Category: Interview
Pulse Press
On April 1st, Nestor & his Pulse co-star, Daniela Nieves visited the Univision studio for an interview with ¡Despierta América! They also gave an interview for the Telemundo network on En Casa Con Telemundo. Nestor wrapped up press for the series by appearing at the Miami screening that same night with fellow cast mates.
Getting Lost Interview & Outtakes
The video vault has been updated with Nestor’s clips (and outtakes) from the Getting Lost Documentary, which is now available to stream on-demand on Vimeo. Additional streaming platforms will be announced.
Getting Lost Documentary Screencaps
Nestor and Shannon participated in the Getting Lost Documentary in March 2024. Screencaps of Nestor’s interviews and their outtakes have been added to the gallery.
Q & A with Nestor Carbonell for The Miami Hurricanes Newspaper
Most actors won’t gain twenty pounds and grow out a scruffy beard for a guest role. Néstor Carbonell isn’t like most actors. Now, he has an Emmy to prove it.
“Never in a million years did I think something like this would come of it,” Carbonell said.
On Sept. 8, Carbonell walked up on stage at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles to accept his Emmy for outstanding guest actor in a drama series for ‘Shōgun.’ He helped bring the show’s total Creative Arts Emmy award wins to 14.
His role as Vasco Rodrigues, a foul-mouthed Spanish pirate, brought comedic relief to the tense drama. The unforgettable banter between Rodrigues and Cosmo Jarvis’ Blackthorne made Carbonell more than a guest actor to the Television Academy.
Carbonell’s world came to a standstill when he heard Jaime Lee Curtis announce his victory.
“It was lovely to be honored that way by the Academy,” Carbonell said. “To win was just completely unexpected.”
His first prime time gig was as a guest actor in “Law & Order” 33 years ago. To win while directing an episode of “Law & Order” made the award all the more sentimental.
“It was meaningful to me in a very full circle way, but also as an actor in a way to remind me how valuable that role is,” Carbonell said.
As a guest star, Carbonell had to steal the show while not taking the spotlight from the main cast. Viewers and the Television Academy found his technique masterful.
The novel “Shōgun” was previously adapted into a television mini-series in the 1980s. Carbonell refrained from seeing its portrayal of Rodrigues by John Rhys-Davies to deliver his own take on the infamous joker.
“I remember loving it as a kid, but I didn’t want to go back to it,” Carbonell said. “I just wanted to have my own sort of take on the role and not be colored by it.”
He was awestruck walking through recreations of imperial Japanese villages in Vancouver. Wearing the costume designer Carlos Rosario’s hand-made accessories took him back in time.
Crew members helped him perfect his Japanese and Castilian accent. Learning Japanese customs, like how to properly bow, was part of the routine.
“When you have that much talent around you and you do as much homework as you can, it just helps you get into that character even more,” Carbonell said.
Despite his family’s demands to keep it front and center, he keeps his award tucked away.
He’s taking his acclaimed skills to the director’s chair. Carbonell is directing an episode of “Law & Order” and prepares to return to Apple TV’s “The Morning Show” for its fourth season.
“‘The Morning Show’ is keeping me more than busy in the best way possible,” Carbonell said. “It’s such a beautifully written season by Charlotte Stout.”
The Emmy-winning drama series will be shooting through Thanksgiving.
Don’t lose track of Néstor Carbonell’s growing, impressive filmography. Catch him on “The Morning Show” and prepare for “Shōgun” season two by watching his award-winning performance on Hulu.
The Hollywood Reporter: Nestor Carbonell Interview
Néstor Carbonell grew facial hair, gained 25 pounds, learned how to appropriately bow and, yes, even learned how to row a boat for the FX limited series Shogun, which scored a leading 25 Emmy nominations, including one for Carbonell as guest actor.
Carbonell portrays Rodrigues, a Spanish pilot tasked with bringing Blackthorne (played by Cosmo Jarvis) to Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada).
The actor likens Rodrigues to Iago in Othello as “sort of a Machiavellian character, someone who knows how to play people. He knows the chess game.”
Here, Carbonell walks THR through the preparation that led to his first Emmy nom.
Congratulations on your first Emmy nomination. What does this recognition mean to you for this show in particular?
That’s a great question because this character means so much to me. Being part of this amazing show, the whole experience was extraordinary, from the beginning all the way to the end. It’s not often as an actor that you get to play someone who’s quite far away from you in so many respects; physically, I had the opportunity to grow this nasty beard and gain some weight, and then learning a Castilian accent. Usually, when I work on a project, I end up hiring my own dialect coach because it’s not factored into the budget, but it was on Shogun. They truly spared no expense in terms of every detail. I got to work with a phenomenal coach and learn some Japanese as well.
SAG-AFTRA Conversations: Cast of Shōgun
Actors Tadanobu Asano (‘Thor: Ragnarok,’ ‘47 Ronin’), Anna Sawai (‘F9,’ ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’), Takehiro Hira (‘Gran Turismo,’ ‘Captain America: Brave New World’), Néstor Carbonell (‘Lost,’ ‘Bates Motel’) and Hiroyuki Sanada (‘Mortal Combat,’ ‘The Last Samurai’) share stories and insight from their performances in ‘Shōgun’. Moderated by David Canfield, Vanity Fair. This interview is part of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations series, an essential resource for actors, featuring leading actors and casts sharing their experiences, insights and craft.
The Big Thing Podcast
Nestor Carbonell, discusses his Emmy nominated performance on Shōgun , his work on lost, The Dark Knight and his journey as an actor with The Big Thing Podcast
How Nestor Carbonell Drastically Transformed Himself for the Role of a Lifetime on ‘Shogun’ (Exclusive)
Néstor Carbonell credits years of hard work — and a multitude of memorable TV roles — for allowing him the opportunity to appear on FX’s hit series Shōgun.
“Any time I get to work is a gift. I have a deep appreciation for every character I’ve had the opportunity to play because it is a chance to investigate a part of you within that character as well,” Carbonell, 56, exclusively told Us Weekly. “It’s so interesting because the opportunities I’ve had have had different kinds of audiences. So some people might recognize me from Lost, Bates Motel, The Morning Show, [the movie] The Dark Knight and now Shōgun, which is amazing.”
Carbonell got his start on TV as a guest star on various shows. It wasn’t until he joined Brooke Shield‘s NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan in 1996 that he rose to prominence and continued to book high-profile projects that gained him a dedicated audience. Most recently, Carbonell completely transformed to play Vasco Rodrigues on Shōgun, FX’s acclaimed historical action-drama, which takes place in Japan circa 1600.
“When you get the opportunity to truly escape into a role that is very far from you — those are the things you dream about,” Carbonell told Us about the skilled Spanish navigator who doesn’t have any specific allegiance when viewers first meet him. “Those opportunities don’t always come around that often because you’re typically doing more work in your immediate wheelhouse. So this was a phenomenal and an amazing opportunity and challenge.”
Before Carbonell could actually film scenes as Rodrigues, he had to bring the character to life. That meant a physical transformation which included creating an accent, adding scars to better reflect Rodrigues’s life story, cutting his hair as his character and more.
“Immediately [when I got the part] I was like, ‘Well, I’m definitely gonna start growing the beard now. Let’s start with that.’ Then we really talked at length about the history of this character and things that weren’t necessarily on the page to really get a sense of who he was emotionally,” he explained. “Then we got into what could inform him physically? I thought, ‘Well I’d probably want to put on a few pounds.’ I wanted to add some heft to the character.”
Carbonell gained around 20 to 25 pounds to better reflect Rodrigues as a character, adding, “It was wonderful just on the physical side to discuss when I got to set after doing all the emotional prep. [We discussed] how can I give him a history on his face and his hair and his physicality that will allow us to further escape into his world and give us a sense of where he came from.”
Based on the 1975 novel by James Clavell, Shōgun is an adaptation of the source material with show creators Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks taking major steps to properly depict key events and figures of 1600 Japan when the Azuchi–Momoyama period approached its end and the Edo period commenced.
“We had the privilege of having these experts who were flown in from Japan to inform every department. We got to learn social customs of the time period. And while my character was breaking all the rules, I knew how far to push it,” Carbonell said of his onscreen approach. “I really wanted to learn what the rules were so that I knew how to break them.”
Carbonell expressed his gratitude for the crew members behind the scenes that helped him on the journey. The actor was also thankful for the network that invested so much into reflecting authenticity within the Shōgun world.
“The support that we got from FX and from [Chairman of FX Networks] John Landgraf was just extraordinary. How he supported Justin and Rachel the entire production was phenomenal. I don’t think we could have been supported any better,” Carbonell shared. “Certainly in my time on the show, what I saw there was unprecedented. Every department was doing things in a phenomenal way to the highest level.”
He continued: “[Everything I learned on the Shōgun set] were truly gifts that help you escape even further into the character. It allows you to really be present in that time period and in that role. So again, it was a gift beyond my dreams to get to play a character like that.”
Gold Derby Exclusive Interview with Nestor Carbonell
“Excess was not a part of his vocabulary,” declares Nestor Carbonell about his role as Vasco Rodrigues in the FX period drama “Shōgun.” The new adaptation of James Clavell‘s epis novel about power struggles in ancient Japan has no shortage of colorful character. However, Carbonell’s Rodrigues is a unique creation: bombastic, wily and always looking out for his own best interests. In an exclusive chat with Gold Derby (watch the video interview above) Carbonell discusses creating his own take on a character he describes as “a dream of a role.”