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Pedro Flores On Bringing Humanity To The Wounds of WarPedro Flores Redefines Trauma on Screen
When Venezuelan-born actor Pedro Flores stepped into the role of Mubarak in The Truth (2017), he didn’t realize the performance would alter the course of his international career, or that it would become part of a growing global conversation about trauma and empathy on screen.
The Truth tells the story of an ex-soldier struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after returning from war. It’s a film about silence, guilt, and redemption. These are themes which cross borders even when dialogue doesn’t. For Flores, portraying Mubarak was both an artistic challenge and a personal reckoning.
“I didn’t want to play him as a victim,” Flores says from his home in Los Angeles. “I wanted to play him as someone surviving every second. His pain wasn’t loud. Rather, it was internal, and that’s what made it powerful.”
The film premiered at the Saudi Arabia Film Festival, where it received honors presented by a member of the royal family; a rare and commendable feat.
A Cross-Cultural Breakthrough
For Saudi filmmaker Fahad Olayan, casting a Venezuelan actor in a Saudi story was a bold move. However, the decision paid off. Flores brought a sensitivity which transcended language and cultural boundaries, communicating through physicality more than dialogue. “Pedro understood that trauma doesn’t need translation,” Olayan said during the film’s festival circuit. “He found truth in stillness, and that’s rare.”
That ‘truth’, the film’s title and emotional core, rippled beyond its narrative. According to the World Health Organization, roughly one in five people living in conflict-affected areas experience mental health conditions, yet the topic remains stigmatized in many parts of the world. In this context, The Truth became a mirror for collective pain.
Flores’s portrayal of Mubarak resonated with audiences because it relied less on words and more on physical detail. For example, the subtle tightening of a jaw, the distant gaze of a man replaying invisible memories. “In acting school, they tell you to fill silence with voice,” Flores recalls. “But this role taught me to fill silence with emotion.”
Critics noted the restraint Flores used in his depiction of the character. One review from the festival circuit described Flores’s work as ‘a masterclass in minimalism,’ comparing it to the understated performances of Javier Bardem in Biutiful and Benicio del Toro in Traffic.
From El Tigre To Hollywood
Flores’s path to that moment was anything but straightforward. Born in El Tigre, a modest town in Venezuela’s Anzoátegui state, he grew up far from the film capitals of the world. As a child, he was drawn to storytelling. He was fascinated by telenovelas and the emotional rhythms of cinema. However, practicality led him first to engineering, where he earned a degree and began working in a technical field.
“I loved problem-solving,” he says with a laugh. “However, I realized the problems I wanted to solve were emotional, not mechanical.”
This realization, and a one-way ticket to Los Angeles, changed everything.
Once in California, Flores immersed himself in performance. He trained at UCLA Extension’s Acting for Film and Television program, studied under renowned coach Howard Fine, and honed his improvisational instincts at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, where alumni like Amy Poehler and Kate McKinnon had once performed. He also worked relentlessly, often taking on commercial gigs between auditions to stay afloat.
“I came to LA with no connections, no safety net,” he admits. “But I had one thing and this was persistence. Every audition was a class in resilience.”
That persistence began to pay off. His early roles in shorts like Match, a romantic drama exploring social media and relationships, helped him gain festival recognition at the Los Angeles Brazilian Film Festival. Soon after, came The Truth, which would cement his reputation as a cross-cultural performer capable of emotional depth.
The Actor Who Lives Between Worlds
Today, Flores divides his work between English and Spanish-language projects, moving easily between independent films and major brand campaigns.
In 2023, Flores appeared in the U.S. action-thriller Safehouse, directed by Paul Street (Borderland, The Girl from the Naked Eye). The film, which premiered at the Marina del Rey Film Festival before landing on Tubi’s streaming platform, cast him as Alonzo, a cartel intermediary whose fateful choices ignite a deadly chain of events.
Where The Truth demanded stillness, Safehouse demanded intensity. “The difference between playing a soldier and a criminal isn’t morality,” Flores says. “It’s what they’re willing to live with.”
Beyond his film work, Flores has also built a strong presence in the commercial world, appearing in bilingual campaigns for major brands such as Universal Studios’ Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Metro PCS, Cox Communications, and Volkswagen. These experiences not only showcased his versatility across English and Spanish markets but also strengthened his ability to connect with diverse audiences on an emotional level. Building on that momentum, Flores is now developing Strands of Time, a feature-length sci-fi romantic drama that explores love, presence, and emotional transformation through dance and quantum connection, continuing his mission to bridge art and humanity across cultures.
Flores’s ability to inhabit that moral gray zone has made him a standout among emerging international actors. Fluent in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, he embodies what casting directors increasingly seek: performers who bring global awareness and linguistic versatility to storytelling.
His approach to acting, he says, is rooted in empathy. “Whether it’s a Saudi veteran or a Venezuelan immigrant, I’m always looking for the humanity under the label. That’s where connection happens.”
When asked what The Truth taught him most, Flores pauses. “That healing is possible through art,” he finally says. “When you portray someone’s pain with honesty, you help people feel seen and maybe that’s the first step to healing.”
He hopes to expand his creative work into writing and producing films which explore cross-cultural identity and emotional transformation.
