Raquel Laguna/ SUCOPRESS. Mexican filmmaker Sergio Guerrero directs Ethan Daniel Corbett in Clown & Out. In this interview, Sergio and Ethan talk about working together, about comedy and about fame in Hollywood. Clown & Out is an action comedy written and directed by Sergio Guerrero Garzafox (A Day Without a Mexican) and starring Alejandro Edda (Narcos: Mexico, Kevin Costner’s Horizon, The Forever Purge, and American Made) as a down and out comedian who turns into an instant celebrity when he gets into an altercation with a gangster and it’s all caught on livestream. At its core, the film is about the phenomenon of instant celebrity and the fleeting nature of fame. The protagonist’s journey from obscurity to sudden notoriety and the subsequent unraveling of his life serve as a compelling commentary on the allure and pitfalls of fame.
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00:00Well, I really enjoyed the dynamic between Lou and his father and how he was just really
00:08vying for his father's approval. That's what really motivated every action that he takes
00:15in this movie. And he kind of goes out of his way to try and earn his father's approval,
00:23which I think is so simple. And in a movie that is so grandiose in its portrayal, it's
00:35really interesting to have a very simple motivation, something like that, to drive a character
00:40to do things like that. And his character arc perfectly mirrors the leads of Alejandro's
00:47character arc. So I think that was really interesting. And that was something I definitely
00:50wanted to tackle. Well, for me, I feel like I didn't fully understand the character until I
00:59worked with the makeup artist and the costume designer. Because in the movie, as you can tell,
01:05I always have this crazy makeup on, I have bleached blonde hair, I have these really kind
01:11of peacock kind of clothing that's like kind of overcompensating for something. And that informed
01:18so much about the character for me. So it was kind of the moment we did the makeup test,
01:25and the moment we put on the clothes for the first time, that's when I finally understood
01:29who this character was. He was just really kind of needing attention. So that's really what
01:36inspired the entire character. He had a very clear vision for what he wanted. But he also
01:46let me play. And I think I surprised him with a bunch of my choices, because I'm the kind of
01:51actor that loves to, I'll give you so much, I'll turn up the volume to 11. And then you can pull
01:58back if it's too much and too much. So he kind of just let me do my own thing. And he was really
02:05lovely to work with, too. It's really great when you feel safe in a director's hands, like someone
02:13that knows what they're doing. So I felt very safe with Sergio. So that's probably my number one
02:21takeaway from the experience. Honestly, I learned so much watching Alejandro. He
02:28has this magnetism about him that just makes you attract to him on and off screen. That's just who
02:37Alejandro is. And there's something about how the way that he approaches the work, he kind of takes
02:45away the glamour of it. It's not really about him. The ego is taken out of it, which is something
03:00that I really was inspired by. And that's the one thing I took away from Alejandro. And my other
03:10co-star, Catherine, she brought so much just like fun to every single line that she said. She made
03:16every line just like, kill. And it's just the way that she also approached your work, which was just
03:24very like, she took it very seriously. I learned a lot from watching them. So I just think that it
03:32was really great. I started exploring comedy from A Day Without a Mexican movie, which we believe
03:41that comedy is a great vehicle to tell important issues. So every time that I make a movie, I always
03:50try to go deep in social problems, like immigrations, like identity, in every single
04:00indie film, money-wise, time-wise, everything. So when we wrote it, we knew that we have
04:08limited resources. So we start creating main locations in order to shoot a lot in, let's say,
04:18the comedy club. OK, we can do the kitchen, the bar, the comedy club, the bathroom, all of those
04:25things. We can shoot it in one place. Think about identity and the perception of everybody wants to
04:34be famous and everybody wants their 15 minutes of fame. And also about how difficult it is to
04:47make it in Hollywood, even if you're a comedian or an actor. And also be yourself as much as you
04:55can in order to make it.