No, but during the funeral stuff, Linda Gray and I spoke about what type of relationship they might have.
Carmen likes Sue Ellen. I think Carmen just feels like she’s a woman who stood by a man who was not really nice, but you know, she’s a Latino woman, and she kind of understands why Sue Ellen stayed there, but I don’t think she condones her drinking… but I’m not even really sure that Carmen’s aware of that yet. That’s a good question that you posed to me; I know I wasn’t aware of it during the funeral. I’m not sure how much Carmen knows of how bad Sue Ellen is.
Although, I always say that whoever feeds you knows all the secrets of a family. So even if it’s not said, Carmen feeds them, washes their clothes… so she knows what’s going on.
Do you speak with Cynthia Cidre before every season starts about your character arcs?
We have spoken about where she’s going, but again, I’m like #13 on the cast list, so Carmen’s arc is pretty steady… although now, I made a joke the last couple of episodes, and wait until you see the second half… it’s like “oh my God, you guys! What am I gonna do now?!?” There’s a lot of changes that are gonna be happening to the Ramos family. So I say to Cidre “what are you gonna do? Don’t send me back to Mexico!” She’s like “no, no…” I’m like “okay. That’s good.” I don’t speak to her as much as the other cast members do, but Cynthia has her hands on all of us.
On that note, what do fans have to look forward to when the show returns in August?
Hang on tight! It’s a roller coaster! We only have a few episodes when we come back, and it’s gonna be like Magic Mountain. It’s gonna come at you fast and furious! I think there’s going to be turns you don’t see coming. It’s Ramos-heavy, the next five episodes, just because after this fire, a lot of things are going to come up to the surface, and it’s going to force other characters to do desperate actions, and they’re going to come with a lot of consequences.
Is Kuno Becker back for a number of those episodes?
Yes. You will see more of Drew at the end of this season.
What other projects do you have coming up that people should look for?
I have a movie coming out, called The Assassination of a Citizen, where I actually play a Breaking Bad kind of character, which I’m kind of nervous about, because I always get to play someone’s Mama and a good person, and I’m not a good person in this movie! I’m actually quite Breaking Bad bad. So that’s coming up, and I’m a little nervous about that…. and then I have a short that I have produced. It’s a Cuban short, done in Cuba, called Mondongo Cubano and I’m just doing festivals with it now. I’m not in it. Just a producer on this one.
I also have a full-length movie called I Love Hate. Nelson Pena is the writer and director, and I’m helping to produce that, and I’ve got my friend David Zayas on board, and hopefully Laverne Cox… we almost got her, so she’s rumored to be on board. It’s about a young Latino man who wants to transition to be a woman. It’s a really beautiful, really well handled story about how we deal with gay issues in the Latin world.
Those are the big things that I have right in front of me right now.
Dallas is back August 18 on TNT. Our thanks to Marlene Forte for taking the time to speak with us!
