“I always try to somehow find myself in the characters that I’m playing, in order to then transcend my personal limits and limitations to portray the character.” – Edgar Ramirez
Emmy Award-nominated actor Edgar Ramirez studied communications and was a journalist on the school newspaper while attending college and worked in various forms of media until an acquaintance cast him in a short film, which led to additional work in film, including his breakthrough role in the Oscar-nominated thriller Amores Perros.
Ramirez starred in the critically-acclaimed HBO miniseries The Undoing as NYPD Detective Joe Mendoza ad in an interview with Collider referenced how his background in media and journalism. He reveals:
“I love to research and I have a very journalistic approach to my characters. Whether they’re based on real people or fictional, I always try to go and talk to, for example, real NYPD detectives. I went to two police precincts in New York and was lucky enough to talk to real NYPD detectives that shared their experience and knowledge with me. And Michael Devine, the wonderful actor that plays my partner in the show, happens to be a real police detective. He’s a third-generation police officer in New York, and I was very lucky to have him on my side, sharing his experience and expertise. I always try to somehow find myself in the characters that I’m playing, in order to then transcend my personal limits and limitations to portray the character. If it’s a real-life person, then not only do I try to document myself, as much as I can, with that character but I try to track his family down, his lovers, and people that were close to him, that would give me a different perspective and point of view. I always try to do that. That is the way you normally approach stories. I was an investigative journalist, and that’s what I did. I look for more angles. If you look at one thing but you look at it from different angles, you’re gonna see something completely different, even though you’re looking at the same thing. That’s how I try to approach my characters.”
