Hot stuff

Jun. 9—details

Flamin' Hot premieres on Hulu and Disney+ starting Friday, June 9.

You've seen biopics about athletes, musicians, and political leaders who changed the course of history. But have you ever seen one about the purported creator of a snack chip flavoring?

Flamin' Hot, a new feature directed by Eva Longoria that was largely shot in New Mexico, takes a novel approach to a biographical film: to introduce a person whose name you may not know but who may have influenced your snack habits.

Jesse Garcia portrays Richard Montañez, the film's unlikely real-life hero who claims to have invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos when he worked for Frito-Lay in Los Angeles. In the film, Montañez drops out of high school but lands a job at Frito-Lay as a janitor and refuses to listen to others who try to tell him how hard it will be for him to rise above his station.

Despite the odds, Montañez's spirit moves him forward. Garcia, who attended a May 12 screening of Flamin' Hot at the Violet Crown with costar Annie Gonzalez, told Pasatiempo that the film tells a story that any audience member can relate to.

"Not everyone has the opportunity for a college education or even a high school education," Garcia says. "But it doesn't mean those people aren't smart or aren't creative. He was able to do what he was able to do without having a traditional education, and that's pretty incredible."

Garcia, a 40-year-old Wyoming native, appears in nearly every scene of the movie, with the notable exception of the boardroom scenes, which Tony Shalhoub steals as Frito-Lay executive Roger Enrico.

Early in the film, Montañez despairs about not being able to provide for his family and nearly succumbs to the allure of gang life. But he manages to escape to a different path, and after getting hired by Frito-Lay, works overtime to achieve his dreams.

He befriends a veteran engineer, learns how the machines at the plant work, and takes home products with the intention of finding ways to spice them up with Mexican flavors. His wife, Judy, played by Gonzalez, provides support and believes in him.

"I think the root is love," Garcia says of the movie's theme, which rises above being just a story about a famous snack. "Richard had his Judy; without her, he wouldn't have accomplished what he accomplished. They did that together with the kids. Representation is a good byproduct of the story. Everybody can relate to this movie."

The story is sentimental without being schmaltzy, and it has humor as well as poignant moments — but the veracity of the tale remains in question. Frito-Lay executives maintain that while Montañez worked for the company, he did not invent the flamin'-hot flavor, according to a 2021 story in The Los Angeles Times.

"That doesn't mean we don't celebrate Richard," the Times reported that Frito-Lay said in a statement. "But the facts do not support the urban legend."

But themovie that pays tribute to spicy food was appropriately filmed in New Mexico, with several Albuquerque locations standing in for Los Angeles.

The eight-week shoot employed 204 New Mexico crew members, 44 New Mexico principal cast members, and more than 800 locals for background performers. The location where a lot of the action was set was the Frito-Lay plant, which was portrayed by the old headquarters of the Albuquerque Journal.

But the real star of the movie, the Flamin' Hot Cheeto, doesn't enter the picture until the movie is nearly halfway over.

"Eva mentioned that she didn't set out to talk about the Cheeto," says Gonzalez of the film's slow burn. "She set out to tell the story of a man who faced adversity and overcame it at every turn. It's not just about the Cheeto; that Cheeto is the byproduct of thelove for the community."

A few times in the movie, Montañez catches a much-needed break, like when he gets arrested for stealing a car, but the judge decides not to throw the book at him. It's a crucial moment that could've derailed his life.

"I don't think they're looking the other way," Garcia says of the characters who help Montañez along the way. "I think they're looking at someone who has potential of doing something better. They're seeing something deeper than what someone sees in themselves."

Garcia, who's appeared in other New Mexico-filmed productions including Longmire and From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series, says that local facilities and crews have been top notch. He's acting alongside Longoria in an upcoming Disney+ production of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, which also is being shot in New Mexico. Garcia says Longoria was "hyper-prepared" as a director on Flamin' Hot.

"She's been directing TV for 12 years, and the way we shot this was like a TV show," he says of the eight-week shoot. "We shot very quick, run and gun. Everyone had to know their stuff. I can't imagine anyone else who would've been able to pull this off or tell the story the way she did. The movie, for the most part, is her vision."

And when you see Garcia enjoying Flamin' Hot Cheetos on screen? That's acting.

He says he's a healthy eater and had never had a Flamin' Hot Cheeto until shooting the movie. But Gonzalez says the snack has been a part of her life for decades. She first tried it at age 5 when her aunt tricked her by telling her it was a normal Cheeto. But spice has always been part of her life as a Mexican American from Los Angeles.

"Culturally, growing up in East L.A., that was a snack everybody ate," says Gonzalez, who will star as Jenni Rivera, a Mexican American singer who died in a plane crash, in an upcoming biopic.

"You'd get it from ice cream trucks with nacho cheese," she says. "You'd eat it with sour cream or cream cheese. It was definitely something I grew up on."