Miguel Gomez is used to fighting for his life. As Augustin “Gus” Elizalde on “The Strain,” he puts his neck on the line to save mankind from vampires. And as Miguel “Magic” Escobar in “Southpaw,” he takes on Jake Gyllenhaal’s hotshot, hotheaded boxer, Billy Hope.
On prepping for “Southpaw.”
“We went to two months of training camp. We trained like professional fighters. I did some research as far as talking to different pro fighters. Victor Ortiz gave me a lot of insight on what a boxer goes through emotionally and what drives him. We really wanted to pay homage to these guys who go out there and do this for a living.”
On going to Comic-Con.
“We went last year for ‘The Strain,’ but the show hadn’t premiered yet, so we were there explaining what it was about and what it is we were doing. This year, it was incredible to see all the fans and how much they knew about the show and the characters. They knew more about it than I did.”
On picking the right roles.
“The way I choose a role is [by determining] what I can learn from it. How can I grow as a person? Everything that I do and every character that I play, I want to grow from it and be able to experience someone else’s circumstances and ultimately take something from it. Hopefully there’ll be a positive message for anyone watching it to inspire them to follow their dreams.”
On building trust on-set.
“It was really intense when we were filming ‘Southpaw,’ but I think through our training together, Jake and I built up this respect and this love for each other. I think the only way we were able to get to these places of complete anger and to be able to lose control in the ring without holding back was for us to completely trust each other. We had to really get to know each other and become like brothers because of how dangerous the sport is. When you’re dealing with rage and anger and fatigue, accidents happen. It starts off as choreography, but there’s also a lot of real fighting in the film.”
On valuing diversity in casting.
“It’s the world we live in, man. There are all kinds of different people, different walks of life, different cultures, and that’s what makes us beautiful as humanity. With someone like Gus, my character in ‘The Strain,’ he comes from the streets and you see the shaved head and you see the tattoos, it’s really easy to judge someone like that. But if you sit there and you look at him and you don’t judge a book by its cover, you realize that all that is just his battle armor; it’s his defense mechanisms. If you can get past that and take the time to get to know someone, you might find something really special.”
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