While success may never be assured, Blue Beetle/Cobra Kai star Xolo Maridueña, shared in a recent interview with Variety (full Interview here) that he was made very aware of that, as he reflects on filming DC's newest blockbuster film - waking up early, going on set, and of course, suiting up as the Blue Beetle.
“This is not like getting ready for school in the morning,”
“I could feel the suit hugging me. I could feel the pinchers on my sides."
“Honestly, it’s pretty comfortable. I hear that they only get better as the years go on — more easily accessible to go to the bathroom.”
Recently, a video showing Xolo being helped into his Blue Beetle super-suit has surfaced online, and while the process of changing looked to be an extensive one, no doubt being in the position to wear a super-suit would not be one any of us would want to pass up.
“I didn’t consider myself as someone who shines in a space where I had to do a lot of imagining.”
“With ‘Cobra Kai,’ I love that we get to do the stunts and be immersed in the world, but, with this movie, we were on a green screen for like two days. So much of it was tangible.”
Whether it was the films $104 million budget or not, rather than green-screening and computer-generating everything into the picture as most studio's do today, Blue Beetle was mostly authentic in where they their shot scenes, and used practical effects.
“We didn’t walk on the set the first day like, ‘We’re about to make the best Latino superhero movie ever.’ We set out to make a great superhero movie that’s filled with a Latino cast,”
“They knew the story they’re trying to tell because they’ve lived it and experienced it firsthand,” he says. “Once that soil was really healthy, it couldn’t help but feel natural and inherent the rest of the way because it was an unspoken thing.”
Representation is powerful. For Blue Beetle, Xolo was thrilled everyone who worked on the project had the same vision to set out and create a beautifully told superhero movie stacked with a full Latino cast.
“I didn’t audition for this. How do they know that I’m the right person?”
“But I had a wonderful conversation with my acting coach, who said, ‘All this nervousness is your ego. The point of this movie isn’t to make you the biggest star. This movie is to make people feel seen. It’s larger than you.’”
No doubt being offered a role, much less auditioning for one such as heavily known as Blue Beetle would spark a serious sense of imposter syndrome or self-doubt.
At the end of the day, Xolo knew the representation of Latin culture that the writer and director wanted to tell was bigger than him, and he had to disregard the fact that even though he was the lead actor, he was not really the "star" of the film.
"Yes, of course, I want this to be the biggest movie of all time. And I truly feel like it is a worldwide movie. I think it should be a box office smash, but at the same time, there’s box office smashes that aren’t the best [movies], and vice versa. I don’t want to be a prisoner to the numbers.”
Acknowledging Blue Beetle's recent predecessors: Black Adam, Shazam: Fury of The Gods, and The Flash, which have all been helmed as box-office flops, Xolo is looking past the numbers; at the end of the day, he feels he made a movie he can be proud of.
“It’s made me start to realize that I have to enjoy working out."
“I’m not trying to eat steamed rice and broccoli and chicken for 48 years. I want to eat the food of my people as well.”
For the role of Blue Beetle, Xolo made the concsious effort to bulk quite a bit; revealing he got up to about 130lb as opposed to his once-90lb figure.
However, training for the role of a superhero can become relatively stale as far as your diet plan and meals go, for it seems you limit yourself to certain food groups, and sometimes have to sacrifice excluding your heritage's food in Xolo's case.
“I had to watch it a second time, because the first time I was just so…” he begins, searching for the right word to describe the feeling. “It’s crazy having months of your life boiled down into two hours.”
“It’s really wonderful to have my family feel represented,” he says. “That’s what all great movies do — regardless of ethnicity, movies transcend all those labels. When you’re able to connect with someone, it means more than just cinema.”
Once again, Xolo is flabbergast in spite of how fortunate the past year of his life turned out to be with Blue Beetle, and does not hold back on sharing his gratitude for the opportunity to play a role in which he feels his culture is represented in a wonderful coming-of-age story.
Go see DC's Blue Beetle in theaters now!
Blue Beetle is a 2023 American superhero film based on the DC Comics character Jaime Reyes / Blue Beetle, produced by DC Studios and The Safran Company. The film was directed by Ángel Manuel Soto and written by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer. It is the 14th installment of the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). The film stars Xolo Maridueña as Jaime Reyes / Blue Beetle alongside Adriana Barraza, Damián Alcázar, Elpidia Carrillo, Bruna Marquezine, Raoul Max Trujillo, Susan Sarandon, and George Lopez.