Mexican hearthrob Demián Bichir’s US silver-screen debut is playing what may be the toughest role of all: Fidel Castro in Steven Soderbergh’s Che. “It was one of those characters that you are in search of all your life,” says Bichir of his part in the much-anticipated film on the life of famed Castro right-hand man Ernesto “Che” Guevara. “Though it’s difficult because everyone is looking at your work with a microscope.”
When as a three-year-old Bichir first stepped onto a professional stage in Mexico City, he was following in the footsteps of his parents and brothers, who are also actors. New York’s Latin American Theater Festival brought Bichir to the Public Theater a few years ago to perform in a Mexican play called Los Dos Hermanos, and he was hooked on the city for good. “I loved New York so much that I moved there. I’m still waiting to go back and live there again.”
Bichir’s breakout role came on Weeds, where he admits he was overwhelmed by the show’s talent. “They are all such gifted actors. The production team is so nice—it’s like they’re on weed all the time! They’re very Zen. And working with Mary-Louise [Parker] has been amazing because she is just one of the greats.” Since he was playing Parker’s love interest, the role came with more than a few sex scenes. “Every film that I’ve done in my life, I’ve been naked, making love to a beautiful woman. I have friends say, ‘Oh, man, I wish I was you, ooh the way you do this and that with all the ladies.’ I respond, ‘Yeah, right, I wish you were there for one second to see how difficult that is.’”
This month Bichir, 45, is also taking a star turn in Robert Schenkkan’s love story By the Waters of Babylon at the Geffen Playhouse in LA (there’s talk of the production coming to NYC in 2009). In the show he plays Arturo, a gentle, romantic Cuban immigrant “fresh off the boat,” as he puts it. Playing such disparate characters, yet with the same accent, thrills Bichir: “I love anything that has to do with Cuba. It is a magical place—like God made it. I believe everything is made of energy, everything— the universe, and of course we are, too.”
When Bichir isn’t working, he visits his family at home in Mexico, where they run a bistro “with good music and great food.” And even though he’s considered the George Clooney of his country, he doesn’t get bombarded. “Everyone in Mexico knows that Demián Bichir goes for the good projects instead of the money,” he jokes. “Everyone knows I’m penniless—so what do I need a bodyguard for, right?”
