Narcos: Mexico’s Michael Pena reveals the advice Kiki Camarena’s widow gave him

for this character of kiki camarena yeah he's really I think he's an incredibly serious guy he's kind of humorless you're someone who's worked in both you know comedy and drama so that was your way into this character well the thing was is that like I I you know in all of my Parts I try to put in a lot of humor I guess that's what I'm known for now I don't consider myself like a terribly funny person but when I I keep studying the scripts I can I can you know you rehearse in your head and you just play it out and play it out and like oh this won't be funny and funny like comedy and humors are two completely different things comedies like when you're near obviously like going for a joke and humor is more observational where like it's very real look if you're you know like how people are in real life and there was no room for it in this one I think it's too fast of a pace when I did try it it didn't feel natural it felt the forest and that's because the the show kind of just carries you and moves you in such a direction that there's no room for that but then when I watched it and the advice that I give people's go through the you know watch the first three because it's a it's narcos Mexico season one so it's you know they got a they have to establish the place so it's the first two episodes are established it and then three gets right into it you know and so if you have a weekend then or whatever it is watch watch the first three and you know in a day and then you'll watch the other seven on Sunday or something yeah I'm about to get through it all yeah exactly back at home yeah my publicist who's like a you know she's I've been with it for like 15 years she watched it I think to her and her husband watched it in two days well yeah so that's that's probably ideal take some breaks you know you know it can be a little much I think yeah the head shots can be a little much yeah exactly but um in terms of you know getting into this character and researching I know I spoke to Eric already and he told me that he was able to speak to Kiki's Widow and researching this yeah as did I yeah so tell me about that experience well see what's funny is because I you know everyone who I interviewed all the everything that I read about the guy it was always secondhand because they they never interior demand himself so who better to sum it up and Miko came around and that means strong individual to be honest with her she was very supportive you know the the the man went through some terrible terrible times at the end of his life you know being tortured and killed and she was able to stay strong through that and I asked her like because it almost he almost seems like a superhero in a way where you don't find your that many people in today's life you know like that that are just you know how to get the bad guy and so that you know the good people can live in peace you know for instance you joined the the military then it was a firefighter and he was always a man of service and he was just very dedicated which is another reason that you know I couldn't really apply as much humor as I as I wanted to but I asked him what made the guy tick and he's like you know what sometimes it's he was just simple he just wanted to to do that just to you know get the bad guy and as an actor you can tend to overthink things but I think that that's the driving force and it reminds me almost a little bit of Apocalypse Now how Martin Sheen's character was looking at you know Marlon Brando's character he was just he became obsessed because he was telling people like this is what's gonna happen Kiki was telling people he saw the vision of this Empire being built he saw the signs and the consequences of it and nobody would believe him and that when nobody believes you and it's in plain sight you kind of can get obsessed rather easily yeah we found out in the the first season of narcos proper and we hear kiki story immediately and oh yeah they're warned about it so you watch this as a fan of the show as a tragic story for this character right see the drive that he has to push forward and do things that no one else will do yeah but you know it's not going to end well so it's really yeah heartbreaking to watch as well exactly but don't Brown it for people they'll have to see it themselves and what let me they found out if they watch it true for new fans as well exam what do you think perspective why's that you've learned most about this world I mean obviously you've you know seen it on American news and you've been able to you know hear a little bit of the cartel story but what do you think is your perspective now that you've gone through the first yeah you know what just like I because I'm not a very political guy I think that what's interesting is you know getting getting rid of stuff or making a change in life you know especially like within politics is not that easy because all you see is like the top of the iceberg you know what I mean you don't you don't see like everything that like all the history that like the domino effect of you changing one thing I'm into cartels in order for them to exist had to have a lot of complacency and there was a lot of moving parts which is why it's a subject you know it's a great subject for dramas but you know on a TV show because there's so many moving parts so many things have to happen in order for this to be built this Empire to be built and it's I mean it can be brutal sometimes and you can you can really go in there into this dwindling spiral of knowledge absolutely that's much for your time right on

Channel: Al Arabiya English

Views: 742,305

Keywords: News, Saudi Arabia, Al Arabiya, Al Arabiya English, English News, Saudi, Arabic, Middle East, Arab, Arabs, middle east news, Arab news, Narcos, Mexico, Netflix, Interview, William Mullally

Id: RXyXjwKXnO8

Length: 5min 47sec (347 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 13 2018