Jesse Garcia and his epic, winding hero's journey to Hollywood

Los Angeles Times

03-04-2025

Beneath the fluorescent lighting of his hotel room in Pylos, Greece, Jesse Garcia combs through his greasy strands of hair after a daylong shoot for 'The Odyssey' — Christopher Nolan's upcoming movie adaptation of the Greek epic.
'I got set hair,' says Garcia on our video call, somewhat apologetically. Despite a demanding schedule, he has relished his time shooting in Morocco and Greece, along with Hollywood A-listers like Matt Damon and Zendaya. As he looks back on his trajectory, Garcia's own hero's journey through Hollywood seems to mirror that of the Greek character Odysseus: a man faced with great challenges that at times feel insurmountable yet formative.
'It's like nothing else I've done before,' says Garcia of the big-budget film, which is set for release in 2026.
The actor, 42, has just wrapped up a different kind of odyssey — he also stars in a new Latino road trip comedy on Disney+, 'Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Road Trip.' Released on March 28, the family film sees Garcia as the loving patriarch of the fictional Garcia family, played by an all-star cast made up of Eva Longoria, Paulina Chávez, Thom Nemer, Rose Portillo and Cheech Marin.
'Road Trip' follows the 2014 film 'Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day,' which was based on Judith Viorst's 1972 children's book. Garcia appeared in the first movie as an animal wrangler; in the new film, he plays a chef. 'Maybe I was an animal wrangler so I could put myself through chef school,' he says.
Directed by Marvin Lemus, the new flick depicts a topsy-turvy experience that Garcia is familiar with. 'My parents used to take us to [Durango] to see my dad's family every year,' says Garcia. 'So we [did] that road trip a lot when we were little kids.'
Unlike many of his colleagues in Hollywood, who came from affluent families and studied in prestigious schools, Garcia was born into a Mexican American family in Rawlins, Wyo., a small mining town with few resources for aspiring actors. 'I auditioned for a play in high school,' says Garcia. 'Of course I didn't get it, because I didn't know what I was doing!'
Garcia, an athlete, would devote himself to cheer routines and stunts in high school — he was later awarded a cheerleading scholarship to the University of Nebraska, where he studied exercise science. This skill set later helped him choreograph a scene in the 2007 sports parody 'The Comebacks,' which featured former NFL tight-end Tony Gonzalez.
'If I'd known better back in the day, I would've done cool classes [in college],' Garcia says with a chuckle.
At the behest of a friend, he moved to Atlanta to find his direction. This led him to take acting classes at WHAT Films, an innovative theater class where he learned to write, direct, act and produce original materials under actor-director Judson Vaughn. 'It was a very unique format — that was the foundation of how I work,' says Garcia.
In 2003, with only $2,000 in his pocket and a roommate he found on Craigslist, Garcia made L.A. his home. The city's strong Chicano presence overwhelmed him at first, but he eased into the community. 'I didn't grow up with a strong Latino community in Wyoming,' he explains. 'When I got to L.A., I worked in this movie called 'Walkout' with Edward James Olmos [and] started learning about the history of Latinos in L.A.'
Garcia landed his breakout role in the 2006 film 'Quinceañera,' a coming-of-age film directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland. In it, Garcia played Carlos, a gay teen estranged from his Mexican family, along with his pregnant cousin and protagonist Magdalena (played by Emily Rios). The film gained traction at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award. The film was later acquired and distributed by Sony Pictures.
'I [think] I got like a thousand dollars to do that movie,' says Garcia of his indie flick, which was a nonunion production. '[But] it started my career.'
Garcia followed this momentum with small roles in procedurals like 'CSI: Miami,' 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent' and 'ER.' Although he asked his agents to opt out of stereotypical Latino roles, usually limited to gardeners and gangsters, he relented for a role in the movie 'Days of Wrath,' an 'action gangster flick,' as he puts it. Directed by Celia Fox, it featured a stellar roster of Black and Latino actors: Laurence Fishburne, Lupe Ontiveros, Taye Diggs and Wilmer Valderrama.
But the film, which was slated for release in 2008, would never see the light of day — though he's still looking to get the rights to it. 'Celia, call me,' he says to the camera.
'I was just a broke actor, then 2008 happened,' says Garcia, whose happy-go-lucky demeanor instantly seems to wash away.
In the aftermath of the 2007-08 writers' strike, roles for the blooming actor became harder to come by — a situation that was made more dire by the nation's crushing financial crisis. Nearly 20 years later, creatives continue to fight for their artistry amid growing concerns about AI and streaming revenue, all while production has slowed down in L.A.
His first lead role in a major studio film would not come until 2023, when he was cast as Richard Montañez in 'Flamin' Hot,' the story of a janitor turned self-proclaimed 'godfather of Latino marketing,' who claimed to have invented the finger-licking snack Flamin' Hot Cheetos.
'When I first got the audition for 'Flamin' Hot,' I read it and went, 'This is mine. … They wrote this for me,'' says Garcia. 'I just have to jump through hoops and prove that it's mine.'
First-time director and friend Eva Longoria tells De Los that Garcia, whom she considers her 'cosmic soulmate,' was 'meant to be Richard Montañez.'
'He didn't have one day off, so he had this intense approach to it,' says Longoria. 'He wanted to do well — not just for me but for our community. … We could not fail on 'Flamin' Hot.''
The pressures of the role weighed on Garcia — not because he carried the Latino community on his shoulders, which is an obligation he vehemently shrugs off, but because he was present for all 36 days of shooting.
'Nobody knew [it], but I could have had a mental breakdown every day,' he says.
'There was one day that [co-star] Annie Gonzalez put her hand on my chest just to say hello and check in with me, and I was like, 'Oh s—, why am I so emotional right now?'' says Garcia.
Gonzalez, who played Montañez's wife Judy in 'Flamin' Hot,' remembers this moment during filming. 'Jesse does mask a lot of things with play,' she says. 'I put my hand on his chest and gave him my energy, 'cause I can only imagine carrying this film.'
Although the veracity of this marketing success story was contested in a 2021 L.A. Times investigation, which the real-life Montañez cites in his 2024 defamation suit against the popular chip company, Garcia says he resonates with his character's go-getter spirit. (And, for the record, he also stands behind Montañez's account of events: 'I believe him, he has receipts.')
'I [too] have felt like the underdog,' says Garcia. 'I've felt like I've wanted to quit.'
He says that when thinking back on those stormy moments in 2008, he asks himself: 'Would the 21-year-old version of myself be stoked to meet the current version?'
To that, he says: 'Yeah, I would be proud of that guy.'