photo credit: Power 106

Emilio Rivera from FX’s ‘Mayans M.C.’ stopped by The Cruz Show to talk Season 2 of the series and what it’s like following in Son of Anarchy‘s footsteps.

With the crime drama television series being the next chapter of the ‘SOA’ saga, Rivera reprises his Anarchy’s Marcus Alvarez role for Mayans. Speaking on whether he felt pressure in meeting the high expectations as a spin off follow-up, Emilio says, ”When I saw what they [Kurt, creator of Mayans] had written and when I saw the cast that they had hired, I said, you know what, we’re gonna be ok. And you know what, the first episode I felt really good about it.”

Emilio also discusses some of the racial issues and industry conflicts the actor ran into early on in his career.

With my own people brother. This is back in the day. I’m not saying my audience, my fans, but my supposedly peers who I thought would be like, “Hey you know what, you shouldn’t be doing these roles man. You know, you’re selling out…” But, yet they would tell me don’t do these roles but they were at the audition with me…So, I was boycotted by a lot of my so-called “peers.”

The veteran actor goes on to reveal the one dream role that he never got, talks some of the throwback 50 Cent and Nicki Minaj videos he has starred in, and speaks on the roles Latinos have in the film industry.

Watch the full Cruz Show interview below: