Acapulco’s Eugenio Derbez on How He Had to ‘Reinvent Himself’

The Parting Shot with H. Alan Scott

For Eugenio Derbez, making the transition from being one of Mexico’s most recognizable faces in comedy to the American market was not easy. “We don’t laugh at the same things. Humor in Mexico and in the U.S. is completely different. I had to reinvent myself,” Derbez told Newsweek’s H. Alan Scott. He’s done a good job of reinventing himself because his Apple TV+ series ‘Acapulco’ (May 1) is now in its third season. “I’m so glad that the series is bilingual and it’s getting its third season.” The success of the show is directly tied to Derbez’s success stateside. Loosely based on his character Maximo from the 2017 film ‘How to Be a Latin Lover,’ Acapulco shifts between telling the backstory of young Maximo in the 1980s at a popular resort and the character in modern day. Part of why he wanted to do Acapulco was because “there’s still a big opportunity to tell beautiful things about Mexico. I was always concerned that Mexico equals violence.” With his success in the U.S., Derbez is looking to adapt his popular Mexican sitcom La Familia P. Luche into English. “It’s so different from anything that you’ve watched before in the U.S.”

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