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Transcript

“Big Breaks Part 2” · Dos Amigos

• 0:14
  Speaker 1: And welcome back to those amigos. This is part two
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: of our big break conversation. Break and get ready because
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: we're about to get very colorful here. So of course
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: I had done all the little things right, Like, you know,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: I played like, you know this flashback young kid and
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: four corners. I'd done a little thing on Disney Channel
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: called Amba Makamba, where like I pop up in a
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: little box on the bottom left. I'm like, hey, Amba,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: how told is a giraffe? You know? And so I've
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: done little things like that, you know that you but
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: like there's some region of Sony commercial for a camera
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: that was only releasing in Japan, you know, like I
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: never saw these things, you know. And then finally, you know,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: he's like, I'm going to send you this pilot edition.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: We don't have the script, right you. All you get
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: is these three little pages. And I was like, this
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: is it. I just got to do this scene and
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: he's like yeah, he goes okay, e's he money.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: So I asked my dad if you you know, if
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: you know, if he can take me to the to
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: this audition. Well, you know, and some of you who
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: have read an American story, everyone's invited which is my
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: memoir You were you know, you will remember this this story.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: My my dad had to borrow money from the neighbor
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: because we didn't have gas money for him to drive
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: me to this audition. So he took me to this
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: audition in Studio City. I crossed the street from CBS Rafford,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: where Davey Gross was the casting director at the time,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: and I went in an audition, and you know, she
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: she's like, okay, cool, We're going to bring you back
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: to more and I want you to have a little
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: more fun with with your character, you know, just have
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: a little more more and more fun with that. I
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: was like, okay. So I went back that night and
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: you know, I said, Dad, they want me to come
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: back tomorrow. I was, okay, cool, And I'm playing around
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: with my little sister, you know, and I you know,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: and I make this voice and she starts laughing, and I'm.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: Like, you make a noise.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: I make a voice. I got a little high pitched,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: kind of innocent voice, and she's like she starts laughing.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: And then I was like, okay, well, let me combine
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: accents from different countries and make it an accent that
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: you know that you can't even dephrase where he's from,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: you know. And as soon as I said the word yes,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: I knew, oh, wait a minute, I think this might
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: just wait, you know. And so I think to me,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: I was like, all right, let me see it is.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: So I went the next day and I combined actions
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: with different countries and I played with this, and I
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: came in audition for the producers. At the time, I
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: had no idea who they were, so they were later, yeah,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: They're like. There was like a moment of silence while
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: they register, and then there was an explosion of laughter,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: and so I thought, oh, man, I really messed up.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: I really missed Oh you thought they were laughing at you?
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: And I missed up. I messed up Freddie because I
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: said this thing, I auditioned with something very different than
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: I had done it before. I took this like hell Mary,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: and she said, have fun with it. I went too far.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: I had too much fun with it. And then immediately
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: they're like, they're like, and then they're like and then
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: they started laughing. So I was like, I couldn't translate that.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: I was like, I messed up. So I went home
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: and finally I get a phone call from the studio again.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: They're like, hey, they want you to go to twenty
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: century Fox. I was like, oh, I'm getting another edition,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: all right? So I told my dad my dad had
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: to borrow money again from the neighbor to drive me
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: to twenty century Fox, this time the same studio. Yeah,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: then I would Yes, man, that's mind blowing. Wow, bro,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: that's what I'm telling you. That's why I said, like,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: you walking to that gate and there's this magnetic thing
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: where anything can happen.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: For you, you know, And I never put that together.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Yes, we were at that wow. So you know, I entered,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: you know, my dad gets a little money, drives me
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: over there. And you know, when you are auditioning for
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: a TV show, they make you sign a contract before
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: you get the part, and you read the contract and
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: you don't understand what those letters are, you know, and
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: like ultimately it says that I was going to make
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: fifteen thousand dollars for the pilot yeah, and ten thousand
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: dollars per episode.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Like I am like right, yeah, And so I told
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: my dad, I say, Dad, but it was such a
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: ridiculous paragraph in that contract that I looked at my
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: that we're obviously not getting this because it makes no sense,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: like we don't get this kind of stuff right, Like,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: it's just that's like more money. Even if I just
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: get the pilot, that's more money that we made in
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: the year.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: Did the contract say how many episodes you would do?
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: No, just it was said all produced. So I was
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: supposed to be a regular because.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: I'm wondering if you did the math in your head,
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: were you like ten episodes times?
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Like I didn't know. I once they got to pick up,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: that's when I was like, But so basically I go
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: with my dad and my dad, could you imagine if
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: I get this show right now? My dad looks at me,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: he's thinking, we're not getting this part, but he's just
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: like he's like, may if you'll get it, I dined
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: a very good If you don't get it, I dine
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: very good. And you know, I always say this, My
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: dad always sounded like he was drunk, and you know,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: but he you know, he wasn't drinking at the time.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: And so I auditioned and I entered the room and
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: it's Peter Roth, president of a Fox all the time,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: Bonnie and Terry Turner, I mean, legendary writers and head
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: writers of SNL at the time center in my life.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: You know, they created Cone's Heads, Cone Heads, you know,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Wayne's World, the Brady Bunch movie, and on and on
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: and on. I mean, the guys were like legendary comedy.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: And then also I created The Rock from the Sun
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: at the time, and then it was like Mark Brazil
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: and then there was you know, the old executives a Fox,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: you know, and and I just had no idea who
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: they were. And I come in there and I do
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: my my scene, you know, and then I go with
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: with the with the voice with these and I just go,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: I go, what did I say? What was the one
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: line that brought the house on? Oh? It's like I
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: was like, uh, oh, so it did a boat whore
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: and bro there was an explosional left in that room.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: And again I thought I messed it up. It couldn't
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: translate to me that they were laughing that hard something
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: I did. Then I was like, oh, and you know,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: they were laughing so hard in the room that I
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: couldn't hear the casting director. So I because I had
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: to memorize, and I would just wait for her lips
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: to be done, and then I would say my line
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: and then they would be laughing through her line, and
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: then I will say my line, and then we'll be
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: laughing through her line. So I was just reading her
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: lips and I was like so attentively looking at her lips,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: and so I talked to myself, I'm like, wow, this
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: is crazy. I'm definitely messed it up, you know, because
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: I couldn't even hear her. But it added to the
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: the chaos of my character when he was trying to comprehend,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: and I was like so wide eyed that it almost
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: created character traits. And you know, I went home and
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: my you know, my agent calls me at the time,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: and he said, uh, oh, they want you to come
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: back tomorrow. And I looked at my dad and to
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: my family, and you know, there's a time where you
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: can pick up a line in the other room and
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: and everybody's listening from different phones in the rooms in
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: the house, you know, in our little tiny little house
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: in Vanies, California, and they're on the phone and they're
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: like and they're like, once you come back tomorrow. And
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, I got a call back.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: And then he says, and they want you to come
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: back the day after that, and the day after that,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: the day after that, and the day after that, and
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: we're all crying and screaming, and we're like Jesus Christ,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: like what just happened, dude, And honestly cue it like
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: a movie. I look outside the window, dude, and our
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: neighbor's American flag is waving.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: Oh man, wow.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: And that was the moment where I said, this is why,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: that's what this country affords all of us, you know.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: And I was relentlessly knowing that I needed to pay
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: it back in that moment. As soon as I saw
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: that flagwave, I said that that's that's what everybody talks about.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: That's what where everybody writes movies about. It's this called
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: American dream thing, that it's American dream that that could
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: happen for those who are willing to die, who want
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: to get in the dance floor and when to get
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: out there and try, you know. And dude, I made
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: a promise to myself that moment. I was like, you know,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: if I'm going to do this, I have to be
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: the best. Everything that comes out of my mouth has
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: to be the funniest thing that anybody has ever heard.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: And I just relentlessly would look at every line and
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: think about it, like talking about Keanu Reeves, like Neil
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: and the Matrix, I'm like, I'll move this comma here
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: and bring this period there that would make it super
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: awkward and offbeat, and I will play with the comedic
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: cadence of the actual lines. And so every time I
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: deliver a line, people wouldn't know why you make that choice,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: how you come do that choice. And I just I
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: was really thinking, like a different type of creature on TV.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: You were creating a character for you. You kind of
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: really knew what creating a character was.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: And it was based on the promise that like I
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: was not going to mess it up, that I was
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: going to just appreciate this opportunity and I was going
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: to bring all of myself into that and as the
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: audacity of thinking, like whatever I have in me is
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: what this character needs, It's like I got it, you know.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: And I don't even think my coasters at the time
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: even understood, you know, like what this character was. At
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: the time. They thought I was like, well, it's like
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: the foreign kid with the accident. I guess I don't
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: know if it's like a They didn't know if I
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: was a serious regular or if I was like something
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: like a power.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: They when you like, when they first heard it, were
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: they like they were like, this is ridiculous.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Right, especially Telfer. Telford thought I was brilliant. Telford gave
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: me so much love and so much like they looked
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: at me and they were like, yeah, Tolfer's like, you're
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: either weird, yeah, like a really like a weirdo, or
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: you might just be a I mean, a brilliant.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: It's one or the other.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: It's one of the between.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: I was bet the weird, you know.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but I let him believe it was brilliant, you know.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: And I and I think I think at the time
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: that part became this anthem for me, you know, and
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: starting my career, you know. And I was I was
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: asking you, what did you feel like on set? Because
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: but for me, I had a live audience. Oh yeah,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: so imagine they go okay, action and you say your
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: first line.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, was that scary?
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: I was to do it? Yeah, it was so scary
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: because you know, I had done theaters, so I was like, oh,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: I'm not afraid of that. But then I was like, oh,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: there's two hundred and thirty people on that on the outstand.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: The trick was not to play for the audience in
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: the sound stage. The trick was not to perform it
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: for the people in the audience. The trick was to
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: perform it for the people at home, right. So whatever
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: I did on that screen, I was I needed to
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: tell it to the people at home, right, which prevented
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: me from going too far to try to make the
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: people in the audience laugh, which is a trap for sitcoms.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: You think you're playing for the people that are laughing
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: there in front of you.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: Did you learn that through trial and error or like,
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: how did you how did you learn how to calibrate
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: how far you go?
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: I think I was. I think I was bringing my
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: fear from not listening, not hearing the casting director in
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: the audition, and I was hanging by every word that
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: the other actor was saying, which allowed me to stay
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: here and like really engage here, and so I didn't
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: have to play for them because I was just like
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: I got to get my lines right, I got to
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: say them like this, and I got to listen to you,
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: and so it allowed me to be here. So it
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: was like this contain madness, you know that it didn't
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: have to play that colorful out loud and so so
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: you know my first line I remember, you know, the
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: scene was, you know, it was uh to for Grace
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: a lower pripant and me like, and we were at
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: the hob and we're having like you know, hobb it's
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: like the little hangout, little diner, and we're playing you know,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: we're playing like pinball and whatever, and I think me laid.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Jackie's character gets up and goes up to Donna lower
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: Prepan's character and says, uh, Donna, I have to go
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: to the bathroom. He goes, okay. He goes, well you
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: have to come with me or something like. She's like,
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna go alone because girls go to the
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: bathroom together, right, And she goes okay, he goes and
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: I look at that, and then I go all the
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: way up to Eric Foreman Toll for Grace and I say, Edic,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm what is it? Let me start again? So
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: so like I really know it? Eric, Oh, yes. So
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: I go up to to for Grace, who is playing
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: for Men, and I go, I do much go to
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: the bathroom dy And he's like, that's not how it
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: works with guys fast or something.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: As soon as I said that, the audience was like
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: the same thing like the casting Like the casting room,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: there was like this pause to them like, oh, that's
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: how he's gonna play it. Oh, they've never seen it
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: because it shows a pilot. Yeah, and it's never air,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: so they're like, oh oh oh right. They kind of
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: it kind of clicked that I was going to play
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: this for inning Sten student that was going to say
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: I'm off the walls time. So as soon as every
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: scene came up and all of a sudden, like it working.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: It was like this magic thing.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: But I think it worked because it was grounded, you know,
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: like you know how like sometimes you see people do
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: characters and they're acting the character, you know, where yours
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: was more grounded. So even if it was big, even
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: if it was external, it was it was grounded.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: He believed it.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he believed it. And so so if you believe
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: in the audience believes it and you were you weren't
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: performing it, you know, you were, you were doing it,
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: you're living it, you know. And so I find that
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: sometimes when when actors perform it, you know, then then.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Then you know it could be a trap, right, Like
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: sometimes you read the characters description and you're like I
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: got to play the grumpy guy. So to your point,
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: it's like for me, it was like the more I
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: focus on my my scene partners, that the more grounded
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: it became, you know, And that the funnier it was
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: for the audiences because they were looking at it from
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: a screen as well, you know, so I knew that.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh, they're looking at it from a
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: screen if they're not looking at it live, so I'm
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: kind of playing it to the screen too. So that's
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: when I figured out the tone between you know, theater,
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: TV and like film, you know, and that that dial
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: it would really helped me understand more. And that was
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: I mean, that was it. Man. That moment was just
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: magical and all of a sudden, you know, instead of
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: going to the nine nine cents stores when my mom,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: I was taking her to Ralphs. Yeah oh, instead of
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: getting a little cola, we were getting Coca CoA.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah. You know, what was it? What was it like
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: when when you guys premiered? So, okay, so you shot
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: the pilot obviously, right, they see the pilot. You guys
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: didn't shoot the entire season before it premiered, right.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: No, we shot probably close to like maybe five or
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: six episodes before it premiered. We premiered August twenty eight
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety eight. It was on I believe it
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: was a Wednesday night. Yeah you no, sorry, it was
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: Sunday night at eight thirty between The Simpsons and the
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: X Files.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: That's a damn good slot, man.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah it was. It was massive, Yeah, some massive times.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: But we were in a hit right away, you know.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: It was like took a while to build. And the
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: Simpsons and the X Files were really mad at us
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: because you know, they thought that we were leading them well,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: and you know, most of those shows have been on
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: for multiple seasons, you know, so they really were trying
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: to blame us. In fact, like you know, I think
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: even the Simpsons were so mean to us. They did
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: an episode where they did a montage of like the
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: behind the alleyway of these stores, ninety nine cent stores.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: They were like tossing, you know, you know, stuff that
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: didn't sell through the trash, and then they go to
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: like fifty nine cent stores, and then they go to
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: like twenty cents or or like ten cent stores, and
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: the ten sy store was throwing seventy show mugs in
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: the trash, so like they were just like so bitter,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: you know, and we outlive all those. We did eight
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: seasons within two hundred episodes, and you know, we were
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: averaging nineteen twenty million people a week, you know, and
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: and you know they were averaging twenty one twenty two.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: So they looked at us as like, well, we're dropping
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: millions because of these guys. So as soon as they
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: moved us to Tuesday, they moved us to Wednesday, Then
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: they moved us to Mondays. Then they moved us back
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: to Wednesdays. And that could have killed us. But all
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: we did is we gather fans from every night and
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden, we by season three, we were
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: the number one.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: Season three, So is that is that when it really
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: started to like like when did you finally notice that
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: it was cooking right or that people were being receptive
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: to it.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: It was hard because I was still living such a
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: like I was still going to high school. Yeah, and
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: you know kids in high school have a way to
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: make you feel like you were still physically going to
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: high school.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, oh wow.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: So you know we would shoot, we would be on
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: two off, one on three off one two three, two three,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: and so during those off weeks, I would go back
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: to regular high school.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: And I was finishing up my senior year high school
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: at that point, and you know, kids are kids could
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: be so mean. Yeah, So they would look at me
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: and they would come up to me like why is
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: her hair like that? And why do you sound like that?
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: What do you sound so stupid? Because whyn't you the
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: cute one. You're like not even the cute one on
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: the show, like like forget that you got a TV
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: show four years ago. Wo, forget that you you know,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: like you're making some money. Like it was literally like
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: like you're not even the cool one, you know. And
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: so high school didn't make me feel special about And
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: that was.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: Season one, yeah, and and so did it start to
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: cook season?
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: When? When was it like just just season three? That's
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: whatever Season three was when we were a household characters
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: and people I will walk down the street and be
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: like fast. You know, it took a while for my
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: character because in real life I look so different, so
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: right because you had your like your hair, Yeah, I
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: was wearing beanies and hats because my hair was like
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: Eric Strata alone, and that was your real hair, that
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: was my real hair. Yeah, I was very gifted right eye.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: But yeah, so so, but my coasters were like, I'll
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: be standing next to my coasters and they're like, hey,
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: you guys are awesome here. You make sure you tell
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: fans and say what's up, and I'll be standing next
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: to them. Really just because your hair looked that different. Yeah,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Also I carried myself very different. I didn't stand the
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: way I stand. I didn't do my mouth the way
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: I did when I talked. I mean, I d all
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: these things that made them a different human and you
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: didn't speak like that, and I didn't speak like that character, right,
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: So so people couldn't recognize me, which was funny. You
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: actually worked to my advantage because I was fine. But
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: I wasn't looking for to recognize me, you know anything.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: I was just happy to be working.
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll bet you all those kids you went to
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: high school with by season three.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: Oh, they all knew it. They were like, damn it,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: no one, they all knew it now, you know. They
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: were like they're like, I always knew. I always knew.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: That's correct, I always knew.
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: But I hope you realize what I mean. Your your
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: your character is going to go down, and like television
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: history you know, is one of the most iconic comedic
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: characters of all time. And isn't that why that that
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: was like your first pilot, your first big television show,
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: and right from the jump you create this like iconic
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: television character.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's wild, man, it's wild. And to your point,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: the only thing that I hoped, I hoped that every
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: day of my career that I never would forget you know,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: that that ingredient that that was in me back then,
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: that would allow me to be that free to create
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: something that bold at a time where bold was not
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: rewarded right to there to be such a different like
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: you know, sometimes I look at auditioning. It's like, Okay,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: if you brek it down on one hundred percent of actors, right,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: you have an audition for a part, fifty of the
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: actors are going to make the same choice, right, right.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: Of actors gonna they're gonna think they're clever, they're gonna
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: be like, I'm gonna do the opposite, right. And then
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: there's ten percent and you break it into like seven
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: percent of them are gonna do something that's not that
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: or this, and it's going to be an alternative, right,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: And then three percent of those actors do or make
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: a choice that is so that it's so drastically innovative
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: that elevates that character against you know, the perception of
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: the writer and director and contributes on a level that
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: makes that character sore, you know. And so the difference
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: between a working actor and the guys that you know
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: that three percent, you know, you see them sitting in
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: the oscars. You know, there's just something. There's just this thing,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: you know, and I and I attribute it to you know,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: that wondrous thing you know? You know, can you stay
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: it wondrous? You know as long as you possibly can?
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Can you can? You look at every character and be like,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: instead of asking yourself what they want, can you ask
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: yourself a question? If I had to play this character
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: for eight years and two hundred episodes, why would be
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: the take that I would have the most fun playing everything?
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: That's the one that wins. That's the one that wins.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: It's not like what your perception is or what they want.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: It's what you know. It's in your strength to deliver.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: And sometimes you are against your strength because you're too
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: concerned about wanting them to approve you. You know, what
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: do you how do you feel about that. What do
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: you think about that?
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: I'm all for taking chances, you know, Like I feel
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: like I come from I think we come from a
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: generation of actors, right. We come out of like the
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: seventies and eighties actors, right where people were creating characters.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: You know, we came up watching al Pacino and de
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: Niro and Dustin Hoffman and all these people who are
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: Gary Oldman, you know, all these people who are like
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: really creating characters and creating voices and the way they
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: stood and you know, all of the stuff that encompassed
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: your character. Right. So I just think that that's a
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: a you know, because we come from that generation, we
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: feel freer and we feel bolder to do that. I
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: don't know if this generation is necessarily you know that,
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: or maybe the mindset is different now, but I felt
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: like a lot of the stuff that.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: The training is different because I look, because I talk
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: about I would say, you know, to reframe the three percent,
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: the three what they do really well is they turn
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: it all off. They they turn it all off, the choices, right,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: and they just like allow them selves to just flow
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: through the words, you know, and almost some of them
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: make it look so easy, right, what do you think.
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: I think I think that that if you if you
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: look at the landscape of TV and film now right,
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: it's it's you know, man like like the character actor
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: per se is not as prevalent as it used to be,
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: you know. Ah, and so because it's not, it's just
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: the newer generation just doesn't. They don't relate to it,
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: you know, because that's not necessarily what our industry is
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: looking for, you know.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: And you think it has something to do with your
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: inspirations or like who inspire you from the beginning to
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: actually say like, oh, we're you know, oh that's possible,
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: like that that is something like what is that Mount Everest?
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: What is the example of Mount Evers that you see first?
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: So you go, I want to climb higher than that.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: You think it has something to do with tipe, with
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: like the inspirations of today, like where do you draw
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: inspiration today?
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: You know?
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: I think you know, I'm gonna hold you there because
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: I think this is a great question to answer for
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: the next episode.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: For the next episode.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: Characters and yeah, and individuals and people in moments that
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: inspire us to kind of strite a little higher. And
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: how did that translate in the universal way too. But
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: by the way, thank you so much for offering all
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: that you know, personal stuff with that with you know
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: your your you're walking into twenty century fact. I didn't
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: know we had that in common, crazy man.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we got fincas in common. We have.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Geez it it. But I want to thank everybody, uh
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: for listening to those Amigos. Uh and uh you know
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: we'll see you in the next episode, all right. Wilmer Balderama, Freddie.
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: Rodriguez Peace, Those Amigos is a production from WV Sound
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: and iHeartMedia's Michael through That Podcast Network, hosted by Me,
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: Freddie Rodriguez and Wilder Valdorama.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: Those Amigos is produced by Aaron Burleson and Sophie Spencer Zabos.
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: Our executive producers are Wilder val Drama, Freddie Rodriguez, Aaron Burlson,
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: and Leo Klem at WV Sound.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: This episode was shot and edited it by Ryan Posts
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: and mixed by Sean Tracy and features original music by
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: Madison Devenport and Halo Boy.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: Our cover. Our photography is by David Avalos and design
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: by Deny Holtzklau.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: And thank you for being at Third Amigo today. I
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: appreciate you guys, always listening to those amigos.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: For more podcasts from my Heart, visit the ir heart
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: favorite shows.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: See you next week.