The American Dream for Eugenio Derbez hasn’t been easy.
He’s had all the fame and fortune one could dream of in Mexico. He’s made Latino families laugh hysterically around the television for decades with shows like XHDRbZ and La Familia P.Luche. He’s worked on films that have been widely successful in Mexico and translated into English. A few years ago, he decided to remake himself in Hollywood and move from Mexico to Los Angeles. It opened him up to a few supporting roles in movies, a sitcom and a couple of comedies.
Yet there are still plenty of people in the U.S. who don’t know who he is. But his commitment to a promise he made his mother before she died and his passion for storytelling keep him working.
His latest effort to connect to the U.S. audience is a remake of 1980s romcom Overboard. Derbez co-produced the film and made decisions in breaking stereotypes in the movie as well as bringing in a significant number of Latino actors for the film, like Eva Longoria, Omar Chaparro, Adrián Uribe and Cecilia Suárez.
“I’ve been trying to change the image of Latinos in this country. Every time I received an offer for a movie in Hollywood, it was for playing a narco or criminal or a gang member -- or a gardener. So, I was tired of the same thing,” he said in an interview with GuideLive during a Dallas visit.
"I'm producing my own films because that's the only way to have work in Hollywood: to produce and star in your own movies," he added.
It started when he was 8 years old watching the Oscars with his mother, famous Mexican actress Silvia Derbez. They’d watch the Academy Awards together nearly every year until she died in 2002.
“I told her when I was really young, ‘I want to do that. I want to be a storyteller. I want to work in Hollywood and do movies.’”
A couple years after she died, when he was around 41, he decided to go to the United States.
“Kind of late, probably, for my age,” he said. “But it's never too late to achieve your dreams, so I'm here, to achieve my dreams.”
Overboard opens in movie theaters on May 3.
