Seeing Double? 'Narcos' Actor Playing El Chapo Appears at Trial

Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, left, and Alejandro Edda, right. (Photos: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement/YouTube)

The trial of Mexican druglord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán has provided more than its fair share of drama, from tales of escaping authorities while naked to the extracurricular activities of defense attorneys. Add a cameo by the actor playing El Chapo on Netflix to the list of memorable moments.

Alejandro Edda, who portrays El Chapo in "Narcos: Mexico," was in the Brooklyn courtroom gallery on Monday, Jan. 28. The New York Daily News reports that the actor arrived well before 6 a.m. in order to secure a seat. Edda was on a break from filming the Netflix show and was staying at a nearby Airbnb.

El Chapo's lawyers had let their client know that Edda was in the courtroom, and the kingpin turned in his chair at the defense table to smile and wave at the actor. "I didn't smile back," Edda told The New York Times. "I was just paying respect to him."

Edda also shook hands with the defense team that day, and greeted El Chapo's wife Emma Coronel Aispuro with a kiss on the cheek in the hallway during a mid-morning break.

According to The New York Post, Edda was overheard joking with the defense team about who would play whom in a big-screen story about El Chapo. “I got Clooney,” attorney Eduardo Balarezo told Edda, before turning to co-counsel William Purpura and suggesting, "And you've got Pacino."

It's possible that El Chapo would demand casting approval. Alex Cifuentes, who calls himself the druglord's "right hand man," testified earlier in the trial that El Chapo was interested in making a biopic about himself in 2007. A producer from Colombia was hired and a book tie-in was considered.

Outside the courthouse, Edda told reporters he believed the kingpin should be convicted. "Oh, I think he’s guilty. There’s many, many horrendous things that he did. The sad part is I know he’s not the only one. I know that not only the Sinaloan guys are the bad guys, there are many bad guys around us."

Netflix knows firsthand about those bad guys. In September 2017, "Narcos" location scout Carlos Munoz Portal was found north of Mexico City fatally shot in his car. According to The Los Angeles Times, the newspaper El Pais was the first to report Munoz's death, running the headline, "Violence in Mexico surpasses fiction."

The jury in the El Chapo case has begun deliberations.