Lou Diamond Phillips has been acting for decades. But his breakout role was so iconic, it's one he's still largely associated with.
Phillips played Ritchie Valens in 1987's La Bamba and then went on to shine in Stand and Deliver and Young Guns. More recently, he starred in the TV series "Longmire."
In his latest film, "Keep Quiet," Phillips plays a tribal police officer. It screened at the Dallas International Film Festival — where he was presented with the Dallas Star Award — and is also screening at Austin's Cine Las Americas International Film Festival, where he says he's set to receive a city of Austin proclamation.
Phillips says coming back to Texas has meant reconnecting with old friends and reliving his journey to becoming the actor he is now.
"All of my dreams, all my aspirations, all of that, you now, began right there in Texas," he said. "When I was in high school, I did a lot of University Interscholastic League drama competitions. It was something I intended to do from a very young age and was surprised — I mean, very surprised — that I had as many opportunities as I did in Texas."
Phillips spent his formative years in Corpus Christi. His dad retired there after a career in the Navy that took the family all over the world. He graduated from Flour Bluff High School and majored in theater at the University of Texas at Arlington.
"So my connections to Texas run deep and are eternal," Phillips said.
Phillips has become not just a successful actor but an icon — especially in the Latino community. He says he's grateful for that and sees it as a sign he did them proud. Phillips himself is not Latino nor fully Indigenous, though he has played characters with those backgrounds.
"I'm half Filipino with some, you know, Hawaiian, Chinese, a lot of sort of Pacific theater stuff going on there," he said. "And then, believe it or not, you know, like Scott Irish English, you know, there's a healthy dose of Scandinavian in there as well, and a drop of Indigenous blood."
He said he's been cast in roles because he's "ambiguously brown."
"Being a performer of color, it's like, OK, you have to represent with some respect. You have to represent with dignity and bring some honor to the community and not just use it as a piece of wardrobe," Phillips said. "So my attitude from the beginning has always been go to the source and represent it to the best of my abilities."
Keep Quiet isn't his first role as a police officer.
"I've played, you know, God knows how many cops," Phillips said. "Page five, I saw myself in the role. I knew who this guy was and how I was gonna play him."
This time, Phillips' character has an opportunity to mention that he's not Indigenous.
"That, you know, delineation allowed us a very interesting dynamic with the character in that he is a perennial outsider," Phillips said.
Phillips says he relates to that as someone who doesn't "fit easily into anybody's box, even Hollywood's."
"They didn't know what to do with me for a long time. They'd always go 'he's the Brown Rat Packer' you know, because I sort of defy categorization," Phillips said.
He said he's not only felt like he's constructed his own community out of fans, but he's actively working toward making the path easier for emerging actors. Phillips is a current governor of the Actors Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the chairperson of the Equity and Inclusion Committee.
"A number of years ago, I realized, 'oh, this is a responsibility of mine,'" he said. "It's an honor, it's a privilege, it is one that I embrace and I accept. But that is to carry that torch for representation and to keep the door open behind me for young people coming in."
He says he tries to encourage young actors "to try rise above that hyphen."
"You know, you're not just an African American actor or an Asian American actor or the Latino American actor, even Mexican American, whatever," Phillips said. "You are an actor with a capital A, and you deserve a shot at a lot of different roles, because not every role is culturally specific."
Phillips has also written and directed. He took on an executive producer role for Keep Quiet because that allowed him to be in a decision-making role. He said he made casting suggestions – including for his former "Longmire" co-stars Irene Bedard and Kim Guerrero.
"I think the most influential thing that I did was I brought on Marcus Red Thunder, who was our technical adviser on Longmire for six years and who got me intimately acquainted with the Cheyenne Nation, the Lame Deer Reservation up in Montana," Phillips said. "And I knew that he would be the guy to make sure we were authentic, grounded, rooted in reality, and respectful of the traditions."
Now, he's focused on getting Keep Quiet in front of audiences. After its film festival run, it's set to hit a limited number of movie theaters in early July.
"It's almost like we're hand-carrying it to a lot of places," Phillips said. "I mean, it is artisanal, it's handcrafted, and it is grassroots."
He's hesitant to immediately label this moment in the industry.
"Back when I did La Bamba and Stand and Deliver back to back, you know, 'Oh my goodness, we're going to have, you know, a Latino wave, a Latina wave, in cinema' — it didn't happen," Phillips said.
But, he said, he's been encouraged to see more filmmakers telling their specific stories and finding a universal audience for them.
"Things like, you know, Minari, you know, Moonlight. I mean, just a lot of smaller films that break through. And because they're done with love and they are done with Truth, capital T, in the middle of them," Phillips said.
He believes Keep Quiet has the same potential. While he thinks audiences will be moved by the characters and their experiences, the film is ultimately a thriller.
"So it's compelling, it's interesting, it's exciting, and there are amazing performances in it," Phillips said. "[It's] David and Goliath, when it comes to us against, you know, the monolithic megalith, you know, monster movies that are coming out this summer, but it's also the little engine that could."
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