GQ MEXICO – Danny Ramirez plays Joaquin Torres in Captain America: Brave New World and tells us why he didn’t want to play a stereotypical character.
Danny Ramirez came to Hollywood to stay and to continue opening the doors to Latinos.
Every now and then, a new actor arrives in Hollywood to follow in the footsteps of the great legends of cinema , but also to break with stereotypes and show that a protagonist, or a Leading Man , can look many different ways, can speak with a different accent and can be an imperfect character.
Ramirez is one of those actors who dare to dream big, who seek to build and tell honest, deep and human stories, even when they take place in the enormous and explosive world of the MCU .
Ramirez came to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Joaquin Torres in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier series, and once again accompanies Sam Wilson in Captain America: Brave New World , where he is learning to deal with a new responsibility, within a new world that is deeply in need of heroes, and that has much in common with the real world.
It is in this world that Danny Ramirez and Joaquin Torres manage to grow, fueled by shared experiences, memories and dreams.
On the process of creating and growing with the character of Joaquin Torres
“When Joaquin Torres and I met, he was almost at the same stage as me as an actor; in a position where he had an important opportunity, and Joaquin had responsibilities and a desire to prove that he could live up to expectations,” Ramirez reveals . “On the series, I was going to ask Anthony Mackie for tips , but the first day I was on set, I realized that he was also in a transition of discovering who he was and who his character Sam Wilson was. With the responsibility that I was going to have now, I chose to learn by observation. Joaquin was doing the same thing as me, working with one of his heroes and observing. In this film, a few years have passed, the responsibility is greater and he still wants to prove that he can do it, and that is where you can see Joaquin Torres, but also Danny , that is where my heart and my process is, it is art imitating life. If I try to fight against that, the character suffers, so I put my ego aside and let myself be carried away by that reality so that everything would be a little more honest.”
And yes, Joaquin Torres is a Latino character , one of the few that have appeared in the MCU , but one of many who have helped lead the way, open doors, break stereotypes and show that the biggest dreams can be achieved.
But we have to rewind a bit because, for the Chicago-born actor, those big dreams didn’t always involve movie premieres and film sets – it all started in the busy, intense and challenging world of sports .
On leaving behind the dream of being an athlete to become an actor
Ramirez says he initially didn’t want to present himself as a Latino actor , since white actors don’t have to do that every time they walk into a room (and it allows them to be chameleons who can play all kinds of characters), and he wasn’t interested in stereotypes, either, until he realized that he could be Latino and a chameleon at the same time, and that presenting himself as Latino could help him explore the full range of what that means.
“The basis of the conversation is already made, the Oscar Isaac and the John Leguizamo , and all those who have come before, started with those introductions of saying: I am Latino and I am a great actor , but I think that the next level, the next wave of so many Latinos who are arriving now and who will arrive later, is to be able to enter the room, show what you can do, and simply by being, be able to represent,” says the actor.
This is part of what opened the doors to the MCU , where Ramirez plays a character who is clearly Latino, but who, according to the actor, is not stereotypical. Joaquin Torres is not perfect, and Danny wouldn’t have it any other way. That imperfection or humanity is what allows us to connect with him on another level.
“We have to show the good and the bad, because perfection doesn’t exist. Otherwise, the idea of representation falls on deaf ears, because there’s a disconnect. If you’re watching someone and they only show you that perfection, then that character becomes unattainable, you don’t identify with it anymore, you look at yourself and think, I’m not perfect, so I can’t do that. The connection is in showing that those flaws can coexist with excellence. When we show the complexity of that excellence, people are more likely to feel like they can be that too.”
On his directorial debut with the film Bastion
Captain America: Brave New World is a huge project, one of those that open even more doors, that build good relationships or create contacts, but for Ramirez it is only a part of hisgrowth processas an actor, a process that now also leads him to explore his facet as a director, where he has the opportunity to tell his own stories, in his own way.
“In the process of Captain America: Brave New World I saw a level of artistry that made me realize I hadn’t understood the enormous effort that goes into building a world on a green screen. It was like an explosion, there are so many levels of artists in a Marvel movie , and I’m not talking about actors or directors, but visual and special effects artists who help build these immense worlds, and when I discovered this, it gave me permission to think bigger about these stories of my own that I want to tell,” says the actor, adding that his goal is “to try to do something different. If I fail, I fail, but I think there are many of us who want to see ourselves dream, fail and achieve.”
In this new stage, what emerges is a mixture of nerves and excitement, guided by the idea of continuing to represent his people, his culture, and the struggle of that child who dreamed of being an athlete, until he discovered that what he really wanted was to be an actor .
“I’m fascinated by it, it makes me nervous and it makes me very excited. What fascinates me is being able to show who I am in my way of seeing the world, how I see intense or intimate moments, or my philosophy of never stopping fighting for dreams. I’m excited to be able to materialize those emotions and my way of understanding reality. Bastion is a film with its feet on the ground, it’s a combination of the people I’ve worked with. It’s a meditation on dreams and grief, it’s a personal story because it deals with things that I’ve had to deal with, but at the same time it’s incredibly universal.”
