LOS ANGELES – Demián Bichir tragically lost his wife to suicide on April 20, 2019. His wife, Canadian actress and model Stefanie Sherk, was only 37 when he died.
Shortly afterwards, that same year, Robin Wright asked the Mexican actor if he would be interested in starring in her debut film, the drama Land.
When Bichir realized the story was about two strangers recovering from the losses of their respective spouses and children, Wright said the Oscar-nominated Mexican actor felt he “had to.”
“We all suffer some irreparable loss. Yes or yes, at some point in our lives this is something that will happen, whether we like it or not. It is a fact. Whether it happens early or late in life, we are never ready. Humans … we celebrate and prepare for a birth, but we’re not ready to go through a loss. That’s one of the things that caught me when I read Land’s script, ”Bichir said in an interview recent with The Associated Press.
In the film, Wright plays Edee, a woman who lost her husband and son in a mass shooting and who, feeling unable to cope with the loss, moves to a secluded cabin in the mountains. Here he meets Bichir’s character, Miguel, a man who lost his wife and son in a car accident. While Miguel teaches him the skills needed to survive in nature, the two develop a bond and gradually begin to heal each other.
“I often say that the characters sometimes find me, they come to me. And when Robin invited me to this adventure, it was pretty much what happened when George Clooney invited me to do The Midnight Sky. films struggle with the same themes, “the Oscar-nominated Mexican actor said.
Bichir filmed Land and The Midnight Sky successively after Sherk’s death.
In Clooney’s film, a post-apocalyptic story about a rugged scientist trying to alert a team of astronauts to a mysterious catastrophe on Earth, Bichir plays one of the most experienced astronauts on the mission.
“We go through different sorrows and sufferings throughout our lives and move on. And then we understand that we depend on each other,” the artist expressed, credits also include A Better Life, The Hateful Eight and The Nun.
“We are on the same planet,” he added. “This is our great opportunity to show solidarity and show empathy.”
During the pandemic, doing so is as simple as wearing a mask when leaving home, he noted.
“And I think Land talks about that. We talk about how crucial it is to receive empathy and help from others in the healing process,” Bichir said. “This is precisely the history of humanity. It is who we are. We are here for each other, and few people understand that.”
Land opens in theaters in the United States and Canada on February 12, and in England and Ireland on April 9. The Midnight Sky, which premiered in December, is available on Netflix.