Michael Peña is right at the career juncture where a character actor breaks into full-fledged movie stardom, where an oh-it’s-that-guy graduates to household name status.

The actor has logged over two decades of uniformly serviceable work in films of wildly varying quality, from straight-faced ensemble appearances in Oscar contenders like Crash, American Hustle and The Martian to comedic turns in other people’s star vehicles, such as Tower Heist and 30 Minutes or Less. Recently, however, he’s moved to the fore as a nonchalant everyman type easily cast in projects with a broader reach. He was the secret weapon of Ant-Man and returned to steal even more scenes in the recently released sequel, but this week brought him the official signpost of mainstream success in the film industry: a leading role in a big-budget, effects-heavy sci-fi epic. He stars in Netflix’s Extinction as a man haunted by recurring nightmares of an alien attack, until one day, his visions become a violent reality. (Let’s just say that not all is as it seems, and leave it at that.)

Perhaps the secret to Peña’s success is that his easygoing-dude schtick is no act; he likes hanging out with his son more than hobnobbing with A-list elites and seems entirely comfortable busting out a Bob Dylan quote at a moment’s notice. Across a far-reaching phone call, the ascendant actor offered his thoughts on pirate dreams, molding a character around a big twist, and the trials he faced as a Latino actor looking to gain a foothold in the biz.

Do you believe in extraterrestrial life, out there among the stars?

Aw, I don’t know, dude! It’s hard to see anything that you’re not a part of. Maybe there is. What do you think?

I think if there are aliens, they’re not gonna be invaders. They’ll be nice, like ET or David Bowie in The Man Who Fell to Earth.

It’s like this: as big of a universe we have, are we not the aliens? Our galaxy is huge enough that there must be life forces, whatever you want to call them, somewhere out there.

Your character can’t shake this nightmare of an alien invasion – do you have any weird recurring dreams?

Yeah, you know what: for ages, I had this dream that I was on a pirate ship, and I’d get cut in half. I had no idea why that kept popping up. In the dream, getting cut in half never hurts, I’d keep on fighting. There’s nothing in there based on the reality of what scares me, but it kept coming back.

They say these sorts of things are symbolic, right?

The only thought I have is that it’s about searching for treasure, that I might be looking for something. But I don’t know what that’d be.

Extinction was pulled from the schedule right before its release and sold from Universal to Netflix. How’d you get that news, and how’d you take it?

I just knew that when we stopped shooting, with all the CGI, I thought that there was no way we would make the initial release date. There was a lot of special effects stuff to be added in post-production. I’ve been on enough sets to know that doing CGI right takes a lot of time and effort. Then, pushing a release date is always tricky, because you can’t just put it on whatever weekend you feel like. You don’t want it too close to another sci-fi movie.

I heard Netflix has billions of dollars in acquisitions, and they’re really into sci-fi. Look at Bright, which I think was going to go to Warner Brothers until Netflix outbid them, and then it turned out to be a hit for them. I think David Ayer is working on Bright part two right now. I watch a lot of sci-fi on Netflix. There’s something kind of futuristic about getting new high-quality movies right on your television.

Without giving too much away – there’s a big twist in the final act – was it difficult to balance how your character is seen prior to the big reveal and then after?

Yeah, man, I know what you mean. Reading the script at first, I didn’t really know how I was going to do it. I love that third act, that’s really what drew me to the script. With movies, I can usually see the ending coming, and with this one, I just couldn’t see it. There are clues to how it’ll end, but the writer covered them up so well that I wasn’t able to identify them. I’m that annoying guy, always telling my wife what’s going to happen during movies. She’s like: “Come on! Be quiet!” That’s why me and my son see a lot of movies together, we’re the same way.

I noticed you’ve done some voice work in children’s movies lately. Have you been looking for opportunities to give your kid something to watch?

Yeah, exactly. I watch a lot of movies with my kid, and when he laughs at someone else’s character or jokes, I want to be a part of that. I get a little bit jealous! It feels really good to be a part of something my son’s watching.

Something your son probably won’t be seeing – you’re going to be on the new season of Narcos. Can you give us the lowdown on your character?

I play Kiki Camarena, who’s based on a real-life figure. He was a DEA agent in the mid-80s, when the DEA was in its infant stages. He goes out to Mexico to try to make a difference, and he sees things coming to a head, tensions forming that would eventually grow into the cartel system.

Italian American groups sometimes object to gangster movies on the grounds that they perpetuate negative stereotypes. Is there any equivalent with Latino Americans and narco fiction?

No, not that I know of. This is based on a true story, so that keeps it all pretty simple.

I feel like there’s a lack of visible Latino and Latina talent in the kind of blockbuster-scaled movies like Ant-Man that you’ve broken into. Do you get that sense yourself, and does it create any pressure to be a representative for the community?

The thing is, I started acting about 23 years ago, and it was very tough to get an audition, let alone a part. There are these things called “breakdowns” where they give character descriptions and outline who can audition for them. I still have some of these, where the first 10 would be Caucasian, so only Caucasians could audition for them.

That’s legal?

Twenty-three years ago, that’s just the way it was. It would be around the 12th character down the line where it was open to other ethnicities, and that’s all I had to go on. It was difficult for me to break through, because nine times out of 10, it was some gangster or whatever. Now, though, I don’t have such a pessimistic viewpoint about it all. The way that I’m seeing it, things are changing and becoming better all the time. I’m glad I can be a part of that. I want to keep on changing the status quo. It’s good to want change, but only if you’re willing to be part of that change. Be active, instead of just talking about it. I try not to complain. Instead, I just keep on finding interesting projects.

We’ve got Jennifer Lopez, Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Guillermo del Toro, Diego Luna – I don’t know how many – really coming up through the business. Is the situation perfect? No. But it’s like Bob Dylan said, the times they are a-changin’. We gotta stay proactive.

Superhero movies remain the biggest draw right now; I see your Ant-Man role as the entry to this uppermost level of the industry. Having talked about coming up as a younger actor just now, do you get a sense of perspective about your career?

Not really. I see a lot of friends that have had good spells, they’re hot for a certain time, and then it goes away for them. The entertainment business is all dependent on whether people like your stuff or not. Ant-Man was one character, but the question is always what comes after that. For me, I’m just trying to do good work so that I may keep on doing good work. I think more about looking out for directors and producers with good material, like, are they looking at me? Will they hire me? Ask me this again in five or six years, we’ll see where I am.

• Extinction is available on Netflix from 27 July