| Golfing with Andy Garcia |
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Page 1 of 2 Though a piece of his heart will always remain in Cuba, actor Andy Garcia learned early to look ahead and keep moving 
Andy Garcia likes to play it straight, which makes today’s performance a dramatic departure. His irons have been errant, his putting problematic, and his drive on the tenth hole has just clipped a tree. Dressed in light, pleated cotton pants and a charcoal V-neck sweater, distinguished streaks of gray in his swept-back hair, Garcia looks the part of the graceful, well-groomed golfer.  1. What all-time Cuban greats would you pick for your all-star band? On vocals, I’d have to go with Celia Cruz, Beny Moré, and Rolando Laserie. On bass, Cachao. On conga, Tata Güines. On keyboards, I'd ha... The short scene from the links would make a fitting snippet in a biopic devoted to Garcia, a man whose life has followed an unlikely script. It’s a tale that stretches back to pre-Castro Cuba, where Garcia was born, only to flee the island at age five with his father, mother, and older brother. His American dream—Oscar nomination, star on the sidewalk, a place in the firmament of Hollywood A-listers—is the happy outgrowth of an exile’s prolonged nightmare: a struggle that taught him to cherish his roots. “We all carry scars from our childhood, and my scars are the scars of exile and uprootedness,” Garcia says. “But my father always said something that I try to live by: ‘Never take a step backwards, not even to gain momentum.’” Last month, Garcia put that lesson into practice when he trod fresh turf in The Pink Panther 2, a spin-off of the Peter Sellers classic, starring Steve Martin, that calls on him to play a kind of Keystone Cop. Pratfalls and hijinks are not what come to mind when one thinks of Garcia, whose star-turning appearance as federal agent George Stone in The Untouchables led to such dramatic roles as Vincent Mancini in The Godfather: Part III. But in his early twenties, as a Hollywood newbie, Garcia performed in a comedy improv troupe, and he still enjoys the challenge of trying to get a laugh. “I welcome the opportunity to go new places, and if I fall on my face, so be it,” Garcia says with complete candor. “Sometimes, your most uncomfortable failure can get you your biggest applause.” Garcia got into acting when he fell ill as a teen. A star on his high school basketball team in Miami, he was sidelined by a bout of mononucleosis and, with the extra time on his hands, auditioned for a school play. The spotlight suited him. He went on to study drama at Florida International University, then lit out for Los Angeles with plans to emulate magnetic actors such as James Coburn and Steve McQueen. “My father was concerned I’d get lost out here,” Garcia says. “I think he thought, I love my son, but come on. Is he Clark Gable?” Garcia worked odd jobs even after getting a small break on the cop show Hill Street Blues. His appearance as a gangbanger led to larger roles that teetered dangerously on the edge of studio typecasting: the shady, ethnic slickster with Valentino looks and a soft lilt to his speech. |
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