‘Get Shorty’ Actor Goya Robles Talks The Journey Yago Goes on In Season 3

The EPIX original series Get Shorty follows the mishaps of a mobster turned movie producer in Hollywood starring Chris O’Dowd and Ray Romano. The series is based on Elmore Leonard’s novel and 1995 film paying homage to the premise. Goya Robles is the breakout star of the series playing Yago, the problematic, unpredictable nephew of the Nevada Cartel queen pin Amara De Escalones (Lidia Porto). With season 3 of the series in the midst of the new episodes, Robles chatted with Glambergirlblog about working alongside O’Dowd and Romano, pushing through hard times and what fans can expect from Yago in the new season.

“Yago is the nephew of the queen pin over the Nevada Cartel. He really is trying to impress his aunt and show her he can be a man and take on more responsibility than what she gives him. She hasn’t really given him the attention that he’s looking for, so he is frustrated and he hates the main character Miles (Chris O’ Dowd); at least on the first season,” Goya said about his character. “He’s just one of those dudes who ends up biting off more than you can chew. That’s his journey. He’s taking on more things, getting into more trouble, but trying to become this man his aunt can be proud of and never gets what he’s looking for. So he’s just always getting into trouble.”

Season 3 puts Yago on a trajectory where more responsibility means more risks and he gets in over his head. “At a certain point he starts to realize that it’s not what he thought it was, it’s nothing like what he thought it was. That’s kind of where the fantasy that he thought of starts to break down.”

Photo: EPIX

Working on-screen with household names like Chris O’Dowd and Ray Romano could attempt to throw an actor off their game, but not for Goya. “At first I was intimidated when I first got the job because Chris and Ray are really big name artists, so initially I got in my head, but I’m thankful for my training. A huge part of my training is creating rituals that allow you to be the fullest expression of who you are.”

Those rituals include certain music Goya listens to, a crow’s feather, and other personal mementos that he has a connection to that makes him feel important. “I have these rituals that I created and it just allowed me to step into a level of confidence that once I was on set I didn’t feel small and it made me realize that, Oh, I’m here because I can work on this level and because of that I got blessed. I was supposed to die at the end of the first season. They re-wrote the whole thing so I could stay. So it had to be some type of truth in that.”

Growing up Goya fought through a difficult upbringing. Despite his circumstances he blossomed into an accomplished actor and urges people to use their darkness to tap into their greater selves. “Whatever you’ve gone through it’s worth whatever you take on. Whatever path you choose there’s a place for your darkness. There’s a place for you to be used so that it can’t consume you. It’s your responsibility to find out what that is for you; like what expression. But once you do find it you get to use all of yourself and you don’t have to like deny your past. You don’t have to push it away so that it never comes up again. The past usually comes up if you don’t deal with it. Develop yourself on your time. Just know that you can use all that stuff. You don’t have to partition it off.”

Along with Get Shorty, another project on the radar for Robles is a short film he executive produced called “Wonder,” directed by his close friend Javier Molina. “‘Wonder’ is about an 11-year-old biracial kid from the hood who secretly wants to become Wonder Woman for Halloween. It’s about that journey and not just about the journey for the kid, but the father coming from the hood and, as everyone knows, the level of homophobia that lives in those communities; and in Latino communities as well. Anything that is outside of the box that we recognize there’s always resistance. So the story is about also the journey of the father and what he has to go through in order to accept and love his child the way his child shows up.”

Want to stay in the loop with “Wonder” and other projects coming up with Goya? Be sure to follow him on social media @GoyaRobles on Twitter and Instagram.

Get Shorty comes on Sundays at 10pm on EPIX with season 1 streaming now on Netflix. Watch the season 3 trailer for Get Shorty in the clip below. Any fans of the series out there? How are you liking the new season so far? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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