Apple TV Plus’ new bilingual coming-of-age story, Acapulco, is a wondrous and joyous take about finding your way in life that’s set in the neon pinks and bright blues of 1980s Mexico. The series follows Máximo Gallardo as he navigates getting his dream job at the hottest resort on the Pacific Coast, Las Colinas, as well as his own personal moral compass. All while trying to be the best cabana boy in all of Mexico.
In this Goggler exclusive, we spoke to the stars of Acapulco, Eugenio Derbez and Enrique Arrizon, about what it was like playing the same character, and whether or not they have found their own, personal Las Colinas.
Umapagan Ampikaipakan: My first question is for you Eugenio (Derbez). This series was inspired by How to Be a Latin Lover. I watched that over the weekend, and I feel like they’re very different things. And given your involvement in both, I was curious about this adaptation and how you went about reframing the character of Máximo.
Eugenio Derbez: When we were shooting How to Be a Latin Lover there was a point where we said it would be really interesting to make a series where we tell the stories of what happened in that hotel at the beginning, and what happens to Máximo before knowing this lady who he finally marries. What happened before that? He probably met other ladies. He heard other stories. And so we came up with this idea of doing this series based on How to Be a Latin Lover.
But when we were developing the series, we realised that we should probably go in another direction and change the character of Máximo. In the movie, he was a social climber. He was just focused on money. So we decided to create this character that was more naive, with values, with morals, with family. So we changed the character and reframed the character. That’s why it feels different and fresh. So let’s say it’s slightly based on the original movie.
UA: Oh yeah, he’s a lot more wholesome in this one.
Eugenio Derbez: Absolutely.
UA: Eugenio, Enrique, the both of you play different versions of the same character, so you don’t actually share any screen time, but I was curious as to whether you had much interaction in developing the younger and the older versions of Máximo.
Eugenio Derbez: Yeah. We never did any scenes together.
Enrique Arrizon: We didn’t have enough time to get to work with each other. We were both very busy and, you know, the COVID thing. But I grew up watching his work. For me, it’s very familiar. I also studied a lot of his movies, specifically How To Be A Latin Lover. I took a lot of screenshots of all his gestures and I was just studying him a lot. My phone was full of pictures of Eugenio and just scene after scene of his movies. It was all in my in my phone, so every day I was watching it, and trying to get his essence, and to bring my own tone, my own ideas, my own…
Eugenio Derbez: … your own version of Máximo.
Enrique Arrizon: Exactly. Exactly. My own version of Máximo.
UA: The series talks about the places and the people that change the course of our lives forever. I want to know, do you have a personal Las Colinas?
Enrique Arrizon: In my personal life, it’s Eugenio changing my life. He’s given me the chance of a lifetime. I took that opportunity, and I’m very grateful.
Eugenio Derbez: In my case, I would say that I saw a lot of temptation working at a young age on a network in Mexico. I remember always asking myself, should I do this for the money or should I do what I really wanted to do? And I struggled with that. The network would want me to do something I didn’t like but the pay was really good. So I would always ask myself if I should do it. And thank God, I never went for the money.
That was a great lesson that I learned. I ended up watching the show that they had made and it was a flop. And the things that I did, because I was passionate about them, ended up being successful. Even though the pay wasn’t as good.
But lately, over time, those shows have ended up making me more money because I became a bigger star. It’s the way life and the universe pays you back. It doesn’t reward you immediately. If you are faithful to your principles, and morals, and your beliefs, and you don’t sell your soul for money, the universe in the future, in some other way, will reward you.
And the spine of Acapulco is this question that we ask ourselves – as we all do at certain stages of our lives. What price are you willing to pay to achieve your dreams? And that’s a great question for anyone.
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