Skating to the Silver Screen: 4 El Paso skaters on the big screen for “One Battle After Another”

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- "One Battle After Another" is nominated 13 times at the Oscar's tonight, making it one of the most critically acclaimed films of the season. The movie also has strong ties to the Borderland.

Parts of it were filmed in downtown El Paso, but they also cast multiple El Pasoans as extras in the film. ABC-7 spoke with 4 of them about how it was filming with Leonardi DiCaprio, Bencio del Toro, and Paul Thomas Anderson.

"We all kind of looked at each other, like, oh, man. What did we get ourselves into?" said Elijah Sembrano. Him, along with Gilberto Martinez, Luis Trejo, and Julian Corral all had roles in the movie.

"It's still unbelievable," said Corral. "And to this day, man, I'm still in all of how like I'm in the big screen."

They learned of the opportunity through a mutual friend who knew of a filming opportunity happening downtown. The 4 met casting director Cassandra Kulukundis for a quick audition before getting the part. They didn't realize the movie was this big of a production until seeing Warner Brother trucks on the filming lot.

"We started skating and kind of doing our thing. Through that, they showed it to Paul Thomas Anderson and Paul just said, these are our guys," said Martinez.

Martinez had the biggest role with multiple speaking parts. He interacted with DiCaprio, Anderson, and del Toro throughout his screen time.

"They just wanted some skateboarders to kind of add that culture, that aspect of freedom," said Martinez. "That is what skateboarding is for us. We've been skateboarding our whole lives, so it's one of those vehicles that kind of helps you escape."

The group was only filming for 11 days back in summer of 2024, but the days were long. 12 hour filming shifts for each of them and they loved every second.

"It kind of just makes me feel amazed that someone goes that length to just put this whole thing together," said Trejo of Anderson. They all were able to share fun stories of interacting with Oscar winners.

"They put Leonardo in the room with us, and theres just kind of an awkward silence," said Corral. "He actually broke the silence with asking us what's good around here to eat. And so we just give him different things to go to lunch at and different places to hang out."

"Having Leo in the back and he was directing Luis," said Martinez. "I was working with Sensei (Benicio del Toro), and it was just cool to have that synergy of us just creating something and making it feel more real."

All 4 of the skaters are El Paso natives and they all love movies. Being able to showcase the city on a national, blockbuster stage was a dream come true.

"They were able to showcase our beautiful city, the frontera, the people here, the shops," said Sambrano. "It was cool that they were able to see that and just put it on for the rest of the world to see."

"I think El Paso is now finally at that moment where people are starting notice how beautiful downtown is, how beautiful the people are, how beautiful it is to film here," said Martinez. "So I'm very grateful to be from El Paso and to be on the screen as skateboarders from El Paso."