By Mike McCarthy
Celestino Cornielle is an actor who is going to be lighting up your TV and movie screens this spring. Celestino is an absolutely incredible actor that is only just getting started in his career with quite a few credits to his name. How can you not like a guy who is joining one of the biggest movie franchises ever and loved everything about them before he joined the cast of Fate of the Furious.
After he didn’t do so well at his audition for 2 Fast 2 Furious, Celestino dedicated his life to make acting his life and has succeeded in every way. Not only did he impress in so many auditions, he impressed Vin Diesel to the point where he had all of their scenes rewritten to work together more. If that isn’t a huge compliment, we don’t know what is. With other shows like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, NCIS: Los Angeles and CSI: Miami under his belt, Celestino is racking up the roles and isn’t looking back.
Whether it’s being in front of the camera or lending his voice and motion capture to video games, Celestino is having us loving all of his work. Celestino did motion capture and recorded his voice for one of the best installments in the Call of Duty franchise, Black Ops 2. If you played the game, you had the choice to either shoot his character or not. Which did you choose? If you haven’t played the game, pick it up now and check him out. Fate of the Furious releases on April 14th and will be one of the biggest movies of the year, and you won’t want to miss Celestino as Raldo.
Wingman Magazine: You are in the 8th installment of the Fast and the Furious films… The Fate of the Furious. What can you tell us about your character, Raldo and his impact on the series regulars?
Celestino Cornielle: Raldo is a very interesting guy… he is the Havana King. He runs the street races in Cuba, the mover, the shaker and the shot caller down there. He and Toretto get into a cock fight, the two alpha males. The film starts out in Havana, Cuba which is such a big deal because it’s been fifty years since a major studio has been allowed to film in Cuba because of the political issues. We are making history and it’s something that the fans are really going to enjoy.
Wingman Magazine: What was it like shooting in Cuba?
Celestino Cornielle: (laughs) It was surreal. It’s a stone throw away and because of the Cuban missile crisis and all of the political stuff it has been off limits. It has been on my bucket list my entire life to go to Cuba. The people were very warm and friendly, many things were unexpected. All of the cars there were antiqued which was pretty mind-blowing. I love and drive antique cars and to be in a country where all of the cars are antiques was quite cool. Overall we were all pleasantly surprised with how welcoming everyone was.
Wingman Magazine: What was it like for you to walk onto a set where the cast has been together for multiple films… some of them for 5 or 6?
Celestino Cornielle: Going in was a bit nerve racking. It was a lot like the new kid in school, “are they gonna like me, are they gonna be nice to me, am I gonna fit in?” (Chuckles) All of the things that go through your mind in that situation. I was welcomed man with welcome arms. Most of my work has been TV work where I have been the guest star and I live that over and over again. This one was so much bigger than that. I am walking onto a set with mega stars like Vin Diesel (laughs again). I have been a fan of Vin since Pitch Black, so I was stoked. All of my scenes were basically with Vin and I was like a kid in the candy store.
Wingman Magazine: Now this is not the first time you have been associated with the Fast series, is it?
Celestino Cornielle: (chuckles again) No man, the Fast and Furious franchise was the series that got me to really consider acting. I was in South Beach modeling and I got called in for 2 Fast 2 Furious. Singleton was directing and I was horrible ( laughs hard), I was absolutely terrible. I left that room with my heart in my chest and felt like like the casting director tap danced on it. Just the experience of it and I left there convinced that that would never happen to me again. I started taking classes and in the process I fell in love with the craft. I was doing a scene in the class and I had one of those epiphanies and my soul felt like this is what I was meant to be doing. I swore to myself that after that I would stick with this and follow it to wherever it lead me. Not long after that I booked my first film which was with Eva Longoria and a few months later I drove west to Cali and thirteen years later, here I am.
Wingman Magazine: Are you a car guy? Was it like being a kid in a candy shop around all those amazing machines?
Celestino Cornielle: It was and like I mentioned I love antiques. When they go to other countries like Greenland and in New York the cars get modern and fancy, but in Cuba they were all antiques which was just so cool. Production retrofitted them with different souped up engines and it was cool not to just witness it but racing around Havana in the cars (laughs again.) In the U.S. you can shut down streets and be able to create the scene that you want. In Cuba you had people in the streets and in the balconies so you really had to incorporate all of that into the actual scene. The energy was intense because this is a big deal.
Wingman Magazine: With so many hysterical personalities on set: The Rock, Tyrese, Ludacris etc… do you have any on set stories that you can tell without causing any trouble?
Celestino Cornielle: (laughs) A set that blew my mind was that on day 2, Vin Diesel walks onto set and there are mobs of people and we are shooting this big scene. He catches a glimpse of me and he yells, “Celestino! I was at home thinking about what a great actor you were.” I was just like holy s#(* (laughs again)! He shuts down production and calls a meeting with the director, producers and writer and everyone is wondering why we aren’t shooting and the clock is ticking. Come to find out that he was so taken and impressed by me that he decided to have all of our scenes rewritten.
Wingman Magazine: You just finished work on a 2 part Major Crimes episode. What can you say about it… if anything?
Celestino Cornielle: I play an ex-Marine named Christian Ortiz who went to jail for eleven years for a crime he didn’t do. Obviously he gets out of there with a big chip on his shoulder. He takes that against the city of LA. It’s going to be a lot of fun and the show opens with me causing havoc. My character is playing cat and mouse with the LAPD which will be a lot of fun. The other cool thing is that both episodes right before The Fate of the Furious. Major Crimes airs April 5th and April 12th and Fate of the Furious comes out April 14th. It’s going to be a great month for me (laughs.)
Wingman Magazine: You are part of one of the biggest film series and video game series in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. Were you a fan of the games before and are you a gamer?
Celestino Cornielle: I have to be honest, I never played the games but I was aware of them. When I auditioned and got cast into the project, they still didn’t tell us what game it was for until we started filming. They are VERY secretive of the game and the story of where it’s going. They didn’t give us much but it was a fantastic story. David Goyer who wrote Batman vs Superman wrote the script for Black Ops 2. The cast was awesome with Sam Worthington, Michael Keaton and Michael Rooker. Michael Keaton’s character and mine, Javier Salazar were buds and I ended up betraying them. I identify with the imperialistic views of the bad guys (chuckles again.) It was really interesting and another cool thing was all of the action happened in my mind. I was in a blue screen scenario, basically wearing a wetsuit and a bunch of balls that allows the computers to convert my motions and actions into binary code. If you played the story line, you see me… all of it is me. You have the option to shoot my character or not in the game (laughs,) I’m that guy!
Wingman Magazine: How do you wind down from shooting or pump yourself up when you are about to start shooting?
Celestino Cornielle: I think it’s very important for anyone in this business to be able to wind down because it can kill you. For anybody in it, you have to have something else, whether it be a relationship with the divine or something with nature. That’s what I do… I will do a project and then I will retreat into my meditation and commune with nature. That’s what keeps me sane. To ramp myself up, they actually have video of me behind the scenes drumming. I play the djembe and on set I am playing bongos that I bought in Cuba. Before every scene they will say, “okay, rolling,” and you I will be drumming right until I have to be in the scene to ramp myself up. The second they say action I hand my bongos to one of the PA’s and I do the scene. You find your little tricks.