Esai Morales was watching orchestra rehearsals, studying conductors who could hear mistakes he could not. A musician would play, the conductor would stop, and Morales would wonder what had gone wrong.
He was preparing to play a conductor himself. Waving his arms would be the easy part. Knowing when to bring in the horns, how to anticipate a change, and how to make the movement his own required homework.
“It looks real easy, but it’s not.”
The actor behind Bob Morales in La Bamba and Gabriel in the Mission: Impossible films spoke with Hispanic Executive at AVANCE Global 2026 in Las Vegas about the work of sustaining a career long after an audience knows your name.
“Making it is one thing, staying relevant, a whole other.”
Morales has worked across film, television, and theater for more than four decades. Recognition, however, has not removed the limits he encounters in casting.
“I still feel like I’m in the cartel box or the criminal.”
He sees more opportunities for younger Latino performers, but describes progress as waves against a shore: advances that can recede. Audiences have a role in sustaining them, he argues, by telling studios and networks when they appreciate being included.
For himself, he talks about becoming “undeniable.” That means continuing to grow, holding himself accountable, and resisting the assumption that past success makes the next job easier.
It also means welcoming the chance to do something different. In Live Like That, Morales plays David, a pastor whose faith is tested after the murder of his son. The role offered an emotional range he had been waiting to explore.
“To play a pastor, to play a person rooted in faith, whose faith is tested. Wow, thank you.”
While discussing the film, he recalled expecting more conflict between the grieving husband and wife. What struck him instead was the strength of their relationship, even as their faith came under strain. Understanding that distinction was part of understanding the character.
The conductor role presented another kind of challenge. Preparing for an episode of High Potential, he said, meant watching masters including Leonard Bernstein and Richard Strauss, and noticing how differently each one led an orchestra. Some commanded; others drew the performance out of the musicians.
Morales wanted to understand those choices well enough to develop a style of his own.
“The more specific you attack whatever your task is, the more universal.”
After decades of playing people audiences remember, he was still studying what he did not yet know how to do.
