‘Severance’ Star Yul Vázquez Is Hollywood’s Go-To Cuban Character Actor
variety.comMónica Marie Zorrilla Among the chrome skyscrapers and beckoning show lights in Downtown Miami stands The Freedom Tower, a government building with a distinctive Mediterranean flair that processed Cuban refugees who fled the nearby Caribbean nation to pass the time between Fidel Castro and democracy.Cuban-born actor Yul Vázquez was one of those thousands of exiles who found themselves in that immigrant wave’s Ellis Island, waiting for rations of powdered milk, cans of SPAM and surplus eggs, holding his mother’s hand next to his sister.Everyone in that tower thought the situation was temporary.
That was in 1971. Fifty years have passed, and Vázquez has kept himself occupied, amassing over 60 combined roles in movies, television and theater. “People say to me, ‘Yul, you never stop working!’ I always tell people that I have that Cuban exile mentality,” he told Variety. “My mother got here with two kids that didn’t speak English, and she immediately went to get two jobs to support us.
That mentality is a very real thing and a very powerful thing.”You’ve seen Vázquez’s face — simultaneously sharp and youthful, a Desi Arnaz doppelgänger for the next generation, and instantly recognizable (though, perhaps not by name).
He’s been in “A-Team,” “Russian Doll,” “War of the Worlds,” “Traffic,” “The Infiltrator,” “Sex and the City,” Magic City” and “The Outsider,” to name a few standout titles from his extensive résumé.Recently, Vázquez portrayed Peter Kilmer on Apple TV Plus’ slow-burn sci-fi thriller “Severance” alongside Adam Scott and Patricia Arquette but was killed off memorably by the end of the third episode.
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