‘Sky Rojo’s Miguel Ángel Silvestre Should Be Hollywood’s Next Big Star

Miguel Ángel Silvestre is not the nicest guy in Netflix’s new high octane Spanish-language thriller Sky Rojo. As Moisés, a gangster working for a powerful pimp in Tenerife, he traffics women into sex slavery, tortures a girl by locking her in a box, and even threatens to tear the nipples off of the women at his mercy if they don’t comply with his demands. He’s terrifying and violent, and yet, I couldn’t take my eyes off of Silvestre. (It doesn’t hurt that as soon as we’ve seen him be brutal we learn he’s conflicted about his gig, one he took up only to protect his disabled mother and screwup younger brother.) In Sky Rojo, as in past projects like Velvet, Sense8, and Narcos, Miguel Ángel Silvestre oozes movie star charisma. It’s honestly wild he hasn’t become a crossover star in English-speaking Hollywood projects yet, but maybe that’s by design…

Miguel Ángel Silvestre first started acting after an injury foiled his professional tennis dreams. Some of his early roles include the original 3:19 short, Pedro Almódovar’s I’m So Excited and the horror film Verbo. In 2013, Silvestre was cast in the dreamy Spanish soap opera Velvet. Set in a 1950s department store, the series followed the star-crossed romance between Silvestre’s character, the beloved son of the store’s owners, and seamstress Ana. The series became an international smash, launching spin-offs and Silvestre’s career.

As his tenure on Velvet was winding down, Silvestre took a splashy role in one of Netflix’s most audacious series, Sense8. The Spanish actor took on the part of Lito Rodriguez, a popular Mexican heartthrob hiding the fact that he was passionately in love with a secret boyfriend. Lito’s secret bubbles to the surface when he also realizes he is part of a group of psychically and emotionally linked “sensates.” If Velvet showed that Silvestre had what it took to be a traditional romantic leading man, Sense8 showed he could deconstruct that with wit, warmth, and a penchant for action.

Since Sense8 ended, Silvestre has continued to work with Netflix. He appeared in the comedy, Ibiza, and had a recurring role on Narcos. Sky Rojo however marks Silvestre’s first time working with Money Heist mastermind Álex Pina and it’s a creative partnership that makes a ton of sense. Silvestre is one of the biggest names in Spanish TV and Pina has a penchant for creating addictive Spanish television. Once more, though, I couldn’t watch Sky Rojo without wondering why Hollywood hasn’t figured out how to harness (the fluent English-speaking) Silvestre’s star power quite like Pina does here.

Sky Rojo follows three sex workers — Coral (Verónica Sánchez), Wendy (Lali Espósito), and Gina (Yany Prado) — who find themselves on the run after they seemingly murder both their imperious pimp Romeo (Asier Etxeandia) and madam (Carmen Santamaría). Told through a combination of voiceovers, flashbacks, and Tarantino-levels of bananas action, the half-hour series is all thriller, no filler. It’s a series that goes for the jugular in both its story and its style.

Silvestre plays one of the two insidious brothers tasked with hunting Coral, Wendy, and Gina down. The fascinating part is we learn he is also the one who managed to seduce Gina (among other girls) into sex slavery in the first place. The flashback to Cuba in Episode 2 shows Silvestre being as kind, trustworthy, and encouraging to Gina as he is downright diabolical in his search for her in the present-day. Through it all, though, Silvestre oozes star power. He commands the screen. Why hasn’t Hollywood noticed?!?

Truth be told, Miguel Ángel Silvestre might be in the perfect place for Miguel Ángel Silvestre. Sky Rojo is just the start of his collaboration with Álex Pina. The actor is set to join the cast of Money Heist Season 5, aka one of the most anticipated seasons of TV in the whole damn world. Forget Hollywood, with Netflix Silvestre is already famous in every corner of the globe.

Still, Sky Rojo begs the question…why isn’t Miguel Ángel Silvestre a big crossover star in the United States yet?

Watch Sky Rojo on Netflix