Lío Mehiel has been working for a second like “After the Hunt” for a very long time.
Directed by Luca Guadagnino, this thorny morality play of a movie set at Yale College pits well-liked professor Alma (performed by Julia Roberts) in opposition to each her protegé, Maggie (Ayo Edebiri), in addition to her longtime good friend and colleague Hank (Andrew Garfield) throughout a scandal that dangers her whole tutorial profession.
Amid that starry A-list forged, the actor performs Maggie’s companion, Alex. The movie, which had its world premiere in August on the Venice Movie Pageant, is Mehiel’s most high-profile undertaking but.
“There’s a lot time as an artist the place you’re doing the work and no person cares and you must discover inside your self the motivation and the dedication and the drive to maintain going,” Mehiel tells The Occasions. “As a result of you already know that when you find yourself going to have the ability to attain individuals, it will likely be price it.”
Such a step has been years within the making. Mehiel, who lived in Puerto Rico till they had been 5 years previous, started their inventive endeavors nearly as quickly as they arrived in New York Metropolis, first as a salsa dancer and later as an actor. By the point they had been in fifth grade they had been attending Broadway auditions, ultimately reserving a job within the 2003 revival of “Cat on a Scorching Tin Roof” starring Ashley Judd and Jason Patric.
(L to R) Lio Mehiel as Alex and Ayo Edebiri as Maggie in AFTER THE HUNT, from Amazon MGM Studios.
(Yannis Drakoulidis / Yannis Drakoulidis © 2025 Amazon Content material Providers LLC. All Rights Reserved)
However as they started discovering their very own sense of self and physique, in addition they discovered the type of alternatives that led them to “After the Hunt.” That started in earnest again in 2023, after they starred in Vuk Lungulov-Klotz’s movie “Mutt” as Feña, a job they booked after cold-emailing the director and telling them they’d do something to win that half. The movie chronicled a very hectic day within the lifetime of a younger trans man in New York Metropolis, as he struggles to rekindle previous relationships he’d severed since he’d transitioned. Mehiel’s soulful efficiency received them a Particular Jury Award for Appearing on the 2023 Sundance Movie Pageant, placing them on the map as a trans Latine performer to look at.
“Transferring ahead from ‘Mutt,’ I used to be actually all in favour of constructing on that momentum to what’s subsequent,” they are saying. Not simply when it comes to their profession however within the broader cultural dialog round modern queer and trans illustration. The next yr, they returned to Sundance with Alessandra Lacorazza’s “Within the Summers,” which walked away from the pageant with the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury prize — the primary for a movie directed by a Latina director. Like “Mutt,” that sun-dappled movie discovered Mehiel respiration life right into a trans character navigating a thorny relationship with their father (performed by famend Puerto Rican rapper Residente).
Mehiel has lengthy been constructing a physique of labor that facilities on the very work of getting a physique. Simply this previous summer time, they visited the Salton Sea for a efficiency set up titled “angels of a drowning fantasy.” In photographs from that day, Mehiel is seen bare and half-submerged into that so-called sea, posing alongside a bust of their very own chest made six months after they’d obtained prime surgical procedure. A portrait of a physique twice represented, Mehiel’s piece burdened the solidity and malleability of their very own physique, and the wonder they discover inside and round it. Their work strikes previous acquainted concepts of the physique in transition, gleefully embracing the messiness of the queer expertise and refusing the straightforward siren name of visibility.
“‘After the Hunt,’ is such a stupendous instance of that as a result of Alex is a queer and trans character, however we simply see them getting dwelling from a run, taking their shirt off, being with their companion, coping with stuff that has nothing to do with their queerness,” Mehiel says.
That second Alex first seems on display is quintessential Mehiel. Not simply due to the honeyed intimacy their sweaty, naked chest exudes. However as a result of their look instantly reframes the whole lot audiences have heard about this seemingly militant, radical social justice warrior. Alex at first seems as a determine of “woke” tradition there to defy the older era Roberts’ Alma comes to face for. However there’s extra to them than that.
“Alex doesn’t characterize all queer individuals who have a political orientation on this planet, all queer individuals who may attend a protest,” they clarify. “I believe what Luca did and what Nora did within the script was to present us all a chance to maneuver away from identification politics. As a substitute, they gave every of the characters sufficient meat on their bones that they get to be complicated, messy characters.”
“After the Hunt” could deal with sophisticated moral questions surrounding sexual assault allegations at a college, however inside that plot, Mehiel sees additionally an opportunity for viewers to catch a glimpse of characters like Maggie and Alex who could not in any other case be centered in such tales.
“I’m simply excited that there’s extra publicity that individuals are having to queer and trans individuals and to queer relationships, and the way that may match within the context of a ‘normative’ world,” they add. “It is a film with Julia Roberts, certainly one of our largest stars and crown jewels of Hollywood and of American cinema. There’s going to be plenty of people which can be going to see it as a result of Julia is in it. After which they’re additionally going to get to expertise a queer and trans individual on display who’s likable in some moments and unlikable in others, simply as a lot as each different character.”
That’s been Mehiel’s function for years now: to increase what queer and trans characters can appear to be on stage, on display and, in flip, in actual life. At a time when these communities are vilified by those that want to hurt them, Mehiel insists on the significance of such normalized visibility.
Lio Mehiel seen on the Los Angeles Premiere of Amazon MGM Studios’ “After The Hunt” at Academy Museum of Movement Photos on October 04, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
(Picture by Stewart Prepare dinner / Amazon MGM Studios by way of Getty Photographs)
“Truthfully, publicity to those experiences creates connection greater than something and permits individuals to really feel comfy,” they add. “As a result of the political local weather proper now — for the Latine group and for the trans group — is de facto exhausting and heartbreaking and difficult. And I believe a lot of it has to do with individuals feeling like they don’t know who these individuals are.”
A central kernel of the premise of “After the Hunt” is that you just by no means know what somebody goes by. And, extra to the purpose, that making assumptions about different individuals’s expertise will be extraordinarily harmful.
“This film actually serves as a mirror to the individuals which can be watching it,” Mehiel insists. The movie confronts audiences with their very own biases and refuses any tidy conclusions.
However for Mehiel, the movie will without end be remembered as a spotlight of a profession that’s solely sure to get larger and extra thrilling. Simply this yr, they spent the summer time on the Williamstown Theatre Pageant starring in Jeremy O. Harris’ new play in addition to serving as head of manufacturing for “Mom, Daughter, Holy Spirit,” a grassroots fundraiser for the Trans Justice Funding Mission, all whereas persevering with to pursue their varied pursuits as artist, author, and filmmaker. In that context, “After the Hunt” stands now much less as a calling card than as a reminder of how far they’ve come and but how a lot additional they need to go. That movie, now enjoying in theaters and coming quickly to Prime Video, will widen the scope and attain of their artistry.
“Watching it, I used to be like, ‘I match proper into the material of the film,’” they are saying. “On a private journey degree, I really feel assured that I’ve the ability, the expertise and the expertise at this level to work with the masters that I dream of working with (if the horny French filmmaker, Julia Ducournau, ever reads this interview, she ought to know that I need to work along with her).”
Or, in a lot less complicated phrases that echo an ethos they’ve delivered to bear on and off display: “I simply really feel prepared and in a position to actualize the issues that I’ve been dreaming about for a very long time.”
