Latest / Indie Film Hustle® - A Filmmaking Podcast / BONUS EPISODE: Confessions of a Hollywood Writer & Actor with John Leguizamo

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BONUS EPISODE: Confessions of a Hollywood Writer & Actor with John Leguizamo · Indie Film Hustle® - A Filmmaking Podcast

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You are listening to the ifh podcast Network. For more amazing filmmaking and screenwriting
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podcasts, just go to ifhpodcastnetwork dot com. Welcome to the Indie Film ultil
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Podcast, Episode number five eighty nine. I like helping people achieve their dreams,
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just like people helped me. John Legazamo broadcasting from the back alley in
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Hollywood. It's the Indie Film Hustle Podcast, where we show you how to
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survive and thrive as an indie filmmaker in the jungles of the film biz.
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And here's your host, Alex Ferrari. Welcome, Welcome to another episode of
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the Indie Film Huscle Podcast. I am your humble host, Alex Ferrari.
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Today's show is sponsored by Rise of the Film Entrepreneur How to turn your independent
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film into a profitable business. It's harder today than ever before for independent filmmakers
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to make money with their films from predatory film distributors ripping them off to huckster
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If you want to order it, just head over to www dot filmbiz
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book dot com. That's film Bizbook dot com. Guys, Today you are
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in for a treat. We have the legendary writer, actor, producer and
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director John Legozamo and John and I have one of the most candid talks about
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the film industry, about his journey working with some of the most legendary directors
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in movie history, and his new project that is premiering at this year's Tribeca
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Film Festival, The Green Veil, and much much more. If you guys
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want to know the inside scoop of what it's like being in Hollywood and working
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your way up the ladder. Then this is the episode for you. So,
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without any further ado, please enjoy my conversation with John Legozamo. I'd
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like to welcome to the show, John Legazama. Are you John good?
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Good? Thanks for having me on. Thank you so much for coming on
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the show. Brother, I appreciate it. Man. As a fellow Latino
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filmmaker, you have been an inspiration for many years for me my friends.
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So thank you for all the work you've done over the years and all the
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doors you've opened for all of us. Man. Oh, I you know,
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it has been a but it's been It's been interesting, that's for sure.
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The hustle is hard. The hustles there is real. Hustle is real,
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man. The hustle is no joke. I mean, you got to
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hustle. It's so crazy that we're like the largest ethnic group in America,
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the oldest ethnic group after Native Americans, and you know, we're all part
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of Native American at least I am and uh, and just our lack of
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inclusion is so nuts, so nutty. It's it is pretty it's pretty silly.
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But I think things are changing and I think people like yourself are opening
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some doors for for so many people over the years. Now, first question,
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man, how and why God's green Earth? Did you want to get
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into this insanity called the film industry? Well, you know, I don't.
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I don't think it's a thing that you wish upon anybody. You know,
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all your enemies, only your enemies, not your friend. Yeah,
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yeah, I mean, you know, it's it's I never knew, you
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know. I was a naive young man from the hood, and and I
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knew there was no opportunities. So I didn't do it for fame, money,
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or or profit. I just did it because it was my It was
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the thing that made me feel alive, the thing that made me feel whole,
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that brought me sanity, you know what I mean. And Uh,
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at seventeen, I found acting classes, you know, and and it was
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like, oh my god, this is incredible. And I started reading plays
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and I was a play reading maniac addict. I read so many plays,
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and uh, I just found it so beautiful that you could capture human behavior
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in the human condition in dialogue and and and and have an experience about life
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and reveal life to other people. Now, was there a film a specific
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film that kind of let your fuse, uh, I mean yeah, I
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mean I loved Street Corname Desire. You know, that was really powerful to
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me. That performance was electric. All anything Patino and de Niro, did
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you know anything anything Marty did? Pretty much? Yeah, yeah, pretty
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much they think Marty did was was you know, like, oh my god,
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this is like Latin people, you know, like how we behaved.
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And you know, as a Latin person being so invisible, you're always trying
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to find links to other cultures to feel seen, you know, like for
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me, Richard Pryor was everything. And I mean, yeah, you look
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at I mean for the longest time, I'm Cuban, so the longest time,
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the only guy I had was al Pacina in Scarface. I mean that
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was it. And Ricky Riccardo obviously those are you know, that's there,
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those are those are the people I had. Of course is a beast.
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Oh that's a crazy thing. I mean they didn't even show that in that
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that movie, that that that sort and Lucy movie. It was like what
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he's he is the bomb. He invented three camp comedies, live having a
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live audience, and a sitcom a residual. I mean he created all that,
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and and he created Star Trek. You know, he was the one
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that was a pioneer and having he was like the first studio independent studio owner
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and the first land guy to own a studio. It was no, it
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was it was insane. It was insane. But there wasn't a lot of
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There wasn't a lot of latinos coming up. That's why when I always say
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it on the show, is the first time I ever saw I could even
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direct was watching Robert Rodriguez. When I saw Mariachi come out, I was
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like, oh, oh, so we can't do this. I know,
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I know, it's crazy, Like, you know, why why weren't we
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allowed? Why weren't we allowed to do this? I mean, it's so
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crazy. It's like I saw so many talented actors growing up that you know,
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unfortunately couldn't The industry just didn't sustain them, you know, and they
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had to give up. And it was sad to see all this wasted talent
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and all these dreams evaporate. You know. Now, early in your career,
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you had the pleasure of working with mister Brian to Palma on a film
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called Casualties of War. Yes man, what was that like? I've heard
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nothing but epic stories of the insanity on that set and the brilliance of what
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they were trying to do, and and Sean and Michael and and like what
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was it like being to do it? Was crazy? It was crazy.
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I mean, I know, we're here to talk about green Belts. We
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will, we will, We'll get to we'll get to we'll talk a little
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bit about No. No, we're gonna go going down your road. Dude.
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Yeah, No, I love the word. To me. It was.
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It was such an important film because I don't know Brian and I and
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Brian de Palmer and I sort of started to get to know each other and
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trust each other. I think there has to be a trust between a director
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and the actor. And therefore, when I got to Carlito's Way, he
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had this confidence in me and he brought this incredible performance out of me by
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allowing me to fail on Carlito's way like I did, like thirty takes.
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He wasn't letting anybody do that. He'd let me do thirty takes on film
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of just my entrance as Bennie Blanco, and he would laugh and I would
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do crazy. I would knock the waiters tray Off in one take out.
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I would push people out of the way, I feel like. But he
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loved it, loved it, he was and that love gave me my freedom.
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That that was my freedom. But that was probably the way uh couches
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war was just crazy. That was crazy, like you were. He's a
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rehearsing uh kind of director. You know, they're not too many of those.
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And he storyboards everything, bro, he draws it himself. I don't
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even know how he reads it because I saw those hieroglyphics. I don't know
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how, but he he maps it all out. That's what the genius you're
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you're dealing with. And a lot of people got fired, you know,
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the rehearsals, not gonna. I don't know if I shall say who,
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but whatever, A lot of a lot of names got fired, and other
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people took their parts and became bigger actors for it. You know, it
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was difficult, really difficult. And then Penn was you know, he was
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our god at that moment, the best actor of the generation. And he
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was he was married to Madonna. Yeah, he left the set. We
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closed for three days while he went to America to see the Sphinx Tyson fight.
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Lasted ninety one seconds. I remember, you know, like the shortest
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fight. That would be the longest flight for the shortest fight. You know,
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you imagine getting on the Thailand that was like a twenty four to twenty
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five, twenty eight hour flight back, then another twenty eight hours back.
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That's insane. Man. We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
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and now back to the show. Was was there a filmmaker or actor
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that you kind of looked up to as you were coming up, like you
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just like that really inspired you to do what you do. I looked at
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it, but everybody, everybody was above me. I was down here and
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everybody was up here, and I looked up to everybody. Man, I
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mean I got I gotta say. Richard Pryor to me, was was a
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big inspiration. Lenny Bruce when I discovered him, Flip Wilson Flip Man,
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Yeah, yeah, yeah, that dude was. I was gonna say the
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fu funny, but I think I can't curse right. That motherfucker was a
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big inspiration to me, you know. Uh. And then you know,
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of course there was you know, uh, I say with Lee Strasburg.
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I started at HB Studios, so these these teachers. I worked some of
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the great teachers in Americans acting, you know, the the greatest teachers.
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And then Win Hammond, you know who taught Innzel Washington, Alec Baldwin,
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you know. And then they took me under their wing. And I was
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a big I was a big student. I love learning. It was a
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place I could act because there wasn't a lot of opportunity for Latin man,
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So my my opportunities were an acting class, you know. That's where I
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could do all the big plays and all the big scenes from everything. You
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know. Now, there was one part, man, that it's one of
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you. One of your my favorite parts that you've ever done was clown.
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I'm fond dude. That was so hypnotic. I remember sitting in the theater
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watching that performance and you couldn't recognize you because you were not no no,
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that insane suit. Everyone's afterward like, who was kind of John is almost
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holy crap? That was amazing. What did you do to get in the
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mind of such a psychotic character, Dude? It was It wasn't easy.
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I'm not gonna lie. And you know it's funny you say I was unrecognizable
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because the whole director was like, no, no, we're doing it so
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we can recognize youthetic. We're paying for you myself. But yeah, I'm
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unrecognizable. I mean I had teeth, prosthetics, I had ginormous contexts.
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My whole face was glued with these pres my whole you know, after the
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after like a couple of weeks, I had blisters all over my face,
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pus. My face is raw, raw, And I didn't know what I
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was gonna do. And now I was kind of flint flamming. The rector
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was a sweetheart, and he was like, can we just get a taste
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what you're gonna do? I go, dude, do it. It'll come
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when we get on that set and we say action. But I had no
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idea what was going to come out of me. And I was panicked,
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right bro, And I took clown lessons. I was doing everything, man
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to help me. Talk to you were trying to figure it. So you
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were trying to You didn't know. You didn't know when you accepted the role.
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You didn't know how you were gonna do it. You were just trying
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to few. I knew I was gonna say some crazy ship that I knew.
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I knew I was gonna say some crazy stuff and they and they knew
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I was gonna add LIB and we had you know, I had prepared them
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that I was gonna add lib a lot of stuff, so I was.
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They were cool with that. This what's the boys and how you gonna I
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had no idea. And then the day and they kept saying, please give
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us a taste and go dude, you're interfering my process. But it was
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like bullshit because I had no idea. And then when they action h this
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voice came out this weird you know whatever, but you know from s and
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then that that was that was, It just came out of You didn't practice.
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You didn't practice that prime. I didn't know what I was gonna do.
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I had no idea. It was like what, I don't know?
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So you mean to tell me that you had all the makeup on you never
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practiced. When you're like, okay, something's gonna just come through me,
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the same the second I say action, well, I was praying. I
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wasn't really sure that it was right. Yeah wow, I mean, but
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sometimes there's moments where you gotta pray. No exactly, you just got like
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something has to come through me, because something better come through because he's a
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sending a lot of money, and we disappointed a lot of people. I'm
13:35
all dressed up. I gotta get some my guy. Yeah, And that
13:39
was a budget going to your wedding. And and you know that that haven't
13:45
made up the mind in your mind, in your head that you're gonna say,
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yes, do you do you take her? I'm like, I don't
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know. I had thought about it. I knew what I was gonna say
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maybe when I got up here, but now that I'm up here, I
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don't know. I'm having my dad. I mean, so when you approach
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roles, do you I mean, do you often do that? Or was
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that No? No? No, never, never never. That was just
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that it was such an insane place, same role, same character. Yeah,
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never, Like I'm mad rehearsed. I thought, so this I rehearsed.
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The more I rehearsed, the better I am. I mean, the
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role had lived in me for a couple of months, you know, I
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did. I wasn't doing any other job at the time, and I was
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really just living with it subconsciously. And you know, a lot of actors
14:28
talk about that, and my teachers say that, you know, sometimes like
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merrill Streep will fall asleep with a script and just let her some let her
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take her subconscious. So I was, you know, I do a lot
14:39
of that too, and I've always done that. It's it's a strange thing,
14:43
but you do. You You fall asleep and somehow you're in this meditative
14:46
state and the and the character starts taking over you. And so but I
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was just dating with this character and not wanting to test it, not want
14:54
to try for some weird reason, and then it popped out like that,
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that's awesome, man, that's awesome. I always love as I've never shared
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this information with anybody, so I AP's exclusive. I appreciate that. No,
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I was. I always felt embarrassed by that. You're good, you've
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done okay, So for yourself. Sorry, it's okay. You can admit
15:13
these things now. No, because I always wondered because I saw that performance,
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I was like, man, that's he. I always thought you didn't
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get enough credit because that was such a rock star freaking performance man, and
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the movie you know, it's just you know, no blowing smoke up your
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ass. It was just such a like I remember it so vividly. Dude,
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I haven't seen spawn since it probably came out, and I still remember
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the damn performance. And I've seen thousands of movies since, so it stuck
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with me. So it's just one of those things, just like, wow,
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man, how I just always wondered how he got in there, because
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you know, I would. I would ask Joaquin how he held did he
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get into the joker? Like when you get into psychonics? Oh? Oh
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my god, that was one of the most beautiful performance. I just got
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shows talking about that performed. I watched that movie three times because I loved
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the movie. I love the script, I love the soundtrack. He is
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the motherfucking Mac Daddy Daddy Mac of all time. I mean, he's He's
16:07
a goat. There's no question, no question whatsoever. And I always like
16:11
asking actors this, what do you look for in a director, because there's
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a lot of filmmakers who listen to the show, and I want them to
16:17
understand what actors are really looking for in a collaborator. Well, you know,
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as you get older, I mean you understand what helps you be your
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best and helps you you know. I like a director who lets me feel
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safe that I can fail, allows me to fail, allows me to play,
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and then I'll give you, you know, some horrible shit and some
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amazing shit, but if you give me the space to fail and let me
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try an experiment before you start giving me your input and before you start shaping
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me. Nick Nalty said it so beautifully and it stuck with me for life.
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He was with his director and his directory game line readings and telling him
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how to do it, and he says, my talent is like this feather.
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He had a feather in his hand. I know where he carried it
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from, but he said it was like this feather. And when they give
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me a line meeting, this is what happens to my ability. Oh god,
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And I was like, yeah, that's what happens when if a director
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steps in too early and you're experimenting, all you can hear is their choices.
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You can no longer hear your own impulses or your own intuition. You
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can't hear it anymore. So yeah, I mean, I love when directors
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can when I'm dried up or I'm blocked, please come with something. Somebody
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saved my ass. I'm more than welcome, but let me allow me,
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allow me to do my thing first, and then come and shape it,
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you know, yeah, you gotta you gotta run around the room a little
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bit. You gotta bump into some walls and have the freedom to do so.
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It's like, no, no, don't run into that wall. Like,
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let me run into the wall so I can figure it out. And
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absolutely there's you know, Spike Lee gave me that. Brian de Palmer and
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Casualties in Carlido's Way gave me that. Brad Furman in the take gave me
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all that space like that, and then and and uh, Spike Lee in
18:06
the Summer of Sam. You know, you just had so much fun together.
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Is is there anything you know you've worked with so many legendary directors over
18:14
your over your career, my friend, what is there anything you brought in
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into your own filmmaking, into your own producing, into your own writing that
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you've been able to bring in from some of these masters that you've worked with.
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Absolutely, Man, I had no idea, you know, that that
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their influence would live with me for the rest of my life. Uh,
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because I didn't know I was going to be a filmmaker, you know.
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I thought I was just going to be an actor or writer. And then
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when I started directing, it was like, oh wow, I have this
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rolodex. That's how old am I use the word rolodexodex of all this information
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from baz Lerman to Spike Lee to Tony Scott, you know, all their
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techniques and their problem solving is is all in here my computer and and I
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can have access to it. And when I did critical thinking, I was
19:02
like, I had all these problems, had a tiny budget. I had
19:04
these great actors, but we had all these problems. We were shooting in
19:07
the real hood and they tried to, you know, put guns at us
19:11
to get us out, you know, and people were being shot around the
19:14
It was like madness was happening, you know how it happens, and every
19:18
film it's like that. But I had the solutions, and I had all
19:22
these techniques, and it was great to have all that information in my head
19:25
from these masters. We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
19:33
and now back to the show. Is there ever a day I have to
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believe there is, as either a filmmaker as an actor that it was like
19:41
kind of the whole world was coming crashing down around you, you thought,
19:45
at least, and you know, whatever that might be, whatever it was,
19:49
that day was happened to you? How did you overcome those obstacles of
19:53
that moment of that day, whether acting were filmmaking, I mean, critical
19:57
thinking had that. But I gues I had to say the take with Brad
20:00
Furman. That was his first film, and we became buds for life.
20:07
You know, we're bros for the rest of our lives. I'm doing a
20:08
movie with him right now called Tin Soldier with Bobby de Niro and Jamie Fox
20:14
and Clint u, Scott Eastwood and my daughter. Actually uh nice, but
20:21
but the take Man. Everything that could go wrong in an independent film went
20:26
wrong on this movie. But it made us a force. You know.
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I stuck by my director and then Rosie jumped in and the three of us
20:34
we muscled and willed this movie into happening. And you know, I protected
20:38
the director because because everything was going wrong. Uh. The first day we
20:42
started shooting the chefs there because we were in the hood, and Boyle hides
20:49
and and and these these gang members came up and they wanted to eat our
20:52
craft service. And it's like, you know, we're in their hood,
20:56
let them eat the food. Who gives a fuck. It's like, how
20:57
much does that chicken cost? You let me, let me buy that for
21:00
you and give it to them. But anyway, they they wanted the food
21:03
and he said no, and the kid grabbed it and he choked that the
21:07
chef tried to choke the kid. Kid pulls out a gun. So now
21:11
we got gunplay. Police come immediately shoot a shut down our set their helicopter's
21:19
flag around the director. Rad was brilliant. He was like, film it,
21:22
film it, and that's our opening credits because you got all that all
21:27
that extra production value, amazing production value up the ass. That was day
21:33
one. Day two, hair and makeup quit because they can't work in this
21:37
dangerous set. And roses like I got Caribbean hair. I need somebody to
21:41
do my hair, so you know, here for the rest of the movies
21:45
like here and there, you know, because he's doing it herself, right
21:48
right, that was day two. I love I love the idea that you
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said that I protected my director because on a film like that that was his
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first It was his first feature, right, yeah, So he was his
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first feature. And I'm sure there was money people and producers and everything.
22:03
Oh yeah, they're looking for a reason to get rid of the director,
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especially if they're falling behind or shit's happening or things like that. The director
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easily, Yeah, right, exactly. But you know, I'm I'm old
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school man, you know, I don't know. I don't know where that
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comes from. From being growing up in the hood and you always taught to
22:19
loyalty is the most important thing. Or being a Latin person, you're your
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loyalty is everything. You know that we that's all we care about. So
22:27
anyway, all that, you know, I'm gonna take care of this kid.
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This kid has heart, he's got talent, and I'm not gonna let
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nobody take him down, you know, So I just stuck by him and
22:37
I go shoot where we're gonna go. I'm going to the hood every day.
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I don't care, and we're gonna gorilla. You know. We stole
22:44
shots and buses. We we stole shots everywhere, you know. You know,
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yeah, yeah, because the third day, I got to tell you,
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the third day, the sag comes in and takes away the kid who
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was my playing my summy shot three days with him. The third day they
23:00
said he had forged his a. It was an F and he had made
23:04
it look like an A and they had to take about So we had to
23:07
reshoot with a new kid. It was it was dude, every day,
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twenty eight days of madness like that, and you got and they got and
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you got. It just kept going. We just kept going. Yeah,
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he just kept going. It's it's it's it's amazing. And that's somebody.
23:22
So many filmmakers coming up don't understand the insanity of what it is to make
23:26
an independent film and and and having and you gotta love it, you and
23:30
your mind, and you end up loving it. You love creative and you're
23:33
more creative because you're being pushed against the wall and you have to solve these
23:37
problems and you have to get through your film and you have to and you
23:41
want to get creative work. You don't want to just shoot something that's average.
23:45
So what I love about your career is that you've worked on indie films
23:48
obviously at like a really low budget world, and you've also worked on some
23:52
of the biggest budget films and with the biggest directors in the Yeah, diehard,
23:56
every die hard to get with every resource that you're described, right,
24:02
how does let's say, a bas Lureman on Mulan Rouge, which obviously was
24:06
not an dfilm indie film. That was such a big no no, no
24:10
that it was such a big and well there was nothing nothing like that or
24:14
nothing ever will be like that. It's one of my favorite films. Oh
24:18
my god, it was. It was a game changer, love. I
24:21
mean, twenty seven angles on certain scenes. Bro we did we would do
24:25
see takes on certain stuff. How many cameras was shooting? How many cameras
24:30
was shooting? No, no, he had like three or four, so
24:33
you'd move them all around. So it was like, you know, hours
24:34
and days just so once it so he'd just had four here. Then they
24:41
move into the other section and they incrementally not like all the way to the
24:45
other side, just incrementally moving it around up here down. I mean,
24:49
he got every angle you know for you know, the Mulan rouge. I
24:55
think was very disconcerting for a lot of old school filmmakers and and and people
25:00
because it would move so fast and it was cutting. The cutting was so
25:03
quick and so it made people dizzy. But it was for the rest of
25:07
us who were young, we loved it. It was groundbreaking, groundbreaking.
25:11
And the music, the way he was able to incorporate old music and new
25:14
music, and he was the first to do that, to use old music,
25:18
and then they became like such an annoying trick that everybody's using now and
25:22
too much, you know. But so so when you're working with someone like
25:25
like Bazz or like on Romeo and Juliet Jesus, Like, what was it
25:29
like reciting Shakespeare and that in beautiful insanity that he had built for you?
25:34
Well, you know, I love Shakespeare, but I don't love doing it.
25:37
I didn't use that I think i'd love it. I love it now
25:40
as I'm older, you know, I'm you know, like like musicians are
25:44
either classic, classical or jazz. That was more of a jazz instrument,
25:48
you know. That's what I fancied myself and what I liked, so I
25:51
was moving towards that. But when I got into the Shakespeare, I was
25:53
like, oh, I can do I can group with this. And we
25:56
did a two week workshop and uh, you know, I was tibbled,
26:00
and I was tibbled too much. I was getting into fights in the street
26:03
and had my tongue broken by getting into fights. I mean it was the
26:07
characters sometimes overtakes you and it makes you stupid. But it was amazing I
26:14
mean he was. He was so specific about his vision. You know,
26:18
he had a vision and and you know, he told me he wanted me
26:22
to be a flamenco dancer and a bullfighter. So I studied that and I
26:26
started taking I took flamenco classes and all that to give him that that way
26:33
of moving because you know, how much more how much more street and he
26:36
wanted me to be, you know, very elegant on bullfighting thing that yeah
26:45
yeah, yeah, mad up at but like so working with someone like that
26:49
who had such a specific vision. I mean I remember watching Room and Juliet
26:56
when I went to the theaters to see it, and my first thought was
26:57
like, how did this get financed? How did this get approved? How
27:00
did this sneak through? Not easy? Not easy? I mean, Mulan
27:03
rouge was not easy. I saw what that brother had to struggle to get
27:07
that money out of the studios. You know, it's not just Latin people
27:11
and black people who struggled to get films. My wife folk struggled too,
27:14
in a different way. But you know, he had approved, He had
27:18
to proved that that Roman and Juliet was viable. They don't want to do
27:21
period stuff. They don't want to do Shakespeare, they don't want to do
27:23
artise stuff they don't think as commercial value. So he did a whole audition
27:30
with Leo DiCaprio and locations, and he had look books, and he had
27:36
the music. He had, he had the whole vision, and he had
27:38
a convince the studio to cough up the cash so he could shoot this film.
27:41
Then he has this massive hit, and then he's got to convince them
27:47
again that he can do a musical, because musical is the last successful musical
27:52
was Greece in nineteen seventy two, and we're shooting now in nineteen ninety nine,
27:56
two thousand. He had so he had to do it, do it
27:59
again. You had to do you know, uh uh visuals with you McGregor
28:04
and and Nicole Kid auditioning and and you know, it was wild, wild,
28:10
so that I didn't think about that. You're right, there wasn't a
28:12
musical since Greece before Movers and then after, but they all failed, they
28:18
all failed, So it was like the musical was dead on film, right,
28:22
But then after and Chicago and it all, he opened it up.
28:25
He proved that it could be successful, right, right, That's remarkable man,
28:27
No, No, he's brilliant. Man. You can't. You can't
28:30
underestimate his genius. He's he's one of the one of the one of a
28:33
kind. Yeah, that's when I'm dying to see Elvis. I can't wait
28:37
to see. Oh yeah, I know, I know everything he touches.
28:40
It's it's it's absolutely remarkable. Is there something man, that you wish someone
28:45
would have told you at the beginning of your career go back and like,
28:48
man, you know, watch off for this. Definitely in terms of I
28:56
mean, I feel like I I struggled with not the acting part. I
29:02
mean I didn't realize that the racism that talent in trump racism. I really
29:10
thought that. I really believe that I was naive or I don't know,
29:14
a dream or whatever. You just believe you can you can change the world.
29:17
But I didn't realize that there was a glass ceiling. I didn't I
29:19
didn't understand that. I didn't really believe it. I didn't want to believe
29:22
it. I think it would have disillusioned me. We'll be right back after
29:26
a word from our sponsor and now back to the show. But there was
29:34
a glass and you just were never going to get you thought, oh,
29:37
I did this role, I worked with these great directors. Now I'm going
29:42
to get those leads. I want to get those important leads that lead you
29:45
to oscars, that lead you to the same equal status as your wife,
29:51
peers. You know, but they weren't they weren't coming, and and you
29:56
vibe for them and they don't consider you because as your Latin dude or yeah,
30:00
there was there was a lot of stuff going on that you know,
30:03
I kept now. And the writing was the same way too, Like I
30:07
had all these great scripts and I would go around from studio and they were
30:10
like, oh, we love it well, and then they had no reason
30:14
why they didn't want to do it. They just were never going to do
30:15
a Latin project. If I'd written white scripts, boom, I would have
30:21
been a famous screenwriter. But it was so difficult to get It's still difficult
30:26
to get Latin content out there. I mean, I hear the conversations that
30:30
that they're having. You know, they're they're okay with two Latin people,
30:33
maybe three, but if it's like do they want the lead the two leads
30:37
to be Latin? Not so not so much. The money folks, The
30:41
money conversation is still like that, really I would, because I think nowadays
30:47
it's i mean, considering from the eighties and nineties were just miles different than
30:52
we were then as far as that kind of just an inclusion in general.
30:56
And they trying, they're trying, They're definitely, they're definitely trying, but
30:59
there's still roadblocks and and yeah, yeah, and and uh silent you know,
31:04
unspoken quotas. Definitely, I'm not I'm not gonna lie. I'm being
31:08
straight up with you. I appreciate that. No, I appreciate that.
31:11
And it's so fascinating because I was like asking, you know, actors of
31:14
yours, like someone of your statute who's done so many things, has a
31:18
name, people know who you are. You still have problems getting projects made,
31:22
And I want people to understand it's not like, oh, you're John
31:25
Leazamo. You could just, you know, just make a phone call and
31:26
you can have five million to make your own movie. No, No,
31:29
I could. I couldn't. But but I don't want to water down I'm
31:33
an artist. I see myself as an artist and as a pioneer, and
31:38
I don't want to water down my things. I don't want to want to
31:41
have to whitewash everything. I do. I understand what you're saying. Right
31:45
to maintain, to maintain the integrity of your project, I mean I can
31:48
usually you know, everything could be you know, one Latin dude and one
31:52
white dude. You know, like, you know, do the do do
31:55
the thing that they always want they want want to. It's an epotistic build
31:57
business in terms of wanting white actors to be in your projects, because that's
32:02
what they're still old school mentality and they and they think that that's going to
32:06
sell. But you know, I mean there was a time that Will Smith
32:09
couldn't get an action film done, and then he proved to the world that
32:12
yeah, black people are box office gold internationally. You know, there was
32:16
that whole conversation that in that era. Yeah, yeah, I remember,
32:20
yeah, Like I remember, you're like, oh, it's a African American.
32:22
You can't can't put him in Isaac's Look at Oscar Isaac. If things
32:28
were fair and non racist, he'd be Oscar Isaac Hernandez. But he can't.
32:34
He is still in this modern day, he has to go a boy
32:37
Oscar Isaac because if he had the Hernandez still on his on his resume,
32:42
he may not get those roles, those leads, because that's what is going
32:45
on. That's that's that's a sign of the times. It's really fine.
32:49
And I'm being straight up with you. I mean, most people won't talk
32:51
about these things because it's ugly and they don't want to talk about it.
32:53
But but I want those things to change. Yeah, agreed. And that's
32:58
why, you know, that's one of the reasons why I do the always.
33:00
I want to educate people about what's going with the realities of this business
33:02
are and you can't look at you can't look at life, you know,
33:07
especially walking into this business with a starried eyed and like, I have a
33:09
dream just because I watch movies. It's all beautiful. I watch the Oscars,
33:13
it's like nice. But I always I always tell people, you want
33:15
a great analogy for Hollywood, look at Oscar night. Oscar night looks gorgeous.
33:20
The night after the Oscars, I would go down to where the Oscars
33:23
were at night Holly, Hollywood Boulevard, eat pretty plays brother. It's not
33:30
you know, except for that one week it looks great. But that's true.
33:34
It's true. They sell the sizzle, but they don't sell the steak.
33:37
They're not good at selling that steak. If they sell that sizzle,
33:38
great though, don't they That's true, It's true. I mean, I
33:42
mean the people don't like to talk about what is really going on. I
33:45
mean, and you know, if you blow up what's going on, people
33:51
aren't happy about it either, and they don't usually like that, and you
33:53
become a little bit of a you know, of a lightning rod. Right,
33:58
So people are careful exactly, but you know what things are changing,
34:01
and I think people are they are moving forward. You know, there's things
34:06
look like I said before, like in ninety one, Robert Rodriguez the first
34:09
Latin director I'd ever seen in my life, right though there were others,
34:13
but he was the first one I saw and I was like, oh and
34:15
he's twenty three, and oh, I think I could go. Well,
34:19
you know, you thought that was going to blow the damn open. You
34:22
thought, oh my god, now every Latin director has a chance. And
34:25
it didn't happen, which is crazy. And then now but you got your
34:30
Yama the Toro's and you got your oh no, yeah, of course,
34:34
I mean, of course they have to like work, you know, white,
34:37
but you know, to a certain extent. Yeah, But like I
34:40
remember coming up as a commercial director, I couldn't do I was in Miami
34:45
and I couldn't do Latino spots and put them on my reel for the Spanish
34:49
market, absolutely because because if I did that then I would be pigeonholed as
34:52
a Spanish director. I couldn't then do general market, right. I was
34:58
told when I begin, don't change your name. You can almost pass three
35:01
Italian. If they don't know, then you'll be okay. Stay out of
35:05
the sun. You know all these things. You know, work on your
35:07
accent and stuff like that, and you know it. It's in same,
35:10
but the things are changing and hopefully they'll continue to go down that path without
35:14
question. Now let's talk about your new project, The Green Vale Man.
35:19
I absolutely love what you're doing with it, that the idea about it.
35:22
Can you tell everybody what it's about? Yeah, Well, this is another
35:27
pioneering young director that that I'm backing, that I believe in. I think
35:32
he's a great, great new talent and he's trying this new thing he's never
35:37
been done before. It's usually what you're doing independent films, you do a
35:39
negative pickup, and this is kind of like that old school system of you
35:43
know, you shoot your film because you believe in it and you wanted to
35:45
have artistic integrity. Then you sell it, you know, at a film
35:49
festival. So we did this with a TV series six episodes, and so
35:54
we shot that first, raise the money, shot it, and now got
35:59
into the Traubet Film Festival, which is incredible that they gave us this space
36:02
because they love the project. And it's about in the nineteen fifties and before
36:08
that, the government and the FBI in oil companies wanted Native American land and
36:17
they started and I think late eighteen hundreds or the nineteen hundreds, was taking
36:22
their kids away from them, so they took away their culture and their identity.
36:28
They wouldn't go back to the reservation, and they could take the land
36:30
from them becausey wouldn't inherit it. So and then in the fifties, sixties
36:35
and seventies they started taking the children from them with excuses and giving them up
36:38
for adoption so they could end the reservation to take the land and get the
36:44
oil. So this takes place in nineteen fifty and I play an FBI guy
36:49
self hitting you know, Latin guy who's taking these Native kids from their homes,
36:55
and putting them up for adoption. This is true story two events.
37:00
When I was watching it, I was like, I've heard the story.
37:02
I saw the sixty minute story about it. They did a whole bit.
37:06
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, they did a sixty minute story about it
37:08
was so insane that they literally just kidnapped kids and kind of put them in
37:15
like these brainwashing scenarios, like the like just trying to strip the culture out
37:19
of them. And then the abuse that happened and all the death. Yeah,
37:22
the death. They were kids, they were dying and they were being
37:24
treated in humanely. But it was to get the land. It was to
37:28
get the land. I didn't know about the land part. That's yeah,
37:30
yeah, that the reason was. Yeah, it wasn't oh, it wasn't
37:35
like, oh, we were going to help them. No, it was
37:37
to take their land because if they if they weren't tied to the land,
37:40
they would move to cities, they would move away, and they were moving
37:44
them away into white families that would adopt them that weren't weren't you know nearby.
37:49
Now, has this gotten bought yet or are you not hoping? No?
37:52
No, the first day is the first day is coming up. June
37:54
I think it's June fifteenth, the first uh, first scream of it.
37:59
Yeah, oh night. And then hopefully you're you're looking for someone to come
38:02
in and oh yeah doing the HBO or show Netflix or something like that.
38:07
Yeah, that has never been done before. So this is hopefully this this
38:13
is a new thing that can be done. You know, like because the
38:15
new the new independent film would be like a four part or six part series.
38:21
I mean, I think in generally on the business side of things,
38:22
there's more value in a series than there isn't a film nowadays nowadays. Correct,
38:30
not artistically, I'm talking to business wise because you know, in the
38:32
distribution world, like you got more content, it's bigger, it's a bigger
38:37
People want want one to four finish night experience, yes, six night experience.
38:40
They want want quick yeah, yeah, they want the Queen's Campit it's
38:44
like they had a mini series or series that can continue. But no,
38:49
when I saw what it was about, I was like, man, God
38:51
bless John for forgetting this out there. Man, because it's a story that
38:54
it's just in the mainstream. Would have come out, it just wouldn't no,
38:58
no, no, it wouldn't make Yeah. And you know, and
39:01
and we have, uh, the the approval of a Native American nation,
39:07
and uh we have a few Native American actors in it as well, you
39:13
know, to keep representing themselves and lead roles. Yep. That's awesome,
39:17
man, that's awesome. Now I'm gonna ask you a couple of questions I
39:22
ask all my guests. We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
39:30
and now back to the show. What advice would you give a filmmaker
39:36
trying to break into the business today. Well, I mean, definitely go
39:42
to the grade schools. You know, you got you got, that's the
39:45
best place to try. And uh, you know, uh try to shoot
39:51
as much as you can, you know, and work with everybody, and
39:52
work with all your friends and create a community. I think I think I
39:58
saw that. We all saw that with uh Spielberg and Coppola, Smarty,
40:05
all of us. Yeah. Yeah, they all hung together, They read
40:07
each other's scripts, they helped each other. And then Gama Toro uh or
40:12
two and I was grown had a company and they were producing Latin content.
40:15
They were helping each other out. I mean, that's the thing is create
40:20
a community. Don't make other directors your enemy, make them your your brothers
40:23
and your sisters, and and create those communities that you help each other and
40:28
you make each other's scripts better, and you make each other's projects better,
40:30
and you help them make their projects. That's you help each other, you
40:34
piggyback, and you create better and more content. I just always loved that
40:37
story of when George Lucas played Star Wars for that gang of all yeah,
40:42
and everyone's like, I'm sorry to it just sucks. That's not gonna work.
40:45
It's not gonna work man at all. And the only one was Steven
40:49
Spielberg. He was like, you got something here, I think, uh
40:52
think, I mean, but you got you got Palma and and and Copla,
40:57
a different school of millions, millions, for God's sakes, I mean,
41:00
oh, can you imagine what is the biggest lesson you learned from your
41:07
biggest failure? That you can't you can't plan for that ship, You can't,
41:15
you can't go around your whole life full of fear and going oh,
41:19
I got to make the right choice now. I think you have to take
41:22
risks and you got to live. You got to go with your gut even
41:25
if it fails. You got and the failures they may hurt you a little
41:30
bit, but you got to keep going and don't let the failures define you.
41:35
You know, that's what I learned from them. I'm not gonna let
41:37
you know. Luckily, I grew up in a tough neighborhood. I knew
41:39
the business was never for me, so I never really embraced it. So
41:44
I don't really accept their opinion of me, you know what I mean.
41:46
So I just keep going and do my thing. Now. I'm not gonna
41:49
let them define me in any kind of way, because they've always tried to
41:52
define me in the negative. What is the lesson that took you the longest
41:57
to learn, whether in the film industry or in life. Oh, ship,
42:04
that's that's a that's a good question. Well then you know that that
42:10
writing takes a lot of rewriting. That that's that's the biggest lesson. That
42:15
writing is just crazy amounts rewriting, and you so you better love your rewriting
42:19
because that's that's the better. Be joyful because it's going to be everything.
42:22
You're gonna spend all your hours because I'm a writer right now, and three
42:28
of your favorite films of all time, no, I mean Godfather of course,
42:32
Annie Hall in Raging Bull. I guess those are my favorite three films.
42:38
That's a good that's a good trill. Oh, my friend, that's
42:40
good. Trio brother, Man, you obviously have so much passion for what
42:45
you do. You can just it just falls off the screen as I'm talking
42:47
to you. And after all the years you've been doing this, man,
42:51
you still are so passionate about your projects. You're still so passionate about what
42:54
you're doing and about helping people, about opening doors, about uh, creating
42:59
opportunities for people. Man. I gotta thank you man for doing that and
43:02
continuing to do it and being a champion for not only Latino filmmakers, but
43:07
for artists man, and get things out there that I love my artists.
43:10
Man. Yeah, I love and I love and I love that you're just
43:14
like you are a risk taker. You have been since the beginning of when
43:16
you were first on Miami Vice Man back Yeah yeah, nineteen looking like such
43:22
a punk. Yeah yeah, you know what, but everybody went through Miami
43:25
Vice. Brother, everybody everybody did. Everybody that was that was I was
43:30
like every Latin person that they gave us work. It was the time that
43:35
all Latin people were all every actor you ever met that was Latin was working
43:38
absolutely because it was all going to Miami Vice. I had Eddie had it
43:42
almost on a while ago, and he would tell me stories, dude,
43:45
Oh my god, the stories of him and Don Johnson battling it out and
43:50
his his method, and he like owned his character so like he just told
43:53
everybody what to do about his character, and like everybody was pissed off about
43:58
it. But anytime they had a problem to call Michael up and Michael Man
44:00
is like, it's Eddie. Let him do whatever he wants to do.
44:02
Oh wow, how beautiful is that? Dude. It was like I was,
44:06
I was like, how did you get that, Eddie? He's like,
44:07
I just asked for it at the beginning of my career and I never
44:09
let go of it. And I'm like, amazing. Amazing is a great
44:14
spirit too, So listen, brother, thank you again man for everything you
44:19
do. Congrats on your new project and I hope it selves. Man.
44:22
I hope this is the beginning of a new thing. I know we'll know
44:24
soon the kid's coming up. I appreciate you, brother, Thanks again,
44:29
man, Thank you for having me. Man. I want to thank John
44:31
so much for coming on the show. And sharing his journey with the tribe
44:35
today. Thank you so so much. If you want to get links to
44:37
anything we spoke about in this episode, head over to the show notes at
44:42
Indie film Hustle dot com Forward slash five eight nine, and if you haven't
44:45
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44:53
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44:57
a good review for the show, just head over to film podcast dot com.
45:01
Thank you so so much for listening guys. As always, keep that
45:05
hustle going, keep that dream alive, Stay safe out there, and I'll
45:07
talk to you soon. Thanks for listening to the Indie Film Hustle Podcast at
45:12
Indie Film Hustle dot com. That's I N D I E F I L
45:16
M h U S T l E dot com.