Latest / I Do, Part 2 / Eugenio Derbez: From “Overboard” to “Acapulco” Making it in America
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: Hey, there are folks quick, can you name the highest
- 0:06Speaker 1: grossing Spanish language movie of all time? It's okay, I
- 0:12Speaker 1: couldn't either, But then I found out who wrote, directed,
- 0:17Speaker 1: and starred in it, and I said, oh, that guy.
- 0:22Speaker 2: We love that guy, and that guy just happens to
- 0:25Speaker 2: be our guest right here today on this episode of
- 0:29Speaker 2: Amy and TJ.
- 0:29Speaker 1: Welcome everybody to the show.
- 0:31Speaker 3: Rose.
- 0:31Speaker 1: This is like, you're giddy. You know him, you know
- 0:35Speaker 1: him so well, you love him and everything you've seen,
- 0:38Speaker 1: and now we got him in here with us.
- 0:39Speaker 4: A you Henneo Derbez and that smiles, even his face,
- 0:45Speaker 4: like as soon as you see it, it makes what
- 0:47Speaker 4: doesn't matter what kind of day you're having, all of
- 0:49Speaker 4: a sudden you feel lighter, brighter, better. He is that
- 0:52Speaker 4: light and certainly everything he's been touching as a blade
- 0:56Speaker 4: has been turning to gold. I mean, it's an incredible story.
- 0:59Speaker 4: A Hano, thank you for being with us, and congratulations
- 1:02Speaker 4: on all of your remarkable success.
- 1:06Speaker 3: Oh, thank you guys. First of all, thanks for so
- 1:08Speaker 3: beautiful introduction. I had chills. Thank you very much, thank you,
- 1:16Speaker 3: thank you, thank you. Well. Yeah, I am, I'm a
- 1:19Speaker 3: very familiar face to all Latinos. Let's say they've been
- 1:25Speaker 3: watching my shows for decades, but I'm a kind of
- 1:30Speaker 3: a new phase for the for the Americans. It's it's
- 1:35Speaker 3: a great story because I had a career my entire life.
- 1:38Speaker 3: I worked in Mexico, from Mexico for all Latin America,
- 1:44Speaker 3: and and eleven years ago after my I did a
- 1:48Speaker 3: movie called Instructions Not Included. That was the one who
- 1:53Speaker 3: had the title of the highest crossing Spanish language film
- 1:56Speaker 3: ever worldwide. And that movie changed my and so eleven
- 2:02Speaker 3: years ago I moved to the US and I started
- 2:06Speaker 3: from scratch in my career here in the US. So
- 2:11Speaker 3: it's been it's been a trip.
- 2:14Speaker 4: You started from scratch. You have a you know, a
- 2:16Speaker 4: star on the Hollywood Walk of FG, which is always
- 2:19Speaker 4: like that big You've made it moment, and that is
- 2:22Speaker 4: that was nine years ago. Even so all you've done
- 2:24Speaker 4: since then. When I see you, I think of how
- 2:26Speaker 4: to be a Latin lover. I think about the Overboard
- 2:29Speaker 4: remake because that is literally my favorite movie, the original
- 2:32Speaker 4: of all time. And you all just did Anna Faris.
- 2:35Speaker 4: It was such a cute flip on a script that
- 2:38Speaker 4: I loved. But Dora, the Lost City of gold. I mean,
- 2:41Speaker 4: you just name it. And so all of you have
- 2:44Speaker 4: been on the big screen for some many of us.
- 2:45Speaker 4: But now you're wrapping up a highly successful four seasons
- 2:51Speaker 4: on Apple plus Acapulco and we've been watching it all
- 2:56Speaker 4: morning long. It just puts you on a good mood.
- 2:58Speaker 4: It's such a great fun just like it's It's something
- 3:02Speaker 4: that you don't have out there and a lot of
- 3:04Speaker 4: the streaming services, something that's wholesome even and fun.
- 3:07Speaker 3: To watch absolutely well. I always wanted to. I remember
- 3:12Speaker 3: that I grew up watching a series with my parents,
- 3:18Speaker 3: The Beverly Hill Billies, the Monsters, the Adams Family, the
- 3:23Speaker 3: Love Boats, you name it, many many many, and I
- 3:27Speaker 3: was like, why they don't do family stuff right now?
- 3:32Speaker 3: Everything is about kidnapping, murders, blood, sex, violence, And I
- 3:41Speaker 3: wanted to do something that could you could watch with
- 3:43Speaker 3: your family. And also I wanted to portray Mexico in
- 3:50Speaker 3: a different way because every time you would turn on
- 3:53Speaker 3: the news and you hear about Mexico, it's always about
- 3:56Speaker 3: narcos killing all the bad stuff that I know it's there,
- 4:01Speaker 3: but Mexico is more, much more than that, and I
- 4:05Speaker 3: really wanted to show Mexico the others side of Mexico
- 4:09Speaker 3: that sometimes the news doesn't show. So that's why we
- 4:13Speaker 3: came up with this idea of a Capulco that it's
- 4:16Speaker 3: it's based slightly based in in How to Be a
- 4:20Speaker 3: Latin Lover. It's like the prequel of How to Be
- 4:23Speaker 3: a Latin Lover that if you if you haven't watched
- 4:27Speaker 3: the movie, it's a very very very funny movie with
- 4:30Speaker 3: Sana Hayek, Robbulo, Kristen Bell, Michael Sarah. It's a great
- 4:34Speaker 3: cast and it was hilarious and Raquel Welch also it
- 4:40Speaker 3: was her last movie. So anyway, we decided to do
- 4:45Speaker 3: this prequel called Akapulco, and thank god we've been on
- 4:49Speaker 3: the air for the last four seasons.
- 4:53Speaker 1: You talked about how successful a lot fat might I
- 4:55Speaker 1: know you were wildly successful in Mexico. Everybody knows you,
- 5:00Speaker 1: of course in Latin America. But to compare for me,
- 5:03Speaker 1: if you will, compare might be the wrong word, but
- 5:07Speaker 1: success in Mexico as a television or movie star and
- 5:11Speaker 1: success in Hollywood as a television or movie star, and
- 5:14Speaker 1: some of that. You could talk about the practical rewards
- 5:17Speaker 1: and what life looks like. But for you personally, How
- 5:20Speaker 1: did those two accomplishments even compare or feel different to
- 5:24Speaker 1: conquering Mexico or and then conquering a certain degree Hollywood.
- 5:30Speaker 3: It's completely different. I remember that I tried to do
- 5:36Speaker 3: the crossover for many many years. I remember that I was,
- 5:41Speaker 3: let me tell you really quickly story I was in.
- 5:44Speaker 3: I fell in love with Hollywood. Since I was a kid.
- 5:47Speaker 3: I used to go to the movie theaters to watch
- 5:49Speaker 3: Hollywood movies with my mom and we watched like three
- 5:54Speaker 3: movies on Friday, four movies on Saturday, three movies. It
- 5:57Speaker 3: was insane. I really loved with movies. And every year
- 6:01Speaker 3: I was watching the Oscars, and one day I told
- 6:04Speaker 3: my mom while we were watching the Oscars, that's what
- 6:08Speaker 3: I want to do when I grow up. I want
- 6:10Speaker 3: to tell stories. I want to be a storyteller. And
- 6:14Speaker 3: since then I fell in love with Hollywood. But then
- 6:16Speaker 3: I started working in Mexico. Thank god, I had a
- 6:20Speaker 3: very successful career. And it was until my mom died
- 6:26Speaker 3: when I was forty two. And when I somebody called me,
- 6:32Speaker 3: I always think that it was my mom from heaven
- 6:36Speaker 3: reminding me that I had a dream. But anyway, she
- 6:41Speaker 3: passed after she passed. Like two weeks later, I received
- 6:45Speaker 3: the call from an agent from Hollywood, and that's when
- 6:49Speaker 3: I remember, of course I had a dream. So first
- 6:53Speaker 3: thing I did, I said, yeah, let's have a meeting
- 6:55Speaker 3: in la And I immediately called Berlitz and I started
- 7:00Speaker 3: taking English lessons because my English was really, really really
- 7:04Speaker 3: it is still I'm still a working progress, but it
- 7:08Speaker 3: was really bad back then. And I started learning English,
- 7:12Speaker 3: real English at forty two, and well, yeah, and here
- 7:20Speaker 3: I am. I started. I had a meeting then I
- 7:23Speaker 3: long story, I'm not gonna bore you, but I ended
- 7:27Speaker 3: up three years after that meeting. I ended up doing
- 7:30Speaker 3: a play in Broadway on Broadway at the Helen Hayes
- 7:35Speaker 3: Theater called Latino Loagues. And then I did a movie
- 7:40Speaker 3: with Adam Sandler Blah blah blah blah blah, Jack and Jill.
- 7:44Speaker 3: And then I did a TV series with Rob Schnyder
- 7:47Speaker 3: called Rob and I was ten years later, after trying
- 7:53Speaker 3: to do the crossover, finally I did Broadway. I did
- 7:57Speaker 3: my movie with Adam Sandler, I did a series and
- 8:00Speaker 3: many other things in the middle and then I said, Okay,
- 8:04Speaker 3: I I had it. I'm going to go back to
- 8:06Speaker 3: my country because this it was taking a lot of
- 8:09Speaker 3: energy from me. Because I had my career in Mexico.
- 8:12Speaker 3: I was like shooting all the week long my my
- 8:16Speaker 3: TV shows, and then during the weekends I was coming
- 8:19Speaker 3: to the US to do my stuff. It was insane.
- 8:23Speaker 3: So I said, not anymore, and I went back to
- 8:26Speaker 3: Mexico and to do my movie called Instruction Not Included.
- 8:31Speaker 3: And when I quit the American Dream and I came back,
- 8:36Speaker 3: it came back when it is the theaters. So it's
- 8:42Speaker 3: a it's a it's a great story. You know.
- 8:45Speaker 1: I'm curious about the We were just talking about this
- 8:48Speaker 1: with Bad Money the other night. Well, he did Saturday
- 8:50Speaker 1: Night Live. He did, He hosted Saturday Night Live. English
- 8:53Speaker 1: is not his first language either, and I was thinking
- 8:55Speaker 1: about how terrifying that is if I had to go
- 8:58Speaker 1: to fans and get in front of a live television audience,
- 9:01Speaker 1: no matter how good my French might be. When you
- 9:03Speaker 1: started learning English at forty two, how long before you
- 9:07Speaker 1: got the first gig in which you had to perform
- 9:12Speaker 1: in English? And what did that feel like? Having to
- 9:15Speaker 1: like this is it? You got to try out the
- 9:17Speaker 1: English you've been learning and do it on camera.
- 9:20Speaker 3: That's a great question. I this is a story I
- 9:26Speaker 3: went to I came to La as a tourist one
- 9:30Speaker 3: not a tourists. I had to learn English after that meeting.
- 9:34Speaker 3: I remember that I took my meeting and I said,
- 9:36Speaker 3: I need urgently to take English lessnse. So I went
- 9:39Speaker 3: to Berlin's. I took like a week intense week course
- 9:45Speaker 3: and then the teacher sent me to see a play
- 9:49Speaker 3: called Latino Loogux that was in a at the current theater,
- 9:53Speaker 3: this small theater in La and I saw this monologues
- 9:58Speaker 3: and I said I I cannot do this. I have
- 10:01Speaker 3: to be honest with me. I can't do this. But
- 10:06Speaker 3: but the director.
- 10:08Speaker 4: Uh.
- 10:08Speaker 3: There was a Latin actor who knew me. He saw
- 10:12Speaker 3: me in the in the audience and he presented me
- 10:14Speaker 3: with the director. The director invited me, if you ever
- 10:17Speaker 3: want to do a monologue, just call me and come
- 10:20Speaker 3: to La and do it. And I was like, I
- 10:24Speaker 3: didn't tell him, but I was like, I cannot do this.
- 10:27Speaker 3: I know my ligit. I cannot do this. Well. It
- 10:32Speaker 3: was in my head for three months and after three
- 10:34Speaker 3: months I said I'm gonna do it. So I called
- 10:38Speaker 3: the director. They sent me three monologues. I learned the
- 10:42Speaker 3: monologues by I mean literally by the book. I didn't
- 10:47Speaker 3: know what I was saying. I was trying to do
- 10:49Speaker 3: some research, but it was a lot of slang and
- 10:53Speaker 3: things that were related with the culture, and I was
- 10:56Speaker 3: afraid of asking because I didn't want to lose the opportunity.
- 10:59Speaker 3: So I just learned everything just by the book memory memorized.
- 11:06Speaker 3: I didn't I saw I was not understanding what I
- 11:09Speaker 3: was saying. And I finally showed up like six months later.
- 11:16Speaker 3: So I was still learning English when I stood up
- 11:20Speaker 3: in front of this audience in La and I delivered
- 11:24Speaker 3: my first monologue like nine months after I started studying
- 11:27Speaker 3: and studying English. And that night, after that monologue, I
- 11:33Speaker 3: went to a hotel, to my hotel to sleep, and
- 11:38Speaker 3: I had an internal bleeding because of the stress I had,
- 11:44Speaker 3: and I ended up. I ended up in the hospital.
- 11:47Speaker 3: I had to call nine one one because I was fainting.
- 11:51Speaker 3: I called the reception. I was like, I feel really bad.
- 11:54Speaker 3: So anyway, story short story, I went to the hospital
- 11:59Speaker 3: because I was because the amount of stress that I
- 12:02Speaker 3: had that night, it was insane.
- 12:04Speaker 1: Jesus.
- 12:05Speaker 4: I mean that just speaks to what you put yourself
- 12:08Speaker 4: through there was a physical manifestation of the stress and
- 12:12Speaker 4: the worry, all the hard work. I'm for the pressure
- 12:15Speaker 4: you put on yourself to be the best, but my goodness, yeah,
- 12:19Speaker 4: and then what did you change?
- 12:22Speaker 3: Did you?
- 12:22Speaker 4: How did you evolve from that where Okay, I can
- 12:25Speaker 4: now get up and perform and not feel this terrible
- 12:29Speaker 4: and this scared. How long did it take?
- 12:32Speaker 3: Well? I after that night, I continued every every single
- 12:37Speaker 3: weekend without any payment. They just let me perform. I
- 12:42Speaker 3: had to pay my own hotels, flights, everything. So every
- 12:47Speaker 3: weekend I was like going back to LA to perform
- 12:52Speaker 3: until three years later. Three years later, every single weekend
- 12:57Speaker 3: performing we ended up on Broadway with that play. That
- 13:01Speaker 3: was a play that we presented on Broadway. So but
- 13:05Speaker 3: before that, it was insane, I know, and I was
- 13:09Speaker 3: I wasn't Broadway and I was telling my my, my,
- 13:14Speaker 3: my friends. The actors that were performing with me. I
- 13:17Speaker 3: was like, why you never told me that I was
- 13:19Speaker 3: mispronouncing a lot of words And they were like, well,
- 13:21Speaker 3: we thought you were like playing with the with the language,
- 13:26Speaker 3: making fun of the language. I was like, no, no, no,
- 13:28Speaker 3: it was me mispronouncing. But let me tell you story,
- 13:33Speaker 3: uh I? I mean after I decided to do this.
- 13:40Speaker 3: I mean I I went to the hospital that day.
- 13:43Speaker 3: I'm sorry because I'm like, I don't want you to
- 13:46Speaker 3: confuse you. I decided to to finally perform in English
- 13:53Speaker 3: every weekend. Then I went back to Mexico. I I
- 13:59Speaker 3: did Broadway in La, no Broadway in New York, and
- 14:04Speaker 3: then I went back to La to do the Adam
- 14:07Speaker 3: Sander movie, then the Rob Schneider and then I quit
- 14:11Speaker 3: the American Dream. But I was still working in Mexico
- 14:15Speaker 3: with my show on my TV shows that were airing
- 14:19Speaker 3: every single week at the same time. So it was
- 14:23Speaker 3: really really tired, tired for me. And then I had
- 14:27Speaker 3: to make a decision. When the movie opens in two
- 14:32Speaker 3: thoy thirteen and it became the highest grossing splanis Langlas
- 14:36Speaker 3: film in the US and worldwide, my agents told me,
- 14:39Speaker 3: you need to come to the US, and it's now
- 14:43Speaker 3: or never. So I closed my office, my production company,
- 14:49Speaker 3: every my entire life. I shut down my entire life
- 14:52Speaker 3: in Mexico to move to the US. And I was
- 14:58Speaker 3: fifty two by then, So it's been it's been an
- 15:02Speaker 3: insane adventure.
- 15:04Speaker 4: And you know, a you hennyway, I think it is
- 15:14Speaker 4: so cool for people to hear and to listen because
- 15:17Speaker 4: people think I'm too old. I can't do this, I
- 15:19Speaker 4: can't learn that. I can't be that vulnerable. I can't
- 15:23Speaker 4: push myself that hard. I'm this age to hear you
- 15:27Speaker 4: tell your story and to see your level of success.
- 15:30Speaker 4: It wasn't luck, it wasn't right place, right time. It
- 15:33Speaker 4: was courage, and it was hard work. And that was
- 15:38Speaker 4: and of course you're talented, you have to have that foundation.
- 15:41Speaker 4: But that is so inspirational and I appreciate. I know
- 15:46Speaker 4: people listening appreciate hearing your story because we give up
- 15:50Speaker 4: too quickly. But to hear what you did and to
- 15:53Speaker 4: see your success, it's awesome.
- 15:55Speaker 1: Even I appreciate hearing it.
- 15:56Speaker 3: Oh, thank you. It was. It was hard because I
- 16:00Speaker 3: remember that I was fifty two when I took a
- 16:03Speaker 3: lip of faith and I left everything behind. Everyone. Everyone
- 16:07Speaker 3: in Mexico was telling me, are you crazy? I mean,
- 16:11Speaker 3: you have a family, You had the highest My show
- 16:16Speaker 3: was number one on ratings in Mexico. Imagine like, I
- 16:20Speaker 3: don't know if all of a sudden, Jimmy fallon quitting
- 16:24Speaker 3: his job and going to China to start all over
- 16:27Speaker 3: in another language.
- 16:32Speaker 4: Yeah, that would be saying.
- 16:34Speaker 3: It was insane in the room. Are you crazy? Your
- 16:37Speaker 3: show is number one on the Are you going to
- 16:40Speaker 3: quit your show? Your production company? Everything? But I felt
- 16:44Speaker 3: inside of me that it was my dreams. Inside was
- 16:46Speaker 3: a kid that I and I fought for it like
- 16:50Speaker 3: it left ten years before and it didn't really happen.
- 16:55Speaker 3: So it was now or never. So I moved to
- 16:58Speaker 3: LA and it was this is a true story. When
- 17:02Speaker 3: I took them, I make the decision to move to
- 17:05Speaker 3: the US. June nineteenth, I was flying with my wife
- 17:10Speaker 3: finally with all my luggage to start a new life
- 17:15Speaker 3: in the US. And that day we woke up at
- 17:19Speaker 3: four am. We say we said goodbye to my house
- 17:22Speaker 3: for many many years, friends, family, and I was on
- 17:26Speaker 3: the airplane with my wife and I was like, I
- 17:30Speaker 3: asked her, do you think we're making the right decision?
- 17:33Speaker 3: And she was like, my love, it's too late. Let's
- 17:37Speaker 3: just go for it. We were flying and when we
- 17:42Speaker 3: landed in LA we had hundreds of messages. While we
- 17:49Speaker 3: were flying from Mexico to LA. They gave me the
- 17:52Speaker 3: start in the Hollywood Book of Fame. While we were flying.
- 17:57Speaker 3: I mean, if I put this in a movie, They
- 17:59Speaker 3: will say, come on the day you were moving from Mexico,
- 18:03Speaker 3: that day you received it. Well, that really happened in
- 18:06Speaker 3: real life.
- 18:07Speaker 2: And when we come on sign oh come on it
- 18:12Speaker 2: no way, this is the universe asking your question that
- 18:17Speaker 2: you asked me when we were about to take off.
- 18:20Speaker 3: So it's crazy that that same day, when we were flying,
- 18:24Speaker 3: I received the news that I got the starting the
- 18:27Speaker 3: Hollywood Block of Fame.
- 18:29Speaker 4: It's called validation from the universe.
- 18:31Speaker 1: Yeah, are you one of those folks who again, I've
- 18:36Speaker 1: been on board with this more of the past few
- 18:38Speaker 1: years because of my dear Amy Robot here. But don't
- 18:42Speaker 1: ignore the signs from the universe. Are you one that
- 18:44Speaker 1: now pays attention to signs? Are you one that follows
- 18:47Speaker 1: or you one that kind of has ignored them a
- 18:49Speaker 1: lot of times in your life? Because this one was
- 18:51Speaker 1: a clear sign.
- 18:53Speaker 3: Absolutely. I I I'm always looking for those signs that
- 18:59Speaker 3: life is given you. And the first time I really
- 19:03Speaker 3: understood the value of flowing. Actually I'm right right now,
- 19:09Speaker 3: I'm writing a movie about about that. But the first
- 19:14Speaker 3: time I pay attention was when I in two thousand
- 19:17Speaker 3: and one, I was doing my shows were like number one.
- 19:24Speaker 3: For the first time I was the peak of my
- 19:26Speaker 3: career in television in Mexico and I wanted to transition
- 19:31Speaker 3: to movies and nobody wanted to hire me. And I
- 19:35Speaker 3: was like, but why, I mean, I have the highest ratings.
- 19:39Speaker 3: All the companies wanted to work with me, but not
- 19:43Speaker 3: the the movie directors, the director from the movies. They
- 19:48Speaker 3: didn't want to hire me, and they said, you are
- 19:53Speaker 3: too commercial, too commercial for us, you are the TV comedian.
- 20:00Speaker 3: So they never gave me the opportunity. And that's when
- 20:04Speaker 3: I and back then, I said this is not fair.
- 20:08Speaker 3: Life is not fair. I was blaming on everyone and
- 20:14Speaker 3: and but because of that, I had the courage to
- 20:18Speaker 3: start writing my first movie, because I said, if nobody's
- 20:21Speaker 3: gonna is giving me the opportunity, I have to build
- 20:23Speaker 3: my own opportunity. And that day I sat down to
- 20:28Speaker 3: start writing my own movie. Twelve years later, that movie
- 20:34Speaker 3: was instructions not included. When I I was finishing the movie,
- 20:43Speaker 3: I told my produce, my co producer, I was like,
- 20:45Speaker 3: I want to put at the very end in the
- 20:47Speaker 3: credits something like I want to thank all the people
- 20:52Speaker 3: who rejected me, because thanks to them, I could make
- 20:57Speaker 3: this movie. I didn't do it but that was a lesson.
- 21:04Speaker 3: Sometimes life is you you feel that this is unfair.
- 21:08Speaker 3: Why is this happening to me? It's the universe telling
- 21:10Speaker 3: you it's this way, not this way.
- 21:14Speaker 1: You didn't have to put that at the end of
- 21:16Speaker 1: your movie at all, because when you were on the
- 21:19Speaker 1: Oscar stage with your cast from Coda getting a freaking Oscar,
- 21:25Speaker 1: I assure you that was a bigger message than anything
- 21:27Speaker 1: you could have put at the credits.
- 21:29Speaker 3: Now I got Chelsea, yeah.
- 21:32Speaker 4: Oh yes, we didn't even talk about Soda that movie.
- 21:37Speaker 4: My god, what I've seen it twice now, but your performance,
- 21:41Speaker 4: along with everyone else in that cast, that had to
- 21:44Speaker 4: be What was that moment like you've just described how
- 21:47Speaker 4: you have, you know, just paved your way like a bulldozer,
- 21:52Speaker 4: just finding a way, forging your own path to be
- 21:56Speaker 4: standing on that stage for that incredible piece of art.
- 22:00Speaker 4: What was that moment? Like?
- 22:02Speaker 3: It was surreal. As I told you before, I used
- 22:07Speaker 3: to watch the Oscars every year since I was eight
- 22:10Speaker 3: years old. I was watching every year the Oscars with
- 22:14Speaker 3: my mom by my side. So if you see the
- 22:17Speaker 3: video when we are receiving the Oscar at the very end,
- 22:22Speaker 3: you will see me back looking at the sky and
- 22:25Speaker 3: I was talking with my mom. It's it's there. I
- 22:28Speaker 3: don't have the picture right now, but I was like Mom.
- 22:32Speaker 3: Inside of me, I was like telling Mom, I'm here.
- 22:35Speaker 3: I mean, I know, many many years ago, I was
- 22:38Speaker 3: on the other side of the TV in my house
- 22:41Speaker 3: in Mexico watching the Oscars. Now I'm here. Finally. I
- 22:44Speaker 3: couldn't believe it. And I swear that year there were
- 22:50Speaker 3: there were many, many, many movies with it was Leonardo DiCaprio,
- 22:55Speaker 3: Jennifer Lawrence, will Smith, Al Pacino, Lady Gaga, your Red Letto.
- 23:04Speaker 3: The casts of the other movies was insane, and we
- 23:07Speaker 3: were small independent movie with no big names. So I
- 23:12Speaker 3: was absolutely sure that we were not gonna win. It
- 23:17Speaker 3: was like so I enjoyed the Oscars so bad because
- 23:22Speaker 3: I was like, I'm sure this, It's just I we're
- 23:26Speaker 3: not gonna win. I don't have to speak anything. So
- 23:28Speaker 3: I was just watching the Oscars. I was a little
- 23:33Speaker 3: bit shocked by the slap because that year was well
- 23:37Speaker 3: remember but all of the time when they said and
- 23:41Speaker 3: the winner is coda, I just couldn't believe. I'm I
- 23:46Speaker 3: don't have I don't remember what happened when between they
- 23:50Speaker 3: said coda, and I went to the stage. I was like,
- 23:55Speaker 3: it was like all the memories coming into my head
- 23:58Speaker 3: and the shock that I don't even remember what happened
- 24:02Speaker 3: between they said code and I went to the stage.
- 24:05Speaker 3: It was insane.
- 24:07Speaker 1: But how did your life change from the moment you
- 24:10Speaker 1: got off that stage. We've seen the projects you've been
- 24:12Speaker 1: doing and what now, But really what how did you
- 24:14Speaker 1: feel life got different from you? Almost literally from the
- 24:18Speaker 1: moment you walked off that stage.
- 24:20Speaker 3: Everything changes in your life. I remember that in just
- 24:25Speaker 3: I was shooting a movie called Radical and I had to.
- 24:32Speaker 3: I stopped shooting for just twenty four hours to go
- 24:35Speaker 3: to the Oscars, and then I went back to Mexico
- 24:39Speaker 3: and just the airport was insane, insane. I couldn't walk
- 24:44Speaker 3: when I came back to my country because the press
- 24:47Speaker 3: was there and they didn't let me even walk outside
- 24:50Speaker 3: the airport and a lot of offers, and I remember
- 24:56Speaker 3: that I had to. It's very dangerous when you you
- 25:00Speaker 3: get to that point, because you have to make a
- 25:02Speaker 3: lot of big decisions. And I think I was not
- 25:05Speaker 3: ready for that, because you have a lot of voices
- 25:09Speaker 3: like don't take any job, wait for something more important,
- 25:13Speaker 3: and on the other side, it's like, no, no, no,
- 25:15Speaker 3: this is a great opportunity. It's really really, really life changing.
- 25:20Speaker 3: It's complicated. And then on the other hand, I'm well
- 25:25Speaker 3: known for being a comedian, so constantly everyone wanted me
- 25:30Speaker 3: to do comedy, and I want to do more drama.
- 25:34Speaker 3: So it was like also a struggle, a big struggle
- 25:38Speaker 3: in what kind of offers take and what to do
- 25:42Speaker 3: with my career from now on. So it's been a challenge, I.
- 25:46Speaker 4: Mean, and I think it's so cool to see your
- 25:48Speaker 4: work and to see you building your career across two cultures,
- 25:53Speaker 4: and to be able to be bilingual and to have
- 25:57Speaker 4: some Spanish and some English in your projects, to ring
- 26:00Speaker 4: and unite two neighboring countries together in the midst of
- 26:04Speaker 4: a lot of political upheaval. How do you balance making
- 26:07Speaker 4: the art you make with the realities that you see
- 26:10Speaker 4: all around you? I mean, that has to be tough,
- 26:12Speaker 4: you know. Do you speak out? Do you say what
- 26:15Speaker 4: you think? Do you feel like you would be ostracized
- 26:17Speaker 4: in a way if you actually spoke how you truly feel?
- 26:20Speaker 4: I mean, I'm just curious, as an artist and as
- 26:22Speaker 4: a Mexican, how you balance that.
- 26:26Speaker 3: It's really hard to balance because, as I just mentioned,
- 26:33Speaker 3: I want to do something more significant, something deeper, especially
- 26:39Speaker 3: after Coda. When I was shooting Coda, I remember that
- 26:46Speaker 3: we had the project and I beg you to watch
- 26:50Speaker 3: a movie called Radical, because Radical was one of the
- 26:54Speaker 3: projects that I wanted to do for many, many years.
- 26:58Speaker 3: But the studios were like, no, no, no, you are the
- 27:00Speaker 3: funny guy. You did a one hundred million dollars with
- 27:04Speaker 3: instruction not included overboarded also one hundred million dollars at
- 27:08Speaker 3: the box office, so you need to continue doing comedies.
- 27:13Speaker 3: And I wanted to do something deeper, something different. I
- 27:16Speaker 3: wanted to explore drama, et cetera. And Coda, thank God,
- 27:23Speaker 3: was the project that opened a small door to start
- 27:29Speaker 3: changing that that vision that all the producers have of me.
- 27:35Speaker 3: So it's helped me a lot because after Code, I
- 27:38Speaker 3: did Radical that won the Sundance Film Festival and it's
- 27:42Speaker 3: based on a true story. It's incredible. You have to
- 27:46Speaker 3: watch it. And but still until this day is for
- 27:53Speaker 3: me a very very complicated because the studios, the producers,
- 27:58Speaker 3: they were always asking me to commercial stuff and I
- 28:02Speaker 3: don't really want to. I want to do something different,
- 28:06Speaker 3: and that's been the struggle to balance my entire life
- 28:11Speaker 3: between I know that I can make a lot of
- 28:13Speaker 3: money and at the box office, at least in Latin America.
- 28:16Speaker 3: I've been always thank god I have a very faithful
- 28:20Speaker 3: fan base, but at the same time, I want to
- 28:23Speaker 3: do something different, and it's been it's been very complicated
- 28:27Speaker 3: to find the balance I.
- 28:30Speaker 1: Have there and trying to find the balance. You're talking
- 28:32Speaker 1: about some somebody's offering you something and then somebody saying, hey,
- 28:35Speaker 1: you need to hold on for something bigger. Has there
- 28:37Speaker 1: been something or projects that have come along that you
- 28:40Speaker 1: did say no to and then you see how they
- 28:42Speaker 1: came out later and you go, damn, I could have
- 28:44Speaker 1: done that better, or man, I would have Do you
- 28:46Speaker 1: have those roles and movies that you have given up
- 28:50Speaker 1: and just something that still sticks with you, like, damn,
- 28:52Speaker 1: I shouldn't have given that one up.
- 28:54Speaker 3: Yeah, since the beginning of my career, Okay, let me
- 29:00Speaker 3: I said no. I said no to Alphonso when he
- 29:05Speaker 3: was in his first movie. He was he was a student,
- 29:11Speaker 3: he was not well known. I was I was already
- 29:15Speaker 3: working on TV. And he called me for his first
- 29:18Speaker 3: movie project, and and I said no to him, and
- 29:23Speaker 3: and I think that's why I've never worked with him again, because.
- 29:28Speaker 1: Why do you say no?
- 29:30Speaker 3: Because I was I just had my first TV show.
- 29:37Speaker 3: After many many years of uh you know, uh struggling
- 29:42Speaker 3: of asking for jobs in Mexico, I was starting my
- 29:46Speaker 3: career and this is I got finally my first TV
- 29:50Speaker 3: show in Mexico when Alphonso called me and he was
- 29:54Speaker 3: still a student at UH and in the in Mexico,
- 29:59Speaker 3: in in a place in a school called well whatever,
- 30:04Speaker 3: c CEC. I think it's CCC and UH, and he
- 30:07Speaker 3: was doing his how do you call his final exam
- 30:13Speaker 3: with a movie called solo only with your I know
- 30:19Speaker 3: how it translates to do English like only with your
- 30:23Speaker 3: partner or only with your something. So uh. The thing
- 30:29Speaker 3: is that I was doing the skilly show and I
- 30:31Speaker 3: was like, I'm too busy right now. This guy is
- 30:34Speaker 3: a very nice students, but I don't have time to
- 30:38Speaker 3: do things. So thank you allphone, so thank you very much.
- 30:42Speaker 3: And I didn't do that, so I of course I
- 30:45Speaker 3: regretted a lot. And now we're friends. He's a friend
- 30:50Speaker 3: of mine, but he's never hired me again.
- 30:56Speaker 4: And do you have a lot of I can only
- 31:07Speaker 4: imagine how many young men and women, especially from Mexico,
- 31:11Speaker 4: look up to you and say, I want to do
- 31:13Speaker 4: what Aohinio did, I want to be like him? What
- 31:16Speaker 4: advice do you give, especially those young folks, but anyone
- 31:20Speaker 4: truly who looks at someone's improbable story like yours and think,
- 31:25Speaker 4: how could I do that? Or I could never do that?
- 31:29Speaker 3: I would say, And it's something I always mentioned to
- 31:32Speaker 3: especially to students. Never say I cannot do this. Ever,
- 31:39Speaker 3: it's complicated, but the only way that I've at least
- 31:44Speaker 3: in my experience. Don't put your life or your opportunities
- 31:51Speaker 3: in somebody else's hands. Create your own opportunities. So I'm
- 31:56Speaker 3: always telling if you want to make a movie, or
- 31:59Speaker 3: you want to make it TV show, whatever you want
- 32:01Speaker 3: to do, write it yourself. But I'm not a writer, okay,
- 32:08Speaker 3: So go and work as a waiter, or go wash
- 32:13Speaker 3: cars or do whatever you want, make some money, and
- 32:17Speaker 3: then hire a writer and sit down with him with him.
- 32:22Speaker 3: Not just please write something, No, sit down with him.
- 32:25Speaker 3: Develop your own script. And that's the only way you're
- 32:29Speaker 3: going to achieve your dreams. Don't wait until someone calls you.
- 32:34Speaker 3: Create your own opportunities. Don't ask for a job, Come
- 32:39Speaker 3: and knock at the door with the proposal. That's what
- 32:43Speaker 3: it changed my life.
- 32:45Speaker 1: How do you the folks you do tell that to
- 32:48Speaker 1: the maybe young students are up and coming actors, writers, directors,
- 32:53Speaker 1: How do they receive that news? I asked that because
- 32:55Speaker 1: sometimes a younger generation gets no, no, sometimes criticized for
- 33:00Speaker 1: wanting it all too quickly, or I'll I'll use a
- 33:03Speaker 1: YouTube channel and I just want to go viral kind
- 33:05Speaker 1: of a thing. And they look at you and they
- 33:07Speaker 1: see your success. They don't know the grind and the
- 33:10Speaker 1: every weekend for three years in la flights you're making right,
- 33:14Speaker 1: So how do they receive that news when you tell
- 33:16Speaker 1: them put your head down and get to work.
- 33:20Speaker 3: I feel that nowadays generation they don't understand that anymore.
- 33:25Speaker 3: It's like they, as you just said, they want everything quick,
- 33:29Speaker 3: easy and and and unfortunately this device, it's it's danger
- 33:37Speaker 3: because anyone from your house, from your home, you can
- 33:42Speaker 3: just put it in front and do this. For the
- 33:46Speaker 3: reason that I don't understand why you have ten million
- 33:51Speaker 3: US and now you're famous. And of course how can
- 33:56Speaker 3: why I would listen to Ans or TG or Amy
- 33:59Speaker 3: or or Robert de Niro or whever you want. When
- 34:03Speaker 3: I know that by doing I'm going to have ten
- 34:06Speaker 3: million reviews and companies are gonna pay me a lot
- 34:10Speaker 3: of money for doing so. It's that's another world.
- 34:17Speaker 4: How old are your kids are you, Haniel?
- 34:19Speaker 3: I have three grown ups thirty well, yeah, thirty seven,
- 34:26Speaker 3: thirty three, and thirty one, and a little one eleven.
- 34:33Speaker 3: The little one, Yeah, the little one is like that.
- 34:36Speaker 3: I didn't we were not expecting to have another kid,
- 34:40Speaker 3: but we finally decided to and she changed my entire life.
- 34:45Speaker 3: So and now I'm struggling with having her off screen
- 34:50Speaker 3: as much as possible.
- 34:52Speaker 1: Yeah, that's eleven. You said we had a twelve year old.
- 34:55Speaker 3: Here you are eleven. So we have to make them
- 35:01Speaker 3: understand that this is not good for anyone.
- 35:06Speaker 4: But I think it's pretty cool to hear about the
- 35:08Speaker 4: fact that you and your adult children and your wife
- 35:12Speaker 4: all forming a company together. I mean, that is the dream,
- 35:15Speaker 4: isn't it for so many people? Just to do what
- 35:17Speaker 4: you love and then to do it with the people
- 35:19Speaker 4: you love. How has that been navigating that?
- 35:23Speaker 3: Well, let me tell you all my kids, for some reason,
- 35:28Speaker 3: they decided to be to get to be in the
- 35:30Speaker 3: show business. So all of them are independent and all
- 35:35Speaker 3: of them are successful. They are starring each one of them.
- 35:39Speaker 3: They're starting already their own movies, serious TV shows. And
- 35:46Speaker 3: my three kids and my wife is a very popular
- 35:49Speaker 3: pop singer right now, she's in Mexico, she's touring. She's
- 35:53Speaker 3: always like performing in front of twenty five thousand people.
- 35:57Speaker 3: So we decided one day to do a show called
- 36:02Speaker 3: Traveling with Lost Their Best Traveling with their Best family,
- 36:06Speaker 3: and you can watch it and on Amazon worldwide, and
- 36:10Speaker 3: I think in the US unfortunately it's in a small
- 36:13Speaker 3: platform called vix but it's one of the most and
- 36:19Speaker 3: I think it's number one series for Amazon in Latin America.
- 36:24Speaker 3: So every single year we do a trip. We just
- 36:29Speaker 3: launched Japan season. We went to Japan with the entire
- 36:33Speaker 3: family and it's really really successful. I don't know why
- 36:37Speaker 3: it was for me, it was an experiment, but it
- 36:39Speaker 3: worked really well. I was like, people are not going
- 36:41Speaker 3: to be interested in me traveling with my family. It's
- 36:45Speaker 3: gonna be it's not gonna happen. People are not gonna
- 36:48Speaker 3: watch this. Well, it was a huge success. So after
- 36:53Speaker 3: five seasons, we decided to launch a studio with my
- 36:57Speaker 3: entire family and we are going to start We're going
- 37:02Speaker 3: to start working in our own stuff. We're not going
- 37:06Speaker 3: to wait for companies, studios or platforms to hire us.
- 37:11Speaker 3: We're going to start producing our own stuff with our
- 37:14Speaker 3: own ideas. And that's the idea of this to you.
- 37:18Speaker 1: And you wonder why they want you to keep doing comedy.
- 37:21Speaker 1: You've gone through everything you touched. This was number one,
- 37:23Speaker 1: this was the highest person in this, this was number
- 37:25Speaker 1: one here, and this was number one. So yeah, they
- 37:27Speaker 1: see your number one resume and it's hard. Why would
- 37:31Speaker 1: we have him step out of that lane where he's successful.
- 37:34Speaker 1: But to your point, it's a good one. I think
- 37:36Speaker 1: a lot of actors that already struggle with that, even
- 37:39Speaker 1: musicians right trying to try something new. So I applaud
- 37:41Speaker 1: you for doing so and sticking with it. My last
- 37:44Speaker 1: question for you has to do with you know you
- 37:47Speaker 1: mentioned it at the top right. It's difficult to see
- 37:49Speaker 1: and you're trying to give a different impression in our
- 37:52Speaker 1: view of Mexico. And I know we've turned the TV
- 37:55Speaker 1: here every single day and the debates are going on
- 37:56Speaker 1: in politics. I'm not going to get into a political debate,
- 38:00Speaker 1: but it has gotten nasty with immigration talk and the
- 38:04Speaker 1: ice raids. If you had a chance to, I know,
- 38:07Speaker 1: you can't sit down with every single American who's maybe
- 38:10Speaker 1: you applaud in the ice raids and maybe don't maybe
- 38:13Speaker 1: have a colder heart when it comes to the compassion
- 38:16Speaker 1: for people who are maybe here illegally for whatever reason.
- 38:19Speaker 1: If you had a chance, though, to just make a
- 38:22Speaker 1: plead to them to soften their hearts a little bit
- 38:25Speaker 1: about what they're seeing. Nobody here wants anyone to break
- 38:28Speaker 1: the law and get away with it. We all can
- 38:30Speaker 1: agree on that, but there's a little compassion sometimes that's
- 38:33Speaker 1: missing from the conversation. For you, if you could just
- 38:35Speaker 1: take a moment for those Americans, what would you say
- 38:39Speaker 1: to them to try to possibly just soften the heart
- 38:42Speaker 1: or give a little different perspective.
- 38:45Speaker 3: Thank you for this opportunity and for this question. I
- 38:50Speaker 3: would say, I know that we just see or feel
- 38:58Speaker 3: that all these people coming to this country are stealing jobs.
- 39:04Speaker 3: First of all, they're not stealing anything. They are the
- 39:08Speaker 3: ones that start America at four am by cooking cleaning.
- 39:15Speaker 3: When you arrive to your office, a Latino already cooked
- 39:19Speaker 3: your breakfast, or clean your floor or whatever in any area.
- 39:26Speaker 3: We are hard working people, but we're in this country
- 39:30Speaker 3: not because we want to make more money or steal
- 39:33Speaker 3: a job. Most of the people that are all these
- 39:37Speaker 3: immigrants that come to the US are clean, are running
- 39:42Speaker 3: away from violence. It's not their fault. I swear. I've
- 39:49Speaker 3: seen these people that are constantly threatened. They rape their
- 39:55Speaker 3: woman's their child, they're steal their houses. The narcos sometimes
- 40:02Speaker 3: many of them, they're constantly making. All these people flee
- 40:08Speaker 3: from their countries because they're again they're raping, stealing, There's
- 40:14Speaker 3: no job opportunities, so these people are starving, so they
- 40:18Speaker 3: come to the US just to find some peace, to
- 40:23Speaker 3: find a decent way to make a living, and to
- 40:28Speaker 3: feed their families and their kids. So I just want
- 40:33Speaker 3: to put this on the table, because they're not criminals,
- 40:35Speaker 3: or they're not just looking well, let's go to the
- 40:37Speaker 3: US to make more money. Why not. No, they're literally
- 40:42Speaker 3: fleeing from being killed or being raped or starving, and
- 40:49Speaker 3: all they want is to work decently and try to
- 40:53Speaker 3: feed their families.
- 40:57Speaker 4: You know, and we appreciate that. I can't imagine just
- 41:00Speaker 4: the pull that must but you must feel, and so
- 41:04Speaker 4: many other just Latino Americans and Latinos around the world
- 41:08Speaker 4: just feeling torn because people don't understand unless you've walked
- 41:14Speaker 4: in their shoes. And I think that's what we're all
- 41:16Speaker 4: hoping for.
- 41:17Speaker 3: I mean, so.
- 41:17Speaker 4: Many of us just want there to be just more
- 41:21Speaker 4: perspective and bigger hearts and just a willingness to try
- 41:25Speaker 4: and understand and to ask questions instead of to throw accusations.
- 41:29Speaker 3: So yeah, we appreciate that, no think. And of course
- 41:33Speaker 3: in one and I don't know in between, in ten
- 41:37Speaker 3: thousand people probably are two that are not good people,
- 41:40Speaker 3: but they're like pointing them like they're like they they're
- 41:45Speaker 3: like gang members, like you kill assistance or rapers. They're not.
- 41:54Speaker 3: They're good people and they're they have families, and it
- 41:58Speaker 3: breaks my heart to see how they are like reporting
- 42:01Speaker 3: them and tearing them away from their kids and making
- 42:06Speaker 3: I don't know, it's a mess. It's a very complicated subject.
- 42:11Speaker 4: Well, the art that you make, uh and certainly just
- 42:14Speaker 4: even programs like Alcopolco, which I love that you're part
- 42:18Speaker 4: of your mission is to show people your culture, your people,
- 42:23Speaker 4: not in the way they've been depicted on the news,
- 42:25Speaker 4: but in the way you live, breathe see experience them.
- 42:29Speaker 4: And anyone who travels to your beautiful country knows the same.
- 42:32Speaker 4: We're huge fans.
- 42:33Speaker 1: We're there.
- 42:33Speaker 4: We try to be there at least once a year.
- 42:36Speaker 4: We love the West and the East coast. They are
- 42:40Speaker 4: and we I still want to go to Mexico City.
- 42:41Speaker 1: I'm gonna start going on the weekend. Get my Spanish better.
- 42:47Speaker 3: Yes, Mexico City. It's a great, great city. It's it's
- 42:50Speaker 3: it's it's so completely different from anything else you'll see.
- 42:54Speaker 3: And great food, by the way, it is in there.
- 42:57Speaker 4: It's on my list. But yes, we are just huge
- 43:00Speaker 4: fans of yours and your work and just continued success.
- 43:04Speaker 4: I don't think that you need any like adda boys
- 43:08Speaker 4: from us, because certainly you are self motivated in a
- 43:11Speaker 4: way most people are not, and you have read benefits
- 43:14Speaker 4: and just your warm heart, your beautiful smile.
- 43:17Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you about you being okay. We know
- 43:20Speaker 1: whatever happens, you're gonna be fine. You'll work your way
- 43:23Speaker 1: out of it. It'll be fine.
- 43:24Speaker 2: Man.
- 43:25Speaker 1: It is an absolute pleasure and it's an inspiration. Look,
- 43:28Speaker 1: we didn't know how this was going to go and
- 43:30Speaker 1: how much stuff to promote, but once you started talking,
- 43:32Speaker 1: we just wanted to talk to you back. So if
- 43:34Speaker 1: you know no notes. We just wanted to have a
- 43:36Speaker 1: conversation with you man, and this is absolutely been beautiful
- 43:40Speaker 1: for it. Thank you so much, this man.
- 43:42Speaker 3: Thank you for this opportunity. I was really nervous because
- 43:45Speaker 3: i know your podcast is listening by many many people,
- 43:49Speaker 3: and I'm always worried about my English because I'm still
- 43:53Speaker 3: working on my English every single day, I swear. But
- 43:57Speaker 3: now that I happened in eleven year old, she constantly
- 44:01Speaker 3: request me, like, Dad, it's not this, it's that. And
- 44:05Speaker 3: I'm always speaking in Spanish at home because I want
- 44:08Speaker 3: her not to lose the Spanish, but I'm losing my
- 44:11Speaker 3: English because of that.
- 44:16Speaker 1: Thank you.
- 44:18Speaker 4: Please give love to your beautiful family, and thanks for
- 44:20Speaker 4: being on the podcast.
- 44:22Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you for inviting me. Thank you very much.