
Ryan Guzman on meeting people: 'I don't give them a handshake - I give them a hug!'
By Ava Baccari
Ryan Guzman spent his 28th birthday in the most Toronto way possible: watching a Blue Jays game and hanging out afterward with right fielder José Bautista at the Rogers Centre. “I’m a Yankees fan – but [more than that] I’m a baseball fan,” says Ryan, who’s in town to film his new series Heroes Reborn. We sat down with the Texas-born actor, who famously walked the red carpet at the Golden Globes with his The Boy Next Door co-star Jennifer Lopez, to chat about his latest role and famous friends.
Photo: © Getty Images
You play Carlos
Gutierrez, an army
veteran back from
Afghanistan. How did
you prepare for it?
I
wanted to do this role
right because one of my cousins
is in the armed forces – he’s in
Afghanistan right now. So I picked
his brain right before. And as far
as the Latin culture and community,
I got that down! [
Laughs]
Did you feel pressure joining this
show, considering that the original
series,
Heroes, is beloved by fans?
There’s always pressure, but I
love pressure. I’m a competitor
at heart. I’ve been an athlete most
of my life, whether it be baseball,
fighting, whatever. Bring it on.
Ryan joins the crime-fighters on Heroes Reborn (Thursdays, Global).
You have lots of fans on social
media. How do you choose what
you share?
I’ve never been a huge
social media guy. I will tell you an
interesting note, though. I didn’t
have Instagram until
Jennifer Lopez. She
started my Instagram
account. She and her
team kind of controlled
my account
for months. I would
just feed them pictures
– I didn’t even have my password!
Now it’s all me.
Did Jennifer give you any advice
while you worked together on
The Boy Next Door?
She actually
helped me out quite a bit because
I was going through a very rough
period. I lost my grandmother at
the same time as I was doing press
for
The Boy Next Door. She kind of
pulled me off to the side and said,
“You’re handling this great, and if
you ever need to talk [I’m here].”
How are you handling your new
fame?
It’s interesting, that’s for
sure. But you know, I feel very,
very, very blessed. So many things
could have happened to guide me
down the wrong path. The whole
fame aspect, thinking that you’re
bigger than someone else, I’ve
never believed in [that]. That’s
why anybody I meet, I don’t give
them the handshake – I give them
the hug.