Demian Bichir as Detective Marco Ruiz in The Bridge. Photo copyright of Frank Ockenfels for the FX Network.
Corruption, violence, half-truths and lies – those are just some of the many obstacles hampering the work of law enforcement officials in the hit new FX Network TV series The Bridge (which is based on the Swedish/Danish show of the same name). Detective Marco Ruiz, a homicide detective from the Mexican state of Chihuahua, and Detective Sonya Cross from the El Paso, Texas police department, are assigned to find and apprehend a serial killer terrorizing the U.S./Mexican border of El Paso and Juarez.
A good detective with an uncanny eye for detail, Sonya suffers from Asperger’s syndrome, which sometimes causes her to be socially awkward and make odd or blunt remarks. This further complicates her and Ruiz’s investigation, especially when dealing with the Mexican authorities. A dedicated and hard-working detective as well, Marco is also a family man with a wife and children whose wellbeing is important to him. Like oil and water, he and Sonya do not exactly mix very well, but they slowly learn to operate as a team,
Mexican born actor Demian Bichir plays Marco Ruiz. A veteran feature film and TV performer with a long and varied list of credits to his name, he made his American debut opposite Salma Hayek in the 2001 movie In the Time of Butterflies. Bichir went on to portray Fidel Casto in Steven Sodenbergh’s Che and was later cast as corrupt Tijuana mayor Esteban Reyes in the Showtime cable TV series Weeds. The actor was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his work in A Better Life. Although he did not win, his nomination helped open the door for booking other roles in such films as Savages, Heat and Machete Kills.
The handsome and congenial Bichir recently spoke with journalists about playing Marco Ruiz and working with German actress Diane Kruger (Sonya Cross) on The Bridge. The following is an edited version of that Q & A. Enjoy!
What originally made you want to be a part of The Bridge?
Demian Bichir: I found a really powerful script when I read the pilot, and I loved the character, too. I loved how a Mexican cop could be filled with so many layers as well as many different tones and different types of emotions. A character that can actually walk on fire and never get burned is extremely appealing for, I guess, for any actor, but I just loved that he, Marco, is very, very human. Then, of course, there was the fact that Gerardo Naranjo, one of the best Mexican filmmakers, was going to direct the pilot. Diane Kruger’s name was also a crucial part of it because I’ve wanted to work with her for a long time, and then we finally got together on this. We were going to work on a film together last January, but then it didn’t happen for some reason, so I was shocked to have this chance again.
Is there something that you added to your character that wasn’t originally scripted, or did you stick to the page?
DB: There are many things that you as an actor bring to the table and to your character in order to make it as good as possible, and if you’re lucky, maybe even a memorable character. Of course, everything is on the page, and from that point on you try to give the character a certain personality or way of being. That’s mostly something that you agree on with your director. With Marco, we just wanted to make him a real person. I don’t believe in black or white. We wanted a character that you could actually believe exists.
This show is obviously is not a documentary, but for many American viewers this might be the most that they learn about what the U.S./Mexican border is like because it’s not very well covered in the news. I was wondering what do you see as the news or the educational value of The Bridge?
DB: We still have to go deeper in that department. We’re not showing the real Juarez. We’re only showing the “Hollywood Juarez,” and I guess that that need to contrast to different countries, but, in fact, Juarez is a modern city. You can find pretty much anything you need there, especially if you have money, and it’s a fantastic city that I’ve known for many years. I have family and friends in Juarez. Every time I’m doing a play, that’s a stop that we have to make. Juarez is a lot more than just a difficult border, and we still need to show that part. Everything we’re showing right now is only of the bad side and the bad guys, just like we’re showing the bad side and the bad guys in the United States. So I just hope that the rest of the world won’t take this as fact.
So are you saying that upcoming episodes will be showing that more realistic side of Juarez?
DB: Probably not in this show because it’s one about contrasts, I mean, we, the cast – me, Diane, Ted Levine (Lt. Hank Wade) and everyone else – can always give our opinions and they listen to everything we have to say, but we don’t have any more power than that as far as saying what should be seen or not. So in this particular story we probably won’t be seeing, for example, the fantastic hospitals that Juarez has, or its magnificent infrastructure.
Do you think it’s significant that The Bridge is airing just as the United States tries to tackle its biggest immigration reform in more than two decades?
DB: I think that it’s perfect timing. If we can bring in people’s attention to what the real problem of immigration is, then that will be an asset to our show. Even though this is not about immigration, we talk about it, and immigration is not about building walls. It’s a universal phenomenon that will continue to happen in the next 20, 50 years, even more, and the fact that our show is called The Bridge is exactly what we need. We need to build bridges, not walls. The immigration issue is about the separation of families, and that is not human in any country in the world, but especially not in the United States.
In Savages as well as Weeds and your 1996 series Nada Personal you played characters sort of on various sides of the law concerning Mexican governmental corruption and the drug trade. I’m wondering in approaching The Bridge, how familiar were you with that landscape and what aspect of it have you learned more about in playing Marco?
DB: That’s interesting because when we did Nada Personal and then the same character in a second series called Demasiado Corazon—the two were hard. I was playing this cop that was almost like a Hamlet, almost like a Shakespearian character who was always very sad and depressed, but he was a good cop. You could not buy this guy with any money. We did that in the middle of very difficult times in Mexico, like 15 years ago, pretty much when all this mess began. When I did that character and worked on that series, I got a really, really deep training in police procedures and the usage of all kinds of weapons, so that training back then helps me a lot in portraying Marco now.
With the Esteban character in Weeds, he was a high-ranked politician in Mexico, so that was a different approach to how things sometimes work and how difficult it is to solve many problems because some high-ranking officials and high-ranking politicians are part of the problem. Also, with Weeds being a dark comedy, we approached that character and that issue with a very acid kind of sense of humor. We didn’t want to go into any clichés or stereotypes about these drug lords being stupid or ignorant. Esteban Reyes was a savvy man, a very sophisticated and well-educated man, so we wanted to go in that direction at that point.
Then in Savages, Alex is the only character that is a victim of circumstances because he’s the only one who is not a killer or an assassin or anything like that. I think he’s the one who dies very badly, and is the only educated person of that organization working in the wrong place with the wrong people.
And then with Marco Ruiz, what I loved about him when I first read the pilot is that out of all those characters, he is the simplest man. He is a family man. Marco is somebody that really believes that he can represent a difference in a very difficult world on both sides of the border because he works with the El Paso PD constantly. This is not the first time he’s joined a task force, and someone that can actually transition between heaven and hell and be good with Dios y el diablo. That’s a very appealing character.
I was fascinated by how Marco’s private life was shown, from having a vasectomy all the way to having problems at home with his kids and his wife. That made this character very human. This is a real human being, and he chose to stay in Juarez. Being a cop from the Chihuahua State Police you can go to many other cities instead of Chihuahua. It’s a big state, but Marco chose to stay in Juarez because he believes he can make a difference.
So all that training I got in the past was crucial for me to play this character, and without telling you too much about Marco’s future, all I can say is that I’ve been getting many surprises every time I read a new script. We receive them as they’re written, so every week we have a new one, and the direction where all these characters are going, especially Marco, is pretty shocking, and that’s fantastic drama.
Wanted to get your take on how will Marco’s working relationship with Sonya progresses, and how things are for him at home, because something happens in the third episode that kind of calls that in to question.
DB: One of the things I love about Marco is, as I was saying before, that he’s a three-dimensional character and not black or white. He’s a good cop and a good man but he’s no angel. That’s what I believe, and I believe in characters that can be tangible and that can actually relate to. Marco is a man and sometimes not very good at making decisions. He gets himself in trouble at home where trouble is already there because the way he communicates with his son Gus is kind of rough. By that I mean they don’t talk much, and that’s a problem whenever you have a teenager.
As for his relationship with Sonya, I think this is the first time that she actually can have a real friend, because Marco doesn’t care about anything else but solving the problems that they share. Although she might be “weird” to Marco, he likes her and takes care of her just the way partners should. So you will see more and more how their relationship goes from being awkward to being very tight without getting weird or anything.
I’ve heard from a lot of people who like the show, but the one question I have heard from a few viewers is will they solve this murder in the first season or am I going to get dragged into multiple seasons with it? Do you have any sense of that? Will it get wrapped up this season, and then we’ll move on to new stories in future seasons?
DB: I guess that’s hard to know because if you think about the original series that was only one season. I’m not sure what the future of the Swedish/Danish version will be, but this is pretty much what our show is based on.
At this point I haven’t seen the original series because I heard so many great things about it that I just wanted to stay away from it. I didn’t want to bring any ideas from it into our story, our production, or my character. I wanted this to be something new for us, at least for me, and to go from scratch. So I guess it’s like with any film, you know, the way Hollywood works is that if people like it, chances are you will see a sequel.
I guess this is what everything comes down to; if these 13 episodes are watched by a lot of people, perhaps there will be a second, a third, and a fourth, and maybe 25, or maybe not. I don’t know what the plan is, though. We’re still hoping that people will like it because that would then hopefully translate into another season. It would be really nice to see how everything develops, because from then on it would be our original sort of approach and the show would no longer be based on anything else.
Did you spend much time with the police officers in Mexico to talk to them about how they function, or did you know already what kind of work to do for the role?
DB: I kind of knew that from before. I’d had a chance to go through some deep training because of the characters that I play in Mexico. I have a few friends that are cops, and believe it or not there are many Marcos out there. There are many good men out there who actually risk their lives every day for very little money. I think one of the biggest challenges for any officer of the law in Mexico is that you don’t receive a good retribution for your work and it doesn’t matter how good you want to do it, you will always encounter obstacles here and there.
But as I always believed when you’re a crook, you’re a crook, and that is only an excuse for you to be a crook. If people say, “Well, the situation is bad; that is exactly why I’m just going to go out and point a gun to an old lady and get some money,” well, excuse me my friend, but you are just a rat. This is not because the economy is bad, this is just because you are a rat, and that’s pretty much that.
A lot of people have dignity. A lot of people believe just like Marco that they can represent a difference in a very difficult world.
How much of Marco do you relate to on a basic level?
DB: We are alike in terms of we’re passionate about life and what we do. We love our work, and we love our family.
What message would you like American audiences to interpret from The Bridge?
DB: I think I’d like people to fall in love with the story and get hooked on it because they’re moved and are touched. There are many sensitive issues and many things that remind us we’re very close together, Mexico and the United States. I hope people can stop believing everything politicians say about Mexico and the United States and the problems that we share. I hope that maybe we can ignite some kind of curiosity so people can go and dive into more information about many issues, not only immigration, but also the way we work as two different countries so close together.
Maybe too, we could bring people’s attention even to what Asperger’s is. What is this thing that Diane’s character has? Is it some sort of autism? Sometimes that’s what a good film and a good book or a good series can do, they can probably make you a better person.
As noted above, photo copyright of Frank Ockenfels for the FX Network, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
