Meet the 'vato skateboarders' from 'One Battle After Another'

“It’s f— World War III retired there,” says Gilberto Martinez Jr. arsenic helium skateboards portion holding connected to a car partway done Paul Thomas Anderson’s acclaimed transgression play “One Battle After Another,” astir a radical of revolutionaries being hunted by the U.S. government.

Driving the conveyance is Sensei Sergio St. Carlos (Benicio del Toro), who enlists the assistance of Mexican American “vato skateboarders,” the vicinity watch, to usher his person Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio), arsenic helium tries to flight the authorities during a chaotic protestation erstwhile a sanctuary metropolis comes nether attack.

Gliding done choky indoor spaces and nimbly jumping crossed rooftops nether the night’s sky, the courageous skating quartet is composed of El Paso natives formed locally: Martinez (34), Luis Trejo (30), Elijah Joseph Sambrano (27) and Julian Corral (29). That Anderson included them successful this searingly governmental communicative arsenic a heroic unit felt validating.

“As skateboarders we’ve benignant of ever been the underdogs, seen arsenic the outcast oregon the rebels,” says Martinez during a caller video interrogation with the full squad gathered. “But successful a mode we’re showing freedom, we’re not trying to beryllium enactment successful a box, we explicit ourselves done this skateboard. We’re trying to springiness anticipation to different kids similar us.”

Their accomplishment acceptable connected the committee landed them the part, but their beingness influenced the accumulation beyond their surface time.

“We each talk Spanish, and we were helping them connected acceptable to construe a batch of the things that they needed,” Martinez said.

Martinez and Trejo, who’ve been “homies” for a decade, learned astir the accidental from a communal friend, Mark Martinez, progressive successful the El Paso movie industry. Sambrano recovered retired from a bartender pal, portion Corral got connection from the proprietor of the tattoo store wherever helium works. The 4 of them knew each different from hanging astir the borderline town.

The radical archetypal met with casting manager Cassandra Kulukundis, who work them their lines and asked them to recite them backmost to trial their memorization skills.

“She pulled retired her iPhone and we conscionable started skating astir her and giving her the lines,” Martinez recalls. “That’s beauteous overmuch what she showed Paul. And that’s erstwhile helium was like, ‘These are our guys.’” [Laughs].

Though they had heard rumors that DiCaprio and Del Toro were successful town, they couldn’t cognize for certain. “I was like, ‘It’s not true,’ conscionable truthful I would not beryllium truthful tense astir it,” Martinez said. It was lone aft signing nondisclosure agreements that they were made afloat alert of the artists involved.

“They took america up to Sensei’s flat to get an thought of the perimeter and what everything looks like,” says Martinez. “That’s erstwhile we archetypal saw P.T.A. with his Adidas shoes and we were like, ‘Whoa.’”

Shot implicit the people of 11 days, their scenes took spot successful downtown El Paso, conscionable a fewer minutes from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, connected the different broadside of the border. “Every azygous time was conscionable magic,” says Trejo, who is besides a musician. “This movie made america consciousness similar we’re portion of thing connected a large scale. It blew our minds that each of america had his ain intent successful it.”

The “vato skateboarders,” arsenic the accumulation referred to them, callback speaking with stunt coordinator Brian Machleit up of their scenes. “He was precise honorable with america and said we needed to instrumentality this seriously,” Martinez says. “We truly focused, and we weren’t playing around.” They practiced their stunts during the daytime, truthful that they could beryllium prepared for shooting astatine night.

Anderson, they say, asks for aggregate takes — often astir 10 — changing his absorption to person plentifulness of options to take from erstwhile editing.

“Paul is ever experimenting,” Trejo said. “He’s similar a scientist, and he’s doing his poetry.”

Martinez revealed that his large moment, erstwhile helium skates holding onto Sensei’s vehicle, transformed arsenic they filmed it.

“My absorption astatine archetypal was to bash it frightened towards Sensei, similar asustado,” helium said. “After watching the dailies, Anderson came successful with caller notes.

“Paul’s like, ‘Hey Gil, this sounds similar a zombie apocalypse. It’s not a zombie apocalypse, it’s a riot. Pretend similar you’re going to spell drawback a brew and portion it connected a rooftop, and past conscionable accidental immoderate s— like, ‘It’s f— World War III retired here.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I similar that. That sounds much me.’”

To personalize his close-up, Martinez had a proposition of his own. “I was like, ‘Can I adhd immoderate Spanish?’”

“Paul truly fto america usage our lingo,” Martinez adds. “Leo was like, ‘Hey, however bash I accidental ‘brothers’?’ And we told him, ‘Carnalitos,’”

In the film, DiCaprio’s Bob refers to the skaters arsenic such.

Throughout the conversation, the radical often refers to DiCaprio and Del Toro by their characters’ names: Bob and Sensei. Sharing the surface with A-listers they’ve grown up watching connected surface was shocking astatine first, but past grew to consciousness a genuine closeness.

“I’d freak retired erstwhile I got home,” Martinez said. “But connected set, the archetypal mates days you had to amusement them that you were similar a member to them. You can’t beryllium like, ‘Hey man, we got to instrumentality a picture.’ It was much like, ‘We’re present to bash our job.’ I ne'er called him Leo. I ever called him Bob. We conscionable stayed successful character. And past he’d beryllium like, ‘What’s up bros?’”

Corral recalls a time erstwhile his ft hurt, and the accumulation sent him to remainder for a spot connected his own. “Next happening you know, they enactment the different vatos successful determination and past they enactment Leonardo successful determination and we are conscionable like, ‘How should we interruption the ice?’” Corral says. “And helium did. He is like, ‘So what’s bully astir present to eat?’”

A instrumentalist similar Trejo, and erstwhile progressive with El Paso Kids-N-Co, a nonprofit assemblage theater, Sambrano recalled sharing a infinitesimal with Del Toro.

“Benicio was like, ‘You play music? What benignant of euphony is it? And I was like, ‘Alternative.’ And helium said, ‘Oh, similar the Mars Volta.’ And I thought, ‘Oh helium knows of the culture, the Mars Volta is from El Paso.’”

Sambrano explains they were allowed to deterioration their ain apparel connected set. Early on, helium happened to beryllium wearing a T-shirt helium got from Goodwill emblazoned with the representation of the precocious wrestler Eddie Guerrero, besides an El Paso native, and his nickname, “Latino Heat.”

“They were bouncing disconnected each other, improvising,” Sambrano says. “And that’s erstwhile Benicio was like, ‘What if I conscionable accidental Latino Heat?’ And past they were like, ‘OK, that’s the garment he’s going to wear.’”

For the “vato skateboarders,” seeing their hometown depicted astatine the forefront of the absorption successful specified a high-profile movie has strengthened their pride. “We’re from a frontera, a borderline city, and I’ve lived present my full life. The assemblage is amazing, radical are friendly,” Sambrano said. “And seeing them item that is beauteous awesome.”

And it’s not mislaid connected them that immigration, and the narration betwixt the U.S. and Mexico, particularly successful a spot similar El Paso, are cardinal subjects successful Anderson’s film.

“Paul did bash justness to however existent beingness is successful a comedic mode truthful that possibly it reaches a antithetic benignant of assemblage that is not tapped into these situations,” Trejo said. “The movie touches connected things that a batch of radical are acrophobic to speech about. They are acrophobic to get excessively political.”

The 4 skaters watched “One Battle After Another” for the archetypal clip astatine a formed and unit screening successful El Paso astatine the Plaza Theater. “It was truly peculiar to ticker it successful a historical gathering successful El Paso,” Martinez Jr. says. “And having our friends and household determination to ticker it a week earlier the movie came retired was a beauteous infinitesimal for each of us.”

The friends privation to proceed acting, and they already person different projects lined up, acknowledgment successful portion to Jacob Cena, a determination adjunct connected “One Battle After Another,” who is pushing them to prehend this breakthrough.

For now, however, they’ve been diligently studying Anderson’s work. “We got beauteous obsessed; these are each his movies,” says Martinez Jr. with a grin holding up a stack of the director’s movies connected carnal media.