Page 53 - Sharp Summer 2021

a strenuous swimming schedule. It wasn’t until his senior year that he decided to turn down a swimming scholarship to Fordham University in favour of attending UCLA, where he majored in Spanish and Community and Culture and worked multiple jobs to support his dream of becoming an actor.
While he agrees that the industry has seen an increase in Latin representation in the past decade (“I haven’t had this many auditions for Latinx roles ever in my life”), Perez, who is of Mexican, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean descent, says that he has noticed a “troubling” trend among casting directors in Hollywood.
“They want someone who’s Cuban-specific or Mexican- specific, and you’re like, ‘Okay, great.’ But when you get into the minutia of their skin colour, they’ll say, ‘We need someone darker. This Latin actor is not brown enough.’ It’s very unset- tling, because I would hate the industry to start saying Latin
is [only] dark-brown skin and black hair,” he explains. “I feel like, once they start understanding that we are so diverse, we just need more BIPOC folks in positions of power to make these decisions and let fewer non-BIPOC people speak for them.”
With his newfound platform, Perez, who acknowledges that his mixed heritage has allowed him to “pass” as other races in the past, recognizes the unspoken responsibility that he has to speak out about issues that directly affect his own loved ones. “Going from trans rights to gay rights to people of colour’s rights
to all of it, I’m here for all of it, however they need it. As I’m meeting more and more people, my only intention is to bring love, kindness, and support after this frickin’ year that we just went through,” he says with a natural fervour.
Perez is wary of both fake news and cancel culture, so he tends to do his own research before speaking on social and political issues. “You think of the immigration camps where children are held in the Trump-era and then you still have them being held in the Biden era. You’re like, ‘Okay, well, this wasn’t okay during that time period, but this is okay now? At the core, what is the truth?’ I find that really difficult, be- cause people are so quick to share and post when you could be ruining someone’s business or community,” he says, later adding that he has no plans to join Twitter anytime soon. (“I feel like it’s a dark place. People are just mean! I don’t want that bad juju in my life.”)
Buoyed by a strong support system (away from Twitter), Perez has every reason to be optimistic about his future. He’s waiting with bated breath for the final Kissing Booth movie, which is slated for an August 11 release. He’s now — for better or for worse — a fashion influencer, describing his personal style as “Issey Miyake beach vibes on my good days and Steve McQueen, jeans, flannel, mountain vibes on my roll-out-of-bed days.” But at the heart of his onscreen work is a renewed com- mitment to telling new stories that challenge the status quo.
“I love putting women in power, and I hate to play second fiddle to another actor, but I love that more projects are show- ing women as these strong, intelligent, superhuman beings. It’s exciting, and I love the kind of stuff that I’ve been getting,” he says. “I also love superhero stuff — X-Men was my child- hood — and I want to be a superhero one day. If Wolverine comes back, I want to be Wolverine. That’s the goal.”
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