Nico Cortez

Nico Cortez
PerformerRDM
{{{credit}}}
Portrays:	Young William Adama
Date of Birth:
Date of Death:	Missing required parameter 1=month!
Nationality:	USA
Related Media
		@ BW Media
[ Official Site]
IMDb profile

Nico Cortez (born Nico Samano) is an American actor who portrayed the first iteration of a younger version of William Adama during the Cylon War in the "Razor Flashbacks" segments of Battlestar Galactica: Razor.

For Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome, the role of a young Cylon War-era Adama was given to British actor Luke Pasqualino.

Career

Early life and training

Cortez was raised in the Midwestern United States and attended college in Indiana. After finishing his degree he found himself uncertain of a direction, and has said that watching Al Pacino's closing courtroom monologue in Scent of a Woman during that period convinced him to pursue acting. He subsequently drove to Los Angeles with $300 and no formal training, and spent roughly three years studying at a Los Angeles acting studio, eventually earning a scholarship there, while separately taking classes with a local Shakespeare company and studying the Alexander Technique and voice work. He has described himself as theatre-trained, though most of the professional work he found once he began booking roles was in television rather than on stage.

Early screen roles

Cortez's early television credits were billed under his birth surname, Samano; he legally changed his professional name to Cortez after his manager reported that casting directors were misreading his ethnicity, at a time when productions were specifically seeking Latino actors. His first professional role was a guest appearance as a "witch doctor" on Beetleborgs Metallix in 1997. He appeared as "Young Man" in a 1999 episode of the naval drama Pensacola: Wings of Gold, sharing scenes with Kenny Johnson and Sandra Hess; he did not work directly with Hess' husband, future Battlestar Galactica castmate Michael Trucco, on that production, and the two did not meet in person until crossing paths outside a Vancouver hotel years later during the filming of Razor.

Cortez played "Garcia," a recurring undercover role requiring him to appear in women's clothing, across episodes of the short-lived CBS series Manhattan, AZ in 2000. Cortez has said the audition came during a period when he was struggling to book work, and that he wore a dress to the audition itself, a choice the show's executive producer later told him had not influenced the hiring decision. His character was picked up for a second season, but the series was cancelled before its final two episodes, including both of Cortez's remaining appearances, aired. He appeared as "Edward Sanchez" in a 2006 episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. In 2007 he appeared in a small role in the series finale season of Alias, in a part he has said was offered to him directly by executive producer Ken Olin.

Battlestar Galactica: Razor

Nico Cortez as a young William "Husker" Adama on set in the Cylon lab on an unnamed ice planet during Operation Raptor Talon.

Cortez's highest-profile role came in 2007, playing the younger William "Husker" Adama in flashback sequences of Battlestar Galactica: Razor, also released as the web miniseries "Razor Flashbacks." He was unfamiliar with the franchise before auditioning and borrowed a copy of the Miniseries from a friend to prepare. At a callback, producers asked him to read the part closer to Edward James Olmos's performance style, and he was cast shortly afterward. Ahead of his first day on set in Vancouver, costume designer Glenne Campbell gave him a tour of the production, and he spent the intervening weekend watching the existing series in a marathon session.

Cortez has said he spoke with Olmos by phone for about twenty minutes before filming, where Olmos advised him to revisit the third-season episode "A Day in the Life" for insight into Adama's personal life and told him to draw on his own experience while performing. Beyond modeling Olmos's performance, Cortez has said he also drew on the energy of Jamie Bamber's Lee Adama and Katee Sackhoff's Kara Thrace in shaping the younger Adama's characterization. He worked under directors Felix Alcala and Wayne Rose on the production and has credited both with helping him settle into a cast and crew who had already worked together across the series' first three seasons. He has spoken favorably of his scene partner Allison Warnyca, who played Raptor pilot Jaycie McGavin opposite him in the flashback sequences.

Cortez has described the shoot as physically demanding, citing a flight suit that trapped heat and a parachute pack weighing roughly 90 to 95 pounds that he wore for extended stretches while posed against a rig for the flying sequences. He wore blue contact lenses matching the pair Olmos used for the role, despite having no prior experience wearing contacts.

Pursuit of Blood and Chrome

According to Cortez, producers raised the possibility of additional Adama flashback material with him while he was still on the Razor set, though nothing came of those conversations. When a young-Adama prequel series was announced under the working title Blood and Chrome, Cortez exchanged emails with writer Michael Taylor to express continued interest in the role. In a radio interview that aired 11 November 2010 on Alpha Waves Radio, Cortez again discussed the role, saying he had slipped right into the character, and expressed willingness to reprise it. Around the same time, entertainment blog TheHDRoom reported that someone had already updated Cortez's IMDb profile to list Blood and Chrome as an upcoming project, though it cautioned this was unconfirmed speculation rather than a formal casting announcement. The part ultimately went to Pasqualino when casting was formally announced at the end of January 2011.

The Cape and Chuck

Cortez has said he was cast in a small role on The Cape through a casting director he had worked with on Razor, but that the scene was removed from the script before filming and his part was ultimately cut, where he had expected to work under director Simon West. He appeared as "Interpol Agent #1" in a 2010 episode of Chuck, directed by Robert Duncan McNeill, an actor known for playing Tom Paris on Star Trek: Voyager who later served as an executive producer on Chuck; Cortez has spoken warmly of working with series' regulars Joshua Gomez and Zachary Levi on the episode.

Later television and film work

Cortez continued to work in episodic television into the following years, playing "Jo's Dad" in a 2011 episode of Eureka, "Airstrip Employee" in a 2011 episode of CSI: Miami, "Uni" in a 2012 episode of Dexter, and "Officer Reese" in a 2013 episode of Southland.

From the mid-2010s onward, most of Cortez's screen credits came from productions filmed in Australia. He played "Wal Kirzinski" in Mel Gibson's Hacksaw Ridge (2016), which was shot at Fox Studios Australia and around Bringelly, New South Wales; Cortez attended the film's Sydney premiere at the State Theatre alongside co-stars including Hugo Weaving, Luke Bracey, and Harry Greenwood. He followed this with a role as a Spanish officer among the Silent Mary's ghostly crew in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017) that also filmed in Australia.

He continued to appear in Australian television productions later in the decade, playing "Jamie Marshall" in a 2019 episode of Reef Break and "Guru Daniel" in a 2019 episode of the miniseries Les Norton. He appeared as "Carlos" in a 2022 episode of The PM's Daughter and as "Manuel" in a 2022 episode of the miniseries Barons. His subsequent film work includes a minor role credited as "Aztec God" in Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) and a supporting role credited as "Man With The Hat" in Benjamin Millepied's Carmen (2023).

Personal life

Cortez has said he and his wife have rescued and rehabilitated two dogs, a Retriever mix and a Whippet, and that the couple volunteered periodically with a greyhound rescue organization. He has also described painting, in an abstract style, as a hobby he took up a few years before 2010.

Notes

• Cortez's early credits list him under the surname Samano, before he legally changed his professional name to Cortez early in his career.

References