Emilio Echevarría gives difficult men a quiet sadness without pleading for our sympathy. His El Chivo in Amores Perros is the reason we rate him: a tender performance that belongs in a harsh film.
Fi1m perspective
El Chivo lives among stray dogs in Amores Perros (2000), and Emilio Echevarría gives him a sadness that needs little announcing. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s drama is full of desperate behaviour; this performance brings some tenderness into it without making that tenderness seem out of place. It is patient acting in a film that can be exhausting in its desperation. We recommend it warmly, and Echevarría is a substantial part of the reason.
The breakthrough came after supporting work in Mexican films from the mid-1980s. Alfonso Cuarón cast him as Miguel Iturbide, a father figure, in Y Tu Mamá También (2001). International appearances followed as intelligence officer Raoul in Die Another Day (2002) and Antonio López de Santa Anna in The Alamo (2004), before a reunion with Iñárritu on Babel (2006). Those parts sit within a career of frequent casting as morally complicated older men or authority figures. They also make El Chivo’s prominence worth stressing: here, Echevarría has room to be more than useful supporting company.
With Iñárritu, he benefits from a contrast in the acting that is sharper than some of the links between the stories. Gael García Bernal’s Octavio has a restless urgency, while Echevarría gives El Chivo a quieter sorrow; neither performance depends on making its character easy company. We were moved by El Chivo because Echevarría lets us feel that sorrow without asking us to forget the film’s harshness. The actors keep us interested even when the connections between their stories feel forced.
His reputation for physical transformation should not distract from how natural the acting feels. The risk with El Chivo is sentimentality, and some emotional scenes come close to making sympathy too easy. Yet Echevarría’s restraint keeps the performance from becoming a request for pity, even when the material leans that way. Start with Amores Perros, provided its graphic cruelty to dogs is something you can bear.
Biography
Emilio Echevarría was a Mexican actor. Born Emilio Antonio Echevarría Noriega in Mexico City on 3 July 1944, he studied accounting at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and worked at Televisa before starting his acting career in theatre in 1978 with groups including Circo, Maroma y Teatro.
He gained international recognition for his role as El Chivo in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Amores Perros (2000). Other credits include Y tu mamá también (2001), Die Another Day (2002), Babel (2006) and The Alamo (2004). He received three Ariel Award nominations and appeared alongside his daughter, actress Lourdes Echevarría, in Amores Perros. Echevarría died in Mexico City on 4 January 2025.
