[Si] TV

It isn’t everyday you meet an up-and-coming Latino actor who was born and raised in, of all places, Wyoming.

“You'd be surprised,” chuckles Jesse Garcia. “The high school I went to had to be about 40% percent Latino.”

Lucky for us, this talented young Latino left Wyoming and made his way to Atlanta after college to study acting. After a couple of years in the ATL, he jumped into the Hollywood cauldron and has been steadily working his way up the ranks for a little over three years.

He’s currently working on "Days of Wrath," the much-anticipated film about Black and Latino gang rivalries in Los Angeles and the media’s manipulation of the conflict. Jesse stars alongside Wilmer Valderrama, Ana Claudia Talancón and Laurence Fishburn in this important film directed by Celia Fox due out in early 2008. We caught up with him on set to discuss Black and Brown relations, the struggles of young actors in Hollywood, and… Cheerleading?

Rego: Let’s get the white elephant out of the room right off the bat. You were a cheerleader?

Jesse: White elephant? Chale! In all honesty it was fun, and it practically paid for college. I had almost a full scholarship through cheerleading. I left with no tuition debt and made lots of cool friends. I highly recommend it.

Rego: Wyoming is a thousand miles from the border, but the immigration issue still hits close to home, doesn’t it?

Jesse: Yeah, it hits real close to home. It hits my family. My dad’s from Mexico and he's a legal citizen now but his wife's situation isn't so clear-cut, so it affects everybody. It affects the economy of Wyoming. It affects the children of immigrants. It's huge.

Rego: Lets talk about the movie. What drew you to this project?

Jesse: I met [Director] Celia Fox and [Producer] Michael Shultz about 9 months ago. They presented this film to me and I thought it was interesting back then. But after more and more rewrites were made it just got better and better. It has a lot of great relationships in it, and it's not your typical urban Latino / Black gang movie. This movie shows other sides of the culture and goes deeper. But it also shows how silly the whole Black and Latino rivalry can be, and how the dumbest little thing can set off unnecessary violence.

Rego: Historically in this country Blacks and Latinos have had an uneasy marriage. How is the movie going to address this issue and what do you think people are going to take away from it?

Jesse: I hope they walk away entertained, first of all, and appreciate how great a movie this is. I hope they appreciate all the great relationships written into these characters and all the great chemistry between all the actors. And I hope this film shows people how this whole Black and Latino rivalry is really dumb.

Rego: What should the responsibility of your generation of Latino actors be?

Jesse: I think we have to break down stereotypes and open up doors for other Latino filmmakers, actors and producers, especially those who want to make stories about the Latino culture. There are so many walls around the culture, some of which we put up ourselves over the years.

Rego: How much of a barrier does being Latino still present in the acting game?

Jesse: Well, the industry is very competitive. There are only so-many roles for guys my age, and even fewer Latin roles, and there are tons of actors competing for them. But I'm really my only competition. That's what I try to focus on.

Photos courtesy of Insignia PR