Just after midday on the second day of the
London Expo*, the queues for autographs in the vast ExCel Centre at London’s Docklands
are finally beginning to thin out a little. During a break for lunch, Alexis
Cruz chats backstage to Carole Gordon about his long career in film, TV and
theatre.
With such an extensive career to draw on,
Alexis finds it difficult to identify one particular high point.
“Being able to work with amazing artists –
they have taught me a lot at different points in my life,” he says. “There’s my
best work when I was 13, my best at 17, my best at 25.”
In 1994, Alexis starred in ‘The Eddie Matos
story’. Filmed around the same time as the ‘Stargate’ movie, and clearly a
project of which he is immensely proud, he feels this movie marked the end of
his childhood and the beginning of adulthood. In an interview a few years ago,
he referred to the film as the point at which he accomplished “a lifetime’s
endeavour”. What makes this movie so special for him?
“It was a very real story, an urban drama
about a young man who was orphaned and grew up on the streets and started
dealing drugs and getting involved in that kind of gang life. He ends up
getting shot and he becomes quadriplegic. Then he got together with other young
people who had similar tragedies happen to them. They formed a group that would
go to different inner city schools to warn them about the dangers of that life.
So I think societally it was an important story. I really enjoyed that.”
‘The Eddie Matos Story’ proved to be an
unexpected hit.
“The surprising thing is that some of our
best work, and some of our more well-known work happens by surprise. You go
into it with a real pure joy for the story, and that’s what happened with Eddie
Matos. I enjoyed the story, it was a great little film for HBO and after we had
done it, it just became very popular, a lot of people really took to it. I am
still stopped to this day on the street by people saying, ‘I just saw that and
it really made an impact on me’. That’s really special.”
Over the years, many other people have made
an impact on Alexis, he says, including Johnny Depp. A fan of Depp’s for a long
time, his excitement at working with him is palpable.
“I actually got a chance to work with him,
he directed me. He directed his first feature, ‘The Brave’, which was screened
at Cannes. I play his nephew - it’s kind of an odd story. All his work is a bit
odd; he makes those kind of choices. He’s one of these actors who is a young
character actor and has to balance a certain commercial quality with his own
integrity as an artist.”
This balancing act, he says, is part of
every actor’s life.
“We have to decide who we are and who we are
going to be, what our work is going to mean to us as well as to the fans. Otherwise
you end up becoming a parrot.”
As well as films and TV, Alexis has worked
in the theatre and has his own theatre company, Pathos Projects, which has
produced plays such as ‘The Oxcart’ by Rene Marques. He has plans for future
theatre work but in the end, it comes down to funding.
“It’s very difficult,” he sighs, “because
it’s not quite the money-making scheme that films are, so you really have to
get people and patrons who enjoy it for what it is. Luckily we have a fantastic
crew and company.”
The company are scattered at present, all
working on different projects, but he hopes they will work together again in
the future.
Photo © and courtesy of Carole Gordon, All Rights Reserved
What other projects has Alexis been working
on? He has, he says, recently worked on a film, set in New Mexico, called
‘Tortilla Heaven’.
“It’s about this sleepy little town, it’s a
dying town because it’s got no road going into it. A miracle happens when my
dad who owns a local restaurant is frying up a tortilla when suddenly the image
of Jesus appears burnt on the tortilla. Huge miracle, everybody’s going crazy.
But throughout it, people become too obsessed with the iconography of it,
rather than the message it was supposed to bring. The town starts getting very
greedy, the Church wants to have trademark rights on it. Another guy comes into
town and wants to do this whole marketing campaign and it turns into a huge
fiasco before eventually they all start coming to terms with each other and
with themselves and with the spirit of what this really is, and keeping the
town together and alive. That it’s not about the money that they have, it’s
about the community.”
Still in post-production, the movie’s
release date is yet to be announced.
Alexis also had a lot of fun making the
movie ‘Spectres’ in which he plays one of the ghosts. He doesn’t want to give
away too much of the story, but reveals that it’s a drama. “Not heavy drama,
not necessarily like Sixth Sense, kind of heavy. Which is nice, a drama for the
family, about ghosts.”
He doesn’t only go for the family viewing
market though. Another of his recent projects was the movie ‘DarkWolf’,
described as an “erotic twist on the werewolf thriller”, in which he played a
make-up artist. He thinks this might turn out to be a cult film.
“It’s of that genre. It’s fun that way, a
little bit campy, which is kinda cool. We got a chance to really play. The
eroticism of it was more the other actors that were involved in that because my
character is very much comic relief.”
All this hasn’t left Alexis too much time
recently for another of his loves, teaching drama to 10 and 11 year old
students.
“I was involved with a programme with the
East LA Classic Theatre and the LA Unified School District and we would teach
Middle Schools creative dramatics, acting, playwriting and did that for a
number of years. I’ll still go back now and again. It was fantastic. We try to
give the students a sense of identity and creative expression. The kids learn
to express themselves better, to get around problems.”
It is, he says, a process of showing the
children what their learning processes are, identifying the different learning
processes we all use.
“Each of us learns differently, and we need
to develop those rather than say, well you’re not doing it right and slap them
on the wrist--you know that doesn’t work with children. Everybody has their own
way of learning. So once they learned those skills, once they had that
confidence, everything improved, and they started becoming better writers,
better students, better people and by the end of the year all of them could
stand up and say their name proudly and loudly and that was very difficult at
the beginning.”
So it is something of a holistic teaching
process?
“We had to simplify it a little bit for
them, but yes it was holistic because we borrowed things from acting itself, we
borrowed concepts from psychology, educational techniques, we took a little bit
of everything and put it together.”
As for Season 8 of ‘Stargate SG-1’ and
Skaara, Alexis is still waiting for a call from Bridge Studios. Maybe, he
suggests, if there was an Abydos tie-in to the spin-off show, ‘Stargate: Atlantis’,
he could “show up there”. He affirms his continued enthusiasm for the show,
which he describes as a “wonderful experience”. It’s not that he’s moved on; if
the call should come, he’s ready to reprise the role.
“No, I wait for them. It’s their baby, and
they’ve done really, really well with it. So wherever their stories go …”
But ‘Stargate’ isn’t the only show on which
Alexis has had a recurring role. He also played Rafael the Angel on ‘Touched by
an Angel’ for six seasons.
“We’re done shooting so we’re off the air
but it’s in re-runs all the time. It was a lot of fun.”
Clearly proud of his work, it is also
something from which he derives a great deal of satisfaction. And he says, in
the right environment, you can make genuine friendships. On top of that, the
fun comes from the work itself.
“It’s the amount of work you put into your
role, that’s fun for us, the more of a challenge we have, the more we sink our
teeth into it. It’s just like an athlete or any other craftsman, the more
focused you get, it’s exciting to do that and we love our work. And with the
success of the show, that’s just … gravy,” he says with obvious delight.
As ‘Touched by an Angel’ is now off the air,
and having just completed filming of a five-episode arc of the
critically-acclaimed US show ‘American Family’ (PBS), Alexis is taking time to
pursue yet another direction in his multifaceted career.
“I’m taking a break right now to write a
feature and I’m also developing a pilot. The feature is a heavy drama, three
intertwining stories - a single mother with a terminal child, a young priest
having a crisis of faith and a convict on Death Row. I can’t say any more
beyond that at the moment but it’s coming along.”
With that, it’s time for Alexis to head off
for lunch and then return to signing autographs and posing for photographs.
This is one young actor who is obviously going to be kept busy, with many
promising projects to come.
With grateful thanks to Alexis for his time,
and to Katherine, London Expo Press Officer, for arranging the interview.
photos © Ann Wortham, All Rights Reserved
Biography:
Alexis was born on 29 September 1974 in New
York. He attended the New York High School for Performing Arts (the ‘Fame’
school) followed by Boston University, where he majored in Independent
Technical Theatre (Directing and Producing). He currently lives in Los Angeles.
Alexis’s filmography can be found at: www.imdb.com/name/nm0004850
* London Expo is a two-day event held in May and October each year featuring guests from TV, movies and the world of comic books. There are also guest talks and hundreds of dealer stands selling a huge variety of collectible items. Further details at: www.londonexpo.com
©
Carole Gordon
16 May 2004
Courtesy of Startoons.
© Leah Rosenthal, All Rights Reserved
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