Dominican American actor Jorge Lendeborg Jr. has only been part of the Hollywood machine for the last five years, but during that short time, he has been fortunate enough to land roles in a few major productions like Bumblebee, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far from Home and Robert Rodriguez’s Alita: Battle Angel.
In the new sci-fi film Bliss, which stars Oscar nominee Salma Hayek (Frida) and Owen Wilson (Wonder), Lendeborg Jr. plays Greg, the estranged son of a man who learns he is living in a computer simulation and that many of the people he knows and places he frequents are not real.
Lendeborg Jr. said he’s always been attracted to sci-fi like Star Wars, The Matrix and Transformers, so the screenplay for Bliss immediately caught his attention.
“I’m a super nerd,” Lendeborg Jr. told Remezcla during an interview this week. “When I got the script, I thought it was a cool universe. It was something as broad as The Matrix but much more understated–like an everyman’s story. It’s not Neo vs. the Matrix. It’s your average Joe wandering around. It’s like a Woody Allen movie meets The Matrix.”
Don’t get Lendeborg Jr. wrong. He likes sports, cars and action movies, too. But don’t get him started talking about his love for Pokémon either. Or science!
“I’ll be watching Neil deGrasse Tyson talking and I’ll be like, ‘Yo! This is crazy,’” he said laughing. “‘There are 12 dimensions! Think about that!”
So, if DeGrasse Tyson is someone who impresses Lendeborg Jr., what kind of mind-altering effects did he experience when Bliss writer and director Mike Cahill (Another Earth) introduced him to some of the ideas behind his film?
“I basically took The Matrix home with me for two weeks,” he said. “I would be in bed thinking that things are way too clear and that there is a realm of possibility that we are [living in a simulation].”
As his career continues, Lendeborg Jr. said he is looking forward to portraying characters that are big on action, but not necessarily superhero based. For example, when Tom Cruise is ready to call it quits as Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible franchise, Lendeborg Jr. will be waiting in the wings.
“Spy thrillers is really a genre that I like,” he said. “Or movies where people are trained with guns and have to parachute out of planes. Hopefully, my career takes me to a place where I can do those kinds of action roles but also allows me to do more intimate movies, too.”
Bliss debuts on Amazon Prime Feb. 5.