A Martinez:  This Heavenly Star's Really Down-To-Earth

1989

Toni Lone Hawk

(Thanks to Anne in Australia!)

    He has played Cruz Castillo on Santa Barbara for five years and it looks like it could easily be another five, judging from both the popularity of the show, and A Martinez himself.  Tell us, A, how did you get started in show business?  "I was originally attracted to this art form when I was in high school.  I was reading 'A Farewell to Arms', and a wonderful sense of awakening came over me.  I felt such a strong identification with the characters in the drama, that I was reminded of the blessings in my own life.  I think that's the highest function of art.  More than anything I want to participate in that process. I feel proudest of the times on Santa Barbara when that's happened.  I remember, about a year and a half ago, when Cruz thought he had lost Eden.  There was a sense of mourning and a sense of dreams that were never going to come true -- opportunities forever lost.  It was so well-written and so well-plotted that it really did function as a window in time where people who cared about this show and about these characters could feel what they were going through.  Ever since then, I've gotten a stream of comments from people appreciating what that part of our storyline did for them, in terms of reminding them not to take life's gifts for granted."

    Does Santa Barbara's hectic schedule allow him to take on other acting challenges?  Says A, "During the last couple of years, I've been able to do several outside projects.  Earlier in my stay here, I didn't have that kind of leverage.  It was a prerequisite to continuing on Santa Barbara, that I be granted that.  They've been very good about outside projects here.  They're very much aware of the need of an actor to continue to grow.  Actors run on a fear of being on the street when they're older.  So it's important to expand our horizons.  A lot of people on Santa Barbara do outside projects."

    As a family man, with two small children who face an unknown future because of pollution and the destruction of our planet in so many ways, is A Martinez worried?  "It very much concerns me," says A, "that at this point in history, we are failing to consider our children's birthright, and, in turn, their children's birthright, by the way we are conducting ourselves as a nation, and as a world."

    A feels that somehow all sense of idealism seems to have been trampled in the last decade or two.  "You would think that, for the sake of their children, if for no other reason, people would be willing to look beyond the immediate when it comes to assessing their priorities.  When I was a little kid, I assumed that we would always be free, and that we would always live a life of plenty, because we are Americans.  Nothing should be taken for granted.  My biggest motivation is wanting to create and preserve, for my children, the kind of good dreams I had when I was their age."  Martinez says that during this last decade, people have gotten very greedy, and that the neglect of our educational system and our environment is going to come back to haunt us in the not-too-distant future, if we don't do something now.  "What I don't understand," says A, "is how all this could have been allowed to happen, given the fact that so many people, in positions of power, do have children, and therefore should have a stake in the continued vigor of their bloodlines."

    While making the movie, PowWow Highway, A was in Montana on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation.  That experience, and the people there, left a deep impression on him.  He says, "What impressed me most was the sense of family and connection to the Earth exhibited by these people who have so little materially.  If you live out there, and you don't have much of a material stake in the world, you're inevitably left in touch with the Earth."

    With a combination of Mexican, Northern European, and Native American blood flowing through his veins, A Martinez feels especially blessed.  He says, "The mixture predisposed me to be able to find what people have in common.  One of the blessings of being an actor is that your training focuses you toward looking for the common denominators among people who are supposedly different.  That's how you go about finding the key to the characters you play."

    On a lighter note, we asked this serious actor if he'd like to do a comedy.  A replied, "Yes."  In fact, he likes doing comedy, and did get to play Meryl Streep's gigolo butler in the movie She Devil.  "That was a gas," says A.  "It was a big thrill to do comedy with the likes of Meryl Streep.  She just happens to be my favorite performer!"

    Martinez says he'd love to be able to do wonderful films that provide a means of 'waking up' an audience, as opposed to just a way for them to numb themselves or disappear for a couple of hours.  "You can't predict anything," he says.  "You have no way of knowing what's around the bend.  Right now I'm happy to be steadily employed, and hope that when I turn around and take stock, ten or twenty years down the line, I can still say I'm happy to be employed."  There is no doubt that A Martinez will be a major star.  He has the intelligence, the talent, and the heart.

  Return to Interviews/Articles page