‘Blue Beetle’ Actor Raoul Max Trujillo Says It “Is Pretty Exciting” That Susan Sarandon Is “Only ‘White Person’ In The Film,” Accuses United States Of Exploiting Puerto Rico
John F. Trent
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Blue Beetle actor Raoul Max Trujillo, who plays Conrad Carapax in the movie, recently detailed how exciting it is for the film to only have one white person in the movie.
Raoul Max Trujillo as Conrad Carapax in Blue Beetle (2023), DC Studios
Raoul Max Trujillo, who previously starred in Apocalypto back in 2006, spoke about the movie with Heroic Hollywood where he informed the outlet, “Being part of a project where the focus is on a culture that’s outside of the Hollywood Anglo-Saxon culture that we’ve seen our whole lives in everything… it’s just so touching and warming.”
He added, “You see a whole level that, had it been just sort of a regular American family, it wouldn’t have had the heart that it had. So I think that’s what made me super excited about being a part of this film.”
Raoul Max Trujillo as Conrad Carapax in Blue Beetle (2023), DC Studios
The actor then shared, “Susan Sarandon’s character, Victoria Kord, is the only ‘white person’ in the film. The rest of the characters are all brown people. And that is pretty exciting, and I think it’s pretty brave of Warner Bros. to have supported the project and Angel’s dream to tell this particular story.”
“As a DC movie, this has darkness in it, but it’s also got this incredible heart and it’s incredible light,” Trujillo relayed.
Xolo Maridueña as Blue Beetle in Blue Beetle (2023), DC Studios
Trujillo also praised the film’s portrayal of Kord’s character andher “ravishing of indigenous people.”
He said, “When I saw the movie, there were a lot of teary eyes in that audience. They were moved. There are some images that will make you go ‘Holy f–k, that s–t’s real.’ In relation to the military-industrial complex, and the sort of ravishing of indigenous people. There are some brilliant references that Angel has thrown in there, and you just there’s no way you can miss them. They have to do with the times that they’re living in in America.”
Jamie Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) has words with Carapax (Raoul Max Trujillo) in Blue Beetle (2023), DC Studios
Sarandon previously described her character as the white military industrial complex in an interview with Jimmy Fallon.
She said, “What’s fabulous about [Blue Beetle] is it’s the first Latinx hero that has his own movie. Even better all of the Mexican — because his family is Mexican and all the actors were Mexican and it’s in Spanish so it’s subtitled.”
“I’m, of course, the bad guy. I’m the white military industrial complex. So I had a fabulous time because there’s nothing better than being bad,” she added.
Later in the interview, Trujillo accused the United States of exploiting Puerto Rico, while discussing filming on the island, “First of all, Puerto Rico, being the place that it is with such a rich history of slavery, colonization, and exploitation to this day by the United States — that sort of vibe is felt underneath, you feel a sort of revolutionary vibe in these people.”
“So to shoot this film there, which has a lot of those elements, you’re surrounded by it. And it’s real. It’s not make-believe. It’s not pretend. Some of the locations, especially the old fort, are 500 years old. The blood spilled there, and the tortures that must have happened there — that s– is real. I’m Native. Shooting it in that specific location, with that vibration of persecuted people and murder and genocide and all of that… it comes through,” he said.
Xolo Maridueña as Blue Beetle in Blue Beetle (2023), DC Studios
Trujillo is not alone in this view. The film’s director Angel Manuel Soto also shared to Twitter that he believes Puerto Rico is a slave colony.
He wrote, “Puerto Rico is a slave colony of the USA. Your passport was impossed on us, so there is nowhere else to after your country s***s on my land and blame us for the stink.”
Ángel Manuel Soto Twitter
The actor concluded the interview stating, “I just hope that everyone walks away realizing that we’re not bastardizing an idea or a character or anything else. We’re just evolving it further. Hopefully, they can walk away with a really deep, powerful message with this film.”
“I don’t think it knocks you over the head with a hammer. I think it’s subtle, nuanced. There’s definitely a message to be seen and heard here and I hope fans can walk around and just realize that this isn’t just another superhero movie that is fluff. It’s not,” he continued.
“With the small experience I have with comic books and heroes from DC, Marvel, or whatever else, it’s like, there are usually messages for us to take away, with the whole ‘good vs evil’ archetypes and all that. I just hope people can walk away from this and just see the deeper meaning and message with this film and keep supporting it,” Trujillo finished.
Adriana Barraza as Nana Reyes, Belissa Escobedo as Milagro Reyes, Damian Alcazar as Alberto Reyes, and Elpidia Carrillo as Rocio Reyes in Blue Beetle (2023), Warner Bros. Pictures
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As for what the messaging the film contains, Soto confirmed it featured an illegal immigration allegory to MovieMaker. The outlet explained the allegory, “Before the movie begins, the family has immigrated to America from Mexico, but [Jamie Reyes’ father] Alberto doesn’t have documentation, so he’s under the constant threat of deportation.”
They go on to note, “Though the film doesn’t depict an ICE raid, it does include a scene that echoes one. Kord Industries invades the family’s home in a scene that can play as just another dramatic moment in a superhero movie – or be taken as symbolic of events that tear apart real families.”
Raoul Max Trujillo as Conrad Carapax in Blue Beetle (2023), DC Studios
Soto confirmed this description telling them, “There is a history that exists before an ICE raid. A history that includes traveling miles, and danger, working hard, becoming a family, creating memories, and thinking that everything is going to be okay.”
“But all of a sudden, everything that you have fought for, everything that you have worked for, everything that you have built, is now burning. I needed the depiction to be triggering, because it’s the experience of many,” he added.
Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) wears the Blue Beetle suit for the first time in Blue Beetle (2023), DC Studios
In an interview with Collider, Soto further detailed the film features themes of displacement, colonialism, and gentrification.
He said, “For example, in my case, from Puerto Rico, displacement, colonialism, gentrification. Those are things that are real threats. Home insecurity, not putting food on the table, proper healthcare. All those things that are villains, but at the same time what are all those things that are are heroic things like community, like standing up against a tyrant, or standing up against the things that weaken us, but doing it through the power of family and community.”
“So being able to hone in to those experiences that I know firsthand, that the writer also knows firsthand because Gareth [Dunnet-Alcocer] is from Queretaro, Mexico. We were able to find where our different journeys intersect in a similarity of experiences that not only affect our individual countries, but also affects countries in Latin American and abroad,” Soto concluded.
What do you make of Trujillo’s comments regarding Blue Beetle?
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