Alfonso Herrera on Creating Javi for ‘Ozark’ and the Art of Making Everyone Uncomfortable

There are times, as an entertainment writer/interviewer, when you get reminded that your subject is not at all like the character you most recognize them as. Such is the case with Alfonso Herrera, whose performance as Javi on Ozark was so terrifying, that your nerves jangled every time he showed up on screen. When the real Alfonso Herrera showed up in my Zoom room, I practically flinched. Here was this kind-faced, clean-shaven, impossibly friendly, gifted actor before me who could not have been more of a pleasure to sit with and talk Ozark. It was a great reminder that actors go through their whole lives changing characters like Cher changes costumes in Vegas. 

Alfonso Herrera is not Javi, but oh my, did he ever play the hell out of him. In our conversation, we talk about how he came to Ozark, his love for playing Javi, and how much he is going to miss the show’s uniquely familial set.

Awards Daily: You’ve been building more of a presence in America the last few years with work on a number of series, how did you come to Ozark?

Alfonso Herrera: My agent called me and said there’s this show, it’s very popular, called Ozark, and I said, of course I know Ozark! (Laughs). I’d been following the show since 2017. I just read for the part, and fortunately, they liked it. Just a couple of days later, I was in Atlanta shooting this bit. It was just like that. Being part of the process of testing, reading, et cetera.

Awards Daily: I’m realizing now, as I’m looking at you – all clean-shaven, that Javi’s beard added a real sense of menace. Did you read with the beard, or did you grow it for the part?

Alfonso Herrera: I generally like to have a beard – constantly. Because I have a very thick beard and every time I shave, it’s a problem. (Laughs). For Javi, I didn’t have such a large beard as I usually have. But it was a good element in my personal opinion for the construction of Javi. It gives him very specific features that enhance the form of the character, and his image. Your reaction to the beard lets me know that it worked.

Awards Daily: Did you know when you signed on that Javi was going to make such a huge impression on the storyline? Because he really turns the show upside down as this additional complicating factor within the cartel, beyond his uncle.

Alfonso Herrera: No. When I was in Atlanta, studying, reading, trying to build the pieces for Javi, I thought that every single piece in this type of show is very necessary for the whole machinery to work. I’ve received great comments from friends and family that are very welcome, but I think every single person does an interesting job in this show. But I never thought about the huge impact Javi could have. I was just focusing on the impact that Javi needed to have in order for the story to work more than what anyone watching might think about him.

Awards Daily: Javi is really smart, but he has weaknesses. Too much pride, maybe too much confidence, and he holds huge grudges.

Alfonso Herrera: This is my reading of Javi: He understands that he’s not very welcome in every single room that he enters. He’s a very lonely person. Deep inside, he hates that – not being part of the family in the fullest sense. Even though his uncle is there as a very important masculine presence, he’s not Javi’s father, and he doesn’t really welcome him. Javi knows whenever he enters a room, he makes people uncomfortable. He knows it. It doesn’t matter if he is with his family, it doesn’t matter if he’s at a university with a classroom full of people, or with his teacher, or with the Byrdes, or with Claire Shaw at Shaw industries, he always makes people uncomfortable. And there is a point where he says, okay, that is what I create, if that is my position in life, if that is what I create, then I am going to have fun with that. I’m going to enjoy it. I am going to love it and embrace it. Not in order to be aggressive to someone, but in order for survival. 

Awards Daily: Javi can go from charming to menacing in a second. Sometimes he’s both of those things at once. Was there a balance to sustaining that affect?

Alfonso Herrera: That has to do with the writing. It’s not just about Javi, it also has to do with all the context that creates the show’s atmosphere. Those are kudos for Chris Mundy and the writer’s room. Also, you have to hold some of that energy back. That’s because of the Ozark atmosphere and tone – it’s a very specific tone. It defines the whole show, and you need to blend into that tone for it to work. Otherwise, it’s like a flute that goes into a wrong note. It was challenging to portray someone who is hot-headed but can also navigate in the waters of that lake.

Awards Daily: You don’t want to end up seeming like a character who is in a different show.

Alfonso Herrera: Exactly! (Laughs). That’s very important! 

Awards Daily: The scene where you kill Wyatt is fascinating to me. There’s never a second of doubt that you are going to kill him after you shoot Darlene, but before you do, you apologize, and Javi seems genuine in his apology. 

Alfonso Herrera: It’s a very technical scene. Javi knew what he was going to do, he knew he was going to go there and finish the job. It works because there is not much thinking to it. An actor’s worst enemy is to think too much. He was there and his function was to be accurate, technical, and precise. I think it was fun for him. (Laughs). Even the apology. 

Awards Daily: The sequence with your college professor is also pretty remarkable. You are expecting to get something from him that he did not give you when you were a student, and when you don’t, well, you beat the hell out of him in the bathroom.

Alfonso Herrera: Initially, Javi wanted to prove to the professor that he was wrong to doubt him. Javi arrives at that dinner expecting a compliment from someone who has been in his head constantly because of the bullying he received from him as a student. Javi is coming back to say, hey, look what I have done, congratulate me. He doesn’t receive that and that pisses him off. That annihilates his need for approval, and because the professor doesn’t give him that, Javi does what he does. 

Awards Daily: And Javi has a quick trigger once offended.

Alfonso Herrera: It’s funny, because he doesn’t arrive to that dinner with his professor with a gun. He likes to read people. He gives them one chance. That’s it. If they pass the test, he can carry on. It’s more or less like with Marty and Wendy at the oyster scene. He is in front of Marty and he measures him. Marty is so good at lying, that Javi completely buys it, and he says, good, carry on. Marty passes the test. Javi gives people one chance, and if they fail, ciao. (Laughs).

Awards Daily: Your death scene is really something. It’s beautifully shot by DP Eric Koretz and director Amanda Marsalis – practically in silhouette – who both praised your physical performance in that scene when I spoke to them. The way you just go straight down. You walk into the room with words in your mouth, and the fact that Ruth shoots you down with no hesitation and you don’t writhe on the ground or anything, makes the scene all the more effective. It’s what you don’t do in that scene that I find so remarkable.

Alfonso Herrera: Otherwise it would have been pushing too much. It would not have been natural, it would be about the need of the actor to try to give off something else instead of giving the character the exact element of what the scene needed. After seeing what Amanda did…I think it was a very wise decision to have that frame so open. Otherwise you would have lost the rhythm and the momentum. It would have been a very egoistic choice for me to have pushed for anything more.

Awards Daily: I also think it gives the scene more shock value, and I mean that in a good way, then if you had done it any other way.

Alfonso Herrera: Exactly. This story needs to move on. Javi’s done. What’s next? That’s the beauty of this show. Not trying to go back. Not trying to recalibrate. Not trying to take the spectator into this question of, is he going to die? Is he dying? No. Bang. What’s next? That’s Ozark.

Awards Daily: What’s next was getting towels and clean-up materials. (Laughs).

Alfonso Herrera: I loved that scene after Javi dies, how Ruth is measuring the Byrdes. She has a gun. She had the possibility of finishing the Byrdes there too. Julia played it masterfully. 

Awards Daily: You obviously came to the show in the final season, and you were surrounded by all of these actors who had received so much recognition and had been living in the skin of their characters for so long, what was it like walking onto the set of such an established and well-regarded show?

Alfonso Herrera: Very easy. They are a family. When you come into their family, they make you feel welcome. When I met Laura Linney, she grabbed my phone and said, I know you are away from home, if you need anything – grocery stores, bills, anything, please call me. I’ve been here doing this show for many, many years, and I can help you. That was a very generous thing for Laura to do, and it came from such a good place. Jason has, and this is something I always say, that I love about him: he has a no tolerance for assholes policy. (Laughs). If you are someone that is not respectful, that’s not empathetic, no matter who you are, no matter your position, you’re out. We are trying to collaborate. We were shooting the show during a pandemic, which makes it even more complicated. Having a number one like Jason is very helpful to the team. He takes care of each and every single person on set. Since day one they made me feel welcome. Chris, Jason, Laura, Julia, everybody. If I try to remember someone on set who was not so generous, I can’t think of anyone. 

Awards Daily: Your character is a risk factor for everyone who he comes into contact with. You were so good that you became the character that everyone loved to hate. The one everyone wanted to see die. How did it feel to embody that?

Alfonso Herrera: I loved it. (Laughs). I’ll tell you a fun fact: We were watching the screening in New York of episodes 8 and 9, and when Javi died, the whole crowd erupted. I was sitting there, and I saw that, and I remembered my first day on Ozark. I said, Alfonso, don’t fuck it up. Don’t fuck it up. Don’t fuck it up. And when I saw that I said, (Alfonso pounds his desk top with his fist), I didn’t fuck it up! (Laughs). 

Awards Daily: Now that you’ve had a little distance from the show, and the final episodes have come out, been seen, and largely well-reviewed, how are you looking back at your experience on the show?

Alfonso Herrera: I feel very lucky. That I must have done something very good in another life to be a part of this amazing family, to be a part of this amazing story. Also to have been given the exact elements I needed to build a very solid character. Feedback is always a good thing – whether it’s good or bad – if it’s constructive feedback, you need to cherish that and embrace it, if that means you need to improve. There are other types of feedback that are destructive. You need to be very wise to know how to separate the constructive from the destructive, and not let your ego get in the way. I miss that set a lot. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to replicate an experience like that. Not just being part of that story, but going to that set and knowing you were in a safe place and everyone was going to take care of you. If you were going to fall, they were going to be there for you. That invited you to do the exact same thing. If someone needed something, you were there for them. That’s uncommon.