Colombian actor Juan Pablo Raba has seen his career boom in recent years, as he stopped working on national productions to focus on international projects, not just in Spanish.
This has made the Bogota native part of productions such as Agents of Shieldwhich made him the first Colombian to be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe; in addition, he has shared the set with figures such as John Cena and Liam Neeson.
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However, Raba highlighted in an interview for Los 40which This leap in his career was made possible thanks to his participation in Narcosseries of Netflix which in its first two seasons focused on the rise and fall of the Medellín cartel and in which he played Gustavo Gaviria, Pablo Escobar’s cousin..
The Bogota native said that when he began auditioning in the United States, he was told that his career in Latin America was not a good reference, but several producers recognized him for his role in Narcos.
“It was very useful for me to have a product like this. Narcoswhich did very well everywhere, that allowed me to sit in rooms with producersThe funniest thing is that when my representative told them “I’m going to send you Juan Pablo,” they asked “Do I need a translator?” They said “No, Gustavo Gaviria from Narcos doesn’t” (regarding whether I knew he spoke English).
Asked about the role of Brazilian Wagner Moura in the series about Escobar and the criticism they received about the actor’s accent, Raba said that this was not important, since he is not represented by Pablo Escobar.
“Narcos When it was presented they were going to record it in Canada because of the fear they had of Colombia, Narcos It was never known as a product for Colombianswas the first major series of Netflix filmed outside the United States and they don’t care and that’s why it continues to be a worldwide success, they don’t realize that without Wagner Moura, who is also a great actor, he spoke Colombian with a Brazilian accent.”
In addition, the Bogota native revealed that this production had a positive impact on the country, since it proved that large projects could be filmed in Colombia.
“For me the important thing with Narcos It’s that after that product, Tom Cruise, Mark Wahlberg, Will Smith came to film here, because they said “Yes, we can take 100 million dollars to Colombia”people are cool, that’s why whenever they ask me about NarcosI say that thanks to the fact that it went so well, because nothing negative happened and that most of the actors keep coming back, which was Narcos For us, a great goal, a great goal.”
Regarding the difficulties he has had, Raba indicated that some producers still have an idea about the average Latino, that “for them being Latino means being short, with very dark skin.” Turning the page, he indicated that he is happy to be able to be part of that type of production, remembering that he was the protagonist of Freelance alongside John Cena and The Protector con Liam Neeson
About these experiences, He recalled that he had an uncomfortable scene with the former wrestler, in which the protection of his private parts did not work and he had to film completely naked..
“We had a scene where they come out of the shower and start to cover themselves, but my character comes out completely naked, but the protection system came loose, for some reason it came off and in the movies you can’t spend a lot of time, on the fifth or sixth time the director came and I said “I’m going in naked fresh.”
