Interview: With BIG MISTAKES, Jacob Gutierrez Jumps Into the World of Television

With Big Mistakes, it’s a whole new world (pun intended) for actor Jacob Guiterrez. After a long stint in Broadway’s Aladdin, Guiterrez now stars in this new Netflix series, appearing opposite co-creator Dan Levy.

In the show, Guiterrez plays Levy's onscreen boyfriend, Tareq, a part that was offered to the actor last summer, after a fairly standard audition and self-taping process. What was far from standard, however, was how he learned of the role to begin with. That was thanks to his niece, then an intern at a New York casting agency.

“She called me in June, days before she was wrapping up the internship,” Guiterrez recalls. “She said, ‘Jake, I'm working on this new Dan Levy comedy and we've been looking for this role for a while and we can't find it. We just got off a call with Dan and it's you, Jake.” 

Guiterrez submitted a self-tape before returning to his usual routine, and remembers that he “kind of forgot about it.” But then he got word that they wanted to see more from the actor. A second tape led to a chemistry read and, before too long, his niece’s words proved true. He had the part.

For his first major role in a high-profile television show, Guiterrez stars as the upbeat and grounded romantic companion to Levy’s Nicky. They say opposites attract, and that is certainly the case for these two characters, an element that Guiterrez was eager to explore.

“It was a dynamic and a banter and a comfort that I understood,” he says. “There was no performativeness to it. It just felt so genuine. I think as a gay guy, you want that with your partner. You want this ability to sort of spar and play off each other and play with each other.”

Big Mistakes follows two opposing siblings, played by Levy and Taylor Ortega, who accidentally fall into the world of organized crime. As they are blackmailed into dangerous assignments, chaos ensues amid their attempts to navigate circumstances in which they are ill-equipped to handle.

Though the series is very much a comedy, it doesn’t shy away from some weighty themes of family, connection, and living up to difficult expectations from those around you. In the show, Levy’s public persona as a local minister prevents him from openly sharing his relationship with Tareq, which certainly complicates things for the couple privately. 

“How do people operate behind closed doors?” Gutierrez poses. “You never know what the [private] dynamic is like in any couple's life…. There are multiple competing realities that we all have, especially contextually and environmentally. We tend to put on a different hat in different environments.”

Speaking of different hats, Dan Levy wears several here. As a co-creator, writer, executive producer, and leading actor, the Schitt's Creek star has his hands full. But that didn’t hinder his ability to be a completely present scene partner, says Gutierrez. “It was remarkable to watch him do this, especially because when he would drop into the scene and be present, we were there. I would watch it happen in real time."

Coming from a background on the stage, Gutierrez admits that the process of acting on television was a bit of a learning curve. “[In] theater, you get to rehearse something for weeks and you get to find it and settle on it. And then even once you're settled, you still create in the moment and you let it ebb and flow. TV's a different beast.”

On a television set, not only is the working environment different, but there is simply less time to contemplate acting decisions. There’s a schedule, there’s a crew, and there will only be a set number of takes to get it right. “It's like, ‘Okay, go baby, figure it out. The cameras are rolling and… you're going to adjust in real time and we're going to get all of it. We're going to capture it and see what happens.’ And that was an adjustment.”

But this process still allowed Gutierrez to get to the root of his character through moments of collaboration and discovery between him, Levy, and the directors. “As we got rolling… I learned the cadence of how we do it on set and how this team operates. You're gathering so much intel in any given moment to then drop into the scene and do something with it. And that's also where character development is so important. You have to know and have a sense of who this guy is. And if you're having questions, either voice them or answer them for yourself or make a bold choice.”

Looking back on his experience with Aladdin, Gutierrez feels like he grew up with the production, in which he plays a variety of roles over a period of nearly ten years, including Aladdin himself. "Talk about repetition, right? How do you create something fresh in the moment? And anytime I got to go be Aladdin, I did genuinely love it because you could find different layers of this character."

Through that production, he also found his place in the industry, learning many lessons along the way. "I learned what endurance and grit longevity look like," he shares. "There's no greater education than experience. There is no greater education than just doing it. You can take all the classes in the world, you can do all the coaching… but there is no greater educator or professor than just being in the moment."

All episodes of Big Mistakes are now streaming on Netflix. 

Jacob Guiterrez Photo Credit: Benjamin Rivera / @benjaminriveraphotography on IG.