Posted in: Peacock, TV | Tagged: M.I.A.

M.I.A.: Celasco, Milans, Compte on Creatives, Crime Family & More

M.I.A. stars Gerardo Celasco, Marta Milans, and Maurice Compte on how they bonded beyond their characters on Peacock's crime drama and more.

When Gerardo Celasco, Marta Milans, and Maruice Compte took on the roles of Samuel Rojas, Caroline Carver, and Mateo Rojas for the Peacock crime drama M.I.A., they knew they would be in safe hands of creator Bill Dubuque given his mastery of the genre from his time on the Netflix critically-acclaimed Ozark and showrunner Karen Campbell, who left her indelible mark on hit shows like Showtime's Dexter and USA's Covert Affairs. As part of a syndicate, the trio embraced nuanced characters to complement their sophisticated world of Miami organized crime. The series follows a young woman, Etta Tiger Jonze (Shannon Gisella, who dreams of a life in Miami's glittering sub-tropical kingdom, but when her family's drug-running business shatters in tragedy, however, Etta embarks on a dangerous journey through Miami's neon-lit underbelly that will define who she is and what she's ultimately capable of. Celasco, Milans, and Compte spoke to Bleeding Cool about working with Dubuque and Campbell, how they built rapport off-screen with their respective families, and the techniques they used to get into their roles.

M.I.A. Stars Gerardo Celasco, Marta Milans, and Maurice Compte on Playing Their Parts in a Crime Syndicate as Samuel, Caroline, and Mateo

BC: What intrigued you about M.I.A. and how y'all got involved?

Celasco: Marta?

Milans: I got a self-tape audition, I read the character, and thought [Caroline] was appealing and interesting. I auditioned, and I got it, so that's how [everybody laughs]. I was very thrilled to try to get a role that is part of a beautiful ensemble cast with amazing writing from Bill Dubuque, shooting in Miami, and what is there not to find appealing? Then I got lucky enough to be cast opposite amazing actors and fellow artists. We had a thrilling time, and I'm just lucky to share that with the world.

Compte: She's being very modest because she had just had a baby. A lot was going on in her world when that happened, and the fact that she was able to pull it off and give the performance that she gave shows the kind of character that she likes to build on the integrity of the work.

Milans: Lester, thank you, bro. Thank you. It was certainly a challenging time to make all that happen and it happened wonderfully. Here we are, so I'm excited. Have you seen the show, Tom?

Yeah, it's a great show. There are a lot of angles going on at it and tons of compelling characters, a great ensemble. What's it like working with Bill and Karen as creatives, and how do they differ from many other creators you work with?

Celasco: Listen, I'm a big fan of Bill Dubuque. Ozark was something that I loved, and his crime stuff, like The Accountant, things like that. He knows how to write crime really well, and it's something I really enjoyed. It was one of the reasons why I really gravitated towards [M.I.A.] and the character [of Samuel] was because it wasn't like a typical cartel family that we usually see, right? We get to really explore the ins and outs of each one of these characters within this family dynamic. Anybody else could write this, and it would just be about the drugs and cartel life, but we do get a glimpse into the vulnerabilities of each character and their struggles.

It was interesting to play in that, and with Karen, who I learned ran the show. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Karen, because I learned a lot from her. She's very much a writer's writer. She likes what's on the page to be what is said, so we can't really deviate from what is on the page, which to me was an exercise, because I hadn't worked that way before, so it taught me a lot of discipline. It was like an exercise of me finding a way to live with what was on the page and to live in the underneath of what I was being said, as opposed to trying to "find my way around the words," if that makes any sense. It was different for me, so interesting, and it was also a learning experience. It was wonderful and great.

When you got into your roles of Mateo, Samuel, and Caroline, did you guys do anything to help build that sort of chemistry before filming all scenes, maybe a team-building thing, or is it just something you fell right into?

Celasco: Maurice smiled, because…

Compte: Well, we hung out a lot. We spent a lot of time together, Marta, Gerardo, and I, we would have dinners together, read the script together, and go to the beach together. We all have children around the same age, so our kids get to spend time together. It really did build up the family energy between us. We just had to tweak it, obviously.

What's it like playing into the South Florida culture, the show's sociopolitical themes, and the sense of family with so many moving parts?

Compte: Miami is a very capitalistic place. It's a kind of place that's very business-oriented. The stuff that happens, Miami is a very high-stakes world. There's a lot of hustling out here that happens. There's a big drive. People are driven in this place, and I think the fact that it happens in Miami really highlights that culture that exists here that I've seen like nowhere else.

Milans: Yep. Kudos to that.

What was it about each of your roles that allowed you to tap into something that maybe you may not be able to you don't usually tap into in your other roles?

Milans: You mean like killing people?

Compte: Oh my God, I was going to say the same thing.

Milans: That was the main thing we do it in our life, kill people [Everyone laughs]. I don't, Tom, I don't go killing people on my daily life [Everyone laughs]. I work a lot with dream work. It's a really cool technique that you tap into your subconscious, and you tap into the dreams that you're going to have that night and work into the subconscious to get interesting things from that to apply to the character. When it's something that's such a far reach as becoming a murderer, torturing someone, pushing someone down a flight of stairs, or shooting someone in the head, I particularly cannot relate to that, so using dream work is a very cool technique that I used a lot on the show.

M.I.A., which also stars Danay Garcia, Cary Elwes, Brittany Adebumola, Dylan Jackson, and Alberto Guerra, is available to stream on Peacock.

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