George Lopez On Why Low-Budget Migrant Drama ‘No Man’s Land’ Gets Things Right

“We did get it off the ground, but we banged our head up against the wall for about seven years before that happened,” explained No Man’s Land director, Conor Allyn. “It took a lot of effort and a lot of friends.” 

The drama follows a young man, Jackson, who accidentally kills a Mexican immigrant while on a Texas-Mexico border patrol.  He goes on the run, his father takes the blame, but both the Texas Rangers and Mexican Federales are on Jackson’s tail seeking justice.

“Border movies have been done, they tend to be bleak, and they tend to fail. Even some of the really good ones tend not to do well financially, and some of the great immigration movies that were inspirations for us aren’t necessarily well known to the mainstream. It wasn’t an easy sell,” Allyn recalled. “It basically came down to us putting together a group of friends, and friends of friends, and friends of friends of friends of friends, a small group of almost entirely Mexican investors. Getting the first people to put in money is always the hardest, and these were people who were tired of their country being almost exclusively represented, whether it’s Hollywood movies or the media, in the negative.”

Jake Allyn leads No Man’s Land’s cast as Jackson. He also co-wrote the movie and is the director’s brother.  It also boasts Frank Grillo as Jackson’s father, Andie MacDowell as Jackson’s mother, and George Lopez as Ramirez, a Texas Ranger.

“We’ve never seen a time like we’ve been seeing. No Man’s Land is the right movie for the right time,” Lopez enthused. “Reading the script, right away, I thought that it would play globally. It might be about the border between the United States and Mexico, but there are no man’s lands that exist in stores, in schools, that exist politically. When you realize that, you can look at what it’s like to go into a country and not belong. I don’t belong in Mexico. I don’t speak Spanish fluently, but what I like about the characters is that they are lost in there, too.”

“My character is not there to sightsee. He’s there on business but with zero cooperation. When people come here, you are looked at as intruders and invaders, or whatever words are used, and we can’t forget that we’re dealing with human beings. We’ve lost our humanity a bit.”

Allyn added, “We were fortunate to get the cast that we did. I think you want stars in your movie, but you also want people who will do a good job and portray that character authentically. If George had not said yes to doing No Man’s Land, I don’t know if we would have been able to make it. It’s a scary thing to be in a situation as a director where there’s no cast list, and you want to get someone like George, but if you don’t, then what do you do?”

“George just worked harder than everybody else. When you’re on a shoestring budget, independent movie like this, as the director or the producer, you have to work hard because it is your passion project. You don’t necessarily expect some of the people that join you later to work as hard or harder than you do. I don’t even think I realized quite the level that George was all in on it until we were in week two or three, and George flew back every weekend to do the movie,” the director mused. “He had a hectic schedule, he was doing shows every weekend, and he would take a flight back to local shows, catch a red-eye back to set, drive from the airport that morning, to the set. We were in the middle of Mexico, so it was not a convenient location close to many things like airports, but he’d drive to set, change in his trailer, come down to set, and work a whole day. That was harder than I was working, and I was working really hard. You don’t expect that.”

“We talked about the small details of the movie. The first time George and I talked, we had a conversation about his character’s facial hair. Do the Texas Rangers have facial hair or not? Despite Jeff Bridges and his gigantic mustache in Hell or High Water, are they allowed? We called the Texas Rangers PR office. That was a bit strange, but we wanted to get it right.”

Lopez saw No Man’s Land as an opportunity to do something he rarely gets to do.

“As an actor and a comedian, you want people to think of you for serious roles as well as comedic ones,” he said. “I think the history of comedians as actors and there have been some wonderful, funny people who have done drama, people like Billy Connolly, Tom Hanks, Billy Crystal, Robin Williams, Jackie Gleason and so on. As George Lopez, I remember after my first show was over, I couldn’t do anything like this because they saw me as the funny guy from the TV show. I appreciate them feeling like that, but it is hard.”

“I was doing my radio show, then we did the sitcom, George Lopez, which Sandra Bullock executive produced, and I was doing animation projects for kids, HBO and Netflix specials. What nobody wanted me to do was something that wasn’t a big part. However, taking smaller roles and serious roles turned out to be a really good plan, and it showed what else I could do. It was almost like flying a kite. Once it gets in the air, it flies beautifully. You get to meet these directors like Conner, and they look after you, you look to them, they always have the answer, and that is great. We both get a lot out of it.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Lopez didn’t have to audition for the role.

“Auditioning is the hardest part of getting a gig. Not all gigs are easy, but the audition part is really the highest hurdle you’re going to have to get the job,” Lopez laughed. “I’ve seen famous actors at different studios walking around in a circle talking to themselves because they know that when they go in there, that’s the point of yes and no. It doesn’t always work in your favor. It’s a powerful thing not to have to do that. It’s an honor.”

With a solid story and performances, and some stunning and accomplished cinematography, Allyn ended up with an impressive end product on a tight budget. 

“We were working below the $3 million mark, but who cares? No one really cares,” the director said. “The audience doesn’t care what your budget was. You don’t get an asterisk next to your box office numbers that will say, ‘Hey, we did a really good job for the money we had,’ you have to do your best with what you got, and there’s no crying and no complaining about it. Sometimes that leads to greatness because you don’t have every option available to you, so you have to rely on making the right choices.”

No Man’s Land is in select theaters and on VOD from Friday, January 22, 2021.