Christopher Nolan Is Upping His Game on The Odyssey, Says Jesse Garcia

In 2013, Jesse Garcia’s animal wrangler character delivered a few lines opposite Steve Carell’s family man character on the set of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. A decade later, Garcia found himself playing the family man character on the set of Very Bad Day’s standalone sequel, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Road Trip. The movies aren’t connected to one another, but Garcia still tried to spiritually tie one to the other by creating a backstory that his current chef character, Frank Garcia, worked as an animal wrangler to pay for culinary school.

Written by Matt Lopez and directed by Marvin Lemus, the new Alexander film for Disney+ reunites Garcia with Eva Longoria, who directed him in his first major lead role as Frito-Lay-janitor-turned-executive, Richard Montañez, in 2023’s Oscar-nominated Flamin’ Hot. Despite their existing rapport and desire to act with one another, Garcia still had to prove that he and Longoria could click as husband and wife, Frank and Val Garcia. (Garcia also played Longoria’s auditory love interest in 2022’s anthology film Tell It Like a Woman.)

“There ended up being a chemistry read between Eva and I, and I keep saying that we’re cosmic soulmates. We just understand each other,” Garcia tells The Hollywood Reporter in support of Alexander’s March 28 release on Disney+. “We have a similar viewpoint on life and sense of humor. We were both cheerleaders in college, and we also have a lot of [mutual] friends. So the [chemistry read] was easy. When she was directing me on Flamin’ Hot and she would call cut, we could look at each other from across the factory and know what the other was thinking.”

Longoria’s character is an influential travel writer who’s provided with a luxury smartbus in order to aid the Garcia family’s upcoming road trip. However, the endeavor quickly goes south for Frank, Val, their son and daughter, Alexander (Thom Nemer) and Mia (Paulina Chávez), as well as the kids’ grandmother (Rose Portillo). Above all, Garcia welcomed the rare opportunity to be a part of a Latine family that is financially comfortable without being involved in anything illegitimate. 

“It doesn’t come along very often, and it’s an important element for me. If it works within the story, then why can’t we be well-off, as well?” Garcia says. “It really was cool to be a part of a movie where we’re all portrayed as a ‘normal’ American family. They have their own struggles, but they’re not struggling in that way.”

Garcia’s recent good fortune extends beyond his successful collaborations with Longoria, as he’s currently shooting an undisclosed role in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. 

“It’s epic. There’s going to be some groundbreaking stuff on screen that’s really never been done before,” Garcia shares. “[Nolan] keeps upping the game with everything that he does, and the way it’s going to look on screen is just going to be incredible. To get the call that I got the offer for a Nolan movie was pretty incredible. It’s every actor’s dream to be on one of his sets and watch him work.”

Below, during a recent conversation with THR while shooting The Odyssey in Greece, Garcia reflects on his unexpected acting career and the fun of Alexander, before shedding a bit more light on being cast in Nolan’s latest.

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So you’re currently filming The Odyssey in Greece. You’re probably feeling pretty lucky right now, unlike the Alexander character in Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Road Trip.

(Laughs.) Yeah, I am. It’s a very fun and challenging shoot. There’s a lot going on, and it’s long hours, but it’s fun.

Career-wise, what’s your perspective on luck? Do you think it’s been a factor at times?

Yes, it’s interesting because I didn’t grow up wanting to be an actor. It wasn’t something that I was striving for as a kid. Some actors say that they did plays for their families, but I never did any of that stuff growing up [in Wyoming]. It wasn’t even on my radar. I went to college on a cheerleading scholarship, and I studied computer networking and computer science, which I really didn’t enjoy. I then went to the University of Nebraska to study exercise science because I really love the science of fitness and nutrition. I soon met a girl in one of my classes, and she convinced me to move to Atlanta, Georgia with her at the end of my third year of college. So I dropped a full-ride scholarship, and that’s when I decided to pursue acting in 2000. There was no plan B. So there’s a little bit of luck involved, and some of the pieces fell into place without a ton of effort. That makes me think that acting was somehow destined to be part of my journey, but I still had to be prepared and work hard when those opportunities came up.

You had a couple lines in 2014’s Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, and with Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Road Trip being an indirect sequel, you’re obviously playing an entirely different character. Do you still view this as a full circle?

Yeah, it’s a very cool moment. The producers and I were like, “How can we tie all this in?” The two movies really aren’t related, but we still came up with little Easter eggs. My character, Dwayne, was an animal wrangler in the 2014 movie, and I play a chef named Frank in this movie, so I wore Crocs during a scene and animal print. We also created our own little fun backstory, and while the movie doesn’t get into it, Frank was an animal wrangler to pay for the culinary school he was attending. It was fun to get to work with Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner and everybody else back then. And now I get to play the dad role next to Eva Longoria’s mom and our characters’ kids, played by Paulina Chávez [Mia] and Thom Nemer [Alexander]. Thom came out of nowhere and just lit up the set. So it’s a cool full circle.

My jaw fell on the floor when I realized who Paulina was. She plays a widow/single mother on Landman, and she’s incredible as this young woman who’s had to grow up way too fast. And yet she was equally believable here as a typical teenager who just wants to go to prom.

She’s a star, man. Eva and I kind of adopted her and pulled her into our 4 AM or 5 AM workouts before we went to work. She can do anything. She can do a comedy like this, and then she can go straight into Landman and hold her own with Billy Bob [Thornton].

How purposeful was the Flamin’ Hot reunion between you and Eva?

We’d been dying to work together as actors after getting along so well on the set of the Flamin’ Hot. But I had to audition for this movie; I had to jump through hoops. [Director] Marvin Lemus knew who I was, but that’s just how it was done. So there ended up being a chemistry read between Eva and I, and I keep saying that we’re cosmic soulmates. We just understand each other. We have a similar viewpoint on life and sense of humor. We were both cheerleaders in college, and we also have a lot of [mutual] friends. So the [chemistry read] was easy. When she was directing me on Flamin’ Hot and she would call cut, we could look at each other from across the factory and know what the other was thinking. 

Was it odd at first to go from a director-lead actor dynamic to co-stars playing husband and wife? 

Not at all. We fell right into it. This is one of the first times that I’ve gotten to do a straight-up family comedy as the dad, the male lead, and she’s had experience with the comedy world since the beginning of her career. So it was fun to have her as my peer, my partner and my mentor, and thinking, “Oh, that’s how that’s done.” So it became this really cool partnership as we were shooting the movie, and we are just trouble together. I really had so much fun working on Alexander. It’s one of those special, feel-good movies that the whole family can watch.

Your character asks for some hot Cheetos at a gas station. Did you throw that line in yourself? Or could the writer [Matt Lopez] not resist? 

(Laughs.) It was one of my lines. I remember thinking, “Why not?” It’s another funny Easter egg. We got to improvise a lot on this movie, and Marvin, being the good director that he is, just let us run with it.

I watched Flamin’ Hot and Alexander back to back, and the contrast between the two families caught my attention. The hard-working Montañez family in Flamin’ Hot couldn’t keep the lights on, and while the Garcias in Alexander are in a relatively tough spot at the start, they’re still well-off by comparison. 

Yeah.

It then dawned on me that we don’t see Latine families depicted as financially comfortable all that often, unless the family business is something illicit. Are the Garcias one of the few exceptions that you’ve encountered over the years? 

Yeah, it doesn’t come along very often, and it’s an important element for me. If it works within the story, then why can’t we be well-off, as well? The Garcias might not be wealthy, but Frank has a restaurant, and Eva’s character is a travel writer who’s influential enough to be given this dope bus for their road trip. So they must have good credit if they’re trusted to do these things, and it really was cool to be a part of a movie where we’re all portrayed as a “normal” American family. They have their own struggles, but they’re not struggling in that way.

Their road trip quickly goes awry, and that “dope bus” quickly becomes something far less dope. Have you had your own version of a disaster road trip?

I’m sure I have. I’ve got to find a good answer for this … (Garcia ponders.)

When you moved to Atlanta with the aforementioned girl, did you opt for a road trip?

Yeah, it was a road trip, but we made the trip from Lincoln to Atlanta in one day. It was a 17-hour drive. It wasn’t on purpose. We were just two young people driving across the country without really having a plan. We thought about stopping in Nashville because we were both so tired, but we plowed through anyway. 

When I was younger and in high school, I was in plenty of accidents, and my parents have zero idea about them. I probably shouldn’t be breathing from all the hijinks. But the most catastrophic road trip took place on this really long stretch at the top of Texas. If you don’t put gas in at this one gas station, then you’re going to run out. So I must have looked at my phone and missed the gas station, because I ran out of gas. Luckily, I was able to pull off the roadway into this tow station that sold me gas for $15 a gallon.

That’s the premise of umpteen horror movies.

Yeah, it was a dead zone. 

In the outtakes, all of you put on Mandalorian masks. Did Disney+ send those to set for some cross promotion?

I think Marvin actually got them. It was a joke that we thought of early on, and it was just something that we wanted to do for fun. This truly was one of the funnest movies I’ve ever done. We were always instigating each other and having a good time.

You guys shot on the same bank of the Rio Grande river where Jonathan Banks’ Breaking Bad character met his end. [Writer’s Note: Garcia first gained industry recognition in the 2006 Sundance-winning, Quinceañera, starring opposite a pre-Breaking Bad Emily Rios.]

Oh, funny. I didn’t even notice. I shoot in Albuquerque all the time. I shot Flamin’ Hot there. We did a season of From Dusk Till Dawn there. The Avengers shot there. I should just buy property there because I’m there so much.

I caught your quick Forrest Gump impression by the way. You threw out a “Jenny!” in the background of a shot.

(Laughs.) Oh, gosh. I don’t even remember. I’ve been working long hours in Greece, so I haven’t seen it yet.

From the Garcia family’s odyssey to Chris Nolan’s The Odyssey, can you elaborate on how it’s going so far?

It’s going great. Everybody is so nice, and the locations are beautiful. It’s been fun to work with all the actors that we’re working with, and everyone is putting everything into it. We’re literally emptying the tank every day. It’s epic. There’s going to be some groundbreaking stuff on screen that’s really never been done before. [Nolan] keeps upping the game with everything that he does, and the way it’s going to look on screen is just going to be incredible.

Are you allowed to say who you’re playing?

I’m not. 

How many hoops did you have to jump through during casting? 

It was a self-tape and a callback, so it was fairly straightforward. And to get the call that I got the offer for a Nolan movie was pretty incredible. It’s every actor’s dream to be on one of his sets and watch him work. So I’m really, really grateful to be a part of it.

Did you audition with real sides or passages from the epic poem? 

I can’t remember what the scene was from, but it was all dummy sides. Everything is very secretive.

Once you were cast, did you have to read the script in a faraday cage?

Yeah, basically. It was actually on the plane to Morocco, which was our first destination. Everything is very, very controlled, but it’s going to be epic. It’s my first time working with an IMAX camera, which is an interesting process. The tech that they have now is pretty incredible.

Actors often compare his films to indie productions because he somehow creates an intimate set on a large scale. I think it’s partially because he keeps his personnel to a minimum and doesn’t have a video village with a variety of folks observing. Do you get that sense too?

I agree. What other actors have said about how he works is pretty spot on. He keeps upping the game, so you have to keep up and be ready at all times.

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Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Road Trip streams March 28 on Disney+.