By Liz Lopez
Video By Mray Garcia
Pantelion’s upcoming film, “How To Be A Latin Lover,” will arrive in theaters on Friday, April 28 and stars Eugenio Derbez, Salma Hayek, Raphael Alejandro, Kristen Bell, and Rob Lowe, among many other comedians.
Eugenio Derbez (“Instructions Not Included”), one of the stars of the film and also is a producer, was in Austin on Wednesday, April 12th for an advance screening of this comedy. He surprised many of the guests in the audience as the credits ended and he appeared to participate in the Q&A in the theater. Derbez was very moved by an audience member who said he was inspired by him and in turn, the star gave a deeply moving response to him and the many fans who he acknowledges as helping him achieve his goals. The film is in English and Spanish with English subtitles, but because of his faithful fans, he has asked for the film to be available to audiences in Spanish, so they are able to fully enjoy the film in their native language. He repeatedly thanked his long term fans over the length of his career and hopes to gain more as he proceeds with his career while now living in the United States.
He also offered to pose for a few photos with fans, much to their pleasure. The following day on Thursday, April 13th, I was invited to participate in a journalist roundtable of three to interview Mr. Derbez on behalf of the film.
As the interview began, a student representative from the Daily Texan newspaper asked the television and film star to share some advice for aspiring actors. Mr. Derbez started by saying he had spent many years of his life knocking on doors of many producers – both in Mexico and in the United States. After many times that he received “no” to his proposals, he decided to make a change. His approach was to do things himself – he hired writers for a script and went back to Hollywood with it and was well received. He stated having a good script is the best key and weapon to use.
At the beginning of the filmed interview by Mray Garcia below, another young journalist asked Mr. Derbez how he approached the role of a Latin Lover and how he prepared. Listen to the rest of the interview with questions I posed too and his responses below:
Eugenio Derbez Interview from Mray Garcia on Vimeo.
The film is directed by Ken Marino, based on a script by writers Jon Zack and Chris Spain.
Synopsis: Eugenio Derbez is the star of what could be his funniest movie yet! In this laugh out loud comedy, OR in this riches to rags story, Eugenio plays a very handsome and very young Maximo who has a dream to be rich without ever having to work a day in his life. Having made a career of seducing rich older women, he marries a wealthy woman more than twice his age. 25 years later, spoiled and bored from waking up next to his now 80-year-old wife-he gets the surprise of his life when she ends up dumping him for a younger car salesman. Forced out of his mansion and desperate for a place to stay, he must move in with his estranged sister, Sara, (Salma Hayek) and her nerdy but adorable son, Hugo (Raphael Alejandro) in their small apartment. Anxious to return to the lap of luxury, Maximo uses his nephew’s crush on a classmate to get to his new target-her grandmother, Celeste (Raquel Welch), a widowed billionaire. As Maximo tries to rekindle his powers as a Latin lover, he finds himself bonding with his nephew Hugo, and he begins to learn that being a Latin lover means that loving money isn’t as important as the love of your family.
Additional cast includes Michael Cera, Mckenna Grace, Rob Riggle, among others.
View the trailer here: http://bit.ly/2nek7gP
The film is rated PG13 and the run time is one hour and 55 minutes.