Rey Valentin Arrives at 19th Annual NAACP Theater Awards - Arrivals
REY VALENTIN / 29 / LOS ANGELES / ACTOR
It’s tempting to write actor Rey Valentin off as just another Hollywood hottie. Those looks. That name. But judging by the challenging roles he’s been choosing lately, Rey is one up-and-comer who’s got more on his mind than the average player. You may have spotted the Puerto Rican (by way of Bridgeport, Conn) in HBO’s current miniseries Generation Kill, about marines in the early days of the Iraq war and created by The Wire‘s team. Keep your eyes peeled for Rey this fall, when he appears in the explosive ensemble drama Crossing Over, an exploration of immigration issues in America, with Sean Penn, Harrison Ford, and Ashley Judd.
Tell me a little about Generation Kill. As someone who doesn’t shy away from the political, this must have been an incredible experience.
First of all, when I found out I was working with David Simon and Ed Burns and that I was going to be doing a show about Iraq in Africa, I lost my mind. It was like the biggest call I’ve ever had, as far as my career, as far as my life. I always wanted to go to Africa and I never imagined it would be on this grand scale. It was really mind-blowing just to think about traveling to the motherland and then do a show that has such relevance to what’s happening right now.
You worked closely with real Marines who even put the cast through boot camp.
Those guys were there firsthand and they were an immense tool for any actor, because all we had to do was check our ego at the door, listen to these stories of what happened, and just embody the feeling that we would get just listening to these guys, being out there in the field. It was amazing.
We did a screening in Camp Pendleton and we were all pretty nervous. We did this show for these real soldiers watching. They laughed at every single joke, and they got quiet at all the times that there was casualties, and then we had a Q&A afterwards. One guy came up to me—he thought I was [my character Cpl. Gabriel] Garza! He grabbed me by my shoulders and said “Garza!” I said, “No, no, I play Garza.” He goes, “Oh, fuck brother, fuck man, damn. You had him down like a T!”
Here is a story that is not about some dead soldier, or some battalion that lived in the ’70s. These are real guys walking around planet earth right now. As actors, we were concerned that we needed to get these guys right, because we’re going to have a bunch of angry marines looking for us!
You all lived in Africa for seven months during filming.
I ended up staying an extra month. We wrapped in December and a lot of the guys were desperate to go home and see their families. I said hey, I’m in Africa, it’s summer here, it’s peak time and I don’t know when I’ll ever come back. I ended up going back to Mozambique to continue my scuba diving. I went to Cape Town and tried to have more of a cultural experience as well.
Crossing Over is already generating a lot of buzz and controversy for the way it deals with immigration issues. Did this project affect you on a personal level?
Last year before I went to Africa, I was really a part of the movement that they had in downtown Los Angeles of immigration reform… I go and drive around the richest areas of Los Angeles and I think, look who really takes care of this land. The so-called immigrants. They do so much for this state alone. And they do so much for the country. That’s what was so interesting about Generation Kill as well, because there were so many Latino soldiers on the front lines. I think Crossing Over is really going to expose what is the nightmare of so-called immigration reform. I think they’re being strategic in releasing it before the election because it’s another hot topic out here. Wayne Kramer isn’t looking to entertain, he’s looking to expose, which is really great.
I hear you’re in a pretty intense sex scene in the movie.
There’s no way I could be nervous or vulnerable or anything because I just kept thinking about what [my co-star] Melody [Khazae] had to do in the movie! I can’t invite my mom to this. In fact, I’m gonna wait until I get a copy of the DVD to kind of edit it myself and then maybe give my mom and grandmother that copy. I don’t know if my aunts are ready for this.
So do you have to kind of distance yourself to do a scene like that?
To me it was very exciting in the sense that this is the closest that I’ve come to being an exhibitionist. I’m not that way by nature… It’s insane because here’s [Wayne Kramer] who is directing Harrison Ford, Ray Liotta, Ashley Judd, and now he’s working with us. There’s a whole film crew, it’s a closed set, Melody is fully naked, I’ve just got a little sock on—it’s just insane.
You totally have the perfect heartthrob name.
And it’s really my name! Actually, my original name was supposed to be Ruben Valentin, but my father, whose name is Ruben Valentin, did not show up when I was born, so my mother named me Rey instead. She said, this is when my king was born.•
Rey’s Summer Favorites:
SUMMER JAM: “Nas’ new album.”
SUMMER READ: Noam Chomsky—Interventions
SUMMER CRUSH: Alice Braga (the hottie from City of God – Parlour approves. She’s dope!)
-Angela
Like “C Angie C’s” work? She IS the Girl of the Summer! Read more of her at angelacravens.com