Interview: George Lopez and Carlos PenaVega of “Spare Parts”

Spare Parts is based on the true story of four undocumented high school students who entered a robotics competition and beat the team from MIT.  I was lucky enough to get a chance to talk to George Lopez, who produced the film and stars as a character based on the two teachers who worked with the boys, and Carlos PenaVega of Big Time Rush, who plays Oscar, the most serious-minded and responsible member of the team.

PenaVega talked about how much fun the actors who played the team had with the robot built for the film.  “It’s kind of like movie magic because we show up, the robots are built and then we get to play. But they let us drive them around a bit so I kind of get to be like a pilot for a day.”  He is ebullient and talkative, not much like the character he played, who he described as “an incredible human being. He and I spoke through emails for a while but he was very vague and we got to finally meet on set, they came for a whole week, all the boys both teachers. And I think each one of us took time to just sit down with them, talk to them it’s like tell me your story out of your mouth, no more like online. I mean these kids went through so much and Oscar is such a strong human being especially for someone who speaks very little English, or who speaks but still has an accent.  He just so inspiring because we all have obstacles in our lives.  In my opinion he had some of the most difficult obstacles and he got through it.  He can do it, so can we.”  He was especially happy when his wife, Alexa PenaVega (“Spy Kids”) was cast as his character’s girlfriend.  “It was such a blessing because we had just gotten engaged and being apart for two, three months would have been difficult.  And she was amazing and you know just having George and my wife and Jamie Lee Curtis and Marisa, it was such good company and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.”  He was grateful for the three pieces of advice he got from Jamie Lee Curtis.  “Always be on time, which I’m working on.  Always know your lines. And number three never ask anybody to do something that you could do for yourself. Like if there is a glass of water over there and you can clearly get it, don’t be like, ‘Can you get me this?'”   To relax between scenes, the cast enjoyed singing show tunes and other songs.

He was very glad to get away from the buzz cut hairstyle his character has in the film.  “Continuity is a big thing in films so they would give me a buzz cut every day. Every single day. You know what, in the first month it was great but in the next months, I was like ‘no more, no more haircuts.'”

Lopez gave the young actors some advice as well.  Before shooting began, he took them to dinner and told them “to work hard and let’s make something that the kids could be proud of. That everybody would be proud of. ”  He was paying tribute not only to the characters in the story but to his own teachers who inspired and supported him.  “I had it when I was growing up and I had teachers that would talk to me kind of take me under their arm and stuff and tell me things I wanted to hear. And sometimes the things I did not want to hear and did not understand at that particular time but then I did later on.”

Lopez was eager to talk about why the story was so important to him.  “The fact that you could beat so many great universities with spending under $800 and how intelligence has no color. And ingenuity and determination and will can outweigh what somebody might learn in a book.  They were relentless and they would not give up.  The only reason they entered against the colleges was because they thought they didn’t want to lose to another high school. They didn’t go into win; they went to not lose to all the high schools. So that’s inspiring and it is a little bit of a kind of a thing that Latinos have, like you always feel a little bit uncomfortable even when you’re welcome. So hopefully this movie will be able to show people.  The movie is entertaining but it also shows Latinos that whatever they aspire to be can happen.”  He said it was the first movie he produced that had “such an incredible and credible cast. Having Jamie Lee Curtis do the movie and have her be so great in it but also to get Marisa Tomei in there and Esai Morales — I called him personally and asked him to be in it. And then finding these young men who were amazing actors and who also felt the story so it wasn’t really just another job for them. They felt the responsibility to do this movie and to make sure it was done properly. To honor the actual young man who we became quite friendly with.”