From showrunner Elgin James and now in its fourth season, the FX drama series Mayans M.C. sees war brought to the doorstep of Santo Padre, as they face retaliation from other chapters that are now out for blood after an attempt to align under one King blew up in their faces. EZ Reyes (JD Pardo) and his brother Angel (Clayton Cardenas) are more united than ever, but that won’t matter if they can’t survive the attack.
During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Cardenas talked about getting to explore all the layers of his characters, the freedom the actors have as they collaborate with James, the consequences that resulted from their actions at the end of Season 3, how they learned about what would come next, the emotions they go through when reading the scripts, and what fans should brace themselves for at the start of Season 4.
Collider: What’s it like for you, as an actor who’s so deeply in it with this story, to get to explore so many layers, with him personally and with the club itself?
CLAYTON CARDENAS: Specifically with Angel, starting from Season 1, there were little Easter eggs, here and there, about him wanting to possibly see a life outside of the club. Interestingly enough, you see his brother assimilating into the club, at the same time. It’s basically his worst fear come true. But season after season, Angel has been finding ways to, I would say, sabotage himself, which is all stemming from the Reyes family curse. He’s constantly given these opportunities to find life outside of the club, whether it be with Adelita, at the time, or now with this character Nails, who he’s hoping to create a new life with.
As far as playing into these layers, as an actor, that’s something I’ve always wanted to be involved with. A lot of the times, in the past, the roles I was given were basically one-dimensional characters. And with this, with the writing, starting with Kurt Sutter and now with it handed off to Elgin James, you have layer after layer, after layer given to you, and that just excites me. I couldn’t ask for anything greater than that. With this season, specifically, there was much more freedom, meaning I didn’t feel stuck in a box, as an actor. It wasn’t like, “Okay, Angel Reyes, this is your specific assignment for this season.” Elgin said, “Okay, you have the freedom for you to do and say what you want in these scenes. I’ve written this dialogue here. If you feel that you need to say it a certain way for you to get your point across, please say it your way.” So, take after take, I’ve had the opportunity to say it my own way, to figure things out. Just thinking back on this season, in particular, there’s a lot more ease and freedom to it.
When you got to the end of Season 3 and you had all of these very angry, armed dudes outside of the gates of the clubhouse with nothing but a strong need for payback and blood, what did you think would happen next? Did you have any idea where that moment was going to go next, at the time?
CARDENAS: Towards the end of the season, I think it was pretty obvious, with the actions that were taken by the Santo Padre chapter, that there would be consequences. I don’t think, in anybody’s world, that we just thought we were gonna walk out of that, scot-free, but I don’t know if we really understood how big the civil war would get. It was very specific to which chapters we were gunning for, at the end Season 3, especially getting down to the one King situation. But now, at the end of Season 3, we see all the chapters of Mayans, and that is the biggest, most frightening thing to see. So, we’ll see where it goes from here.
At what point did Elgin James tell you what would happen next? When and how did you learn about where Season 4 was going to pick up?
CARDENAS: It was probably a couple of months before we started to shoot it. Elgin told us, “This is inevitable. This was to be expected.” But he didn’t really give us much more, character-wise, about where we’d be headed towards until about a month before we started filming. He was like, “Okay, this is what’s gonna happen, to start off the season.” But as far as our characters went, we didn’t really know until a couple months after that.
Do you go through all the emotions that we go through, as the audience, when you first read these scripts? Do you have that kind of reaction to them?
CARDENAS: A hundred percent. I think we’d be inhuman to not have some type of feeling when we’re reading these things. But it’s more interesting to actually play these things. As far as being an actor, your body doesn’t know you’re acting, so your body actually feels yourself going through these emotions. In your craft, you have to learn how to separate character from human being. For myself, in particular, that has been the most challenging thing. In the earlier seasons, I would always bring work home, bring these feelings home, and bring this energy home, and that was really detrimental. But now, I’ve learned to craft out of that.
But yes, of course, when we read the scripts, we’re calling each other on the phone and going, “Hey, man, did you read that? Oh, my God! Wow!” We go through it, just like the audience does, even more so because, after reading, then we actually get to go do it. You get to live it out, on the day, which is the most fun thing. This season has probably been the funnest season, by far. The club is feeling some type of resolution coming, and we’re all at the apex of our characters’ arcs right now, so it’s really interesting to see everybody at their best.
For fans of the show who have seen the Season 4 trailer and who are nervous about the impression that you get from the trailer . . .
CARDENAS: Oh, my God, you should be.
. . . what would you tell them that they should expect from this season? How much should they brace themselves? How afraid should they be for everybody?
CARDENAS: As expected, you’re definitely gonna see more of the civil war aspect. This is definitely the bloodiest, most gruesome season, by far. In the first episode alone, and I’m quoting Elgin on this, we see more action than we’ve seen in the first three seasons. That alone should keep the audience on pins and needles. Filming that, it was pins and needles. No spoilers here, but when we were filming the first episode, I remember there was a moment in the clubhouse where we were doing a wide shot. You’re seeing all the actors, and we’re all in a room. It was one of those night shoots, and you could hear the atmosphere outside. You could hear the Mayans outside, trying to come in, and they were playing all of these sounds.
I remember looking around and seeing every actor just so locked in. It was amazing because we all understood the moment. We all understood how we left in episode 310. There were 10 or 15 people, just so locked in. I remember seeing that and being like, “Wow, if I’m this impressed and in awe, with lights and camera and everybody around, I can’t imagine how the audience is gonna receive this.” It was amazing. I’ve never felt like that, on any show I’ve done, on any episode I’ve done. I was like, “Wow, this is something abnormal. This is something that has yet to be seen on TV.” I was really impressed. I was really excited. I’m really happy for everyone to see these first episodes coming out.
Mayans M.C. airs on Tuesday nights on FX.