Guatemalan-born American actor and folk singer Oscar Isaac will star in the upcoming film "X-Men: Apocalypse," but in the meantime, the talent sat down with NBC News' Pop Latino Raul Reyes to discuss his past and the sci-fi flicks, "Ex Machina" and "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."

The Cuban-Guatemalan actor quickly discussed emigrating from Guatemala when he was a child, and relocating to Baltimore, then Miami before he moved to New York City to attend the prestigious Julliard School. Also, he disclosed that in a recent tour of his homeland, the actor performed with a fellow Guatemalan folk singer, Gaby Moreno, before he addressed his role as Nathan in "Ex Machina" and "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."

"I can't express enough, how enthusiastic I am about this movie, it was a small labor of love. It was a small independent film ... low budget but with very high, big budget ideas," Issac said. "Alex Garland wrote it and directed it. He's written some great things, '28 Days Later,' 'The Beach' and 'Sunshine'."

Issac continued, "['Ex-Machina'] does what the best sci-fi does, it takes the idea --whether it be aliens or spaceships-- and this case artificial intelligence, robots and creating sentient machines, and relates it to our existence now. What it means to have consciousness. If you were going to create an artificial brain, you'd have think about what it means to be self-aware? Is it special? Do you need a body? Does self-aware consciousness have gender? So all of these questions come in the form of this intense psychological thriller."

The film itself centers on a young programmer, Caleb Smith, who is chosen by a company lottery to meet and visit his company's CEO, Nathan, at his secluded home in the mountains. The CEO compels Caleb to spend a week performing a Turing Test on a humanoid artificial intelligence named Ava. During this process, Caleb becomes infatuated with Ava's capacity to learn, and he learns that the situation is not what it may seem.

In the upcoming film "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," due to be released Dec. 18, Issac will portray Poe Dameron. During the interview, told Reyes that he credits his family for how far he's come. Also, on telling his uncle about obtaining a role in "Star Wars," his uncle nearly threw up.

"[My uncle] almost passed out. And then I ended up bringing him to set, and [J.J. Abrams] made him an extra in the movie. In the trailer, you see a little circle of a blurry person, and he's like, 'That's me!'" Issac told Reyes.

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