Interview: Vico Ortiz at GalaxyCon Raleigh
Though Our Flag Means Death may be over, the show’s legacy will continue to live on through its fans.
Or so Vico Ortiz, who plays Jim Jimenez on the Max comedy, believes.
They are touched by the family the fandom has created and how everyone looks out for each other, building each other up through online support.
“The legacy is all y’all,” they recently said at GalaxyCon Raleigh. “I feel genuinely that what everyone is building – not just with the show, but with each other – is community. How you all are fundraising for each other’s everything. Whatever you might need, whether it’s anything health-related or celebrating your own process. Whether it’s HRT or surgeries, or whatever it may be. It truly is outstanding, what you’re doing, because for me, that’s what community building is. That’s what organizing is. And what makes society better is when we are able to lean on each other and be interdependent and know that we have each other to grow. So truly the legacy is all y’all.”
No doubt fans take inspiration from Ortiz themself, who lives their life authentically and encourages others to do the same. But that authenticity doesn’t come without responsibility, something Ortiz doesn’t take lightly.
“It’s a huge responsibility and it’s something that I feel very honored to be part of,” they said. “I feel we all carry such responsibility. And oftentimes all I have to do is just what you said: I be me, and that inspires other people to be themselves. And that’s how we all collectively hold responsibility for who we are as human beings and how we care for each other and our growth as a society.”
On OFMD, Jim is nonbinary, just like Ortiz. And also like Ortiz, they are part of a polycule.
While it was established but not explicitly identified in season two, Ortiz wishes the show would have gotten a season three to explore the relationships between Jim, Olu, Archie, and Zheng more.
“I think something that I really loved about Jim in the second season was the integration of their relationships that they’re involved in,” they said. “So you see a little bit more softness and vulnerability in Jim because they learned that from Olu. And then you also start seeing them apply a little bit more silliness because they’re learning that from Archie. And I think for a third season, it would have been really interesting to see how Jim starts integrating things that they learned from Zheng. Zheng seems a little bit more similar to how Jim was in the first season. So seeing certain aspects of themselves that are very intense and mysterious and more walled up, it’s like, ‘Oh, how do I see that and learn from that and continue to integrate all the elements that I’m learning from all the partners?’ So I think that would have been really cool.”
However, that’s not to say Ortiz wouldn’t want some humor infused into their relationships.
This is the David Jenkins School of Historical Accuracy, after all.
“Also just more silly fighting shenanigans,” they said when further describing how they would want the polycule portrayed. “It would have been so fun to have a scene with Zheng, Archie, and Jim sparring and Olu eating, like, popcorn. I don’t know if popcorn existed in the 1700s, but who cares? He’s wearing Crocs!”
Ortiz is proud of the growth Jim experiences throughout the show, going from someone who was raised to stay in the shadows in season one, to being more open with the Revenge crew and coming into themself more in season two.
“It’s so beautiful because Jim opens up more [in season two.] I think mostly Jim just realizes they can take space,” they said. “For a very long time Jim’s MO was like, ‘I want to live in the shadows. I don’t want anyone to notice me. I don’t want to be perceived.’ The less perceived, the better, because that’s the way that they can kill people and, like, never show up again. But as an actor, I am very loud. I take up a lot of space as Vico Ortiz. I have no problem being like, ‘What’s up? Let’s do this. I’m game!’ And I gave a little bit of that confidence into Jim in the second season. Because they’re very confident anyway, but having that type of confidence in the second season felt very beautiful, because I could see really just Jim growing into themself and feeling more and more comfortable.”
One way Ortiz has grown into themself as a person is through drag, something they think extends beyond the stage and into everyday life.
“Something that I love about drag is that it’s genuinely actually helped me a lot in my personal life, when I started to realize just how much I was performing in my day-to-day,” they said. “[Through drag], I was like, ‘Oh, wow, Why am I having so much more comfort in exploring femininity and masculinity in my drag persona, but when I’m in my day-to-day, I’m having trouble integrating all of that within myself?’ So once I got more comfortable performing that – literally performing it – I was like, ‘Oh, then I can just play! I can also just do that in my day-to-day!’ I felt a lot more free. I genuinely think that drag is just something that you can do. It’s an everyday thing. Everything that you do when you wake up and you put on clothes and makeup, all that, that’s all drag, right? So have fun with that, too!”
While Ortiz shares clips of their drag performances online, they are also known to join Samba Schutte (Roach) in posting fun behind-the-scenes clips on social media, always keeping the OFMD fandom on their toes with fun photos and videos of the cast. But they had to be careful when filming season two as they knew eagle-eyed fans would analyze everything they posted.
“It’s always fun to tease. It’s always fun to excite the fandom,” they said. “I mean, everyone’s a detective. I’m really impressed. Every time I would take a photo of something for [behind the scenes] in New Zealand, I had to make sure that there were no reflections or anything like that anywhere. I was absolutely very aware of how smart all y’all are. I love it.”
They also have a soft spot for fan art, with their dad even getting in on the love from the fans.
“Honestly one of my favorite things to watch is the speed in which people create fan art from [behind the scenes] content,” they said. “Truly even just like a selfie with us out and about, like, grabbing dinner. People do fan art of us as our characters, like, hanging out. I’m just like, that is so incredible. Truly, the talent in this fandom, it just surpasses everything. I taught my dad how to send me photos on Instagram because he was taking screenshots and sending them to me as a text. And I was like, ‘No, no, send me as a DM! You can send it to me [there]!’ And now all my DMs with my dad are just fan art. It’s great.”
Ortiz’s phone storage of fan art likely mimics that of many fans, and will only grow more as the show’s word of mouth continues to swell, despite its cancellation. It’s clear the legacy of the show is love, and Ortiz obviously loves the fans just as much in return as they love them.
