Manny Jacinto is in a good place. Not only has he amassed a devoted fan base for his roles in the shows The Good Place and Nine Perfect Strangers, he has also earned praise for his acting, allowing him more room for role experimentation. Despite this privilege, he&rsquo;s sure of one thing: he doesn&rsquo;t want to get too comfortable.

PHOTOGRAPHY Raen Badua STYLING Luca Kingston

Believe it or not, Manny Jacinto was once a practicing civil engineer who graduated from the University of British Columbia. This might come as a surprise if you&rsquo;re used to seeing him as Jason Mendoza, the lovable dummy from The Good Place. However, the two are not completely different. If there&rsquo;s an attribute that he shares with the breakout character, it&rsquo;s having the determination to follow one&rsquo;s dream to perform in spite of the odds stacked against him.

&ldquo;I just noticed a common theme among the supervisors in the company that I was working for. I'm sure there are people who loved their work, but I just noticed that a lot of them were very grumpy&hellip;I didn't want that. I imagined myself going down that path and regretting it. With that image in mind, I was like, no, let's push,&rdquo; he says.

And push he did. Dance was his ticket to performing on stage. This eventually led him to an acting class &mdash; something he considers as the spark that activated his &ldquo;acting bug.&rdquo; When he realized that he could express himself through different methods &mdash; from voice projection to gesticulation &mdash; the floodgates to his acting career opened.&nbsp;

Blazer, t-shirt, pants, and shoes, Balenciaga

How&rsquo;s everything? Let&rsquo;s see &mdash; we adopted a dog during the pandemic. That's keeping me busy. My fianc&eacute;e and I are taking care of her. &nbsp;She&rsquo;s an American Bully. She&rsquo;s like an old lady and doesn't really like walking, but walking is good for her, so we try and coax her to walk whenever we can, and that helps us get some exercise as well and be more outdoors. It's been good. It's like preparing us maybe for kids down the line.
 Speaking of weddings, tell me more about your upcoming rom-com, I Want You Back. I enjoyed it. It's such a feel-good movie that&rsquo;s perfect to watch on a holiday. It was great. It helps a lot when you get to work with a lot of people who are just super funny but also genuinely kind and down to earth like Jason Orley who&rsquo;s such a great director. He basically studied under Nancy Meyers, who's done a lot of incredible rom-com classics. I don't know if you noticed, but we really tried to take it back to a classic rom-com feel. At the end of the day, we just had a lot of fun. We had great leadership behind it.
 &nbsp;Are you more of a comedian or a dramatic actor? It comes down to what was done to the story. I'm always willing to go between both, whether it be other genres that I haven't been able to tap into yet.
 What type of roles do you want to play in the future? I want to do everything. I mean, I think that's what we're aiming towards now. I Want You Back is different from what I've done before&hellip;I would love to do another big action thing whether it be like a Marvel movie, or DC movie, or maybe a live-action anime. I would love to do an indie. There's so much I still want to explore.

Jacket, Paul Smith; Ring, David Yurman

I'd love to see more diverse faces on screen, and not just in roles that are the side characters, but those that occupy the lead roles and drive the narrative.&nbsp;

I heard that you want to play a young Tony Leung. I loved In the Mood for Love. He did so much with nothing. There was power and strength in just a single look. He conveys so much emotion and heartache through his eyes and posture. That's so admirable. It&rsquo;s something I would love to be able to emulate.
 You&rsquo;ve picked interesting projects like The Good Place and Nine Perfect Strangers. How do you pick your movies or series? The decisions I was making five or six years ago were very different from the decisions I make now. When I got The Good Place, or during that time in my life, I didn't have a lot of choices. I was auditioning for whatever, whenever I could. It just so happened that The Good Place was a great material involving really amazing storytellers like Michael Schur. I got lucky to be able to have snagged that role. Going back to your question, it all boils down to a gut feeling. Whenever a script moves me, whether it&rsquo;s through laughter or tears &mdash; that&rsquo;s a good sign.
 As a Filipino-Canadian, what are your Filipino influences? The first thing that comes up is the work ethic of Filipinos. I think that's something that was genetically passed down from my parents, especially my dad who always makes things work and does whatever he could for his family. That good old Filipino work ethic is definitely something that drives me. That&rsquo;s something I would love to tie into the script I'm writing too. Filipinos have this general sense of optimism and sense of ease. &nbsp;I remember going back to the Philippines when I was younger, and there was just so much joy being around family.

Coat, sweater, and pants, Ermenegildo Zegna; Shoes, TUK

Did you have any input on how Jason Mendoza was portrayed in The Good Place?&nbsp; I didn&rsquo;t, but I've watched a lot of the characters like him who were my favorite, like Joey from Friends and Chris Pratt on Parks and Recreation. They&rsquo;re oblivious yet joyful. I always laughed at those characters. It's not easy to play dumb. These characters have a different way of processing or thinking. Michael Schur, our showrunner, asked what were my interests, and I told him I was a dancer. We incorporated Jason&rsquo;s dance crew into the storyline. But I think the biggest thing, that I didn't even know would influence the series, was when I spoke to Mike randomly in an event. I told him how it's so rare to have even just two Filipinos be in the same scene that isn&rsquo;t even tied to Filipino culture. I think he took that to heart because that's when we had that episode with Donkey Doug and Pillboi. We were three Filipinos in one scene just talking about something funny and random.
&nbsp; Can you name some actors or directors that influenced you? In high school, a big influence was Justin Lin&rsquo;s Better Luck Tomorrow. It was a movie about five Asian guys in high school just trying to get through high school and figuring out their identities and lives. It's such a simple concept, but it really affected me because it was the first time that I saw Asian males on screen that look like me around my age.

Jacket, Burberry; Ring, David Yurman

Your looks actually make you stand out. How would you describe your style? Do you have any wardrobe essentials? A good pair of jeans is probably my work uniform, like light-wash Levi&rsquo;s. I feel comfortable in a long coat; it helps me hide in plain sight. A turtleneck is a go-to for sure. I think shoes are a big thing for me. I have too many different shoes. I apply this to acting as well, like I put on shoes to fit different characters. So, if I need to be Jason Mendoza &mdash; someone who moves a lot and is light on his feet&mdash;I wear sneakers, like a Jordan sneaker or something like that. Yao of Nine Perfect Strangers is more of a minimalist so he will probably wear a slipper or sandal like Birkenstocks. Logan from I Want You Back is more of a hipster, so he&rsquo;ll probably be in vintage boots. Shoes help me get more grounded with the characters. My recent favorites are my sneakers from Aim&eacute; Leon Dore x New Balance

What lessons or tips have you picked up from Nicole Kidman about acting? Just seeing her sense of commitment was huge. It reminded me of what it was like in the early days of acting for me. I had such vigor and passion for the work. As you progress, there can be this sense of complacency. But there wasn't that with Nicole. It was really inspiring to see. That was probably the biggest lesson, but speaking to her for Interview resonated with me because I want to go back to being able to be picky. Nicole really drilled the idea that we have to protect our talent, our work, our career.

Shoes help me get more grounded with the characters.&nbsp;

Blazer, shirt, pants, socks, and shoes, Gucci

In relation to that, what should we see more in entertainment? What should we see less? I'd love to see more diverse faces on screen, and not just in roles that are the side characters, but those that occupy the lead roles and drive the narrative. Along that line, I want to see more diverse stories. This isn't a revelation, but a lot of things are being recycled or rebooted. There's this fear for change or fear to do something different. I&rsquo;d like to see less repetition and see more originality in the stories we tell.

GROOMING Sonia Lee (Exclusive Artists) STYLE ASSISTANT Rocky Tate

In His Shoes: Manny Jacinto

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