Luis Gerardo Méndez on Ben Affleck: 'It was like he read my mind'

Luis Gerardo Méndez, who stars in Ben Affleck's Animals, says he hopes the film sparks conversations about immigration. He told Variety that audiences could be next, in a warning about speaking out. He got emotional when asked about ICE, and said he is already seeing its impact in California. Méndez plays Ramon, the undocumented Mexican boyfriend of the housekeeper, Cecilia, played by Adriana Paz. Ramon is unexpectedly drawn into the kidnapping at the centre of the Netflix thriller. He said he was surprised Affleck even knew who he was when his agents called. The script came with a note from Affleck saying the script wasn't ready, that he would rewrite Ramon specifically around Méndez, and that he would call around Christmas to hear his thoughts. When the rewrite arrived, Méndez said, it was as if Affleck had read his mind, with everything he felt was missing about representation and how the characters speak. He told Blavity the aim was to show immigrant workers the respect they rarely get, and to avoid the one-note character seen a hundred million times. He said Latin characters are too often portrayed as all the same, whether Colombian or Mexican, from the south or the north. He credited Affleck for being open to conversation. Affleck, for his part, said Méndez and Paz are co-filmmakers who wrote their own scenes.