00:00Yeah.
00:03Stay with me.
00:04All right.
00:06And I love what I do.
00:10Great.
00:10My fight turns into me.
00:12Here we are.
00:13Perfect.
00:14And hold tight for one more.
00:17Yeah.
00:17Got it.
00:19Everybody got it.
00:20Good.
00:21Awesome.
00:22Get your hand in there, guys.
00:23Yeah.
00:25Yeah.
00:25Yeah.
00:39What attracted you to this project?
00:42Well, first and foremost, Ernesto Melara, Moctezuma Esparza, Urias, Asume, they invited me to this movie and at very first
00:53glance, when they told me it was a historic movie,
00:55based on truth about the El Salvadorian Civil War in the 1980s, I love historic films.
01:04And I love to be a part of anything that allows me to suspend myself in that space, you know,
01:10where we can tell a story and that has any sorts of truth into it.
01:16And I love being part of movies like that, obviously, and as an artist, you know, we get to respect
01:23the people that were there.
01:24And even though our names are slightly changed, you know, we give an opportunity for those people to live again.
01:32So, yes, that's definitely what attracted me to this project and my friends who invited me to it.
01:40And tell me about your character.
01:41What do you like the most about playing here?
01:44Well, interesting enough, my character's name is Coronel Montenegro, but he's based on the character of Coronel Monterrosa, who all
01:55the people of El Salvador who know the history of their country know that he was, to some, a very
02:03valiant and hardworking military man.
02:05But for many, he was the person behind the massacre at El Mosor, the official who called the soldiers out
02:15to clean out that little pueblo in El Salvador.
02:19And so, it was definitely a very interesting challenge for me in the respect that, you know, I'm a person
02:29of love and humanity.
02:31And to play a soldier that had to make that decision is definitely something where, you know, I connect with
02:40the service of the material, the service of my work, which is to tell the story as true as possible
02:45and never judge the characters that I play.
02:49And let them live for the sake of the whole project.
03:06You just tell me what to do and I'll do it.
03:08And then I hear the place.
03:10So, thank you.
03:16Anyone here?
03:17Yes.
03:18Okay.
03:20One more A.
03:22One more A.
03:26Yeah.
03:28One more A.
03:28Yeah.
03:29One more A.
03:29Well, it's not right here, Dan?
03:31Yeah.
03:32Yeah.
03:34Tell me what attracted you to this project in the first place.
03:37Well, I had read the project first about 10 years ago, and then when it came back around, my manager,
03:45Jeff Goldberg, told me that it was back in the mix, and I jumped on it right away.
03:50I was very excited to, I mean, I always felt a great pain about knowing about this when it happened
04:03in the early 80s in El Salvador, and then for years later to be part of telling the story, it
04:12was quite moving. I'm very honored to be part of it.
04:21What is the biggest challenge producing a movie like this?
04:25The biggest challenge for me was raising the money. It's always a challenge for any independent movie. You know, that
04:31takes years. In this case, the writer-director, Neto Melara, it took him 18 years to get the movie financed.
04:39And when we finally agreed on the budget, we decided to do it in El Salvador where the events took
04:43place. But that's the most challenging for any independent movie, finding the money, financing the movie.
04:48Why was it important for you to tell this story?
04:52Well, I'm from El Salvador. I grew up in El Salvador during the war, although I moved here when I
04:56was about 12. And I think it's a very important story, what took place in 1981.
05:03During any war, you know, the people that suffered the most of the civilians, and in this case, more than
05:08900 people, children and women died. And we want them to be honored by this movie. But we also want
05:14the people to go see it so they can learn about the war and the strategies and maybe not repeat
05:19itself.
05:20How was working with the director, the cast, and everyone?
05:23It was great. They're all were very committed, very professional. We flew them all to El Salvador for five weeks,
05:29and we had a great time. Although we worked 12 hours a day, it was a great experience.
05:36That was great. The men are trying to learn how to make the work.
05:43They're all about the women. And they were not about the women.
05:54They were out of the women, so they were not about the women.
06:05Guys, turn right now.
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