Demian Bichir Gets Raw in 'Savages,' Drug War & Threesomes

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 02: Actor Demian Bichir attends the Ermenegildo Zegna NY Passion for Silk Event hosted by Gildo Zegna at Ermenegildo Zegna on May 2, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images for Ermenegildo Zegna) (2012 Getty Images)

Love. Gets. Savage —especially when it gets caught in a nasty drug war.

For Mexican actor Demián Bichir, working on Oliver Stone’s new thriller “Savages” was one intense, challenging and fun experience, but it was also an opportunity to enlighten audiences on what is at stake politically in Mexico and the United States.

The Oscar-nominated actor was last seen delivering an emotional performance in the film “A Better Life.” In that film, he played Carlos Galindo, a diligent gardener from Mexico who is raising his teenage son Luis on his own because his wife abandoned the two of them after the family crossed the U.S. border.

But this time around in “Savages,” Bichir has the role of Alex −the lawyer representing Elena, who is the head of one Mexico’s most brutal cartels, and is played by the dazzling Salma Hayek.

The heart-pounding gory film hits theaters on Friday.

“It is a whole different story and that’s exactly what you want as an actor,” Bichir told Fox News Latino.

“You are looking for characters that can go from one extreme to another because that’s the only way you can have fun and create and make a difference as an actor.”

In “Savages,” two weed-cultivating entrepreneurs, Chon (Taylor Kitsch) and Ben (Aaron Johnson), based in Laguna Beach, California, are forced to take on a brutal and malicious Mexican cartel, (run by Salma Hayek and Benicio Del Toro's characters) who kidnap their love interest Ophelia (Blake Lively) with the intentions of convincing them to merge their drug-trafficking business with the cartel.

“This is why this film is important, because it tells you that so many things are really wrong and that the only way you can change that is changing the destiny of Mexico,” Bichir stressed. “Those two parties, PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) and the Pan (National Action Party), have been ruling Mexico for… years, and look at the mess they have gotten us in.”

The Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI, and its candidate, Enrique Peña Nieto, claimed victory in Mexico's presidential election after the preliminary count last week.

The proclaimed victory by the PRI brings the party that ruled Mexico with an iron grip for most of the last century back to power with new promises of a government that will be modern, responsible and open to criticism.

Facing his biggest fears now that Nieto is President-elect, Bichir says the people in Mexico “have to work the same hard way” to go “in the same direction.”

“We are the same country,” Bichir said. “We all have to go in the same direction.”

The actor also expressed his thoughts on the upcoming elections in the U.S.

There are many things at stake," Bichir said, "that we need to take seriously and the only way out will be Obama."

Besides the political message that he wanted to send with this film, Bichir said working in Stone’s film is a personal milestone that he celebrates, something that he will be sharing with his grandchildren.

Still, becoming the multi-layered character of Alex was a challenge that he gladly welcomed, especially when Alex makes a sacrifice in the film, which is pivotal in moving the story along.

“It is very hard, very difficult,” Bichir said. “But that’s what we like.  It is when I don’t know what to do with a character that I say yes.”

“The great thing about this character is that he is the only hope in all this mess because he is a guy who sacrifices his life for his family,” Bichir said. “He in a way redeems all this craziness.”

Alex may be the attorney for the cartel’s leading lady, but Bichir says that Alex “in a way is one of the good ones” who “at least was not crazy [and] armed.”

“That is why it is so hard to see him at the end,” said Bichir. “He’s one of the good ones. He redeems himself and everyone.”

“All these guys benefit from this organization not doing the right thing,” he explains. “Alex hasn’t been involved in any killings, he’s not a part of that, as far as Oliver and I [wanted to go in] building the character.”

Despite the gut-wrenching violence, there is an intricate love story -- a heated ménáge e troís and strong bond between the dope dealers and Ophelia, which he could never withstand in real life.

“There are many different feelings for many different types of appetites,” said Bichir laughing, careful not to give too many details about the passionate tryst.

“It is a lot easier to have a threesome with two women and a man,” he continued. “For us men…it is really difficult to share. . .But, if you really love someone you wouldn’t be sharing.”

The flick, according to Bichir, will ignite a curiosity in the audience about what is really going on today with the complex drug war, which both the United States and Mexico are facing.

“There is corruption everywhere,” Bichir says. “If violence exists, it’s because there are two countries that allow that to happen. The film is really clear about that.”

With the drug war rampant in real life, Bichir says that he keeps himself involved with the political news about Mexico and the United States.

“People in general are not very good at getting the right information and jumping into the web and finding out,” said Bichir.

“So what this film will tell everyone is that this is not only a problem that’s related to Mexico,” he said.

“This is not a one country issue. This is an issue that two countries are involved [in] and they both have their responsibility and [need to] take it seriously and try to solve it together.”