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Movies

Crossover Appeal: Derbez Looking to Expand His Fan Base North of the Border

In his latest bilingual comedy, the Mexican star plays a scheming womanizer who learns valuable life lessons.
By Todd Jorgenson |
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Eugenio Derbez is nothing like Maximo, the arrogant and scheming womanizer he plays in How to Be a Latin Lover.

However, the Mexican actor jokes that when he was painfully shy growing up, maybe he could have borrowed a few moves from his latest big-screen character.

“Maximo is the guy that I always wanted to be,” Derbez said during a recent stop in Dallas. “I was always dreaming of being the guy who’s really confident with women. He’s kind of aggressive in his approach. When I was young, just to talk to a girl, it took me like a month. This guy is so confident that he just walks in and says ‘hi’ as a pick-up line. I brought out the Latin lover that’s hidden inside of me.”

In the bilingual romantic comedy, Maximo is a middle-aged cad who surprisingly is dumped by his octogenerian wife, who he originally married just for the money. This causes him to move in with his estranged sister (Salma Hayek) and form an unlikely bond with his young nephew (Raphael Alejandro). Still, he returns to his gold-digging ways with a plot to seduce a widowed billionaire (Raquel Welch) while betraying his relatives in the process.

“He learns a lesson,” Derbez said. “He realizes after getting closer to his family that his love for money is not as important. But he’s not going to change everything for love.”

The screenplay by Jon Zack (The Perfect Score) and newcomer Chris Spain originally was pitched as a pilot for a television series. But Derbez, through his production company, helped develop it into a feature instead.

“I like to mix comedy with heart. I want to have this kind of a stamp in my films,” Derbez said. “I like people to have fun but walk out of the theater with a message, feeling good but feeling different.”

Derbez, 54, has an extensive following in Latin America through his appearances in sitcoms and movies over the past two decades. But he remained unknown to many American audiences prior to Instructions Not Included, a 2013 drama that he also directed.

While that film did reasonably well at the box office, he hopes that his latest project will showcase his style of humor to a more broad-based audience. Of course, it helps to have a supporting ensemble that includes American actors such as Rob Lowe, Kristen Bell, and Michael Cera.

“I wanted to make a comedy for both worlds,” said Derbez, whose son Vadhir plays a younger version of Maximo in a few flashback sequences. “We found the right mix. It’s really good for both cultures. It makes everyone laugh.”

Derbez has been branching out with roles in more English-language films in recent years, and will next star in a remake of the 1987 comedy Overboard alongside Anna Faris. Yet he’s confident that cross-cultural appeal in How to Be a Latin Lover could provide another career boost.

“I wanted to have a film that could make the crossover. I’ve been trying for that my entire life,” he said. “This could finally be my vehicle.”

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