Quickie Q&A With EJ Bonilla (Rafe, GL)
In the seven months that GL newbie EJ Bonilla has portrayed Springfield transplant Rafe Rivera, he’s had enough soapy on-screen teen drama to solidify Rafe’s bad-boy rep. Digest caught up with a very chatty Bonilla, who dished about Rafe’s most recent bout of bad behavior on the heels of his shattered romance with Daisy, his complicated Spaulding family ties and what happened when he crashed the Cooper Thanksgiving dinner. (Be sure to check out the 11/27 issue of Digest for all the Cooper family holiday drama on GL.) Bonilla also gave us the scoop about snagging the lead role in his new, big-screen project.
Soap Opera Digest: How are things? You’re busy!
EJ Bonilla: I just wrapped on a production — a movie. It’s called Don’t Let Me Drown. It’s a love story. I got the lead because I’m awesome [laughs]! My character is Lalo Aguilar; he’s Mexican-American. It takes place after 9/11 and these [two] teenage kids and their families are affected by it in one way or another. The girl lost her sister and the other kid is sort of quiet and mellow and they just find each other, basically. I’ve been with this project since way before I even knew about GUIDING LIGHT. I’ve been with it for like two-and-a-half years. It finally got funded and we finally got to make it, so when I first signed my contract [with GL], they knew about it. That’s why I’ve been able to do it. I can admit it, it’s awesome.Digest: Any famous co-stars?
Bonilla: Oh, my gosh. There’s Ricardo Chavira from DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES…. Did you ever see Like Water For Chocolate? Yareli Arizmendi from that — she’s awesome — she plays my mother. And there’s Damian Alczar, [who] is huge in Latin America. He walks around here like nothing, but if he goes there, they’re like, ‘Oh, my God! It’s Damian [laughs]!’ He plays my father. Whatever the Mexican Academy Award is, he’s won it like six times.
Digest: That’s exciting. When does it hit theaters?
Bonilla: It’s supposed to hit the festivals first. It’s an indie. I think it’s being submitted to Sundance, so it should probably hit that or maybe Cannes.
Digest: So anything else we should know about?
Bonilla: Now I sort of miss Rafe! I was Lalo for a long time, so now it’s like, what’s Rafe up to? What’s going to happen with him? So I’m excited to come back to GL.
Digest: Speaking of Rafe, he’s been having a rough time of it lately since Daisy’s abortion. He’s acting out and drinking again.
Bonilla: Part of it is he’s just angry that [Daisy] did this, and part of it is that he’s mad that he wasn’t there to help her and that she couldn’t trust him to tell him. He felt safe [with her] and that was really different, so it scares him that this person that he got so close to hurt him like that and lied to him or couldn’t trust him the way he trusted her. If that’s the case, then how real was [their love]? That’s scary for anyone. It’s sort of freaking him out that his mom, the one who’s always tried to put him in check, isn’t. So he’s free to really make his own mistakes completely now, so that’s sort of weirding him out! He didn’t really want to fall back into the alcohol thing, but he did.
Digest: It’s common for teen storylines in soaps to address the alcohol issue. Will viewers see Rafe spin out of control?
Bonilla: I hope not! I think Rafe’s smart enough that he realizes he doesn’t need [alcohol]. It’s just that easy way out, that quick fix. Once you sober up, you’re sort of worse off than you were beforehand. I’d like to see him do better in school and get back on track and realize that if something goes wrong, it goes wrong and the bottle isn’t going to do anything.
Digest: It doesn’t help that his family is pretty messed up right now!
Bonilla: He’s just sick of it all. At least when he was in Chicago, he didn’t have to deal with all this “he said, she said” and Alan’s craziness, the whole family drama, because he didn’t have a big family. All he had was him and his mom, and how complicated can that get? Now he’s dealing with a whole load of things he’s never had to deal with before and it’s a bit overwhelming. He’s a very real kid. He gets angry and, like a lot of people, they drink just to forget about stuff and calm down.
Digest: Rafe and Daisy are trying to make amends. Will they continue a serious relationship?
Bonilla: I don’t think they’re going to dive right back in. I really don’t. The whole trust thing is huge for [Rafe] and he wants to be with her. He wants to feel that again, but it’s hard for him to even be around her. At the same time, he doesn’t want to get hurt and he’s not sure she’s even ready for it.
Digest: It’s some heavy stuff!
Bonilla: For sure! But they do love each other and that’s awesome.
Digest: You recently experienced your first big GUIDING LIGHT fan event at the luncheon in October. How have fans reacted to the Riveras being in Springfield?
Bonilla: What I’ve heard a lot … and from people of color, they’re like, “Awesome! We needed some spice up in there [laughs]!”
Conversation
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