This in no way justifies anything, but what this show does is get us talking, and it has different points of view by showing the cartels and the DEA. Then, all of a sudden there is this demand to sell something they can make a crazy amount of money selling. “I do think you have a poor neighboring country that is kept poor, there are a lot of companies that go in there and pay these guys $5 a day. They aren’t going to sell anything that can’t be bought,” Pena says. It’s relevant because we have that problem going on now.”Ī thread among Narcos seasons is an inward reflection on America’s role in the drug war and how there is such continued demand for the supply. “He wanted to make a difference and he was having a tough time convincing Washington, D.C., that this was happening. I watch a lot of Netflix because they have a great amount of documentaries, and I love documentaries.“I’m so glad that I was able to play this guy that was a Mexican-American, he was the guy who spearheaded the war on drugs,” says Pena, who is also Mexican-American. Actually, I thought 13 Reasons Why was pretty good, and there’s one show on Amazon that’s awesome too - a comedy called Catastrophe. I really like The Staircase, Making of a Murderer, Ozark. I didn’t get rich off the series (laughs) but it was a tough shoot. One is a big stage with the best air-conditioning, lighting and green screen, and then I was suddenly running in the desert. It was good, I had a lot of fun on the Narcos set, but it was a culture shock. I had a day off before going right into Narcos. You started shooting this immediately after Ant-Man. This has been fun, because you get to know the person a little more. On this show, we didn’t get to meet too much but I think I’ve got to know him a little better in this press tour, having dinners with him and Eric. So, it was different because he was telling me what to do for five months. Yeah, I’ve known him for a while but at the same time, I only knew him as a director. You and Diego Luna have known each other a while. Also, while half of the people on the show are Narcos, the other half are trying to stop them. At the same time, there are a lot of Spanish shows that are about good people. The fact of the matter is this does happen and it’s not typecasting when it really happens, especially when you’re using real names and places this one is based on true stories. In this political climate, is there a worry about the show typecasting or stereotyping a country? Hopefully, my dad will see it and feel proud. But I liked the fact that we were able to be in a half-Spanish show. I know that it is Narcos, it’s meant for entertainment and the subject matter is what people want to see right now, and that’s cool. I don’t think I spoke English until I was about five years old. It does, and it makes me feel good about the world, in a way. That’s the true story about him.Īs a Mexican-American, what does it mean for you to be speaking Spanish on camera for a huge show that goes to over 190 countries? Does that have personal significance? He took it upon himself, and got lucky a couple of times but then got unlucky as well. It kept eating away at him and he just got mad and decided to do something about it himself. His motivation was that he just saw things going wrong that weren’t supposed to happen, was telling people that they weren’t supposed to happen, but they kept ignoring him. I spoke to his wife Mika for quite a while and she helped me understand Kiki. But psychologically, why was he so lonely? I needed to find out what made Kiki tick, and what was his motivation. When you read the character on paper, you feel that he was very focused and lonely. What kind of research did you do to get a sense of him? I blame my “binge-itis” on Narcos! (Laughs) I watched the other 18 episodes in a week-and-a-half. He was always really good with me, answering all my questions. We always talked and had an ongoing conversation. I thought it was a great show, so called back to see if they were serious. Eric Newman told me about Kiki Camarena and I thought it was really cool, so I watched two episodes immediately. I have a 10-year-old kid who was six-and-a-half at the time, so I watched a lot of Toy Story, Pixar and Disney films.
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