Manu Ríos doesn’t know when exactly he decided to be an actor; he just always knew he was determined to be a great one. “It’s something where I don’t see any other course,” he says on a call from Paris. Ríos is currently splitting his time between there and Madrid. “Obviously you have some moments of doubt, but it’s a beautiful profession. Being able to work in something that you love is honestly a privilege. But I was willing to make sacrifices for it. I take care in the job I do – and that occupies more than just being on set.”
Those sacrifices would end up paying off big time with roles at the fore of buzzy Netflix dramas Elite and Breathless. The Spanish actor is calling me from a fairly hectic men’s fashion week, where he was front row for all the action unfolding at Jonathan Anderson’s sophomore Dior men’s show, which channelled the codes of Paul Poiret and a handful of the designer’s most revered influences into a new language for the French fashion house. “I wasn’t expecting something like that from Jonathan,” says the actor, still dazzled by the Irishman’s handiwork. “I’ve always admired his vision and just how smart he is with the decisions he takes. He’s always bringing something fresh and challenging to the table.”
DIOR
Ríos, born to a hairdresser mother and a father who works as an electrician, is committed to evoking similar responses from his audiences. Harnessing a knack for performance at an early age, he conducted his earliest rehearsals in front of doting clients who passed through his mum’s salon, regaling them with entire musical numbers and self-devised choreography as they sat, captivated, in their chairs. If he wasn’t courting favour there, the actor would be hard at work enlisting friends to film, write or act with him in videos for his YouTube channel, producing anything he could to satiate his creative appetites.
Born and raised in the south of Spain, Ríos grew up in the countryside idyll of Calzada de Calatrava. He describes himself as an outgoing child, a lover of nature and exploration; though, as anyone who’s made it out of the sticks will tell you, the loneliness of this small-town upbringing was often a challenge. “I didn’t have a lot of people around me that shared my passions or even fully understood them,” he says. This would all change once he discovered the works of filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, Calzada de Calatrava’s most famous export. “I could always see all these special characters and personalities from my hometown in his films in a way that was so modern and boundary-pushing,” says the actor, who’s still enchanted by the eerily familiar scenes of domesticity that Almodóvar has so often returned to. “I thought it was so inspiring.”
DIOR
In a moment of chance, or complete serendipity, Almodóvar would later cast Ríos for a part in his 2023 short film Strange Way of Life as a Pedro Pascal of a different time; that is, younger, hornier and recalled through the rose-tinted glasses of a decades-old homoerotic encounter. The role was small, but the experience remains a pinch-me moment for the actor. “Talking about our hometown and hearing all these stories he had lived was so beautiful,” he says.
Ríos’s first taste of industry life came several years earlier when he was just nine, when he sang on the music reality show Cantando en familia. The initial casting process involved submitting an audition tape of his family, and Ríos recalls begging his brothers and father to help him out. It’s a touching memory of the young version of himself and he laughs whenever he recounts the messy ensemble that came to life in his living room. “They are not artistic at all, but they did it for me. It was the sweetest act of support and love, even if we didn’t get chosen at first,” he says. The producers would end up calling again for another special they were filming, but this time, “they only wanted me”.
DIOR
It was to be the first of the budding thespian’s many big breaks, with roles in musical theatre productions such as Les Misérables and Don Pepito following soon after. Ríos would continue to nurture his musical talent offstage too, touring with a kids’ musical group before pivoting to original songwriting, even inking a long-term EP deal with Dominican music producer Richy Peña. “It was such a big part of my life, it still is. I was travelling to LA to work with producers, creating my own project,” he says. “But then the opportunity with Elite came and I fell in love with acting again.”
Introduced in the fourth season of the cult Netflix drama, which centres on the hedonistic lives of students at a jet-set boarding school, Ríos’s character Patrick wasted no time in blazing an epically destructive trail in the wake of his classmates. From steamy threesomes and drug abuse to family crises and the odd tryst with the father of his on-screen boyfriend, the role of the chaotic gay playboy would propel him to international fame. He left the show in 2022 after three series, before continuing a run in the Netflix canon with the high-stakes medical drama, Breathless. “Now I play a doctor, which is nuts,” he says, laughing, aware of the dramatic change in career tack.
DIOR
Ríos was ultimately drawn to the cast through its tabling of real-world political issues. “People in these professions work many hours and sacrifice so much of their life, and still they are mistreated and don’t have the resources [they need],” he says. “Sometimes it feels like politics and the economy go before the health of the people, and we are really able to talk about that in the show.”
After spending the last few years embodying the archetypal teen heartthrob, the actor is now taking a more purposeful path with the opportunities he’s being offered. “The roles and stories that are coming now are different,” he says of the shift, which he attributes to age as much as his changing tastes. “I don’t want to play the same thing all over again in my career. I want to evolve, that’s why I feel very excited about these upcoming projects. Each of them is so different and shows new sides to me as an actor, but they’re also stories I thought were interesting and ones I’m proud to be part of.”
DIOR
Two of these projects are set to come out this year. The first, Day Drinker, is a tension-filled thriller that marks Ríos’s first international role, where he’s appearing alongside the likes of Penélope Cruz and Madelyn Cline. The actor is effusive when discussing the production, not least because its filming doubled as a reunion with his fellow Elite castmate (and on-screen flame) Arón Piper. “We were so excited to be a part of this, and so grateful too because it’s not like what we’ve done before,” says the actor. “We’re definitely not teenagers anymore, we’re brothers, and things get a lot more serious.”
It seems implausible that, between all this world-building, script learning and rehearsing, Ríos would have the time or energy to work on any other projects. But it’s a testament to his endless ambition that his own workwear label, Carrer, launched alongside his long-term stylist Marc Forné, is now working well into its third year of operations. Though that’s not to say the duo haven’t had their struggles along the way. “For years, we fantasised about doing something of our own, but it was actually very hard to make happen,” says Ríos, detailing the laborious processes involved with launching the brand. “Eventually, it felt like it was time to do it, so it happened in a very organic and fun way. But then you start working and you’re like: ‘Oh fuck, it’s not as easy as it looks.’”
DIOR
Carrer, which translates from the Catalonian word for ‘street’, trades in looks that are immensely pared down. Adhering to the Parisian streetwear tradition of elevating common wardrobe staples with luxe fabrics and loose cuts, Ríos reveals that much of the label’s artistic direction is shaped by the style of his favourite movie villains. “I always think about Jack Nicholson in The Departed,” he says, conjuring visions of muted seersucker sports jackets and the odd, tasteful flash of dark cheetah print. “Less is always more for me.”
The chord that strikes for Ríos in joining these fairly disparate worlds, besides eschewing comfort in the name of style on the design front, is in the role of communicator. “Trying to tell stories and collaborate with artists makes it about more than just the clothes,” he says. The excuse to plunder even more films is always welcome, too, as the actor’s vibrant Letterboxd presence would attest. The film aggregation app is Ríos’s favourite kind of social media; he used to list reviews under his actual name, “but then I became afraid of writing something too harsh about the movies, so I had to change it,” he says with a laugh.
DIOR
Currently nestling at the peak of his top four are the likes of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread, Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, Almodóvar’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and his favourite film of all, Perfect Days. “Each time I see it, I appreciate it even more,” he says of the 2023 Wim Wenders drama about a Japanese toilet cleaner. “I think that’s the whole point of the movie. He’s living this very ordinary, simple life, but every day he’s aware of where he is and so present in the moment, which a lot of us are not. Watching it always reminds me to calm down. It’s precious, and so beautiful.”
The sentiment reflects where Ríos is at currently, grateful for the path he’s trodden, perhaps even ready for a change of pace. “I’m not saying acting is the only thing I’m going to do with my life, I want to expand as much as I can,” he says. “But, you know, if you grow up and you still want it after all that, it’s not a game anymore. It’s a job – and that can be joyful.”
Taken from 10 Men USA Issue 1 – CLASSIC, NOSTALGIA, CRAFT – out April 4th! Order your copy here.
DIOR: MEETING MANU
Photographer PAU CARRETE
Fashion Editor MARC FORNE
Talent MANU RIOS
Text BAILEY SLATER
Movement director MARTA ROS
Hair and grooming BOSCO MONTESINOS
Digital operator JUAN C. MORA
Photographer’s assistant MATEUSZ NASIEROWSKI
Creative assistant ALBERTO MUGUERZA REY
Fashion assistant FABIO MESQUITA
Set designer MARIA CARRETE
Production AURORA MUNOZ at Canada
Producer DIANA C. MILESI at Canada
Special thanks to JOSEPH THORNTON-ALLAN
Clothing and accessories throughout DIOR
DIOR
