9-1-1- Lone Star‘s Julian Works said playing real-life Latino golf pioneer Joe Treviño in SXSW favorite The Long Game was a job that had “a certain amount of pressure.”

“[It’s a] responsibility that you have to carry because you don’t know if the family’s going to be watching and you [also] want to do the person justice [for] what they did and what they accomplished,” he told Blavity/Shadow and Act Managing Editor Trey Mangum. “For what he did when it was young, it was really cool to just play someone that did something that he might have not known [how he] really made a difference and an impact on the community 50, 60 years down the road. So that was really special for me.”

The film, based on the nonfiction book Mustang Miracle by Humberto G. Garcia, follows a group of Latino caddies in the 1950s who decide to open their own golf course in South Texas. “Despite outdated and inferior equipment and no professional instruction to begin with, they would go on to compete against wealthy, all-white teams and win the 1957 Texas State High School Golf Championship,” according to the film’s description. Starring alongside Works are producers Dennis Quaid and Jay Hernandez with Cheech Marin, Paulina Chavez, Jaina Lee Ortiz, Brett Cullen and Oscar Nuñez. The film is written and directed by Julio Quintana.

Works said he didn’t know much about the history the film dramatizes. However, things seemed destined for him to play the role, since, by chance, he started playing golf a few months before he got cast.

“When this opportunity came up to read for this role and it being centered around the game of golf and it being a Latino story, and then outside of that, [it] being a true story, I was really excited to jump at it and just grab at…the opportunity to do it,” he said. “I’ve seen the impact that this story had, and it just goes to show [that] in the Latino and Black community, there are so many stories that are yet to be told that we don’t know about. And so I really feel like it’s movies like this that really got to make an impact on today. That’s what the big studio execs up top are going to see and realize that there are a lot of stories that are untold that are great stories just like this.”

He continued, “I didn’t realize the impact that I was going to have on on on my community until until [the film] came out,” he continued, adding that watching the film in the theater let him know just how much the story has resonated with audiences.

“I’m in the theater and they’re telling me, you know, ‘Oh my God, the story meant so much to me.’ And, and it’s really humbling and it just gave me a sense of, okay, this is why I do this. This is why I love what I do. The passion that I have for it, for this art, in this industry, this is why I do it–to make impacts on community or for our youth. All I gotta say is that this is just one of the many stories out there that we don’t know about and I’m just so happy that I got to be a part of this one.”

Works also said that the stories of the caddies portrayed in the film has resonated in the sport today.

“In the ’50s, there was no one on the golf course that looked like me or you on there,” he explained. And then, to go into today’s time, it’s cool to see some progress being made, but it also shows you how much more progress there is to be made. You know, obviously, [there’s] the standout of Tiger Woods…but just to see the progress that the sport has gone [through] to what it is now, and then to also show that there’s a lot more room to grow and a lot more people that we like to see on there that look like me or you for sure, I’m just happy to be a part of the story.”

“It’s an inspiring and motivating story and I hope whether you’re Latino, whether you’re Black, whether you’re Asian or even if you’re white, whatever race you [are]…I feel like being the underdog is kind of universally relatable to anyone and whatever they’re going through,” he continued. “It doesn’t have to be golf, it could be a job that you’re trying to get. It could be some kind of obstacle that you’re trying to overcome in life. So to be part of a story that gives them some kind of hope and inspiration was truly a blessing for me and I feel really proud about it.”

Julian Works

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