‘Lowriders’ Actor Theo Rossi Talks Eva Longoria

‘Lowriders’ Actor Theo Rossi Talks Eva Longoria

By Daniela Galvez

Theo Rossi has a lot of things to look forward to this year. On Tuesday, the former Sons of Anarchy star announced that he and wife Meghan McDermott are expecting their second child. The couple, who already share son Kane Alexander, revealed the pregnancy after his wife debuted her baby bump at a special screening of his new film Lowriders.

Rossi, who is starring alongside Eva Longoria in the film, plays Francisco ‘Ghost’ Alvarez, an ex-convict who got caught in the low riding car community. We recently spoke with the 41-year-old about his experience working with Longoria, playing a villainous character in the Marvel series Luke Cage, and more.

Read it all in our exclusive interview below:

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Tell us about your latest film Lowriders.

It’s a film that’s extremely important to me. It was serendipitous from day one. I think there’s a lot of different reason why for me. The way it came to me, the way it wound up happening, my son being born during it, the fact that really at the heart of it it’s a relationship between a father and his two sons. Mainly between my father and I, it was something that rang really deeply with me because of my own personal relationship with my birth father, who was gone at a young age. We had this specific relationship. It really gave me the opportunity to exercise a lot of these things and just meant a lot to me. Also, with my son being born during it. There was just a lot of different emotions, a lot of reasoning why I believe this film came to fruition for me. It’s a family drama. It’s a family story that’s wrapped up in all this glitz and glamour of the lowriding community. It really has to do with tradition and things that are past down and things that are meaningful in specific communities. Also, just a really cool look into a subculture that really not a lot of people know about. I think people know about the cars and maybe know that they ride just a few inches from the ground, but they don’t realize why. What the murals mean. What the artwork means. How this all came about. Why they were dropped lower. There were so many things we learned through this film, which I think is the reason we go to films, for entertainment and to learn something we don’t know. This is a great exploration into a subculture that I think a lot of people don’t know about.

What was your experience working with Eva Longoria?

She’s a boss. She’s a tremendous person for what she does. I have so much respect for her, for what she does philanthropically and how she really handles her business. Not just for the community but what she does for the earth in general. She comes on to this very male-dominated testosterone-driven lowrider setting and she’s at the head of the table. She truly is a boss and as cool as a human as you get, and as funny and beautiful and all that stuff you would expect. Sometimes when you see people who are huge public figures and then you meet them you always hope there what you imagined them to be or what you’d hope they be, and she didn’t disappoint at all. I love her. I think she’s a tremendous person. I think she’s tremendous in this film. I think she’s going to surprise a lot of people. She basically becomes a character actor right before your eyes and really takes you to a really different part with Gloria that you didn’t see coming.

You’re currently on the Netflix Marvel series Luke Cage, how has it been playing a villain?

Oh my god, you never want to say it’s a dream to play a villain. When you grow up like me drawing comics, going to comic shows, you and your friend collecting comics and sitting there and drawing Wolverine and Punisher until your hands hurt and now to be in the MCU – the marvel universe – it’s like living your childhood every single day you’re on set. Between Netflix and Marvel, I don’t know if anyone is doing better in the game right now. They’re the top. Nobody does it better than them. To be on the number one show, on the number one platform, and to film in my hometown, I can’t write the story better than that.

Of course, this isn’t your first big series. You were on Sons of Anarchy for seven season. Looking back did you ever think the show would turn into the success it has and still is?

You know it’s funny, I was just in Bulgaria filming this movie for two months and I’m jogging in Sofia, Bulgaria, doing my morning jog before I go to the set, and I saw a guy literally in the middle of Bulgaria wearing the reaper shirt. I noticed in my two months I was there, many people were repping the Reaper crew and wearing the Sons logo on their back. It’s really interesting because you realize how global it is and how giant it’s become. When we started that show, nobody watched it. It was a very small show that was on this little network that not a lot of people knew. Now FX is pumping out award-winning shows left and right. To see what its become, what it still is, there’s not a day I don’t walk down the block and I don’t hear someone yell, ‘Juice,’ and I love it. I love that because that show has afforded me everything in life. Everything that I do, everything that I am… my family, my life, being back in my hometown, the power of Sons is extraordinary. It’s one of the shows that if you know it, you’re obsessed with it, you know everything about it, and you’re such an incredible fan. If you don’t, which I haven’t met many people that don’t, what they do is they go, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve heard its great.’ Those are the two responses. Now that I’m so used to it with Sons and Luke Cage, I can’t imagine ever saying you’re on a show and people don’t know what it is. I’ve been so fortunate to be on these shows that everyone knows what they are and they’ve been so extremely successful. Sons really was the jump off for all of it. I also think it was the jump off for truly what’s going on in television right now, this golden age of television. Between The Sopranos, and The Wire, and Sons, and Breaking Bad, and Sex and the City, and all these shows that start coming out within a few years of each other really started this trend of how we consume our entertainment now.

Are there any other exciting projects that you’re currently working on that your willing to share with our readers?

I just finished this film that we are really proud of called Ghost of War in Bulgaria that will be out next year. It’s a really tremendous project that deals with a lot of different things. It’s a thrill ride. I have never done a project like it. It’s really unique in the way it’s telling this very important story. It’s very cool to be part of something like this, the way it was shot. I’m really excited. There’s some tremendous actors in it, tremendous young actors, and I think people are going to go on a ride. It’s almost like going to Six flags or Disney World and getting on a ride from the beginning and you come off and your just like, ‘What just happened and I want to do it again.’ I think that’s that kind of what this film will be. Obviously, right after the release of Lowriders we’re back in the saddle for Luke Cage season two. Super excited for that! I think we barely scratch the surface of the story that Cheo is trying to tell. With those coming out, we got ourselves busy over the next year.

Source: Latina.com