Former “Sesame Street“ Actor Ismael Cruz Córdova on Life After the Show
Actor Ismael Cruz Córdova said goodbye to Bert and Ernie—and promptly blew up. We asked him about life beyond TV’s most famous street.
Photo: Mark Squires
O Magazine: Our readers first met you in 2014, after you were cast as Mando, a writer from Puerto Rico, on Sesame Street. Who's harder to work with: people or puppet's?
Ismael Cruz Córdova: Technically, puppets. Actors rely on eye contact to connect with their scene partners. On Sesame Street, all I had to look at were Googly—eyed monsters! Then again, humans are so emotionally complex. Puppets never have bad days.
O: So performing on Sesame Street was sometimes tougher than the gritty work you've done on Ray Donovan?
ICC: Definitely! I'm naturally a more subdued person. Casting directors have even called me Benicio Del Toro Jr. because I gravitate toward darker characters. With Mando, I really had to practice his bright—eyed persona. And then he hung on to me! The first job I auditioned for after Sesame Street was to play this damaged guy, and the folks asked me to "unbubble" myself.
O: And now you're in Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, a war movie that's about as far from big yellow birds and alphabet songs as you can get. What was it like working with Oscar-winning director Ang Lee?
ICC: A dream come true. He's a man of few words, but there's a lot of trust. I mean, Ang Lee is a genius!
O: So has your life done a total one-eighty since Sesame Street?
ICC: I definitely feel like I've grown up. And I do get approached on the street a lot more—but my mother is still my number one fan.
Ismael Cruz Córdova: Technically, puppets. Actors rely on eye contact to connect with their scene partners. On Sesame Street, all I had to look at were Googly—eyed monsters! Then again, humans are so emotionally complex. Puppets never have bad days.
O: So performing on Sesame Street was sometimes tougher than the gritty work you've done on Ray Donovan?
ICC: Definitely! I'm naturally a more subdued person. Casting directors have even called me Benicio Del Toro Jr. because I gravitate toward darker characters. With Mando, I really had to practice his bright—eyed persona. And then he hung on to me! The first job I auditioned for after Sesame Street was to play this damaged guy, and the folks asked me to "unbubble" myself.
O: And now you're in Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, a war movie that's about as far from big yellow birds and alphabet songs as you can get. What was it like working with Oscar-winning director Ang Lee?
ICC: A dream come true. He's a man of few words, but there's a lot of trust. I mean, Ang Lee is a genius!
O: So has your life done a total one-eighty since Sesame Street?
ICC: I definitely feel like I've grown up. And I do get approached on the street a lot more—but my mother is still my number one fan.
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