Wilmer Valderrama on Playing Lieutenant Will Blake in FOX's Minority Report: "I've Never Seen a Latino Character on This Level"

On September 15, 2015, FOX hosted a press conference call with Minority Report star Wilmer Valderrama ahead of the series premiere on Monday, September 21st at 9/8c. The sci-fi procedural — based on Steven Spielberg's 2002 film — follows a world ten years after the PreCrime division has been disbanded, with one of the Precogs secretly partnering with a Detroit detective to stop murders before they happen. Valderrama plays Lieutenant Will Blake, the commanding officer of the precinct and a former marine with a complicated history with lead detective Lara Vega (Meagan Good).

Below are highlights from the call.

On the jet pack — and what he requested the moment he got the job:

I definitely want a jet pack. I'm going to tell you that right now. That's the one thing that I requested when I got the job. I called them, and I said please, oh God, please, tell me that I am actually going to be flying in a jet pack. Kevin Falls and Max Borenstein — the creator and the showrunner — they both told me, well, you're going to get your wish because that's one of the coolest parts of that movie, and we're going to have to include it in there. I would love to have a jet pack. I think any boy and girl should always have one.

On Lieutenant Blake's complicated history with Detective Vega:

He's an ex-marine. He's a guy who's been around the world a couple of times. He eventually went to the academy and met Detective Vega, and they may or may not have had something in the past. Moving forward, they also became partners at one point, and then when they stopped being partners, he was assigned to a case. He got a promotion over her and became the lieutenant — he's the boss of the precinct. She's now not only having to somewhat answer to her ex-partner, but also to someone she used to see before. It makes it a really unique dynamic. Eventually, the future looks very complicated for them both as they're going to be brought into a pond that's deeper than everyone expected.

On balancing drama and comedy — and the improvised line that's been circulating online:

There's a clip that's been going around where we fly in on the jet packs and try to capture this guy, and then he commits suicide in front of us. Before that, Detective Vega had said, "Just face it, Will — you're not a closer." When she kind of lets this guy all of a sudden pull off his suicide, I walk up to the poor guy, look at her, and go, "Well, I would have closed him differently." Little things like that make it really fun for the camaraderie and a little bit of that competition between Vega and Lieutenant Will Blake. I think drama is only as good as the capability of not taking itself too seriously. Comedy is so rooted into my instincts that you're going to see some of that coming out.

On the technical contrast between From Dusk Till Dawn and Minority Report — and shooting both simultaneously:

Robert tends to develop and produce things in a more physical and practical way. A lot of the action — the explosions, car chases, fight sequences, gun fights — are done very practically because he loves shooting the actual action. On Minority Report, the difference is it's very visual. There's a lot of visual effects, and Steven Spielberg creates a world that's so complex and so in depth. The depths of the visual effects are so exciting because you can really see how this can become a tool in the future. The only challenge is we have to create a dance — a vocabulary, hand gestures that turn into a language for how you communicate with a computer. Visually, it's a little bit of a song and dance, but when you see it on camera, it's ridiculously rewarding.

At one point both shows kind of overlapped for me. I would fly from Toronto where we were shooting the pilot, and then go down to Austin, Texas to shoot as Carlos. Sometimes it was tough turning off the super mean stare — there was a lot of twisted stuff going on in Carlos' head. But it made it even more exciting to play the good guy and the bad guy all in the same year, almost at the same time. Not many actors get the opportunity to exercise their acting muscles on that level. Working with Robert Rodriguez and Steven Spielberg in the same year is definitely a little boy's dream.

On building Lieutenant Blake — the James Bond reference that shaped everything:

I wanted him to be like — if there was one movie poster in his room, it'd be Sean Connery as James Bond. He wears the turtlenecks, he wears the suits, he has that little retro kind of drawback to himself. I wanted him to really feel like he was in control. Very confident. Like James Bond, more of a poker player — when he's in scenes, he plays a subliminal truth and questions people. I wanted him to have a sense of elegance and class. I've never seen a character like this on television, but I've also never seen a Latino character on this level. For me that was exciting because it was new. It was refreshing, and I was proud of that.

On Steven Spielberg's vision of a diverse future — and what it means to play Will Blake as a Latino actor:

Steven Spielberg created in the universe for Minority Report that in the future we would be so diverse as a country and as a world that all of our names would be somehow integrated into multiple cultures. Eventually, a Latino will probably have a very American-sounding name, or an African American will have almost a very Latino name. That was actually a unique way of stating how diverse the future is going to be. Also — they weren't necessarily looking for a Latino for that character, I'll tell you that. So I was really proud that Steven Spielberg gave me the opportunity to bring this character to life myself.

The goal is just to play amazing characters and amazing human beings that have a story, that have a history. I'm so proud of my Latino heritage, but as an actor, you want to be known as an actor, as an artist. The Latino community — we're performers that are for the world. We walk a very fine line between so many cultures, and we can truly unite so many continents, heritages, and ethnicities within one Latino. It's exciting that in my career I'm able to be in the room sitting next to two or three other actors of different ethnicity and still be considered for that character. That's a dream. That's beautiful.

Minority Report premiered Monday, September 21, 2015 at 9/8c on FOX.

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