June 18, 2026 • 32 mins
There's a difference between having an idea and actually making it. The guys go solo this week to trade the stories of their first time crossing that line; Wilmer on the MTV cold call that launched Yo Momma, Freddy on putting together a movie cast that shouldn't have come together. A real talk on audacity, instinct, and what it takes to bet on your own idea.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hey everybody, This is Freddy Rodriguez.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hey, guys, I twelmer about Arama.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
And welcome to the Dose of Egos.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Podcast where you get all of your podcast I Heeart, Apple, Spotify,
everywhere you get a podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
That's where we're at. That's right, shout out to.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Do that network. Hey man, you know, Freddy, I've been
really thinking.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Thinking, man, well we now that we got your attention.
Welcome to those amigos.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
So I'm excited. We're we're getting to finally do a
solo episode.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Where you know, we.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
You know that we continue to dig in each other's
minds and yeah, and lettle like dig out for those
for those moments of gold.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, and then unlock some of those memories.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
And our producer Leo Klam ahead of WUV Sounds and guys,
first of.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
All, relax relaxed with that. Hey guys.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
For those of you who can't see him, he's wearing uh,
he's wearing some like seventies Carrara looking glasses, you know,
very stylish, to be very stylish, Verry.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
He has a hat that says, uh, what is that?
I believe? I believe oblivion? Oblivion? Yeah, yeah, I remember that.
What do you know about billion neal.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Uh where we're heading.
Speaker 5 (01:42):
We're there, you go, but look so so the theme
was today's episode is creating our own work.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
That's the first time we originated something.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Yeah, and I and to kind of expand a little
bit and make it even more of an invitation for
those of you at home who are listening to this,
when was the first time that you had an idea
and you sighed completely through or from like, you know,
i'd be cool to then like, oh my god, I'm
doing it. And three they're like, oh man, this thing worked.
(02:14):
And then like what did I learn from it? And
what did they do for me?
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Yeah, you know what I like about this subject today,
Wilmer is I remember.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Back I don't know, the two thousands.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
I remember seeing your mama, which, and I've said this
to you on many many occasions, I was.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Such seeing your mama too, a beautiful, beautiful person.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
I was such a fan of that show, right because
it really spoke.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
To my childhood.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
But what I love the most was seeing you do
that show, but then seeing.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Your name on there as a producer. And we were young.
I mean what year was that.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
I think I was probably twenty four twenty five years old.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, And you know I wasn't too
far from that age, and so like I wasn't necessarily
producing at that time, I had aspirations for producing.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
I had aspirations for creating stuff.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
And seeing you do it and seeing your name on there,
and you being one of my friends and one of
my contemporaries, I was like, oh.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Snap, Wolmer's doing it. Man, He's produced the show.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
He's created the show, like you made it possible for
people like me, for people in our generation, for us
to look at and go, oh, he's doing it, but
maybe it's possible for us to do it as well.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
That's really kind brother, Thank you. I mean, I think
you know, you're not not shy to say out loud
whose shoulders we've been standing on?
Speaker 1 (03:50):
You know.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
I think it's I you know, we always talk about it,
and I think I hope that our audience is you know, understand,
and that the word audacity, you know, to dream is
this coming theme among our stories and some of our guests.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
But at that.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Time, you know, I wasn't looking for someone.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Like me.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I was looking for.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
An opportunity, you know, And and so I just to
talk a little bit about your mama, because.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
So those and that was the first thing you produced.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
That was my literally first creation, and I was it
was the way, the way, the way that this idea
came to me was so primitive, and it was not like, oh,
I'm here doing development, putting things on the board and
like just writing and deleting and writing and then finally eureka,
(04:48):
you know, like it wasn't. That was not how it worked, right,
But but I think, to to make a bit more sense,
that's how it works, right, Like it just it's somehow
an idea feels so obvious to you that you're like,
somebody already made this, and then you realize, wait, someone
hasn't made it lately or before or now or never,
(05:11):
And so I thought, I started really thinking about the
way to do that. But I think to backtrack a
little bit on how it all happened. And thank you
for saying those those kind words. I will say, like
in that moment, I was on that seventies show and
I was, you know, I was looking for the mentorship
of Tom Warner and Marcy Carcy, Mark Brazil and Bonnie
(05:33):
and Terry Turner, you know, Peter Roth, you know these
people that were like I was like, I had no
business going into their offices. When I was like nineteen
twenty twenty one years old and I realized that producing
was another form of storytelling.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
I didn't know. I didn't know that behind.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
The scenes was just as fulfilling as being on camera
and being the performer. Like you know, I never connected
the two of them, and I never thought that. I
actually felt like, Oh, if you're an actor, you're an actor,
your producer, your producer, you're a director, your director. I
didn't know you could do all three if you wanted to,
until they're like, yeah, you know, you can mop with
the cool idea, you put together the right people to
(06:10):
complement that and then and then you can make it real.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
And I was like, okay, well that sounds crazy.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
And at that time, if anybody remembers, if you were
on network TV, if you were a network actor, you
never went to cable because cable they didn't have the
budgets at the time. They weren't making like premium scripted stuff.
So like, so network, what was the holy grail? You know,
(06:36):
that's where like you went to make it. You talk
about twenty eight twenty nine million viewers. Live cable was
this thing that's like like what is the internet?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
You know, it was this new frontier.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
But there was a couple of runaway pop cultural channels
like HBO. They started doing things that were like so
a d inifiable as as shows.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
That could only live in this place.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
And MTV also made us stable for saying like we
are like no one else because we are exactly what
you need to be. And there were such transsetters and
we've seen all the shows, and I think at that time,
I remember seeing the way the MTV was heading in
that direction where it was like it was all about
the La the Laguna Beach kids, and it was about
(07:25):
like it was just like.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Because it was a pivot show on there, it was
that my ride, which was like we love being my ride,
you know.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
But then it became like very docuphallo or became very drama,
became very like rich kids and stuff like that, and
and you know, and and it started kind of segregating
some of us out of it. You know, the only
thing that brought us back was musicians, you know, because
the MTV was that place. But you wanted to be
a hard dropt, you wanted to be a pop cultural icon.
(07:51):
You had to be on MTV. That's why people went
and promoted movies, promoted TV shows. They went to TRL.
I was promoting that seven issue on TRL.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
We did really well on MTV.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
So anyway, it's long story short.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
I kind of knew that.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
I kind of knew that, like, network never got us
unless we were promoting something, you know. So I remember
Kutcher had developed Punked and I helped him cast Punked.
I helped him you know, oh half a two thirds
of my friends got Punked, and it was I know
you did.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
It was the last Oh yeah, I know you were
the last.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Stuf was the absolutely I was the absolute last person.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
That's great punk Well punk was this experiment and he
was the right guy for it.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
And I was like, oh, this is awesome.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
And I never saw myself as like, oh, you know,
like I never saw myself as brown white. I mean,
I didn't see myself and anything. It's just like, oh,
how cool I didam And I remember helping him with that.
I was like, oh man, it'd be cool to have
my own show there too. So I'm watching TV and
this is how your mom I was created. All of
(09:01):
a sudden, I'm watching the eight Mile and I see,
you know, then I see what's his name, Eminem absolutely
destroying everyone in that basement right like he's just like
it's like they're they're they're just battling on.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
You know.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
There's these lyricists and they're like some some stuff is funny,
sometimes it's hard, sometimes it's dangerous. Like it's like the
tone was so cool, and I was like, oh, that
that energy, that culture is so rad And then ironically,
when I changed the channel, it stops on one of
one of my movies, the one that Matthew Lillard and
I talked about a couple of episodes ago, Yes, and
(09:38):
it was it was a summer catch, yes, and it
was about ballplayers. And then we were at this bar
and the scene opens with two ball players uh snapping,
uh your mama, your mama jokes. Yeah, And you know,
I was like what I forgot that that scene was happening.
(10:00):
I forgot that that was a culture thing. I was like, oh, yeah,
that's something everyone has a ya mama joke, you know.
And I think one of the jokes was and again
this is our jokes that don't fly today. Okay, So
I'm gonna make a disclaimer that these jokes don't fly today.
But it was like, your mama is so fat that
when she wears heels, she drilled oil.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
And wait, that was that was a simpler times so
over there.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
That was in a movie.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
That was That was a line from that was. That
was a line in Summer Catch the movie. And I
was like, oh, and then it just stopped and it
just knownd me. And I was like, what if what
if I took the eight mile and I blended with
your mama jokes?
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Right right?
Speaker 2 (10:43):
That'd be kind of cool.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Yeah, that is cool.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
So I talked to some of my friends, right, I
ran it by Tadao, I ran it by all my
our friends, you know, shout out to Tarau, my brother
for life, you know, and I said, I said, hey,
it's like it's like the eight Miles by your Mama jokes.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
And they're like, oh, that's hilarious. It's like snaps, you know.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
And I was like, I guess it used to be
a thing where used to like clown people back in
the day or whatever. And I was like, there's nothing
like that anymore. So I ran it by a few
other comedian friends of mine. They're like, dude, that'd be
really fun. And I was like, all right, cool. So
then I was like, and you know what this is,
like how I hack MTV? I said, I'm going to
put the faces that MTV no longer.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Has on the network back on the network.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Yeah, And so I called Brian Graydon, who at the
time was the you know, he was the CEO is
the head of MTV Networks.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
And I thought it was that easy, right, like.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Here's like this this kid like you care called the
CEO of MTV Networks.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
I didn't even call the development executives.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
I didn't pitch it like with my agents. I just
literally called the head of MTV. I thought it was
that simple, Like I because you had his number, because
what I just found his numbers. Just I was like, hey, hey,
Brian Wilmer, here goes Oh hey Wilmer, it's a pleasure, man,
big fan. I was like, oh, thank you man, you too.
You're an amazing leader of the MTV. And I said
him and I have a crazy idea. He's like, okay.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I said, it's like it's like the eight mile of
your mama jokes.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Did he know what your mama jokes? Oh?
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Yeah, yeah. At that time, it's like pop culturally, hip
hop or whatever.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
It was the thing, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, and
everyone knew how your mama joke. So he was like, wow,
and are you gonna host it?
Speaker 2 (12:25):
I was like, yes, I'm gonna host it. Let's go.
And you know, like that was the big deal, right.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
I was coming from Fox Network and I was like,
I was going to host something on MTV.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
You know.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
The idea is that he could do well in the
ratings because there could be some carryover from the network numbers. Right,
So you're like that was the thought. Look story, sure, man.
I went in there and asked, okay, so what did
he say? So he's like, hey, you know what, this
is really interesting. I want to plug in Lewis Current
and rod Asa. And at the time, they were like
current executives, they were like development executives on MTV and
(12:57):
they were the ones making all that dope stuff m HM.
And so I got on the phone with them and
I was like, hey, d and Lewis Corean says, you
know what, Wilmer, there's something about rewarding bad behavior.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Right right, And dude, it was like, let's go wait, wait,
were they talking about your bad behavior?
Speaker 2 (13:19):
No? No, like philosophy on MTV.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Like MTV is known for being like
row you know, rebels, like we're gonna say it our way,
we're gonna sing it our way. We're going to create
music that you don't need to understand because we do.
It was like it was just an identity thing. And
when so when she said there's something about rewarding bad
behavior that really works on MTV, I mean you were
talking about jackass to talk about all that stuff, you know,
(13:44):
pop culture really reward them with like not only viewership,
but loyal too, you know. So like you know, so
to make a really long story short, you know, which
is already.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Too long and already too late. I basically.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
She and Robbie sa like further developed that I partner
up with a production company. At the time, I didn't
have a production company, right, I just I created one
in my mind. Yeah, And and so I partner up
with Evolution, which they were doing a lot of reality
TV back then, and they jumped on, They're like, okay,
let's come up with this, and so we create a
format where we will go to all the hoods. Yeah,
and I would have each hood battle among each other
(14:21):
to pick the winner.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Who the winner? Who was going to uh represent that hood?
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Okay, hold on, hold on, pause, pause, pause, How would
you even audition people in the hood who were the
best yo mama joke tellers?
Speaker 1 (14:36):
How did you find those people?
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Exactly? What it sounds like? What did you put like
a like a add the paper. Yeah, we literally we
put like fan forums. At the time, We're like, hey,
MTV is casting this show. You have a you're the
class clown. Ye, you know you're you're the class clown.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Everybody tells you you you know, you're the funniest guy
in school.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
You know you have any jokes.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
And you know you like, you know whatever.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
And they're like, you know, we need your audition, and
we send all these tapes. So then my casting directors
will grab all these real young people from all these
areas around LA then second season New York, then Thursdays
in Atlanta, and we will grab all these people and
then we're like, okay, where you're from, Oh, south Central?
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Great? South Central?
Speaker 4 (15:21):
Okay, great, We're going to put the South Central cast together.
You guys are going to battle each other, and whoever
it winds is going to represent South Central against I
don't know, Venice, Venice, you know, and so the winner
of Venice and the Winter of South Central, you know,
we'll go against each other and then and then that
would be the winner of the episode, right, and then
(15:41):
by the end of the week. We did this Monday, Tuesdays, Wednesdays,
and Thursdays. On Friday, I would have the winners of
every episode meet on a the best of the best week.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
So and then on that episode.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
I bring like, you know, method Man or Jaman Duprix
or like, you know, people like would.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
They would they would they also participate?
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Oh you know, they were the judges.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
They were the judges, you know, like the I you know,
I have like everybody on the showy and uh.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
And that was it, man, And like it became this
pop culture thing where like teachers were pretty annoyed by
me because kids in school were just snapping, like they
were just yeah, they were just doing your mama jokes.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
And every coteria.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
And so that was the first pop culture moment where
I literally said to myself, let me feed my ambition
and say.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Oh, that wasn't that hard.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
And I thought that producing was that easy, right, Like
you just come up with a cool idea you called it.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
The head hot if he says, yes, you're gonna make
it right, right.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
I mean, it's been quite a joy that were the
executive pissed that you went over their heads and you went.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Straight to oh, you know, I think they were.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
I mean, that's the thing about Lewis Current and rohde Asa.
They're such beautiful people. There were such empowering people, and
Agat shout out to Louis and shout out to rod Asa.
They really gave me my first shot at being like, oh,
he's a real producer and he has great ideas and
I would come up with the other solutions. And then
I also stood for a lot of integrity, like if
we were if we were shooting in you know, and uh,
(17:12):
if we're shooting in East La, then our contestants had
to be, you know, really natives of East La, right,
And sometimes you know, network can be like, well, you know,
if we can put like, you know, a girl there
and maybe uh, you know, maybe a white kid or
an Asian kid, and you're like, well, I mean, sure.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
This is what East La really looks like, you know.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
So I was hanging out by that making sure that
authenticity on the show was there, and I think that's.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Why I correcked really well. But but you know, that's
how it started.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
So that's like my one memory, and I love to
hear yours now, but it's like my one memory of
being like, you know, have a cool.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blahlah, and.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Then all of a sudden, it's like, you know, cut
to like this crazy global sensation.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
And Our Times Live was right after TRL too.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
So how many episodes would you do a season? We
would do?
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Let me see, we would do.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
We would do five a week, and we did a
bracket of I think four weeks, and then we did
one week where it was just the best of all
the weeks, you know, and then it was like a
big episode at the end. Yeah, so five weeks. Yeah,
five episodes per week. Yeah, I think we were doing
twenty one.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
To twenty one dude, that's like a full freaking season.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Then it was crazy, And were the episodes like every
day or once a week every day?
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Right after TRL?
Speaker 4 (18:37):
Wow, as soon as people got home they watched TRL,
they're full their right into your mama.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Yeah yeah wow, no puny intended.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Yeah yeah, oh man, I used to love that show.
It was so of the time, so fun and so silly.
So yeah, yeah, what about what about you? What's what
what brings you? Your moment with you go, oh man,
I'm gonna do this.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
In terms of creation, I've always felt like I had
this sort of producorial bone in me.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
You know, I've always well, You're.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Always been a connector. You love people, you love bringing
people together.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
You You're like you'll do your dinners and like you'll
have your discussions and your people and like, yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Yeah, I'm really good at like I just I just
think I was born with good instincts right at the
end of the day, and and I'm always really good
at like spotting someone who's talented or an idea that's good,
and and and and and then I see it like
a puzzle, and I like to piece it together like
a puzzle. So I think I think in the mid
(19:36):
the mid two thousands, an opportunity, uh came across my
table where I got to produce a film called Nothing
Like the Holidays. And it was and it was with
the producers of SOFO. They did Sofu, they did Barbershop.
Shout out to Bob Title and to George Tillman over
at State Street Pictures, and it was a company that
(19:57):
was from Chicago. Guy As I had met, like right
when we had all moved to la but we all
have this sort of Chicago connection. And so they were
coming off of the success of those films and they
were like, well, what about the sort of Latin.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Version of Soul Food?
Speaker 3 (20:13):
And I was like, oh, that that may be interesting,
and so they asked me to come on board as
an executive producer, you know, and so, like I just sort.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Of helped develop the idea of it.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
How did that feel to you, Like, you're like second producer.
What exactly does that mean? Did you, like, did you
have an idea what producing ment at the time.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
I mean not really.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
I just knew I was just going off gut instinct,
you know. I was just I was just putting the
pieces together in the way that my gut was telling
me to do it. And I let them handle the
technical aspect of it, you know. So if I had
an idea for something, I just went off of that instinct,
right and so and so they came up with it
with the sort of structure of the film, and I
(20:57):
assisted in that and it took place in a neighborhood
that was right next to my neighborhood in Chicago and
Humble Park. I'm from Bucktown on the northwest side. Uh
and so I knew the neighborhood well, I knew the
culture of the people, and so I just sort of
helped and contributed to to to that aspect of the story.
And then once that was done and Overture, which was
(21:19):
the company who financed it, gave us.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
You know, a pretty decent amount for that time.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Then came to casting, you.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Know, which was which was wonderful because I got to
reach out to like John and Guizamo and Louis Guzman
and people who I knew.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
I was I mean talk about that cats, I know,
because like that one of the things that was groundbreaking. Yeah,
and you get me some flowers. I gotta I gotta
pull a full truck. You decided to do on your
first time that you produce. You decided to do, single
handently the hardest thing that anybody can.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Do, which is make a movie.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Bro.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
It's so crazy hard to make a movie.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
So that's where like when people don't go to the
movies and then just like oh I'm on I stream
it or whatever, like, yeah, it's it's tough for the
movies because you know, they it's almost a three to
four year process just to get to that.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Screen, you know.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
So so you're so you're like calling your friends and
talk a little bit about the cast you put together,
because that was crazy.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Yeah, I mean, you know, John Leguizamo, Louis Guzman, Alfred Molina,
Deborah Messing, Jay Hernandez.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
God, who else, Elizabeth Pana rest in Peace.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
I mean, it was just this big, gigantic cast and
it was so much fun to go, how can we
put these pieces together? Like Guzamo, I knew we did
a movie called The Past in the nineties, so I just,
you know, just kind of called out.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
To the past.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
Yeah, yeah, shout out to the iconic cled classic the Past.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Louise Guzman, I knew because we did a movie called
Dreamer together with Kurt Russell and Dakota Fanning.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Uh god, who oh. Deborah Messing, I knew because.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
We did a movie called The Walk in the Clouds
and it was actually both of our first movie.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
So a lot of it was just really going through
the list.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Me and Mary renew and and and Bob and and.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Going like, well, who's shout out to Mary?
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Mary has made many many people's careers.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
Yeah, Mary's cast me and like love Mary, so shout
out to Me's a teacher of mine.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
She's a beautiful person, amazing in her office. Everybody works
at her office is beautiful. Shout out to the Venice crew,
and just for everybody to know, Mary Vidou is one
of the most iconic casting directors of our generation. She's
cast some of the most pop culture moments and cinemaia
in television. So you know, she's been responsible for, you know,
for cultivating and tour generation of actors.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Yeah, she has. She she gave me my start.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
She cast me in Dead Presidents, and then she cast
me in like seven other things after that. So she's
been instrumental and and just like a good human being too,
you know.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
And so she came on board as our casting director,
and it was so much fun to just get to
go through the list and to decide who and what
and where and what I discovered in the produce oial game,
because I think that the misconception is like, oh, you're
a producer on the movie.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Man, you could just like wave the magic wand and
like cast me.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
You know, It's like, no, it's it's a democracy, right, Like,
like all you have is a vote.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
You have a vote and an opinion, and that's it.
Where And that was? That was it? You asked me earlier,
like what was the big thing?
Speaker 3 (24:26):
That's the big thing that I learned, you know, not
that I had went into it thinking like, oh, I'm
I'm the executive producer. I'm going to just put whoever
I want in there. It's just that it's not that easy.
And that's the perception. Is that that easy?
Speaker 2 (24:40):
And I say that.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
To like, you know, there were there were certain people
afterwards that were like, well, why don't you kiss me?
Speaker 1 (24:45):
I'm like, I don't. I don't have that kind of power,
you know, I can't. I'm not Jerry.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
That's a perception that like, oh, well, you did you
create the idea you're producing.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
When your production company executive producer? Oh, then like make
me like the actor in it, you know. And and
the truth is yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Even that right because you know, the network still has
a vote, right. The studio has their money too, by
the way, it's their money. The casting director has a vote,
the director.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Has a vote.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
You know, you have all of these other people that
have votes and so like. So although I was sort
of the face of it as a producer, like I
realized at the end was like, oh, it's not really
like my decision, you know, I just I just have
an opinion in a vote, and everybody else gets to
do the same.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
And so I got to do that.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
I got to cast my vote, and we got to
sort of and everyone sort of winning different directions, and
I was.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Really happy with it.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Look, it's not a perfect movie, you know, but I'm
proud of it.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Like you said, getting a movie made is like the
hardest thing.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
But that movie is also remembered so funny by our
people and our culture. So you so, you know, like
you think about, you know, at the time when you're
releasing those movies, think about what other movies we're releasing
that weekend.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Yeah, god, I.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Don't, I don't recall, man, it's been so long.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Let's just say, let's just make up some let's just
we'll make it up, you.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
Know, The Godfather, The Matrix, Jurassic Park, same weekend, Joss
same weekend.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, I hear you, I hear you.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
But just to just to have it just look, just
getting a movie made is an accomplishment in itself. And
that's what I learned, right, because you always hope that
your movie makes a hundred million dollars.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
You always hope it's wildly successful.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
And then when it's not, it's really easy for you
to get down on yourself or to feel a certain
way about it. And then afterwards I just kind of realized, like, oh,
I accomplished something, this thing in my life.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
And it's going to live forever, and it'll live forever, man.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
And it set me on this path.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
This sort of protosorial path where I've produced stuff after that,
and I got better at it and I got more
mature at it, and and that's been what's That's why
I'm loving that we're doing this episode because it's it's
something that I know that you love to do. Also,
it's something that you and I have in common. And
so there's not a lot of people that I can
(27:08):
really talk to about these types of things, you know,
And and so that's why I love every time I
come here or we get on the phone, like I
can tell you about the stuff that I'm doing, you know,
and I know that you get it, and I know
that you understand every every step of the process, and
you give me you always give me really good advice
(27:28):
and opinions, and I know it always comes from a
good place. But there's not a lot of people that
I can do that with because they don't they're not producing,
they're not creating, they're not on that same path as me,
you know.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
So yeah, man, no, I mean, that's beautiful.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
I'm glad you brought that one up because I was
going to force you to talk about that one because
it is.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
It is a remarkable time to do that.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
So as we kind of ask ourselves a wrap a
wrap up question, what do you think is a common
denominator to just like get off your ass and do
that thing you're being thinking about doing.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
You got to just do it, man, you have to.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
You have to have the tenacity, the want, the motivation
deep down inside that makes you take that heavy swing,
and you have to have the humility, the humility enough
to know that you might fail. And if you fail,
then you fail. Then you got to get back up.
You got to dust yourself back off, and you got
(28:29):
to keep going because all people see, all people see.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Is the yo Mama is on screen, right.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
All people see is the Suarez documentary that you just did,
or the other stuff that you've produced and the other
stuff that you have on screen.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Right.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
People don't see the thousand other times that people have
said no to you, right, the offers that you've made
the actors where they said no, or the pitches that
you've done to certain networks or studios where they said no. Like,
people don't see those those failures, right, And so it's
a it's it's definitely a profession of numbers of grit,
(29:03):
of will, of tenacity, and you got to just keep
going and know that when you do get a chance
to produce something that all of your good instincts and
all of your good taste, everything goes into it and
it's reflected on screen. And I can say that, you know,
I just we just came from your screening of Suarez,
of your documentary and it and it didn't surprise me
what I saw on screen.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
I was like, this is very.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Consistent with what I've seen from from Wilmer and his
company and the other documentaries that I've seen and some
of the other works that I've seen you do. It's
very consistent, you know, And and and your company's fingerprints
are all over it and you see it.
Speaker 4 (29:40):
Thank you for that. I appreciate that, man. For those
of you who are catching up to that. A couple
of weeks ago, we premiered exclusive world premiered of the
Suarez documentary based on the already now iconic Yeah, first
foreign born Mexican you know, NASCAR NASCAR driver, And so
(30:04):
we we did a documentary on his life and did
a little snapcat on what is what it's like to
be him in this very moment and what he represents
to our culture. And it was just it was a
beautiful love letter to him and we're very proud of it, man.
And it was a full house. It was, you know,
a big theater. Everyone came and you came to support,
you know, shout out to Nicholas Gonzalez and Jessic Garcia and.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
What you say to me. I heard you all were
sitting together.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Yeah, I heard you guys are all hodd enough.
Speaker 5 (30:30):
And all I kept hearing from the crowd is like,
oh my god, my brother, My brother's embarrassed me in
front of everybody, trying to be the producer, you know.
But but it was beautiful to celebrate another Latinos story.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
You know someone who's like really doing a lot to
alter it. I mean, you would think about, you know,
a Mexican driver winning NASCAR, you know, a races. It's
like psychonic, psychonic, you know, to see that we have
one in there too, We have one in that lineup.
So so yeah, thank you for coming for that. And
I just but I think to your point, I mean,
the point of making all this, the point of doing
(31:04):
these podcast is that we get to have an idea,
we get to take it to the people, and who
knows where this episode lands in their life.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
This podcast is a perfect example of producing a perfect
example of what this episode is based on. A creation. Right,
we went out to dinner. We had a great dinner
like we always had in the past. You you were
in a situation where you were thinking about doing your
own podcasts and what that would look like, and there
(31:38):
was something that you saw on the dinner that sparked
the idea of those Amingos podcasts.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
Yeah, I just thought it'd be more fun this.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
Way to Yeah, apiate, but but you had more foresight
than just going like, well, this would be more fun,
right you had You know that that comes.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
With your producer brain, right you.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
You sort of saw the big picture and what this
could become if we all did it together.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
And here we are.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
Here we are on that note, Ladies and gentlemen, this
was dose amigos.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
I'm Wilmer Valderama and Freddie Rodriguez, and I'll see you
on the next one.
Hey everybody, This is Freddy Rodriguez.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hey, guys, I twelmer about Arama.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
And welcome to the Dose of Egos.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Podcast where you get all of your podcast I Heeart, Apple, Spotify,
everywhere you get a podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
That's where we're at. That's right, shout out to.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Do that network. Hey man, you know, Freddy, I've been
really thinking.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Thinking, man, well we now that we got your attention.
Welcome to those amigos.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
So I'm excited. We're we're getting to finally do a
solo episode.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Where you know, we.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
You know that we continue to dig in each other's
minds and yeah, and lettle like dig out for those
for those moments of gold.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, and then unlock some of those memories.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
And our producer Leo Klam ahead of WUV Sounds and guys,
first of.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
All, relax relaxed with that. Hey guys.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
For those of you who can't see him, he's wearing uh,
he's wearing some like seventies Carrara looking glasses, you know,
very stylish, to be very stylish, Verry.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
He has a hat that says, uh, what is that?
I believe? I believe oblivion? Oblivion? Yeah, yeah, I remember that.
What do you know about billion neal.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Uh where we're heading.
Speaker 5 (01:42):
We're there, you go, but look so so the theme
was today's episode is creating our own work.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
That's the first time we originated something.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Yeah, and I and to kind of expand a little
bit and make it even more of an invitation for
those of you at home who are listening to this,
when was the first time that you had an idea
and you sighed completely through or from like, you know,
i'd be cool to then like, oh my god, I'm
doing it. And three they're like, oh man, this thing worked.
(02:14):
And then like what did I learn from it? And
what did they do for me?
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Yeah, you know what I like about this subject today,
Wilmer is I remember.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Back I don't know, the two thousands.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
I remember seeing your mama, which, and I've said this
to you on many many occasions, I was.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Such seeing your mama too, a beautiful, beautiful person.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
I was such a fan of that show, right because
it really spoke.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
To my childhood.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
But what I love the most was seeing you do
that show, but then seeing.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Your name on there as a producer. And we were young.
I mean what year was that.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
I think I was probably twenty four twenty five years old.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, And you know I wasn't too
far from that age, and so like I wasn't necessarily
producing at that time, I had aspirations for producing.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
I had aspirations for creating stuff.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
And seeing you do it and seeing your name on there,
and you being one of my friends and one of
my contemporaries, I was like, oh.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Snap, Wolmer's doing it. Man, He's produced the show.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
He's created the show, like you made it possible for
people like me, for people in our generation, for us
to look at and go, oh, he's doing it, but
maybe it's possible for us to do it as well.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
That's really kind brother, Thank you. I mean, I think
you know, you're not not shy to say out loud
whose shoulders we've been standing on?
Speaker 1 (03:50):
You know.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
I think it's I you know, we always talk about it,
and I think I hope that our audience is you know, understand,
and that the word audacity, you know, to dream is
this coming theme among our stories and some of our guests.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
But at that.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Time, you know, I wasn't looking for someone.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Like me.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I was looking for.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
An opportunity, you know, And and so I just to
talk a little bit about your mama, because.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
So those and that was the first thing you produced.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
That was my literally first creation, and I was it
was the way, the way, the way that this idea
came to me was so primitive, and it was not like, oh,
I'm here doing development, putting things on the board and
like just writing and deleting and writing and then finally eureka,
(04:48):
you know, like it wasn't. That was not how it worked, right,
But but I think, to to make a bit more sense,
that's how it works, right, Like it just it's somehow
an idea feels so obvious to you that you're like,
somebody already made this, and then you realize, wait, someone
hasn't made it lately or before or now or never,
(05:11):
And so I thought, I started really thinking about the
way to do that. But I think to backtrack a
little bit on how it all happened. And thank you
for saying those those kind words. I will say, like
in that moment, I was on that seventies show and
I was, you know, I was looking for the mentorship
of Tom Warner and Marcy Carcy, Mark Brazil and Bonnie
(05:33):
and Terry Turner, you know, Peter Roth, you know these
people that were like I was like, I had no
business going into their offices. When I was like nineteen
twenty twenty one years old and I realized that producing
was another form of storytelling.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
I didn't know. I didn't know that behind.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
The scenes was just as fulfilling as being on camera
and being the performer. Like you know, I never connected
the two of them, and I never thought that. I
actually felt like, Oh, if you're an actor, you're an actor,
your producer, your producer, you're a director, your director. I
didn't know you could do all three if you wanted to,
until they're like, yeah, you know, you can mop with
the cool idea, you put together the right people to
(06:10):
complement that and then and then you can make it real.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
And I was like, okay, well that sounds crazy.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
And at that time, if anybody remembers, if you were
on network TV, if you were a network actor, you
never went to cable because cable they didn't have the
budgets at the time. They weren't making like premium scripted stuff.
So like, so network, what was the holy grail? You know,
(06:36):
that's where like you went to make it. You talk
about twenty eight twenty nine million viewers. Live cable was
this thing that's like like what is the internet?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
You know, it was this new frontier.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
But there was a couple of runaway pop cultural channels
like HBO. They started doing things that were like so
a d inifiable as as shows.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
That could only live in this place.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
And MTV also made us stable for saying like we
are like no one else because we are exactly what
you need to be. And there were such transsetters and
we've seen all the shows, and I think at that time,
I remember seeing the way the MTV was heading in
that direction where it was like it was all about
the La the Laguna Beach kids, and it was about
(07:25):
like it was just like.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Because it was a pivot show on there, it was
that my ride, which was like we love being my ride,
you know.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
But then it became like very docuphallo or became very drama,
became very like rich kids and stuff like that, and
and you know, and and it started kind of segregating
some of us out of it. You know, the only
thing that brought us back was musicians, you know, because
the MTV was that place. But you wanted to be
a hard dropt, you wanted to be a pop cultural icon.
(07:51):
You had to be on MTV. That's why people went
and promoted movies, promoted TV shows. They went to TRL.
I was promoting that seven issue on TRL.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
We did really well on MTV.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
So anyway, it's long story short.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
I kind of knew that.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
I kind of knew that, like, network never got us
unless we were promoting something, you know. So I remember
Kutcher had developed Punked and I helped him cast Punked.
I helped him you know, oh half a two thirds
of my friends got Punked, and it was I know
you did.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
It was the last Oh yeah, I know you were
the last.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Stuf was the absolutely I was the absolute last person.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
That's great punk Well punk was this experiment and he
was the right guy for it.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
And I was like, oh, this is awesome.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
And I never saw myself as like, oh, you know,
like I never saw myself as brown white. I mean,
I didn't see myself and anything. It's just like, oh,
how cool I didam And I remember helping him with that.
I was like, oh man, it'd be cool to have
my own show there too. So I'm watching TV and
this is how your mom I was created. All of
(09:01):
a sudden, I'm watching the eight Mile and I see,
you know, then I see what's his name, Eminem absolutely
destroying everyone in that basement right like he's just like
it's like they're they're they're just battling on.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
You know.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
There's these lyricists and they're like some some stuff is funny,
sometimes it's hard, sometimes it's dangerous. Like it's like the
tone was so cool, and I was like, oh, that
that energy, that culture is so rad And then ironically,
when I changed the channel, it stops on one of
one of my movies, the one that Matthew Lillard and
I talked about a couple of episodes ago, Yes, and
(09:38):
it was it was a summer catch, yes, and it
was about ballplayers. And then we were at this bar
and the scene opens with two ball players uh snapping,
uh your mama, your mama jokes. Yeah, And you know,
I was like what I forgot that that scene was happening.
(10:00):
I forgot that that was a culture thing. I was like, oh, yeah,
that's something everyone has a ya mama joke, you know.
And I think one of the jokes was and again
this is our jokes that don't fly today. Okay, So
I'm gonna make a disclaimer that these jokes don't fly today.
But it was like, your mama is so fat that
when she wears heels, she drilled oil.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
And wait, that was that was a simpler times so
over there.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
That was in a movie.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
That was That was a line from that was. That
was a line in Summer Catch the movie. And I
was like, oh, and then it just stopped and it
just knownd me. And I was like, what if what
if I took the eight mile and I blended with
your mama jokes?
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Right right?
Speaker 2 (10:43):
That'd be kind of cool.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Yeah, that is cool.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
So I talked to some of my friends, right, I
ran it by Tadao, I ran it by all my
our friends, you know, shout out to Tarau, my brother
for life, you know, and I said, I said, hey,
it's like it's like the eight Miles by your Mama jokes.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
And they're like, oh, that's hilarious. It's like snaps, you know.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
And I was like, I guess it used to be
a thing where used to like clown people back in
the day or whatever. And I was like, there's nothing
like that anymore. So I ran it by a few
other comedian friends of mine. They're like, dude, that'd be
really fun. And I was like, all right, cool. So
then I was like, and you know what this is,
like how I hack MTV? I said, I'm going to
put the faces that MTV no longer.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Has on the network back on the network.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Yeah, And so I called Brian Graydon, who at the
time was the you know, he was the CEO is
the head of MTV Networks.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
And I thought it was that easy, right, like.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Here's like this this kid like you care called the
CEO of MTV Networks.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
I didn't even call the development executives.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
I didn't pitch it like with my agents. I just
literally called the head of MTV. I thought it was
that simple, Like I because you had his number, because
what I just found his numbers. Just I was like, hey, hey,
Brian Wilmer, here goes Oh hey Wilmer, it's a pleasure, man,
big fan. I was like, oh, thank you man, you too.
You're an amazing leader of the MTV. And I said
him and I have a crazy idea. He's like, okay.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I said, it's like it's like the eight mile of
your mama jokes.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Did he know what your mama jokes? Oh?
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Yeah, yeah. At that time, it's like pop culturally, hip
hop or whatever.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
It was the thing, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, and
everyone knew how your mama joke. So he was like, wow,
and are you gonna host it?
Speaker 2 (12:25):
I was like, yes, I'm gonna host it. Let's go.
And you know, like that was the big deal, right.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
I was coming from Fox Network and I was like,
I was going to host something on MTV.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
You know.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
The idea is that he could do well in the
ratings because there could be some carryover from the network numbers. Right,
So you're like that was the thought. Look story, sure, man.
I went in there and asked, okay, so what did
he say? So he's like, hey, you know what, this
is really interesting. I want to plug in Lewis Current
and rod Asa. And at the time, they were like
current executives, they were like development executives on MTV and
(12:57):
they were the ones making all that dope stuff m HM.
And so I got on the phone with them and
I was like, hey, d and Lewis Corean says, you
know what, Wilmer, there's something about rewarding bad behavior.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Right right, And dude, it was like, let's go wait, wait,
were they talking about your bad behavior?
Speaker 2 (13:19):
No? No, like philosophy on MTV.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Like MTV is known for being like
row you know, rebels, like we're gonna say it our way,
we're gonna sing it our way. We're going to create
music that you don't need to understand because we do.
It was like it was just an identity thing. And
when so when she said there's something about rewarding bad
behavior that really works on MTV, I mean you were
talking about jackass to talk about all that stuff, you know,
(13:44):
pop culture really reward them with like not only viewership,
but loyal too, you know. So like you know, so
to make a really long story short, you know, which
is already.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Too long and already too late. I basically.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
She and Robbie sa like further developed that I partner
up with a production company. At the time, I didn't
have a production company, right, I just I created one
in my mind. Yeah, And and so I partner up
with Evolution, which they were doing a lot of reality
TV back then, and they jumped on, They're like, okay,
let's come up with this, and so we create a
format where we will go to all the hoods. Yeah,
and I would have each hood battle among each other
(14:21):
to pick the winner.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Who the winner? Who was going to uh represent that hood?
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Okay, hold on, hold on, pause, pause, pause, How would
you even audition people in the hood who were the
best yo mama joke tellers?
Speaker 1 (14:36):
How did you find those people?
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Exactly? What it sounds like? What did you put like
a like a add the paper. Yeah, we literally we
put like fan forums. At the time, We're like, hey,
MTV is casting this show. You have a you're the
class clown. Ye, you know you're you're the class clown.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Everybody tells you you you know, you're the funniest guy
in school.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
You know you have any jokes.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
And you know you like, you know whatever.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
And they're like, you know, we need your audition, and
we send all these tapes. So then my casting directors
will grab all these real young people from all these
areas around LA then second season New York, then Thursdays
in Atlanta, and we will grab all these people and
then we're like, okay, where you're from, Oh, south Central?
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Great? South Central?
Speaker 4 (15:21):
Okay, great, We're going to put the South Central cast together.
You guys are going to battle each other, and whoever
it winds is going to represent South Central against I
don't know, Venice, Venice, you know, and so the winner
of Venice and the Winter of South Central, you know,
we'll go against each other and then and then that
would be the winner of the episode, right, and then
(15:41):
by the end of the week. We did this Monday, Tuesdays, Wednesdays,
and Thursdays. On Friday, I would have the winners of
every episode meet on a the best of the best week.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
So and then on that episode.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
I bring like, you know, method Man or Jaman Duprix
or like, you know, people like would.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
They would they would they also participate?
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Oh you know, they were the judges.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
They were the judges, you know, like the I you know,
I have like everybody on the showy and uh.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
And that was it, man, And like it became this
pop culture thing where like teachers were pretty annoyed by
me because kids in school were just snapping, like they
were just yeah, they were just doing your mama jokes.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
And every coteria.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
And so that was the first pop culture moment where
I literally said to myself, let me feed my ambition
and say.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Oh, that wasn't that hard.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
And I thought that producing was that easy, right, Like
you just come up with a cool idea you called it.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
The head hot if he says, yes, you're gonna make
it right, right.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
I mean, it's been quite a joy that were the
executive pissed that you went over their heads and you went.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Straight to oh, you know, I think they were.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
I mean, that's the thing about Lewis Current and rohde Asa.
They're such beautiful people. There were such empowering people, and
Agat shout out to Louis and shout out to rod Asa.
They really gave me my first shot at being like, oh,
he's a real producer and he has great ideas and
I would come up with the other solutions. And then
I also stood for a lot of integrity, like if
we were if we were shooting in you know, and uh,
(17:12):
if we're shooting in East La, then our contestants had
to be, you know, really natives of East La, right,
And sometimes you know, network can be like, well, you know,
if we can put like, you know, a girl there
and maybe uh, you know, maybe a white kid or
an Asian kid, and you're like, well, I mean, sure.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
This is what East La really looks like, you know.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
So I was hanging out by that making sure that
authenticity on the show was there, and I think that's.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Why I correcked really well. But but you know, that's
how it started.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
So that's like my one memory, and I love to
hear yours now, but it's like my one memory of
being like, you know, have a cool.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blahlah, and.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Then all of a sudden, it's like, you know, cut
to like this crazy global sensation.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
And Our Times Live was right after TRL too.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
So how many episodes would you do a season? We
would do?
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Let me see, we would do.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
We would do five a week, and we did a
bracket of I think four weeks, and then we did
one week where it was just the best of all
the weeks, you know, and then it was like a
big episode at the end. Yeah, so five weeks. Yeah,
five episodes per week. Yeah, I think we were doing
twenty one.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
To twenty one dude, that's like a full freaking season.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Then it was crazy, And were the episodes like every
day or once a week every day?
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Right after TRL?
Speaker 4 (18:37):
Wow, as soon as people got home they watched TRL,
they're full their right into your mama.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Yeah yeah wow, no puny intended.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Yeah yeah, oh man, I used to love that show.
It was so of the time, so fun and so silly.
So yeah, yeah, what about what about you? What's what
what brings you? Your moment with you go, oh man,
I'm gonna do this.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
In terms of creation, I've always felt like I had
this sort of producorial bone in me.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
You know, I've always well, You're.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Always been a connector. You love people, you love bringing
people together.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
You You're like you'll do your dinners and like you'll
have your discussions and your people and like, yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Yeah, I'm really good at like I just I just
think I was born with good instincts right at the
end of the day, and and I'm always really good
at like spotting someone who's talented or an idea that's good,
and and and and and then I see it like
a puzzle, and I like to piece it together like
a puzzle. So I think I think in the mid
(19:36):
the mid two thousands, an opportunity, uh came across my
table where I got to produce a film called Nothing
Like the Holidays. And it was and it was with
the producers of SOFO. They did Sofu, they did Barbershop.
Shout out to Bob Title and to George Tillman over
at State Street Pictures, and it was a company that
(19:57):
was from Chicago. Guy As I had met, like right
when we had all moved to la but we all
have this sort of Chicago connection. And so they were
coming off of the success of those films and they
were like, well, what about the sort of Latin.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Version of Soul Food?
Speaker 3 (20:13):
And I was like, oh, that that may be interesting,
and so they asked me to come on board as
an executive producer, you know, and so, like I just sort.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Of helped develop the idea of it.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
How did that feel to you, Like, you're like second producer.
What exactly does that mean? Did you, like, did you
have an idea what producing ment at the time.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
I mean not really.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
I just knew I was just going off gut instinct,
you know. I was just I was just putting the
pieces together in the way that my gut was telling
me to do it. And I let them handle the
technical aspect of it, you know. So if I had
an idea for something, I just went off of that instinct,
right and so and so they came up with it
with the sort of structure of the film, and I
(20:57):
assisted in that and it took place in a neighborhood
that was right next to my neighborhood in Chicago and
Humble Park. I'm from Bucktown on the northwest side. Uh
and so I knew the neighborhood well, I knew the
culture of the people, and so I just sort of
helped and contributed to to to that aspect of the story.
And then once that was done and Overture, which was
(21:19):
the company who financed it, gave us.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
You know, a pretty decent amount for that time.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Then came to casting, you.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Know, which was which was wonderful because I got to
reach out to like John and Guizamo and Louis Guzman
and people who I knew.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
I was I mean talk about that cats, I know,
because like that one of the things that was groundbreaking. Yeah,
and you get me some flowers. I gotta I gotta
pull a full truck. You decided to do on your
first time that you produce. You decided to do, single
handently the hardest thing that anybody can.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Do, which is make a movie.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Bro.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
It's so crazy hard to make a movie.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
So that's where like when people don't go to the
movies and then just like oh I'm on I stream
it or whatever, like, yeah, it's it's tough for the
movies because you know, they it's almost a three to
four year process just to get to that.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Screen, you know.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
So so you're so you're like calling your friends and
talk a little bit about the cast you put together,
because that was crazy.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Yeah, I mean, you know, John Leguizamo, Louis Guzman, Alfred Molina,
Deborah Messing, Jay Hernandez.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
God, who else, Elizabeth Pana rest in Peace.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
I mean, it was just this big, gigantic cast and
it was so much fun to go, how can we
put these pieces together? Like Guzamo, I knew we did
a movie called The Past in the nineties, so I just,
you know, just kind of called out.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
To the past.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
Yeah, yeah, shout out to the iconic cled classic the Past.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Louise Guzman, I knew because we did a movie called
Dreamer together with Kurt Russell and Dakota Fanning.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Uh god, who oh. Deborah Messing, I knew because.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
We did a movie called The Walk in the Clouds
and it was actually both of our first movie.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
So a lot of it was just really going through
the list.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Me and Mary renew and and and Bob and and.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Going like, well, who's shout out to Mary?
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Mary has made many many people's careers.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
Yeah, Mary's cast me and like love Mary, so shout
out to Me's a teacher of mine.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
She's a beautiful person, amazing in her office. Everybody works
at her office is beautiful. Shout out to the Venice crew,
and just for everybody to know, Mary Vidou is one
of the most iconic casting directors of our generation. She's
cast some of the most pop culture moments and cinemaia
in television. So you know, she's been responsible for, you know,
for cultivating and tour generation of actors.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Yeah, she has. She she gave me my start.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
She cast me in Dead Presidents, and then she cast
me in like seven other things after that. So she's
been instrumental and and just like a good human being too,
you know.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
And so she came on board as our casting director,
and it was so much fun to just get to
go through the list and to decide who and what
and where and what I discovered in the produce oial game,
because I think that the misconception is like, oh, you're
a producer on the movie.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Man, you could just like wave the magic wand and
like cast me.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
You know, It's like, no, it's it's a democracy, right, Like,
like all you have is a vote.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
You have a vote and an opinion, and that's it.
Where And that was? That was it? You asked me earlier,
like what was the big thing?
Speaker 3 (24:26):
That's the big thing that I learned, you know, not
that I had went into it thinking like, oh, I'm
I'm the executive producer. I'm going to just put whoever
I want in there. It's just that it's not that easy.
And that's the perception. Is that that easy?
Speaker 2 (24:40):
And I say that.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
To like, you know, there were there were certain people
afterwards that were like, well, why don't you kiss me?
Speaker 1 (24:45):
I'm like, I don't. I don't have that kind of power,
you know, I can't. I'm not Jerry.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
That's a perception that like, oh, well, you did you
create the idea you're producing.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
When your production company executive producer? Oh, then like make
me like the actor in it, you know. And and
the truth is yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Even that right because you know, the network still has
a vote, right. The studio has their money too, by
the way, it's their money. The casting director has a vote,
the director.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Has a vote.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
You know, you have all of these other people that
have votes and so like. So although I was sort
of the face of it as a producer, like I
realized at the end was like, oh, it's not really
like my decision, you know, I just I just have
an opinion in a vote, and everybody else gets to
do the same.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
And so I got to do that.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
I got to cast my vote, and we got to
sort of and everyone sort of winning different directions, and
I was.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Really happy with it.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Look, it's not a perfect movie, you know, but I'm
proud of it.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Like you said, getting a movie made is like the
hardest thing.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
But that movie is also remembered so funny by our
people and our culture. So you so, you know, like
you think about, you know, at the time when you're
releasing those movies, think about what other movies we're releasing
that weekend.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Yeah, god, I.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Don't, I don't recall, man, it's been so long.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Let's just say, let's just make up some let's just
we'll make it up, you.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
Know, The Godfather, The Matrix, Jurassic Park, same weekend, Joss
same weekend.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, I hear you, I hear you.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
But just to just to have it just look, just
getting a movie made is an accomplishment in itself. And
that's what I learned, right, because you always hope that
your movie makes a hundred million dollars.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
You always hope it's wildly successful.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
And then when it's not, it's really easy for you
to get down on yourself or to feel a certain
way about it. And then afterwards I just kind of realized, like, oh,
I accomplished something, this thing in my life.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
And it's going to live forever, and it'll live forever, man.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
And it set me on this path.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
This sort of protosorial path where I've produced stuff after that,
and I got better at it and I got more
mature at it, and and that's been what's That's why
I'm loving that we're doing this episode because it's it's
something that I know that you love to do. Also,
it's something that you and I have in common. And
so there's not a lot of people that I can
(27:08):
really talk to about these types of things, you know,
And and so that's why I love every time I
come here or we get on the phone, like I
can tell you about the stuff that I'm doing, you know,
and I know that you get it, and I know
that you understand every every step of the process, and
you give me you always give me really good advice
(27:28):
and opinions, and I know it always comes from a
good place. But there's not a lot of people that
I can do that with because they don't they're not producing,
they're not creating, they're not on that same path as me,
you know.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
So yeah, man, no, I mean, that's beautiful.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
I'm glad you brought that one up because I was
going to force you to talk about that one because
it is.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
It is a remarkable time to do that.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
So as we kind of ask ourselves a wrap a
wrap up question, what do you think is a common
denominator to just like get off your ass and do
that thing you're being thinking about doing.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
You got to just do it, man, you have to.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
You have to have the tenacity, the want, the motivation
deep down inside that makes you take that heavy swing,
and you have to have the humility, the humility enough
to know that you might fail. And if you fail,
then you fail. Then you got to get back up.
You got to dust yourself back off, and you got
(28:29):
to keep going because all people see, all people see.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Is the yo Mama is on screen, right.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
All people see is the Suarez documentary that you just did,
or the other stuff that you've produced and the other
stuff that you have on screen.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Right.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
People don't see the thousand other times that people have
said no to you, right, the offers that you've made
the actors where they said no, or the pitches that
you've done to certain networks or studios where they said no. Like,
people don't see those those failures, right, And so it's
a it's it's definitely a profession of numbers of grit,
(29:03):
of will, of tenacity, and you got to just keep
going and know that when you do get a chance
to produce something that all of your good instincts and
all of your good taste, everything goes into it and
it's reflected on screen. And I can say that, you know,
I just we just came from your screening of Suarez,
of your documentary and it and it didn't surprise me
what I saw on screen.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
I was like, this is very.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Consistent with what I've seen from from Wilmer and his
company and the other documentaries that I've seen and some
of the other works that I've seen you do. It's
very consistent, you know, And and and your company's fingerprints
are all over it and you see it.
Speaker 4 (29:40):
Thank you for that. I appreciate that, man. For those
of you who are catching up to that. A couple
of weeks ago, we premiered exclusive world premiered of the
Suarez documentary based on the already now iconic Yeah, first
foreign born Mexican you know, NASCAR NASCAR driver, And so
(30:04):
we we did a documentary on his life and did
a little snapcat on what is what it's like to
be him in this very moment and what he represents
to our culture. And it was just it was a
beautiful love letter to him and we're very proud of it, man.
And it was a full house. It was, you know,
a big theater. Everyone came and you came to support,
you know, shout out to Nicholas Gonzalez and Jessic Garcia and.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
What you say to me. I heard you all were
sitting together.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Yeah, I heard you guys are all hodd enough.
Speaker 5 (30:30):
And all I kept hearing from the crowd is like,
oh my god, my brother, My brother's embarrassed me in
front of everybody, trying to be the producer, you know.
But but it was beautiful to celebrate another Latinos story.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
You know someone who's like really doing a lot to
alter it. I mean, you would think about, you know,
a Mexican driver winning NASCAR, you know, a races. It's
like psychonic, psychonic, you know, to see that we have
one in there too, We have one in that lineup.
So so yeah, thank you for coming for that. And
I just but I think to your point, I mean,
the point of making all this, the point of doing
(31:04):
these podcast is that we get to have an idea,
we get to take it to the people, and who
knows where this episode lands in their life.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
This podcast is a perfect example of producing a perfect
example of what this episode is based on. A creation. Right,
we went out to dinner. We had a great dinner
like we always had in the past. You you were
in a situation where you were thinking about doing your
own podcasts and what that would look like, and there
(31:38):
was something that you saw on the dinner that sparked
the idea of those Amingos podcasts.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
Yeah, I just thought it'd be more fun this.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
Way to Yeah, apiate, but but you had more foresight
than just going like, well, this would be more fun,
right you had You know that that comes.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
With your producer brain, right you.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
You sort of saw the big picture and what this
could become if we all did it together.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
And here we are.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
Here we are on that note, Ladies and gentlemen, this
was dose amigos.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
I'm Wilmer Valderama and Freddie Rodriguez, and I'll see you
on the next one.
Hosts And Creators
Wilmer Valderrama
Freddy Rodriguez
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