Actor Gabriel Sloyer: “We’re Trying To Open Even More Doors For Latino Talent”

Gabriel Sloyer, a Colombian-American actor who plays the villain The Chairman in the film Protector, an action thriller from Magenta Light Studios that debuted in U.S. theaters this Friday the 6th, said his experience in Hollywood “has been a true blessing.”

He mentioned that he had “the privilege of playing Detective Raúl Díaz in Griselda. I just finished playing Jake Rodríguez in The Better Sister on Amazon Prime, Manuel de Dios Unanue in Narcos, in Power, in series like Inventing Anna, and now in this film Protector—many roles, a diversity of characters. We’re all here in the same fight, trying to open even more doors for Latino talent.”

He noted that in Protector, the director is Mexican—Adrian Grünberg—the same one who directed Rambo. “My character, as written in the script, isn’t Latino, but they chose me—they offered me the role. Wow, what a blessing! And we have an action film that, I think, what’s beautiful about these movies is that they don’t need translation; they go straight to the nervous system. I have a large part of my family in Colombia, and they can enjoy this movie—even muted if they want. The language of action is universal.”

He added that he grew up with an immigrant father who had little understanding of English when he arrived. “I remember once he came to see me in a play, Romeo and Juliet, and afterward he said, ‘Gabi, but what kind of poison is this? How could she get up afterward?’ These plays and films are powerful because they cross borders without needing translation—they’re universal. We have to take advantage of every opportunity, whether it’s a small role in an action film or a role people might call cliché—but no, you have to do something with the role, you have to try to show who you are, and that’s what we’re trying to do with this project,” he concluded.