We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rey Goyos a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Rey, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
At an early age I knew I wanted to pursue the arts. I performed in plays and was a huge attention seeker in middle school. One day I came in with full military fatigues and dropped a stink bomb in the cafeteria during lunch time. Let’s just say I missed several days of school. Around the same time, I faked passing out in PE and was rushed to the office. My poor parents took me to the hospital and I remember holding my breath while the doctor felt and heard my lungs (all to keep the bit going). The doctors hooked me up to an EKG machine and I presumably worried the hell out of my parents. I was nominated in eighth grade for funniest in the school and I actually won. I was really into Saturday Night Live and Will Ferrell was my favorite. Friends, family, and classmates would always tell me “You should be on Saturday Night Live”.
Rey, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I moved to Los Angeles in 2007 and during my first week living in LA, I booked a role on an independent movie. I found myself driving to Long Beach and El Monte to play the right hand man of the antagonist. My roommates at the time joked around and said, “You’re gonna break into the business quickly”, but that was not the case. I spent a lot of time waiting tables. I remember one time I entered a casting director‘s office for a commercial, and she asked me to speak Spanish (which I am fluent in, but with a Cuban accent at the time) and it did not go well. Soon after, I ended up booking a commercial with that same casting director. It was a non-speaking role, and I was able to break into commercials because of this. I’ve worked with very talented directors and award-winning production companies which helped improve my resume and reel. At the same time, it invited new opportunities into my life. A close friend of mine put me in contact with a director that gave me a part in his movie. Through that relationship, he presented me with an opportunity to join a loop group, which is one of my favorite things to do. I’ve met wonderful actors and creatives in that world. Being part of a loop group was such a blessing because it gave me a behind-the-scenes look on TV shows and I was able to work on different genres using my improv tools to create ambience background noises. I am also grateful to have studied at Second City Hollywood where I met some fantastic teachers and classmates that really helped me with creating content. I also wanted to try stand-up comedy and I performed at Flappers in Burbank several times in the Yoohoo Room and in the main stage, which was also a very rewarding experience. Something that will always be near and dear to my heart are some of the relationships that I cultivated and have had for many years with several University of Miami alumni. We’ve been able to collaborate together and create characters that are on film right now. In “Female Fight Squad” directed by Miguel Ferrer, I play the bad guy in the movie and then most recently in “Smile As You Kill” I play Rico, a man who was desperate to survive from a rare lung disease who ends up taking matters into his own hands. This is where I was able to join forces again with Michael Sarrow who I first met in Miami during his graduate program at UM and I played the lead in his thesis film “Fallen Apple”.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
I thoroughly enjoy creating a character from reading what’s on the page and researching the facts that are in the script that give me clues into how the character thinks and behaves. My look changes quite a bit which makes it fun to create a character’s look from the outside. Whether it’s facial hair, a certain haircut, or wardrobe during the pre-production of it all, it’s really exciting to bring a character to life.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I think it would be creating my own content using my past experiences and my sense of humor to develop a world in which my characters can live in. Being creative is very fulfilling for me, and in some ways the therapeutic. I am currently writing a fun comedy series. I would love to team up again with my very talented filmmaking buddies to see it come to life.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.reygoyos.com
- Instagram: @reygoyos
