A Chat With Jaime Camil Is The Next Best Thing To A Hug From Rogelio

Very sad, very sad. We actually love each other very much. I'm sure you cover a lot of shows and sometimes shows, you know, they feel like a funeral or the air weighs a ton. You know, it is like, "don't engage in eye-to-eye contact with the actor because you might disrupt the creative whatever," bullshit. We don't have this. We are a beautiful family with beautiful human beings working in this amazing, amazing well-written, brilliantly written show by Jennie Urman and her team of writers. So, you know, some people can't wait for the hiatus to rest. We actually were really sad that we are not going to see each other for three or four months to the point we're doing like a get-together tomorrow at a local restaurant in Los Angeles to say goodbye properly and to hug and to whatever. I mean, we're very exaggerated -- it's only three and half months. It's not that bad. But we're going to miss each other a lot. Also the crew, the network executives, I mean, we have only love and support and just good, positive vibes. It spreads to the crew, to the network executives. It's a very beautiful project to be in.

Oh yes. Yes, being in the category of the still employed is really nice.

He's going to get worse. For now I'll just say I'm shooting here with this green screen jumpsuit which is hilarious. It's going to get even better.

Rogelio pops in every color. No, to be honest, it was funny because Rachel from wardrobe is like, "Dude the problem is that you do pop in peach." So it is a problem to find the most hideous horrible peach I can find out there in order to make the note. But, yeah, it's going to be a fun ride. And then you know Rita Moreno is coming to the show to play my mom and of course my mom hates Xiomara, obviously. Rita is very mean to her. It's a lot of things. You know how Jennie writes. It's just a fast-paced, amazing show. I mean, if you stand up in the middle of an episode and go and grab a glass of water, you missed a big chunk of the story. So that's what I love about it.

Well, the thing is that, for Rogelio, family comes first, always, so any sacrifice he makes to be close to his daughter works for him; it works. So he's willing to do that. Actually there are some moments, very beautiful moments, where he's really having a hard time working with Esteban. Esteban is being a real asshole to Rogelio. But he takes it because it's worth it being close to Xiomara and being close to Jane. Rogelio's family comes first, yes.

I love it. I actually love it because I've been with my wife for eleven years and have two beautiful kids, so I do know what it is to be in a established relationship -- como se dice, in a mature relationship. To me it comes easy, and I've always been like that. I've never taken advantage of the celebrity thing. Like "Go and screw every woman that you can" -- never, never. I was always respectful. When I had a girlfriend, she was not my girlfriend, I was her boyfriend and that was it. Maybe it lasted a month or two months or three years, who knows, but that month was a real relationship without any fooling around so I don't have a problem. I like playing these well committed characters.

No, can you imagine? We have made a point throughout the season that Rogelio really cares about social media to the point where he delivers these amazing lines written for him by our amazing team of writers. "Tom Cruise, whatever, I have 1.4 more million more followers than he does." Do you really, Rogelio? You made that into an argument, really? So, yeah, for Rogelio, social media is important. I think it's a reality. Social media is very important nowadays. I love how the writers are implementing the social media thing into the show.

The budget. That's a big difference. Shows in the U.S. are way more expensive. To be honest, I've done over twenty-something films. I am more the film actor and at some point I decided to do sitcoms. In interviews, I get "So you've done so many novelas," and I would be like, "Actually I haven't." I've done more films, and the four or five projects I've done for television, they're sitcoms. So they're situation comedies. And I don't act, you know [melodramatically angry], "Why haven't you called me, Tara?" You know, I don't act like that, not even in Mexico. I did the Mexican version of Ugly Betty. I did the Mexican version of a brilliant Colombian show called Por ella soy Eva which is like Tootsie, Mrs. Doubtfire, if you can imagine me as a woman.

So to me, I think it's a perfectly healthy balance between what the mainstream market is looking for in a one-hour-a-week show and also what the Latino community expects from the novela world, in a way. But we are actually very far away from what a novela is like. Out of curiosity, have you seen novelas? Univision network?

I mean, they're bad. I mean, people love these novelas, but they're like-- "Really? A talking dog who will kidnap the bride-to-be? What?"

So Jennie is brilliant at putting these situations into the show, but in a subtle way. I think the trick with us is that we try to act very real, so when you get these absurd, out-of-this-world situations, we react in a way that's so real that you, as an audience, you're like, "Wow, I'm going to buy this." So you kind of buy it, you know.

That's super-Latino. That's a Latino thing all way. That's what I mean when I tell you that they implement, very cleverly, the novela Latino culture into the show. We don't portray Latinos screaming or shouting or having the house with piatas hanging from the ceiling. That's just amazing. They just portray Latinos like normal families, simple as that. I mean, yeah, this doesn't apply to Rogelio because he's a little over-the-top, but the other Latino families in the show, it does apply. But as a real dad, my daughter is three and a half years old. I will tell you this: I have two scenarios here. My daughter will leave and I'm going to build a dungeon for her. I don't understand where all your laughter is coming from! I'm going to build a dungeon for her with racetracks and everything and then when she's allowed to go out, at forty-three, then, you know, if she comes back pregnant, it's going to be okay; or married, it's going to be okay. That's one scenario. The second scenario is that I will never, ever approve of anyone dating her -- anyone! It comes with the dad job, so that's what I told Libby -- that I would love to see more conflict. There always has to be a conflict between Rafael and Rogelio because of the fact that he's Jane's dad.

Exactly. And even you will have to remind them, because sometimes the writers, they just write Jane saying, "Hey Rogelio," "Wait, wait. No, we have established that she will call him 'Dad' from now on." So, yes, we are very aware of that.

The thing is that Michael is like the safer choice: he has been around, he has respected Jane's virginity. The thing is that he's too good. Sometimes, girls, they like bad boys. I think Michael should go to a 99 cent store and buy a pair of balls and probably that will stir things up. Guess what? In the last episodes and even in the season finale, you will see a Michael that has more personality, a Michael with more character. That will definitely stir things up. To be honest, he has more mileage with Jane than Rafael. Rafael might be the Latino beautiful guy, good-looking, whatever -- the fantasy -- and he's also a very cool guy and everything, but Michael, he just has more mileage with Jane.

Everything, everything. Just seeing this amazing group of individuals four or five days a week, just acting with them and interacting with them; they're all brilliant actors. I'm a true believer that an actor is nothing without the feedback he or she gets from their fellow actors. We know exactly who needs to shine on the scene and they'll shine, and whenever you need to like pass -- like we say in soccer, like pass the ball for the other player to score -- we know exactly when to pass the ball, when to receive the ball, and when to score. I think that's beautiful. I remember Quincy Jones had a poster when he produced "We Are The World," he had a poster outside the studio that said, "Check your ego at the door." That's a beautiful thing about this project: everybody is a good, decent human being besides the fact that they're all brilliant actors. I think we're all decent, good human beings and that's just a beautiful work environment. You talk to our crew -- for example, I made a joke to Bobby, our sound guy, I'm like, "Yeah, probably see you in July? Of course, I'm sure George Lucas is going to call you and you're going to be doing his movie." He immediately turned to me and said, "No, never. I'm not leaving this set." So that tells you how happy our crew is, and I think that transmits to the audience through the screen and maybe that's one of the reasons they connect so much with Jane.

We are all on Valiums. I don't know. I think we are just well-educated people who came together and started doing a show. We are just lucky, and we treat everybody with respect. When we have guest actors or when we have cameos, we make sure they are happy and well taken care of. We give them gifts, books, whatever we can to make them to feel included. We all, as a cast, we've had several conversations. When we first read the pilot, we were like, "Okay, let's make a promise now that everybody will be cool throughout, whatever time this journey takes." Then we also made a promise: every actor cameo or guest role that comes to this show is going to feel like family. We are going to make them feel like we feel when we're here. I think we have accomplished that as well. Also the director: every new director comes and tells us, "I wanted to do this show. I wanted to do this show so bad. Everybody tells me, what an amazing cast, what an amazing energy." So I think that's what we transmit to the audience so that's why you -- the critics, the audience -- have been so overwhelmingly kind to this project.

I don't know if I learned something. I just loved it. I loved it. It was a beautiful experience and I'm super-happy to be a part of it. Jennie is amazing. Yes, thank you. Jennie is amazing. Brad is amazing. Imagine, I don't know if this happens on other shows, but we receive at least one email per month from the president of CBS Studios, David Stapf and Mark Pedowitz, addressed directly to the actors, not our publicists or managers, saying, "Guys, I love the show, blah blah blah. You're amazing." I'm like, what is this? This is magic and I've learned that when you're in a project surrounded by love, only good happens to it.

I don't know. You know what? I would be very greedy and very ungrateful because I'm very privileged to be in a show where they write brilliant stuff for my character. Just brilliance. So asking for more would be very pretentious.

This family is outgrowing this house. We might have to move. So moving, doing guest appearances in shows here and there, and I might have to go Mexico. I also direct a lot. I'm going to be directing some projects and just working and everything, but honestly counting the days until we get back to the set, to this beautiful amazing show.

Changed me the most, like in what way?

24 probably. 24 was an amazing show, the fact that it happens in real time and its continuous brilliance. I just love 24 and I think that everybody did at some point. But more than a show...well this is because this site is really about TV so I shouldn't be talking about movies....

I don't know why, but Mr. Holland's Opus with Richard Dreyfuss. I just love that movie and I cry like a little baby. Every time I watch that movie, I cry and cry and cry and I don't know why. It touched me a lot.

That's not fair! Well, I'm a motorcyclist, so I love Sons Of Anarchy. It's a good show. I didn't like its world -- a show doesn't need to feed the hatred, or portray racist things. I wasn't crazy about that. But just seeing the motorcycles and everything, I just connected with that show. That's the last show I saw. And at some point I was connected to Grey's Anatomy, probably up until Season 4 or 5. Then I worked and I couldn't watch it anymore, but lately: Sons Of Anarchy. I love that show.