The truth, tenacity, & triumphant timing of Strangelove

So Xolalpa took matters into his own hands and decided to make the series himself — a laudable but often complicated creative endeavor that comes with more freedom as well as limited access to finances and resources.

"I wrote the series and got together with a bunch of actors who were supposed to star in it," he recalls. "But just when we were ready to shoot, one of my best friends — who was supposed to be in the series — passed away. We were going to shoot this around March 2022, but he passed away, which put the whole thing on hold. And then I went through a phase where I didn't even know if I wanted to make films anymore."

This tragic and personal backstory to Strangelove makes its September 2024 release even more momentous. "To be back after almost three years with a project that's so meaningful and special to me, with my husband now, and a bunch of actors who became really good friends of mine…" Xolalpa pauses. "It's really cathartic and amazing. And that's what Strangelove was born out of: my experiences with people on a day-to-day basis working regular jobs, and dealing with people in Hollywood."

"And not only Hollywood, but just in general," he adds. "Being an undocumented queer individual in this country… it's really hard. It's also kind of funny sometimes because of how uninformed people are about my life as a DACA recipient… and when they find out that I'm queer, it's like, 'Oh, you're a triple minority.' They call me a triple minority. I'm like, 'Well, thank you, but no.'"

Xolalpa's speaking pattern and overall energy in our interview is not dissimilar to his writing and directing of Strangelove, which shows how much of his actual voice and truth is realized in the series. Besides his level of confidence that could be perceived as rigid and stoic, there's an incredibly compassionate core and a sense of unbound sweetness that oozes out of him.

Ironically, though, the Hollywood world of checked boxes and verified credits is similar to the grid of desirability politics that permeates queer dating/hookup apps: this incessant echoing voice questioning what is good, what is real, what is valid, and what is true for the sake of an invisible audience member.

"One regular note [from Hollywood executives] that I got for Strangelove, which I'm still getting now while doing press, is that it's 'way too real' for people," Xolalpa says. "And I'm like, 'Is that an oxymoron, or a metaphor, for something?' Because we want realness, but when we give realness, we hear that it's 'too real.'"

Otherwise, Xolalpa heard many notes based on the assumption that "nobody is ready to watch a show with four queer men at the center being so unapologetically queer." He adds, "I kept hearing that some things need to be sugarcoated, or they just don't need to be put out there." Xolalpa specifically recalls an executive who didn't understand a joke from Strangelove about tops and bottoms, and who declared that "because he didn't understand it, he didn't think the joke should be on the show."

After years of hearing alienating notes, Xolalpa became a filmmaker keen on sticking to his vision, even if it came at a cost of losing some funding. In fact, money is a complicated subject that Xolalpa tries to avoid — and for good reason.

"Look, I'll be super transparent," he starts, "I feel like every time a Latino filmmaker gets something made for a platform, however we talk about it, it sounds like we're being ungrateful. And it completely contradicts what I speak about on my podcast: I believe that we should always aspire to take up space and ask for what we deserve. But I also understand that sometimes we've got to make sacrifices."

Xolalpa goes on, "I know that people don't speak about these things freely, but I do want to have a second season of Strangelove. I want all of us to succeed. The little money that we got was for the entire six-episode series. But the reason why I don't go into these figures, it's more about… I don't want the topic to become another Latino filmmaker who struggles to make a project."

"I want people to watch this and not question 'but how did you make it?'" he says. "The point is that we've made it. It's here, and people can watch it now, all over the world."

It's a particularly interesting time for Strangelove to be released and for Xolalpa to share these remarks in an interview. On September 11, 2024, The Hollywood Reporter's Christy Piña wrote about the Latino Donor Collaborative's 2024 Latinos in Media report showing that the entertainment industry could "generate an additional $12 billion to $18 billion per year if it were to achieve proper Latin representation in TV and film productions."

The report found that "films with Latin people in above-the-line positions from 2013 to 2022 outperformed those without by 58% at the global box office," highlighting that "Latin folks make up 24% of movie ticket sales."

The results weren't too different when it came to TV shows "In scripted shows, Latin actors made up 9.8% of the main cast in lead, co-lead, and ensemble roles," the THR report noted. "Of the 198 scripted shows analyzed in the findings, only 11 of them had a Latin actor in a lead role. Broadcast revealed further disparities in television, with Latin people comprising only 13% of the total main cast."

Even the 76th Emmy Awards, which aired on September 15, 2024, had entire bits dedicated to highlighting this decline in Latine representation, including one moment between Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna (Y tu mamá también reunion!) presenting an award while just speaking in Spanish, without any subtitles for English speakers.

With such an industry-wide, uphill battle for Latine creators in Hollywood, it's hard to imagine major studios and executives greenlighting a TV show like Strangelove, which is entirely centered on four queer Latine characters and their varied experiences.

The sheer fact that Strangelove was funded, made, and released — precisely at a time like this — is nothing short of triumphant.

Even though Xolalpa envisioned himself playing Christian in the original iteration of Strangelove, he took on a different path as the series evolved. Ultimately, Xolalpa landed on playing the character of Andrew, an army veteran struggling with PTSD and depression.

In turn, Xolalpa's own husband, Alexis Vazquez, was cast to play Christian — a complicated character who's both pensive and passionate, removed and reactive.

"It's really different. I had never worked with anybody that I was romantically involved with," Xolalpa says, "and especially married to! But we're both so passionate about what we do that it worked out great. Prior to acting, he was already a dancer who had worked with several artists. He's really talented, and he was definitely ready and on board to come into acting; it was a transition that he had already been making in the last few years. I loved working with him. It was fun."

Christian meets Ian (played by Emmanuel López Alonso) on the show, who brings quite a few layers of lust, love, and tension between this group of friends. Generally speaking, Christian and Ian have some of the most explicit sex scenes throughout Strangelove, which are done in a way that feel refreshingly real and natural to queer viewers.

Underneath the on-screen relationship between Christian and Ian, we circle back to the story that Xolalpa was the original Christian, and his late friend, Jonathan Macedo, was the original actor for the role of Ian.

"Although Emmanuel and Jonathan are completely different people, they have a very similar energy," Xolalpa says. "I remember when Emmanuel came into the table read, he had a bandana on his head, which was such a trademark for Jonathan to do, like, all the time. I just knew we were at the right place with the right actor."

Another standout role from Strangelove is David, brought to life by Raury Rolander's infectious on-screen charisma. While he does come from some privilege, there is a lot for David to juggle with on the show, such as being a good and reliable friend, while also getting involved in a [spoiler alert] with Kevin (played by Moronai Kanekoa).

Even more interesting, though, is David's relationship with his "jobless boyfriend of six years," Gabriel (played by Charles Fournier). Given the number of movies, TV series, and reality shows that feature Latine people as less privileged than their white counterparts, it's interesting to see Strangelove flipping those dynamics between David and Gabriel, who is white.

"I didn't really think about race or what the person would look like when I wrote Gabriel," Xolalpa recalls. "But I talked to my producers when we started the table read and said, 'You know what? I think this could work. We've never seen a character like this, particularly from their background, but this situation does happen a lot.'"

He adds, "I also think it's important to show that dynamic, because David is always saying, 'It's not about the money…' but it kind of is about money, all the time, throughout their relationship."

Manuel (played by Edgar Segura) is the quieter character within the core four, but he still plays a pivotal role in the dynamics, dilemmas, and diversions of Strangelove.

For one, Manuel's love interest on the show is played by Fabian Rodriguez (a.k.a. Naysha Lopez, Miss Continental winner and RuPaul's Drag Race star). Moreover, a few Easter eggs are carefully placed around Manuel, who is undocumented, but is never referred to as such.

"I did include some moments that maybe undocumented folks will recognize," Xolalpa says. "Like, Manuel has these sales jobs because he can't really work a [regular] job. He doesn't have the proper documentation, which is something that I want explore more if we have a season 2."

Last but certainly not least is Rami (played by Brandon Baez), a character who's initially described as a "fun-loving fem twink" who makes money as a sex worker.

Over time, though, Rami brings both levity and depth to the story, which again feels like a subversion of a very common archetype in queer storytelling.

Without giving away too many spoilers, it's quickly established that Rami uses his fierceness and funny quips to hide deeper struggles and a general sense of unrequited love — and this first season of Strangelove does put Rami through the wringer.

When asked about dreams and aspirations for his production company, Mighty Aphrodite Pictures, I'm surprised to hear Xolalpa stopping me in my tracks. "You're the first person I've spoken to who knows how to say Mighty Aphrodite right," he says, which is pretty surprising to me, too. He continues, "I'm like, 'Do you guys not know who Mighty Aphrodite is?' So, thank you for that."

But circling back to the matter at hand, Xolalpa says that he intends to create a "school of collaboration," which he admits is a very big-picture dream, but one that doesn't really scare him.

"My determination has always been through the roof," he asserts. "But on a more surface-level perspective, I'd like to start a movement where people learn how to collaborate, where people learn to distinguish the difference between collaboration and competition."

As we wrap our hour-long conversation, Xolalpa notes that "people don't know how to collaborate in this town" — which he's absolutely right about — and adds that "there are still so many more stories to tell." Well, let's make them happen!

Strangelove season 1 is now streaming on YouTube.