As part of our twice-weekly series, VF.com interviews the actors and directors behind 2012 awards season’s juggernaut films. In today’s conversation, best-actor nominee Demián Bichir talks to Krista Smith about putting on weight for his role inA Better Life,his admiration for director Chris Weitz, and what it’s like to share the red carpet with Brad and Angelina. Highlights from their chat:
Krista Smith: Congratulations on your Academy nomination! You knew immediately, right?
Bichir: I actually found out later because I was asleep in Mexico. I’d been rehearsing a play that I’m doing right now in Mexico City. We just opened last week. So I went to bed feeling really bad. I had a cold or something. I was not going to wake up and turn on the TV and watch anything because that’s too much. It’s like watching the penalty kick in the World Cup Championship–final last-minute kind of thing.
From what I understand, you’re like the George Clooney of Mexico.
I don’t even know when or why that came along. I think I am a little bit more like the Homer Simpson of Mexico.
How did you get cast in A Better Life?
I grew up in the theater in Mexico, working and doing theater and backstage with my parents and my brothers, and I’ve been around for many years. I’ve been an Angeleno myself for many years, coming back and forth and auditioning. You have to be constant and keep [up with] the work and never quit. Then things began happening with Steven Soderbergh’s Che. Chris Weitz called me to audition for New Moon and then he started talking about this gardener. I got a little bit confused at that time because I didn’t know if he was a vampire gardener. I thought, So this gardener sleeps under the palm trees at night, you know, like hanging upside down and so, and of course, it was about another project, about this beautiful, beautiful, wonderful character that I play in A Better Life. I say, Everything’s that’s been happening, it’s because of Chris Weitz. Not only because he had this visionary eye, . . . but he bet everything he had on my name. Everyone wants big names, at least better-known names, [for] any project, [but] he fought for me all the way up until the end. The rest is history.
The characters in A Better Life are very complex. You never know if you can trust them.
There’s good and bad everywhere in any aspect in life. The only people who we can’t really trust are politicians. Because those guys lie to everybody and constantly. That’s exactly why I said that Chris Weitz is responsible for everything, because he got that essence that you’re talking about. Last night, we had the chance to talk to Angelina and Brad Pitt. They were really moved by the film, and they were telling us that they found this such a touching, a moving story. That’s what we wanted to put on-screen.
As a Latino, and as someone who has lived in Los Angeles, what was it like making the film?
It was one of the things that drove the project. When I read the script, I found a real powerful story. I found [a] story that didn’t have any gimmicks or any Hollywood tricks or anything like that. It was real. My character is one of those characters that are bigger than life in many ways. Being able to portray this character [is] a big responsibility, to give [a] voice to 11 million human beings, who transcend almost in an invisible way in order to survive. I insist that this film has been really important in not only touching hearts but opening minds and the way people view the immigration phenomenon and the need for a reform, so we can not only give faith and names to all those people but also it’s a way of saying, Thank you for making our lives easier and better and happier, and our economy stronger.
Just out of curiosity, how much weight did you gain shooting this movie?
People can’t believe I’m the same guy because I gained 20 pounds for that and for me it’s a lot. You also have to be in great shape at the same time because you need to be strong to go up the palm tree. All those difficult skills as a gardener. It was demanding, it was really hard to play, but also, emotionally, it was a roller coaster.
You worked with a lot of kids from the youth outreach group Homeboy Industries, right?
That’s right, Chris Weitz made that contact right away. Father Boyle with Homeboy Industries has been doing tremendous work in helping these kids get back on track. Pretty much every actor that you see in the film with tattoos and everything—they’re real and they’re guys [who] want to pursue a career in acting. All that made the film believable.
What was the most challenging thing about this role?
The biggest challenge was to keep this guy quiet, to keep this guy into himself and to make him invisible. Coming from the role of Fidel Castro, which is exactly the opposite kind of personality, it was a real challenge to tell all of [Carlos’s] humbleness and worri[es] about his son. You can only achieve that if you have an expert taking care of you, like Chris Weitz.
How does it feel to be walking the red carpet alongside the other fantastic nominees?
It’s great, you know, actually [the] first time I saw Brad Pitt face-to-face was [at] my first [Screen Actors Guild] nomination [for] best ensemble for Weeds. Right there at the red carpet, you know, in that craziness, we bump into each other. I mean, Angelina and Brad, they’re beautiful people, you know what I mean?
What are you working on now?
I’m doing, remember Swimming with Sharks, the film that Kevin Spacey did? There’s this version for theater that George Huang and Michael Leslie adapted to theater and they staged that in London, only with Christian Slater. Now this is the first time it’s been done anywhere else, and the first time in Spanish. I translated the whole thing, and I’m playing Kevin Spacey’s character, Buddy Ackerman. We’re doing that in Mexico City, in a beautiful theater called the Insurgentes Theater, and my younger brother, Bruno, is directing.
