Aurora Starchild
Two actors from an upcoming Netflix series, The Chosen One, were killed in a crash in the Mexican desert.
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Raymundo Garduño Cruz and Juan Francisco González Aguilar were being transported in a van near Mulege on the Baja California Sur peninsula with six other cast and crew members. The Associated Press reports that Cruz and Aguilar, who goes by the stage name “Paco Mufote,” were working in the Santa Rosalia area and en route to the local airport when the van ran off the road and flipped.
The Netflix stars’ deaths have sparked an uproar as they come on the heels of several complaints of poor working and transportation conditions.
Director Fernando Bonilla, Garduño Cruz’s friend, tweeted that there needs to be an investigation into how much sleep the driver had.
Mufote’s friend and writer who has worked with him in the past, Faisal Lutchmedial, took to Twitter to express his anger and devastation.
“I am absolutely devastated. Paco Mufote, brilliant actor and musician was killed in an accident while going to a @netflix set in Tijuana, Mexico. He was fantastic in my short @beneathusmovie. I am furious to hear bad safety measures from the production caused this tragedy,” he wrote.
Liliana Conlisk Gallegos, another friend of Mufote’s told The Daily Beast that she was filled with rage and heartbroken at the news of The Chosen One actors’ deaths.
“Paco touched the hearts of everyone he ever met, he was a great actor with a strong trajectory,” she told the news outlet. “He loved acting and playing music more than anything in the world and he dedicated himself to it, many times suffering economic hardship. He sacrificed for his love of acting.
“It fills me with rage that there are reports of abuse and exploitation being shared by people involved with the production. I would like to demand that this is further investigated. If nothing wrong was going on, then there shouldn’t be an issue with providing the information.
“It pains me to think he was taken advantage of, that he was being forced to work in subpar conditions, especially for a multimillionaire company like Netflix.”
Novelist and filmmaker Rick Zazueta wrote a long Facebook post condemning the working conditions for cast and crew on The Chosen One. He’s calling for repercussions for the Mexican film industry and pointing fingers at the independent production company as well as Netflix for the tragedy.
“This is a call to the authorities to investigate the death of two Baja California talents, Paco Mufote and Raymundo Garduño,” he wrote.
“Their death is a tragedy not only por stealing this talent, but mainly because these deaths have culprits. For weeks now people close to this production know that the logistics have been terrible. The actors have not stopped complaining about how poorly they are being treated specifically in the subject of transport and logistics. Locations in Santa Rosalia, Loreto and San Ignacio, flights from La Paz and Tijuana, old panels with flat tires, tired and over-exploited drivers – Places with hundreds of kilometers in between that must be treated with respect, knowledge to and sanity that those of us who know Baja California bestowed him, the actors transported like cattle to save themselves a few pesos. This production should be shut down immediately.”
Zazueta’s full and lengthy Facebook post can be read here.
Netflix’s tagline for The Chose One is “A 12-year-old boy learns he’s the returned Jesus Christ, destined to save humankind. Based on the comic book series by Mark Millar and Peter Gross.”
Backstage lists the casting call for The Chosen One under the name American Jesus and notes that the production company is Redrum.
Netflix has not commented as there is an ongoing investigation.
