He’s an Authority on Authority Figures

Hector Elizondo may claim that he still doesn’t know “what I’m going to do when I grow up,” but more often than not, Elizondo finds himself playing the grown-up--or mentor or father figure--on screen and off.

“I’m always somehow or other--without my meaning to--shaping into the rabbi-leader, sort of father figure, the mentor,” he says. And though Elizondo, 64, won’t admit that he has been preparing himself for these roles his whole life, his actions and words prove otherwise. Proof is as close as the local movie theater, where Elizondo is starring in “Tortilla Soup” as Martin Naranjo, a master chef struggling to let the three adult daughters who live with him truly be adults.

Playing the father figure comes naturally for Elizondo, who first gained recognition by playing God in a New York production of “Steambath.” He’s perhaps best known for his portrayal of hospital chief Dr. Walters on the television series “Chicago Hope.” He’s also currently in the Disney comedy “The Princess Diaries,” where he plays the head of security for a small European principality.

Elizondo is also at ease as an off-screen authority figure. “The level of training is not the same, because there’s no respect for authority, for elders, people who’ve been there,” Elizondo says. “So you have to teach the younger ones on the set.” And that includes, he says while flailing his arms and kicking his feet in the air, dealing with spoiled young actors who leave their costumes on the stage floor after a scene or barge into dressing rooms without knocking.

But many who come in contact with him are willing to learn, like the bright-eyed Jacqueline Obradors, who plays one of Martin’s daughters, Carmen, in “Tortilla Soup.” Carmen is a chef in her own right but makes too many revisions to Martin’s traditional Mexican recipes. Off-camera, Obradors took note of Elizondo’s every word. “He’s just so knowledgeable,” she says. “He’s been in the career for so long and he knows so much. I find I’m just like a sponge when I’m with him.”

He seems to have the same effect on others. While filming “How High,” set for release in 2002, with rappers Redman and Method Man, Elizondo said he enjoyed giving the “nice young men” some pointers about the industry. For this film Elizondo again will wear the mentor’s hat, even if it’s turned to the side, as the coach of Harvard’s rowing team.

One piece of advice Elizondo said he tried to give his “How High” co-stars was to be responsible for the work they put in the public’s eye, which can be hard to do in a film about smoking marijuana.

As an actor for the last 40 years, Elizondo has tried to set an example by the roles he chooses. Unlike “Tortilla Soup,” which is about a successful Mexican American family, the Latino roles he used to read for were usually bad guys or drug dealers.

“I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to misrepresent” his people, Elizondo says. (His parents are from Puerto Rico.) Although he knows there are Latin criminals, he says those are not the people he knew growing up and are not the people he wants to portray. “What about folks who’ve got their act together, you know?”

Until recently, these types of Latinos couldn’t be found on screen. But times have changed and Latinos have become profitable, he says, so more films and television shows are being made about all kinds of Latin Americans.

“It’s nice to be able to look forward to playing more Hispanic characters,” Elizondo says. He may even revive the character that he unintentionally transformed into his own father, Martin, in a “Tortilla Soup” TV series that he’s producing. He’s also producing a PBS documentary series about Latin immigrants in America.

His foray into production is no accident. “I’d like to do less acting. I’ve been doing it for a long time. And I’d like to be challenged in some other way. There are certain kinds of projects I’m interested in,” he says.

“I’ve never been ambitious. That’s one of the reasons, perhaps, [why] I haven’t been producing. I don’t have that kind of drive.”

It’s All About Life and Experiences

Maybe that’s why Elizondo takes all the roles his director friend Garry Marshall throws his way. “The Princess Diaries” is his 12th Marshall movie. The others include “The Flamingo Kid,” “Beaches,” “Frankie and Johnny,” “Runaway Bride” and “Pretty Woman.”

“We work very well together,” Elizondo says. “He’s a terrific guy. That’s why everybody likes to work for him over and over again, because you feel comfortable on his set. It’s like being home.”

Besides, Marshall makes movies about people and their experiences, which Elizondo likes.

“I don’t care what the special effects are,” he says. “What I want to be captured by is--I want to be captured!”

If Elizondo can’t teach everyone how to make a movie an artistic experience, he at least wants to be known as one who did it well.

“True artistic experience is when you walk out [of the theater] different. Something’s happened to your soul, to your mind, your information lines, anything. Entertainment, which is fine, doesn’t do that,” he says. “The artistic experience should change you. I want to be part of that a little more, in the third act of my life.”

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Sufiya Abdur-Rahman is a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, a Tribune company.