Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with Welcome to Acapulco’s Guillermo Iván

Guillermo Iván is doing double duty on his latest project: Welcome to Acapulco. Not only is he starring as Raphael, a man who’s gone down the wrong road, but he also directed the film. Multitasking is a skill he’s honed throughout his career, having done so on projects including Havana Darkness and Love Is a Battlefield. Pop Culturalist was fortunate enough to chat with Guillermo about Welcome to Acapulco.

PC: Tell us about Welcome to Acapulco and what attracted you to this project.
Guillermo: Well, many, many, many things. First and foremost, the narration of the story and the way it was presented to me drew me in right away. The main character, Matthew, is basically a geek. He’s always working by himself on his computer. He isn’t involved in any dangerous ventures, but by mere coincidence, he gets involved in a dangerous situation, in a place like Acapulco, no less. Acapulco is known for being a paradise, but Matthew has to find a way to survive. Also, this film combines comedy and action, so I was excited to explore that.

It’s a dream come true doing a project in Mexico, because I was born and raised here. Acapulco has always been a magical and meaningful place to me.

PC: You acted in and directed the film. How challenging was it to have dual roles?
Guillermo: It’s very challenging. Fortunately, this isn’t the first time that I’ve done it. However, I have to say that this is probably the most complicated production that I’ve ever been involved in as an actor and director, due to the fact that we had to deal with so many different elements: the action, safety, narration, building of the characters, and working with the cast and crew. There are all these different layers that have to be put into place before you even step into the acting side of it! Then you have to have the ability to disconnect one side of the brain from the other when you’re in front of or behind the camera.

The only way that any of this gets done is with a great team in place, and that’s what we had on Welcome to Acapulco. When you’re making a movie, it’s really about finding the right family, the right people to do something creative with. Fortunately, we had an amazing team: everybody from the stunt coordinators to the DP [Director of Photography], to the producers, to the first AP [Associate Producer], to everyone on set. Everyone was so good at their job that it was easy. When you trust the team in place, it’s so much easier to focus when you’re acting and directing.

PC: How early on in the process did you know that you were going to act and direct Welcome to Acapulco?
Guillermo: That’s a really cool question. Originally, I signed on as the director. While we were holding auditions for my character, Raphael, and a few others in the film, we weren’t finding the right people. The producers and I had a very specific type and look in mind for every single character.


We had a lot of auditions in Mexico, Los Angeles, and New York. Then, there were scheduling conflicts with some of the actors that we wanted. As we got closer to production, one of the producers said, “Well, why don’t you do it?” The rest of the team agreed and I was cast to play that part. I’ve worked with the producers in the past, so they knew what I could do. We actually shot another movie right before Welcome to Acapulco. It was a smaller scale film and I was doing both jobs as well. This wasn’t the first time I worked with the rest of this team, either, since we basically had the same crew as well. It was a last minute call, but it was really cool.

PC: What can you tell us about your character in the film and his involvement in the story?
Guillermo: Raphael is a Mexican-American guy that grew up in the streets, so he has a tough background, and he’s been operating for many different gangs and organizations around the world. He has a personal story with Adriana, who is the female lead. In the film, we hint that at a certain point, they were family, not in the traditional sense, but that they came from the same neighborhood. Raphael took the wrong road while Adriana and her brother took the right one.

They went to work for the CIA and he’s working for all these bad guys. So, there’s a relationship right there that made everything more complex, plus now Raphael is working for the character that William Baldwin plays in the movie and he has to deliver.

PC: The film is out now. What do you hope audiences take away?
Guillermo: I hope they find Welcome to Acapulco entertaining. I hope audiences relate to the lead character, Matt Booth, and his personal situation. He’s a regular guy who works a nine-to-five. He has the biggest opportunity of his life presented to him and now he’s risking everything because of a bad coincidence that has him fighting for survival.


In the middle of all this, he finds Adriana, who is a strong female character. She’s someone who takes the lead. She’s a fighter. Adriana is the person who teams up with Matt. I hope they relate to her. Also, the story follows a man who becomes a hero.

To keep up with Guillermo, follow him on Twitter and Instagram, and catch Welcome to Acapulco in theaters now.