Actor Raul Casso’s success in film and television came from obsession, tenacity, and resilience.
Acting is in Casso’s blood. His great aunt, Ana Maria Majalca, was featured in Giant, starring James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor. Raul grew up with stories about her working with the legendary actor.
Casso’s improbable dream started in childhood. His eighth-grade yearbook notes he wanted to act. A teacher even gave him an Actor’s Award, probably just to make him feel good, and he still has it.
Growing up, Casso didn’t abandon acting. “Laredo then,” he recalled, “didn’t have a lot of appreciation for the arts.” He considered a business degree, but while working for his tío, he found Sanford Meisner on Acting. “That book changed everything,” he said.
His family wanted him to study something stable. “But acting spoke to me,” and my seriousness earned my family’s support. “Once your loved ones see your passion, your resolve, they’ll back you,” he said. Casso went to Austin to audition for New York City’s American Academy of Dramatic Arts and was accepted, but sadly he couldn’t afford it. He returned home, enrolling in Laredo Community College, where he met drama instructor, playwright, and Meisner method practitioner, Floyd Reed who took him under his wing. A semester later, Reed fell gravely ill. At Reed’s deathbed, Casso said his father preferred him to go to Mexico City, but Reed demanded, with all his dwindling strength, “Go to New York!”
“Floyd changed my life,” Casso said.
His goal was the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, following idols like Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, and Benecio Del Toro. Though past the deadline to audition, Casso was allowed the opportunity, if he got to NYC. He booked a two-day flight, auditioned, got accepted a week later, and moved by the end of the next month.
Casso found a good omen on the flight to NYC, Laredo actor Audrey Esparza. He caught up with her once they landed at JFK. She moved to New York for acting, and in her, Raul saw a Laredoan living out her dream.
The three-year program was intense. “But Laredoans are forged in fire,” Casso joked, Though the curriculum and weekend jobs were tough, he thrived. “I’m stubborn,” he said, calling it a “familial trait.”
The program was “like Hogwarts — so wild, so out there,” he said, comparing the professors to “wizards.” He said being around other actors showed him how to “live life the way it should be lived.”
A year out of the program, Casso guest starred in an episode of Blue Bloods, and his acting journey never stopped. He’s appeared in movies — Girls Against Boys, Sweet, Seven Cemeteries, and That Awkward Moment — and in television as a regular on Taxi Brooklyn, Powers, Fear the Walking Dead, and the Emmy-winning Deutschland 86 and Deutschland 89.
Casso said the “mega milestone” of his career is his upcoming short film, The Death of Billy the Kid, a reimagining of the outlaw’s death. It has allowed him, he said “to share something so special with my close family.”
The spontaneous passion project was “a blessing” that showed Casso the possibilities of independent film. While Hollywood was undergoing a metamorphosis after the pandemic, the actor/writer strikes, and the LA fires, Casso called his brother to do something, anything. “The film snowballed from there,” he said. After some advice from current and accessible film technology they shot the film themselves.
“When you share who you are with people close to you, that’s really special,” he said, adding that the film is dedicated to his late father. He said that working with family and close friends was a gift that allowed him to utilize his perspective, experience, and abilities.
Casso and his brothers created The Little House Productions and promises more projects to come. Currently, he plans on showing The Death of Billy the Kid at film festivals. Casso also wants to get Laredo into the movies.
“Laredo has a lot of talented people who embody the duality of border culture. It has been the biggest source of inspiration for me, whether in acting or behind the camera,” he said. He has written a screenplay about the border, but is unsure if it will become a series or a film.
Casso has advice for young artists. He urges them to live the life they choose. People might want different for you, “But you’ll cherish the reality you chose.” Next, “Find community, because it’s hard to survive in the wilderness alone.”
Next, “When creating who you are out of thin air, harness your fear because “that’s what courage is. Insecurity and instability, those are opportunities for growth.”
And lastly, he said, “Be humble enough to do hard work. Hardships are part of humanity’s beauty, and rather than reject them, embrace them.”
