Entertainment

Mexican actor gets Oscar nomination for role as migrant

Demián Bichir dedicates nomination to millions of undocumented

By SanDiegoRed.com2012-01-25T00:06:40+00:00

LOS ÁNGELES Mexican leading man Demián Bichir was nominated Tuesday for an Oscar in the Best Actor category for his interpretation of an undocumented immigrant struggling to raise his son in Los Angeles.

"I dedicate this nomination to the 11 million or so human beings who make our lives easier and better in the United States," Bichir said hours later.

In an interview last year, Bichir, 47, called "A Better Life" the most important film of his long career.

"A Better Life" tells the story of an undocumented immigrant fighting to keep his family together. It captures the reality millions such workers face living in the margins of American society.

"I had the opportunity to chat with many gardeners," Bichir said in the interview, published in July by the EFE news agency, and said he learned to climb palm trees to trim them.

"I climbed up and down 12 times to record one film sequence," he noted.

He said characters like the one he plays, beyond the punishing work they do, lead difficult lives.

"The toughest part is that they adopt an almost invisible personality to avoid calling attention to themselves," he continued. "Because if they get attention they may have to show paperwork that they don't have."

Beyond the challenges the gardener faces in pursuit of the American dream, the movie revolves around the relationship the father has with his son, who was born in the United States. Neither the father, who is separated, nor the teen-ager have the ability to understand one another.

"This movie is a carnival of emotions, which moviegoers must sift through," said actor, who said film is the most important one he's ever made.

"Every morning I prayed to God to find such a role. A macho Mexican who becomes the best mother in the world you're not going to find that very often," he said.

José Julián plays the son in the movie, which also features Joaquín Cosio, Dolores Heredia and Chelsea Rendón. The film was directed by Chris Weitz, a grandson of the Mexican actress Lupita Tovar. Weitz has said the film helped him get in touch with his Latino roots and to better understand Hispanic working-class communities.

Bichir, part of a prominent family of Mexican actors, has worked in soap operas and film projects in Spanish and English in Mexico, the United States and Spain.

He's starred in such films as "Sexo, Pudor y Lagrimas" (1999), which broke box-office records in Mexico; "Ché" (2008), in which he played Fidel Castro; and the historical movie "Hidalgo: The Story Never Told" (2010).

In 2008, he appeared in the Showtime series "Weeds," in which he played the drug-trafficking mayor of Tijuana.

Bichir will next be seen in Oliver Stone's "Savages," about a Mexican drug cartels entangled with a pair Southern California businessmen. The movie stars John Travolta, Benicio del Toro, Uma Thurman and Salma Hayek.

The four other actors nominated in the same category are George Clooney ("The Descendants", Brad Pitt ("Moneyball", Gary Oldman ("Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" and Frenchman Jean Dujardin ("The Artist.