Within the Apple TV+ present “Acapulco,” Máximo Gallardo was first launched to viewers because the image of the American dream — a younger, working-class resort employee in Mexico who in the end turns into a multimillionaire with an enormous mansion in Malibu, California.
However Eugenio Derbez — star and govt producer of the bilingual hit sequence — needs viewers to recollect Máximo within the present’s fourth and ultimate season as a dreamer who additionally represents the moxie and creativity of hardworking Mexicans.
“I need ‘Acapulco’ to be remembered as a vibrant, bilingual sequence that celebrated Mexican tradition with heat, humor, and authenticity,” Derbez mentioned through e mail in an interview with NBC Information. “For American audiences, I hope it reshapes perceptions: that Mexico is greater than headlines — it’s wealthy in id, magnificence, resilience, and coronary heart.”
“He’s not modeled after one actual determine,” Derbez mentioned about Máximo, including that his character’s ambition and enterprise instincts resonate with many self-made entrepreneurs in Mexico — individuals who work tirelessly to construct one thing lasting.”
Viewers first met Máximo in season one as he began to inform the story of himself as a younger, energetic pool boy on the glamorous resort of Las Colinas in Acapulco, Mexico. (The younger Máximo is performed by Enrique Arrizón).
Now in season 4, Máximo is poised to reopen the resort as its new proprietor, and restore the legacy that made Acapulco a world vacation spot for the wealthy and well-known.
Hollywood legends Rita Hayworth, Errol Flynn and Orson Welles first made Acapulco well-liked for People within the Forties. Elvis Presley and even the Flintstones expanded that Riviera fame within the Nineteen Sixties. It wasn’t simply People who put Acapulco on the map — however Mexican icons resembling comedic genius Cantinflas and Grammy-winning pop singer Luis Miguel additionally made the town a family title for Spanish audio system everywhere in the world.
Off display screen, Máximo can mirror the tenacity and ambition of Derbez, who established himself as a one-man-show — writing, producing, directing and performing — in a number of sequence for Mexican tv earlier than transferring to Hollywood.
Within the U.S., Derbez transitioned efficiently to the large display screen, starring in 2011 with Adam Sandler, Katie Holmes and Al Pacino within the comedy “Jack and Jill.” In 2012, he was featured with Eva Mendes, Matthew Modine and Patricia Arquette in “Lady in Progress.”
However his massive break occurred in 2013 with “Directions Not Included,” through which Derbez demonstrated a few of that Máximo moxie: The comedy a couple of Mexican playboy pressured to boost his small daughter that he wrote, produced, directed and starred in turned the very best Spanish-language field workplace hit of all time—grossing over $100 million worldwide.
Since then, Derbez has had different successes with “Tips on how to Be a Latin Lover” and “Overboard.” And in 2021, he performed a music instructor in “CODA,” which gained the Oscar for greatest image.
In 2023, Derbez challenged viewers with one other heartfelt story about Mexico. He produced and starred within the Spanish-language comedy-drama film “Radical.” The movie was impressed by a 12-year-old Mexican lady who was featured on the quilt of Wired journal in 2013 as “The Subsequent Steve Jobs.”
Now, with “Acapulco” kicking off its final season Wednesday, Derbez is in search of different methods to inform genuine dreamer tales.
“Going ahead, I’d like to discover extra tales from Mexico—and even tales from different Latin American international locations that deserve international illustration,” he mentioned.
Derbez is happy with “Acapulco” as a result of it represents Mexican tradition “with out stereotypes.” And whereas Hollywood has made progress telling various tales, he calls on the trade for extra work to be finished.
“I believe we have to transcend token gestures. Placing a Latino actor in a supporting position doesn’t routinely make a undertaking inclusive,” he mentioned. “True inclusion begins after we inform tales about Latinos — tales which are genuine, layered, and compelling. Tales that don’t simply resonate with Latino audiences, however with your complete world.”
And this, Derbez says, is what viewers can see in “Acapulco.”
“It’s not a present for Latinos—it’s a present the place Latinos are on the heart, however the themes — love, ambition, household, failure — are common,” he mentioned. “We simply occur to be talking Spanglish and carrying guayaberas.”
