'Nothing Is About The Shock Factor,' But Party Of Five Will Still Make You Cry

The Acostas are, in several ways, typical siblings: There’s Lucia, the straight-A student who doesn’t quite get why her athletic twin brother, Beto, is struggling at school. Valentina, the second-youngest, is getting used to no longer being the baby, right now that infant Rafa is around. And then there’s Emilio, the cool, oldest brother. He’s already left residence and has a tough time sticking to family member dinners — he’d rather follow his dream of being a rock star. Despite their contradictions, they are still family member, bonded by their responsibilities and mutual memories.


Yet in the rebooted Party Of Five, the Acostas are also tethered by trauma. Their parents, Javier and Gloria, face deportation to Mexico soon after a ICE raid targets their Los Angeles restaurant, and suddenly the Acosta children are tasked with parenting each other and themselves. It’s a timely update to the beloved ‘’90s tearjerker although, because the stars stressed to MTV News, they’re not attempting to remake the old show scene for scene. The Acostas are their own family member, with a story that reflects real experiences of plenty of American families — and right now, more than ever, is the best time to tell it.


From Valentina’s struggle with anxiety soon after watching her parents be apprehended to reluctant patriarch Emilio’s fight to retain a little bit of the life he made for himself, every one of the Acostas have their own way of dealing with their new reality. MTV News talked with Brandon Larracuente (Emilio), Emily Tosta (Lucia), Niko Guardado (Beto), and Elle Paris Legaspi (Valentina) about bonding as a family member, the power of hiring Latinx crew beyond the camera, and how telling a bicultural American story matters.


MTV  News: What drew you to the story and to your character?


Brandon Larracuente: For me, it was the script. Amy [Lippman, the show’s co-creator] wrote the pilot, and yes it was just phenomenal. From the moment I began reading to the end, I was hooked. I think I might've read the script about three or four times before the initial beginning audition. It felt conversational, it just felt real. I might visualize this actually unfolding in front of my eyes.


Emily Tosta: This story is meaningful and thus timely. As actors, and especially as Latinx actors, we're habitually striving to be a segment of assignments that actually are meaningful and that have representation, and inclusion, and diversity. And I think this is something that the project achieved in such a spectacular way.


Niko Guardado: Obviously, the timeliness of it all, with the deportation angle and all that — that’s crucial. However underneath that is a family member dynamic, and where these kids are in life before and soon after their parents are deported. Beto Acosta doesn't really know what he wants in life. Or where he is in life, to be honest.


Elle Paris Legaspi: I really wanted to give it a try because it's such a key story. And Valentina, she's such a fun, bold character to play. I can relate to her in some ways because she's very smart, and educated in back of her years. And I'm very sensitive, and I find that she is also very sensitive.


Emily: Lucia is such a force. She isn't afraid to speak her mind. The way that she dealt with what her family member was going through — initially she had so much rage. However what I really loved about her was that she becomes this justice warrior and she begins fighting for her rights, and her family's rights, and other immigrant rights.


Brandon: I feel like in a way Emilio is following in his father's footsteps. He is slowly becoming the man of the household. His father and mother had to create sacrifices to bring him to this nation, for the betterment of their family.


Brandon: What drew me to Emilio the most is that he had these big dreams and aspirations of being this huge musician and playing for the world. As a kid, I habitually had really, really big dreams. I wanted to be a doctor, an astronaut, a baseball player, and finally an actor. I think that's where I really relate to Emilio the most, that he is a dreamer, and thus am I.


MTV News: Emilio is also a Dreamer in the legal sense — he has DACA protection status, whereas his siblings are citizens. How did you prepare yourselves in portraying that?


Brandon:  I did tons of studying. Emily, Nico, Elle and myself would send each other stories about families who were going via deportation process.


Niko: We have a crowd chat. We would send articles any time we saw them. We'd just be like, "Hey, saw this, thought this was a good read." Nevertheless we also looked into personalized stories.


Emily: When my mom and I moved to the States, we had no legal status to work. And I come from a Dominican family member where nobody has papers. My grandma and my mom haven't seen each other in like, 10 years because my mom is scared to leave the nation, and my grandma isn't allowed to come into the nation. So I think it was really easy for me to relate to the project and bring things from my real life to prepare it more authentic.


Niko: I spoke to my grandma and with my dad about what it looked like living with parents who were going by means of the residency and citizenship process while he was growing up. I spoke to other family member members who have earned their citizenship about what it seemed like, and their fears — and then spoke to their kids, who are place on Earth here and are citizens, about their fears.


Elle: The writers actually incorporated a number of things that they saw online into our show, and I think it's astonishing. It's just making our show more authentic.


Brandon: Recently I was able to meet this young lady who, word for word, had gone via same thing that Emilio had gone through. She was the oldest of four siblings, their parents were deported, and she had to basically become a caretaker. It's so different once you're reading an article online compared to speaking face-to-face with somebody who actually lived through it.


MTV News: Did knowing that you were telling stories that mirrored people’s lived experiences add any sense of duty to how you approached your work?


Niko: The number one thing we attempt to do as a collective — the creators, the writers, us as actors — is to bring a very authentic story to the screen. There really is that pressure as an actor, nevertheless also as a human being, to pay respect to people that are going through this every day.


Brandon: Nothing in the show is really about the shock factor. Everything is just done to be as true and authentic as possible. I attempted to just do as much studies and homework as I can, and then you go to set so you just let it all go. Any time you're filming it, you try and portray it as raw and as truthful as possible. And that's all I attempted to be.


MTV News: In the original Party of Five, the Salinger parents perish in a vehicle crash. How did you feel about updating that premise to deportation, given the current crisis in communities across the U.S., And at the border?


Niko: Right right now there is lots of reboots. Yet while our show has the same name because the original, it's very different. This is a similar grief, however different circumstances.


Brandon: The show had plenty of possibilities to be remade while in the years plus it never felt like the correct time. Although right now is the best time to tell this story. I appreciate knowing that Amy and Chris [Keyser, co-creator] could have brought it years back. They could have made tons of cash, however they determined to wait up until it was right. I think that demonstrates what sort of hearts our creators have.


Emily: Families are being separated, and kids are being taken from their parents. As long as we can begin a conversation about it, and as long as we can give people a perspective and point of view on what it's like to go through something like this, and people can be kind and understanding towards it, I think we are going to have done our parts as actors.


Niko: The billboards all say: “A story of a American family.” This is a American family member. It's happening day-to-day. It's happening as we speak. And I think it's essential to be able to see that on screen.


MTV News: So much of the driving force inside the show is simply the family member dynamic — how these five siblings interact with, support, or antagonize each other. Do you remember your first impressions of your castmates? 


Brandon: We met at a chemistry read. I remember actually leaving the room soon after Emily and Niko and I had a scene with each other — I think it was the scene in the pilot where they're all berating Emilio, telling him that he hasn't been around lately. And soon after I left the room, something clicked. It just felt right.


Emily: We had this instant connection almost. I've never felt that before.


Elle: As soon as we met each other, I felt like I knew them for years. And we grew really close in such a little bit quantity of time.


MTV News: How did you work on bonding as siblings?


Brandon: We didn't know anybody else in Montreal [where the pilot was shot]. So it forced us to get really close, really speedily. Every night soon after we'd right after set, we would all meet up for dinner and talk.


Niko: We watched Christmas movies — How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Frosty the Snowman. I finished my first ever game of Monopoly with them, which I've never done. It takes like four hours. That was an accomplishment in itself. I don't work out as much as Brandon does, however Brandon got me in the fitness center somehow, and we bonded over that.


Emily: there is a lot of TV and film that I missed out on growing up in the Dominican Republic. So we would watch Party of Five in our hotel rooms with each other. It was a fun bonding thing.


Elle: We’re routinely texting each other, and we're attempting converse with each other as much as we can because we just miss each other that much. It's really nice because we give each other life lessons — that we have to stay grounded and humble because this is such a big thing, and it's going to change our lives forever.


MTV News: there really are also specific family member dynamics at play. Beto and Lucia are twins, although they're also polar opposites. Emilio and Beto have a brotherly rivalry. Valentina is and isn’t the baby. How did you work together on these things?


Niko: I think it just happened. Emily and I would find little circumstances that made us feel like we were twins. Like we drive the same vehicle, we would mention the same thing and jinx each other. Just funny stuff like that that it was little signs that it was meant to be.


Emily: Niko's my best friend. Literally any time something good or bad happens in my life, he's the initial person that I call.


Niko: We've gone to each other for personalized stuff where you require a friend, or you require a sister you could call up and be like, "Hey, can I just vent to you?" I think we've noticed that trust in every other.


Emily: We'll finish each other’s sentences, and we'll know what the other person is thinking. It's just easy to vibe off of each other.


Elle: I’m the oldest in my family member, also it was really nice having older siblings for the initial time.


Brandon: I think we all have similarities to our characters, and I think we all have a lot of contradictions. It's sort of give and take. Emilio, he's the leader, he's the eldest. That's how I feel it as soon as I'm around my co-stars. I feel like I'm the eldest, so so I have to be an example for them. Nevertheless these are also fictional characters and not everything is similar to who we are as human beings.


Niko: Brandon's like the dad on set. He just got engaged! Emily is very proactive and she doesn't take any BS, like Lucia. And Elle doesn't let age define her, just because she's 12.


Brandon: I habitually tell everybody she's the smartest out of all of us. For being a 12 year old, she understands way, way also much.


MTV News: A few scenes in the show flip into Spanish-language dialogue in a way that emphasizes the Acostas’ status as a bilingual family member, which is common for several families. What was it like to be able to see that in the script, and then play it out?


Brandon: I grew up in a Spanish-speaking household. I was raised mostly by my grandmother because my parents were working, and I learned through watching telenovelas and through her just speaking nothing although Spanish to me. I appreciate her for that.


Emily: This is one of the main things that differentiates us from the original Party of Five. We're really making it essential to show the audience how a bicultural family member works. We're very adamant about showing our roots. Being bilingual to some of us is usual, although we also have characters like Beto, who is struggling with Spanish. That happens in real life, too.


Brandon: Amy and Chris hired writers who actually discussed the language and understood the nuances of living in a Spanish-speaking household. There really are things that I saw while reading the script that made me go, “Oh my God, that reminds me of my mom growing up.”


Niko: I don't speak Spanish. I understand it, yet I have been learning. Emily and Brandon have been teaching me, and the cast and crew have been helping me. I'm still doing DuoLingo every day.


Elle: A lot of my family member on my grandpa’s side are bilingual, nevertheless I don't speak Spanish myself. I would absolutely love to. I'm learning right now.


Niko: For Beto not to speak Spanish is huge, just because that relates to me and thus several other Residents of the
U.S. Who have Latinx roots. It doesn't make me any much less Hispanic than anybody else. Some days you'll get teased for it around companions or family member that speak it. Nevertheless I think it's very relatable.


MTV News: Was there also a Latinx presence in back of the scenes, with the crew?


Niko: Yeah. Our second assistant director is from Puerto Rico, and she's like our mama on set. I would go up to her certain days and be like, “Just speak to me in Spanish today.” We’d try it, and if I needed help, I’d ask her certain questions.


Brandon: There were some times with the script where I felt like I wouldn't really mention it like that. And the writers worked with us and gave us a lot of squirm room, which we appreciate as actors. It supports the us bring more authenticity and realness to a character.


Emily: It's really essential to drive these narratives and bring inclusion and diversity onto the screen just as Latinx actors, nevertheless I think it's similarly as key to hire Latinx crew beyond the scenes as well. These are the people that are writing and directing the stories, and working off-screen to bring all of this together.


MTV News: There has been a major lack of Latinx representation in Hollywood for years. Did you ever feel represented by pop culture growing up? And which characters made you feel represented?


Brandon: Growing up as a child, I used to live for Saturday cartoons. There were never any cartoons that were centered around Latinos. As a kid, I didn't really acknowledge that, nevertheless any time as soon as you grow up and mirror on the past, you notice that there really was never any representation of anyone who looked like you or talked like you on screen.


Emily: I grew up watching Spanish-language TV, and Spanish was the norm for me. I was 12 any time Once I first moved To America. Suddenly, all I saw were people that I couldn't really coworker with my culture and my roots.


Emily: Ugly Betty was one of the initial American shows that I watched. I saw America Ferrera and I was like, "Wait, hold on. She's Latina! So if she’s on TV, then I can be on TV, too.”


Brandon: I am grateful that times are changing. And I think that it's only going to continue to get better. Jane the Virgin and Grand Hotel and One Day at a Time, those shows have a majority-Latinx cast. I have no doubt that there will continue to be more. I'm just grateful for the possibility, and that there's increasingly representation for everyone on screen — for African-Americans, Latinos, the Asian community.


MTV News: The storylines you work with are heavy — I’ll be straightforward, I cried numerous times in the initial three episodes, and immediately texted my dad, who immigrated to the U.S. From Mexico. Have you ever needed to take a moment once you acquired a script? 


Emily: I literally cried at each and every table read. It was stupid. And while we were filming the pilot — that scene at the detention center — we were all crying. We just couldn't hold it as the emotions were so real.


Niko: The pilot! Normally, I'll get emotional — but nowhere to the point where I'm like, I've got to take a moment. Nevertheless that one was like, I stopped in the middle of it. I couldn't tell you why. There was this overwhelming sense of, “Even if I do not get this role, this project has the chance to change a lot of people's lives and get a lot of people talking.”


Brandon: We probably cried at least once and every table read, that's just the truth. I think that's why I loved reading the pilot so much — I felt moved. I think that's what separates this show from several others. It's these real-life scenarios that are happening on a day-to-day basis, and we're able to portray to the audience.


MTV News: Whether the topic is deportation, or the immigrant experience, or living in a bicultural family member — what do you hope people who can relate to these storylines take from the show?


Niko: I hope it gives them a sense of pride, and then a sense of hope. It’d be fantastic if they can relate to it and find comfort in it. Especially the children who come home from school and their parents aren't there. It's devastating. I hope this show brings them comfort.


Brandon: I hope that people take that the Acostas are just like so several other families living in the U.S. They came to this nation to have a higher class of life for their children. They have a restaurant and so they contribute to the economy, they pay taxes, and they're good, moral citizens. Nevertheless maybe our ancestors weren't place on Earth here, we're able to contribute just as identically as anybody else to the economy and to society in a positive way.


Emily: I think that in the event you put yourself in other people's shoes so you understand their situation, maybe your heart can grow warmer and stronger for them. Nevertheless also, I want people to understand the strength and unity of family member. That in good times and bad times, you'll turn to these folks are gonna be there for you. Along with, we certainly want people to understand that family member can't be damaged by a border.


Elle: Family member is everything. Although you could fight with your siblings, they'll habitually be there for you. So if you're going through a hard time, some days you’ve got to turn to them. They'll help you out with anything, because that's what family member is.


These interviews have been edited and condensed.