Our Flag Means Death star Vico Ortiz built a whole lifestyle around Star Wars
With Max ending the much-beloved pirate series Our Flag Means Death after two seasons, the cast is considering their next career steps. For Vico Ortiz, who played nonbinary fan-favorite pirate Jim Jimenez on the show, that includes thinking about a long-held dream of getting involved with Star Wars — a franchise Ortiz says has heavily shaped their life and their family’s lives.
On the 2024 JoCo Cruise, a yearly fandom event where Ortiz was one of the guest performers, a fan asked during a Q&A event whether Ortiz had a wish list for future roles.
“Dream-role-wise, I would love to be in the Star Wars universe at some point. That’d be so dope. I’ve been a big Star Wars fan since — I feel like it’s in my veins,” Ortiz told the audience.
The Puerto Rican actor and drag king, also known for the queer comedy series These Thems and for roles on The Sex Lives of College Girls and S.O.Z: Soldados o Zombies, traces their Star Wars fandom back to childhood.
“One side of my family is big Star Wars fans,” they said at the Q&A. “And a lot of them, their choices in life, similar to mine, have been because of Star Wars.
“Long story short, the reason I’m vegetarian and the reason I sword fight is because of Star Wars. When I was 11, I read this book called Star Wars and Philosophy. That absolutely rocked my world. I was like, I want to be a peaceful warrior. I want to be a Jedi. I want to learn how to sword fight and meditate and eat plants and be one with the Force.”
Ortiz says becoming a would-be Jedi as a preteen created some problems even in a Star Wars fandom family. “So I did it! I became vegetarian in Puerto Rico at age, like, 12. The diet there was mostly pork,” they said with a laugh. “So my parents were like, ‘All right, it’s gonna be interesting!’ And my grandmother was more appalled that I changed to being vegetarian than anything else [in my life]. They were like, ‘Whatever, you’re gay, but you’re not going to eat my chuleta? This might be the last chuleta I cook for
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