Despite what many people suggest, there is no “right” or “wrong” way to be an immigrant, simply because to immigrate means to leave one’s birthplace, and what could feel stranger than that?
In his native Mexico, Luis Gerardo Méndez was a successful film and television actor who had starred in telenovelas like “Gitanas” and limited series including “Capadocia.” He’s been nominated for two Ariels (the Mexican Academy Award) and received acclaim for his performance as Lithuanian-born Estanislao Shilinsky in the biopic “Cantinflas.” But in order to fulfill his artistic promise in ways the industry couldn’t provide, Méndez sought out new worlds, sometimes even creating them in Mexico.
How to Create Your Own Content Méndez expanded his résumé from actor to executive producer on Netflix’s “Club de Cuervos,” a soccer drama involving multigenerational conflicts, in which he also stars. “The work we do as actors and producers and storytellers is pretty much the same,” he explains, adding “it doesn't matter if you have $10 million, or $1 million to do your film.”
In 2019, he starred in two Hollywood films, “Murder Mystery” and the “Charlie’s Angels,” reboot. “I never saw myself saying, ‘I need to make it in Hollywood,’ ” he adds, but as a very curious person, “I really wanted to experience that as well. I wanted to do a film with Jennifer Aniston and [be] on set with Adam Sandler, I wanted to know how movies were made in Hollywood.”
His ability to transform curiosity into applicable experience paid off quickly; he is the executive producer in the comedy “Half Brothers,” a story about reclaiming your heritage even far from where you were born. The film perfectly conveys Méndez’s interests and his key presence in the industry. It’s a film that defies genres (it works as a comedy and as a profound family drama), highlights the importance of artistic collaboration, and challenges America’s limited views on what immigrants can do.
He met fellow “Brothers” producers Jason Shuman and Eduardo Cisneros upon moving to L.A. five years ago (he now splits his time between there and Mexico) and they decided to work together on a project that showed “the differences between people from Mexico and the States, but also the ways in which we are not that different in the end.”
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“I really prefer to play with contrast than [with] conflict,” he adds. In the film, he portrays a successful Mexican aviation company owner (“I’ve never seen a character like that in Hollywood,” he comments) who discovers his late father, who left him and his mother decades before, had another son in the U.S. As played by Connor del Rio, the half brother is a “spoiled millennial whose biggest talent is posting his breakfast on Instagram,” says Méndez.
Rather than widening the gap, through this contrast Méndez hopes to open a more nuanced dialogue. “It was very important for us to show the dignity of the immigrant’s journey in a comedy,” he explains.
Wearing two very important hats in a production means Méndez had to find a way to separate both roles in a way that proved healthy and effective. As a producer, he becomes very involved in the casting process especially (beloved Mexican actor Bianca Marroquín, best known in the States for being the first Mexican Roxie Hart in Broadway’s “Chicago,” plays his character’s mother). However, “two weeks before the shoot starts, I’m not a producer anymore, unless it’s a really big thing,” he explains. “I don’t want to know anything about budgets, because I want to focus on my work in each scene.”
During the shoot, “my producer’s hat is in the closet,” he says laughing, but once they wrap up, he’s back at it working with the editors and post-production.
In the fall, Méndez joined over 200 Latinx creators in an open letter asking Hollywood to do better when it came to representation. His reasons go beyond the rightful demands of equity made by BIPOC artists; they also convey the riches the industry ignores when they focus only on white stories. “I wanted to work with filmmakers and directors and actors from other countries,” he says. And Los Angeles is a great place for that, not only to meet American creators but international talent. “I’m interested in working with people with a different point of view, with different references, with different techniques and different stories,” he adds.
As “Half Brothers” plays now in select theaters (and arrives on-demand Dec. 23), Mendez continues adding to his roster of skills. During the pandemic, he started writing a project he describes as “cathartic and beautiful.” So, does that mean a film? He grins and admits it’s a limited series. “I don't want to put myself in a box right now,” he says, and boy, does he mean it.
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