Fantasy Island was originally conceived as a high-concept drama series in which a rotating set of characters would explore their deepest desires, which the island’s staff had to make come true. But the center of that story was the enigmatic Mr. Roarke, played by Ricardo Montalbán, who ran the island resort and whose powers and background are never fully explained.
In Blumhouse’s 2020 remake, fantasy turns to horror as Michael Peña steps into the iconic role. His version of Roarke is a lot more sinister, but still just as elegant and mysterious. The actor sat down with Screen Rant to explain his process for crafting the character, as well as why Fantasy Island lends itself to Blumhouse’s particular brand of horror.
Michael, congratulations. By the way, I just started watching Narcos: Mexico, and it's blowing my mind. But we're here for Fantasy Island. You play Mr. Roarke. Talk to me about Roarke's motivation in the film.
Michael Peña: It's funny enough that you should speak about Narcos Mexico. The way that I came up with the character is because I went to Mexico City, and there's a lot of theater actors that even [when they] speak English, it's very proper. Even when they speak Spanish, it's very proper and almost like they speak in the 50s, here in America. And their vocabulary actually was better than mine.
I thought, "Wow, that's, that's really interesting." So, I kind of carried that onto Mr. Roarke. There was a semblance of it in on the TV show. But when I went to Mexico City, there was... It was in Roma and in Condesa; these areas where it's kind of hipsterish but they also speak of these - like a lot of art students speaking the abstract, and trying to materialize it and trying to intellectualize it and to understand it. And I thought, "Wow, this is super interesting." So, I took some of that, that I learned when I was doing Narcos: Mexico.
And also, I did a press tour with Diego Luna. I don't know if you've interviewed him before, but he really loves to explore ideas. And I thought, "Wow, this is really interesting and really kind of cool."
Talking about exploring ideas, I know Fantasy Island used to be an old show back in the 80s, I believe. And it lends itself so well to being a horror film. What jumped out at you about that idea about Fantasy Island being horror?
Michael Peña: Well, that was a no brainer, because there was a bit of an element that they didn't go all the way through on that you kind of wish they did in the in the TV show. Like, there was a person that wanted to be like the richest person in the world or something like that, or the most beautiful person in the world. What would it really be like? What's the reality of it? Like, what would happen?
There's people all over the world that get kidnapped that are, like, the most beautiful and the richest, and held for ransom for both times. If you had the most friends in the world, then you would have the most enemies. So, it kind of lends itself - like, the basic idea lends itself to this kind of movie.
It actually lends itself perfectly for it. Yeah, exactly. If we could do something fun real quick, is it possible that you can explain Fantasy Island's plot as Luis from Ant Man?
Michael Peña: No. Not unless there's the talented writers from Marvel spending a year on it. That's when I would be able to do it.
A lot of film directors always credit Blumhouse with so much creative freedom. Can you talk to me about, as an actor, how much freedom you may have with the process of what you're doing?
Michael Peña: It depends. It really depends on kind of the energy of the piece. If you're going for jokes - regardless of what it is, I always rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. And then I try to write alts - alternate lines - that better convey the idea.
I really want to know the idea of what the writers are trying to convey to the audience. You know, is it self-explanatory? Self-exploration, which is something completely different; it's mainly behavior. Is it a joke, which is serving towards the element of surprise? You never really quite know, which is like Luis. The element of surprise was huge, especially some of the words that are coming out of his mouth. That was really interesting, and it was fun too. And it was also tough to remember or memorize, just like the dialogue in this movie. Because he was so specific.
