With the movie’s streaming debut (and the end of the SAG-AFTRA strike), the 22-year-old ‘Blue Beetle’ star can finally celebrate out loud.
Photo: Warner Bros.
The journey to being cast on Blue Beetle is as close to a real-life superhero origin story as you can get. Xolo Maridueña went from a supporting role in the TV dramedy Parenthood to his first leading role as Miguel Diaz in the Karate Kid legacy sequel Cobra Kai. Then a chance encounter at Sundance with director Ángel Manuel Soto led the 22-year-old actor to his very first feature film as protagonist Jaime Reyes in the DC superhero film Blue Beetle. Now he’s at another milestone: finally, months after its release, he’s able to actually promote the movie in which he plays the title role.
Blue Beetle released in theaters in August amid the SAG-AFTRA strike; the actors’ union and Hollywood studios landed on a deal in November, in time for the film’s streaming release on Max. For Maridueña, not being able to share in the excitement the first time around was hard, but he was moved to see fans taking it upon themselves to drum up enthusiasm. “People were sharing that message anyways,” he says. “That’s the part that I feel so honored about.”
Blue Beetle follows Jaime as he stumbles upon an ancient alien relic called the Scarab after a chance encounter with the heir to a vast tech empire. The Scarab gives Jaime incredibly destructive powers, making him and his family a target. It’s the first live-action Latino-led superhero film, and that responsibility — on top of being the leading man on a big set for the first time — just made Maridueña hungrier to step up. That the film also stars legendary Latino actors also helped Maridueña embrace his Latinidad when “the outside world made me feel like I wasn’t Latino enough.”
What was it like for you to see this movie released in the middle of the strike?
First of all, I just feel so excited and so ready to talk about Blue Beetle now, but what was really special was seeing fans taking it upon themselves to promote the movie. When making the movie, Ángel made sure at every step of the way to remind us who we were making this movie for. It wasn’t so that he’d be the biggest director in the world, or that I could be the biggest actor in the world. It was so that we can have a whole new group of kids see their families as heroes. The fact that we weren’t able to talk about it, yet people were sharing that message anyways, that’s the part that I feel so honored about.
Throughout the strike, what were you most eager to finally talk about once people could see the whole movie?
Personally, I am a big fan of Nana, of Adriana Barraza. I think there is something so special about each and every member of our ensemble, but our ancestors are our real-life heroes. My parents, my grandparents are the closest things to superheroes in my life, so to have a movie where you can have a grandmother who saves the hero of the story, that was something I’d never seen in a superhero movie before. So I was very excited for people to see that and to talk about it.
Coming from Cobra Kai, which is a very practical effects-based show, how does being on a big set with lots of VFX and CG and wire work affect your performance?
Cobra Kai was great practice because we do so much ADR when we’re doing the fights. We end up having to rerecord the sounds, so it helped to look at the fight and match what the character would say.. There were only a few bits of that third act fight that were green screen, but so much of it, whether it was myself or the stunt team, it was all done practically. Someone did it. It made it that much easier to visualize it.
Having a practical suit must help…
Mayes Rubeo, the costumer, was so fantastic. She makes some of the best costumes in the game. To get to build something that was both of this world and of a whole other universe? And I was fooled. I looked in the mirror, and I was like, What? I’m a superhero. It’s one of those things where you stand straighter when you have the mask on. It helps build that universe.
Who do you reach out to for advice on how to navigate your first lead role, and one in a blockbuster at that?
Yeah, I talked to DiCaprio… [Laughs.] No, bro. My acting coach, she helped a lot. My acting coach and my family were my two support systems. I don’t really know anybody in Hollywood. I’ve had so much face-to-face time with people like Ralph Macchio and Billy Zabka, who at such an early age gained fame on things like The Karate Kid. I think that that helped. This was my first time being No. 1 on the call sheet, being the guy that the movie is named after. But I had so many great examples of people who’ve led sets before and really that’s what I was trying to do.
I remember walking on my first days of Cobra Kai being really nervous. I was 16, this is my first big show. I don’t really know what to do. And Ralph and Billy were so welcoming. They treated me with respect, and I remember how good that made me feel. I just wanted to do that with everyone else. But it’s crazy to think Susan Sarandon is coming to set. It was a big meal on the plate, but shit, I’m hungry. I’m ready.
You mention family, and that’s such a big part of the movie. How much from your own experience did you bring to Jaime’s dynamics with his family?
When I first got the part of Blue Beetle, Ángel said, “How you are with your family is how Jaime is with his family.” Going into this, it was weird because I learned so many things that I didn’t realize were Chicano or Mexicano. I grew up just thinking these things were part of life, and then it’s somewhere else on a movie screen and people are like, “That’s my family too!” It felt very familiar in that regard. I know firsthand that every big moment in my life I’ve done with my family. With Jaime, this big moment of his life — becoming a superhero — happens right next to his family. That felt so real. I get into a car accident, first people I’m talking to are my family. I just got the job. Who am I talking to? My family. So that felt real, and it felt honest.
One of the best things about the movie is seeing all the little, hyper-specific details about life in Latino households, and realizing how much of it is universal even in its specificity. What were some moments that surprised you?
I remember when Jaime brings the Scarab for the first time and Alberto is eating tortillas, the way that he rolls the tortillas in his hands, I wanted to yell, “Get that on camera!” There were a lot of moments like the VapoRub that were improvised. We were sitting around thinking, How would Jaime’s family wake him up? And Belissa Escobedo, who plays Jaime’s sister, thought of bringing the VapoRub. These were little moments that felt so comfortable, because it was a big movie with a big scope but you were able to know at any given moment that you could go to your inner child and feel seen and at home.
You’re working with so many iconic actors in Blue Beetle, particularly Latino actors. Is there anything in particular that you learned from them that you want to carry over to future projects?
I try not to pester them too much with questions, but they displayed so much just in their essence and in their welcoming and how they do things that I was able to kind of pick up on and savor. Sometimes the best teachers are the ones that leave you with messages that don’t hit until they need to.
But something that they did was teach me not to be ashamed of my place as a Latino. I think growing up, my family never made me feel it, but the outside world made me feel like I wasn’t Latino enough. Sitting down with everyone in that family, sharing those ideas, they really did so much to show me “Eff that, that’s the colonizer in you.” We have to rework some of these things. Just being around people who are unapologetically Latino and who are proud was something special.
And that is something that makes the film quite special, too, that it doesn’t ever go for a pan-Latino portrayal. It gives us a very specific Mexican-American experience that ends up being universal in its specificity.
We’re not a monolith. There is no one experience. I’m Latino. You’re Latino. Those are the stories. There is no checkbox that someone has to put next to you to say, “You made it, you’re a part of the club.” That’s why it was so important to share this family and share all these different levels, because Jaime is just one part of the story. Alberto is another part of that story, and Nana’s another part of that story. It couldn’t just be a movie about Blue Beetle. It needed to be a movie about this family to understand that we can only be here because of our ancestors. Jaime was only in the position that he was in because of what his mother did, what his mother’s mother did, and his mother’s mother’s mother. And that’s what we’re doing here, you and me.
Lastly, do you personally have a wishlist of things you want to see Jaime do in the larger DC Universe? Characters you want to see him meet?
Of course, there’s a wishlist! [Laughs.] And you know that I can’t say the wishlist. What I love about the comics and seeing Jaime in Young Justice and seeing him out and about is that you see Jaime with so many different people. You see him next to Batman and suddenly he’s a kid. Then you see him next to Beast Boy, and maybe he’s like an older brother-type. I think that that’s the joy of getting to play a character like Jaime and where he fits in the universe.
I just feel that wherever he goes, his family is bound to come along with him because they’re everywhere with them. There’s no way that Nana is staying at home. I think she might give Batman a run for his money. [Laughs.]
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.