Entertainment
Fabrizio Guido's subtle comedy is a slam dunk in Netflix 'Running Point'
Unlike his character Jackie Moreno in the Netflix sitcom “Running Point,” Fabrizio Guido wasn’t much of a basketball connoisseur before booking the gig. He’s more into pugilism.
“I constantly compare acting [to] boxing,” said the 25-year-old Angeleno about getting the call informing him that he would be portraying Moreno, a concessions worker for the fictional Los Angeles Waves who finds out he’s the product of an affair and, in turn, the youngest and newest member of a basketball family dynasty.
“I remember I just threw both hands up in the air like if I had just been boxing 12 rounds and it was the knockout I had been looking for.”
The comedy series, which premiered Feb. 27, stars Kate Hudson as Isla Gordon, the only sister in a family of brothers who is often overlooked but is unexpectedly appointed as the new Waves president.
The revelation that Jackie is a love child and the fifth Gordon sibling is one of the many blips Isla encounters as she looks to prove herself in a male-dominated industry.
Much like his new half-sister, 19 year-old Jackie is looking to prove himself as a new member of the Gordon clan. Though an outsider in the family, Jackie’s comedic chops have rendered him a fan favorite for his off-the-cuff lines and seamless delivery.
Humor is a skill Guido has crafted in previous roles as Mikey Gutierrez in Netflix’s series “Mr. Iglesias,” as Dennis (a.k.a. Baby Joker) in the Laura Steinel film “Family,” and Mr. Jensen in Paramount’s “Good Burger 2.”
De Los spoke to Guido following the announcement of “Running Point‘s” renewal for a second season.
The following Q&A has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Tell me more about yourself. Where did you grow up?
I am L.A. born and raised. I was born in Montebello. To be honest with you, I’m at a point in my life where I can’t exactly claim anywhere ’cause I moved around a lot as a kid. I spent a lot of time in Whittier, Pico Rivera. I lived in Culver City at one point and in San Diego for a couple of years. My formative years were spent in Alhambra, near City Terrace, so that whole East [L.A.] community.
How did you land the role of Jackie Moreno?
It was a very traditional kind of process. An audition came my way from my team; it was “Running Point.” The role was Jackie Moreno, who was a 19-year-old kid from L.A., Boyle Heights specifically.
They wanted someone with very strong comedic chops. I feel like that was a big focus for the role. I read it and fell in love with this character. I felt like I could bring more to what the page had to offer, and that’s not a knock on our writers. This is an essence I’m familiar with, a culture I’m familiar with.
I was told the audition went really well. They said I was their top pick. I wake up a day later, and my phone is blowing up. My DMs are full of an open casting [call] that [co-creator] Mindy Kaling put out for the same role. I was like, “I thought we were tight!”
I just said thank you to everybody sending the casting call my way, and I was like, you know what, I’m happy. I’m actually really happy about this. I feel like it’s a perfect opportunity to just attack the impostor syndrome and get it out of the way. I was like, “I gotta feel like I earned it. Fine. This is perfect. Let’s go against the world. Let’s do this.”
Bam. I sent [in the tape]. I just felt like the role was mine.
Walk me through the day when you got the news that you booked Jackie Moreno?
I can’t describe it, but I felt like a workhorse blocking out a lot of the noise.
I constantly compare acting to boxing. I’m not talking about getting beat up or it being a fight. When I say fight, I mean the beautiful sport that is boxing. I just felt like a fight for these 12 rounds. I remember I was home alone, and my agents had spoken to my mom.
The call came in from my mom. She’s on the other side of the phone crying, “They want you for this show.”
It was exactly the project I wanted.
What are some personal elements that resonate with you and your character?
For starters, it was definitely the cultural aspect. I knew Jackie might have to dabble in some Spanish and I was like, “perfect.” A huge part of this character’s life is his relationship with his mom and what it’s like to deal with her loss. I love the layers of that. I think everybody deals with loss. I’m slightly older than Jackie, so I had to dial it back to a younger part of me that I felt like was enthusiastic and ready to learn.
And you got to work with Keyla Monterroso Mejia in one of the first scenes. How was that?
I was just talking to her last week. She gave me a call. She’s the absolute best. I was so excited to get the chance to work with her ’cause I feel like you get to see a side that’s not always seen in that style of comedy.
Keyla Monterroso Mejia as Ana Moreno and Fabrizio Guido as Jackie in “Running Point.”
( Netflix)
Tell me how you were able to form an onscreen relationship with your older, rich and white siblings?
I think in the same way as Jackie — I don’t want to say I wanted to be accepted but I had a thirst to understand them. I feel like that thirst for me personally [was] as an artist. I would sit in, hearing them talk. I would listen to the life experience that they have. They’re so easy to get along with, so funny.
(Katrina Marcinowski/Netflix)
Oftentimes, we would schedule little lunches when we could get all together as a family. I had the opportunity to work with each one of them in one-on-one scenes. So that lent itself to get into more focused conversations with them.
Did the cast give you any advice?
I often found myself kind of seeking Brenda Song for advice on sports, ’cause she’s really, really knowledgeable, and I’m not as knowledgeable as Brenda.
So I would talk to her about trade rumors and stuff, and she served as a great guide, and that kind of transitioned into like, “Hey. How do you know when a project’s right for you? How do you know how to make these moves?” Brenda has just been amazing in giving me her opinion about things and how she’s moved through her career.
My other siblings, I love ’em because they’re a joy to be around. Their advice has just all been about life, relationships.
You’ve worked closely with comedian Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias on his show “Mr. Iglesias” and have also done some stand-up comedy yourself. Do you see yourself staying in the comedy realm?
[Stand-up] comedy is my newest passion thanks to Fluffy. I’m not exactly looking to do anything with this. I just wanna do it for my own fulfillment. I’m going to go up there and have fun. That’s my goal every time I go up. I get super nervous about something, and I’m like, “Hey, you have nothing to prove, nothing to gain.”
I would love to go on tour. I love every time I get invited to open for someone I admire. I love being out late at night with other comics and hearing their set, coming up with jokes, spending my days writing. It’s a huge and very important part of my life right now.
There’s this clip of you as Dennis, a.k.a. Baby Joker from the 2018 film “Family,” that has been circulating social media. I also notice it in the comment sections of “Running Point” promos. What do you think about that?
It came out of nowhere honestly. I had done that film a couple of years ago. It’s a fantastic film. It’s just been really cool to watch this video resurface. Now, anything that gets posted about “Running Point,” there’s always some sort of Baby joker comment. People love Dennis! I’m glad it’s bringing views to the film because I’ve always felt it’s such a strong comedic film, and I just want to give Laura her flowers.
What was your reaction to “Running Point‘s” Season 2 renewal?
I was asleep, and my phone just started going off with congratulations. I thought this may still be coming from people that are just watching. Then it was an article that revealed it got renewed for Season 2. It was a good, really exciting morning, but still, I was like, “Is this true? Like, what’s going on? How come Netflix hasn’t called?” But I guess they were just super open and ready to rock and roll with this one.

Movie Reviews
“The Electric State” Movie Review – Netflix Needs To Stop. (Rant)

We are under attack. One lousy script and 320 million dollars later, we are presented with the newest Netflix production led by The Russo Brothers. I repeat, the budget of “The Electric State” (starring Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt) had an abnormal cost of 320 MILLION DOLLARS making it one of the most expensive movies ever made. That is about all the context you need for this one. As you can probably sense by now, I am completely baffled by this project and its potential implications as to where this industry is headed. “The Electric State” is simply awful.
Gone are the days of likable movie stars carrying even the shittiest of movies. Gone are the days of blockbusters containing any well directed set pieces and compelling ethos. Gone are the days of studios caring about the product as well as the filmmakers themselves. Netflix has a track record of making terrible things and patting themselves on the back. “The Electric State” is an attack on cinema and an insult to anyone that enjoys it.
This Might Be Money Laundering
“The Electric State” having a ballooned budget of 320 million dollars sounds simply unbelievable. Watching it leaves more questions than answers as well. It looks like total shit. It’s a CGI hodgepodge filmed mostly on closed sets and green screens. You’d think maybe they’d have real goddamn robots on set with that kind of money.
It’s easy to harp on the budget continually, but this is a narrative that needs to be addressed. Films should not cost this much and leave so much to be desired. The Russo Brothers have their fingers in the Marvel pot and it makes too much sense that they make schlock for Netflix. Their lack of care for the craft is blatant and disgusting frankly. Zero effort directing this and zero attempts to even draw a lick of complement. The Russo Brothers insult everyone who dreams of being a filmmaker in some capacity while they direct slop like this and pass it on as their service to cinema.
Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt (along with every other name in this movie) got their names drawn from a hat to play generic, badly written characters. They are so, so bad in this movie. I can tell they are not having fun with this project and why should I have fun? There was a time where even the worst of action blockbusters had some form of likability and amusement. This is just sad, dude. This makes cinema look like a dying art.
So, yes, the budget is something that should be noted because there were likely other projects that suffered from it. Seeing a budget cut of a smaller passion project and having “The Electric State” piss it away must be demoralizing. The kicker to it all is this being a straight to streaming movie. We’re all stuck at home watching this garbage.
Netflix, Please Stop This
Netflix has been criticized for many business decisions and I think it’s all earned. Upping the price of their service continuously while adding ad interruptions and producing slop such as “The Electric State.” I know I’m being dramatic this entire review/rant, but it’s important to note what this may mean for the future. They have no problem shelling out hundreds of millions for these things. Hell, it’s not even in the theaters right now. What will happen when Netflix decides to produce projects like this forever?
“The Electric State” is a lifeless, terribly directed blockbuster that conjures up nothing that is enjoyable. It is generic, boring, ugly, and is completely insulting to watch. One of the most sizable budgets ever and it got put into this project.
I cannot in good faith suggest anyone watch this for any reason. It’s not even fun bad and the more watch minutes that go into it, the more Netflix believes they actually did something impressive. We cannot let them think that. Don’t watch.
Watch Movies (not this one)
Entertainment
ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard steps away from the band to deal with a 'health procedure'
ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard is stepping away from the band’s Elevation tour to undergo a procedure related to his health.
Beard “has temporarily stepped away from the current tour to attend to a health issue requiring his attention in the near term,” the band’s management company posted Saturday on X (formerly Twitter).
“Beard, along with fellow ZZ Top members Billy F. Gibbons and Elwood Francis, presently on the Elevation tour since March 5, have engaged fellow Texan and longtime tech member, percussionist and drummer, John Douglas, for the interim.”
Douglas previously filled in for Beard in 2002 when the latter had an emergency appendectomy in Paris.
The band’s anchor, bass player Dusty Hill, died in 2021 in his sleep. He was 72, and his death marked the end of the band’s 51-year run with its original members: Hill, Gibbons and Beard.
Francis, who had been working as a guitar technician with the band, started covering Hill’s gigs shortly before his death and has wound up staying in the role.
“When I first started doing it, Dusty was just sick and going home for a few weeks. It was entirely different; I was just helping out,” he told Guitar World last summer. He said at first he didn’t have to worry about the “weight of the crown” because he was just helping out. But stepping into the role wasn’t easy.
“It’s just weird,” Francis said. “Dusty is their bass player. I’m not the bass player. I’m not in the band. I’ll never be in the band. I shouldn’t be in the band. It’s Dusty’s thing.”
Movie Reviews
It’s Not My Film review – relationship-crisis movie takes the long road through the Baltics

The endgame of a relationship – or maybe the crisis from which the relationship will emerge reinvigorated – is the subject of this likable, low-key two-hander from Polish film-maker Maria Zbaska. A couple is in crisis; one half is musician Zofia Chabiera who is making her confident acting debut as Wanda, bored and aimless, feeling those first intimations of mortality as people in their late 30s tend to; her unused and thwarted passion is beginning to curdle within her.
Wanda is in a stagnant relationship with Jan, played by Marcin Sztabinski, a heavy-set guy who maybe wasn’t quite as heavy-set when they first got together; he runs a bike repair shop, a situation to which he has dwindled having once dreamed of biking around the world. Wanda is irritated beyond endurance at the way Jan does nothing but doom scroll. (Rather shrewdly, she points out that people who spend their time knitting at least have a scarf to show for it.)
But it is Jan who has had the imagination to dream up a plan to challenge them both: they will hike along the remote and icy Baltic coastline, sleeping in a tent and generally braving the terrible cold. If they stay the course, they will stay together – but if either loses heart and leaves the sandy shore, then they are finished as a couple.
Well, perhaps there are no prizes for guessing whether they have cathartic rows and revelations and quirky serendipitous encounters with unusual people along the way. But the relationship between Jan and Wanda looks very real as they trudge along the vast and freezing seascape, like an ice-cold version of David Lean’s desert. And what does it all add up to? Perhaps not all that much: but it’s a charming and plausible relationship drama featuring people who look as if they might actually be in a relationship.
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