For Tonatiuh, the journey from West Covina to sharing the screen with Jennifer Lopez and Diego Luna in “Kiss of the Spider Woman” happened with whiplash-inducing speed.
“I got an email with the materials, Dec. 19,” the 30-year-old actor recalls of his audition process. “So the industry shut down by that point, and I submitted it. And by Dec. 22 at 8 a.m. they were like, do not move.”
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By January, he was performing a tango and a Bob Fosse number for director Bill Condon. Shortly after, he was cast for the dual role of Luis Molina and Kendall Nesbitt in the musical adaptation of Manuel Puig’s novel, a role that earned William Hurt an Oscar in the 1985 film version. The part required extreme physical transformation. Coming off the Netflix hit “Carry-On,” Tonatiuh had to drop nearly 50 pounds in just over a month.
On this Season 12 episode of the Variety Awards Circuit, Tonatiuh opens up about landing his breakout role in musical which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. In addition, he shares stories about how he’s navigated the industry, how his Latino identity is his superpower and what he wants people to know about him. Listen below!
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For Tonatiuh, playing Molina — a gay window dresser imprisoned during Argentina’s Dirty War who escapes through elaborate movie fantasies — offered something rare: the chance to embody the full spectrum of gender expression.
“My mission statement with Molina was to have someone who’s almost genderless, or genderqueer,” he says. “They encompass the totality of all of that, because I believe that we all encompass the totality of it.”
The film allowed him to play multiple personas within the story. “I don’t just get to play Molina. I also get to play Kendall Nesbitt in the secondary world,” he notes. “If Molina is somewhere in the middle, I want Kendall to be traditional masculine aesthetic and energy, and then there’s an opportunity for us to explore full femininity within the show as well.”
One of the film’s most powerful sequences, the musical number “Where You Are,” created an unexpectedly emotional moment for the actor when his mother visited the set. “Here I am next to Jennifer Lopez as she’s singing these words to me, and my mom is watching it,” he recalls. “I’m like, what meta, realness is happening in this moment?”
The scene features Lopez’s character, Aurora, pulling Molina into a movie fantasy — art imitating life for an actor whose own dreams were once considered impossible. When his mother met Lopez on set, she went up to her and thanked the superstar for giving her son the opportunity. Lopez’s response stuck with him: “I didn’t give him an opportunity. He earned it.”
Tonatiuh has grown frustrated with conversations that treat Latino success in Hollywood as surprising or exceptional. Armed with statistics, he’s ready to flip the narrative.
“We are in a Latino Hollywood Renaissance. Latinos are Hollywood. I am not a Latin actor. I’m a great actor. Jennifer Lopez is not a Latin talent. She is a great talent,” he declares. “Latinos are 24% of the U.S. moviegoing audience, that’s one in four tickets. In 2023 alone, $2.7 trillion was created and spent by Latino audiences. That’s more than New York and Texas economy.”
He continues: “I don’t want to participate in that anymore. This puts greatness back on our name.”
The role of Molina represents a breakthrough performance. Moreover, it marks a return to authenticity after years of making himself “palatable.” In fourth grade, when his family moved to West Covina, a teacher looked at his name and said she couldn’t pronounce it.
“I changed my name to Matt, from fourth grade to junior year (of high school). I self-colonized. I even forced my own parents to change my name to Matt.”
Later, as he pursued acting professionally, industry advice pushed him to alter his presentation. “I was told by a person who I think was trying to help me that the way I presented, and moved throughout the world, would never get me the career that I wanted. And so I changed everything about me.”
That strategy worked — he landed a series regular role and a studio film. However, something was lost.
“With Molina, I returned to the totality of my being,” he says. “It wasn’t compartmentalization any longer. It was a remembrance that from my most feminine to my most masculine — is me. My Latinidad and my Americanness is me. My love for cinema and love for musicals is me.”
His message for anyone who can’t accept that? “They can choke on all of who I am.”
When informed that only five Latino men have been nominated for best actor in Oscar history, with just one winner, Tonatiuh admits he didn’t know the statistic. The revelation clearly moves him.
“It would be pretty great and I want my work to speak for itself, and if I become a part of that, then incredible, but I want it to be because of the craft, not my identities,” he says.
He sees the current moment as critical: “Especially because Latinos and queer people everywhere are being asked to make themselves small. And I’m like, we come from a long line of resilient and beautiful people in history. I think it’s time to remember our dignity and to remind people of our worth.”
Despite the Oscar buzz surrounding “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” which opens in theaters Oct. 10, Tonatiuh remains focused on what’s next. “I’m looking for job security, boo. I’m like, let’s get, let’s go. Let’s find another one.”
He’s particularly interested in Broadway, hinting at a specific play he’s been working to option. And when someone recently suggested he could play a villain in a Bond movie, his response was characteristically bold: “Yeah, but what if I was Bond? Yeah. Why not? What if I was born to be Bond?”
And yes, he can do a British accent.
For now, he’s content to let audiences discover — or rediscover — him through Molina, a character who refuses to be diminished even in the darkest circumstances. “Let me reintroduce myself,” he says with a smile.
Also on this episode, Oscar nominee Hailee Steinfeld, one of the stars of “Sinners” from writer and director Ryan Coogler.
Variety’s “Awards Circuit” podcast, hosted by Clayton Davis, Jazz Tangcay, Emily Longeretta, Jenelle Riley and Michael Schneider, who also produces, is your one-stop source for lively conversations about the best in film and television. Each episode, “Awards Circuit” features interviews with top film and TV talent and creatives, discussions and debates about awards races and industry headlines, and much more. Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or anywhere you download podcasts.
