‘Promised Land’ Tonatiuh Shares a Hysterical BTS Story That Will Make You Closely Watch Every ABC Episode Again (Exclusive)
Despite Promised Land on ABC opening to unpromising ratings, the Latinx drama is worth watching. In addition to a stellar cast featuring John Ortiz, Bellamy Young, Cecilia Suarez, and Christina Ochoa, several newcomers steal the stage in the Sonoma Valley Vineyard drama. Showbiz Cheat Sheet caught up with Tonatiuh, who portrays Joe Sandoval’s eldest son, Antonio, to talk about the new TV series. He spilled one behind-the-scenes story that might have viewers watching their screens more closely.
When is ‘Promised Land’ TV Show on ABC?
Promised Land airs on ABC Mondays at 10 p.m. EST and the next day on Hulu. The series pulls viewers in with two distinct storylines in Promised Land on ABC. In one plot, Joe Sandoval (Ortiz) runs a massive winery. However, his ex-wife and mother of three of his children, Margaret Honeycroft (Young), threatens a hostile takeover. In another storyline, viewers watch the journey of several undocumented immigrants crossing the border into the United States. Two of them end up finding jobs working at the same vineyard. There are a lot of family secrets to uncover as the story unfolds.
“I would say Promised Land is a family drama about the Sandoval family who owns a very successful winery business,” Katya Martín told Showbiz Cheat Sheet. “And the conflicts that arise between these children vying for power in the vineyard and the idea of ownership and legacy.”
‘Promised Land’ behind-the-scenes story from Tonatiuh
In an exclusive interview with Showbiz Cheat Sheet, the outlet asked Tonatiuh to share his favorite behind-the-scenes story from filming Promised Land for ABC.
“There are so many, but I’m going to share a special story that happened to the makeup person and me,” Tonatiuh began. “After Thanksgiving, I was going to shave my beard for continuity. She bought me a razor, and we usually set it to nine and a half millimeters. So, I grabbed it and went swoop. I shaved off, at two millimeters, an entire strip of hair in a line of hair from my chin. She looked at me and said, ‘What did you do?'”
Tonatiuh told the story with such dramatic emphasis that the interviewer nearly fell on the floor laughing.
“Sometimes life is better than fiction,” Tonatiuh added. “Then someone comes knocking, and they’re like, ‘Hey, we’re ready for Antonio on set in five minutes.’ So, she throws me down on the chair and grabs the hair that I just shaved off, and glues it back to my face. So, I go back to the set with basically a chin wig.”
The actor has a challenge for any viewers reading this. Find the chin wig.
“I filmed three episodes like that,” he added. “I’m not going to tell you which ones. I’m going to let y’all figure that out. Y’all tell me if you can find the glue-on Antonio’s chin.”
Finding representation on television
In addition to watching for Tonatiuh’s chin wig, the actor hopes viewers find representation in Promised Land.
“I hope those [viewers] in the Latinx community get to see themselves in the many different iterations that are being presented to them,” Tonatiuh began. “I think all of us play such different characters, and we don’t have to be perfect. We get to be happy. Not one of us represents our entire people because we are diverse. So I hope viewers who are in the Latinx community can see themselves in one of us and root for them.”
He also hopes that everyone watching enjoys the series and has fun watching it.
“For people who aren’t a part of the Latinx community, I hope you just have a lot of fun,” he added. “I mean, I hope everybody has a lot of fun and that they get to see and experience how fun and crazy our families can also be.”
ABC‘s Promised Land airs Mondays at 10 p.m. EST and the next day on Hulu.
