THE WILD’S ZACK CALDERON ON KINDNESS IN CHAOS

BY IRVIN RIVERA

The Wild’s Zack Calderon is a focused rising star. He currently plays Rafael Garcia in the second season of Amazon Prime Video’s THE WILDS.

The show is a survivalist thriller featuring diverse groups of high-school teenagers with a myriad of backgrounds and experiences as they navigate, explore and survive their lives in a deserted island without knowing that they’re part of this huge secret social experiment by a mad scientist in pursuit of bringing down the socio-political patriarchy. It’s a show that highly demands your full attention as the audience- to actually pay attention to the details, the timeline jumps, the backstories, and even the subtle facial expressions of the diverse, talented cast. 

Although “The Wilds” is Calderon’s first major role, his performance in the show shows a lot of potential- a huge promise in terms of future projects and further development of his character Raf. 

In this exclusive interview, Calderon spoke about his experiences in the show, the challenges and the highs that he faced, his dreams, inspirations, life lessons and more.

Hi Zack, how are you?

Hey hey, I’m good, thanks for asking!

How would you describe “The Wilds” to those who haven’t seen it yet?

I would say “The Wilds” is a survivalist thriller centered around 16 high school students from all different walks of life, who survive a plane crash, and are pushed to their limits physically, mentally, and emotionally as they try to come together to survive being stranded on a deserted island all the while unknowingly being the subjects of a social experiment led by a manipulative scientist in pursuit of bringing down the socio-political patriarchy.

What do you think is unique about the show?

I think what’s unique about our show is the way in which the story is told. The audience is continually brought back and forth between 3 different timelines. The backstories of our characters, the recollections of our experience on the island, and then current interrogations post rescue in what they believe to be an FBI run facility. I don’t think shows, especially centered around young people, are given the freedom and honestly the budget to create such a multi-layered experience for the audience like this one does.

What’s the best part about playing your character?

I think the best part about playing Raf is the opportunity to live as and even sometimes learn from who the character is. We are not our characters obviously and we get to live the consequences good and bad through the choices they make. As an actor, it’s quite an exploration of what it means to be human and a great challenge, especially if your character is doing something that you as the actor wouldn’t agree with or do. Raf is such a departure from myself. He is quiet, soft spoken, and unassertive, and to be someone that may be considered the antithesis of that in real life is an incredibly fun sandbox to play in.

What drew you to your character?

I always find it funny when someone asks “why did you want to take this part?” or “what made you want to be on this show?”, because the reality of being an actor is we’re all out here trying to get a job, right? All we want is for someone to notice us after months and years of working on ourselves and craft. We want to hear “it’s you, kid!” I could give you a more interesting answer to the question, “What it was like to find the character after getting the role?” What I loved so much about Raf is what you see is not what you get. Just because he isn’t saying anything doesn’t mean he isn’t having an opinion of what’s going on around him. There are several moments throughout the season where the shot cuts to Raf’s reaction to something that’s happening. He truly is always thinking, assessing and observing regardless of whether or not he verbalizes it. I am incredibly fortunate to be able to play a character with such an arc. Seeing Raf start as an innocent soul on that plane to him in the post-rescue facility as a “monster” was just an absolute blast.

Talk about the challenges and the highs that you experienced during filming?

Of course. Circling back to an earlier answer regarding disagreeing with your characters choices, I remember I was really struggling with Raf defending Seth, for obvious reasons, and one of my fellow cast members, Miles, reminded me that Zack is smarter than Raf and that the actor doesn’t have to make the same choices the character would. Which would seem like an obvious distinction, but sometimes when you actually have to say things you disagree with on camera and know that it will be seen by millions for the rest of time, it can be more difficult than one would expect.

How did you manage to rise above the challenges?

I think through rehearsal, and working the text as deeply as I could. I do a lot of rehearsal on my own before we shoot anything. Being as secure as I can with the text and my sandbox as you will, allows me to get there more easily on the day. Being prepared in that way I feel gives me the space to play and find different versions for each take. The beauty of playing someone like Raf is because he may not be verbalizing all of his thoughts like Seth or Kirin who feel like they always have something to say but it doesn’t mean he’s not thinking about them. It’s really finding the spirit of the character and making sure he is the one being seen, not you the actor. For me personally, after spending an hour and a half in the make-up trailer, when I looked in the mirror afterwards I saw far more of Raf than I did Zack. Also surrounding myself with 7 other guys who are all so great in their own rights and so specific to their characters, and being “stranded” on a beach off the coast of Brisbane, Australia for 10 hours a day helps with that as well.

What’s the most memorable moment for you throughout the whole process of making the show?

It’s hard to pick just one, but right before production started we had a major flood that wrecked a huge set piece for us, and caused production to completely rework our shooting schedule for the first block. So my backstory sequences became almost the entire first week or two of production. I had never been on a set this big, seen this many cameras, or had this many people asking how I took my coffee and looking after me. So the day itself was very overwhelming to say the least. Our first shoot day was in Marisol’s house, and the shot that’s in the cut is me looking through this window at the start of the scene. I was so nervous, and felt

like I had no idea what I was doing, but I heard our incredible first AD Jo Suna, say “everybody settle”. Almost as if in slow motion, I just took a moment to be present, acknowledge where I was and what I was doing and how incredibly fortunate I was to be there. It is truly a moment I’ll never forget. It’s those “firsts” ya know?

What is your proudest moment ever from acting so far?

Oh god… I am so bad at talking about myself like this, but if I had to pick one from this experience, I would probably say it was my interrogation. We shot that my first week, which was already nerve wracking considering I had barely found my idea of Raf and yet had to play him at the end of the entire island experience. But we would end up going back and reshooting the entire thing the week before we wrapped production. I had gotten the new scenes literally the night before, and was supposed to be picked up at 5 am the next morning. Our producers weren’t sure what they wanted Raf to be like by the time he got off the island, believing he had killed Seth. We spent about 6 hours with the lens just staring at me in this dark room and them walking in and suggesting different ideas for those scenes. I owe so much thanks to the incredible David Sullivan, who plays Daniel Faber. He became my best scene partner/coach. He and I have come from the same acting studio in LA. Because of this, we can almost speak our own secret language. To have him hold my hand and be able to bounce ideas off of him in the room that day saved my life that day and I love him for it.

Can you walk us through your creative process whenever you go and film a scene?

Yeah! So I come from an acting studio in LA called Lesly Kahn and Company. This woman literally taught me everything I know about acting. Lesly and the students of this school, who have now become some of my best friends, are what got me where I am today. Truly. I work every script or audition I get with them. I am very much of the mindset that many minds are more powerful than one. I love collaboration, I love trying new things and I find I work best when I come in with my ideas and my friends give me their thoughts or help me find what is happening for my character, similar to what I was just describing with David. For each scene I’ll work through my character's thoughts. Understanding my character's thoughts is what works best for me, as it eliminates the idea of substitution or any other method of acting that, to me, feels confusing and overwhelming. Like the idea of having to think about your grandmother getting hit by a bus to elicit some sort of feeling of sadness. I love my grandma and can’t bare to think of her in that way. Again, this is just what works for me! Being able to be present in the moment and thinking my character's thoughts about whatever was just said or done, is how I find my way in. Especially with someone like Raf who is always thinking but not always speaking.

How did acting start for you? 

I think there was always something sort of theatrical about me as a kid. I found myself to be a great mimic. I would hear the way someone spoke, or told a joke and try to reenact it almost identically because I knew where the laugh would be. I grew up watching old black and white movies and musicals, which gave me my love of film and stage. I remember as a kid, my mom’s office was right next to my bedroom in our house. Every time she’d get on the phone I’d start belting out some song at the top of my lungs in hopes it’d bleed through the walls, she’d be on the phone with some big producer and they would “discover” me… but it never happened, probably because she was a realtor in Northern California. But anyway, I was planning on being a news broadcast journalist, until my high school drama teacher told me they thought it was worth a shot for me to try to be an actor. It all sort of snowballed from there.

Who and what inspires you?

Specificity inspires me. When I see a performance where you can tell the actor has put so much thought into each line and knows exactly why they’re saying what they are saying is the most exciting thing. I think it pushes me to always strive for more specificity in my own work. I think it’s what makes someone stand out. I look at some of my acting heroes like Matthew Rhys, Jason Bateman or Bradley Whitford, and am just stunned by the amount of stillness and specificity they carry in them.

What scares you?

Oh geez…all kinds of things. I think that’s one thing I’ve learned a lot about myself in the last few years. Fear is okay, but what you do with that fear is what really matters. But if I had to be specific; failure, death of loved one, snakes… the usual.

What part of your story do you wanna share with this interview?

They always say for every one hundred nos there’s one yes, and that is very much the case with me. Before The Wilds I had had 126 auditions and 2 yes’s. There were a lot of close calls, lot of “you were the second choice”. Unfortunately close calls don’t make it on your resume. I would just like to share, to keep going! Keep working on your craft, find new methods that maybe allow you to unlock new ways of doing your craft. Most importantly though, work on yourself as a person. I see now, there are so many reasons I was not ready for the yeses prior to me getting this show. There were a lot of lessons I needed to learn. Lessons about life and really lessons about myself. Through the tough and horrible times when you feel you're never going to get through it, know that you will and you will come out a stronger person for it. My therapist has a saying that I ironically use as a toast at parties… “To the past, present and future. Past, may we learn from it and grow, Present, fight like hell to stay in it, and Future, to always have hope.” And personally, I think “fighting like hell to stay in it” is the hardest and bravest thing a person can do.

What's your dream project?

Something with Aaron Sorkin. “The West Wing” was my favorite show growing up, and still is. I found some lovely escapism in this fictional political world where people took responsibility when they messed up. Where they were in pursuit of doing the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people. I’m also just habitually a very fast talker, so his dialogue lends itself to that.

Out of all the roles that you've played, is there any role/character that resonated with you the most and why?

Well this being sort of the biggest role I’ve done to date, I’d have to say this one. Regardless of what happens with this show in the future, it will always be my first. All of the exciting and special moments that have come from this project will always hold that nostalgic first time glow to it.

Aside from acting, what else keeps you busy?

I’m one that justifies watching TV as research, so I’ve been watching a lot of just great TV right now. My roommate and I are obsessed with “The Staircase” on HBO. Aside from that, I’m getting ready to work on another show for Apple TV+, actually starting this week, and of course checking my email to see if we’re getting picked up for a third season of The Wilds.

What are you most excited about in the near future/this year?

I’m excited for a lot of the people in my life. So many incredible things are happening for so many incredible people in my life. They were all so supportive of me as I went off and ventured into “The Wild” (get it?), and so now being able to be a cheerleader for them and help them the way they helped me is the best feeling.

What's a valuable lesson that you've learned that you always carry with you?

A win for someone you love is a win for you. I think especially in this industry it is so hard to be supportive of others that are living your dreams. I have been incredibly blessed to have found a community of people that are able to celebrate me unconditionally, knowing that a win for me is a win for them, and vice versa.

If you were a book, what book would you be and why? 

HA! That’s something no one would ever expect from me. I’m a horrible reader, but for some reason I’ve surrounded myself with book people. I have a quote on my Instagram that says “It’s Chaos, Be Kind” It’s stolen from stand-up comedian Patton Oswalt. His late wife Michelle MacNamara always used to say it. I love the sentiment. Maybe the title would be something like “It’s Chaos, Be Kind: A Guide to Remembering We’re All Just Trying to Figure Out What the Hell is Going On.”