"Breaking Bad" alumnus Raymond Cruz appeared on Monday's episode "Gloves Off" of AMC's "Better Call Saul" and he admitted that the cameo was no easy feat. The thrilling scene between Mike (Jonathan Banks) and Tuco Salamanca, Cruz's character, happened after Mike was assigned to assassinate Tuco.
Spoiler alert: since murdering a drug kingpin would attract more enemies from the cartel, Mike opted to stage an accident between him and Cruz which led to the latter's character going behind bars. The 54-year-old actor's challenging scene on "Better Call Saul" was not met without preparation.
Cruz landed more than 100 punches on Mike which was apt for Tuco Salamanca's violent character.
"Shooting it was vicious," Cruz said, "Maybe 120 punches."
"They're yelling, 'Just keep throwing them! Just keep throwing them!' And I'm trying not to hit Jonathan," he added. "You have to be careful for that stuff. But you want to sell it. You want it to look real. There's a special kind of violence with Tuco. It's not normal. It's exaggerated. It's more vicious."
Cruz says that 12 to 14 hours of intense shooting depletes the actor of his energy.
"Playing Tuco is exhausting," he says. "By the end of the day, 12-14 hours later, you feel like you've run up a bunch of hills. It's super exhausting. Physically, mentally, emotionally."
However, this is not the first time Cruz portrayed the crazy side of Salamanca on television. Before "Better Call Saul," he was the main villain in "Breaking Bad" seven years ago and he is no newbie when it comes to injuries that come with his role on the set. He says that he almost broke his nose during "Breaking Bad's" first ever episode.
"I almost broke my nose on the first episode. I wear these boxing gloves around my neck and they have weight to them. When we did the fight scene they swung up and hit me right in the face and broke off the chain - that's how hard it hit me," Cruz said.
"I strained a tendon in my left arm from when I was carrying the guy at the beginning. The gun must have weighed about 190 pounds. I try to stay in the best physical shape that I can because I do most of my own stunts. It looks amazing if you can do it, but I don't advocate it because you always get injured," he added.
As far as the "Better Call Saul" story goes, Tuco Salamanca lands in prison for five to 10 years before getting back into the cartel business. The next episode will air on Monday, 10 p.m. EST.
