Rome Flynn has joined the cast of Armani Ortiz‘s indie feature Otra, alongside María Gabriela de Faría, Flor Delis Alicea and Aria Celeste Castillo. Shot in one single take, it’s a Latino musical and Ortiz’s debut as a solo director.
“I’ve been dreaming and planning for this project for the better part of five years, and for it to be my first solo debut feature film feels like fate,” Ortiz said, per Deadline. “From a filmmaking perspective, I really wanted to do something that the audience has never seen before—the first-ever one-shot musical in cinema history.”
“Having Tyler [Perry] as my mentor and father figure for over a decade has been the biggest blessing of my life,” he said. “I told him I wanted to follow in his footsteps—self-financing the film and telling an original story that blends my culture and experience in a way that audiences have never seen before.”
Otra is Rome’s latest acting gig. He also portrays a young Frank Lucas in the fourth season of Godfather of Harlem. Asked how he tapped into his character’s mobster energy, Rome says he made sure to consider his character’s feelings.
“We have to show a man who feels like he’s been wronged … who is navigating his own complex feelings,” he tells ABC Audio. “And when you do it that way, I feel like you’re not just watching a guy who is ‘murdering and killing people,’ but just having a reason why.”
Rome says his character is put in situations where, if he’s not defending himself, he will die.
“So we watch him having to defend [himself] and people he cares about in his life,” Rome says. “It’s been great playing a character that’s able to go that deep and sometimes go dark like that.”
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