“Kiss of the Spider Woman,” the highly acclaimed film starring Jennifer Lopez, Diego Luna and  Tonatiuh opens this weekend. The musical is directed by Bill Condon and brings to the screen a powerful story that combines love, fantasy, political upheaval, and the triumph of the spirit; all with spectacular musical numbers that are brilliantly choreographed, framed by showstopping vocals.

We spoke with breakout star Tonatiuh who gives one of the best film performances of the year while playing dual characters Luis Molina and Kendall Nesbitt. In our in-depth conversation he reveals his preparation for the challenging roles, the importance of the film in these difficult times, and his advice for success in your chosen career.

With more than a decade of experience onstage, screen and in the voiceover booth, Tonatiuh is an actor, screenwriter and activist. Prior to the multifaceted roles in “Kiss of the Spider Woman” his first big break was a three-season recurring guest star arc as the gender-bending Marcos Zamora in “Vida.”
An impassioned advocate of storytelling for social change, he believes that it is the artist’s responsibility to foster a more inclusive and tolerant society.

In “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” Tonatiuh plays the dual role of Luis Molina, a gay window dresser in an Argentine prison, and Kendall Nesbitt, a classic Hollywood movie star. Molina uses his imagination and tells the stories of his favorite movies, starring the actress Aurora (Jennifer Lopez), to his cellmate, a political prisoner named Valentín (Diego Luna). The role also involves playing the characters within the fantasy movies, adding a layer of complexity for the actor.

HOMBRE: How was it playing two such complete characters in the film?
Tonatiuh: It’s was a gift of a lifetime.  So many times actors crave material that really challenges them and forces them to change and transform, and that is my specialty. With “Vida” or “Promised Land” energetically I was able to change a little, but with this I really had the opportunity to completely lose myself in two different roles. Three if you count the ending.

Tonatiuh with Diego Luna

H: What can you tell us about Luis Molina?
T: For Luis Molina I really wanted to get to the essence. As an experiment I wanted to showcase a person who both embodies masculine and feminine energy and who really sits in the center of it all, in all the spectrum.
Because Kendall Nesbit, the other character is such a masculine traditional Hollywood character, a Gene Kelly, Errol Flynn type. At the end we go into a full fledged fantasy.
My mission as an artist is to say we are all in these physical bodies that can be transformed into anything we desire at any time. We get to decide who we are.

H: That’s much deeper than only an acting performance.
T: With everything that’s been happening in this country, a lot of the anti LGBT+ rhetoric, a lot of the anti Trans, anti Latino rhetoric, it was really important for me to add that additional layer.
Within a physical transformation of what it means to be alive, and who’s to say that we can’t be anything we say we are.

H: How did you prepare for the roles?
T: We shot the musical portion first, which was really exciting. I lost 30 pounds at first, just to get into that right silhouette.
We had a bunch of meetings just thinking about what metaphors we wanted to go with. I had Errol Flynn hair, and a moment where we had a little bit of Fred Astaire.
Then we went to Uruguay to shoot the rest of the film. Because Molina is a prisoner of war in a dictatorship we had to make him really thin, and we had two weeks. I just fasted to get that look.
We had to create this strong contrast between reality which is dark and heavy, and a fantasy where we look like Hollywood movie stars

Tonatiuh with Jennifer Lopez

H: What about the choreography and the singing?
T: I haven’t really sung publicly too much. I know I did a little singing in “Vida” but it has always been a secret dream of mine to be in a musical professionally.
If you ever see me in my car I’m belting it out at the top of my lungs. I’ve always enjoyed singing.
For the dancing, I used to be part of a repertory dance company back in my college years ago. Once I got hired I flew out and did a two week Broadway boot camp with some of the best Latin talent on Broadway.

H: What was the most challenging part of the film?
T: Not eating.  Basically that.

H: Did you see the earlier version of the film with Raul Julia and William Hurt?
T: Yes, I did. I saw the original version way back when, and I rewatched it once I got the job.
I also went back and saw the 1993 Broadway musical. I had watched it all, and I saw all the different renditions and covers of the songs that I could get my hands on. Just to get inspired and see what I should pay respect to, make little nods in the choices.

H: But the character of Kendall was not in the original film, was he?
T: No, Kendall was not in the original. That was a construction for ours because we were adapting the Broadway musical.

H: How was it to work with such an accomplished cast?
T: Oh my God, it was an honor. Diego is one of the most charming people you’ll ever have a chance to work with.
It was perfect because we are working with some very dark material at times. But in between sets we were just laughing our butts off.
And obviously Jennifer Lopez is Jennifer Lopez, a powerhouse. It’s like watching a lighting strike. She came in one day for our first rehearsal and she had learned everything in Los Angeles because of her schedule. She just came in and did not miss a mark.
We were scheduled to shoot for six hours and she knocked it out in an hour and a half, maybe two hours.

Bill Condon, Tonatiuh and Jennifer Lopez

H: What about working with Bill?
T: There’s three different Bill Condons for me.
There’s Bill the icon, the guy I looked up to. I’m such a big fan of his work.
Then there’s the collaborator, the director. Bill Condon is so intelligent and he edits in his mind. He knows exactly what he wants and this is his love letter to musical theater and to film. You can tell with those musical numbers, the amount of references that he does.
And over time there’s Bill Condon, my friend. And he’s hilarious, we spent so much time together from shooting to doing press. It’s really nice to find good people who really love the arts the same way that you do.

H: Let’s  talk about your beginnings, did you think this would be your path?
T: That’s a really good question.
No.
I mean yes and no.
I had applied to a whole bunch of different schools to study political science. I got in and then an English teacher was like, ‘Why don’t you do an acting class, you’ll love it.’
My response was, you can do that? That’s a way of making a living?

H: How was it?
T: I loved it, but what I loved about it was the effect that it had on you.
Culture changes so much faster than politics. And it has an opportunity to educate us all on who we are, what we want to do, and hold a mirror to us so we can see what we’ve become and what we wanted to become.
That really excited me.
At first I just loved art. I didn’t think of it as a business at all. I was doing plays in Los Angeles and then Tanya Saracho put me in “Vida,” because she saw me on a play by the way.
But I had never thought about it. I just loved what I did and loved being able to create, so business really came second.

H: What was the industry’s reaction to your name?
T: Tonatiuh is my given name. I didn’t feel pressure to live up to anything.
But I did experience many times in my life people who insist on telling me what my name is, what my identity is, and shortening my name to make their life easier. It’s been fascinating because you don’t know me and you’re already changing who I am to convenience you. My entire life I’ve said I’m not on this earth to make you feel comfortable, I’ve been put on this earth to exist so you can learn my indigenous name.
If you can learn Tchaikovsky, you can learn Tonatiuh.

H: What advice can you offer young actors coming up?
T: Life is not about isolation, it’s about community. Right now it looks like Tonatiuh is doing great, but my entire life has been surrounded by incredible people, women, Latinas, who champion you. I love creating an ecosystem that feeds and lifts other people up.
My family is huge. I have like 90 people underneath my grandparents. I’ve never been alone my entire life and I think the American mythology of ‘you have to pull yourself up by your bootstraps’ is a lie.
We’re a community. We are all together and when one of us rises we all rise together.

H: What is the best part of working on this film?
T: You know what the best part is, after someone has seen the film and I get to have a one-on-one interaction with them. So many people have told me the impact it had on them. Some queer and trans folks have come to me and told me they felt seen. A lot of Latinos have come together and said they felt proud to see three Latino leads in this kind of way, and give them the Hollywood treatment.
Musical theater people come in and say ‘This is my favorite musical, and I’m so glad you guys made it.’
Even a person from Ukraine came to me and said ‘This movie helped me process what’s happening to my country.’

H: Why should someone see “Kiss of the Spider Woman”?
T: For me this is a love letter to the LGBT+ community. It brings me so much joy that it brings us pride. It’s a story that really centers and glorifies our community, much needed because we’re under attack.