Alessandro De Gennaro
by Omar Salas Zamora
November 9th, 2022
Alessandro De Gennaro is an actor living in Mexico City.
Omar Salas Zamora: Something that I will always respect you for is how you threw yourself into character during Here Comes Your Man. In the first season, I think we all felt the tension surrounding the sexuality and nudity so I tried to do as little as we could while still telling an intimate story.
On season two, when we rehearsed the first scene together, you asked if you could do it naked. Later, with permission from your scene partner, you would make it a point to hold him and touch him throughout rehearsals and eventually into the shoot. I think those small skin-to-skin moments free the actors and give them permission to be intimate in a way that only accentuates the material, to avoid making it feel mechanical. Do you always jump into the deep end that way?
Alessandro De Gennaro: There’s no right or wrong answers, it's just what you feel in the moment and I feel like for me, how different Julio was from who I am as a person, I felt the more I made it my space and the more I made it into a way that I felt comfortable myself, it was gonna help me make Julio comfortable in this situation he was in and make Alessandro comfortable, right? Asking Jason if I could touch him, or have any sort of physicality with him, was for me asking for free range of feeling, of emotions that I was going to feel while playing Julio and not judge them or not feel restricted from them, you know? And I feel like that's what allowed me to make it feel real. So yeah, with every character, I will always try to be just full on sincere but always with respect, always asking if I can do it. I'm never going to do something without asking my partner first.
It was very important to me that the Spanish in the show was accurate. You and I and Vanessa Esquivel have that chilango blood running through our veins so we found some familiarity there and we re-wrote the dialogue to make it genuine. Is this the first time that you’ve been asked to bring your own culture & bilingualism to a character this way?
It's the first time. That really helped me make those scenes mine, they were more personal to me than anything else in the show because I had input. It's the first time that I have a character that is involved in both Spanish and English. Usually, it’s either Spanish or English.
In movies or TV, there’s a silly thing that happens for non-English speaking characters speak in an accent when instead of their native language.
I know, yeah. I loved it. I honestly loved it. You trusted everything and we did what we needed to do to make it feel organic. I've had many moments in Spanish speaking roles for auditions that I read it and it feels so…translated.
What performance made you want to become an actor?
That’s a really good question. I feel like I've never actually thought about it before…
I think as a kid, you’re looking at this as entertainment but there’s a turning point where you start to grasp this as something you might be able to do. It becomes possible.
It was always entertaining people, I was always that kind of kid. But if I think about a role that really made me want to pursue acting, I guess I was more in my teen years and it was The Notebook.
The Notebook?
The Notebook. Ryan Gosling’s character, Noah. I’m a really romantic guy. I love romances, love stories. First of all, it made me think about how much I wanted a love story like that but second, being able to tell a story like that.
I’ve never seen The Notebook.
I’m going to have to assist on one of your Sunday movie nights so we can watch that.
I'm sure it's good. Everyone loves it. It's just not a movie that, like, has been in my periphery.
I get it, I get it. I'm sure you would like it. It's a beautiful story.
Do you normally gravitate towards love stories?
Actually, earlier today, I had this meeting with a showrunner, and he asked me that question: “What kind of stories you normally orbit towards?” Like I orbit towards love, man. That’s why I like Here Comes Your Man so much. It was so romantic and it's just fun expressing that vulnerability.
That moment at the end of episode eight of Julio holding Aaron’s hands in the car is the most romantic moment of the whole show.
It’s beautiful. So yes, I normally gravitate towards love stories.
What do you want for yourself? Recurring TV? Indie idol? Something more mainstream?
All of those things. I would love to be that kind of actor that you can put wherever and he will always provide and he will adjust and he will grow and show different faces of himself but right now in my career, I really think like a recurring role in a good series.
Are you attracted to growing a character over time?
Yeah, but I also love the start and end of the movie.
I’ve done both. I feel more ownership over my movies than I do my shows. For the runtime of a feature, you belong to me. I own you. I don’t have to give you a little cliffhanger to come back for the next episode. With TV, you're at the mercy of the viewers.
Yeah, the viewer feedback reaches the creatives and that can definitely change your character. Obviously, I'm always open for anything that's a good story good character. Give me recurring roles in a series, indie films, blockbusters. I'm always going to be there and I’m always going to do my best.
There’s no real hierarchy like there was even ten years ago with actors. There used to be a how-to manual with actors, like, you're going to do a couple commercials, then you're going to do a soap opera, you’re going to do some guest star spot, then a supporting role and … I feel like now you can, you can jump from place to place.
I think I'm open for everything. If there’s a story to tell and if it's a good story, I want to be in it, you know?
Can you tell me about your secret Twitch gaming life?
My secret Twitch gaming life? Man, I wish I still had that life.
You're not doing it anymore?
I haven't been doing it for like a year, Omar. So, I started doing it in the pandemic. I've always been a huge, huge gamer and I play on a daily basis. I really do. I always will. I'll be like a grandpa, 80 years-old, still playing online with kids that are 20. Anyway, I was like, you know what, I'm really good at this game. I should do streams and I have a good personality, I'm a good guy to talk to, you know? Like, I feel like I could pull it off. So, I tried it for, I think it was, like, five months and it was going it was going really well and I was building this wonderful community and then I got busy doing commercials, auditions, and I just never went back to it. So it's been in the shade right now but I love it. I really wish I could get back to it because it brings me a lot of joy and honestly, if I weren't an actor, I would be pursuing a gaming related career. Definitely.
How was it auditioning for Zorro?
There’s, like, three Zorro's going on at the same time. I did one for Amazon. I had the audition in January when I was actually filming Here Comes Your Man. I had to do it right after our first day so I prepared and I auditioned for the director and the casting director, Carla Hall, who I love. I got a call back the day after the audition and I met her and that went well and then I had another call back in Amsterdam and another one after that before they decided to go with another actor but yeah, I got really close to Carla and she was the one that introduced me to my current manager.
Your team is all female. Did you plan it that way?
I didn’t. It just happened that way and I am so glad it did. Nothing against men but I had a male agent before and it felt a lot more rigid, more tense. Women carry themselves and their work and their objectives and the way they deal with things differently than men. It's not as possessive, it's not as harsh. Just really, really calculated and I love it. I love it and I feel so much more comfortable myself. I feel so lucky with both of them.
Photography by Omar Salas Zamora
Interview by Omar Salas Zamora