Edward James Olmos Brings His Trademark Gravitas To Prime Video’s Motorcyle Movie ‘One Fast Move’

Edward James Olmos may have gotten his start as an actor in the ‘70s, but it was in the ‘80s when he began to enter household-name status, thanks his work on both television (Miami Vice) and film (Stand and Deliver). By the 2000s, he’d found fame with a whole new generation through a completely different genre, playing Commander Adama in Ronald D. Moore’s reboot of Battlestar Galactica.

Now that he’s been in the business for a full five decades, it’s about time that Olmos started easing into playing the mentor, which he can be seen doing in the new film One Fast Move, now streaming on Prime Video. Alas, Decider only had a grand total of 10 minutes with Olmos, so we in no way had time to ask for anecdotes about the entirety of his filmography, but we did get all the details on the aforementioned new film and got him to talk a bit about his first film role, the actors who made him have to fight to keep from going full fanboy, and his political activism.

DECIDER: To start with an obligatory question, how did you find your way into this film in the first place? Did [writer/director] Kelly Blatz reach out to you personally?

EDWARD JAMES OLMOS: Yeah, they did. They reached out to me personally and asked me to come in. They said that they had really had me in mind when they were doing the role and writing it, and I was very impressed with the script. It was intense, and I said to myself, “Okay, if the script is good, then you know that it’s augmented by filming it, and the reality has become stronger.” I said this would be a very, very, very intense movie, and it is. It’s very strong.

It’s about motorcycle racing, but it really is a love story. It’s a familial story. It’s a community story. It’s learning how to really understand yourself and learning how to be understanding of yourself as you gain strength and you start to become something, and you start to live your dream and your dream starts to realize itself, and what happens to you as a human being. Are you ready for that success? And no one teaches you success. You know, that’s one of the things that’s really interesting. They teach you about the struggle, but no one ever teaches you about, “Okay, now you’re successful. Now what?”

And so I’m very, very happy to work with Eric Dane, who plays Dean Miller, the father of the young man, and K.J. Apa, who plays the young man, is phenomenal, and I think he’s a major artist to be seen in a lot of different things in the coming years, in different movies. And Maya Reficco, who plays his girlfriend, is just stunning and beautiful. All of them do an excellent job. 

Do you remember the moment when you ascended to becoming the mentor or elder in a film’s storyline? 

Oh, yeah. I mean, basically my agent said to me, “You know, you’d be really good playing a mentor.” And so I said, “Yeah, I think that’s a good idea.” And I tell myself… [Hesitates.] Of course, look, I know I look good, but I’m 77 years old, man! [Laughs.] And I’ve gotta tell you, I’ve been doing this for 50 years, and I will say this: I’m very privileged to be in this industry and then to get this kind of access to these kinds of stories at my age and after the life I’ve led, I’m very grateful. It’s a simple story and, you know, we’re going to be on Prime Video. So, people could see it right there. It’s going to be streaming, so I hope they enjoy it. 

I will say both in the film and presently, you are a man who knows how to wear a hat. 

[Laughs.] So do you!

So I’ve seen the film, thankfully, and it was great, but for those who haven’t, tell me a little bit about how you’d define Abel as a character. 

Well, Abel is a man who has sacrificed his life for others. You know, he’s always helping. And he runs his motorcycle shop and he repairs motorcycles, and he was a racer. He ran. He raced really well. He was one of the best in the business of motorcycle racing at the time. He was young, and he sacrificed an awful lot and…you learn about that sacrifice in the film, and you see that the man struggled and he tried to help. He’s trying to help. But he sees that the struggle is, people have to take it upon themselves to understand the issues that they’re in. And he becomes a mirror to the father and the son in this movie and…it’s a very powerful film. And, again, it’s about community. It’s about familial bonds. It’s about love. It’s about fast, fast motorcycles. [Laughs.] And I’m very grateful that they did the movie. I’ve never seen one about this kind of sport, so it’s a good one. 

Oh, it’s great. I was going to say that the racing scenes in particular really stand out.

Yeah, I think Kelly did a tremendous job in filming it as director, and he did a wonderful job in writing it. 

You’ve obviously had some motorcycles in past projects you’ve worked on. It wasn’t that long ago that you were on Mayans M.C. 

Yeah, Mayans! But in that case, I never pretended to be a motorcycle rider, you know? That wasn’t the world that [my character] came from. My sons got involved in that, and they ended up doing what they did, but…that was a wonderful story, too, but very dark. 

For sure. Do you have an actual motorcycle history in your own background? 

I did, when I was younger. I had a Triumph 650, and then I had smaller bikes before that, but I had to get off. I lost two friends, and that’s all it took. Two different accidents, and it wasn’t their fault, and it probably never is the fault of the motorcycle rider. It’s mainly people who don’t see you on the motorcycle and they cut you off, or they hit you, and then there’s no way of getting around it, man. You’re vulnerable as hell. 

I’ve got a question I like to ask everyone, about the first time they actually appeared on camera. According to IMDb, which may not be accurate… Was your film debut actually in Black Fist? 

No. My first performance on camera, where I got my SAG card, was in 1972, in a movie called Aloha Bobby and Rose, and it was a wonderful film. I was an extra in the movie, and then they brought me over and asked me if I could talk. [Laughs.] And I said yes, so they gave me a line, or a few lines, and then I went on to work, get my SAG card, and I started my career in film. Because I was doing theater before that. 

Speaking of theater, one of your more notable early films that I wanted to ask about was Zoot Suit. 

That was a great experience all the way around. The play was the thing. 

Yeah, I knew that it had started in the theater. 

Yeah, and it was wonderful. Wonderful. I think that people who saw it in the theater were very grateful that they saw it in the theater. We did years of performances of that play. It started at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and then went on to New York on Broadway, and all I can tell you is that it’s a story that I was very grateful that they did. I was very happy that I got an opportunity, and I was prepared for the opportunity, which is lucky. When you are prepared for the opportunity and the opportunity comes, that’s called sheer luck. [Laughs.] So I was lucky to have the ability to do the role and create the role. That’s where, really, my career started, from 1978 onward. I’ve been creating my own roles, and I just have control of my characters. 

Do you remember the first time that you found yourself having to fight to keep from going full fanboy when you met someone? 

Oh, God, yeah. I mean, it’s pretty easy to lose it. I mean, it’s overwhelming. You get this understanding. When I met Anthony Quinn, who was very, very stunning. He was a wonderful human being and a great, great artist. When I met Jack Palance, he was my mentor for a long time and these artists – Rita Moreno, she’s another  one – these artists were just so pure in their understanding of their craft and weren’t really full of themselves. They were very down to earth. If you didn’t know them and you just saw them on film or you just saw them doing an interview, you would capture them as being maybe inward, very introverted, but they were all very strong and very, very human and very simple, and wonderful personalities that they had. Anthony Quinn was amazing. Jack Palance was unbelievable, a wonderful, good man, human being, and Rita Moreno is a beautiful lady and a beautiful artist. 

I think I’ve got time for one more, so as an appointee of the Bartlett administration’s Supreme Court, I’m curious about what you remember about working on The West Wing. You were already politically active. Did it make you even more politically active? 

Well, I’m an activist. Not so much in telling you how to vote, but…in 1978, I became the national spokesperson for the Southwest Voter Registration Drive, and I’ve got to tell you, that to me is the most important aspect. I became really staunch in understanding that voting is the key. You must express yourself in a vote. That’s really the power of us as people in a democracy and in any government. But some governments don’t listen to the vote. You know, you can vote any way you want to, and then they’ll come in and just usurp everything and change everything. But to answer your question, when I did The West Wing, what a beautiful understanding [of politics] that series had. I loved it, and I was very, very, very happy that I was given the opportunity to portray Judge Mendoza.

One Fast Move is currently streaming on Prime Video.

Will Harris (@NonStopPop) has a longstanding history of doing long-form interviews with random pop culture figures for the A.V. Club, Vulture, and a variety of other outlets, including Variety. He also collaborated on Surely You Can’t Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane!, a book with David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker. (And don’t call him Shirley.)