When Manny Jacinto first appears on The Good Place, he says nothing. He’s Jianyu, a Buddhist monk who “obeys a strict code of silence,” which is run of the mill for Asian representation on TV: a token of a character, one that says and does very little. But because this is The Good Place—the trickiest, high-concept-iest sitcom broadcast TV has seen since The Office (naturally, made by the same dude, Michael Schur)—nothing about the show is as it seems. Manny Jacinto is not Jianyu, a silent monk; he is secretly Jason Mendoza, an aspiring DJ/dancer from Jacksonville, a bona fide and hilarious dummy who uses the entirety of his brain power to shout “Blake Bortles!” at any given opportunity.
Jamil found herself learning from the best: Ted Danson and his fart noises.
Jacinto, it turns out, is not an idiot. He’s sweet like Jason (Jacinto repeatedly mentions how much he loves his parents), but in real life, he’s more like the logical and anxious personality of another Good Place character, Chidi. It’s why Jacinto is the most serious person on set, even if he’s the show’s least serious character. He spoke to GQ about turning the Jaguars quarterback into an Internet meme, the cast members he has—and will—kiss, his number one fan (it’s Dad), and, y’know, Asian representation in Hollywood.
GQ: Sorry about Blake Bortles.
[laughs] Blake Bortles, I mean where do I start?
You were at the Jaguars’ wild-card game a couple weeks ago. What was that like?
It was really weird, but very fun at the same time. I was talking to my parents about it—they follow what I do on social media, which is very flattering and very scary at the same time. But the game was super fun. I didn’t know whether to be Manny Jacinto...or Jason Mendoza?
Did people recognize you at the game?
Yeah, but I think it was just when I was being Jason Mendoza. I was yelling and running around. And when I was doing that, I would get recognized. People would be like, “Oh my gosh, are you on The Good Place? Can I take a picture?” And I’d be like, “Yeah, of course!” and I’d yell “Duval” and just get into it. But when I was Manny, I was just another dude enjoying the game, just incredibly happy to be there.
Are you a football person?
No, actually! I know how to play the game. But the thing is I’m from Canada, I’m from Vancouver. It’s all about hockey over there, and I grew up playing basketball. But I can appreciate the athleticism of the sport. It’s a huge, huge part of American culture. Being down there, it’s like, Oh, I get it now.
On the show, you play the stereotype of someone from Jacksonville. Do people from Jacksonville ever get mad at that impression?
Nobody ever really gets mad. If anything, I get comments like, “Are you really from Jacksonville? Because I know people just like you.”
There’s this joke going around on Twitter right now that everyone’s personality is actually a combination of two Good Place characters. Which two do you think you are?
In real life?
Yeah.
I would say I’m a mix between Jason and Chidi. Obviously, the Jason-ness comes naturally. But the Chidi-ness is the anxiety. Like, there are definitely times when I can just get too into my head.
How would you describe the vibe on set?
They’re all jerks. I hate working with them. They’re the worst.
No, I lucked out. I am so grateful for this group of people because it is literally like a family. And I know people say that all the time, and it’s not true sometimes, but I think the biggest reason why this show touches people—for one thing, is the writing—but also we have such a good energy. That good energy translates through the screen, that chemistry. And we were just complete strangers. We had no idea who each other were, and just right off the bat—especially the four of us—we were just these kids who were like, What the heck is going on? Ted Danson is asking us about our day?
We did an interview with William Jackson Harper, and he referred to himself, you, Jameela Jamil, and D’Arcy Carden as “the Four Babies,” since you were all new. Is that the name of your group text?
[laughs] It should be! No, we need to think of a group chat name. That would be incredibly appropriate.
Once we played it cool in the meeting with Mike [Schur, the show's creator], the four of us went outside and just started fidgeting, shaking, giggling, exchanging numbers, and saying, “This is happening, this is crazy, this is a dream.”
Sounds like the first day of college.
Exactly, yeah. When you’re trying to find your group of people you’re gonna be with for a good number of years.
So on set, who’s the most serious and who goofs off the most?
To be honest, I think I’m the most serious.
The Chidi side of you.
Yeah, I think it comes from the fear of losing my job, for one. And also I’m the youngest. I have the most to learn in terms of everyone’s life experience and work ethic. Ted is a complete goof. Kristen can be very serious, but also she’s very energetic. But I think I’m the one that’s like, “Ah man, I need to buckle down and focus and make sure I don’t get fired.” I’m not sure if I’m proud of that or what.
I don’t think you’re gonna get fired.
[laughs] Thank you for that reassurance.
We also did an interview with Jameela, and she said you were her seventh kiss ever. And coincidentally, your seventh kiss ever.
Oh geez.
Is that really true?
Yeah. I’m pretty sure if I counted it out, and there are not that many to count, yeah. I mean, it’s crazy because Jameela is a freaking angel/model/goddess from...Europe or whatever. It’s nuts.
If I work this backwards, does that mean D’Arcy was your sixth kiss?
Oh!
Because you guys do make out in the first season, right?
Oh my God. Yeah! I guess so. Oooooooh.
So when are you gonna kiss William Jackson Harper?
Maybe next season! It’s just so funny.
Did you always want to be an actor?
No, not really. If I ran into myself maybe seven years ago and told myself that I was gonna be an actor, that I’d be in L.A. working at Universal Studios with these amazing people, I’d be like, “Get out of here. There’s no possible way.” I think things just changed, things evolved, and one part of my Chidi personality is that I get very obsessed with things. Especially things I get interested in. Once acting hit me, once that bug hit me, I just…took the jump and dove right in.
I don’t want to pull the Asian-parent card, but were your parents cool with you going into acting?
[laughs] Yeah, it’s… It’s funny, because I think as long as I finished my degree, they said, “Go ahead and do whatever you want.” For me, personally, I owed them that at least, to finish school. That would give them a bit more comfort, you know? At the time, I was also dancing a lot, and my parents were wondering what was happening with that.
What kind of dancing?
Hip-hop.
Oh, just like Jason.
That’s the thing about Jason. At first, when I met with Mike, he asked what my interests were and what I liked doing. One of them was dance, so Mike incorporated that into the Jason Mendoza character.
Were you dancing competitively?
Yeah. I mean, I was dancing in Vancouver—in Canada—with a group of people. We’d compete in hip-hop dance competitions on the West Coast.
How’d you guys do?
Pretty good. We competed in the Las Vegas World Hip-Hop Championships, where people from around the world come in and show their stuff. I mean, out of 51 countries, we came in 11th or 10th in our first [competition].
But going back to whether or not my parents trusted me with all this, they were iffy. There was one point where my dad sat me down and he was like, “Where is all this going? Do you have a plan?” And I told him: Give me five years. If in five years, I’m in the exact same place, then I’ll reconsider things. And luckily, I’m not in the exact same place I was.
Now that you’re on a sitcom with Ted Danson and Kristen Bell on NBC, do they feel like there’s no time limit anymore?
Yeah. It’s so funny. My dad is literally—and I love him so much—he is my number one fan.
Asian parents, or a lot of parents in general, they have no idea what goes on in this industry. Mine were born in the Philippines, where it’s different, because it is about who you know, and who knows what you have to do to get to the top? So they had a lot of that skepticism. Everything they learn about Hollywood is from Hollywood. Whatever they learn about actors or movies is from what is portrayed in movies. So they had no idea. And I didn’t have anybody to really ask advice for, or look up to in my family. Everyone on my dad’s side, they're all like engineers. They’re all very intellectual people. [My acting] came right out of the blue for them. Now my dad is my biggest fan.
This one story, this got me so much: We get merchandise from the team as a wrap gift at the end of each season, and one of the gifts was a baseball cap. My dad wears that baseball cap every day, whenever he’s out and about, running errands. I think it was last winter break where I had dinner with him and my mom. The hostess was kinda looking at me funny, and she came back and kinda looked at me again, gave me this weird eye, and she started—this is in Canada, Vancouver, Richmond specifically, so it’s a smaller town—and she’s like, “This might be a very weird question, but are you…”
And then my dad points his finger up and points to the hat that he’s wearing, and he’s like, “This one?” And before I could even say anything, he interrupts and is like, “This show right here?” And the hostess is like, “Yes!” And then before I can really get anything out, my dad just goes off: “Oh yes, he’s from The Good Place. Have you watched the show? Have you seen the whole season? Are you excited to meet him?”
He was really excited when that happened and couldn’t help gushing over the show. He is my biggest fan. I just love him so much for that.
That’s really sweet. What you were saying earlier, when you said your parents agreed that you had five years, it kind of reminded me of something my mom said once: “I just want the world to be fair for you.”
Oh wow.
If you go into engineering, they can’t deny you if you get good grades. If you wanna become a musician or a writer, it might just be who you know, or what you look like. It might just be this luck thing. In that moment, I realized it was just this weird form of protection. I suddenly understood why it made her so nervous that I wanted to be a writer or something creative.
That gives me goosebumps. That is incredibly relevant. At the end of the day, they all just want to take care of you. And sometimes the worst-case scenario for them, they don’t want you to end up on the streets, you know? I can totally get that. They feel that if you have this piece of paper that proves that you’ve worked your butt off, then people can’t deny you the thing you deserve.
It was her way of saying the inverse, that the world is not necessarily always fair to people who look like us. It took me years to realize that’s what she was saying.
[laughs] When they say mom knows best, we don’t realize that until 30 years later.
’Cause we’re idiots.
Oh man, yeah.
Do you feel like there’s a strong community of Asian-American actors in Hollywood?
There’s definitely a more prominent Asian acting community here [in L.A.] than in Vancouver, which I am super grateful for. There are organizations that really push for helping Asian creatives, whether it be in the writing industry or the acting industry—there’s a great support system. It’s super cool. Because when I was in Vancouver, my biggest issue was: Why is this happening? Why are there no Asian people? It was incredibly frustrating.
The thing that propelled me forward was the fact that this industry is so unfair. What the heck is going on in the world? Why is it that what I’m seeing on television is not the same as what I’m seeing in real life? It really got to me. That’s what pushed me forward, to try and change that.
The only reason I really got into dance was because I saw the Jabbawockeez on America’s Next Dance Crew. It was the first time I saw that Asian people could actually do that, and look cool, and possibly even do it for a living. And through that moment, everything changed—shifted. It shifted slowly, but it made a huge change in my life.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
