Twin Cities Film Fest: Interview With Olga Segura & Héctor Jiménez, Co-stars of White Knight

GUY is in Minneapolis, Minnesota this week covering the best and brightest film has to offer at the Twin Cities Film Fest. Starting on September 20th and continuing on through the 25th, TCFF is proving to be an exciting event to experience new films not yet in theaters as well as some old favorites. 

White Knight is a film begging for a reaction. Given that it’s a light-hearted buddy comedy between a klansman and his Mexican cellmate, people are sure to have opinions. It’s a unique film that approaches incredibly heavy subject matter through a new lens. Tom Sizemore (interview here) plays Leroy Lowe, a grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan who’s sent to prison for hard time. Once there, he’s forced to confront everything he hates as he finds himself opening up to cellmate Emilio and maid Madalena, played by Héctor Jiménez and Olga Segura. The film is surprisingly good natured with a positive message — traits that I found carry over to both Ms. Segura and Mr. Jiménez.

Interview:

GUY: What attracted you guys to this project?

OS: In my case, it has a great message. You know, in a funny way. Because we change this guy that believes everything that is good in life is white. He falls in love with me, he becomes a really good friend of Emilio Ortiz (Héctor Jiménez) and you know, we change him. So I wanted to be involved in a project where Mexicans are well seen. And we’re not just taking jobs from people, we need it. We are following a dream like everybody else. Like Madalena (her character) like me, like everybody else. That’s what really attracted me.

I wanted to be involved in a project where Mexicans are well seen.

And [writer / director] Jesse Baget, just the way he tells the story just with five characters. We filmed everything in one studio. Just the exteriors, they went with Tom. But everything was shot in one studio.

GUY: I was going to say, I think I counted only three or four interior set pieces.

OS: Yeah. They built up everything. It was quite amazing. I don’t know, Mr. Jiménez?

Héctor Jiménez: Yeah, well Jesse Baget wrote this amazing script for me. So when I read it, I just told him “C’mon let’s do it.”

GUY: So he wrote the script for you? How’d that come about?

HJ: I read a first draft of the script, and then I met him. And he wrote the role of Emilio Ortiz with me in mind.

GUY: Ah, I see. I saw [in a TV interview] that Tom Sizemore said you were the most gifted comedic performer he’d ever worked with. That’s pretty high praise. What did you think of that?

HJ: Tom is very kind. But he did an amazing job too. I’m surprised by how well he did. It’s a lesson for me working with him.

GUY: Reading about the movie before I watched it, I think I had a complete misconception about what it was going to be like. Are you finding that people are going in thinking it’s one thing and being surprised by it being a straight buddy comedy and love story?

HJ: We were surprised by how much the audience is really enjoying the movie. With latino audiences, with Anglo audiences, with teenagers. We just did a screening in Orange County. There’s a lot of teenagers in the audience and we are very happy with the reactions.

OS: Yeah, but you’re saying that by seeing the promotion you expected something else?

GUY: I think just going in and seeing that it’s a movie about a klansman, you expect that it’s going to be heavier or more serious. It definitely tackles serious stuff but it’s also very…

OS: Thank you for sharing that with us. [I think] as soon as people see Hector’s face they know it’s a comedy. You know, Nacho Libre. I think [people] might be going “Tom Sizemore and Hector Jimenez together?!” Because it’s like drama and comedy together. But we did get a really good audience response, like Mr. Jiménez said.

For example, we went to Albuquerque and it was amazing. People would laugh…

HJ: In different parts.

OS:  With Latinos, they’d laugh at different parts.

GUY: Different people are finding different things?

OS: Yeah! It’s very, very cool.

We were surprised by how much the audience is really enjoying the movie. With latino audiences, with Anglo audiences, with teenagers.

GUY: As you’re making a comedy, was there ever a feeling that you’d want to reign it back? Like “Oh, we don’t want to offend anybody or cross any lines.”

HJ: Well, I think in the script he [Sizemore's character] is against everybody.

OS: Right, it’s not just Mexicans.

HJ: That’s the funny thing in the script, no? They talk about colored people, jews, mexicans.

The comedy you play for real. You know, when you’re acting you have to play for real.

GUY: Thank you both very much for your time.