Maurice Compte of NARCOS: The Latino Rebels Interview

Dec 18, 2015
10:23 AM

It seems the whole world has binge-watched the first season of the Netflix hit web series NARCOS. Okay. Maybe twice. If you’re totally obsessed despite critiques, I had the chance this week to interview Maurice Compte, the Cuban-American actor who plays NARCOS’ Colonel Horatio Carrillo, the incorruptible Colombian officer who unforgivably leads U.S backed death squads against drug lord Pablo Escobar and his crime organization. Uniquely, Carrillo is a fictional character based on three real life historical figures that fought against Escobar’s drug war. Yet, what’s most distinctive about Carrillo’s character?

“In most American movies, most of the time, the character with all the integrity is the American. So it’s kind of a jump to show a character with the same amount of integrity and love for his country being portrayed by a person from a different country,” said Compte.

Check out the interview as we dig deeper in what Compte’s character means in light of most two-dimensional portrayals of Latinos in the narco movie genre and how it can influence Hollywood’s storytelling ethics of Latin America’s internal war against drugs.