It’s a Nonbinary Pirate’s Life for Vico Ortiz

Argh! Have you checked out HBO Max’s new pirate-themed comedy series, Our Flag Means Death? If not, get ready to walk the plank!

Loosely based on the true adventures of Stede Bonnet, a jaded aristocrat-turned-clumsy-pirate struggling to learn the ropes of maritime adventure, the show follows his journey to becoming captain of a ship called Revenge and struggling to earn the respect of his potentially mutinous crew. However, Bonnet’s fortunes change after a fateful run-in with the infamous Captain Blackbeard.

Our Flag Means Death may have an all-star cast, including Taika Waititi, Rhys Darby, Fred Armisen, and Leslie Jones, but all eyes are on Vico Ortiz, a nonbinary Latine actor and activist born and raised in Puerto Rico.

From their breakout role in Amazon’s Transparent to playing Tova in HBO’s The Sex Lives of College Girls, Ortiz is blazing a fiery trail to make the entertainment industry more inclusive for Latinx and nonbinary performers. In Our Flag Means Death, they play Jim, a fierce gender-nonconforming swashbuckler who is part of Bonnet’s motley crew of lovable outcasts. Not afraid to stand their ground, Jim has honed their combat skills to a terrifying precision.

Ortiz caught up with OFM to talk more about their latest role and breaking down gender barriers for actors.

We love watching you in Our Flag Means Death! What have you enjoyed the most about being a part of this production?
Oh my gosh, everything was so magical from the beginning ’til the end. I have so many photos of me as a kid dressed as a pirate and I used to fence because I’m obsessed with swashbuckling and sword fighting, so it’s like everything led up to this. Then walking into the studio at Warner Brothers and seeing the ship, I was like, “Is this actually happening?” It felt very much like I was at home at sea sailing with all these incredibly talented and hilarious people. Everything was absolutely magical. The second everyone met, it was like, we’re going to have a good time.

You play Jim, one of the leading roles. Can you tell us more about your character?
Jim is the mysterious fellow in the bag who is very determined, on a mission. He’s unhinged and very dangerous, but I’d say Jim is the most competent of the crew. He and Oluwande are the ones that could actually make it through. It makes sense that they’re best friends. They’ve met before, and it’s always a fun dynamic because Olu is always such a peacemaker and is like, “Hey, let’s avoid violence if we can.” Jim is like, “You look at me wrong, I will stab you.” (Laughs.)

What makes Our Flag Means Death worth checking out, and what do you hope audiences take away from it?
Our Flag Means Death is definitely hilarious. It’s very silly and goofy, but it also has a lot of heart, which I don’t think people were necessarily expecting to receive from the show. I think they’re like, high seas pirate comedy, but when it comes down to it, yes, it has a lot of humor, but it also has a lot of heart, and it really dives deep into a lot of subjects that I absolutely love. You’re also going to fall in love with every single character. Everyone is absolutely endearing and engaging, and the stories are fantastical, but also so real and relatable. I think a lot of people are going to feel very seen in aspects of the show.

In a more political-ish aspect, it touches on what masculinity is and how it’s presented in all these different ways. I think that’s so beautiful because normally, you think pirates and you immediately associate them as being intense, but then you have all these beautiful people who are exploring different versions of masculinity and how it doesn’t make them any less of a man, which I absolutely love.

It’s also very clear. When I started to dig deep on pirates and history, I was like, “How is this not being talked about more?” Obviously, throughout history, a lot of queer stories and anything that’s related to queerness is completely avoided or eliminated. They don’t want to talk about it, and they talk about something else. When you actually start to dig deep, it’s like, “This is a little fruity. What’s going on here? What’s really happening?” It’s so lovely how everything gets explored with multiple characters, and I get to be a part of that too.

The show is loosely based on the true adventures of 18th century would-be pirate Stede Bonnet. Did you know anything about him beforehand?

Not at all! Obviously, everyone knows about Blackbeard, but I had no idea about Stede Bonnet. Then looking him up, I was like, “What? Really? This all makes so much sense,” because when you look at piracy, being a pirate is almost like a way of taking agency for your life. It’s like a second chance. Becoming an outlaw or being thrown out by society, and then you have this second chance to be like, “This is who I am, and I get to be accepted for who I am.” What better way to do it than being a pirate? I love that journey for Stede. Unfortunately, the real-life Stede did not last very long. I think it was only a couple years of barely powering through, but the average life expectancy of a pirate was relatively short.

Was there an episode that was your favorite to film?
I loved filming episodes seven and eight. In episode three, we see this version of Jim experiencing this freedom of how they’re being received. They are a lot more unhinged than they normally are, and then that unhinged-ness comes back again in episode eight, but in a different way. I love how I get to explore different levels of unhinge with Jim, and episode seven is very near and dear because you have a little bit more background on why Jim’s the way that they are and how they were brought up. It’s dope to see a bit of that smart and sensible side.

Does Jim go by they/them pronouns as well?
Yes! They really went for it, and I was ready!

Do you think this will open doors for more historical based shows to have more queer storylines and usage of gender-neutral pronouns?
I would absolutely love that. When I got to read the sides first before even booking the show, I read how they wrote the character description, and they were looking for someone who was nonbinary and Latine to be part of this storytelling. It felt like it was reclaiming our stories because oftentimes, like I said earlier, you read history books and the wording is like, “This man wore a dress and dressed like a woman,” or “This woman dressed like a man,” “They were best friends and wrote each other letters for years,” but low key, there were love letters—stuff they did not want to acknowledge.

Yes, there are men that dress like women and women that dress like men, but there are also times where people throughout history have gone through these extraordinary situations where they have to dress a little differently. The second that happens, they have this chance to access something in them that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to do, and these stories don’t get told. They’re often looked over and people think trans and nonbinary people is a new thing. Like, no, we’ve always existed.

We can also see you recurring in the HBO Max series The Sex Lives of College Girls as Tova. The show was renewed at the end of last year. Is there anything you can tell us about the upcoming second season?
I don’t know too much. I did see a photo of the writers’ room for this coming season, and I saw a lot of new, fresh faces, so I’m excited to see what’s going to come out of those new faces and the new stories that are going to be told. I love the fact that Leighton is a queer character, and she’s one of the main characters of the show, so I’m excited to see how they keep developing that side of her. Also, it ended with her and Alicia’s split, so I have no idea if there’s going to be a comeback, but I am stoked and working with Justin Noble was such a delight.

Your breakout role was in Amazon’s Transparent, and you have gained several credits under your belt. Have you always had a passion for acting and performing?
Absolutely. Both my parents are actors. I was born and raised in Puerto Rico, and they mostly do theater, so I was always around backstage, in the changing rooms, on the sides watching the rehearsals or shows, and I always loved the art of storytelling. I knew that that was going to be a part of my life, even when I was fencing. There was always a performance behind my fencing. I always wanted to make the bows engaging and get the crowd going, maybe do a little dance or something weird enough that was going to get a wow factor without giving me a red flag or whatever.

I always had this air of performance and I always wanted to tell stories, but I wanted to do it through TV and film mostly, which is the reason why I moved to LA. Because of sword fighting, that’s how I got into the industry. You have to become union to really start getting those co-star, guest star, series regular auditions, and I became union because of my stunt work. There were not that many people that looked like me who could sword fight, so I started working and getting gigs, and that’s how I broke into becoming union. Literally two months later, I got the Transparent audition.

You have said that coming out as nonbinary presented challenges as a Puerto Rican, but you believe making the Spanish language more inclusive could make things better for other LGBTQ Latinx people. Can you talk more about that?

I came out as nonbinary in the U.S. I learned all the lingo in English, and even though English is already pretty binary, there’s a lot of neutral terms that anyone can use, and it’s not a big deal. Whereas in Spanish, the language is inherently binary. Objects, things, concepts—everything is either male or female in terms of how it’s being talked about, which shapes the way you see the world as well. Language does affect the way you see yourself, other people, and how you connect with the world. When you have a language, it’s so incredibly binary and mostly male centric. Everything other than that is less than, not looked enough, or doesn’t get validated. It’s kind of like, whatever.

Spanish was the colonized language, so it took over our Indigenous tongues, and a lot of those languages actually acknowledge the existence of nonbinary people. Then with the binary’s language, the societal structures, and gender structures, it goes down to just male or female. So, the inclusive language is a way to reclaim this language. Like, “Hey, we exist too, and we want to express ourselves and not have to dance around these two and be able to be who I am, say who I am, and be honored for that.” Aside from that, I like to do some twists on some words or concepts that are normally male. I like to use female.

What more are you going to do to make the entertainment industry more inclusive for Latinx and nonbinary performers?
Last year, I opened a production company, and I have already met with a lot of production houses in Puerto Rico. I do want to focus on telling my people’s stories, but obviously, I will be open to doing a lot more than that. For now, I want to make sure that my people back home are also having their stories be told and heard. I am helping with producing, financing, and investing in stories that I very much want to see in the mainstream.

You are set to voice a nonbinary character in Nickelodeon’s The Casagrandes, a breakthrough animated series that follows a multi-generational, Mexican-American family. What can you tell us about this?
That was so much fun! I actually booked that in the middle of the pandemic, so I was literally in my closet for hours filming this. We shot it via Zoom and some other software situation, so it was fun to film live and have everyone’s voices be present. Sometimes, when you film a voiceover or cartoon, it’s just you, so it was fun to feed off each other. This is my first animated gig, and it was a blast. I grew up with Nickelodeon, so it was like a full circle moment.

Before we wrap up, are there any other upcoming projects or anything else you would like to mention our plug?

I have a movie that premiered in early March in Puerto Rico called Calle de la Resistencia. Obviously, it’s in Spanish, and you can only see it in Puerto Rico (laughs). But it’s a movie that I’m in, and it’s very beautiful. It follows the story of nine Puerto Ricans throughout Hurricane Maria and the protests that happened in 2019, where we kicked the governor of Puerto Rico out of office, and it was such a beautiful project. I play a nonbinary character, which is very different from Jim, so again, got to show the world that we’re multifaceted as well!

Stay up-to-date and connect with Ortiz by following them on Twitter @V_Vico_Ortiz, Instagram @puertoricaninja, or TikTok @vico_ortiz. All episodes of Our Flag Means Death are streaming on HBO Max.

Photos courtesy of Val Vega and HBO Max