David Del Rio said playing Ben on Maggie pushed him into a new kind of role: the romantic lead. The responsibility felt intimidating, he told People en Español’s People Chica in a July 27, 2022 interview, but he credited the cast with making it safe to express vulnerability, confidence, and fear.
Why playing Ben marked a change for Del Rio
Del Rio described Ben as a significant shift in his work because the part meant taking responsibility for the romantic lead. “Changing over to a character like Ben was a huge change in my character. Basically, taking on the responsibility of the romantic lead,” he said in the interview.
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He admitted that the change was intimidating. The cast, he said, created room for him to express “honesty, vulnerability, confidence and fear.” Del Rio called the experience one he would never forget. His account connects the challenge of the role with the trust he felt on set; it does not present the change as a measured result.
What drew him to Maggie’s premise
The show’s idea of living in the moment appealed to Del Rio because he saw that theme as universal. Adding a psychic who can see the future made the premise less straightforward, he said. What attracted him was how Maggie Mull and the creative team made that concept relatable.
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What Del Rio said about Latino representation
Del Rio argued that American television should reflect the range of people who make up America. “We live in America, so we must endure [showing] all of America on the screen. Simple as that,” he said.
He described the industry as evolving over decades, but cautioned against treating diversity as a display for its own sake. In his view, that would be “dishonest and dirty.” He said people should want to hire actors from varied backgrounds so they can share their points of view with a wide audience, and urged executives and producers to listen to stories beyond their own experience. These are Del Rio’s views on representation, not a claim that every production or decision-maker acts the same way.
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Training, rejection, and taking risks
Del Rio said he had wanted to act, direct, produce, and write since childhood. “So to me, there was no other choice, [s]o I trained and trained and the training never stops,” he said.
He also described learning that rejection was not happening only to him as a way to take more risks. His succinct formulation was: “No is just a guaranteed aspect of the industry.” He presented that as a perspective that helped him keep going, rather than as a promise that persistence guarantees a particular outcome.
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Del Rio said his father, Franklin, reminds him to remember who he is. For his younger self, Del Rio would offer a related piece of advice: be unapologetically yourself, while leaving space for a life beyond the entertainment industry. The interview also notes his father’s practical reminder to eat healthy.
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