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Julio Torres has by no means had a bank card. He doesn’t actually have a credit score rating, he stated, and doesn’t need one, regardless that attempting to lease an house is hellish with out it.
“I don’t need to do a symbolical gesture to bow right down to the system in order that I can have a house,” he stated.
Torres’s new HBO present, “Fantasmas,” displays his contempt for the paperwork of contemporary life. It is ostensibly about his character Julio’s mission to discover a misplaced golden oyster earring, however he’s stymied each step of the way in which by expertise, techniques and firms. A type of ID referred to as “proof of existence” is required to do just about something, however Julio is as defiant as the person who performs him. “I’m totally different,” he says within the present. “I’m my very own factor. I’m the exception. So no, I don’t want proof of existence.”
Torres, who additionally created, wrote and directed the sequence, described it as “free, roaming, surreal, however grounded in human emotion and really curious.” Julio’s quest steadily detours into absurd comedic vignettes that includes actors together with Emma Stone, Steve Buscemi, Dylan O’Brien, Rosie Perez and Aidy Bryant.
On the entire, nonetheless, the present is a shade darker than earlier work like “Problemista,” Torres’s function directorial debut, from earlier this 12 months, a few toy designer from El Salvador racing to resume his work visa earlier than it expires. A former author for “Saturday Night Live,” Torres launched an HBO comedy particular, “My Favorite Shapes,” in 2019. The similar 12 months, he cocreated and starred within the Spanglish comedy sequence “Los Espookys,” additionally on HBO.
In late May, Torres sat down in his workplace within the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn to debate turning the tangible into the summary and why illustration onscreen should come from an trustworthy place. These are edited excerpts from the dialog.
There are many vignettes in “Fantasmas,” however the present additionally has a cohesive through-line. Which got here first, the vignettes or the narrative arc?
Numerous the concepts of the vignettes I’ve had for a lot of, a few years; quite a lot of them are new. Then in occupied with the present as a complete, I deliberately determined that it ought to have a story arc that may information us. That narrative arc, it all the time included the little oyster, however then it stored altering and altering. Looking on the themes of the sum whole of the vignettes knowledgeable what the narrative arc was. And that’s the place I actually relied on the opinions and concepts of different collaborators. That’s the place I felt like I wanted a little bit of a suppose tank to make it make sense.
I’m positively the form of author who actually advantages from sounding boards and editors, just like the Tim Gunn to my “Project Runway” contestants. I would like script therapists to be like, “It looks like what you’re saying is this.” And then it’s like: “How about it’s not your credit score rating, however one thing somewhat extra world that we provide you with? Proof of existence.”
What does “proof of existence” imply to you?
I believe it represents any system that phases out those that have much less, and that those that are capable of be in it don’t actually query it. Which I believe is what a credit score rating is, or immigration and whatnot. The distinction is that everybody on this world [of “Fantasmas”] succumbs to that.
More than being interested by immigration or credit score scores or no matter, to me it’s the worldwide paperwork. And in speaking about this through-line, at one level I used to be contemplating having it’s that my character was simply getting priced out of the house, and that it was about looking for an reasonably priced house.
But then my buddy Neha [a producer of the show, Neha Simon] was like: “No one needs to see you are concerned about cash. That’s not the factor; it’s extra of a precept factor.” So that’s the place my credit score rating allergy got here to play, simply making a world the place everybody has this factor and nobody questions it. And I believe it’s extra about being like: “Oh, I don’t need to be a part of that world. I’m actively rejecting being part of that.”
This present feels extra mature than one thing like “Problemista.”
“Problemista” could be very spherical. It’s softer, I believe. This has positively extra tooth.
Did you’re employed particularly in that path, or was it extra natural?
Very natural. I believe that in “Problemista,” I lean into my most go-getting optimist, and in “Fantasmas,” I lean into frustration, which is, I suppose, a extra grownup feeling.
Did making “Fantasmas” really feel cathartic in any respect?
No, I don’t suppose so. I don’t suppose I launched any of these feelings within the creating of the present. I expressed them.
I’ve described it as “Black Mirror”-adjacent, however I don’t know if that’s fairly proper.
But I do know what you imply as a result of additionally it is a present preoccupied with the way in which that expertise alienates us from one another, and the way in which that we additionally work together with one another by way of expertise. That’s one thing I’m very interested by. That is science fiction at its greatest, when it’s commenting on a collective nervousness.
The present additionally shows a palpable frustration with the paperwork of on a regular basis life.
I really feel like I’m always tangled in some form of bureaucratic net and always making the tangible philosophical. Constantly attempting to win philosophical battles and switch issues into disputes about concepts moderately than realities. I don’t need to simply speak in regards to the factor; I need to speak about why the factor exists. I believe some solace would are available in at the least getting the enforcers of paperwork to agree that it’s ridiculous.
In the present, you additionally appear annoyed with the concept of onscreen illustration as an answer in and of itself. For instance, when Julio’s agent tells him a studio needs him to play “the primary queer, 5-foot-8 Latinx superhero on a straight-to-streaming sequence,” he hates the concept.
I don’t reject the vanity of individuals having the ability to relate to what they see. I believe that could be a very human factor all of us do. I simply suppose that relatability just isn’t utterly beauty. It’s not simply that the particular person actually appears such as you; there needs to be one thing in regards to the portrayal and the experiences there which might be really knowledgeable by actuality. And [representation] just isn’t the end-all, be-all of progress.
Where do you stand on illustration as an idea? Is it utterly pointless?
No, not if it’s really rooted in real curiosity for the individuals being represented and real curiosity for these experiences. And if we don’t suppose that in itself is the answer to the whole lot. Because it’s worthwhile to query the techniques that oppress individuals, not simply present them. Otherwise, it’s simply beauty.
Dylan O’Brien’s character, Dustin, has this line: “I ought to assist, as a result of why else am I an artist if to not make the world a greater place?” What do you suppose is the aim of being an artist?
I believe all artists have totally different functions, so I don’t suppose there’s a world reply for that. My time is healthier spent exhibiting individuals issues in a brand new manner, or exhibiting individuals issues they’ve seen earlier than however in a manner they hadn’t considered earlier than. To me, if it’s an excessive amount of like one thing that already occurred, don’t do it. I believe that each piece ought to function in its personal language.
