"Alejandro was coming to the set, for example, and he was, ‘Okay, are you ready? In this scene I want to see forgiveness in your eyes. I want to see hope, love. I want to see your redemption. I want to see…’ He gave me like 10 things, you know? ‘This scene you don’t have any words. I want to see everything in your eyes. I’m going to put the camera right in front of your face.’ You know, I have my beard and I have the long hair," explained Eduardo Verastegui. "You have one take. No pressure. Are you ready?’ It was crazy!
And then at the same time in my head, I knew that I had a hundred things to solve on the set production-wise or other things that we were running out of budget, so I had to disconnect from producing and jump into acting. It was amazing because you, in a way, you control the whole message - with my two business partners who were on the same page with the same vision and the same mission. That helps a lot. But at the same time, it was a lot of pressure from somebody trusting in you and giving you money to shoot a film, and we’re all first timers. This is my first film as a producer – this is Alejandro’s first film. This is Leo’s first film. So we jumped from my house in a little room with a little table, little sofa with a cell phone to the set to shoot a real film with real money.
I just wanted to make sure that at the end we would accomplish what we promised to the investors. That was the scariest thing because when you give your word and somebody trusts in you, you have done nothing and they’re only trusting your word… It’s easier when you invest in someone when you know that he’s already proven himself. But when you’re just investing in only the faith and the vision of this guy who hasn’t done anything before, that’s a lot of responsibility, you know?”
I know you had quite a while to work on getting into character, but was the idea of having the beard and the long hair there all along or is that something you came up with as you figured out you needed to tell the story through the eyes?
“No, that was Alejandro’s idea. When we met for the third time and we knew that we were going to work together… When I made that decision of never using my talents again in anything that would compromise my values, I knew that what I was saying was maybe the end of my career. Which means maybe I’d never work again. All the offers that I was receiving were exactly the same negative stereotypes. So after I talked to my whole team who was representing me at that time – you know, agents and managers and lawyers and the whole team – in a way, they couldn’t understand what I was going through because they kept sending me the same thing. I realized, ‘You know what? I can’t do it.’
I used to be here in this career because I just wanted to work. I loved the arts but everything was very selfish. The reasons why I wanted to be here were very superficial reasons. When I started my career at the age of 18 everything was about fame, success, pleasures, money. I was seduced by the environment to the point where I lost perspective. I was completely lost and confused. I got to the point 12 years later after making Chasing Papi that I was empty. Something was missing. So when I finally, after all the things that told you before about the negative stereotypes of Latinos, for the first time I just opened my eyes. When I made that commitment I knew that was it. So I had to leave the whole team and just be by myself.
I had two options. Either I’m going to wait here all my life to see which script is going to arrive in my hands that I can do, or I’ll do it myself – even though I’d never produced anything. This is the American dream, I heard that since I was a kid. You can do everything here if you just do it right. The sky is limit. I said, ‘Well, let me see if that’s true.’ The next thing you know, when I was thinking about opening a production, ‘I’m going to do it,’ right then is when I met Alejandro. Alejandro was trying to do the same thing so I said, ‘Why don’t we just do it together? You’re a director, I’m an actor.’ He said okay. Then he said, ‘But listen, people who know you for example in Latin America for the soap operas and the music and all the things you’ve done in 12 years, people think that you are what you’ve been doing for 12 years. Now you’re a different person and they don’t know. My job as a director is to tell a story and I want the people to see who you are now. In order for me to do that, I need to destroy you on the set. Which means I don’t want to see anything but your eyes because the eyes are the window of the soul. I want to dress you from your neck, completely, with a very dirty chef outfit. Very simple.’
Before that, everything about me was about having a thousand pictures with my shirt off, showing my abs. Everything was just being reduced to an object because I thought that that’s what sells and that’s what you need to do, you know? When you all these managers training you since you’re 18 years old, brainwashing you and all you do is what they tell you…that’s why I was feeling empty and completely losing perspective of why I am doing this. ‘Is it for money? I achieved a certain amount of money and fame and success, so how come I’m not happy? Something is missing here,’ so therefore it can not be fame and money and rewards and recognition that’s going to give you happiness because that’s not true. I experienced it for 12 years and I know people who have done this even bigger, a thousand times more than me, and they feel the same way so something here needs to change. So when I came to all these conclusions, Alejandro said, ‘Okay, so I’m going to put a long beard, long hair, and this and that. It’s going to be a very small budget which means you have only one or two takes. That’s going to be a challenge, and I’m going to make you cry. You’re going to hate me on the set. I’m going to be very, very, very hard.’”
