PASSIONS fans know Hector Luis Bustamante as Juanita’s bumbling, put-upon henchman, but the actor has a lengthy resumé outside of the soap. Soap Opera Digest caught up with the busy performer, who’s appeared on many prime-time series, including HEROES, 24, THE KING OF QUEENS and THE SHIELD, and stars in the Lifetime movie LITTLE GIRL LOST: THE DELIMAR VERA STORY.
Soap Opera Digest: Hello, Hector! Good to speak with you.
Hector Luis Bustamante: Same here.
Digest: Before we begin, I have to ask: What the heck is your character’s name on PASSIONS? I’ve been calling him “Juanita’s goon” in our online recaps.
Bustamante: Well, for a long time, he was just called “Henchman” in the scripts. But he then had a scene with Tabitha where she asked what his name was and Juanita didn’t even know his name, so she said, “Hench.” Tabitha goes, “Is that short for Henchman?” and he was like, “No, it’s just ‘Hench.’ Not everyone’s called Juan or Carlos.” It got to be a joke on set, so that became his name. Even off-set, I’d get, “Oh, it’s Hench!” and it stuck, so they wrote it in.
Digest: That’s pretty funny. How was it doing a soap after being on so many prime-time shows?
Bustamante: It was great. I think every actor should do a soap. Everyone was very nice there.
Digest: You and Jill Remez [Juanita] have great chemistry. But I have to say, they’re the worst criminals ever. I mean, they tied up Pilar’s friend, Carmelita, knocked her out, threw her in the ocean — and she lived!
Bustamante: I know, right [laughs]? A lot of times, they don’t know their left from their right, and that’s what makes the characters fun. Jill and I hit it off right from the beginning.
Digest: It’s interesting because when they first introduced Juanita, she was written as being scary and that changed.
Bustamante: Definitely. The characters developed as we went on and I know the writers had a lot of fun with us because we just kept bringing new stuff to the table.
Digest: Do you and Jill joke about how often she says she’s going to kill Pilar, but never actually does anything about it?
Bustamante: Yes! We also talked about the fact that Juanita threatened to kill Hench every time he screwed up, but never did. We’ve speculated that they have a hidden romance [laughs].
Digest: Let’s talk about your Lifetime movie.
Bustamante: That was amazing. We went up to Canada for 16 days straight. It’s based on a true story that happened in Philadelphia. This family lost their 10-day-old baby to a fire — or so they thought. And six years later, the mom found the little girl. She cut a piece of her hair to get a DNA match and it ended up being her daughter. Later, they found that a cousin had set the fire on purpose to steal the baby. When we did it it, we kept telling the director that he did an amazing job with casting. A Martinez [ex-Cruz, SANTA BARBARA et al] was also in the movie, as well as Judy Reyes [SCRUBS]. We got to see a rough cut about two weeks ago and we forgot we were watching us and realized this happened to an actual woman.
Digest: Did you get to meet the real family?
Bustamante: No. We wanted to, but the lady had some issues with her case that she’s dealing with. She didn’t want to, but Judy did try to reach out to her.
Digest: What are some other projects you’re working on?
Bustamante: I’m in the final season of THE SHIELD, which is in September. It was bittersweet when we shot it, but I think it went out on a high note.
Digest: It seems like you’ve been on most of the current shows on the air. How was it being on HEROES?
Bustamante: It was very cool. I know a lot of actors want to get on that show and I was one of the lucky ones. The day I shot was the day they were nominated for the Emmy, so everyone was ecstatic. It was awesome.
Digest: On many shows, including THE KING OF QUEENS and WITHOUT A TRACE, you played characters called Hector. How did that happen?
Bustamante: I don’t know why that happened, but I like it because people remember me even more. But it can get confusing [laughs]. I actually read for another role recently that was also called Hector, so we’ll see how that works out. Maybe it’s a sign!