Years before Jimmy Gonzales boarded a warship alongside Matt Damon in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, he took on another role that felt deeply personal.

In the Netflix film Blue Miracle, Gonzales played Omar, a foster father fighting to save a home for boys in Mexico. Gonzales understood parts of that story firsthand. He had spent some of his own teenage years moving between foster homes.

“Now, I get to give voice to that part of life that others haven’t experienced firsthand,” he said of the role.

Growing Up with Uncertainty

Gonzales was born in Austin, Texas, to immigrant parents and raised partly in rural Oregon. His father struggled with addiction and spent time in prison. His mother, who had a hearing disability, worked to care for four children while navigating interactions with the child welfare system.

As a teenager, Gonzales moved from one foster home to another. His childhood also included working alongside his family as a migrant farmworker. He picked strawberries, walnuts and other crops to help support them.

Gonzales has described taking pride in the work and in being able to contribute. But the circumstances around him offered no clear path toward the life he would eventually build. “I shouldn’t be here,” he recently said while reflecting on his career. “It was the pursuit of this dream and the idea that I could be more than what my environment was telling me.”

Finding Stories and Courage

Gonzales first became interested in acting through a small ritual he shared with his mother. They would buy ice cream, rent a scary movie and watch it together. “It made me want to be an actor and tell stories,” he said.

He did not know how to enter the entertainment industry, especially when he rarely saw Latino actors on screen. He pursued it anyway, gradually earning roles in television series and films including Mayans M.C., Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. 

When Gonzales played Omar in Blue Miracle, he drew from several people who had shaped his life, including his foster father and his mother. The character also gave him an opportunity to reconsider what courage looks like.“Courage is to move forward despite the fear, and not hide the fear,” Gonzales said. “What better gift is there for us to show children and younger people than that you can be courageous in life? Life can be scary.”

From Foster Care to The Odyssey

After more than two decades of working as an actor, Gonzales submitted a self-recorded audition without knowing it was for a Christopher Nolan film.

He eventually learned he had been cast as Cepheus, one of Odysseus’ shipmates in The Odyssey. Soon, he was in Morocco wearing bronze armor and filming aboard a warship with one of the largest casts of his career. “My dream was coming true,” he said.

Gonzales’ story is not only about reaching one major movie role. It is about continuing to pursue a future he could not clearly see as a young person.

He has also been careful not to describe his difficult experiences only as obstacles. While discussing Blue Miracle, he said the challenges of his life had become some of its greatest gifts because they allowed him to understand and represent stories others might overlook.

Young people should not have to experience foster care, poverty or family instability to develop courage. They deserve support while they are still facing those circumstances, not only admiration after they overcome them. But Gonzales’ journey shows that the environment surrounding a young person does not get the final word about who they can become.

Sometimes courage means moving forward while the fear is still there.