The following interview for Backstage’s on-camera series The Slate was compiled in part by Backstage readers just like you! Follow us on Twitter (@Backstage) and Instagram (@backstagecast) to stay in the loop on upcoming interviews and to submit your questions.
Clayton Cardenas, star of FX’s acclaimed “Sons of Anarchy” spinoff, “Mayans M.C.,” has been giving life to Angel Reyes for three seasons worth of action-packed drama set on the California-Mexico border. He has also appeared on series such as “New York Undercover,” “American Crime,” “Snowfall,” and “S.W.A.T,” and is a painter and spoken-word poet in addition to being an actor. He hopped on the “Mayans M.C.” official Instagram account to go live with Backstage and talk about his process with the character of Angel, what audiences can expect from the show in the near future, his training and journey as a working actor, and more.
‘Mayans M.C.’ Creator Kurt Sutter’s Requirements for the Audition Room Might Surprise You The “Mayans M.C.” team has let him create Angel from the ground up.
“The writers have let me organically find him, and then I saw the writing being curtailed to what my envision of the character was onscreen. So that’s been a cool feeling to see this co-creation happen. You know, there wasn’t a strict archetype for this character, it was kind of fluid in the beginning. And so for me, man, just playing with the flavors of him. You know, a lot of it is myself, a lot of Angel is Clayton, just certain parts of him are very heightened, I guess you would say. So honestly, for me, I find him as a hybrid of this like, highly emotional, strong character with a dry sense of humor. That’s been a fun triple layer for me to dip in and out of.
Cardenas’ routine when working differs from the unwinding process during time off.
“I usually have my little routine while I’m filming, and for me it has to do with a certain type of schedule as far as working out, and then I listen to certain music, and then there’s certain eating habits that I stick to. So once I’m able to wash that character away, I get to eat whatever I want, stop working out, I listen to a whole array of different types of music. I’m planning within the next couple weeks to get out of town for a little bit. I think just stepping away from my normal routine and quite honestly, seeing the same people that I was seeing, if I can step away from seeing those same people, it helps me. It’s a way to decompress for me. And during filming I usually don’t speak to my family, as dark and morbid as that may sound; it’s helpful to me, so I know that once I’m done filming I get back into those circles and those text chains with my family members.”
His onscreen chemistry with co-star J.D. Pardo existed from the beginning.
“With J.D. and myself, I feel like that’s always been there right from the get-go. Right when we first met, we were at Wendy O’Brien’s casting, and I think there was a mutual agreement, it wasn’t said, but it was like, ‘We need to make this work. If we want “Mayans” to work, this relationship has to work.’ But through time, I think we found that we were a lot more similar than not. And with that beginning of that relationship, it just made everything so natural. A lot of the looks and stuff that we share on camera, it’s all organic. I can just feel it from him, he can feel it for me, and I think the audience and fans are able to pick up on that.
How Fear Informs JD Pardo’s Performance on ‘Mayans M.C.’ Surrounding himself with positive influences was his key to acting success.
“Newer actors early in their career hear ‘no’ a lot. And that gets to them, that affects their psyche, that does something to you. If your friends are newer actors, too, they’re hearing the nos, too. And so now you just have this group of people telling each other about the nos. It’s like this sick cycle of, ‘I didn’t get it because of this,’ or, ‘I didn’t get it because of this,’ and you just continuously hear that verbiage, and I feel like that does something to you. And I knew early in I can’t be around people who constantly give excuses why they’re not booking stuff or why so-and-so got it. And so I made it a point to literally force myself around people that were working. That dialogue from working actor to non-working actor: completely different. Night and day. Right? For me. It did something to me. And I felt different around these people. Even though I wasn’t working yet, I could just feel the energy around working actors. And I honestly feel like that served me.
He deems season 3 of “Mayans” the best to date.
“A lot of the season is about answering unanswered questions. But my favorite part about ‘Mayans’ Season 3 is we’re finally getting to know more about the club members beyond the cut. We’re finally getting to hear the backstories of a lot of your favorite characters. So that’s been a joy for me. It’s been a joy for me to see my co-stars really show their chops.”
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