The Tax Collector, a highly anticipated crime thriller from the mind of David Ayer, follows two days in lives of David (Bobby Soto) and Creeper (Shia LeBeouf). They are so-called “tax collectors” for an LA crime lord named Wizard, but David in particular has a family as home that he must protect when business gets out of hand.
Cinthya Carmona plays his wife Alexis, who turns a blind eye to her husband’s job for the sake of their home life, but who fiercely loves him in spite of and because of who he is and what he does. The actress spoke with Screen Rant about the complicated dynamic in The Tax Collector, as well as about the experience of working with legends like Ayer and LeBeouf.
Shia LeBeouf and David Ayer have worked together before, so perhaps there’s a measure of shorthand between them. Can you talk to me about what the process was like working with both on The Tax Collector?
Cinthya Carmona: First of all, it’s incredible. David and Shia definitely have that synergy and that chemistry; you can tell that they have this special bond that they created during Fury. They’re very similar in a lot of ways. They dive completely into their work 100% , and they’re both just mad geniuses.
As far as working with David, it was incredible. David works very different from any director that I’ve actually had the chance to work with. David is not like, “Hey, we’re going to show up on set and we’re just going to find it.” We actually rehearsed for the film two and a half months before we started shooting. That included five hours a day, five days a week, and two and a half hours of each day was all martial arts training.
I’m guessing you’re pretty proficient in martial arts at this point.
Cinthya Carmona: I am actually a purple belt now in American Kenpo Karate. We did everything; we did Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, American Kenpo Karate, boxing, we worked with our incredible sensei named Richard Mesquita, who has RMMA in Echo Park. And this is basically something that all of David Ayer’s actors – I mean, Brad Pitt, Will Smith, Margot Robbie – have had to go through this. I like to call it the David Ayer Boot Camp.
I think people have asked me in the past, and I’ve had some time to think about it: what has been your favorite part of shooting? And I think it wasn’t the shooting. It was really special, don’t get me wrong, but the best part about it for me as an actor and just as a human being overall was that bootcamp. It’s not a walk in the park at all. We are literally beating each other and ourselves to a pulp the first part of the day. Our castmates, like Bobby Soto who plays my husband in the movie, day one of rehearsals, he and I were like Jiu Jitsu grappling. We were wrestling each other, hitting each other, and it was almost couples therapy in David’s mind.
We got to bond on so many different levels, not just with Bobby, but as a cast. Shia would come in and fight with us. He had already done it before with Fury, so he was already so familiar with the process. But it was incredible, because we not only did the martial arts portion of it, but for the second half of the day, we would go over to David’s house and rehearse the script for about three hours. And it was not just, “Hey, let’s just do these lines and see how we feel.” It’s like, “No, we’re gonna go in.” David, he likes to get in here and see what you’re made of. He opens up your brain and dissects it a little; just sees what you’re made of, not only as an actor and an artist, but as a human. He’ll rewire you, for sure, for the purpose of the character.
I love that method.
Cinthya Carmona: I love it too. I’ve been searching for it ever since. And it’s funny, because I’ll talk to David now and I’ll be like, “Dude, I’ve been searching for this and I don’t find it.” He’s like, “You never will.”
The internet’s been buzzing about the tattoo that Shia got on his chest specifically for this role. Did you know this while you guys were shooting?
Cinthya Carmona: Oh, yeah. Yeah, we were all pretty close during rehearsals. He actually did it before we started shooting, so he did it during rehearsals. Shia came in three weeks before we started shooting. He was finishing shooting Honey Boy at the time, so we had already had like a month and a half of rehearsal so far. He came in, and David had already told us, “Look, Shia goes all in. He will raise the hair on the back of your neck.” He’s such a committed, incredible – I think the word he used specifically is, he’s just very raw. Like a wild animal, in the best way possible. And that’s exactly what he was, in the sense that he just commits. He just commits 100%.
And part of that commitment was the tattoo – multiple tattoos, because when you watch the film, you’ll see that he has a very special tattoo on his face that is also real. But the chest, the creeper, everything was he did it during rehearsals. I have definitely never worked with an actor that committed and that just powerful, I guess. So for me at first, it was like, whoa. It was really shocking. And then you just stand back and admire. And now it’s like, everybody should do that.
You play David’s wife in the film, and the two of them are trying to raise a family together. Can you tell me about how that contrasts with David’s work?
Cinthya Caramona: Oh, yeah. I think that’s the beauty of the story in the film, that you have this man who runs an organized crime group deep in the trenches of Los Angeles. Like, we’re talking about the head honchos of Latino gang culture. But then he comes home and it’s a completely different life. He’s the dad at all the Little League games, and Alexis – me, his wife – is like, mass on Sundays and just has to keep up this picture perfect image. She expects everything from her kids to her husband to herself – everything has to have this perfection.
Even though Alexis knows exactly what it takes to have that perfect life, she doesn’t really want to see it. And so when he’s home, that’s not something that they really talk about. So, she knows. She knows more than you think she knows, actually. But she doesn’t really let the two worlds cross. It’s like, “I know what my husband has to do in the streets, and I know what it takes for us to have this incredible, giant mansion. My kids are in private school, and I have the latest everything.” But two completely different worlds; they don’t mix.
How do you think The Tax Collector sets itself apart from other street crime thrillers?
Cinthya Carmona: It’s something really special. First of all, I learned so much myself, just working in South Central and learning about Watts and just different gangs in LA. A world that I feel like, sure, you’ve seen in movies here and there. But this is a very specific look into the Latino gang culture that hasn’t been seen before. There’s so many things that I learned; we filmed in so many incredible places in LA that even when I got to see it, I’m like, “How on earth were we able to shoot there?” It shows LA in such a different light, I feel.
It’s kind of one of those stories that, you look around and you’re like, “Does that really happen? Is that real?” And it is. All of it is based on truth. We have Conejo, who plays himself in the film, and he’s the real deal. I don’t have to say anything about him; you do your research and look them up, he is the real deal. And he plays – I don’t want to say himself, because obviously it’s a character. But I don’t think anybody could have played that role better. So, we’re working with actual people that know that world, that run in that world or were a part of that world, that just brought so much authenticity to the game. It changed the way that I look at Los Angeles completely, and I haven’t seen anything like it. If you have, let me know.
I know this stuff really happens, and it is a different side of LA that that might not be as highly publicized.
Cinthya Carmona: It’s crazy, because you ask yourself why would David want to tell this story. What was his intention? And David grew up in South Central, you know. He knows the streets, and I feel like on his other films – End of Watch, for example – he understands. Harsh Times, one of his first movies that he directed, you ca see that he understands the streets of LA really well. And he portrays it in a way that’s just like, “Wow, man.” It’s fascinating, really.
The heart of the film rests on you and Bobby Soto’s onscreen relationship. What makes the couple so convincing?
Cinthya Carmona: I think – and I think it’s very much of a Latino thing – for us, no matter what, familia is everything. And that’s what’s beautiful about the film. You have this incredible dichotomy of just this animal in the streets, but when he comes home, it’s familia. And we make sure that that’s tight, whether it’s the way we talk to our children, what we instill in our children, prayer every day. It’s eating together as a family. We work really hard to have that family bond.
David and Alexis met when they were like 17 years old. She’s a girl from Montebello, and he was a street cat. She was the good girl that wanted to change him a little. And you feel that; you feel that that good girl that could have probably dated anyone and gone with the doctor, or anybody in her neiborhood. But she chose David, because he is who he is.
What do you want people to learn about your character’s journey in this film?
Cinthya Carmona: Interesting question, wow. I think a lot of people might look at Alexis – because you have to take into consideration that The Tax Collector only takes place over two days in the life of the Cuevas family. You’ve got 10 years of a relationship, and they have kids, and it’s this whole established family life. So, you only get a little glimpse. But in that glimpse, you really get to see so much – which is the gift of David’s writing.
I think even though Alexis knows the price of power, the price that it takes and the sacrifices that her husband has to make in order for her to have that life, she… First of all, she’s very strong herself. And she’s not at all this little helpless flower that can be crushed. What I want people to see, and I think people will see that in the film when they see Alexis, is that she has a lot more of the control of things. Even though Bobby is the head of the household, he looks up to Alexis. He respects Alexis more than anything. And in the streets, nobody can speak badly about the about Alexis, and she’s established that. She’s strong; she’s the matriarch, and it’s a really beautiful position to play.
But we find out in the middle of the film, which was probably the most special part for me with Alexis, is why she chooses to attach herself to David. If she could have had anybody, if she was a good girl that came from a good and somewhat rich family, wealthy family, why did she attach herself to someone like David? And what we learn is that sometimes we attach ourselves to people because of our traumas growing up, and I hope that somebody can see themselves in that story. Sometimes the people that we look for, we’re searching for something that we’re missing. Alexis needed that protector, and we learn why in the film.
You also reunited with David Ayer on the show Deputy. How did that set differ?
Cinthya Carmona: Oh, my God, it’s completely different. It was so nerve-wracking, I think, because we put in so much emotional work and beautiful work for Tax Collector. When we were doing Deputy, I was like, “Oh my God, I’m gonna have to go through that again? I’m gonna have to bare my soul every day and just like crush myself?” And I remember when I got the phone call from David, he was like, “Hey, what’s up? I’m gonna have you on Deputy and this is what you’re going to be doing.” And I’m like, “When do the rehearsals start? What are we gonna be doing?” Like, I was ready. Mentally prepared, but he was like, “Dude, just have fun. This is TV, you got this. Have fun.”
You have more freedom with the character, because they’ll write around you. So, you can come in for a couple of days, and they’ll be like, “Hey, you know what? We noticed she has this thing that she does, let’s write it in.” It gives you more freedom to bring yourself, and that’s exactly what David said. He was like, “Bring yourself, be you, make this character special.” It was a great role to play. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to season two, but it was so much fun to work on that show and reunite with David.
The first day on set, it was like, I don’t know how to describe it or what to compare it to. But when you’ve just been working with somebody for so long, you just show up and you’re just like – you get the vibe, and it’s great energy. I’m looking forward to hopefully working with all of them again.
The Tax Collector is now available on-demand.
