A profile of Peña revealed that for every film he's cast in, he asks the writers to include a reference to his character being Mexican-American at some point. Peña related that since he gets to mainly play characters who are not stereotypes & clichés, but are smart, funny, and have good/interesting jobs, he loves the fact that mentioning his own heritage in that context will be a source of pride to Mexican-American fans who go to his films.