Ben Affleck’s Animals hits Netflix today, and in a world where nearly every winner at the 2026 awards in TV and Film were white, there is one refreshing word to describe the cast: diverse. Ahead of the film's release HOLA! Had the chance to talk to Adriana Paz and Luis Gerardo Méndez, and for the stars, being part of the movie meant more than joining a high-stakes Hollywood thriller. It gave the Mexican actors an opportunity to portray characters whose stories exist far beyond the stereotypes that have so often defined Latino roles on screen.
© GettyThe Netflix film, which Affleck directed, co-wrote, and stars in, follows Los Angeles mayoral candidate Mark Kimball (Affleck) and his wife, Abigail (Kerry Washington), after their son is kidnapped. As they scramble to raise the ransom, their carefully constructed lives begin to unravel. Paz and Méndez play Cecilia Trujillo and Ramon, respectively, two Mexican characters caught within the film’s morally complicated world.
For Méndez, the chance to tell that story felt like “fresh air.” “From the minute we read the script, but especially when we both met Ben, Ben grabbed us and said that he was like, ‘I need you guys. You know, like I really need you,’” Méndez recalled.
© GettyAffleck made it clear that he wanted their perspective throughout the process, particularly because the movie moves between Mexico and the United States. “This movie is half Mexico, half the U.S. And you are the Mexicans in the movie,” Méndez said Affleck told them.
“So anything you want to change about the script, anything you feel that it doesn't feel accurate or whatever, like just come to me and let's please talk.” “And he wasn't bluffing,” Méndez added. “It was like a really beautiful collaboration process.”
© GettyThat collaboration was especially important to the actors because of the history of Mexican characters in Hollywood. “There’s something that is key,” Méndez said. “That is the curiosity of the filmmaker.”
After working in Hollywood for seven years, he said he has frequently encountered American filmmakers who assume they already understand Latin culture because they have visited Mexico. “They're like, ‘Yeah, I know Mexico. I've been to Cancun a couple of times, and I went to Mexico City once with my girlfriend. Like, I know what I'm talking about,’” he said. “It's like, ‘No, you don't. You know, like it's way deeper and it's very complex and you need to have people.’”
Méndez explained that authenticity comes from making sure the people whose cultures are being represented have a voice in how those stories are told. “We need to be in control of the narratives too,” he said. “We need to be a part of the conversation of the create of the of when you're developing a project.”
“That’s fundamental, especially in the moment we are right now, where authenticity is king,” he continued. “If it doesn't feel authentic, it's not going to fly.”
© Warrick Page/NetflixPaz felt the same way about what Animals offered its Latino characters. “For me, it was one of the most important aspects of this story,” she said. “Representation of the Latin community is not always positive.” She was particularly proud to play characters who are “honest” and “hardworking” and, above all, have dignity.
Méndez pointed specifically to Cecilia’s relationship with her boss as an example of the kind of representation he rarely sees. “She’s not like, ‘Oh, yes, ma'am, whatever you say.’ No, she's not like that,” he said. “She's like, ‘Yeah, I'm working for you, but I have these needs, and I have these concerns.’” “And that's very refreshing because we never see that,” he added.
He sees those characters as reflective of the Latino community he knows in Los Angeles: people working, paying their taxes and building lives without their identities being reduced to the usual Hollywood shorthand. “I think it's very important to see that representation as well, which is very rare,” he said.
© GettyAdriana Paz and Luis Gerardo Méndez on working with Ben Affleck
© Warrick Page/NetflixWhile the representation mattered, working with Affleck behind the camera also gave the actors a new appreciation for him as a filmmaker. Paz was struck by watching Affleck move between acting and directing. “It was like two persons, you know, in the same person,” she said. “When he was with us, like acting, and he had to go in front of the monitor, you could see the transition and how his mind was in a different thing.”
She described Affleck as energetic, generous, and deeply involved in the process. “You could see his mind working,” Paz said. “And I was amazed about that. But also about his generosity.”
“He's a great leader, but not a tyrant,” she added. “He's very kind, very close to you" she said before Mendez interjected with, "and very sexy." "And that makes you feel so good, she continued. For Méndez, one of the strangest parts of the experience came from Affleck’s decision to speak Spanish throughout the movie. Affleck even recruited him as his unofficial Spanish coach.
© Getty“At the beginning of the movie, he was like, ‘Hey, dude, I'm going to be speaking a lot of Spanish. So I need you to be my Spanish coach, OK?’” Méndez recalled.
That created a uniquely surreal situation: Méndez was acting alongside Affleck while he was simultaneously directing him - and watching Affleck speak Spanish on camera. “So I'm there with Ben Affleck directing me in a movie where I'm acting with Ben Affleck,” he said. “And I'm watching Ben Affleck speaking in Spanish.”
If Affleck pronounced something strangely, Méndez had to stay in character and wait until the scene was over to correct him.
“And then at the end of the scene, being like, ‘Ben, that word you said was very weird,’” he said. “It was such a weird exercise, but it was beautiful,” Méndez added. “It was a lot of fun.”
© GettyAnimals is now streaming on Netflix.
