Demián Bichir is the man at the edge of the frame who looks as though he had a whole life before the film started. Soderbergh knew what to do with that; most American directors since have given him a uniform, a posture and a line or two.
Fi1m perspective
Che: Part Two (2008) opens in Havana with Fidel Castro reading a letter aloud, and Castro is Demián Bichir. It is a scene made of one man's voice, and Bichir gives it the ease of a politician who knows the room is his. In Che: Part One he does most of the talking while Guevara listens, and he is good and sly at it. Seven years later, in The Hateful Eight (2015), he says almost nothing and stirs a stew. Both are the same trick: a man at the side of a scene who looks as though the film could have been about him instead.
He has been at it a long time. He was in Mexican telenovelas from 1977, joined Mexico's National Theatre Company at thirteen, and had a full career in Mexican film and television before Hollywood found a use for him. The use it found, in 2008, was Castro for Steven Soderbergh and a recurring part in Weeds. A Better Life (2011) put him at the centre for once, as Carlos Galindo, an undocumented gardener. Since then the parts have mostly come in other people's franchises: Lope in Alien: Covenant (2017), The Nun (2018), Armando in Black Phone 2 (2025).
The pattern in those films is the same and it is not his fault. In Covenant he, Carmen Ejogo and Amy Seimetz make what they can of a line or two each. In Black Phone 2 he brings a tired decency to Armando, and the film belongs to Gwen. American genre cinema has noticed that Bichir gives a frame some weight and has decided the weight is enough; it hands him a job title and a place to stand and rarely a scene. Quentin Tarantino at least surrounded him with people worth listening to, and let his silence at the stove be a kind of speech.
The film that used him best is the one that gave him most to say. Forty minutes into Che: Part One we could not tell Guevara's lieutenants apart, and we could always tell where Castro was. For a stretch we were more interested in him than in the man the film was about, which is not what Soderbergh intended and is a compliment Bichir has been paid too seldom since.
He directed his first feature in 2024. If the studios go on handing him two lines and a long look, he may have to write the third line himself.
Biography
Demián Bichir is a Mexican actor. Born on 1 August 1963 in Torreón, Coahuila, he comes from a family of performers; his parents are actor Maricruz Nájera and theatre director Alejandro Bichir, and his brothers Odiseo and Bruno are also actors. He began his career in Mexican telenovelas and theatre before moving into film.
Bichir played Fidel Castro in Steven Soderbergh’s Che: Part One (2008) and Che: Part Two (2008). He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his role in A Better Life (2011). Other credits include The Hateful Eight (2015), in which he played Bob, Alien: Covenant (2017), The Nun (2018) and Godzilla vs. Kong (2021). He is set to appear in Black Phone 2 (2025).
