"I'm a working actor, not a movie star"

Although he's been playing in Hollywood movies for over two decades, Michael Pena remains modest and unpretentious. In Mumbai to promote the Netflix show Narcos: Mexico, the fourth season of the hit series, Pena described himself as "a working actor, not a movie star".

Even though he looks excessively disgusted, Pena, aged 42, is showing disarming honesty. His filmography is rich in roles of memorable characters, as in crash, Lions for lambs, End of the guard tour, American Hustle, The ant man and The Martian.

In Narcos: Mexico, Pena, Kiki Camarena, US Drug Enforcement Officer, is based in Guadalajara, Mexico. This puts him in touch with the ambitious drug lord Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, played by Diego Luna.

To prepare for the game, Pena had to look excessively at the previous three seasons of Narcos, each including 10 episodes. On top of that, he said his research included a lot of things about Kiki: "Online and Time magazine article on him. But the most useful thing was to talk to Kiki's wife, Mika. This helped me to better understand his motives and why he was put in danger. "

Narcos: Mexico will be broadcast on Netflix from November 16th.

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The Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, subject of the first two seasons of Narcos, was bigger than life and overall infamous. When creative producer Eric Newman told the story of Miguel Felix and Kiki, Pena said he did not know them.

However, knowing the end of Kiki's story, Pena was interested in playing this role for several reasons. "First of all, I had never heard of him until Eric Newman told me about him," said Pena. "He was such an interesting man, so motivated and motivated. I thought it was really cool and that it was an honor to play it. Moreover, during the first season, it seemed that the DEA had a less important role, that it was mainly Escobar and that the DEA was a little in the background. But now, this is how this guy is part of the DEA and is here to stop the bad guys. "

So how much room was there for Pena to interpret a character based on a real person?

"It certainly gives you directions, but every character has to decide what these guidelines are, otherwise you will be everywhere and you will not be able to tell the story," Pena said. "His tenacity, determination, focus, and resentment of injustice clearly motivated us to explain why he did things the way he did them. If he had not done so, the cartel could have become a huge power in Mexico – an unregulated power taking control of the government. And if it had exploded, America might have had to fight 10 times more than what it is fighting now. "

Born in Chicago to Mexican parents, Pena was unable to travel from America to Mexico until the age of 12. But now, he has just shot almost a whole series of Narcos The.

"It's sad because my mother is no longer with us and I wish I could see myself as a working actor, I'm not a movie star or anything," he said. . "It would also be nice for her to go to Mexico. It would have been cool.

To work with the Oscar winners to be part of the Marvel universe at the Narcos: MexicoPena says he feels "blessed" to have had the opportunities that presented themselves to him. "I feel lucky to have some sort of cool role," he said Scroll.in. "Especially when growing up poor – and I'm not rich at all – but I'm a bit comfortable now, it's been a blessing. But you have to keep working, I guess. Working on Marvel was as fantastic and cool as working on Narcos. "

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Dressed in a blue and black shirt, black pants and high-heeled shoes, Pena looked distracted at times, or maybe he was just exhausted by the flash promotional tour which had started in Singapore during the weekend of Diwali. His eyes lit up when we talked about golf.

"Are there good golf courses in Mumbai? Do many people play? Asked the passionate golfer. When told that golf was not an easily accessible sport in India, Pena said, "In America, everyone can play and many professions have not become affluent. They grew up playing on public courses. There are 15,000 courses in America – imagine that. But next time I'm in India, I'd like to play a game. "