Héctor Kotsifakis says real audio recordings of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán talking with El Cholo Iván helped him build his performance in La Captura. The actor said the material gave him a direct window into how Guzmán spoke, negotiated drug shipments, and carried himself in private.
That detail matters now because Kotsifakis is being discussed ahead of the film’s release, and La Captura is trying to tell a familiar story from a less familiar angle. The project, led by Chava Cartas and Francisco González Compeán, was framed from the perspective of the police who encountered Guzmán, not from the point of view of the capo himself. Kotsifakis, born in Torreón, has spent more than two decades in theater, film, and television, with credits that include Malverde: el santo patrón, Los Gringo Hunters, Pedro Páramo, and Santita, which made him a natural fit for a role that depends on control, observation and timing.
What he found in the recordings was not a gangster who saw himself as a villain. Kotsifakis said Guzmán did not consider himself a bad person and believed he was doing his job correctly from his own perspective. That gave him material he could use, but it also pulled the performance toward the person behind the image. He said he focused on the human side of the figure behind the icon, even as the film’s stated aim is to avoid glorifying crime.
That is where La Captura finds its edge. A story built to keep crime from looking glamorous still has to show the man at its center, and Kotsifakis appears to have found his way into that space through the audio rather than through imitation alone. The recordings with El Cholo Iván and the shipment talks did not just supply lines or accents; they gave him a way to hear how Guzmán justified himself. The unanswered question is how closely that private voice survives once it is filtered through the police-side framing that Cartas and Francisco chose for the film.
For now, that is the hook around La Captura: a performance anchored in real recordings, a narrative shaped by the officers who crossed paths with Guzmán, and an actor trying to show the man without turning him into a myth.
