a heavy burden to carry.
My brother Rene and I have always come from a situation where everything has been robbed of the Cuban family, so there are always people who say this. To come and rob us of everything again. We all have these trigger points that unknowingly become behavioral patterns. They have taken root in you since childhood, depending on your journey.
Want to go back to Cuba?
every day.
Have you ever considered visiting after the Obama administration relaxed restrictions on American citizens’ trips to the island in 2015?
No. It’s like asking the Jews if they want to return to Nazi Germany. Everyone has a personal reason to go and I don’t make a decision. But I was critical of the regime. If I went, they would use it to say: He is on vacation here. They do not allow us to take us to a concert and speak my heart.But I returned to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base with Gloria and Emilio [Estefan]..I had a concert for rafters [Cuban refugees] At that time, there were about 16,000 rafters in the provisional camp.
At one point, the US profit department in Havana invited us — there was no embassy at the time — to show my movie, The Lost City. [his 2006 film set in Cuba].. I said, “Can you guarantee my safety?” They said, “I can’t.” And I said, “Thank you for inviting me.” But I know that many people who have gone to Cuba are getting public attention. Cubans who have gone, they are being watched over. There are government officials around them.
You are a prolific performer, not only playing the lead like the “father of the bride”, but also having a lot of support parts. What is your philosophy about longevity?
I had a conversation with Tom Hanks at an event. We were talking about business, and I said, “Tom, I just want to stay on the menu.” When you open the menu, choose either an appetizer or a main course. If you can stay on the menu, you can offer it to your family and explore your art form. It’s difficult to order if it’s off the menu. If you’re lucky, it might taste like that month for a second, but then you have to keep the menu going. Stay there for work for a long time.
