Nuyorican actress Rosie Perez is soon to enter her thirtieth year making movies and giving us indelible performances. (We recently listed a few of her finest acting turns and where you can stream them – check it out.) Now, it’s been announced that Perez will be joining Ben Affleck and Anne Hathaway for the Netflix drama, The Last Thing He Wanted.
The film, based on the novel by Joan Didion, follows Elena McMahon as she becomes enmeshed as an arms dealer for the U.S. Government in Central America, eventually becoming wrapped up in the Iran-Contra affair that would dominate 1980s. Hathaway has already been announced as McMahon and it’s assumed Affleck will be playing the love interest to the leading lady.
Alongside Perez is Mel Rodriguez, as well as newly announced actors Toby Jones and Edi Gathegi. It’s unclear who Perez, Rodriguez, and the others will be playing as there are only three major roles in the original novel, so either they’ll have smaller character parts or the source material is being changed. The Last Thing He Wanted is currently filming in Puerto Rico under the eye of Academy Award-nominated director, Dee Rees with a script penned by Marco Villalobos.
The 1980s continue to thrive in cinema and it’s been awhile since a movie looked at the Iran-Contra scandal. The event, in a nutshell, involved the U.S. providing financial support and arms to a Nicaraguan paramilitary group called the contras who were attempting to overthrow the new government in the country. The money for the contras came to the U.S. via additional secret backroom deals from selling arms to Iran as part of their own internal governmental issues.
This looks like another prestige project for the streaming giant. Rees was nominated for her script for Mudbound this year, so there’s hope Villalobos might strike lightning with this project. The film’s material is prescient for the times and there’s always room for more Rosie Perez in our lives.
The Last Thing He Wanted will premiere on Netflix sometime next year.