Jesse Garcia is desperate to make 'Flamin' Hot' a success for the sake of Latinos in the film industry.
Jesse Garcia hopes that 'Flamin' Hot' can help Latinos in the film industry
The 40-year-old actor stars in the movie as Richard Montanez – a Frito-Lay janitor who claimed to have invented the successful Flamin' Hot Cheetos snack – and thinks it is imperative that Eva Longoria's picture performs to give Latino actors and directors the chance to do more films.
Jesse told Variety: "Non-Latino projects, they have the luxury of failing. But if our work doesn't work – or if for some reason is not successful – it's a struggle to get the next project.
"That's why 'Flamin' Hot' was so super, super important to Eva, to me, to DeVon (Franklin, producer), to the rest of the creative team. If we make this movie as a success, (the studio execs) go, 'OK, let's see more. Let's see more of Jesse. Let's see more of Annie. Let's see more of what Eva can do. It works. It makes money. People want to see it.'"
Jesse was only able to spend a small amount of time with Richard before playing him in the film but explained that he and his family were a big part of the movie.
The 'Ambulance' star recalled: "I really only had enough time to spend a couple hours with him before I came out to Albuquerque to start prepping, doing 80 costume changes.
"We were shooting incredibly fast, so I only had a little bit of time to sit with him. We talked about some stuff and exchanged numbers. I would ask about what he would say to people when he was handing out Cheetos, slang that he would use, if he carried things with him in his pocket – just the cool details that I could put in throughout the performance.
"He came to set and his family was in the movie. So they were very much a part of the movie; all along the process, they were there hanging out and cheering us on."
Tagged in Eva Longoria