Julio Torres Is Hollywood’s Funniest Triple Threat

“I didn’t know that it was supposed to be funny, but I guess it is,” Julio Torres says matter-of-factly about Fantasmas, his wildly inventive HBO show. The six-episode series, which premiered last summer, unfolds in a surreal version of New York City and follows the 38-year-old creator on a quest to recover a lost oyster earring and obtain a “Proof of Existence” card required to rent a new apartment. What begins as a simple search quickly spirals into a kaleidoscopic journey through a world featuring gay hamster nightclubs and a Real Housewives parody starring none other than Emma Stone.

Alongside Torres are costar Martine and an eclectic cast of guest stars, including Bowen Yang, Julia Fox, Alexa Demie, Steve Buscemi, Natasha Lyonne, and many more. The series, which earned Torres a Peabody Award, with an Emmy nomination well within reach, showcases the artist at his sharpest as a writer, director, and performer.

For Torres, a former Saturday Night Live writer, the project is the latest addition to a growing repertoire of cult comedies that started with 2019’s Spanish-language series Los Espookys. In 2023, Torres debuted his semiautobiographical film, Problemista (in which he costarred opposite a manic artist played by Tilda Swinton). This fall, Torres is taking his talents to the theater for the off-Broadway play Color Theories, his first solo performance project in more than six years. For W’s latest TV portfolio, Torres sat down with Editor at Large Lynn Hirschberg to discuss his own anxieties, cinematic crushes, and the reality show he just can’t quit.

How would you categorize Fantasmas?

Fantasmas is a show, my invention. I struggle to classify it, but I would say technically it's a sketch/narrative show. Yeah. Final answer.

And you play yourself.

I play myself in the show—a very disgruntled, anxious, magnified version of myself.

What are your chief anxieties?

Bureaucracy is high among my chief anxieties. I've actually been thinking about that a lot—what is it about bureaucracy that makes me so upset and anxious? It's that it's obscure to me. It feels like it pantomimes something that makes perfect sense, but it actually doesn't make perfect sense. That discrepancy is terrifying to me.

Were you a theatrical child?

No. I was more like a writerly child. I would make up little stories with my Barbies. They were my first actors. I had Barbies from different periods—there was one where you could fashion her dress out of foam. Her bikini was made out of foam. She was, by far, the horniest one. She was all sex. She was so empowered. But I didn't like that all the Barbies had long hair. So one time, my mom took me to the salon so that my Barbie could get a bob, which I thought was the best haircut a Barbie could have. I think it's because my mom had a bob. There is a particular kind of queer child who comes from a mom with a bob.

When you were 29, you moved to New York from El Salvador. What was your first impression of the city?

The garbage. But I loved it! I find New York garbage to be beautiful. Accidental still lifes. Urban sculptures. Immediately, I wanted to stay.

What has been your weirdest job?

I don't think it was a weird job, but walking over here, I got off the Bowling Green station, and I felt immediate happiness and warmth, and I couldn't recall why. Then I remembered that there was a lawyer's office around here. He was a workers' compensation lawyer who hired me to do translations and write a textbook to teach English to his clients. The reason I felt such joy from recalling that job is that he paid me immediately and on time. I have this Pavlovian positive response to the Bowling Green station because it's like, Oh yeah, I'm going to walk away with a couple hundred bucks.

Do you dream in English or Spanish?

Both. But what’s odd is sometimes people who speak only one of the two languages speak the other one in my dreams. When I wake up, it confuses me for a moment.

Who was your childhood crush?

My big crush, who I had dreams about growing up, was Billie Joe Armstrong, lead singer of Green Day. I still think he's so sexy. The eyeliner, the studded belt. He has a baby face. I feel like there can be a complacency with musicians. This idea of: If you want to achieve mainstream fame, you need to leave your politics at the door or something. I like that they never [have].

What was your favorite TV show when you were growing up?

My favorite TV show was actually Ally McBeal. There was something about the tone that I couldn't find anywhere else. It had flourishes of magic, and it was very neurotic. Also Lucy Liu's performance in it. It was one of the things that really made me want to do what I do now, to invent things like that.

What is your pet peeve?

In a lot of stores, they leave their mannequins barefoot. Have you noticed this? Maybe it’s because these stores don't sell shoes, so they don't feel compelled to put shoes on the mannequins. But then the mannequin is manufactured to have toes and even toenails. There's no absence of foot. There's a very fully realized foot that remains. It is undignified to keep it barefoot. So it's not as passive of a decision as they think it is.

Are you more like a dog or a cat?

I think I'm more catlike because I like being alone, but I do crave human interaction on my own time. I also don't perform emotion in the way that a dog does. I want to go lay out in the sun and not be bothered, but if I'm hungry, I will come annoy you. Though, I do not like milk. If I were a cat, I guess I would be a vegan cat and just do oat milk.

Do you have a favorite reality show?

I do, and it actually is Project Runway.

Is it even still on?

They're only producing it for me. I have not stopped. Heidi [Klum] has come and gone, and I have remained watching it. I love the simplicity of it. I love that there's no nonsense, no drama, no bickering. It's only about who they think made the best garment that week, and that's it. Also, I think of my work a lot in Project Runway challenge terms, where sometimes I'll write something and I'm like, "Oh god, I told myself I was going to make a little black dress, and here I am with this…like, it has feathers and a hat and three bags. The judges are not going to be pleased, but I like it."

Produced by AP Studio, Inc.; executive producer: Alexis Piqueras; producer: Anneliese Kristedja; production manager: Hayley Stephon; production coordinator: Kaitlyn Fitzpatrick; lighting technician: Eduardo SilvA; lab: picturehouse+thesmalldarkroom; retouching: picturehouse+thesmalldarkroom; fashion assistants: Tyler VanVranken, Amir La Sure, Celeste Roh, Lila Hathaway, Natalie Mell; production assistants: Linette Estrella, Ariana Kristedja, Sammi Kulger, an Carter, Cameron Bevans, Chase Walker, Rory Walsh; hair assistants: Courtney Peak, Austin Weber, Simone Domizi; makeup assistants: Mika Iwata, Anna Kurihara, Nana Hiramatsu; manicure assistant: ​​Rieko Smith; set assistants: Kevin Kessler, Cedar Kirwin, Paul Levine; tailor: Lindsay Amir Wright; tailor’s assistant: Natalie Wright.