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Transcript

“Inspirations Part 1” · Dos Amigos

0:09
Speaker 1: Welcome back to those amigos with Freda Rodriguez and yours
0:14
Speaker 1: truly when my mother, Ama, well, what do you uh,
0:17
Speaker 1: what are we doing here? What is this thing that
0:20
Speaker 1: we continue to sit on?
0:21
Speaker 2: You know, still a little coffee? Are we gonna move
0:23
Speaker 2: on to something else?
0:25
Speaker 3: I don't know. I think we're gonna have to spice
0:26
Speaker 3: us up a little bit. Spice it up, man, spice
0:28
Speaker 3: it up.
0:28
Speaker 2: With our good friend there, Aaron was good.
0:32
Speaker 3: Uh, everything is everything.
0:34
Speaker 1: I am just having a great time listening to you
0:36
Speaker 1: all reflect on life and everything in between.
0:39
Speaker 3: And thank you for being here.
0:40
Speaker 1: Aaron is one of our executive producers here whose whose
0:44
Speaker 1: knowledge for conversation is in incomparable. So we're so grateful
0:50
Speaker 1: to you here with us here, and you know it lead
0:52
Speaker 1: us into our next conversation next Chad. You know, you
0:55
Speaker 1: know I will be you know I would be fullished
0:59
Speaker 1: in our point out. That has been such a privilege
1:02
Speaker 1: to get to know you on such a level. And
1:04
Speaker 1: you know, it's crazy we know each other so well,
1:07
Speaker 1: and every episode we dig deeper on the roots of
1:11
Speaker 1: how this all really happened, and it continued to validates
1:15
Speaker 1: why I think you're such a special human being that
1:17
Speaker 1: I'm so proud that it show can you know, introduced
1:19
Speaker 1: to so many people too, and and you know, and
1:22
Speaker 1: to give like some of our existing friends and family
1:25
Speaker 1: and just you know, maybe some of our fans, you know,
1:28
Speaker 1: a window at what it took for us to get
1:30
Speaker 1: to their homes or to the theaters, you know, and
1:34
Speaker 1: and so that's fun. And as we think about that,
1:37
Speaker 1: you know, I think about inspiration.
1:42
Speaker 3: What is this inspiration?
1:43
Speaker 1: We talked about our breaks, you know, we talked about
1:46
Speaker 1: what it took there, the mentality that we had to
1:48
Speaker 1: have to go into these rooms and conquer Goliath in
1:52
Speaker 1: different ways and not know that we were actually performing
1:56
Speaker 1: at that level and giving ourselves that great in that
2:00
Speaker 1: space to kind of appreciate that trajectory from you and
2:02
Speaker 1: from me. But there's a lot of inspiration that had
2:06
Speaker 1: to be around us, I would think, right, I would
2:08
Speaker 1: think that we would have to have had certain images,
2:10
Speaker 1: certain individuals that did it first perhaps, or individuals that
2:14
Speaker 1: you know that somehow, you know, we're along the way
2:17
Speaker 1: that kind of helped us see a deeper version of
2:21
Speaker 1: ourselves or more I don't know, a vulnerable yet powerful
2:25
Speaker 1: version of ourselves. And you know, there's a lot of
2:28
Speaker 1: people I believe in my career that I can look
2:31
Speaker 1: back at, well, I mean who was my inspiration who
2:34
Speaker 1: told me that I could too? So for you, like,
2:37
Speaker 1: what were some of those images, What were some of
2:39
Speaker 1: those individuals that you were like, oh, that's like me,
2:42
Speaker 1: or like oh I can do it like them, or
2:44
Speaker 1: even if that wasn't it just like just knowing that
2:47
Speaker 1: the possibility was, you know, was was out there for
2:51
Speaker 1: you to reach out to, Like who were some of
2:52
Speaker 1: these images when some of these people that inspire you?
2:54
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, you know, for me growing up in Chicago
2:57
Speaker 4: and having two older brothers, I was lucky enough to
3:00
Speaker 4: almost live their teenage years vicariously do them right, And
3:04
Speaker 4: so we would you know, we lived in a in
3:06
Speaker 4: a one television household with like a lot of Latino families. Oh, absolutely,
3:14
Speaker 4: the dials, the hangar as, the pliers to like change
3:19
Speaker 4: the channel. But I remember really early on watching TV
3:23
Speaker 4: with my brothers and them pointing out, always pointing out
3:26
Speaker 4: who the Latino Latino actors are, right, I mean.
3:29
Speaker 3: We obviously grew up with like with the Rita.
3:32
Speaker 4: Morenos of the world, with the Anthony Quinns of the world.
3:35
Speaker 3: You know people like that.
3:36
Speaker 4: I remember vividly, like Jimmy Smith's being on TV and
3:40
Speaker 4: my brothers pointing.
3:41
Speaker 3: Out, like, yo, that guy's Latino.
3:43
Speaker 4: You know. I remember seeing East SiGe Morales in the
3:46
Speaker 4: in the in the eighties. I remember seeing Andy Garcia
3:50
Speaker 4: in the nineties when he first came out and what
3:52
Speaker 4: a what an incredible movie star he was, right, I mean,
3:56
Speaker 4: it was the first time I had ever really seen
3:58
Speaker 4: someone like that and and speak Spanish and like a
4:01
Speaker 4: like a major.
4:02
Speaker 1: Blockbuster studio movie, you even play other ethnicities, right, but yeah.
4:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, right, playing playing Italian and The Godfather or
4:11
Speaker 4: the Untouchables, you know. And then I remember seeing Leguzamo,
4:15
Speaker 4: our mutual friend John Leguizamo. And the reason why John
4:19
Speaker 4: resonated a lot with me was, you know, seeing Jimmy
4:23
Speaker 4: who was so classy and or or Andy who was
4:29
Speaker 4: born in Cuba, like John, was one of the first
4:32
Speaker 4: guys that I saw that I felt like I could
4:35
Speaker 4: see that guy in my neighborhood. You know, there was
4:38
Speaker 4: a deeper familiarity with him, and so I remember watching
4:42
Speaker 4: him and following him closely and really being proud of
4:46
Speaker 4: what he was doing and also giving me the inspiration
4:49
Speaker 4: and an example of what I could do when I started.
4:53
Speaker 1: And how different, right, I mean, he was such a
4:55
Speaker 1: different type of performer and he was doing it.
4:58
Speaker 3: Like nobody else was.
5:00
Speaker 1: He allowed himself to be a different type of performer
5:03
Speaker 1: that was bringing something to the table that was not going.
5:06
Speaker 3: To be forgotten.
5:07
Speaker 1: Every perform you remember every performance, yeah, I mean even
5:10
Speaker 1: as like all the way to like the clown and spawn, right,
5:14
Speaker 1: Like he's done so much iconic stuff to that point,
5:17
Speaker 1: and then he does the clown and you're like what
5:20
Speaker 1: you know, but he was taking shots and he was
5:22
Speaker 1: taking chances with his performances and his choices that just
5:25
Speaker 1: most actors wouldn't, you know. And you know some people
5:29
Speaker 1: would be afraid to do it, to do those too
5:31
Speaker 1: well because they could get typecasts, you know.
5:33
Speaker 3: And he was just one of those guys.
5:36
Speaker 1: And he was unapologetically Latino the entire time at a
5:41
Speaker 1: time where Latino wasn't necessarily the popular cast.
5:45
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, and wasn't afraid to be a character actors scrappier,
5:50
Speaker 4: yeah yeah, And came from that generation of what we
5:53
Speaker 4: were talking about this earlier, of like character actors, you know,
5:56
Speaker 4: like creating characters and voices and completely losing yourself and
6:00
Speaker 4: the character. And he definitely embodied that. You know what
6:04
Speaker 4: about you, I mean, you know you you came here
6:06
Speaker 4: as a teenager, and this is pre internet, pre cable.
6:10
Speaker 4: I would assume like, what was I mean, what were
6:12
Speaker 4: you watching out in Venezuela that that inspired you, that
6:17
Speaker 4: made you think that it was possible for you.
6:19
Speaker 1: So in Venezuela, you know, Venezuela is like always ten
6:22
Speaker 1: years late to get like new programming. So my collective
6:28
Speaker 1: archives of television memories, Yes, it was crazy until I
6:36
Speaker 1: was watching first of all, I Love Lucy in Spanish,
6:40
Speaker 1: course in Spanish, in Spanish, which by the way, I
6:43
Speaker 1: never knew he had an accent until I watched it
6:45
Speaker 1: in English and in the United States.
6:47
Speaker 2: So wait, wait, so what did it sound like? How
6:49
Speaker 2: did he sound in Spanish?
6:51
Speaker 1: He sounded like the entire cast was speaking in Spanish.
6:54
Speaker 1: It was not in Spanish. None of them had accents. Huh, right,
6:58
Speaker 1: so they were speaking Spanish.
6:59
Speaker 3: Yeah.
7:00
Speaker 1: So when I came to the United States and then
7:02
Speaker 1: I was learning how to speak English, I went back
7:04
Speaker 1: because I've seen every episode of I Love Lucy, and
7:06
Speaker 1: when I started watching I Love Lucy again, I realized, oh,
7:10
Speaker 1: wait a minute, that's what Lucy both sounds.
7:12
Speaker 3: Like, and he has an accent, right, and I didn't
7:16
Speaker 3: know that.
7:17
Speaker 2: Huh.
7:17
Speaker 1: So that was a magical moment for me. When I
7:19
Speaker 1: heard his accent. I was like, oh, that's like me.
7:23
Speaker 1: I have an accent. I just learned how to speak English.
7:26
Speaker 1: I have an accent too. But you know, beyond that,
7:28
Speaker 1: back and when it's well that we were watching stuff
7:30
Speaker 1: from you know, there was a live action Spider Man
7:33
Speaker 1: from the seventies or in the early eighties, you know
7:36
Speaker 1: whatever there was, you know, lu Forarigno's Hole, Charlie's Angels,
7:40
Speaker 1: you know, chips. I wanted to be punched so bad,
7:44
Speaker 1: you know, you know, and you think about all those shows,
7:48
Speaker 1: you know further, and then you kind of had a
7:50
Speaker 1: collect every think like the Simpsons were playing and like
7:52
Speaker 1: The Fresh Prince, you know, shows like that that were like,
7:56
Speaker 1: you know, obviously making its way into syndication around the world. Literally,
7:59
Speaker 1: did I know the syndication was created by the one
8:02
Speaker 1: guy that didn't have an accent and then eventually had
8:04
Speaker 1: an accent when I watched him in English and the
8:06
Speaker 1: United States, and that was Ricky Ricardo.
8:08
Speaker 3: Leasi Ernest.
8:09
Speaker 2: I didn't know he created Syndication.
8:11
Speaker 1: Yes, he was the He was the guy who who said, Hey,
8:14
Speaker 1: I'm gonna show with one more than one cameras and
8:16
Speaker 1: we're going to record it, right and once they recorded it,
8:19
Speaker 1: this thing was available for sale internationally everywhere. So he
8:23
Speaker 1: accident to create it, the Syndication in the multi camp
8:27
Speaker 1: format and you know that that entire thing, you know,
8:30
Speaker 1: and and they owned it, you know. So so those
8:33
Speaker 1: are the kind of inspirations that I grew up with,
8:35
Speaker 1: like The Punch, you know, I grew up with Chico
8:39
Speaker 1: and The Man, you know USA, you know. So these
8:43
Speaker 1: were shows that like somehow was creating the solution that
8:48
Speaker 1: we were also included pop culture. You come to America
8:52
Speaker 1: and start watching TV and you realize that it's leaning
8:54
Speaker 1: away in the other side, which is fine, right, Like
8:58
Speaker 1: I didn't see anything wrong with it until I realized
9:02
Speaker 1: what America really looked like and what was really reflected
9:05
Speaker 1: on those stories, right, I never really knew you know,
9:08
Speaker 1: where we were in that in that in that inclusion meter,
9:11
Speaker 1: you know, did you feel like they were did you
9:15
Speaker 1: feel like when you were in Venezuela that they were
9:17
Speaker 1: specifically showing those shows because they were latinos in it. No,
9:21
Speaker 1: I think that they were selling contact around the world,
9:24
Speaker 1: and I think that the things that were really popular
9:26
Speaker 1: in the United States were an easy cell for international markets, right,
9:30
Speaker 1: and you know, they were also selling like packages, you know,
9:33
Speaker 1: like maybe CBS Corps at the time, We're sending all
9:36
Speaker 1: their CBS sitcoms, you know, and then we're selling them
9:38
Speaker 1: across the world. I don't know what some of those
9:40
Speaker 1: factors playing in that time, but I was growing up
9:42
Speaker 1: with that. And then when it came to movies, you know, Rocky,
9:47
Speaker 1: you know, Cobra everything still yeah, you know, Conan Terminator,
9:53
Speaker 1: you know, everything are no right, like in our countries
9:55
Speaker 1: and back in in Latin America, these movies action movies
9:59
Speaker 1: were the ones that they played every weekend in TV,
10:02
Speaker 1: you know, on TV.
10:04
Speaker 3: So these were some of these images.
10:06
Speaker 1: But I mean to me, these characters, you know, were
10:09
Speaker 1: larger than live but they were capable, and there was
10:11
Speaker 1: like these single mission guys. Yeah, Arnold's Commando, you know, like.
10:16
Speaker 2: Commando, you know, all these things.
10:18
Speaker 1: You know, you watch all the Godfathers in Spanish, you know,
10:21
Speaker 1: and yeah, was.
10:22
Speaker 2: It always in Spanish?
10:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, because we're watching free channels.
10:26
Speaker 1: Right, there was only two channels, Karakas and Venevicion, and
10:30
Speaker 1: they syndicate all this stuff.
10:32
Speaker 2: You know.
10:32
Speaker 1: During the weekends, they would play The Extorcists, the Rocky movies. Yeah,
10:37
Speaker 1: they played Superman, the Christopher Reeve movies, right every weekend.
10:42
Speaker 3: And in the movie theaters.
10:43
Speaker 1: We had a tiny little movie theater on the weekends
10:45
Speaker 1: and we had only RoboCup, like robo We played Robo
10:49
Speaker 1: cup all year round in the movie theater, you know.
10:52
Speaker 1: But you know again, so these were some of the influences.
10:54
Speaker 1: And I think Punch, yeah, Dessi or Naz for me,
10:58
Speaker 1: we're like, oh, Punch is like it's like a hero,
11:01
Speaker 1: you know what I mean.
11:02
Speaker 3: It's like out there catching the bad guys.
11:04
Speaker 1: Desi er Nas wearing a suit, is playing music at
11:07
Speaker 1: a life band, and you know, he started doing a
11:09
Speaker 1: scene with John Wayne, He's doing a cameo on the show.
11:12
Speaker 4: You know.
11:12
Speaker 3: It's like I was like, how cool is that? You know?
11:15
Speaker 1: And so I think those things really inspire me and
11:18
Speaker 1: started like opening my mind. But never, never, as I
11:22
Speaker 1: was growing up, ever thought that I'd be one of
11:25
Speaker 1: these guys that eventually could create something that could maybe
11:29
Speaker 1: outlive me.
11:30
Speaker 3: Does it?
11:31
Speaker 4: Does it ever freak you out that, like, you know,
11:35
Speaker 4: you just described your childhood, you describe what you were
11:38
Speaker 4: watching like you're that guy now, like you're you're Eric
11:42
Speaker 4: Estrada now right to this next generation of kids in
11:47
Speaker 4: Venezuela and Colombia all.
11:49
Speaker 2: Through the world. You know, does that ever? Do you
11:51
Speaker 2: ever think about that?
11:52
Speaker 1: I never, I've never really take a moment to I
11:55
Speaker 1: can appreciate the fact that what I've done somehow, I've
11:58
Speaker 1: made it out there. When you really hit me was
12:02
Speaker 1: when I went to Venezuela to visit a bunch of
12:05
Speaker 1: years ago, many many years ago, and there was a
12:08
Speaker 1: channel there, Sony Entertainment Television, and Sony had all the shows,
12:13
Speaker 1: but they had him in English, you know, they just
12:16
Speaker 1: subtitled in Spanish, and.
12:18
Speaker 3: He did really well for young people.
12:19
Speaker 1: Young people loved watching it in English and reading the
12:21
Speaker 1: subtitles in Latin America. And when I went down there
12:26
Speaker 1: and I saw that my show was playing and the
12:31
Speaker 1: small little town that I grew up in, yeah, you.
12:34
Speaker 3: Actually saw on TV. Oh wow, that's it.
12:37
Speaker 1: That's when I was like, what just happened? Yeah, in
12:41
Speaker 1: the same living room that I grew up. Yeah, that
12:45
Speaker 1: I was watching the shows.
12:46
Speaker 3: Now these shows are full circle coming.
12:48
Speaker 1: In this way, and so that was a moment that
12:51
Speaker 1: really felt, oh, like, when I'm doing is something real?
12:55
Speaker 1: It's not just like you know, it's not just playing right,
13:00
Speaker 1: and you know you always knew that it was there
13:01
Speaker 1: was something to it, you know, but I just think
13:05
Speaker 1: you know it doesn't. The impact is like when when
13:07
Speaker 1: you walk down the streets of London and you've never
13:09
Speaker 1: been to London before, and all of a sudden someone's like, hey,
13:12
Speaker 1: you know, grew up.
13:13
Speaker 3: Watching your show with a British accident and you're like, whoa.
13:17
Speaker 3: I mean like I've never been here.
13:18
Speaker 1: Somehow somebody knows that I exist a different like Singapore.
13:23
Speaker 1: Was walking down Singapore and these two ladies were leaving
13:25
Speaker 1: the store after that closed it and then they looked
13:27
Speaker 1: at me because oh I couldn't speak English, and so
13:31
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff that it really kind of hits
13:33
Speaker 1: you and makes you go, whoa, man, this is Maybe
13:35
Speaker 1: what we're doing is it is larger than we think,
13:37
Speaker 1: and like what we are putting on that screen is
13:39
Speaker 1: also you know, like what are we inspiring you know
13:43
Speaker 1: people with.
13:45
Speaker 3: Did you have you had instances like that? Did you
13:48
Speaker 3: think to yourself like WHOA, Like, you know, it was
13:51
Speaker 3: cool making the movie, and now it's like, yeah.
13:55
Speaker 4: I just recently this sort of encompasses it. I had
13:59
Speaker 4: somebody around the holidays, I did this holiday movie and
14:02
Speaker 4: this around the holidays, I ran into a fan randomly
14:08
Speaker 4: and they said, you know, I love this this holiday movie.
14:12
Speaker 3: You did it.
14:12
Speaker 2: It's called Nothing Like the Holidays.
14:14
Speaker 4: It was a legamo and media of course, and and
14:17
Speaker 4: she said, you know, me and my me and my
14:19
Speaker 4: father used to watch this movie every holiday.
14:22
Speaker 2: And I was like, oh, that's beautiful, you know.
14:24
Speaker 4: And then and then she gets tears in her eyes
14:26
Speaker 4: and she's like, but he's passed away, you know. But
14:29
Speaker 4: that's the thing that we had, is that we would
14:32
Speaker 4: watch this movie together.
14:33
Speaker 1: And now she'll watch that movie and it'll take her
14:36
Speaker 1: back to her dad.
14:37
Speaker 3: Yeah.
14:37
Speaker 4: Yeah, But it's been stuff like that, you know, really
14:42
Speaker 4: receiving the emotional impact that I've had on people, you know,
14:48
Speaker 4: and that really means a lot to me because that's
14:50
Speaker 4: really what I'm doing right, Like I'm I'm I'm offering
14:53
Speaker 4: a form of escapism for people, right and you don't
14:56
Speaker 4: know what's happening in people's lives, and you know you
15:00
Speaker 4: really think about that, right, Like, like, we come into
15:03
Speaker 4: people's most intimate spaces, right, we come into people's living rooms,
15:08
Speaker 4: we come into people's bedrooms, spaces that only only very
15:12
Speaker 4: few people are allowed to be into, and we're moving
15:16
Speaker 4: people emotionally in these spaces that are very intimate and
15:19
Speaker 4: dear to them, you know. And I think that that's
15:22
Speaker 4: why when you run into these kinds of people that
15:25
Speaker 4: they feel that they know you because you've moved them
15:29
Speaker 4: emotionally in these intimate spaces. I mean, they spent hours
15:32
Speaker 4: with you hours man hours, you know the same way
15:35
Speaker 4: that we did, right, you know, they like like like
15:37
Speaker 4: the vision that you that you shared with me in Venezuela,
15:40
Speaker 4: the same way we did.
15:40
Speaker 2: Right, we're coming up.
15:42
Speaker 4: We're watching Punch, you know, chase people down the one
15:45
Speaker 4: on one you know, like, but but we spend so
15:47
Speaker 4: much time with them in our living room.
15:50
Speaker 3: Did you think about what what was your show?
15:52
Speaker 4: Was?
15:52
Speaker 3: It? Was it Punch? Like there was it Chips? Which
15:54
Speaker 3: one was? Yeah?
15:56
Speaker 2: Chips man, yeah, all of that chips.
15:59
Speaker 3: Yeah.
15:59
Speaker 2: I remember specifically seeing Eric Ostrada and.
16:03
Speaker 1: Going like, oh wow, man, there's like one of us,
16:06
Speaker 1: you know, he did a Spanish soap opera.
16:08
Speaker 2: Those those coming, those those coming, those those weirdest gummy coming.
16:15
Speaker 1: And which means two women on the one.
16:20
Speaker 3: Uh.
16:21
Speaker 1: And I watched that soap opera in Spanish. You did
16:24
Speaker 1: my mom in Venezuela. I think we were back in
16:28
Speaker 1: the United States at this point. I forget, but it
16:30
Speaker 1: was yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, And it was crazy about it.
16:34
Speaker 1: It's like I grew up watching him Punch, so of
16:37
Speaker 1: course as a little boy, I was like, oh, Punch
16:40
Speaker 1: is in a Spanish stillingela, Like I started watching him
16:44
Speaker 1: in those those modism comino and and the dude. The
16:48
Speaker 1: show is quite literally what the title was.
16:51
Speaker 3: It was.
16:53
Speaker 1: Women to figure out which one and they both were like,
16:58
Speaker 1: you have to pick yea.
16:59
Speaker 3: It weren't even mad about him two women at the
17:01
Speaker 3: same time. Is that what the whole show was about?
17:04
Speaker 3: What the show is about?
17:05
Speaker 1: The whole time he needs to make a decision between,
17:10
Speaker 1: you know, between these two actresses to the two these
17:13
Speaker 1: two characters.
17:14
Speaker 3: Wow, and it's the dilemma, you.
17:16
Speaker 1: Know, you know, why is his destiny but the other
17:18
Speaker 1: one he's in love with.
17:20
Speaker 4: You know.
17:20
Speaker 1: It's like like it was so it was so crazy,
17:23
Speaker 1: but only Spanish stilling over lets can sell you on
17:25
Speaker 1: that fantasy, you know.
17:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, wow.
17:29
Speaker 4: I remember my mom watching that, you know, but but
17:43
Speaker 4: I you know, you were asking me was it paunch?
17:45
Speaker 2: Was it?
17:46
Speaker 4: I remember I remember watching you ever seen this movie
17:50
Speaker 4: Internal Affairs with with Andy Garcia Richard Gear.
17:54
Speaker 3: I don't know how well.
17:55
Speaker 2: We got a hold of the video tape back in
17:58
Speaker 2: like the eighties and we had that.
18:00
Speaker 4: Movie on heavy rotation, and I remember Andy had a
18:04
Speaker 4: couple of lines in Spanish in that movie, and.
18:07
Speaker 3: It blew my mind.
18:09
Speaker 4: It was like the first time I had ever met
18:12
Speaker 4: I couldn't comprehend. It was like, well, wait, this guy
18:15
Speaker 4: is the lead guy, Richard Gear, major Hollywood movie and
18:19
Speaker 4: he's speaking Spanish. You know, it blew I don't I
18:23
Speaker 4: don't remember ever seeing that, like in like a major
18:27
Speaker 4: American film.
18:29
Speaker 3: Like that before.
18:29
Speaker 1: And when you see an American actor speak her language,
18:33
Speaker 1: it's like, you know, culture just like oh my, you
18:38
Speaker 1: know what I mean, It becomes it becomes interesting. Like
18:40
Speaker 1: I've seen Ben Affleck. Dude, fool.
18:44
Speaker 2: Can speak better Spanish than you and I.
18:48
Speaker 4: By the way, he sounds like, you know, like.
18:57
Speaker 3: You know, he literally does.
18:58
Speaker 2: He sounds like he's from like TG.
19:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you know, but we give them so much
19:03
Speaker 1: respect because whoever tries, you know, our culture rewards and
19:08
Speaker 1: we're loyalty, you know.
19:09
Speaker 3: And it's beautiful to see what actors really try. Uh.
19:13
Speaker 1: And I think it's becoming more possible now with our
19:16
Speaker 1: where characters are finally more in tune with the responsibility
19:21
Speaker 1: we have as we portray these characters on screen. You know,
19:25
Speaker 1: back then, you know, some of these characters were either
19:27
Speaker 1: not the imperfect or the bad guys you know, or
19:31
Speaker 1: you know, they were in the mob or whatever it is,
19:33
Speaker 1: you know. And and so to to see that there
19:36
Speaker 1: is a a new generation of Latino characters, did you
19:40
Speaker 1: feel a little responsible for like what you do now
19:43
Speaker 1: or how you pass down the torch?
19:45
Speaker 3: Oh?
19:46
Speaker 2: Man, that's a good question. Do I feel responsible?
19:48
Speaker 3: Yeah?
19:49
Speaker 4: Yeah, to an extent, I feel the responsibility. I always
19:53
Speaker 4: felt the responsibility, especially after seeing those guys and me
19:57
Speaker 4: realizing that I'm the guy who came next. I'm like,
20:00
Speaker 4: if I got to follow that up, man, I better
20:03
Speaker 4: be on my A game twenty four to seven, you know.
20:06
Speaker 4: So yeah, in that sense, I felt the responsibility. You know,
20:11
Speaker 4: A great feeling is when I meet like new actors
20:14
Speaker 4: you know, who are coming up, who are doing wonderful work.
20:16
Speaker 2: Who who.
20:19
Speaker 4: Say to me that they've you know, watched me when
20:22
Speaker 4: they were in school, or they came up watching me,
20:24
Speaker 4: or they studied my work and that inspired them to
20:27
Speaker 4: become actors. And so that, you know, I always feel
20:32
Speaker 4: this responsibility, not not necessarily to like mentor them, but
20:36
Speaker 4: to but to really be available to people like that,
20:39
Speaker 4: you know, because they're just going through what we went
20:42
Speaker 4: through now, uh, and if there's anything that I.
20:45
Speaker 3: Could ever offer.
20:47
Speaker 4: So that they don't fall into any pitfalls or or
20:51
Speaker 4: learn certain etiquettes or or you know, certain gems of
20:56
Speaker 4: how our industry works, and to make the path maybe
20:59
Speaker 4: a little more or smoother for them, you know.
21:01
Speaker 1: And you said something that really triggered another point for
21:05
Speaker 1: us is, you know, they're about to go through similar
21:09
Speaker 1: journeys that we went through. Right now, how is this
21:14
Speaker 1: industry and compared to when we broke, you know, in comparison,
21:22
Speaker 1: like what do they have against them, you know, you know, and.
21:26
Speaker 3: What they have for them?
21:29
Speaker 1: I would say, if you you know, if I go first,
21:31
Speaker 1: I would say that what they have what they have
21:34
Speaker 1: for them, is that the level of technology that can
21:37
Speaker 1: support your independent art from the industry itself is so
21:44
Speaker 1: much more available for you to show what you can be.
21:47
Speaker 1: You can sharpen your tools sooner to become a director,
21:53
Speaker 1: to become a writer, to become mean, there's so much
21:56
Speaker 1: Like you can go to YouTube and teach yourself how
21:57
Speaker 1: to write a screenplay.
22:00
Speaker 3: You can go to YouTube and teach.
22:01
Speaker 1: Yourself how to light a simple scene so you can
22:03
Speaker 1: shoot it with an iPhone or whatever. You know, you
22:06
Speaker 1: have a situation here now where like you know, you
22:08
Speaker 1: have a moment in time now where where where I
22:11
Speaker 1: think young people, you know have the tools if they
22:14
Speaker 1: really want it, and at that point they can make
22:17
Speaker 1: their own stuff and they can work backwards from it. Now,
22:20
Speaker 1: what they have against them is a fracture industry who's
22:25
Speaker 1: trying to figure out how to sustain how to sustain
22:29
Speaker 1: a signal, how to sustain an audience, how to engage
22:33
Speaker 1: with content that can continue to push limits and not
22:37
Speaker 1: feel the same movie with a different title.
22:40
Speaker 3: Right, How do you open the door.
22:42
Speaker 1: For new talent and for a new wave of superstars
22:46
Speaker 1: who can expand ideas into levels and universes that television
22:50
Speaker 1: and movies have not gone before. And there's a struggle
22:55
Speaker 1: for that entry point, you know, and how do you
22:57
Speaker 1: break in? But so it's an interesting balance, right because
23:01
Speaker 1: for us, when we aim to be what we are now,
23:07
Speaker 1: our biggest struggle was that there were not enough parts
23:10
Speaker 1: for Latinos. And if they were, you knew where they were,
23:14
Speaker 1: You knew what they were and where they wanted you
23:16
Speaker 1: to be. And I started thinking about also, you know,
23:21
Speaker 1: there was only four channels doing network stuff.
23:23
Speaker 3: Cable wasn't really the.
23:24
Speaker 1: Aboundance of opportunity like you thought, you know, and you know,
23:27
Speaker 1: theater you know, they was not sustainable for a lot
23:30
Speaker 1: of actors, right, and then movies were like, you know,
23:34
Speaker 1: a pop here eight months later, popped there, you know.
23:37
Speaker 1: And so it's likeness, instant of signal. But do you think,
23:41
Speaker 1: for you in your mind, what do they have for
23:44
Speaker 1: them and what do they.
23:44
Speaker 4: Have against It's a good question, right, I Mean, if
23:49
Speaker 4: we're just talking about sort of Latinos and latinos, you know,
23:55
Speaker 4: it's what they've always had against them, right I And look,
24:01
Speaker 4: I'm just pointing out the facts, right, I mean, just
24:05
Speaker 4: turn on the TV and and and count how many
24:08
Speaker 4: Latinos and latinos you see on TV right now, Right,
24:11
Speaker 4: So that's indicative of the opportunities that that's being afforded,
24:17
Speaker 4: whether it's you or I or the generation that came
24:19
Speaker 4: after us or the generation who was here before us. Right. So,
24:22
Speaker 4: so the opportunities are certainly slim. It's hard to say
24:28
Speaker 4: whether it's it was slimmer back then or it's slimmer now.
24:31
Speaker 4: You know, you know, when you try to gauge how
24:35
Speaker 4: many of our people that you see on TV, at
24:38
Speaker 4: least like what you said. You know, back then, we
24:40
Speaker 4: at least had like movies. Movies were abundant, whether whether
24:44
Speaker 4: it was you know, studio movies.
24:46
Speaker 1: Or the I mean there was three or four releasing
24:48
Speaker 1: every weekend, and they're all were like real, yeah, real.
24:52
Speaker 3: Iconic stuff that we still remember to yeah, yeah.
24:54
Speaker 2: And people were making money on movies.
24:56
Speaker 1: They were making movies for the first time, like ideas
24:58
Speaker 1: for the first time, refreshed ideas. They're always trying to do,
25:01
Speaker 1: what's a movie we haven't made, Let's put that in
25:03
Speaker 1: three thousand screens.
25:05
Speaker 3: Yeah.
25:06
Speaker 1: Nowadays it's like, who, how do we get capitalized on
25:09
Speaker 1: on the success of that movie?
25:10
Speaker 3: Let's make another one like that?
25:12
Speaker 4: You know, yeah, yeah, I mean even you know, it's
25:25
Speaker 4: it's great that that fans have grown up watching my movies,
25:28
Speaker 4: you know, from the nineties, from the two thousands, you know.
25:31
Speaker 4: And I'll sometimes get fans that will go, hey, man,
25:33
Speaker 4: how come you don't make you know, they'll name one
25:36
Speaker 4: of my movies from the nineties and two thousands, and
25:38
Speaker 4: I'll just go, well, they don't make movies like that.
25:40
Speaker 3: Anymore, man, They just don't.
25:42
Speaker 4: Yeah, And if they do, you know, there's there's no
25:45
Speaker 4: budget behind those movies. People are not making moneies off
25:48
Speaker 4: those movies, you know. So at least when we were
25:50
Speaker 4: coming up, we had we had a couple of different
25:52
Speaker 4: avenues that we can that we could go in. Now,
25:55
Speaker 4: the movies that actors, you know, have the opportunity to
25:59
Speaker 4: fight for are these gigantic budget movies, and they're so
26:04
Speaker 4: far and few between, right, So then that that means
26:08
Speaker 4: that a lot of the quote unquote movie stars are
26:10
Speaker 4: sort of funneling into the movie into the TV industry,
26:14
Speaker 4: right right, And now everything is sort of name driven
26:17
Speaker 4: in the television industry, which it wasn't like that when
26:19
Speaker 4: you and I were coming up, And so a lot
26:22
Speaker 4: of those roles are being gobbled up by them right,
26:25
Speaker 4: and so like the newer generation, although it may seem
26:28
Speaker 4: like the opportunities are more vast, a lot of those
26:32
Speaker 4: roles are being gobbled up by other actors so that
26:34
Speaker 4: there's less opportunities for them.
26:36
Speaker 2: I think, I don't know, I may I may be wrong.
26:38
Speaker 3: I know, I think you're right.
26:39
Speaker 1: I think you're nailing it, dude, because the illusion is
26:42
Speaker 1: that there's so many streaming platforms, there's so many networks,
26:47
Speaker 1: cable networks, you know that that are all making script
26:51
Speaker 1: is stuff, nonscripted stuff.
26:53
Speaker 3: So the illusion is that there should be tons of parts.
26:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you know, it's it's also seems like, you know,
27:00
Speaker 1: you know, it's not going to be things that are
27:04
Speaker 1: going to help you the amount of stuff that you're
27:07
Speaker 1: going to have to do to sustain, right, the volume
27:13
Speaker 1: that you have to now capture or or or get
27:16
Speaker 1: as an actor in order to just sustain. Because because
27:20
Speaker 1: there's no such thing as like, I just got a
27:22
Speaker 1: movie that a lot of people saw and that's going
27:23
Speaker 1: to pave the way for me to get a new movie, Bryan,
27:26
Speaker 1: give me that energy to now I'm going to get
27:28
Speaker 1: a TV show and all that. So that makes it
27:30
Speaker 1: really difficult, right, because now it's like, you could do
27:33
Speaker 1: four movies and nobody saw that she have to go
27:37
Speaker 1: back to audition for the next one, right, because there's
27:39
Speaker 1: no such thing as that, And so I guess why
27:41
Speaker 1: all the question is, you know what we think about this?
27:46
Speaker 1: You know, how does that translate to multiple industries?
27:49
Speaker 4: Right?
27:50
Speaker 1: Multiple careers of different genres, different industries. What can people
27:55
Speaker 1: expect to think about right now? Like what would you be?
27:57
Speaker 1: What would be the advice for a young person that's like, okay,
28:01
Speaker 1: well I want to be you know, I want to
28:04
Speaker 1: be a doctored or I want to be you know, like,
28:08
Speaker 1: how do we you know, what is inspiration for that?
28:12
Speaker 1: We can talk about that. It fuels ambition again into
28:16
Speaker 1: in this younger generation.
28:21
Speaker 2: Well that was part one. Stay tuned for part two.
28:24
Speaker 3: Stay tuned. Those Amigos coming right back.
28:28
Speaker 4: Dose Amigos is a production from w V Sound and
28:31
Speaker 4: iHeartMedia's Michael through That podcast network, hosted by me, Freddie
28:35
Speaker 4: Rodriguez and Wilmer Valdorama.
28:37
Speaker 1: Those Amigos is produced by Aaron Burlson and Sophie Spencer's Abos.
28:41
Speaker 4: Our executive producers are Wilmer Valdorama, Freddie Rodriguez Aaron Burlson
28:46
Speaker 4: and Leo Clem at WV Sound.
28:48
Speaker 1: This episode was shot and edited by Ryan Posts and
28:51
Speaker 1: mixed by Sean Tracy and features original music by Madison
28:54
Speaker 1: Devenport and Halo Boy.
28:55
Speaker 4: Our cover our photography is by David Avalos and designed
28:59
Speaker 4: by Deny host.
29:00
Speaker 3: Claw And thank you for being a third amigo today.
29:03
Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys always listening to those amos.
29:05
Speaker 4: For more podcasts from My Heart, visit the ir Heart
29:08
Speaker 4: Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your
29:11
Speaker 4: favorite shows.
29:12
Speaker 3: So you next week.