Carlos Santos, Johnny Rey Diaz and Henri Esteve (‘Primo’): ‘My imposter syndrome is at its lowest’ [Exclusive Video Interview]
“Being on ‘Primo’ is a blessing,” assures Carlos Santos, who plays Ryan on the eight-episode Amazon Freevee comedy. “My imposter syndrome is at its lowest. Very manageable.” As he says the words, Santos’s co-stars on “Primo” Henry Esteve (who plays Mike) and Johnny Rey Diaz (who portrays Rollie, pronounced Row-lee) nod in understanding. The trio represent three of the five uncles on the series who surround Rafa Gonzales (played by Ignacio Diaz-Silverio), a 16-year-old high school junior who carries the hopes and dreams of his extended Latinx family in San Antonio, Texas. The uncles regularly dispense loving guidance (read: unsolicited advice) to young Rafa, and the actors who play them believe they’ve died and gone to performance heaven to be on a series that afford them such a positive, supportive environment in which to work. “It’s hands-down the most collaborative and beautiful experience I’ve ever had on a set,” Diaz agrees. See the exclusive video interview above.
“Primo” – equal parts boisterous and heartwarming – tells the semi-autobiographical story of Shea Serrano, a New York Times bestselling author whose childhood stories from growing up in San Antonio are the foundation for the comedy that features a predominantly Latino cast. Rafa is essentially Serrano, who serves as writer-showrunner for the series. Mike Schur (“The Good Place,” “The Office,” “Parks & Recreation”) is also among the executive producers of the comedy. It focuses primarily on Rafa’s college aspirations and societal expectations whole being cheered on by his mom Drea (Christina Vidal) and those five quirky, well-meaning uncles who spend so much time at the family home that it’s surprising to find out they don’t actually live there fulltime.
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“Primo” streams on Amazon Freevee.
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To underscore how great the “Primo” experience for everyone involved, Esteve points to a scene where the producers asked Johnny to improvise a line. “It was like 2 in the morning during a late-night shoot,” Esteve recalls. “Johnny came up to Carlos and I and asked, ‘Hey, do you guys have a joke?’ And both Carlos and I had nothing. Johnny tried something I forget what it was. But Carlos came up to my like an hour and a half later and said to me, ‘Oh man, I feel so bad I didn’t have a joke for Johnny.’ I’ve just never seen actors care about one another and their performances that much. It was a clear example of what everything was like on the set.”
To be sure, the “Primo” experience has proven to be precisely that – primo – for the three actors. Diaz is particularly pleased to be co-starring in a comedy after years of doing dramatic stuff> “For me, to not have to be in that heavy head space before I do a scene is great,” he says. “We just come in, have some fun, tell some stories.” And working directly with Serrano has been a big part of the positivity. “He was very much our coach,” Santos notes. “It was very clear we were going to be able to take our own approach for what each uncle brought to the table. From very early on, he let us do our thing, and we were never compared to the real people we were playing.”
It’s also been heartening to the men to have an opportunity to be in a show that depicts a Latinx family that doesn’t log time calling attention to its Latin-ness, and in whose stories the characters’ ethnicity is incidental rather than central. “Being on a series with a full Latino cast and Latinos behind the camera” demonstrates how much things have changed in terms of Latin representation over the past several decades, Santos believes. “Change is slow, and we’ll be in a better spot five years from now. Guys like John Leguizamo took the hits in the 1980s and ’90s for us to be in this position.”
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