Latest / Dos Amigos / “The Audacity to Dream”

Transcript

“The Audacity to Dream” · Dos Amigos

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Oh man, they gave us a podcast, and they gave
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: us a podcast. We are so hello, Hello, here we
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: are and the podcast.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: I'm Freddie Rodriguez.
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: Say my name is my name? My name, I'm Wilmer Valderama.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: I'm very excited for all of you who have been
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: witnessing this union. It feels like it's like a wedding now, no,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: I I just also want to call out to all
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: the fans and and all the supporters of the podcast.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: You know, we're a couple of episodes in now and
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: the feedback has been awesome, you know, and you guys
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: are downloading and that means a lot to us because
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: these conversations as therapeutic as they are for us, yeah,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: so they're also for you.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: It's like a big therapy.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Session, like every dinner and every coffee you and I
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: have ever it is.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're just sort of unloading, you know.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: Ask me how I'm doing.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: How are you I'm tired? You're tired?
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yes, I'm really tired.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: But but but why are you tired? And we had
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: this discussion upstairs, but we're gonna we're gonna open it
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: up to the audience. Where are you tired?
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: You know, I'm tired because I've I've realized that in
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: the growth of some of my entrepreneurial ambitious I realized
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: that I'm only one man. Yes, and I've been really
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: privileged to have like an amazing team, right, Like the
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: department heads of all of our our entire company do
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: a beautiful, effortless job of keeping you know, the dream
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: rolling in different.
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: Hills, you know.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: So, so that's been that's been great. But I'm a
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: little tired because I'm also shooting a full time show.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: I'm shotting a full procedural drama on on CBS, and
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: so in between takes, I'm sending my emails. Between scenes,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: I'm making calls, and lunchtime I'm doing my zooms. And
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: then when I get home, I finish my catchups and
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: I read the scripts that I got to read or
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: whatever it is. Yeah, and then I hang out with
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: my four year old daughter, and you know, and that's
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: kind of how it's been. It's been working, you know,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: But I.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: Don't know how you find the hours in the day. Really,
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: it's impressive, bro, I'm not I'm not just saying that
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: because you're in front of me. I thought I worked
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: hard and then I saw you and I was like,
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: I ain't got sh it on this, No, bro, you.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: Know you know what it is. I think we talk
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: about it all the time.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: It's like, you know, you get an opportunity to do
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: something our families have never done, and you're like, well,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: not only have to really know it, yeah, but I
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: also have to now kind of you know, drive it forward.
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: You know, I have to kind.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Of like, okay, do it in a level that nobody's
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: ever done before. And you know which actually kind of
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: drives us, you know, to to our episode of the week.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: I think a lot about what we've been talking all
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: the way up to now. And you know, yes, if
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: anybody can hear that, it's my washer and dry that's
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: just outside the door.
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: Just didn't just didn't. You know we are and to
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: speak easy. You got you do have to go through
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: the life room.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: You got coffee, you got laundry, I got it tied
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: and downy, we got room keys.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: But without without like strain too far away from the episode.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: One of the things that I was excited to explore
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: today is the audacity to dream something different than our family.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: How and why did we have the you know, last
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: to dream something our parents were so far remove know
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: they were, you know, and and I wanted to explore
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: it because in the last couple of episodes we've gone
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: to know each other's stories before we were even an
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: idea to our family. And you know, the inspirations, the
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: thing that it took.
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: What was that break? You know?
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: But like the mentality, like what multi generational expectation did
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: you have to break to make what we do possible?
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: Like you know what I'm saying, you know, you know
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: where I'm going, and you know, I know we covered
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: a little bit of this in the previous episode, but
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: I think what you're saying is, and this is where
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: both of our families are similar because they came from
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: somewhere else to the United States. Is there's a bit
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: of a one track mind, right, wouldn't you agree a
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: little bit?
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: Right? We're families because they're somewhere else. Right, Your family
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: was in Venezuelan and Colombia, in Puerto Rico, and and uh,
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: you know, there is this mentality of like we're gonna
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: leave this beautiful country landscape weather, uh, and We're going
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: to go somewhere else because that's where the opportunities are, right,
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: And I think that there's a bit of a blueprint
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: that comes with that. Right. Sometimes a blueprint is you
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: go there, you go to school, you get a job,
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: you get married, you have a couple of kids, and
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: that's the way life goes. And that blueprint is to
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: be repeated in some way. And when you deviate from
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: that blueprint is when I guess us we have to
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: ask ourselves what you just said? You know, where do
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: we get the audacity.
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: I mean and bigging back in with what you're saying.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: I think it's a sort of interesting thing to reflect
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: that that our parents were also taught by their their
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: parents and their parents' parents to do enough to survive, right,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: like continue to search and making sure the light stays on.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: Survive is the key word there, right.
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: Like and in our culture, you know, we're we're workers, right,
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: We're you.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Know, we're we are in the beehive, like just working
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: and working and working, you know, and you know, and
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: I think that you know, I think I also wonder
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: there was always thinking my dad. Did my dad think
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: about long terms to build? I don't think he was
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: equipped to understand how to create multi generational wealth or
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: what he was going to.
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: Leave behind right.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: I think he was kind of caught in a web
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: where he just needed to make sure there was enough
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: food on the table and that we had a roof,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: no matter, no matter the cost to himself and my parents'
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: relationship and that of stuff. So it's interesting to think
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: about that, and that's why, like that sacrifice almost made
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: me feel like, oh, that sacrifice.
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: Is being made so I can do something more right, right.
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: And I don't know where along the way I thought
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: that that was what the sacrifice was for, but I
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: quite literally think now as I look back, not just
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: culturally but the trajectory of the Valda Lama family, everything
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: that was done just so it was so.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: We, my sisters and I had a better shot, And like,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: why aren't you gonna do that better shot?
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: I mean, think about it.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: You remember you telling me about your your grandfather, the
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: hard heart is working guy. You got a day off
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: and he's like, I'm gonna help my neighbor paint the.
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: House, right, you know what I mean?
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Like like it's it's like the ever search of just
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: not just being in service, but like affording you.
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: A better step in the ladder, like a little.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: Higher stuffing about it, right, Like to get closer to
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: you know, do you know where I'm going with one percent?
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: And that's a really interesting observation. I think that I
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: don't think i'm speaking abo having my parents too, right.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: I don't think that my parents or my dad, or
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: my uncles or aunts came to Chicago and we're thinking
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: about generational wealth or what to leave behind or any
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: of the things that you just mentioned. I think they
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: were just trying to survive, right, check a check right
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: week per week, maybe save a little bit and go
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: and buy a house, or buy a building, or maybe
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: invest a little here and there. But I think that
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: that was the extent of it. I think that that
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: them us growing up in the States, we started to
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: learn about generational wealth. We started to learn about leaving
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: things behind or leaving stuff behind for our kids. And
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: that's one of the luxuries that we get from living here, right,
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: That that that our that our folks didn't get when
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: they were living where they were living.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: At So so in that same vein, like, what do
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: you think what was the common denominator from for for
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: us to have a different mentality, right, Like, we had
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: to have been aware of the struggle, right, that's number
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: one I would say, like, that's ingredient number one. See
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: our parents struggling to keep it even Yeah, Like maybe
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: that's the ingredient one. But then like what makes you go,
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: I'm going to be this right? And but for us, like,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: look again, we picked a whole artist states get in
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: so so do as we say, not as we did, right,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: But it is a very funny thing to think about, Like,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: you know, Okay, now I'm going to be a little
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: more ambition than ambitious than my parents.
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: But like what made you go, Oh, but I'm going
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: to go that much more ambitious?
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: Right? Yeah? Let me ask you something before you decided
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: to go down this path, were there other things that
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: you were interested in, other professions that you were interested
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: in or interested in pursuing, Like what what were you
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: interested in?
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: So when I first got to the United States at thirteen, yeah, coo,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: so I was about to turn fourteen, but really I
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: was thirteen. I wanted to be a pilot for the
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Air Force. I wanted to fight and f sixteen No way, man.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: I saw those those fighter jets and I was like,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: I want to do that, and I want to do
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: it wearing the American flag on my shoulder.
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: He's like, that's what I want to be.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: I started meeting different people from different branches of the military,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: and I was like, I want to serve, you know.
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: And the other one was psychology.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: Hmm.
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: I was fascinated by strangers.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: I am still very much fascinated by the human mind.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: You know how every decision is based on thousands of echoes,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: of lessons and traumas that shape your instinct every single day,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: And like peeling those layers was fascinating to me, you know,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: And I think that's that's that's that was an interesting
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: thing for me.
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: I mean, I was fascinated by it. I was really
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: intrigued by it. And I think as soon as I
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: become an actor, it's like, oh I.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: Can I can't play I'll play a pilot on TV
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: or a film, and but at the same time, I
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: get to explore individuals, people and all these characters.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: But you don't but you don't think that if you
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: would have gone down the path of becoming a pilot
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: or or or psychology, you don't think that you would
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: have approached that with the same fervor and ambition that
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: you approached acting. So it may be, it may be
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: that that component was in you no matter what, right,
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: and you just happened to choose acting and so then
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: you activated that component in you that made you go
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: further than So this would have been inevitable in whatever
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: profession you would have chosen.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, which, which is kind of what I'm trying to
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: get to, you know, I'm trying to get to what
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: is the common denominator that could really.
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: Be passed on?
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: Like what how do we pass this on to everyone listening?
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: Like how do they relate to this point?
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: And we're trying to make everyone out there it's either
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: carrying the burden of multi generation or inheritance.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Right, some maybe enjoying, right, enjoying what's been passed down,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: right and right. But but but for most people, like
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: like us growing up, we were passed down you know,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: the ability to just like survive, like just do enough
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: to live, you know what I mean, and be a worker,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: you know, work hard work or work as many hours
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: as you can, you know, because that's like that was
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: the way.
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, what about you?
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Did you would you have had a different profession at
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: some point?
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: Do you think?
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: Because I know your family was going in one direction, right,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: your brother.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think back I and I know I've
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: said this a couple of times. I just wasn't you know,
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: I wasn't interested in anything else, Like, there was nothing
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: else I was particularly interested in. And so when I
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: discovered the arts, I think that I think that one,
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: I was born with a certain uh and I'm just
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: ambitious person by nature, and so I think that whatever
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: I would have chosen, if I was passionate about it,
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: I would have approached it with the same ambition and fervor.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: I think that survival, right our our family's position in
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: the United States and their need for survival was injected
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: in me at such a young age, and so there
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: was this there was this do or die attitude. You know,
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: there was this all my eggs that are in one
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: basket attitude because you know, I didn't have a trust fund, right,
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: My family wasn't rich. I didn't have anything to fall
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: back on, and so there was this attitude of like,
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: this is going to work or nothing, buddy, and that's it. Yeah,
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: because I had not I didn't have rich parents, or
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: I didn't have like a rich uncle who was going
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: to leave me a million bucks.
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: You know, do you think that's what's missing from most ingredients.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: So for most recipes to success, the ambition aspect. No,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: what you had just mentioned is like it has to work.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: I have anything else, I want to do nothing else.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: You think that leap and faith in you is what
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Actually it's the ingredient that that that separates you from
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: trying it and doing it?
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: You know, is it? Is it sort of the magic bullet?
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: Is it the magic ingredient?
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: You have to be that delusional to be like, I mean,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: I can't do nothing else?
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: Why else? But why else would you choose a profession
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: where where you just don't know where your next check
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: is coming from? You have to be a tad delusional
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: in order to right and and it and it's you
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: against the two three hundred other people.
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: And we're the first parachute is in our family?
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: Right? Like, yeah, you know, while while you're you know,
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: I've met your your siblings. You know they all are normal.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm like, I like you and I Marilyn and
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: I are pretty crazy.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: No, but they you know, right, they they did what
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: what the parents expected them to do and are doing
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: very well at it. Right. But but we had a
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: certain we had a screw loose uh in there to
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: say I'm gonna.
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: Jump in the ring and this is the only thing
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: I want to do, and this is it.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: So I mean that trigger is something for me because
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: I had made a promise to my parents.
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: Going back to that episode, what we talked about.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: My dad's car was tolen, and I told my dad,
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: don't worry, Dad, I'm gonna be an actor. I'm gonna
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: make this money and I'm gonna have restaurants and i'm gonna,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm gonna we're gonna buy us a house.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: We're never gonna have to pay rent again. That are
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: like all these things that I have promised. I feel
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: like when he gave me permission, like when he said, okay, mayho,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: you can do that, I feel like, oh, not only
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: he gave me permission, Not only he say yes, I
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: could go to soccer practice, you know, to acting class.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: I know, like you could try that. But I feel like, Okay,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: now I have to make this work because.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: You made a promise. Yeah.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: Interesting, you know, I don't know, and I and I
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: think this this hypothesis, this interesting philosophy or equestion.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: So you were being beholden to this thing I had
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: committed you committed.
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, right, I committed.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: I committed to saying this is okay, I got to
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: take care of my family. I'm taking the role of
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: this was fifteen years old, right, I'm like, I'm gonna
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: make sure that we don't have to worry like this again,
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: and then my mom and my dad doesn't have to
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: worry this hard.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: And you're the oldest, right, the oldest. Yeah, so there's
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: also that component being the oldest the two younger sisters,
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: right like right, like you know.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I still think I still I'm still wondering what
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: was that that other thing? Right because you go, okay,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: well I'm gonna be I'm going to be an actor.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: Right I could just learn how to speak English three
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: years before that, right right, right, like I'm going to
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: be an actor and thinking it was just like saying
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: I'm going to be a lawyer, I'm going to be
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: a cop, I'm going to.
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: Be a teacher, like it was just like going to
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: be an actor, like what But.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: But I remember you saying when when you started to
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: tell me that you started acting, I was like, well, Wilmore,
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: did did you do it? When you told me your
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: story about you know, your first auditions, and all that,
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: and I'm like, well, did you do it before? And
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: you were always like, well, I was. I was sort
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: of the class clown. I was sort of this So
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: like you, you you recognize that you had this particular
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: ability way way before you had the audacity of hope. Right,
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: So maybe subconsciously you were like, well, I I was
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: born with an ability to kind of do it. Yeah.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: Maybe that was as opposed to saying I want to
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: be a star? Are I want?
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: You know, there's nothing wrong with that. Yeah, there's nothing
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: wrong with that.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: You know. Uh, you know it's funny, and this is
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: like an awful comparison, but just follow me for a second.
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: I remember reading an article with Michael Jordan and they
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: said they asked him, you know, could could anybody be
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: Michael Jordan? And he said no, people could be at
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: different levels or degrees of Michael Jordan goes, but I
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: was born with a with a very specific ability to
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: do what I do, and and within my journey, I
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: just I just kept developing that thing, that skill that
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: I was born with, you know. And he recognized that
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: really early on, you know, So it could be that
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: you were born with a very specific ability to do
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: something your your subconscious told you that, and you just
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: kind of went with that because because what else would
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: make you go that crazy to put your eggs in
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: that basket? You know what I mean?
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, because I was always in dancing and actings.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: I was six years old, but I did it just
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: because it was mandatory in school, right, Like in Venezuela,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: these classes are mandatory, but you must.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: Have gotten everybody's doing it, but you must have gotten
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: somebody going like hey.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: I mean I saw people laughing, right, probably more than
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: everybody else. Was tasting the fruits of an entertainer. I
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: was like, oh, I'm entertaining high school right right. But
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: but they were not until I came to the United States,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: where I was like, okay, the more acting now I
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: do it in school, the better my English, right right,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: so using it from my English, and then there I
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: was like, hey, you should do some commercials. You make
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: some money here there or whatever. And that's like that's like, wha,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: I can make money doing this thing.
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: I never was thinking I was going to be like successful,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: famous actor like that. The ambition wasn't that I'm going
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: to be the most famous, you know. The ambition was
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: like Oh, I heard that I can make a couple
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: of commercials and make little money, right, and then that
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: turned into the first pilot of you know, the show.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: And but but but A foundation of that was rooted
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: in very early experiences when you were doing it in school.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: And I'm sure everybody I was.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: Subliminately shopping a tool, right, like basically but everybody.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: I'm sure it was getting a laugh. But the laughs
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: and the looks might have been different towards you, because
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: I think that people recognize or might have recognized, an
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: ability that you may not have even recognized in yourself.
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I don't think.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: I don't think I fully comprehended that I maybe was
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: equipped to do it, Yeah, until I started doing it.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: What about you, did you have a moment where you
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: were like, wait, I've never done this before, but it
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: came natural.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I remember I was in the seventh grade and
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: I had a teacher named mister Levine, And like I
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: said in the previous episodes, we had no arts at
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: all at school, and he would he would make it
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: a point that on Fridays he would inject some form
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: of art in the class. And we were having a
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: talent show at our school. Did you guys have talent shows?
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: We were having a talent show. And I don't know
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: how he got this because this was pre internet, but
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: he went and he got a scene from Different Strokes,
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: you know, with Gary Coleman, that TV show, and he
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: must have seen something in me that I didn't see,
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: because he said, look at the talent show, We're going
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: to do the scene from Different Strokes and you're going
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: to play Arnold. And I was seventh it was seventh grade,
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: so I was like twelve, you know, and I was
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: like okay, and so like I got up, and this
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: was at a point in my life when like I
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: just I was just really lost, and I wasn't in sports,
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: I wasn't doing anything really and I got on that
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: stage and I performed the scene from Different Strokes, and
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: I saw the look on everyone's face, and it was
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: the first time that anyone looked at me like I
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: was doing something that was good wow, which I'm sure
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: must be the look that someone gets when they're really
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: good at baseball, when they're really good at basketball, when
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: they're really good at a math paper, when people go, WHOA,
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: you're different, You're good at this thing, and it was
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: the first time anyone looked at me like that. So
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: it had nothing to do with like, oh the applause
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: or like I'm going to be a star.
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: What did that mean to you?
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: I just thought, oh, it's the first time anyone's looked
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: at me like that. Maybe I'm onto something. And then
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: the next year is when this theater company came to
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: my school and I got involved. And part of the
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: motivation for getting involved was that experience I had the
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: year prior, when I was like twelve, you know, so
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: you probably don't remember, but you might have had the
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: same experiences when you were in Venezuela, where people were
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: kind of like, well, well on a second, you know,
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: the arts is a requirement for everybody, but there's something
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: a little a little different about this.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Guy, right, Yeah, No, for sure, I remember a clear
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: moment where I was on stage and I said something
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: and the entire audience started laughing, and I was like, yeah, well,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: I like the way that failed, you.
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: Know, yeah, and I just kind of kept kept kept
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: at it.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: But beyond the feeling you and you're probably your young
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: brain was too young to comprehend, but beyond just the
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: feeling of people laughing at your joke. Maybe subconsciously you
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: were like, oh, I possess a certain natural ability to
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: do this, you understand, It's like something that you were
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: an inherent ability that you were born with, as opposed
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: to like I'm gonna be up there and just make
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: everybody laugh and get all the girls.
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, glasgown is different than like an actual artist. Right.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: If you were to give somebody who is listening to this,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: this this conversation a word of advice to break that
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: like multi generational expect expectance, there is this multi generational
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: inheritance that that says like you got to do the
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: same as your whole family. Like what what advice would
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: you give somebody that says like, dude, like you don't understand, right,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: like like I've ever heard it all the time, right, like,
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: oh you don't understand. Lucky for you for la la
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: la la, it wasn't very lucky for us spirit like
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: you took some interesting stuff, right. But I think to
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: you to your point, like you know, what a word
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: of advice would you give those who are just saying
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: like you know, ah man, easy for somebody else or
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: you don't understand is to.
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: Uh listen to that inner voice inside that's telling you
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: that you possess a particular ability that may not fall
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: in line with what your family expects you to do,
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: you know. And I think that that's where you and
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: I are very similar, right, Like we we at a
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: very young age discovered that we possessed a certain ability
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: and that, maybe not consciously, was the driving factor behind
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: our audacity to hope. Right, And so for any other
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: person that's in a similar position as us, is to
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: have the audacity to hope and to and to go
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: out there and to chase your dream, but to listen
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: to that voice inside of you that's telling you that
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: you're good at this thing, you know, and to give
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: it a shot. Right, I mean you would you say
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: something different?
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: No, No, I think that's a very very important thing
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: to empower.
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: I would also say if I was asked that, you know,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I was listening to your advice. The
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: reason why I was getting pantservice because it really triggered
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: a lot of different things that individuals had to me.
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: That all amount is coming back to. But also there's
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: like a fragment.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Anthem of things that happened that made me go I
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: can do it, right, put me in the driver's seat.
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: Uh.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: You know that the one thing that makes you sit
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: in the front road at the classroom, you know, the
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: thing that makes you go, I'm gonna raise my hand
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: before everybody else. That's the that's the ship right there.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: You gotta like cultivate. That's the stuff right there that
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: you gotta be like pay attention to. You know, if
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: you're the first one to raise your hand, if you're
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: the first one to sit in the front, if you're
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: the first one to turn in your test, you're going
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: to be the first one to be trusted to try.
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: Ah. Right, So that was that's what I would probably
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: tell people.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: Cultivate your your search for excellence and you'll find yourself
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: doing what you love.
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: Cultivate your search for excellence. Cultivate that because it's in
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: the search. It's in how you perfect the search process.
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: You know, that gets you to do what you love.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: Because the more you practice that, the better your attempts,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: the better your product, the better your ideals, your values
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: get shaped into the traits you need to hold success later.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: That's what I would say, right, Like, just obsess over
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: perfecting the art, right you know of manifestation, which is
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: like I went aisle. If somebody says we need a volunteer,
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: you don't raise your hand, you walk up right.
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: That there's a difference between like all volunteer.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: See if they pick me right and I need a volunteer,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: and I'm gonna walk right up and just you.
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: Know, there's there's a difference. Right.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: Remember in the first couple of usas we're talking about
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: like you know, one hundred percent of the actors, you know,
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: like fifty percent are gonna do this. You know, the
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: other forty percent is going to do that five percent
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: is going to do, you know, something they think is different,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: and then that other five percent is going to approach
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: it in.
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: A way that feels like this is an attraction.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: I gotta watch somebody make this choice, right, So I
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: think for me to you know, just kind of piggyback,
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: and what you're triggered to me is that I would say,
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: if somebody asks for a volunteer, you don't raise your
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: hands say I'm down. You walk up and say it's
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: me right, right, So you start perfecting the the art
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: of being audacious about Yeah, that's you're going.
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: To be trusted. You'll be the first one to be
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: trusted to do what you want to do.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: But it's how much you upsess over the process of
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: perfecting the art of it that is kind of make
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: you give you the ability to hold on to that opportunity, right,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: And it's not getting the opportunity, it's about holding it right, right,
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: because hard work and give you the opportunity. Right, hard
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: work and working on your craft is going to give
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: you the opportunity. But it's it's how landless you're going
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: to be about holding it. That's where the hard work,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: you know, comes in.
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: What do you think? What do you think about that?
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I see what you're saying. And when that moment
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: of truth happens, you know, I can't even begin to
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: tell you how many jobs I've gotten because like I
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: get in the room with somebody and I'm like, no,
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: this is this is me, Like this is my you
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: know something about I don't know what the confidence that
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: that that I bring to to knowing the character or
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: the project or whatever, that that kind of put me
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: over the edge, you know, because the person on the
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: other side wants to feel confident and comfortable that they're
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: hiring someone who really understands the material and the project
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: and it's going to deliver, right, So there's a certain
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: confidence and that that I've walked in with And is.
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: That kind of what you're saying?
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: Holding that and the confidence come from you know, you
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: have done the work right, So you're not going to
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: volunteer by walking all the way up. Yeah, if you
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: don't feel like I'm going to pull this off, right.
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: You know, it's not as soon as I missed, you
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: know what I mean?
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: Dude?
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: You know, so that's that's kind of how it works.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: But but anyways, thank you for it. Indo me in
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: that I think this was this was kind of a
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: fun one too, you know, as we start leading into
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: this this you know, the you know, the the other
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: explorations of this show. I'm very excited to eventually have
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: a you know, have a guest here. I get someone
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: that you know, maybe reflects and another expertise that you
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: and I are like, oh, man, tell me more about aliens.
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: I want to get through the alien episode.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: The alien episode.
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: That's what I want. Give me what I want. I
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: want an alien episode.
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but it'll be interesting.
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: So like here, I'm pretty sure any any other actor
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: or whatever, like who's worth their weight in salt have
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: had very similar experiences like that, right who have who
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: come up to their sort of moment of truth of like,
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: oh wait a minute, there's something there that I was
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: born with that I'm going to continue.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: Then you cultivate into an art form, you cultivate into
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: a service, you cultivate into.
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: You know, to a product and you package it and
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: people you know, you.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: Remember DJ Am, Yeah, I do remember DJ So he
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: was one of my best friends. And Am and I
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: would talk about this stuff late night all the time, really,
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: and he said to me, do something, No, find something,
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: he said, find something that.
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: You love to do so much that you would do.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: It for free and then get somebody to pay you
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: for it.
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah, he was man the inventor of like the mash.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, he's sweet Home Alabama with Biggie.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: I mean, come on, man, Like he's such an incredible DJ.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: And we miss him because he was a pioneer. He
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: would have been the guy with a residence yead Abiza.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: He would have been the guy who would have been
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: doing all the radio hits with all the artists like
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: cause he was.
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: He was a mentor to so many DJs. You know.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: Steve Oki was one of his you know, his friends,
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: and and he you know, he really helped Steve you know,
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: find that groove and then Steve Aoki took it to
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: a whole different universe.
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: Right. It was performative aspect everything and all that.
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: And shout out to you know, Steve Oki, because that's
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: my brother right there. You know, many many moons together
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: as well. But but yeah, I think am When he
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: said that, I was like, oh, that's interesting. Yeah, what
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: is it that you love to do so much that
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: you'll do for free and then somehow find somebody to
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: pay you for it?
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: That's the dream, right.
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: I worked with the Hughes brothers before, and I remember
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: them telling me that I guess they went to some
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: form of either film school. I mean, you know, they
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: did that movie Menic Society when they were like nineteen
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: years old, so this must have been when they were
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: super young, you know, maybe fifteen or something. But they
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: were in some film class. I don't know if it
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: was film school or a class at their school or something.
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: I remember them telling me that they almost failed, they
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: almost got an F because they they were so sure
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: of what their abilities were, the abilities that they were
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: born with, that that they were almost like, you know,
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: beyond what they were being taught in the class. And
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: so the teacher would assign certain assignments to everyone in class,
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: and they just wouldn't do it. And at a certain
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: point the teacher recognized them and their abilities and allowed
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: and and sort of altered the program to fit them
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: and their abilities, you know. And shortly after that they
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: went and they did medicine, society and and the rest
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: is history. But again going back to what we were
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: talking about about recognizing these sometimes people were just born
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: with certain abilities, you know, and you have to and
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: you have to master those abilities. You have to follow
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: that voice in the back of the eard had telling
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: you you were born with a with an ability to
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: do this.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: Well, I feel incredibly inspired by that. Well, right, I
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: hope that everyone enjoyed this episode. I hope that you
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: found a little inspiration and what we're here to do.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: And uh, I think the next episode should be about
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: a secret topic.
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: A secret topic.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I have an idea, I have any idea. I
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: guess you'll have to tune into the next episode and
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: into the next episode see how see how he goes.
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: I'm Freddi Rodriguez and I'm Wilmer Valderama Amigos Podcasts. Salute
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: Those Amigos is a production from WV Sound and iHeartMedia's
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: Michael through That podcast Network, hosted by Me, Freddie Rodriguez
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: and wilmri Valdorama.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: Those Amigos is produced by Aaron Burlson and Sophie Spencer's Abbews.
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: Our executive producers are Wilmrivaldorama, Freddie Rodriguez, Aaron Burlson and
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: Leo at WV Sound.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: This episode was shot and edited by Ryan Posts and
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: Max by Sean Tracy and features original music by Madison
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: Devenport and Halo Boy.
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: Our cover art photography is by David Avalos and designed
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: by Deny Holtzclaw and.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: Thank you for being a third Amigo today. I appreciate
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: you guys always listening to those Amiingos.
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: For more podcasts from my Heart, visit the ir Heart
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: favorite shows.
• 35:25
  Speaker 3: See you next week.