Though only in his early twenties, Blue Beetle actor Xolo Maridueña has been acting professional for a dozen years, including a regular role on Parenthood and a lead role on Cobra Kai before starring as the DC Comics superhero. However, despite that experience he was still taken aback when he was offered the lead role in the Warner Bros. film — first, because he didn’t have to audition, and second because of his concerns that he would be spending most of his time acting in front of a green screen. Maridueña tells Variety that luckily he was pleasantly surprised by the entire experience.
Maridueña was concerned that most of the film would be shot with green screen, but he was pleased to find out that the green screen shots were limited. He explains, “I didn’t consider myself as someone who shines in a space where I had to do a lot of imagining. With Cobra Kai, I love that we get to do the stunts and be immersed in the world, but, with this movie, we were on a green screen for like two days. So much of it was tangible.”
“I had a wonderful conversation with my acting coach, who said, ‘All this nervousness is your ego. The point of this movie isn’t to make you the biggest star. This movie is to make people feel seen. It’s larger than you.’ It made me realize my job is to be 100% prepared and then everything else will fall into place.”
Before that, Maridueña was surprised he was offered the role without an audition and was also hesitant about that. He recalls, “I didn’t audition for this. How do they know that I’m the right person? I had a wonderful conversation with my acting coach, who said, ‘All this nervousness is your ego. The point of this movie isn’t to make you the biggest star. This movie is to make people feel seen. It’s larger than you.’ It made me realize my job is to be 100% prepared and then everything else will fall into place.”
