Pedro Flores Makes His Mark in Film Comedy 'The Festival'

LOS ANGELES – With a talent for playing tough guys with an attitude, Pedro Flores is bringing a different take to his newest character in the upcoming film comedy “The Festival,” from director Soraya Andrade.

A veteran of the acclaimed Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre which includes Amy Poehler and Tina Fey among its alumni, Flores is sharing his comedic skills in the new comedy.

“What I liked the most about this film was the fact that I was representing my Hispanic and Latino community,” said Flores who plays a South American filmmaker in the film. “The experience was just great and smooth, what I like the most about comedy is that you are always laughing. Nevertheless, I did put a lot of effort when preparing for this role because I wanted to make sure the jokes landed correctly and that I had understood the vision the director had for this film as well as the impact of my character in in the picture.”

Soraya Andrade (“Small Apartments”) produced and directed “The Festival,” from a script by Aly Rae, which tells the story of a girl (Andrade) who is asked to help a film festival director, but when he disappears she has to decide whether to run the whole festival herself or to disappoint all the filmmakers and people coming from all over the world to the festival and close it. It also stars James Bartz (“Lesson in Humility”), Michael Perl (“Book of Secrets”), Jonee B. Shady (“Manifest”) and Claire Proft (“Rock Slyde”).

“The way the film was shot was challenging because there were scenes where we had to be at ‘the festival’ and that involved a lot of people on set at the same time and each one had their own space in it and their own dialogue,” Flores recalled. “The camera had to go through all of us and our scenes without a cut so we had to rehearse and practice, this took several takes, in the end we were just happy to finish it!”

Flores’ passion for acting comes from his days as a boy in Venezuela where he grew up watching young children sing and act on a television show. But it wasn’t until age 15 that he realized he wanted to become an actor. Although he decided to go to engineering school, he began taking acting workshops while also excelling as a swimmer and table tennis player.

But after graduating, he realized he wanted to be a professional actor and pursue his career in Hollywood than in his native land where telenovelas were a big part of the entertainment industry.

“Venezuela was very engaged in producing soap operas or “telenovelas” and I particularly was not interested in that kind of acting, I wanted to be in movies or in TV series,” he said.

It wasn’t long before Flores made his mark in Hollywood, starring in a number of TV shows like “Not from Rio,” “The Whimsies,” as well as films like, “The Truth” “Match,” “Deadly Care,” and many others.

“The kind of films that appeal to me the most are those that always make you question your own existence or the ones that makes you feel like hope in humanity is not lost,” he said. “They’re films like ‘The Matrix,’ ‘Avatar,’ ‘The greatest Showman.’ These kinds of films that have a positive connotation and good message for all of us but they also happen to have a good mix of comedy, drama and action in it being drama the imperative genre.”

As he continues his work in the industry, Flores is also sharing his talents on television commercials for Universal Studios Hollywood’s “Wizarding World of Harry Potter” attraction as well as Metro PCS, Cox Communications and others.

To learn more, visit Pedro Flores on social media at www.instagram.com/instapedros, at www.facebook.com/instapedros and www.twitter.com/instapedros.