October 23, 2025 • 33 mins
In the second half of their conversation, Adam shares how he evolved beyond CSI: Miami into films like Magic Mike and series like Criminal Minds, where he also found his voice as a director. The trio reflect on the importance of representation in Hollywood, navigating identity, and the responsibility of telling authentic stories. Adam also gets personal about fatherhood, marriage, and the lessons he hopes to pass on to his kids while balancing the demands of a decades-long career.
“Dos Amigos” is a comedic and insightful podcast hosted by two friends who’ve journeyed through Hollywood and life together. Wilmer Valderrama and Freddy Rodriguez push through the noise of everyday life and ruminate on a bevy of topics through fun and daring, and occasionally a third amigo joins the mix!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
All right, hey, this is Freddie Rodriguez and I'm Wilmer
brother Rama. Welcome to the Those Amigos podcast. You know
you can see we're already laughing Roman. Well if you're not,
you can hear our smile also, but you can see
it as well. So all of you who have been
watching and listening to our podcast for so long, thank
you so much. He is a very special episode for
(00:26):
us because our third amigo today is someone not only
very dear, but he's really blood brother with us.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Absolutely, he is my family. His mother is my mother,
his father is my father. I know his family dearly,
and I love him like he's my brother. Ladies and gentlemen,
please help woman, and I welcome Adam Rodriguez.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
For this interview.
Speaker 5 (00:52):
You can keep your shirt on.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Please you. I'm like, where are my hat? I'm like,
how am I looking?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Because the crowd speaking of shirt on, I remember and
I'm going to just start here. Adam came to my
house one time and we were playing poker and my
wife cooked. You know, she's Puerto Rican, she could Puerto
Rican rice. And Adam came with his own tupp aware
of like salmon.
Speaker 5 (01:18):
When was this?
Speaker 1 (01:19):
This is like a decade and you're in production probably
like imagine, Mike, Yeah, I went to every restaurant in
LA with that, because I didn't stop my social life.
Speaker 6 (01:28):
I would literally go to restaurants. Luckily, I go to
the same places all the time, so nobody gave me
any ship. But like I would bring my little prepared
meal and sit and have socialized.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
But I was just gonna eat whatever was in that.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Elsie was like, aren't you going to eat?
Speaker 3 (01:41):
I made rice and I was like, no, man, I
got my little salmon here.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
We're like, come on, man, we were drinking back then.
We're like, come have a drink with us. No, man,
I'm having my little salmon.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
But I got it to explain to our listeners and
our yours. So what happens is when you're entering a
role and you're preparing for a role, you have to
be incredibly strict because not only you have to be
in some type of shape, but you also have to
maintain it for a certain amount of time.
Speaker 5 (02:08):
I can't even imagine for Magic Minke, because you know
that was.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
That changed my life.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Man.
Speaker 6 (02:11):
Those movies are that first one especially, but then the
second one as well, Like you know, taught me about
diet and how critical diet is to getting in shape
because when that call came in.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
So I've been training with a guy named.
Speaker 6 (02:25):
Tito Raymondo and now it's become a dear, dear friend
of mine over the years. We probably know each other
twenty years now. And you know, remember when I got
that job, man, I was like, listen, man, I wasn't
like I got to be a male stripper.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Man.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
We only had six weeks to prepare, and I.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Was, you know, six weeks, only had six weeks.
Speaker 6 (02:45):
I always keep my body moving, but I'm never like,
I don't walk around with a six pack.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
That's just not me. I enjoyed, I enjoy eating. I
love food.
Speaker 6 (02:53):
I'm not like, you know, oh my god, I don't
see a six pack, Like what's up?
Speaker 4 (02:57):
So I was like, is this going to be possible?
Speaker 7 (03:00):
Man?
Speaker 6 (03:00):
You know, because I don't have six weeks to do this? Like,
am I going to have to take steroids?
Speaker 5 (03:05):
I don't want to.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
I don't want to do that.
Speaker 6 (03:07):
Yeah, but this is a massive opportunity in my life
to like, you know, and I got to show up
prepared and a challenge for you to big time challenge
you know, Steven Soderberg and McConnaughey and Channing and you know,
and just an opportunity to be in a in a
film that I knew was going to be seen on
a scale that nothing I'd ever done before was going
(03:28):
to be seen. And so, I mean, I don't think
anybody could predict how big it was was going to
be and spawn a whole other business. But you know,
I just didn't want to show up and be the
weak link, you know, and and you know.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
They shoot around you.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Like yeah, like.
Speaker 5 (03:48):
Forward.
Speaker 6 (03:50):
So I was on a mission, man, to just like
make sure I was my very best. And he was like, no, no,
we don't need to do that, like you're not gonna
And I was relieved because it was the first time
i life, I had ever even considered, you know, maybe
doing well.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Nowadays nowadays, that's like the first thing, you know, a
trainer is going to be. It's like all right, cool,
we're gonna get you on this and this, and there's
no like negotiations like can I do it with food?
Speaker 6 (04:14):
Can just Fortunately Tito was you know, he had a
bodybuilding career and he was natural. He stopped the bodybuilding
actually because the next level for him would have had
to be you know, to get on you know, steroids,
a whole program of that kind of thing. And he
was like, no, you don't need to do it, man,
but you're gonna have to work your ass off in it.
(04:34):
And I never worked so hard man, between the diet
and you know, two three hours a day of cardios.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
How many how many days were you working out with.
Speaker 6 (04:42):
I worked out six days a week. Yeah, I was
working out six days a week. Sunday was like, uh,
you know you could have one cheat meal on a Sunday.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
What did that cheat meal look like?
Speaker 6 (04:51):
Usually, like I love breakfast, It was probably like pancakes.
Speaker 5 (04:55):
You know that's early.
Speaker 6 (04:56):
And and then I would hit cardio and because I yeah,
I was doing cardio seven days a week. I mean
I remember seeing you seven time, man, So I was
on set. You know, I was getting up, you know,
before my call time, getting cardio in, then getting my
workout in. You know it's not usually before work or
if I got an early call time.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
Whatever it was. I was navigating all of that. And
then my meals were just programmed for for the day.
Speaker 6 (05:21):
So I had six weeks man, and and and what
I saw what my body could do.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
I was like, wow, this is incredible.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Who prepared your meals?
Speaker 4 (05:29):
So I had my shout out to Rohan.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
My boy wrote Rohan.
Speaker 7 (05:32):
Yeah, Rohan is a chef, Rohan and he he yeah,
he just he was up for some sidework at the time.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
So him and I would meet at like a parking
lot of a smart and final deal beach.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Here's the chicken breast, two big bags with food like
fourteen meals in them for a few days, and we
would exchange.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
And like I'd give him the old bags with old container.
Speaker 6 (06:01):
I mean, I got exactly what it looked like a
drug deal and look like it up to Miami vice man.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
But yeah, we got it done.
Speaker 6 (06:09):
And then when I learned that, when the second movie
came up, I was more confident bout knowing that I
could be able to do it.
Speaker 5 (06:13):
Yeah I'm sand at this point.
Speaker 6 (06:15):
Yeah yeah, but yeah, I just learned a tremendous amount
about that man.
Speaker 5 (06:19):
So so just kind of recapping a little bit.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Everyone loves you for many things, but I want to
make sure we gave you flowers a couple of things.
Speaker 5 (06:26):
So so you are iconically we're one.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Of the first, you know, batch wearing a good guys
Latinos on TV, you know, see Outside Miami, which was yea,
and you know, for us to have like a dude
that was catching the bad guys and that wasn't the
bad guy on the cop show, it is absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 5 (06:45):
You were one of those first ones to be on
prime time to do that.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
So I want to make sure people understand and realize
how how much space we got to make for that,
because because of characters like yours, you know that cast
could be colorful after that, right, So that that's that's
something you should know that we all know it isn't
we all know that? Then you go from there.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
It's funny real quick.
Speaker 6 (07:06):
Just a footnote on that that I got my SAG
card as a standing in photo double for a guy
that was Latino wearing the badge even before that on
New York Undercover Michael de Lorenzo.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Yes, well, well look we got to start from the beginning, yes, yes,
right back, because I was kind of what were you
where were you born?
Speaker 4 (07:23):
I was born in New York. I was born in Yonkers,
all right.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
Really got a flat so hard look that New York cat.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
He came here repid, so so okay, so you're born
in Yonkers, right, what did your what did your pop
and your mom do?
Speaker 4 (07:42):
My father, he was figuring it out.
Speaker 6 (07:44):
My dad was always a hard worker, hard working guy,
just trying to figure out to ray shout out pop
uh to where to direct that energy really, you know.
And so he was a military guy for years and
then he sold insurance.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
He drove limos.
Speaker 6 (08:01):
He was a lawyer too, right, Well, he was trying
to figure it out, and my mother, I think, was
getting a little fed up, and he's like, listen, you
need to pick.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Up the pack.
Speaker 6 (08:09):
You know, we got to move on because you know,
you need to get get life figured out or whatever.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
And so when I was I.
Speaker 6 (08:18):
Guess I was about five, he moved up to Boston
to go to law school. He started going to college
end of the seventies. He went to Fordham University in
the Bronx and then he moved up to Boston and
went to Northeastern Law School. And so he gi bill, Yeah,
he took advantage of the gi bill and then he
(08:39):
went up there and he was he lived there. He
would come home, you know, probably once a weekend for sure,
sometimes more, I mean once a month for sure.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
Sometimes twice because he had to come home to do
army reserves.
Speaker 6 (08:50):
So he would come home, do his reserves, see us,
and then go back. He probably came home maybe more
than once a month. But yeah, so that was the
deal for like four years. And then he got out
of that, and then it turns out he he instead
of practicing law, he ended up working, you know, for
New York government, just like working in an office for
small business. I'm trying to remember what it was. It
(09:12):
was something to do with women in small business. He
worked at an office there, and then he worked for
Mario Cuomo, the Governor's office.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
You know, my dad.
Speaker 6 (09:20):
He just bounced around wherever there was a good opportunity
bouncing around. He's very charismatic guy is you know, yeah, yeah, you.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
Know, he's a sweetheart, he really is.
Speaker 6 (09:30):
And that personality actually, I mean, as the story goes on,
you'll see really where that had such a big impact
on my life later on down the road because I
got my first break, you know, not to fast forward
too quickly, but really got my first big break from
a guy that my dad was in the army reserves with.
Speaker 5 (09:53):
How did that come up?
Speaker 4 (09:55):
Man?
Speaker 6 (09:56):
So I started doing I started doing background on New
York Undercover and.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
Doing that for a couple of years.
Speaker 6 (10:07):
And through that process was you know, I knew I
wanted to act, but I just wanted to be on
a set somewhere, and so the opportunity to do background
work came up. There. I became a regular sort of
uh you know, part of the background crew on that
on that show, and then became a photo double and
a stand in, and that's where I got my SAG card.
Made lifelong friends there, you know, Malik Yoba and his
(10:34):
his sister Rahima and you know, just a crew of
people there that took me under their wing. And it
was that was actually the first place that I loved
that I could do a whole episode just talking about
my experience on that show. It was the first group
of people I met that they believed in me. You know,
there was a crew there, riche Owings. It was Dick
Wolf Show, Yeah, Dick Wolf Show. And it was huge, man,
(10:54):
I mean that time it was huge because it was
very you know, it was the first time you saw, uh,
you know, an urban cast like.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
That, black and brown together, black and brown.
Speaker 6 (11:05):
You know, you've seen black and white a million times.
Bill Cosby and you know the guy that he used
to do I spy with him, blanking out on his
name Robert something maybe. But anyway, you know you I
mean countless you've seen Black and White. Nick noted the
Eddie Murphy you know, the black and brown together on
that show you had never seen.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
And the soundtrack.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Was hip hop was all over.
Speaker 6 (11:25):
That show, and it was current and in the moment,
and you know, people our age were like, oh, that
feels like us. You know, it was really ahead of
its time in that way.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
And shout out to Michael too.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
I mean, yeah, Mike.
Speaker 6 (11:41):
He was a dancer and he was in Fame. Man,
he was in Fame, the television show Fame. You know, uh,
super talented guy.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Man. So those people on that show, they they just
were so good to me. Man.
Speaker 6 (11:55):
Richie Owings was a costume designer and uh you know
they had some people in other departments. Anyway, they helped
me get head shots. Shout out to Stephen McBride man.
He was a photographer and basically my first photo shoot
I ever did. Like the people, they were like, look,
we want to put it, put together. Photo shoot will
make you the subject of it. They just helped me
out in ways that you know that I'm so grateful for.
(12:26):
So anyway, I'm doing this for a couple of years,
doing extra work.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
But how did you even get into it? Into extra work?
Speaker 5 (12:32):
Well in his past, Like Wendy, You're like, you know what, acting.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
How did that? Okay, you know what?
Speaker 6 (12:37):
Taking it back to that, yeah, you know, leading up
to all that, it was always sports, baseball in particular,
I thought like, Okay, that was going to be my path.
I'll go to college and play baseball. Maybe I'll be
lucky enough to take it, you know. Somewhere from there,
about eighteen, you know, I had a couple of injuries
that I realized, like, this just isn't going any further.
I didn't have the discipline to get back on the
horse and go after it in the way that that.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
I realize now as a baseball was my spouse. Yeah, yeah, and.
Speaker 6 (13:05):
I look back on it now and I'm like, yeah,
you see, the guys that make it, they just either
you got to be uber, uber talented on a level
that's like, you know, hard to believe. But even with that,
even with the talent, if you don't have the discipline
and the drive to work hard, the talent's only going
to take.
Speaker 5 (13:19):
The perfect star.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
Yeah it is. You got to have it all man,
especially to make it to that level. And so.
Speaker 6 (13:26):
I didn't have that, and I was trying to figure
out what the next move was. And so I knew
it wasn't college for me because I wasn't this, wasn't
interested in learning in a structured environment in that way.
That just that just wasn't for me. I love learning,
but I'm more of an autodid act. I like to
learn on my own and read on my own and
process the information myself and not, you know, not have
(13:50):
it be about getting a grade or having you know,
somebody else's opinion about how I'm learning it and being
judged in that way. So, but my mother was like, listen,
you either staying out to Janet shout out mom, uh yeah,
stay in school, go get a full time job, or
join the military. Those were those were my options. So
(14:10):
she was you're not going to sit around while you
try and figure it out.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
To my mother with your dad, she was pissed that
I wasn't going to I can see her doing this
pissed for years.
Speaker 6 (14:21):
She was pissed that I wasn't going to college. I
mean even after I started working as an actor. I
think it really was a thorn in her side.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
So you're eighteen, you said, you're like, I'm not going
to college.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Janet cracks the whip.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
Cracks the whip. So I'm like, cool. I had a
job as a bellman at a hotel.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Oh well what hotel I was?
Speaker 6 (14:36):
Uh, I was contracted by Marriott. Marriott was the contractor,
so technically I was an employee of Marriott, but it
was an IBM owned property. It was this beautiful campus
across the water from Manhattan, uh, in an area called Palisades,
New York. And it was basically a facility where they
educated and hosted all of like Fortune five hundred.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Events.
Speaker 6 (15:00):
Basically, so like you know, let's say, like the c
suite staff of a Fortune five hundred company might be
sent there for a week.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
It's like a corporate stay for the for the think
tanking and exactly.
Speaker 6 (15:12):
So we were serving those folks and I was a
bellman and I did that for a couple of years.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
Man out of high school.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
I mean, people make careers out of that.
Speaker 6 (15:22):
Yeah, yeah, no, I never thought about it. Never, Never
for a moment that I think I was going to
stay there in.
Speaker 5 (15:28):
The hotel you man, Like, yeah.
Speaker 6 (15:31):
You're making I'm sure I wasn't making, like not the
kind of like I always had big aspirations, man, I
always yeah, but dreams for me, it was like yeah,
never that's for better or for worse, you know.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Yeah, So what was there an image or something that
made you go like I can do that?
Speaker 6 (15:52):
So I'm you know, I always believed growing up. I
I was a latchy kid. There was you know, my
mom was always at work, my father was always at work,
and so you know, I was home probably eight hours
a day by myself, me and my sister, eight to
ten hours a day between the morning and the evening.
And so I watched a crazy amount of television and movies,
(16:13):
Like the TV was on twenty four seconds?
Speaker 2 (16:14):
What like what was what was man?
Speaker 6 (16:16):
Like every single thing like you know, oh Man, yeah, Ships,
Charlie Different Charlie's Angels, Bionic Man, Bionic Woman, yeah, or
six million Dollar Man, Bionic Woman, wonder Woman, Uh, credible.
Spider Man used to come on like the old old
Spider Man would come on on like Saturday mornings, and
(16:37):
I mean it was bad.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
It wasn't even like the incredible.
Speaker 6 (16:40):
Hope was good with with with with lou fregnant bhil
uh bixby, thank you nice pull.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
I was trying to and.
Speaker 6 (16:48):
Uh, you know so I mean just all the time,
love Bold. I mean everything that was on in that era.
Like I mean, I knew the TV schedule top to bottom.
You could ask me what was on TV at what time?
I knew exactly, Yeah, what was on at what time?
And I just you know, I loved all that. And
then movies. You know, as a matter of fact, I
ran into east Side not that long ago, and I
(17:09):
was telling him. I was like, man, I hadn't watched
Bad Boys in a long time, the original Bad Boys,
Sean Penn and the Eastside, and I was just telling
east I'm like, man, you know, it's so interesting now
as a grown man to watch his you know, watching
his work in that movie.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
And I'm like, it was fantastic. He was such and
still is. I mean, but he.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
Yes, how many people can face off with Tom Critiz.
Speaker 6 (17:33):
Come on, man, you know, but you even see him
back then with Sean Penn, and he was, I mean,
he held the screen strong and anybody in that movie
and Bad Boys he was you know, he was on
fire Man, and then I put Leabamba on for the
kids not that long ago. And brilliant man, just brilliant
the guy, you know.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
I mean, he's so good, He's so damn good man.
Speaker 6 (17:56):
But you know, so there were a few people, and
I know, you guys know like that you could look
at and be like, oh, that could.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
Be me, you know, but there were only a couple.
Won't that many?
Speaker 6 (18:06):
Freddie Prinz, you know East Sigh at that time, Jimmy
Jimmy hadn't even really emerged yet really until late eighties
that I remember seeing. Hey, Erica, Erica Strada was early
you know Erica Strada for sure. I remember meeting him
at the Puerto Rican Day Parade when I was a kid,
went to the Puerto Rican Day Parade his back of
my father was driving limos and so I got to
(18:26):
meet Erica Strada somehow. I remember that, like probably late seventies,
seventy eight.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
This is before soap operas or after.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
No No he was doing at the time. This is like, yeah,
he was a guy.
Speaker 6 (18:46):
So you know, there weren't There weren't a lot of
faces that you went and that allowed you to imagine
yourself being in one of those casts and so New
York Undercover. So taking it back to how I had
this moment. So I'm working as a bellman. I'm enrolled
in community college just to keep my mother happy, and
(19:07):
and this is where I could stay living at home.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
At the time, I wasn't ready to move out yet.
Speaker 6 (19:10):
I'm still eighteen, trying to put my dough together. And
I started sending my head shots out. So I'm like, oh,
let me you know, you had headshots so well. So
I was like, maybe acting is a thing, right. So
I'm going to this community college and I'm like taking
an acting class.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
And I had a moment where I was like, damn,
I could do this. This feels great to do.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
What made you take it? What made you take an actor?
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Because I was always I was interested in the arts. Man.
Speaker 6 (19:36):
I just was like, whether it was music or it
was you know, I was basically interested in anything where
I felt like there was something free form about it,
you know, the idea of going to school and taking
a very rigid, structured classroomtality. Yeah, I needed something I
was I don't know, something in me just felt like
I was trying to find myself and these were the
(19:58):
places I thought I was going to do it, and so, yeah,
I ended up in this theater class at this community
college and we had to prepare a scene. And I
had come in and I had dabbled a little bit before.
I had taken like a scene study course with this woman.
Years prior. I would drive this woman. She had an
(20:19):
apartment in Manhattan and then her husband was a surgeon.
They had an apartment, I mean a house up in Nayak,
New York, and I would have to drive her back
and forth.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
On the weekends.
Speaker 6 (20:27):
And then in return, instead of paying me, I was
allowed to take this class of.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Hers for free.
Speaker 6 (20:32):
And so you know, so I did that. But I
was just messing around, like I never thought about doing
it for a living. And here I was, like eighteen now,
in this class, eighteen or nineteen at the time, and
realizing that I needed to start getting a little more
serious about.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
Life and figuring out a direction for myself.
Speaker 6 (20:49):
And like I said, I was taking this theater arts
course doing this scene. In the middle of the scene,
I just.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
Felt like I was flying. Man.
Speaker 6 (20:56):
So had that feeling that you get, you know, when
you're doing the thing and having and it feels great.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
And I was like, this is this is it? This
is this is.
Speaker 6 (21:05):
What I'm looking for, you know, this is I want
to chase this high again somewhere else like this was
this is what I felt like when something exciting was happening,
when I'm playing baseball or doing something where you feel
those butterflies a little bit, but like the action is
happening and that feeling of like everything else disappears, you know.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
And so I was like, I'm going to chase that.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
So that like, oh, what about you know, some background
work and so start somewhere in there.
Speaker 6 (21:32):
So all right, let me get head shots, let me
do this and do that. And so I got head shots,
I wrote cover letters. I sent them out to like
every single casting agency in the Tri state area.
Speaker 5 (21:43):
And how'd you find that?
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Like in the yellow Pages.
Speaker 6 (21:46):
Back in the day, there was this thing called the
the Little Blue book Man, and you got it at
Samuel French, which was in midtown in Times Square, there
was a Samuel French bookstore.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
They had all the plays.
Speaker 6 (21:58):
And then they would have this book and I keep
wanting to call it the rob Report, but it's not.
It's the Something Report. And it had a list of
all the talent agencies from top to bottom, biggest to
the smallest, casting directors and everything. So I just went
in there, man, I bought a stack of like two
hundred yellow envelopes, put a cover letter and my head
shot and all them sent out, you know, sent out.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
A stack at eighteen years old.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
Yeah, it was probout eighteen or nineteen at the time.
Speaker 6 (22:24):
That's a you know, trying to figure it out, man,
just to see like what, you know, what, what can
we drum up here? And and then while that was
I mean, there's so many men I think back, I'm like, man.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
So what was the first bite? Like when you when
you were sending that out?
Speaker 4 (22:44):
A couple of bytes came in.
Speaker 6 (22:45):
I think I did I did some background on a movie,
and I can't remember what it was. And then the
bite I remember most distinctly, man, and because it led
to a lifelong friendship, was I get a call when
I had some work.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
As a bellman and I get home. It's late. I
listen to my messages and uh, and there's a call.
Speaker 6 (23:06):
It's probably about ten o'clock, not that late, but uh,
there's a call on there and it says, Hello, this
is Ulysses Terrero from TMT no way only because there's
an opportunity to work for an Academy Award winning director. Uh,
and I need to know if you're available and have
a bartender's uniform for uh.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
I forget if it was the next day or the
day after whatever it was. So I'm like, oh shit, man,
Academy Awards. That sounds crazy.
Speaker 5 (23:35):
I'm like, this sounds shut out releases, Yulie you.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
I pick up the phone right and I call right away.
Speaker 6 (23:41):
I have bartender close because I'm bartending at a place
on the on the weekends when I'm not doing the
bellman job, a bartend at this little restaurant and uh.
So I called the guy back, but it's after hours, right,
So I call the same number and.
Speaker 4 (23:54):
He's like, yeah, what's up.
Speaker 6 (23:58):
And I was like, it's the same person that left.
Speaker 4 (24:01):
And I'm like, yeah, what's up?
Speaker 6 (24:03):
Man. I was like, listen, I got a message on
my answering machine answering machines, so I said, uh, you
know there's uh there was a message about some extra
work for this Oh yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah,
let me do so, uh you have you have bartending?
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (24:22):
I have that, all right? Can you be down at
Tramps at such and such a time. Yeah, yeah, I'll
just say yes and so. But but of course I'm like,
who's the director, you.
Speaker 6 (24:32):
Know, because I'm trying to know, like who is this
kind of like who's the director? And he's like, uh,
I can't tell you. I can't tell y'all. That's that's
confidential information.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
That be pandemonium in the.
Speaker 6 (24:42):
Streets if I was to tell you what pandemonium in
the scale. So I'm like, well, ship man tomorrow or
day after whenever it was.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
I was like, I'm I'm about.
Speaker 5 (24:50):
To like be in comt.
Speaker 6 (24:52):
Somebody maybe like man, maybe somebody's going to get a
look at the kid, and like who knows, you know,
you know, it's still silly enough to believe that that's
all it would work.
Speaker 4 (25:00):
It could happen that way, right, like you yeah, yeah, yeah,
Oh I got a funny story like that too. Actually.
Speaker 6 (25:20):
So I show up at this thing and it's like
it is a low budget movie, as low budget as
you can imagine, and it's taking place in this little
this spot in New York called Tramps. There used to
be a club. And I get there and I meet
the guy that was on the other end of the
phone call, and and it's Ulysses. You guys know Juli
(25:44):
and uh, you know, young Dominican guy looks like you know,
it looks like somebody I'll be friends with, Like he's
my age, Like he's a casting director. Those guys who pioneers,
they got started early. You know, UIs still going, still going,
stronger than ever. Love you, brother, And so he puts
me in as the bartender. He tries to get me
some light in the movie. Turns out the director won
(26:05):
an Academy Award for Best Foreign Short Film, so.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
He did have a not a lie. But I had
no idea who the guy was.
Speaker 5 (26:15):
I don't know about the PanAm or from where. I
believe oh Man Brazilian, Mexican.
Speaker 4 (26:23):
I believe he was Israeli.
Speaker 6 (26:26):
I'm not sure. I would have to look it up.
The movie was called The Minotaur, and I don't know
if it ever saw the light of day. I have
no idea saw All I know is I was there
for about eighteen hours. It was non union extra work.
I might have made fifty bucks, right, but I made
up and I made a friend for the rest of
my life. Like you know, So I met Yuli, and
(26:47):
then Juli would put me on to anything he was doing,
you know, extra work wise for the next couple of years.
And then I went down to New York undercover because
it was one of the shows in town. Like I
was basically just walking into casting offices around town and like.
Speaker 4 (27:02):
Dropping my head shot off. And my dad knew a
guy that was that was a teamster in New York
that used to know my grandfather.
Speaker 6 (27:11):
This guy, Sonny Volkee. He shout out to Sonny. Sonny
was married to a woman who used to bartend at
a bar in Spanish Harlem that my my mom's dad
used to go in all the time, and so family
knew each other or whatever, and Sonny was he was like, yeah, yeah,
I had already sent my head shot down to New
York undercover and Sonny was like, yeah, go again.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
We do the driving over there. So then yeah, project,
So I had gotten one day of non union extra
work there and.
Speaker 5 (27:37):
Then who did you get to see shoot at that day?
Speaker 4 (27:42):
The day that I did it, I played like a
little like a like a delivery boy. I had an
apron on.
Speaker 6 (27:47):
It was like I was delivering something to the precinct
from a bodega or something like that, and you know
I brought up a little bag or whatever was in
the bag coffee, saying but that's a feature extra, right,
So no, I didn't have any lines that I was
I was talking about, you're you got a shot?
Speaker 4 (28:01):
I got something? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. So I
meet on that day.
Speaker 6 (28:08):
Actually I ended up meeting Rahima, a girl named Paschelle
who Michelle Robinson who was uh was the costumer, and
vet man blanking out on e Vet's last name. So
these three women that were running the wardrobe department, they
were working for a guy named Richie Owings, and Rahima
(28:28):
was my age. And so anyway, we all just become friends,
like we become cool. And they were like, yeah, we
gotta look out for you, like we gotta make sure
you gotta think.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
About the New York community. The filmmaker New York community
was very small. Yeah, if you were doing something in
New York, they're usual suspects, right, Like they're gonna be
calling to do the wardrobe of this, especially.
Speaker 6 (28:53):
Right there was not Yeah, more movies were being done
there at that time, but television hadn't had the resurgence yet, right,
But even.
Speaker 5 (29:01):
Movies were like maybe one into maybe one to a year.
Speaker 4 (29:05):
I mean that's not yeah, no, no, at this time.
I got to tell you.
Speaker 6 (29:08):
At this time, this is like, let's call it like
ninety four through ninety seven. There were there was, there
were quite a bit of movies being shot at the time.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Well, didn't didn't we work together?
Speaker 4 (29:21):
Back then? We never worked together.
Speaker 6 (29:23):
I went on a cattle call for dead presidents and
waited online like somewhere in the village, but I never not.
I think Jesse might have done. I think Jesse might
have done some background on that. Yes, And so that's
how I got to see Jesse Torero.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Yeah, shout out to Jesse Terrerorero man, yo, quick, quick,
good story I had. We would have these like monthly dinners,
you know, me Adam, Jesse Terrero whenever ULI was in town,
David Ortiz, And one day Jesse goes, yo, man, I
was your standing on dead presidents?
Speaker 4 (30:04):
And I was like what you were?
Speaker 2 (30:06):
And there was something about like Jesse's sort of body language,
like of course you were.
Speaker 5 (30:12):
Man, that's crazy. But I didn't know until like I
love Jesse too ariosold.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Yeah, I just I mean, I've done how many music
videos you do.
Speaker 5 (30:24):
I don't know, probably five.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
I've been his Vigo, I saw those, Yeah I Didluma Ones,
I did that.
Speaker 5 (30:32):
We've seen that.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
Yeah, that did a few shout outs to Jesse to
he's a giant, he's speaking of cinematic guy. Just such beautiful,
beautiful human beings man, So shout out to them.
Speaker 5 (30:45):
And always looked out for the homing.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
So yeah, yeah, So how did how did New York
Undercover change your life?
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Like?
Speaker 2 (30:52):
How did how did things change from there?
Speaker 6 (30:54):
You know, I think it changed my life in the
way that I got to be on a set almost
every day of the week.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
All of a sudden, were you Were you.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
There for all five seasons?
Speaker 4 (31:01):
No, No, I was there. I think that show lasted
three or three and a half seasons, and I came in.
It was already running when I came in. It might
have been already on for.
Speaker 6 (31:11):
The first let me see the first The first time
I did background on that was I want to say,
say October and ninety four, maybe right, And then it
became a regular thing the following like around February of
ninety five, it became a regular thing. And then I
(31:34):
did that for another year and a half, almost two
years until I moved out to La But I mean
it changed my life in the sense that, you know,
it cracked the egg man, like I got to see
how this happens every day, how the machine works, how
what the flow.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
Is like, you know where to be at what time,
and what is going mean all of it. It was
like going to school, you know.
Speaker 6 (31:55):
And then on top of that, being embraced by people
who were you know, participate in that on a on
a on a level that was you know, uh, a
bigger contribution than I was as a background player at
the time, you know. Was uh, you know, it was
incredible because it was like it was making community, you know,
I was. I made friends that I'm still friends with
(32:17):
to this day after all.
Speaker 4 (32:18):
Those years, you know what I mean. Like and so
it was.
Speaker 6 (32:21):
It was also one of those things sometimes like when
you're looking at something from the outside d you feel
like so far removed from it, and you know, you
can't really imagine how you could ever be a part
of it. And then all of a sudden, I was,
I was in the middle of it, you know, and
and you realize, like, oh man, it's just people.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
All right, So I'm gonna hold you right there because
this conversation obviously has uh has a lot more layers
to it, and the dance in the detail from you
Adam is inpeccable.
Speaker 5 (32:51):
So this is part one. Thank you for watching part one,
and I hope you guys stayed for part two.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
If those Amingos, Dos Amigos is a production from WV
Sound and iHeartMedia's Michael through That podcast Network, hosted by Me,
Freddie Rodriguez and Wilmer Valdorama.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Those Amigos is produced by Aaron Burlson and Sophie Spencer Zabos.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
Our executive producers are Wilmer Valdorama, Freddie Rodriguez, Aaron Burlson,
and Leo Klem at WV Sound.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
This episode was shot and edited it by Ryan Posts
and mixed by Sean Tracy and features original music by
Madison Devenport and Hala Boy.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
Our cover art photography is by David Avalos and designed
by Deny Holtz.
Speaker 5 (33:34):
Clau and thank you for being there third amigo today.
I appreciate you guys always listening to Those Amigos.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
More podcasts from my Heart, visit the ir Heart Radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 5 (33:45):
See you next week,
All right, hey, this is Freddie Rodriguez and I'm Wilmer
brother Rama. Welcome to the Those Amigos podcast. You know
you can see we're already laughing Roman. Well if you're not,
you can hear our smile also, but you can see
it as well. So all of you who have been
watching and listening to our podcast for so long, thank
you so much. He is a very special episode for
(00:26):
us because our third amigo today is someone not only
very dear, but he's really blood brother with us.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Absolutely, he is my family. His mother is my mother,
his father is my father. I know his family dearly,
and I love him like he's my brother. Ladies and gentlemen,
please help woman, and I welcome Adam Rodriguez.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
For this interview.
Speaker 5 (00:52):
You can keep your shirt on.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Please you. I'm like, where are my hat? I'm like,
how am I looking?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Because the crowd speaking of shirt on, I remember and
I'm going to just start here. Adam came to my
house one time and we were playing poker and my
wife cooked. You know, she's Puerto Rican, she could Puerto
Rican rice. And Adam came with his own tupp aware
of like salmon.
Speaker 5 (01:18):
When was this?
Speaker 1 (01:19):
This is like a decade and you're in production probably
like imagine, Mike, Yeah, I went to every restaurant in
LA with that, because I didn't stop my social life.
Speaker 6 (01:28):
I would literally go to restaurants. Luckily, I go to
the same places all the time, so nobody gave me
any ship. But like I would bring my little prepared
meal and sit and have socialized.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
But I was just gonna eat whatever was in that.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Elsie was like, aren't you going to eat?
Speaker 3 (01:41):
I made rice and I was like, no, man, I
got my little salmon here.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
We're like, come on, man, we were drinking back then.
We're like, come have a drink with us. No, man,
I'm having my little salmon.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
But I got it to explain to our listeners and
our yours. So what happens is when you're entering a
role and you're preparing for a role, you have to
be incredibly strict because not only you have to be
in some type of shape, but you also have to
maintain it for a certain amount of time.
Speaker 5 (02:08):
I can't even imagine for Magic Minke, because you know
that was.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
That changed my life.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Man.
Speaker 6 (02:11):
Those movies are that first one especially, but then the
second one as well, Like you know, taught me about
diet and how critical diet is to getting in shape
because when that call came in.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
So I've been training with a guy named.
Speaker 6 (02:25):
Tito Raymondo and now it's become a dear, dear friend
of mine over the years. We probably know each other
twenty years now. And you know, remember when I got
that job, man, I was like, listen, man, I wasn't
like I got to be a male stripper.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Man.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
We only had six weeks to prepare, and I.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Was, you know, six weeks, only had six weeks.
Speaker 6 (02:45):
I always keep my body moving, but I'm never like,
I don't walk around with a six pack.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
That's just not me. I enjoyed, I enjoy eating. I
love food.
Speaker 6 (02:53):
I'm not like, you know, oh my god, I don't
see a six pack, Like what's up?
Speaker 4 (02:57):
So I was like, is this going to be possible?
Speaker 7 (03:00):
Man?
Speaker 6 (03:00):
You know, because I don't have six weeks to do this? Like,
am I going to have to take steroids?
Speaker 5 (03:05):
I don't want to.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
I don't want to do that.
Speaker 6 (03:07):
Yeah, but this is a massive opportunity in my life
to like, you know, and I got to show up
prepared and a challenge for you to big time challenge
you know, Steven Soderberg and McConnaughey and Channing and you know,
and just an opportunity to be in a in a
film that I knew was going to be seen on
a scale that nothing I'd ever done before was going
(03:28):
to be seen. And so, I mean, I don't think
anybody could predict how big it was was going to
be and spawn a whole other business. But you know,
I just didn't want to show up and be the
weak link, you know, and and you know.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
They shoot around you.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Like yeah, like.
Speaker 5 (03:48):
Forward.
Speaker 6 (03:50):
So I was on a mission, man, to just like
make sure I was my very best. And he was like, no, no,
we don't need to do that, like you're not gonna
And I was relieved because it was the first time
i life, I had ever even considered, you know, maybe
doing well.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Nowadays nowadays, that's like the first thing, you know, a
trainer is going to be. It's like all right, cool,
we're gonna get you on this and this, and there's
no like negotiations like can I do it with food?
Speaker 6 (04:14):
Can just Fortunately Tito was you know, he had a
bodybuilding career and he was natural. He stopped the bodybuilding
actually because the next level for him would have had
to be you know, to get on you know, steroids,
a whole program of that kind of thing. And he
was like, no, you don't need to do it, man,
but you're gonna have to work your ass off in it.
(04:34):
And I never worked so hard man, between the diet
and you know, two three hours a day of cardios.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
How many how many days were you working out with.
Speaker 6 (04:42):
I worked out six days a week. Yeah, I was
working out six days a week. Sunday was like, uh,
you know you could have one cheat meal on a Sunday.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
What did that cheat meal look like?
Speaker 6 (04:51):
Usually, like I love breakfast, It was probably like pancakes.
Speaker 5 (04:55):
You know that's early.
Speaker 6 (04:56):
And and then I would hit cardio and because I yeah,
I was doing cardio seven days a week. I mean
I remember seeing you seven time, man, So I was
on set. You know, I was getting up, you know,
before my call time, getting cardio in, then getting my
workout in. You know it's not usually before work or
if I got an early call time.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
Whatever it was. I was navigating all of that. And
then my meals were just programmed for for the day.
Speaker 6 (05:21):
So I had six weeks man, and and and what
I saw what my body could do.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
I was like, wow, this is incredible.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Who prepared your meals?
Speaker 4 (05:29):
So I had my shout out to Rohan.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
My boy wrote Rohan.
Speaker 7 (05:32):
Yeah, Rohan is a chef, Rohan and he he yeah,
he just he was up for some sidework at the time.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
So him and I would meet at like a parking
lot of a smart and final deal beach.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Here's the chicken breast, two big bags with food like
fourteen meals in them for a few days, and we
would exchange.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
And like I'd give him the old bags with old container.
Speaker 6 (06:01):
I mean, I got exactly what it looked like a
drug deal and look like it up to Miami vice man.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
But yeah, we got it done.
Speaker 6 (06:09):
And then when I learned that, when the second movie
came up, I was more confident bout knowing that I
could be able to do it.
Speaker 5 (06:13):
Yeah I'm sand at this point.
Speaker 6 (06:15):
Yeah yeah, but yeah, I just learned a tremendous amount
about that man.
Speaker 5 (06:19):
So so just kind of recapping a little bit.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Everyone loves you for many things, but I want to
make sure we gave you flowers a couple of things.
Speaker 5 (06:26):
So so you are iconically we're one.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Of the first, you know, batch wearing a good guys
Latinos on TV, you know, see Outside Miami, which was yea,
and you know, for us to have like a dude
that was catching the bad guys and that wasn't the
bad guy on the cop show, it is absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 5 (06:45):
You were one of those first ones to be on
prime time to do that.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
So I want to make sure people understand and realize
how how much space we got to make for that,
because because of characters like yours, you know that cast
could be colorful after that, right, So that that's that's
something you should know that we all know it isn't
we all know that? Then you go from there.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
It's funny real quick.
Speaker 6 (07:06):
Just a footnote on that that I got my SAG
card as a standing in photo double for a guy
that was Latino wearing the badge even before that on
New York Undercover Michael de Lorenzo.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Yes, well, well look we got to start from the beginning, yes, yes,
right back, because I was kind of what were you
where were you born?
Speaker 4 (07:23):
I was born in New York. I was born in Yonkers,
all right.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
Really got a flat so hard look that New York cat.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
He came here repid, so so okay, so you're born
in Yonkers, right, what did your what did your pop
and your mom do?
Speaker 4 (07:42):
My father, he was figuring it out.
Speaker 6 (07:44):
My dad was always a hard worker, hard working guy,
just trying to figure out to ray shout out pop
uh to where to direct that energy really, you know.
And so he was a military guy for years and
then he sold insurance.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
He drove limos.
Speaker 6 (08:01):
He was a lawyer too, right, Well, he was trying
to figure it out, and my mother, I think, was
getting a little fed up, and he's like, listen, you
need to pick.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Up the pack.
Speaker 6 (08:09):
You know, we got to move on because you know,
you need to get get life figured out or whatever.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
And so when I was I.
Speaker 6 (08:18):
Guess I was about five, he moved up to Boston
to go to law school. He started going to college
end of the seventies. He went to Fordham University in
the Bronx and then he moved up to Boston and
went to Northeastern Law School. And so he gi bill, Yeah,
he took advantage of the gi bill and then he
(08:39):
went up there and he was he lived there. He
would come home, you know, probably once a weekend for sure,
sometimes more, I mean once a month for sure.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
Sometimes twice because he had to come home to do
army reserves.
Speaker 6 (08:50):
So he would come home, do his reserves, see us,
and then go back. He probably came home maybe more
than once a month. But yeah, so that was the
deal for like four years. And then he got out
of that, and then it turns out he he instead
of practicing law, he ended up working, you know, for
New York government, just like working in an office for
small business. I'm trying to remember what it was. It
(09:12):
was something to do with women in small business. He
worked at an office there, and then he worked for
Mario Cuomo, the Governor's office.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
You know, my dad.
Speaker 6 (09:20):
He just bounced around wherever there was a good opportunity
bouncing around. He's very charismatic guy is you know, yeah, yeah, you.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
Know, he's a sweetheart, he really is.
Speaker 6 (09:30):
And that personality actually, I mean, as the story goes on,
you'll see really where that had such a big impact
on my life later on down the road because I
got my first break, you know, not to fast forward
too quickly, but really got my first big break from
a guy that my dad was in the army reserves with.
Speaker 5 (09:53):
How did that come up?
Speaker 4 (09:55):
Man?
Speaker 6 (09:56):
So I started doing I started doing background on New
York Undercover and.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
Doing that for a couple of years.
Speaker 6 (10:07):
And through that process was you know, I knew I
wanted to act, but I just wanted to be on
a set somewhere, and so the opportunity to do background
work came up. There. I became a regular sort of
uh you know, part of the background crew on that
on that show, and then became a photo double and
a stand in, and that's where I got my SAG card.
Made lifelong friends there, you know, Malik Yoba and his
(10:34):
his sister Rahima and you know, just a crew of
people there that took me under their wing. And it
was that was actually the first place that I loved
that I could do a whole episode just talking about
my experience on that show. It was the first group
of people I met that they believed in me. You know,
there was a crew there, riche Owings. It was Dick
Wolf Show, Yeah, Dick Wolf Show. And it was huge, man,
(10:54):
I mean that time it was huge because it was
very you know, it was the first time you saw, uh,
you know, an urban cast like.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
That, black and brown together, black and brown.
Speaker 6 (11:05):
You know, you've seen black and white a million times.
Bill Cosby and you know the guy that he used
to do I spy with him, blanking out on his
name Robert something maybe. But anyway, you know you I
mean countless you've seen Black and White. Nick noted the
Eddie Murphy you know, the black and brown together on
that show you had never seen.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
And the soundtrack.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Was hip hop was all over.
Speaker 6 (11:25):
That show, and it was current and in the moment,
and you know, people our age were like, oh, that
feels like us. You know, it was really ahead of
its time in that way.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
And shout out to Michael too.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
I mean, yeah, Mike.
Speaker 6 (11:41):
He was a dancer and he was in Fame. Man,
he was in Fame, the television show Fame. You know, uh,
super talented guy.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Man. So those people on that show, they they just
were so good to me. Man.
Speaker 6 (11:55):
Richie Owings was a costume designer and uh you know
they had some people in other departments. Anyway, they helped
me get head shots. Shout out to Stephen McBride man.
He was a photographer and basically my first photo shoot
I ever did. Like the people, they were like, look,
we want to put it, put together. Photo shoot will
make you the subject of it. They just helped me
out in ways that you know that I'm so grateful for.
(12:26):
So anyway, I'm doing this for a couple of years,
doing extra work.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
But how did you even get into it? Into extra work?
Speaker 5 (12:32):
Well in his past, Like Wendy, You're like, you know what, acting.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
How did that? Okay, you know what?
Speaker 6 (12:37):
Taking it back to that, yeah, you know, leading up
to all that, it was always sports, baseball in particular,
I thought like, Okay, that was going to be my path.
I'll go to college and play baseball. Maybe I'll be
lucky enough to take it, you know. Somewhere from there,
about eighteen, you know, I had a couple of injuries
that I realized, like, this just isn't going any further.
I didn't have the discipline to get back on the
horse and go after it in the way that that.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
I realize now as a baseball was my spouse. Yeah, yeah, and.
Speaker 6 (13:05):
I look back on it now and I'm like, yeah,
you see, the guys that make it, they just either
you got to be uber, uber talented on a level
that's like, you know, hard to believe. But even with that,
even with the talent, if you don't have the discipline
and the drive to work hard, the talent's only going
to take.
Speaker 5 (13:19):
The perfect star.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
Yeah it is. You got to have it all man,
especially to make it to that level. And so.
Speaker 6 (13:26):
I didn't have that, and I was trying to figure
out what the next move was. And so I knew
it wasn't college for me because I wasn't this, wasn't
interested in learning in a structured environment in that way.
That just that just wasn't for me. I love learning,
but I'm more of an autodid act. I like to
learn on my own and read on my own and
process the information myself and not, you know, not have
(13:50):
it be about getting a grade or having you know,
somebody else's opinion about how I'm learning it and being
judged in that way. So, but my mother was like, listen,
you either staying out to Janet shout out mom, uh yeah,
stay in school, go get a full time job, or
join the military. Those were those were my options. So
(14:10):
she was you're not going to sit around while you
try and figure it out.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
To my mother with your dad, she was pissed that
I wasn't going to I can see her doing this
pissed for years.
Speaker 6 (14:21):
She was pissed that I wasn't going to college. I
mean even after I started working as an actor. I
think it really was a thorn in her side.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
So you're eighteen, you said, you're like, I'm not going
to college.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Janet cracks the whip.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
Cracks the whip. So I'm like, cool. I had a
job as a bellman at a hotel.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Oh well what hotel I was?
Speaker 6 (14:36):
Uh, I was contracted by Marriott. Marriott was the contractor,
so technically I was an employee of Marriott, but it
was an IBM owned property. It was this beautiful campus
across the water from Manhattan, uh, in an area called Palisades,
New York. And it was basically a facility where they
educated and hosted all of like Fortune five hundred.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Events.
Speaker 6 (15:00):
Basically, so like you know, let's say, like the c
suite staff of a Fortune five hundred company might be
sent there for a week.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
It's like a corporate stay for the for the think
tanking and exactly.
Speaker 6 (15:12):
So we were serving those folks and I was a
bellman and I did that for a couple of years.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
Man out of high school.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
I mean, people make careers out of that.
Speaker 6 (15:22):
Yeah, yeah, no, I never thought about it. Never, Never
for a moment that I think I was going to
stay there in.
Speaker 5 (15:28):
The hotel you man, Like, yeah.
Speaker 6 (15:31):
You're making I'm sure I wasn't making, like not the
kind of like I always had big aspirations, man, I
always yeah, but dreams for me, it was like yeah,
never that's for better or for worse, you know.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Yeah, So what was there an image or something that
made you go like I can do that?
Speaker 6 (15:52):
So I'm you know, I always believed growing up. I
I was a latchy kid. There was you know, my
mom was always at work, my father was always at work,
and so you know, I was home probably eight hours
a day by myself, me and my sister, eight to
ten hours a day between the morning and the evening.
And so I watched a crazy amount of television and movies,
(16:13):
Like the TV was on twenty four seconds?
Speaker 2 (16:14):
What like what was what was man?
Speaker 6 (16:16):
Like every single thing like you know, oh Man, yeah, Ships,
Charlie Different Charlie's Angels, Bionic Man, Bionic Woman, yeah, or
six million Dollar Man, Bionic Woman, wonder Woman, Uh, credible.
Spider Man used to come on like the old old
Spider Man would come on on like Saturday mornings, and
(16:37):
I mean it was bad.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
It wasn't even like the incredible.
Speaker 6 (16:40):
Hope was good with with with with lou fregnant bhil
uh bixby, thank you nice pull.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
I was trying to and.
Speaker 6 (16:48):
Uh, you know so I mean just all the time,
love Bold. I mean everything that was on in that era.
Like I mean, I knew the TV schedule top to bottom.
You could ask me what was on TV at what time?
I knew exactly, Yeah, what was on at what time?
And I just you know, I loved all that. And
then movies. You know, as a matter of fact, I
ran into east Side not that long ago, and I
(17:09):
was telling him. I was like, man, I hadn't watched
Bad Boys in a long time, the original Bad Boys,
Sean Penn and the Eastside, and I was just telling
east I'm like, man, you know, it's so interesting now
as a grown man to watch his you know, watching
his work in that movie.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
And I'm like, it was fantastic. He was such and
still is. I mean, but he.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
Yes, how many people can face off with Tom Critiz.
Speaker 6 (17:33):
Come on, man, you know, but you even see him
back then with Sean Penn, and he was, I mean,
he held the screen strong and anybody in that movie
and Bad Boys he was you know, he was on
fire Man, and then I put Leabamba on for the
kids not that long ago. And brilliant man, just brilliant
the guy, you know.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
I mean, he's so good, He's so damn good man.
Speaker 6 (17:56):
But you know, so there were a few people, and
I know, you guys know like that you could look
at and be like, oh, that could.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
Be me, you know, but there were only a couple.
Won't that many?
Speaker 6 (18:06):
Freddie Prinz, you know East Sigh at that time, Jimmy
Jimmy hadn't even really emerged yet really until late eighties
that I remember seeing. Hey, Erica, Erica Strada was early
you know Erica Strada for sure. I remember meeting him
at the Puerto Rican Day Parade when I was a kid,
went to the Puerto Rican Day Parade his back of
my father was driving limos and so I got to
(18:26):
meet Erica Strada somehow. I remember that, like probably late seventies,
seventy eight.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
This is before soap operas or after.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
No No he was doing at the time. This is like, yeah,
he was a guy.
Speaker 6 (18:46):
So you know, there weren't There weren't a lot of
faces that you went and that allowed you to imagine
yourself being in one of those casts and so New
York Undercover. So taking it back to how I had
this moment. So I'm working as a bellman. I'm enrolled
in community college just to keep my mother happy, and
(19:07):
and this is where I could stay living at home.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
At the time, I wasn't ready to move out yet.
Speaker 6 (19:10):
I'm still eighteen, trying to put my dough together. And
I started sending my head shots out. So I'm like, oh,
let me you know, you had headshots so well. So
I was like, maybe acting is a thing, right. So
I'm going to this community college and I'm like taking
an acting class.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
And I had a moment where I was like, damn,
I could do this. This feels great to do.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
What made you take it? What made you take an actor?
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Because I was always I was interested in the arts. Man.
Speaker 6 (19:36):
I just was like, whether it was music or it
was you know, I was basically interested in anything where
I felt like there was something free form about it,
you know, the idea of going to school and taking
a very rigid, structured classroomtality. Yeah, I needed something I
was I don't know, something in me just felt like
I was trying to find myself and these were the
(19:58):
places I thought I was going to do it, and so, yeah,
I ended up in this theater class at this community
college and we had to prepare a scene. And I
had come in and I had dabbled a little bit before.
I had taken like a scene study course with this woman.
Years prior. I would drive this woman. She had an
(20:19):
apartment in Manhattan and then her husband was a surgeon.
They had an apartment, I mean a house up in Nayak,
New York, and I would have to drive her back
and forth.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
On the weekends.
Speaker 6 (20:27):
And then in return, instead of paying me, I was
allowed to take this class of.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Hers for free.
Speaker 6 (20:32):
And so you know, so I did that. But I
was just messing around, like I never thought about doing
it for a living. And here I was, like eighteen now,
in this class, eighteen or nineteen at the time, and
realizing that I needed to start getting a little more
serious about.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
Life and figuring out a direction for myself.
Speaker 6 (20:49):
And like I said, I was taking this theater arts
course doing this scene. In the middle of the scene,
I just.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
Felt like I was flying. Man.
Speaker 6 (20:56):
So had that feeling that you get, you know, when
you're doing the thing and having and it feels great.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
And I was like, this is this is it? This
is this is.
Speaker 6 (21:05):
What I'm looking for, you know, this is I want
to chase this high again somewhere else like this was
this is what I felt like when something exciting was happening,
when I'm playing baseball or doing something where you feel
those butterflies a little bit, but like the action is
happening and that feeling of like everything else disappears, you know.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
And so I was like, I'm going to chase that.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
So that like, oh, what about you know, some background
work and so start somewhere in there.
Speaker 6 (21:32):
So all right, let me get head shots, let me
do this and do that. And so I got head shots,
I wrote cover letters. I sent them out to like
every single casting agency in the Tri state area.
Speaker 5 (21:43):
And how'd you find that?
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Like in the yellow Pages.
Speaker 6 (21:46):
Back in the day, there was this thing called the
the Little Blue book Man, and you got it at
Samuel French, which was in midtown in Times Square, there
was a Samuel French bookstore.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
They had all the plays.
Speaker 6 (21:58):
And then they would have this book and I keep
wanting to call it the rob Report, but it's not.
It's the Something Report. And it had a list of
all the talent agencies from top to bottom, biggest to
the smallest, casting directors and everything. So I just went
in there, man, I bought a stack of like two
hundred yellow envelopes, put a cover letter and my head
shot and all them sent out, you know, sent out.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
A stack at eighteen years old.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
Yeah, it was probout eighteen or nineteen at the time.
Speaker 6 (22:24):
That's a you know, trying to figure it out, man,
just to see like what, you know, what, what can
we drum up here? And and then while that was
I mean, there's so many men I think back, I'm like, man.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
So what was the first bite? Like when you when
you were sending that out?
Speaker 4 (22:44):
A couple of bytes came in.
Speaker 6 (22:45):
I think I did I did some background on a movie,
and I can't remember what it was. And then the
bite I remember most distinctly, man, and because it led
to a lifelong friendship, was I get a call when
I had some work.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
As a bellman and I get home. It's late. I
listen to my messages and uh, and there's a call.
Speaker 6 (23:06):
It's probably about ten o'clock, not that late, but uh,
there's a call on there and it says, Hello, this
is Ulysses Terrero from TMT no way only because there's
an opportunity to work for an Academy Award winning director. Uh,
and I need to know if you're available and have
a bartender's uniform for uh.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
I forget if it was the next day or the
day after whatever it was. So I'm like, oh shit, man,
Academy Awards. That sounds crazy.
Speaker 5 (23:35):
I'm like, this sounds shut out releases, Yulie you.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
I pick up the phone right and I call right away.
Speaker 6 (23:41):
I have bartender close because I'm bartending at a place
on the on the weekends when I'm not doing the
bellman job, a bartend at this little restaurant and uh.
So I called the guy back, but it's after hours, right,
So I call the same number and.
Speaker 4 (23:54):
He's like, yeah, what's up.
Speaker 6 (23:58):
And I was like, it's the same person that left.
Speaker 4 (24:01):
And I'm like, yeah, what's up?
Speaker 6 (24:03):
Man. I was like, listen, I got a message on
my answering machine answering machines, so I said, uh, you
know there's uh there was a message about some extra
work for this Oh yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah,
let me do so, uh you have you have bartending?
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (24:22):
I have that, all right? Can you be down at
Tramps at such and such a time. Yeah, yeah, I'll
just say yes and so. But but of course I'm like,
who's the director, you.
Speaker 6 (24:32):
Know, because I'm trying to know, like who is this
kind of like who's the director? And he's like, uh,
I can't tell you. I can't tell y'all. That's that's
confidential information.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
That be pandemonium in the.
Speaker 6 (24:42):
Streets if I was to tell you what pandemonium in
the scale. So I'm like, well, ship man tomorrow or
day after whenever it was.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
I was like, I'm I'm about.
Speaker 5 (24:50):
To like be in comt.
Speaker 6 (24:52):
Somebody maybe like man, maybe somebody's going to get a
look at the kid, and like who knows, you know,
you know, it's still silly enough to believe that that's
all it would work.
Speaker 4 (25:00):
It could happen that way, right, like you yeah, yeah, yeah,
Oh I got a funny story like that too. Actually.
Speaker 6 (25:20):
So I show up at this thing and it's like
it is a low budget movie, as low budget as
you can imagine, and it's taking place in this little
this spot in New York called Tramps. There used to
be a club. And I get there and I meet
the guy that was on the other end of the
phone call, and and it's Ulysses. You guys know Juli
(25:44):
and uh, you know, young Dominican guy looks like you know,
it looks like somebody I'll be friends with, Like he's
my age, Like he's a casting director. Those guys who pioneers,
they got started early. You know, UIs still going, still going,
stronger than ever. Love you, brother, And so he puts
me in as the bartender. He tries to get me
some light in the movie. Turns out the director won
(26:05):
an Academy Award for Best Foreign Short Film, so.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
He did have a not a lie. But I had
no idea who the guy was.
Speaker 5 (26:15):
I don't know about the PanAm or from where. I
believe oh Man Brazilian, Mexican.
Speaker 4 (26:23):
I believe he was Israeli.
Speaker 6 (26:26):
I'm not sure. I would have to look it up.
The movie was called The Minotaur, and I don't know
if it ever saw the light of day. I have
no idea saw All I know is I was there
for about eighteen hours. It was non union extra work.
I might have made fifty bucks, right, but I made
up and I made a friend for the rest of
my life. Like you know, So I met Yuli, and
(26:47):
then Juli would put me on to anything he was doing,
you know, extra work wise for the next couple of years.
And then I went down to New York undercover because
it was one of the shows in town. Like I
was basically just walking into casting offices around town and like.
Speaker 4 (27:02):
Dropping my head shot off. And my dad knew a
guy that was that was a teamster in New York
that used to know my grandfather.
Speaker 6 (27:11):
This guy, Sonny Volkee. He shout out to Sonny. Sonny
was married to a woman who used to bartend at
a bar in Spanish Harlem that my my mom's dad
used to go in all the time, and so family
knew each other or whatever, and Sonny was he was like, yeah, yeah,
I had already sent my head shot down to New
York undercover and Sonny was like, yeah, go again.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
We do the driving over there. So then yeah, project,
So I had gotten one day of non union extra
work there and.
Speaker 5 (27:37):
Then who did you get to see shoot at that day?
Speaker 4 (27:42):
The day that I did it, I played like a
little like a like a delivery boy. I had an
apron on.
Speaker 6 (27:47):
It was like I was delivering something to the precinct
from a bodega or something like that, and you know
I brought up a little bag or whatever was in
the bag coffee, saying but that's a feature extra, right,
So no, I didn't have any lines that I was
I was talking about, you're you got a shot?
Speaker 4 (28:01):
I got something? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. So I
meet on that day.
Speaker 6 (28:08):
Actually I ended up meeting Rahima, a girl named Paschelle
who Michelle Robinson who was uh was the costumer, and
vet man blanking out on e Vet's last name. So
these three women that were running the wardrobe department, they
were working for a guy named Richie Owings, and Rahima
(28:28):
was my age. And so anyway, we all just become friends,
like we become cool. And they were like, yeah, we
gotta look out for you, like we gotta make sure
you gotta think.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
About the New York community. The filmmaker New York community
was very small. Yeah, if you were doing something in
New York, they're usual suspects, right, Like they're gonna be
calling to do the wardrobe of this, especially.
Speaker 6 (28:53):
Right there was not Yeah, more movies were being done
there at that time, but television hadn't had the resurgence yet, right,
But even.
Speaker 5 (29:01):
Movies were like maybe one into maybe one to a year.
Speaker 4 (29:05):
I mean that's not yeah, no, no, at this time.
I got to tell you.
Speaker 6 (29:08):
At this time, this is like, let's call it like
ninety four through ninety seven. There were there was, there
were quite a bit of movies being shot at the time.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Well, didn't didn't we work together?
Speaker 4 (29:21):
Back then? We never worked together.
Speaker 6 (29:23):
I went on a cattle call for dead presidents and
waited online like somewhere in the village, but I never not.
I think Jesse might have done. I think Jesse might
have done some background on that. Yes, And so that's
how I got to see Jesse Torero.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Yeah, shout out to Jesse Terrerorero man, yo, quick, quick,
good story I had. We would have these like monthly dinners,
you know, me Adam, Jesse Terrero whenever ULI was in town,
David Ortiz, And one day Jesse goes, yo, man, I
was your standing on dead presidents?
Speaker 4 (30:04):
And I was like what you were?
Speaker 2 (30:06):
And there was something about like Jesse's sort of body language,
like of course you were.
Speaker 5 (30:12):
Man, that's crazy. But I didn't know until like I
love Jesse too ariosold.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Yeah, I just I mean, I've done how many music
videos you do.
Speaker 5 (30:24):
I don't know, probably five.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
I've been his Vigo, I saw those, Yeah I Didluma Ones,
I did that.
Speaker 5 (30:32):
We've seen that.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
Yeah, that did a few shout outs to Jesse to
he's a giant, he's speaking of cinematic guy. Just such beautiful,
beautiful human beings man, So shout out to them.
Speaker 5 (30:45):
And always looked out for the homing.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
So yeah, yeah, So how did how did New York
Undercover change your life?
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Like?
Speaker 2 (30:52):
How did how did things change from there?
Speaker 6 (30:54):
You know, I think it changed my life in the
way that I got to be on a set almost
every day of the week.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
All of a sudden, were you Were you.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
There for all five seasons?
Speaker 4 (31:01):
No, No, I was there. I think that show lasted
three or three and a half seasons, and I came in.
It was already running when I came in. It might
have been already on for.
Speaker 6 (31:11):
The first let me see the first The first time
I did background on that was I want to say,
say October and ninety four, maybe right, And then it
became a regular thing the following like around February of
ninety five, it became a regular thing. And then I
(31:34):
did that for another year and a half, almost two
years until I moved out to La But I mean
it changed my life in the sense that, you know,
it cracked the egg man, like I got to see
how this happens every day, how the machine works, how
what the flow.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
Is like, you know where to be at what time,
and what is going mean all of it. It was
like going to school, you know.
Speaker 6 (31:55):
And then on top of that, being embraced by people
who were you know, participate in that on a on
a on a level that was you know, uh, a
bigger contribution than I was as a background player at
the time, you know. Was uh, you know, it was
incredible because it was like it was making community, you know,
I was. I made friends that I'm still friends with
(32:17):
to this day after all.
Speaker 4 (32:18):
Those years, you know what I mean. Like and so
it was.
Speaker 6 (32:21):
It was also one of those things sometimes like when
you're looking at something from the outside d you feel
like so far removed from it, and you know, you
can't really imagine how you could ever be a part
of it. And then all of a sudden, I was,
I was in the middle of it, you know, and
and you realize, like, oh man, it's just people.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
All right, So I'm gonna hold you right there because
this conversation obviously has uh has a lot more layers
to it, and the dance in the detail from you
Adam is inpeccable.
Speaker 5 (32:51):
So this is part one. Thank you for watching part one,
and I hope you guys stayed for part two.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
If those Amingos, Dos Amigos is a production from WV
Sound and iHeartMedia's Michael through That podcast Network, hosted by Me,
Freddie Rodriguez and Wilmer Valdorama.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Those Amigos is produced by Aaron Burlson and Sophie Spencer Zabos.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
Our executive producers are Wilmer Valdorama, Freddie Rodriguez, Aaron Burlson,
and Leo Klem at WV Sound.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
This episode was shot and edited it by Ryan Posts
and mixed by Sean Tracy and features original music by
Madison Devenport and Hala Boy.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
Our cover art photography is by David Avalos and designed
by Deny Holtz.
Speaker 5 (33:34):
Clau and thank you for being there third amigo today.
I appreciate you guys always listening to Those Amigos.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
More podcasts from my Heart, visit the ir Heart Radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 5 (33:45):
See you next week,
Hosts And Creators
Wilmer Valderrama
Freddy Rodriguez
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