Matt Letscher is paying homage to a real-life DEA agent through his latest role.
In Narcos: Mexico, the actor plays James Kuykendall, the man who served as the head of the agency’s office in Guadalajara, Mexico in the 1980s.
“You do feel an extra pressure to represent them truthfully while understanding that you’re still part of a fictional story,” Letscher, 48, tells PEOPLE of taking on the role.
The new season of the Netflix show features Kuykendall and one of his fellow DEA agents Kiki Camarena, who was abducted, tortured and murdered while on assignment in Mexico in 1985. The series also shows the start of the Mexican drug war.
“This was a little different because of the circ*mstances. [Kuykendall] was very close to Kiki Camarena and what happened to Kiki, I think, is something that he, at least partly, maybe still blames himself a little bit for,” he says. “So there is a lot of emotion involved and a lot of history and a lot of trauma.”
“I certainly felt very responsible to do my very best to tell this as truthfully as possible and represent him as truthfully as possible,” he continues. “We just pulled out all the stops. I know Michael [Peña] felt the same way about playing Kiki – he didn’t want to gloss over anything. I think we did our best.”
Letscher says he was able to visit Kuykendall at his home in Laredo, Texas to prepare for his role.
“He has troves of material from that time,” Letscher says. “He’s very dedicated to Kiki and making sure that Kiki’s story stays alive and that people understand the sacrifice he made for his country. He showed me around and took me down to the Rio Grande. I saw the border for the first time.”
After visiting Kuykendall, Letscher made sure to keep in touch with him throughout the entire shooting process.
“He was more than willing to answer any questions I had, and he actually came down to set for a couple of days and watched us film — which I imagine must have been somewhat surreal for him,” he says. “Then I saw him again at the premiere the other night, and it seemed to go great. I feel like primarily he wants to make sure that Kiki’s legacy is honored and that his story is told right and kept alive. I feel like we more than accomplished that with what we’ve done so far on Narcos.”
One of the most shocking things Kuykendall told Letscher was how quickly everything changed when he was assigned to what he thought would be “somewhat of a sleepy outpost” at the office in Guadalajara from the late 70s to the early 80s.
“They had a total of 4 agents there,” Letscher says. “When the Guadalajara cartel started to become what it became, it was really like a sudden storm. It was like a tornado or a hurricane, something that came up and then they suddenly found themselves in the middle of it completely overwhelmed with not enough manpower and not enough tools at their disposal to be able to deal with it.”
“It was only when one of them was abducted and killed that everybody woke up and said, ‘Wow, we’ve got a real problem on our hands,'” he continues. “Trying to put yourself in their position at the time, it must have been incredibly overwhelming and disheartening. But they battled.”
Narcos Season 4 Announced Almost 1 Year After Location Scout Was Shot to Death in Mexico
Prior to joining Narcos: Mexico, Letscher says he was a fan of the show’s previous seasons which focused instead on the Colombian cartels.
“I loved the show,” he says. “I think what elevated the show above other shows of it’s genre is it’s adherence to real life events. The mixing in of the real-time footage of the actual people with the show itself, for me, gives it that extra chill that a story like this deserves because you are talking about real things that happened to real people. I think they do a pretty good job of resisting completely glamorizing the drugs and guns side of this.”
Even though the show mainly focuses on heavy subject matters, Letscher says they were lucky to film in Mexico City where they had plenty of opportunities to unwind.
“We went and saw the luchadores, the Mexican wrestlers. They were incredible – just amazing costumes and showmanship,” he says. “You’re in this gigantic metropolis that’s teeming with all this newness and food and music, and yet it’s still layered with all this history.”
While Letscher has also appeared on hit shows like The Carrie Diaries, Scandal and , he admits he’s a “child of the theater” and dreams of taking on some of the classics one day.
“I think I have to say at this point I’m probably a little old to play Hamlet so we’ll say Macbeth,” he says of his dream role. “We’ll cut the baby in half and say Macbeth.”
When he’s not working, Letscher says he enjoys spending time outdoors with his family.
“We do a lot of mountain biking, and we did a lot of mountain biking up in Mammoth Mountain over the summer,” he says. “And a lot of rock climbing. I’ve been rock climbing since my early 20s, and my son is really into it now. We do some camping. I like to get out of my head and get out of this world and that’s the best way to do it.”
Next up? Going scuba-diving for Thanksgiving.
“It’s something we’ve taken up over the last few years,” he says. “It has really opened up my eyes to a whole other world, literally, under the ocean. It’s astonishing what you find down there, and it’s a great family activity too so we’re looking forward to it.”
Narcos: Marcos is available to stream on Netflix now.
