Tonatiuh might have just delivered their breakthrough role as Luis Molina/Kendall Nesbit in Kiss of the Spider Woman, a film based on the 1992 stage musical, which is based on Manuel Puig’s novel. The movie is now navigating the Awards circuit and the buzz that comes with it. But the actor-singer, who shared a screen with the likes of Jennifer Lopez and Diego Luna in the movie, has been drawing audiences in for a lot longer. And putting the work in.
Remezcla spoke to Oscar hopeful and Mexican-American actor Tonatiuh about the movie’s queer themes, being Latine in Hollywood, and making space for our own stories.
“It’s been years of working,” Tonatiuh shared with us. “I don’t come from the industry. I come from an immigrant community here in Los Angeles. So, it took a lot of learning about how the system works and preparing myself for a moment like this.”
We remember them from Vida, a job they recall fondly. “Vida was a huge gift to me, because it opened the door for me to really hone a character over three seasons and get used to and comfortable working within the system that I didn’t know. And it took a team of Latin creatives, Latin writers to open the door and be comfortable with me entering that space.” And that means that when Kiss of the Spiderwoman landed in their inbox, they were ready.
Not just for the acting, which required them to “play two different roles, with two different accents, two different acting styles, plus dancing, singing and going toe to toe with Jennifer Lopez and Diego Luna,” but for everything that comes with it. That included putting a gender non-conforming character on screen and doing it justice.
“My experiment was, can I express as much of the gender spectrum within these two hours as possible?” And how can they make a difference? “For some people in the world, this may be the only opportunity that they ever have to meet a gender nonconforming and gender queer individual ever in their entire lives. And for two hours, they’re going to have to get to know this person. And so, I was like, how can I create someone physically that oscillates energetically and physically between masculinity and femininity and everything in between?”
And yet, do not let that be everything. “How can I get you to fall in love with their eyes, with their heart, with their dreams, with their sense of humor, to re-humanize these individuals in your eyes, right? Because I think the issue globally with any kind of phobia is just fear of the unknown. And as soon as we start dehumanizing individuals, we can do whatever we want to them. And so, this isn’t a concept. This is a human.”
A human played by a Latine actor in a movie filled with other Latine performers. And Tonatiuh isn’t being shy. This is a good movie. “I did a damn good job,” they tell us. But in many ways, they had to. “That’s the price that you have to pay for being Latino in Hollywood.”
“You have to be exceptional at it. You have to be exceptional because we have very little opportunities to begin with, but in order to keep longevity in an industry that has repeatedly and constantly telling you that they do not want you, you have to be absolutely undeniable every single time.”
“I want to be undeniable. When you see my name in the dictionary, that’s what I want right next to it,” they said. “A pearl isn’t made with love. It’s made from a lot of pain. There’s sand in there, and it needs to be tilled and mined. And you have to go through this metamorphosis in order to achieve it. But once you get through the other side, it’s like, no, I earned that.”
Kiss of the Spider Woman is now available to rent/buy on digital.
