QUICK FACTS
Activities Actor , Executive Producer , Executive Producer
Real name Humberto Busto Marín
Nationality Mexico
Birth June 23, 1978 (Mexico City, Federal District, Mexico.)
BIOGRAPHY
Humberto Busto was born on June 23, 1978 in Mexico City, Federal District, Mexico. He moved to Puebla during high school due to his father’s work issues and a pseudo-psychological asthmatic issue. Since he was little he knew that he loved acting: “I was always fascinated by writing, directing and creating shows with my cousins or my friends in speech, dance or imitation competitions. “I was always the child who had activities parallel to school all the time.” Despite being completely focused on his dream, Humberto never gave up his studies and was even one of the most accomplished children in his class: “I was the nerdy kid first because I had to hurry up to finish my homework to go do what I did.” which I really liked.”
Theater workshops and singing classes began to show him that his passion could become a professional career and, later, a job from which he could live. It was then that she took the exam to join the UNAM University Theater Center (CUT), which, until then, continues to seem to her to be the best acting school in the country. “The exam is very difficult, they admit very few people; In my generation, 12 of us entered after a preparatory course of 300 people where you are on trial for a month.” Despite the complexity of the tests, Humberto demonstrated compliance with the level of professional ethics required by the race. Within the CUT he had great teachers, among them Gustavo Sánchez Parra and Dagoberto Gama.
THE FIRST CHANCE
Humberto was 18 years old when he first stepped onto a set, just when the UNAM strike (which left students without classes for almost a semester) was taking place. Before chaos broke out, Manuel Tay, casting director of Amores Perros (2000) by Alejandro González Iñárritu, went to look for new talent at CUT. That was Humberto’s first casting, which he won thanks to his talent but also to a chance in life: “When I was going to audition for Amores Perros I got an eye infection, so I bought some sunglasses on the subway. I had black ones because I couldn’t wear contact lenses and when I auditioned I wore those lenses. In some way, Alejandro connected them with the character and they remained part of it.”
Amores Perros was his first professional job and, to this day, Humberto sees it as something that changed the perspective he had on acting, on film sets, on directors and on art itself. “Beyond the significance of the film, I am very fond of it because for me it was the beginning, it was my baptism; “I discovered what it really meant to make films.” Although there was a possibility of continuing to work professionally, Humberto did not want to leave CUT and returned to complete the three years of his remaining degree.
In 2003 he appeared again on the big screen with Sobreviviente and, that same year, in the telenovela Enamórate, a Tv Azteca production that marked his debut in melodrama. Two years later, Humberto Busto attended the Berlinale Talent Campus, where he received advice and workshops with Mike Leigh, Alan Parker, Stephen Frears, Frances McDormand , Anthony Minghella, Wolfgang Becker, among others. Upon his return, he studied experimental film with Naomi Uman, an avant-garde North American filmmaker, and began an exploration in the field of film direction.
BEHIND THE SCENES
Humberto has tried his luck in the field of directing with a trilogy of short films that had specific characteristics and challenges at the level of production, writing and post-production: Hasta la curruela (2012), La teta de Botero (2014) and Julkita ( 2017). The first of them is inspired by his grandmother and the reconstruction of spatial memory, “for this story I was inspired by my grandmother and the house she lived in in Puebla. I wanted to portray how memory permeates places, since my grandmother had Alzheimer’s after my grandfather died. It is a kind of poem, essay or tribute about memory using the real space of my grandparents. “For this short, Humberto had contemplated his grandmother as the leading actress, however, health problems prevented the plan from being carried out.”
He continued with La teta de batero , in which he joined forces with the actress Patricia Reyes Espíndola , who, like him, was going through delicate moments of health. Humberto had undergone facial reconstruction, while Espíndola also struggled with health problems. From this combination a short film emerged that “made us both heal and allowed us to create a very interesting distribution network. The short went to many festivals and was even nominated for the Ariel.” The Botero’s Breast was screened in front of hundreds of breastless women, specialists, psychologists, doctors, as well as in several universities.
Julkita , the last short in the trilogy, portrays a Mexican menstruation superhero. A girl in her thirties trying to get out of her crisis and deal with her existential demons, however, every time her period arrives, an enormous strength emerges that she could not control. She “she talks about gender violence from a metaphorical perspective. “She portrays the importance of empowering oneself, it is a cry against violence ,” says Humberto.
A CONGRUENT ACTOR
Humberto is one of the most praised actors of his generation, something he has achieved thanks to the projects he has chosen throughout his career: “the complicated thing about being an actor in a country like Mexico is achieving that balance between being consistent and lean towards the market trend that is very marked.” Humberto, although trained in theater, has ventured into more commercial projects such as The Game of Keys , an Amazon original series. The decision to participate in this was the dialogue that, according to Humberto, would come after finishing the series. “It interested me because it presented heterosexual models from a certain generation who believed the story of the truck, the family and the happy life, who forgot the truth between a couple,” explains the actor .
One of the projects that marked a before and after in the actor’s career has been the series El Chapo . Humberto has described it as the one in which he discovered “tragic characters who are capable of giving up what is truly important for an absolute illusion, regardless of the damage they do to others by their decisions. With this series we show that complex Mexican series that connect with people are also made here.”
Just like El Chapo , Humberto accepted another project that would forever change the panorama of the industry in Mexican cinema: Polar Bear , the first feature film recorded entirely with a smartphone. Directed by Marcelo Tobar, the film marked a turning point in Busto’s career. The film was a winner at the Morelia International Film Festival and for him it will be the one that changes the way of thinking of film makers: “Thousands of projects will appear in this format, but that possibility of making a film in an intimate way, changing the modes of production and the fact that it won in Morelia turned it into an opportunity to reflect on the good use of technology when it has something to say.”
FIRST FEATURE FILM AS A DIRECTOR
Humberto, after the trilogy of short films, feels ready to launch his debut film to the world, which will be titled (until now) No cojarabia . The film has to do with an investigation into the actor’s life in Colombia. “The story basically has to do with the structure of particular countries like Colombia and their emotional restructuring after a period of war.” Don’t Get Rage is intended to show that sometimes we project onto others the enemy that is ourselves, a story that is inevitably linked to our own territory. The feature film does not yet have an official release date, but Humberto is now at the stage of completing the script and beginning pre-production.
To get to this point, Humberto put together a process of self-management, self-investigation and self-study. He lived several years in Berlin doing research on post-dramatic and avant-garde performing arts. He took diploma courses in film production in Los Angeles and workshops with teachers from various branches of cinema, as well as diplomas in art history and semiotics.
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Humberto Busto has proven to be an eclectic actor, consistent and loyal to his passion, always getting involved in projects that add something to the viewer or to the media conversation. Within his career there are productions in theater, television and film, as well as streaming. We have seen it in soap operas such as What Women Call Us , Life is a Song , What People Tell . In series such as Terminales (2009), alongside Ana Claudia Talancón and Alfonso Herrera, The Game of Keys (2019) and Diablero (2018-2020), in addition to appearing in films such as The Chosen One (2016), Cantinflas (2014), The Incident (2014), Do It Like a Man (2017) and The Insomniacs Club (2018).
