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By Sarah Kuhn
Back Stage West
Jorge Garcia is one of a kind. With his generously
sized frame, massive shag of hair -- director Tenney Fairchild affectionately
refers to it as "souffle-head" -- and laid-back California-dude demeanor, the
actor has a distinctive presence that casting directors and couch potatoes alike
can't help but take notice of. "There's no one quite like him," says "Lost" casting director April Webster. "He's a one-er, as they
say."
Garcia's unique persona helped him land a role on "Lost," ABC's
runaway hit about a diverse group of plane crash survivors marooned on a
mysterious island. As easygoing Hugo "Hurley" Reyes, Garcia has emerged as a
major fan favorite, an accessible, everyman kind of character that seems to be
universally loved. "Lost" co-creator/executive producer Damon Lindelof realized the impact of Garcia's
performance when a flight attendant approached him on the way to Hawaii, where
the show is filmed. "It was right after the show had premiered," he says. "Up
until that point, people were, like, 'Oh, I like that doctor dude, I like the
hot chick, I like the drug guy,' but nobody really knew their names yet. But she
walked up and goes, 'My husband and I just love Hurley so much.' I think, at
that point, he's only referred to by name one or two times over the course of
the episode. I'll watch an entire season of television and not know a
character's name. I'll be, like, 'Oh, the blond dude on ER.' I just felt like he had obviously made quite an impression
with her."
The character of Hurley didn't exist prior to Garcia's
audition -- at least not in the form that ended up onscreen. "[The creators] had
this part of Hurley, but [they] hadn't written anything for Hurley yet, because
we didn't know Hurley was going to be a series regular. He was going to be this
redneck, 50-year-old hunter guy," says Webster. "And then when they saw Jorge,
they just decided to make the character him. What's so great about these
producers is, they have a vision to create roles around the actors if they're
good actors and interesting actors."
Lindelof says he, Webster, and
fellow co-creator/exec producer J.J. Abrams initially spotted Garcia
playing a drug dealer in an episode of HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm." "The next morning, J.J. was, like, 'Did
you watch "Curb Your Enthusiasm" last night? That dude, that big guy: We've got
to get him in to read for "Lost,"'" remembers Lindelof. "And I was, like, 'For
which part?' He goes, 'I don't know, that guy's gotta be on the
show.'"
Adds Webster, "What I loved about [the part on "Curb"] was that
he didn't act it. He was just so cool ... The character wasn't a stereotyped
character: the sleazy little guy. He's a big guy, he's very present, and he was
just so underplayed. It had that reality to it."
Garcia went in and read
the sides for the character of shady southerner Sawyer, a part that eventually
went to Josh Holloway. "After he read the sides, we just sat
and chatted with him for five or 10 minutes, and he sort of gave us a sense of
who he was and what he was about, and we just wrote the character for him, for
that specific actor," says Lindelof. "I think what he brings to the show is that
sense of, like, 'Oh, I could be that guy,' or 'I know that guy,' or 'I like that
guy, and he feels real.' There's something about him."
In person, Garcia
is just as engaging as his onscreen persona. Though he has the same laid-back
quality as Hurley, the actor is obviously passionate about his craft and the
hard work he's put in to get to this point. He has an infectious grin that seems
to take up his whole face, and he breaks into it often, especially when
recalling certain memories: for example, that fateful day he auditioned for the
role on "Curb," which, coincidentally, was the same day he was set to shoot a
pilot he'd recently booked. "There's nothing like auditioning for something on
the day you're going to work," he says. "That's like auditioning on the day you
get a paycheck; you audition different. The whole trick is to learn how to walk
in like that even when you've been living on ramen and microwave burritos for a
week."
Garcia, who was born in Nebraska and raised in San Juan Capistrano,
California, remembers getting the performing bug as a young child: The first
thing that made a big impression on him was "Fiddler on the Roof." "I would sing 'If I Were a Rich Man,'" he says. "It was very, 'Sing for
Grandma, sing for Grandma,' but I really liked it." Garcia acted in high school
and while in college performed in a play and dabbled in standup comedy. "I was
really starting to look at maybe doing film school or something like that. I
wasn't sure at that point," he says. "But the most important thing after I
graduated was to get a job, so I didn't have to move back home."
He got a
gig at Borders, where he was still employed a little more than a year and a half
ago. He also started taking acting classes at the Beverly Hills Playhouse, where
he studied with Richard Lawson, Gary Imhoff, and the playhouse founder, Milton Katselas. A producer who spotted him in a
showcase there hooked Garcia up with representation, and the actor was sent out
on his first pilot season. He tested for a couple of projects, landed a
commercial agent, and a year later booked his first spot. "Working at Borders
was good because it gives you health insurance, but you can't live off it," he
says. "So an occasional day on a TV show and a couple of commercials would
supplement what I was making at Borders, so then I could live and not need money
from Mom and Dad."
Garcia's first commercial spot led to a string of ads,
including a memorable Jack in the Box role in which he plays a not-too-bright
guy who masquerades as Jack by wearing a cardboard hat. "My Jack in the Box
commercial was my first taste of street recognition," he says. "Commercials are,
like, nothing you aim for, but it helps pay the bills. And it puts you in front
of people's faces enough that, when they see you, sometimes they recognize you
and they don't even know exactly from what."
In 2003, Garcia booked a
pilot titled "The Originals," which revolved around a 1970s/1980s memorabilia
shop. It didn't get picked up, but the bigger paycheck allowed Garcia to quit
his day job. Still, he says, after he landed "Curb," things got a little dry.
"The first of the month was coming up, and I didn't have rent," he remembers.
"And I actually called my parents and borrowed the money from them. The same
week, I got a check from a commercial I'd done at the beginning of the year, so
I was able to send that check right back."
Then August happened. August
2003 is the month Garcia landed a day on a sitcom, a lead in a feature film, and
a part on long-running series "Becker" that turned into a series-regular gig. "I
would do 'Becker' in the day, go do night shoots for the movie, and on the
weekends I was doing this play at the Skylight [Henry Jaglom's "A Safe Place"] -- I was in one scene," he remembers. "I'd do my
scene, and then I'd set up a little makeshift bed and sleep, and then one of the
other actors would wake me up before curtain call."
And of course after
"Becker" came "Lost," and now Garcia can't go out in either Hawaii or the
mainland without being recognized. There was the woman who stealthily snapped
his photo at the farmer's market and then took off without a word. There are
people who run up and hug him, and kids who see him and, he says, "suddenly
behave." Garcia was at a local Mexican joint picking up take-out when he had yet
another fan encounter. "I was filling up my little cups of salsa, and a guy
comes up to me with a picture of me asking me to sign it. ... It still had the
perforation on the edge of it, like something that was just printed out of a
printer. There's that white piece you tear off? I think he ran home, got on the
Internet, printed it out, and ran [back] while I was getting my food prepared,"
he says, grinning at the memory.
Though he says he's a bit shy in crowds,
Garcia is happy and grateful for the positive audience response. "It helps that
most people seem genuinely happy to see me when they do," he says. "I think it's
part of the crowd-pleasing quality of the character, and that's pretty
cool."
Though Garcia's distinctive look seems to have worked for him, he
has been offered his share of typical "fat guy" roles, some of which he's passed
on. "Sometimes, like, [with] the fat guy stuff, you're stuck with a lot of bad
jokes to be the butt of," he says. "There are certain things like that, that I
was, like, 'Um, you know, I'm gonna say no to this one.' If a role is called
'fat guy?' Yeah, you know what? I don't think so. He at least deserves a
name."
In weighing which roles to take, Garcia says he would consider the
different elements that went into the character and project. "It's kind of,
like, I'd give them an allowance in a way," he says. "Like, 'Okay, I hate this
joke, but I also get to do this in this movie. I'm gonna live with that joke.'
I've done that at times."
One such role Garcia took on pre-"Lost" was a
lead part in IFilm short "The Slow and the Cautious," a parody of "The Fast and the Furious" with Garcia in the Vin Diesel-type role and features two overweight guys
go-kart racing for pizza. "It was a cool character. I was a little scruffy, and
my hair was slicked back, and I get to kiss a girl in it," he says. "He was a
really hardcore tough guy, which I hadn't really done. I don't get cast as
heavies because of my cherub-like facial expressions. [I thought] it would pad
my reel a little bit, and it gave me some good scenes, and it was shot on film,
too, which just looks great. So there are a couple of jokes that kind of weird
me out when I watch it, but there are some parts that I think are really
funny."
And while Garcia acknowledges that there are certain roles he
might not be considered for, he knows this for a fact: The parts that belong to
him are his and his alone. "I'm not going to be hired, necessarily, to play
Romeo," he says. "But you have to be able to own what you have -- know what you
have and have ownership of that. I think there's a certain level of ego that is
necessary. I always have this little thing behind me going, 'Just wait until
they get a load of me.'" He grins slyly. "'Just wait, and then you'll
see.'"
As the actor progresses in his career, he hopes to expand the
perception of the types of roles he can play. "The way Woody Allen was able to change the concept of what a
leading man could be? I want to do that, too," he says. "I want to get the girl.
I want to be the unlikely hero."
