My interview with the star of “Pedro”

MTV and Logo networks will premiere the film Pedro, about the late Pedro Zamora, on April 1. I’ve seen it and it is superb. The film would not have worked as well as it did had the role of Pedro not been cast so well. He is portrayed by Alex Loynaz who really captures Zamora’s essence without trying to do a full-on impersonation.

Pedro was an HIV-positive Cuban-American whose tine in the Real World house on Lombard Street brought a face to the AIDS crisis. Then-President Bill Clinton, who has taped a special introduction to this film, credited Zamora with personalizing and humanizing those with the disease. Pedro learned he was HIV-positive while a junior in high school. He was just 17 and decided to spend the rest of his life educating people about the disease that claimed his life just five years later.

He died the night the final episode of the season.

Here is my recent chat with Alex about the film Pedro:

Q.Were you aware of Pedro Zamora’s story before you went up for the part?

A. “I knew a little bit about him. I grew up in Miami and I remember when the season was airing. It was a big deal in Miami. So I was familiar with him but when I started working, I had to really dig deeper to really understand him.

Q. Was it real emotional for you to play the role?

A. It’s very emotional but one of the bigger challenges was to not feel sorry because he never felt sorry for himself. You don’t want it to come across as somebody who wants any kind of pity or anything like that. It was about getting that out of the way.

Q. What did you think of Pedro?

A. I thought he was a very charming person, immensely brave. He was just such a brave character and a hero. What he did was very important and to this day, he would still want more and more. I think we need to continue and I think that’s why it’s great that this movie is coming out right now. There’s still a lot of work to be done.

Q. Did you have the chance to meet Pedro’s family?

A. Yes. They came to the screening we had in Toronto. They were very happy with it.  I was very nervous because I hadn’t met them up to that point.

Q. Did you watch the entire season of The Real World: San Francisco?

A. Yeah, they provided me with every episode so I was able to watch every single one. I thought it was incredible. It was influential. So much was going on. If you look at reality TV today, there’s some decent things but it’s nowhere near what that program did that season. I think we need to go back there and do something that can inspire people.

Here is a trailer from the movie:

Related post:

*** Greg’s review of Pedro

*** Meeting Real World’s Pam & Judd