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Director Steve Acevedo understands foremost the power of an image. In our interview for his newest film Love and Baseball, the director talks about how Benny from The Sandlot was, for him, “the most impactful Latino character” he had seen in a movie growing up. “He was the hero of the film. The leader of the team. The best player, the most handsome, the coolest. He spoke English without an accent and everyone looked up to him,” Acevedo says. “And you what…his ethnicity wasn’t discussed. He just was. For the first time, I was watching myself or my friends on the big screen. I was around the age of those kids when the movie came out, and I was filled with so much pride and awe. I had never seen a character like that in a movie, which was great, but sadly, it almost made me realize the lack of Latino characters like that. It was eye-opening.”

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This is perhaps why Acevedo, as a director, writer, and cinematographer, is determined to normalize Latinx representation on-screen in his work in a way that isn’t, more significantly, solely about racial or cultural identities. When asked what it will take for the film industry to get to a place where equitable representation and opportunity are no longer topics of conversation, Acevedo says, “We need to create more Mexican-American stars and the only way that’s going to happen is if Hollywood hires them for lead roles of universal stories […] It feels like Hollywood will still only put a Mexican-American actor in a lead role when the character has to be Mexican.”

The notion of universality is on full display in his newest movie Love and Baseball, which was made available to stream on HBO Max earlier this month. Per Deadline, the streaming platform acquired the rights to the film after making its premiere at the Dances With Films Festival. Billed as a romantic-dramedy, Love and Baseball tells the love story of two strangers, Will and Michelle (played by Max Arciniega and Tate Hanyok, respectively), whose meet-cute moment — involving, naturally, a baseball bat — rivals the greats of rom-com history. Immediately, something sparks between them, but, as it is wont to do, life has other plans for each, pulling them apart before anything can really begin. Split into three acts, Love and Baseball illustrates different encounters between Will and Michelle at three different points in their lives. Through each meet-up, they navigate their feelings for each other, the circumstances that come between them, and the tightrope walk anyone who has ever been in love knows too well of hope and fear.


Love and Baseball is a Universal Love Story

For Acevedo, Love and Baseball started from a desire to create amidst a lack of opportunity. He had been experiencing “a little bit of trouble getting projects green lit and booking TV directing gigs” when Hanyok — Acevedo’s producing partner in addition to being the film’s lead actress — “brought me this play, written by her friend, Jerry Montoya, and suggested we adapt it and create an opportunity for ourselves and our friends. I read the script and agreed it was a great idea that we could produce on our own with the resources we had.”

True to many independent movie productions, Love and Baseball became an intimate, self-financed effort. On top of budget concerns, Acevedo says there were the additional challenges of, on the one hand, adapting a two-character play into a feature-length movie, and, on the other, translating a story that happens in real-time cinematically. “Regarding the script, I gave it a first pass that I would say was the ‘Mexican-American’ pass, and then our friend, Joe Boothe, gave it the ‘Hollywood’ pass to help shift the feeling from a play to a movie, and Tate finished it off with a ‘character’ pass that added comedy and a female gaze to many of the characters. It was a total team effort.”


The result is a charming and evocative love story between two people who are otherwise perfect for each other, but the timing just isn’t right. That Love and Baseball tugs at your heartstrings is largely due to Arciniega and Hanyok’s performances and Acevedo’s direction. “I knew the movie’s success depended mostly on their chemistry, so I focused on creating a collaborative and intimate environment where the lines of communication were completely open between the three of us,” Acevedo says of his two leads. “We rehearsed before we shot each act, which was extraordinarily helpful to find the right timing and to fine tune the dialogue. I believe the intimacy we created between the two characters was enhanced by the fact that the production itself was intimate. It was often only me and one other person on set with the actors.


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The Movie is a Home Run for Acevedo

Love and Baseball effectively marks new territory for Acevedo, whose previous work dealt with much darker subject matter. “I’ve had a lot of blood and death in my films. My most recent episode of TV had 11 deaths, including three headshots,” he says, referring to his work on USA Network’s Queen of the South. “I wanted to do something light. After reading the [Love and Baseball] play, I was drawn to how deep I felt for the characters’ relationship. These people only meet three times, and as the [audience] we experience every moment they spend with each other.”

Certainly, when you think of Latinx actors in romance movies, Jennifer Lopez comes to mind. From 2001’s The Wedding Planner to Marry Me (which released earlier this year), the Puerto Rican-American actress has undeniably been an important figure in rom-com history. However, as far as more diverse Latinx representation in romantic comedies or dramedies in America go, there’s definitely work to be done. For Acevedo, who aims to lift Latinx actors in the industry, casting Arciniega as Will was the most natural thing in the world. “When I read a script, I automatically imagine ‘brown’ actors in the lead roles, whether it’s an international spy thriller or a goofy rom-com that takes place in the mid-west. It’s my default and has been since I started making movies.”


“My dad was a judge,” he adds. “My dentist, doctor, and pharmacist were Mexican-American. That’s my normal. That’s how I view the world. Progress is being made slowly, but at least we’re headed in the right direction. When American Latino actors are playing the leads of major Hollywood films, and those films are not about their ethnicity, I think that will help us get to a place where we don’t have to constantly question representation and opportunity.”



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