Julio Torres is one of the most popular voices in comedy. With credits in Saturday Night Live and two HBO shows where he’s listed as writer, star, and creator, Torres has become a landmark in the New York comedy scene. It’s interesting then, or perhaps it makes perfect sense, that his voice is so unique and his comedic impulses so strange. His stories and performances welcome the kind of jokes that make you question the world, society, and your place in it, all before delivering the punch line.
Following the premiere of his first feature film “Problemista,” where he starred alongside Tilda Swinton, Torres is back to television with “Fantasmas.” The series, which premieres on HBO this June 7th, follows an alternate version of himself in a futuristic and surreal-looking New York City. “Fantasmas” is filled with the hallmarks of his comedy — surrealism, stunning yet simple sets, and performances from a bevy of performers that range from SNL darlings to New York socialites to Academy Award winners. Everyone involved, no matter the scale of their work, appears thrilled to be collaborating with Torres. The sentiment makes its way to the viewer, resulting in an experience that’s joyful and unique, a secret carried out in public.
In an exclusive chat with HOLA!, Torres discussed his new show, collaborating with artists he admires, the complexities of making art in a capitalist society, and his desire to throw a Heidi Klum-style queer Halloween party.
Congratulations on the show, I loved it. I thought it was really, really good. I wanted to ask a little bit about your journey with storytelling. Did you always want to work in comedy?
Yes, I did. Or at least I knew that my work was always humorous in some way. I feel like I still don’t know how to write comedy in the traditional sense, but I certainly do appreciate it. And yeah, I think whatever I’m doing is how it comes out.
Yeah, you have a very singular voice. Do you have any artists or any work that has been influential in your career?
You know, I always respect and admire people who stay true to who they are and make work that is very them, that isn’t trying to be anything else, where you sort of have to like... It’s almost like you have to learn the language of that creator to enter it and understand it.
I think growing up, someone like that was David Lynch, and now it’s someone like Yorgos Lanthimos who’s created sort of his own language. Yeah, anyone who creates a world of their own I think has always been very exciting for me.
So “Fantasmas” follows your character in this alternate New York. And along the way the narrative expands and follows different people, so, it’s like little stories within a larger one. Was this collective element always a part of the series?
Yeah, I think of it as almost short story writing or whatever my equivalent of that is. I love that medium a lot. And I got to do it in Saturday Night Live and I missed it and I started thinking about a show that could be compromised of like, these different kinds of short stories. And then when I sat down and like, wrote ideas for them, or some of them in their entirety, they had this common denominator of like, loneliness, and very specific people obsessed with one thing. And then the general conceit of the show came from that.
Sets and costumes are a big part of your universe. I feel like in “Fantasmas” this is taken to the next level. I love those shots where characters look like they’re in a little cubicle or something. Can you talk a little bit about how you managed to do that?
The idea of a black void surrounding these sets was very exciting to me because… it’s sort of communicating that we can only see as far as our own experiences and that we don’t… We don’t really see beyond us many times. So trying to give the audience a little bird’s eye view into people, I thought that was interesting.
And working with all of our departments with production design and wardrobe, and hair and makeup, and just like elevating that and having the absurd and the mundane clash in ways that felt exciting but also relatable. You could say the sets are crazy, but at the same time, they’re very recognizable. They have something about them that feels real because they have details about them that convey the real world.
Yeah. When you say details I think about objects and how they play a big part in your work. You have Alejandro’s toys in “Problemista,” and here with Julio’s little oyster earring. They end up serving as comedic moments but also metaphors. Can you tell me a bit about the role of objects in your stories?
For some reason, I’m just fascinated by objects. I derive a lot of joy from them and I do think they’re very potent metaphors. And it’s just sort of like a natural organic thing that keeps coming and happening again and again and again. I feel like when we’re kids, we play with toys, because they’re like vessels for our ideas. They’re like our little actors and we get to portray whatever narrative we want on them. And I just keep doing that over and over again.
The stories within the show are packed with so many ideas and tangents. So it’s like a thought that everyone has had and then you follow through with it to like a crazy place (laughs). What does that look like in the writing process?
I think that I hold on to these patterns and details of human behavior (laughs), or these observations and then I try to examine what’s under them, and then just keep expanding that, and exaggerating that, and exaggerating that. It’s like the Gatorade bottle thing, for example. (referencing a moment in the series where a character notices that young men somehow always have an empty Gatorade bottle in their bedrooms). Yeah. I don’t know, seeing it with curiosity rather than judgment (laughs).
Totally. I also wanted to ask about creativity versus capitalism, which is something that your characters keep facing, again and again. How do you face that in your real life?
(Sighs) Very much like my character in the show, with frustration and unanswered questions. You know, art and commerce are just so intertwined or can be so intertwined. I don’t know. It’s very difficult as an artist to feel like you are… that your humanity is wanted up until a point, but solely as a product. And the irony of that clashing against the very things that your work is about. Portraying that struggle and that frustration is something that I’m very interested in.
Yeah. And it’s something that no one… Well, that a lot of people don’t address, which is why I think it’s so refreshing and disturbing, but also funny, too.
It’s almost like the artist usually wants, or we’re wanted for the work itself, but then the context from which the work is created, the point of view from which the work is created… Anything beyond the product is difficult to hold for capitalist systems. I think of all these ceasefire open letters that are written by and co-signed by artists and then like… There was one that was signed by a lot of visual artists, and then the buyers or the curators were like ‘Oh no, they don’t know, they don’t have the intelligence to comment on this.’ And it’s just like… ‘Ok, wait, so you want their work but you don’t want their minds.’
Yeah. You want the package.
Yeah.
I wanted to talk about the cameos and your recurrent collaborators. Do you have a story or a moment in your work that makes you really happy? Or where you were like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe this happened?’
I mean… I am so in love with everyone I got to work with. To me, having an iconic presence… like Tilda (Swinton) wasn’t able to physically be here, but she did voice a little something here. Working with someone like her, who’s a friend now, and working with an up-and-coming friend is just as exciting to me because it’s about collaborating and making something.
I got to meet so many new people. I loved working with Julia Fox, I loved working with Dominique Jackson, and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Alexa Demie, just like…
She was so good.
She really gets it. Really gets it. And I’ve known Ziwe for the longest time, but we had never properly worked together in this capacity. Everyone’s feeling themselves in ways that I really liked.
Yeah, it’s very joyful to see. Lastly, I wanted to ask a bit about your future, and the things you want to do. You know, you’ve done movies, TV, comedy, drama, I think. Is there a genre or a medium that you would like to explore in the future?
Well, I would love to continue to… I’m very grateful that… Not everyone gets a show on HBO, and I’m very grateful that people there have been welcoming of me and my ideas. The same goes for A24 and the movie world and all of these things. I don’t take them for granted, and I would love to keep making movies and TV.
I’ve been thinking like, maybe I want to design housewares (laughs.) Someone asked me ‘What are you working on?’ A friend of mine was like, ‘What are you doing now? What are you working on next?’ And I was like, ‘Well, I’m writing, I’m starting to write a movie, but I also have some ideas for housewares and I also want to throw a Halloween party,’ (laughs).
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© Monica Lek/HBO
© Atsushi Nishijima/HBO
© Atsushi Nishijima/HBO
