WATCH: Gael García Bernal takes a bath and kisses Bad Bunny in first look at gay wrestler biopic
nothing‘s more thrilling than a well-placed SHABLAM, drag and wrestling are basically two sides of the same coin.Balancing on the thin edge between those two disciplines is the exótico, the colorful and campy lucha libre fighters who bring a touch of the feminine to the hyper-masculine sport.One of the most famous exóticos to ever grace the ring is Saúl Armendáriz, perhaps better known as Cassandro, dubbed the “Liberace of Lucha Libre.” Defying the odds as an openly gay wrestler who refused to be anyone’s heel, Cassandro shot to stardom and helped queer the macho world of wrestling in the process.Now, Cassandro’s story comes to the big-screen in a star-studded biopic from Oscar-winning gay filmmaker Roger Ross Williams, making his narrative directorial debut.The great Gael García Bernal (who we’ll always have a crush on thanks to Y Tu Mamá También) stars in Cassandro as the eponymous luchador, donning slim singlets and flashy makeup to fearlessly step into the ring—and reportedly performing most of the fighting stunts himself!The film makes occasional flashbacks to Armendáriz’s childhood, but the story begins, in earnest, when he’s a young man in the early ’80s, trying to get his start in the wrestling world and support his loving mother, Yocasta (Perla De La Rosa).He regularly travels from his home in El Paso, Texas to Mexico City to compete, but always finds himself having to play the punching bag to bigger wrestlers.
That is, until he meets a new trainer, Sabrina (A League Of Their Own‘s Roberta Colindrez) who sees his true potential as an exótico.Interestingly, many of the countries that have printed these stamps don’t have particularly friendly histories when it comes to gay people.From there, Cassandro follows the.
