July 3, 2025 • 49 mins
Wilmer and Freddy sit down with actress, director, and podcast host Melissa Fumero to talk about her career journey from soap operas to Brooklyn 99. Melissa shares stories from early in her career, including meeting her husband on set and finding her comedic voice. They dive into the challenges of press tours, staying fresh in the industry, and the thrill of directing shows like Primo and Gordita Chronicles. It’s a conversation full of laughs, insight, and behind-the-scenes gems.
“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):
Hey, everybody, This is Freddy Rodriguez and I'm Wilmer Balderama.
Welcome to those amigos. Today is a very special, very special,
very special episode. Yes, because we've never had a dear,
dear amiga the show, and we want to welcome the
first ever Amiga, the first ever Amiga Melissa Fromta.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
You know, everybody in the car who's listening in the car.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
I was like, you, we hope you did not.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Sorry, it's just there's so much that song in this
well we're so happy.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Look, you know, I'm gonna lead with this that that
we don't you know, we don't tend to have guests,
you know, so when we.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Have, you were going to say we don't tend to
have women. I was like, because you hate women.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Accept me.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Mouth, I know that, I think, I think.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Know what what I'm what I'm trying to say is
is what I'm what I told the very few uh
friends that.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Very few women before that.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
You know that when we have a guest, the guest
has to really represent something that's been special, that has
been you know, really uh you know, not just memorable,
but impactful in our lives. So the guests that we
have are people that are like really individuals that I
know are not just only like minded, but I can
provide so much context to the history.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
And you know, also yeah, the female persuasion.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
But we're just so happy.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
And you know, I've told you this before many times,
but I'll tell you again on the air office that
you know, I've always admire you so much, and I
think you're one of the most talented actresses on the planet.
And from someone who like has done a little bit
of comedy, a little bit of drama, to talk to
somebody who has, you know, who has like this same
(02:17):
amount of expertise and capacity to be so free to
be dramatic and so free to be comedic. Yeah, it's
really really really rare in our industry.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
And you process all of that. And by the way,
you're a beautiful woman.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
You know, you're an incredible mother, and you're an amazing
producer but also an amazing director. So like to have
a dear sister of ours coming in.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Best our show really really excited.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
And also you are the host of another Sister you
know episode Another Sister a podcast too, you know, to
the family of Michael Tuda more Better with Stephanie Mitrice
as well. Who's another one of our sisters too, who
also by the way, you both of you are like
just weapons of mass laughter because they you guys are
just so so you two together is like Laverna Chirley.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Oh my goodness, thank you so much, so.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Just so excited, and thank you for accepting our invitation.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
This conversation will be painful, but.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
I dare you.
Speaker 5 (03:19):
Was where are you from?
Speaker 4 (03:21):
I am from New Jersey, from born and bread born
and bred.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
In New Jersey, northeast, New Jersey.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
By what was formerly Giant Stadium for those who are wondering,
close ish to Manhattan.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
My parents are Cuban.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
Both Cuban, born in Cuba.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
Both born in Cuba. Came when they were teenagers. When
my dad came and he was like twelve. My mom
came and she was fifteen. They were high school sweethearts
in Cuba. In Jersey, yeah, they met in New Jersey.
My mom met my dad like very soon after she arrived,
because she was in New Jersey actually with her dad
and stepmother while her mom, uh like kind of found
(04:05):
a place for them in Miami. But then she met
my dad and it was like a kind of like
a love at first sight sort of thing, and she
was like, Mommy, I want to stay I'm at this boy.
And so then she ended up staying with her dad
instead of her mom and her stepmom, uh for those
like high school college years and then they got married
(04:26):
super young, and yeah, so.
Speaker 5 (04:28):
He was she was destined to go to Miami. She
was supposed to.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
Ye, she was supposed to go to Miami, but she
ended up staying in New Jersey.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
What did your grandparents do in Cuba?
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Oh gosh, my.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
On my mom's side, my her dad was a carpenter,
and I believe her mom and her mom was I
think just to stay at home.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Mom.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
The woman, the man that my grandmother ended up marrying
when she came here was like really my willow.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
I didn't see my mom's dad that much. He was
the matre d at Fountain Blue in Miami.
Speaker 6 (05:09):
No.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
And when I was a kid, I thought that was
so fancy.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
I was like, that was the time.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
That was the time, Like we're.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
Talking like eighties, early nineties like, and I just thought
it was like so cool, like a very charismatic guy,
I think until he retired yeah wow.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
And then my dad's my dad's side of the family.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
I don't know that much about it, to be honest.
Speaker 7 (05:36):
Goshcha, did you ever see your grandfather in action at
the Fountain Blue.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
I do have a memory of being really little and
like seeing the lobby and that grand staircase of the
Fountain Blue, and like seeing him in a suit, But
I think it was like really quick. Yeah, I never
liked super ought to see him. It's just like the
(06:01):
title was cool, you know.
Speaker 7 (06:03):
Yeah, he was almost like an actor and right you
ever see those matrix.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
And he was. He was so charming.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
He could make me laugh so much as a kid,
and he was like the sweetest man and he was
the best.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Uh, the anyone in your family dabbled in entertainment at all?
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Not entertainment, But my mom's side of the family has
a lot of visual artists, a lot of painters, a
lot of sculptors. I have a cousin who was like
a music prodigy, a couple other cousins that like danced
so that were younger than me for a while, but no,
no one in entertainment.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
It was all like visual you paint.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
I did start in painting classes when I was like
nine and ten.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
I did it for a few years I did the
Bob Ross technique.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Wife would be excited to hear that, really.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
Yes, which is like not paint by numbers, but like
it's very like, you know, it kind of makes like
anyone can paint a little bit like anyone's or it's
like those painting studios that people go to, you know,
they got a certain ways whine and like yay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Everyone's painting.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
One's good and you're like, everyone can't be that good
at painting.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
It's like there's a certain tricks. So no, I did not.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
Inherit the family gene, but I did always love like drawing,
and I wasn't that good at it though, But my
kid is good.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
At it really yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Yeah, yeah, it gives.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
It gives a generation exactly, and my husband has it
on his side too.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
How young did you get got the bug to perform?
Were you like super young or were you yeah?
Speaker 5 (07:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
My mom put me in dance classes like all women
do with their daughters. And as we as I got
older and like my friends started quitting, I kept going
and then I followed a dance teacher from the rec
center to a dance studio, and then I just wanted
(08:10):
to do all the classes. It was like a dance
and theater studio in my hometown. And when I was ten,
my parents took me to see my first Broadway show
and I lost my mind.
Speaker 5 (08:22):
What was It?
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Was The Secret Garden starring Mandy Patinkin.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
And Daisy Egan and Rebecca Luker Broadway icons.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
It was amazing. It was a Secret Garden.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
And then I got like, uh, I wanted a Secret
Garden journal after that, and I got like all the
Secret Garden stuff and I was just like and listen
to the soundtrack all the time and subsessed with it.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Yeah, so I.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Thing as well.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
The complicated it is.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
So when I was a kid, I fully believed that
I was a singer, and I took voice lessons and
I got up on stage many times and sang when
I got older, and I listened to those performances that.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Your voice change as your girl.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Do you think no, I was just fully delusional, Okay,
I was like, I can totally sing, and I could not,
but I could when it came time to like audition
for colleges, and I knew I wanted to be I
knew I wanted to be a theater major.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
And at the time. I felt very much like an
actor and a dancer for a while.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
At first, when I was like a freshman and sophomore
in high school, I thought I would major in dance
and like go that route or like try to audition
for dance companies right after high school.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
But then I fell in love with acting during high.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
School, and somewhere along the way, I sort of told myself, well,
if I learned how to say well enough, I won't
have to choose because I could do musical theater and
I could just keep acting and dancing and I'll like
figure out the singing part.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
So I was like, I am a singer.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
And then while I was in college and I went
to college with like crazy thing like people that are
on Broadway now, I was like, oh, where'd you go?
I'm not a singer, actually a singer. I'm actually not
that good at this. I yeah, yeah, so yeah, yeah
(10:34):
I was.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
You know, Freddy was a rapper?
Speaker 5 (10:37):
Are you past life?
Speaker 2 (10:42):
I was like you.
Speaker 7 (10:43):
I got around some like real ones, and I was
kind of like, oh, yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
That's what happens, right, You're like I am crushing this
crushing that.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
I was so bold in high school.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
I remember there was a musical theater program I was
in at that day school, and I basically like lobbied
to get the lead, but like in a way where
I was like, so I deserve this.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
I'm a senior and this we all know this role
should go to me.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
Like I'm cocky as fuck, right right, And like I
kind of figured out how to sing it. I was
just like impersonating the person that had sung it before
and kind of it was in my range enough that.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
But like there were lots of other parts.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
I was like, that doesn't and like when it didn't
sound good, I was like, what, I'll just sing low,
no one will hear it.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Like I was so confident a.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
No audition.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
Yeah, the American Idol was around when I was in
high school.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Yeah, oh yeah. I was like this is happening.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
And then very quickly after getting to n y U
and like being in vocal performance class with these.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
I mean but I mean it's not in the back
and you.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Just feel yourself shrinking in your chair. But it's not
everything I knew.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
It's not fair.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
It is not real.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
It's not real, and it's not fair, you know, like
some of these people, uh that are extraordinarily talented and singing.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
They have been doing.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Vocal pull ups for their entire life, entire life, you know,
society like the notes they can hit his.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
Insane and singing like you know, like like painting is
I think like comedic timing. I think is like you
can't there's a big chunk of it cannot be taught,
like you either have it or you don't, you know,
And I yeah, it just it was very humbling.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
And then so then did.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
You change gears into them? Like I think I'm an
actress or.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
You know, I was in the musical theater program at
ed Yu.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
But you must have learned to hole the No, yeah,
don't give yourself more.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
But I know that. I was like, how did I
get here?
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Right?
Speaker 5 (13:07):
And well, you got there for a reason though, I
mean I did.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
But here's the thing. I did I sing for my audition,
I must you have to Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did sing.
But I sang a song.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
What was the song?
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Oh? God, do I remember?
Speaker 2 (13:21):
N is Low?
Speaker 3 (13:22):
I sang?
Speaker 4 (13:23):
And no I care, I'm like, what was my go
to change?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
That's why we're not in the program.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
No, it must have been some music. Who knows. It
might have been like part of Your World or some shit.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
I don't know, Yeah, that's always the go to. Is
that Latin? Or or the Little Mermaid?
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Yeah, it was probably a Disney song. So I sang
for the audition and I did a monologue.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
So anyway, so then when I'm in the program and
I'm watching all these singers, I'm like, holy funk, how
did I get here? I kind of quickly realized that
there were three groups within the class. Right, most people
were extraordinary singers and they were there to become better
actors and better dancers or be comfortable get better with
that movement. And then the medium to small size group
(14:14):
was the extraordinary dancers who and a lot of them
could sing and they were there to like become actors.
And then the small it's great, the one that I
think I was in was people that were actors who
could were there to get better at singing. And I
was also a dancer, so you know, I had I
(14:34):
had I think that helped.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Well kind of dancer were you?
Speaker 4 (14:37):
How did you see like ballet and contemporary and so
you were a dance minor theater jazz. I wanted to
be a dance miner, but the way the program was
structured like there literally wasn't time to do it. But
in my program, I had like three hours of dance
three or four times a week.
Speaker 5 (14:56):
That's kind of they included it in.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
It was included in a program.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
I would start every morning with like three hours of
dance classes and then have acting and singing, and it
was a great program.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Were you consider doing a musical now?
Speaker 6 (15:09):
No?
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Maybe?
Speaker 7 (15:11):
No?
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Yes, live, Yes, it's different, it's different. Television have destroyed
my voice. First of all. I would have to completely
relearn how to.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Sing and how to project yeah, and like how to
sing with this voice, because you know, hours and hours
on a TV set, Like I literally speak lower than
I did when I was younger.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
And that's just kind of happens with our gig.
Speaker 7 (15:39):
But but I'm sure, look, I'm sure you could say
you might have not been yeah good as.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Yours bleed, But I don't know.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
I don't give me, give me a part of your world,
give me give me.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
Kind of like I could like sort of yell on
pay you know, it's kind of that.
Speaker 5 (16:03):
You could yell.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
I can yell a question.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
I have a question. If you go to karaoke and
you pick, what's the karaoke.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Oh no, not part of your world?
Speaker 2 (16:16):
On your world? Would you murder that?
Speaker 3 (16:18):
No?
Speaker 2 (16:20):
What's your what's your?
Speaker 7 (16:20):
What?
Speaker 2 (16:21):
You would? A hundred percent you would.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
No, I'll tell you a go to what's your go to?
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Like job? What from r from.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Rock Rocky Hard? Picture show? Touch me, Bro? That's so hard?
Speaker 5 (16:37):
How does touch that heart? How does it go?
Speaker 3 (16:39):
I'm not going to say.
Speaker 7 (16:40):
How does we're trying to get to Come on, we're
trying to get the melody you said, that'll be the one.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
How does somebody play it on their phone? This is
a trap? No, it's it's you know the one that's Instagram?
Speaker 4 (16:52):
Yeah yeah, but I yeah, I just I yell it
on pitch.
Speaker 5 (16:56):
But how does it?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
But how do you yell?
Speaker 6 (16:58):
Though?
Speaker 3 (16:58):
What do you? What do you get out of here?
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Let me see no way out of here?
Speaker 3 (17:03):
I hate you both. I have an older brother. Okay,
I know this game. I know all your.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Moods America, and we're gonna move on. But did you.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
Did you speak Spanish?
Speaker 8 (17:29):
So?
Speaker 3 (17:29):
We did? We so? So the story is.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
My parents only spoke to us in Spanish until my
brother started elementary school and he had a tea and
one of his teachers called my parents in and she
was like, what are you speaking to him at home?
And they were like Spanish, Like, it's really messing him
up at school because he was speaking in Spanglish.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
But this is the eighties and like, so they scared my.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Immigrant parents and they still spoke to us in Spanish,
but they stopped making us respond in Spanish. So I
grew up like I always say, I'm in my ear,
I'm my brain, I'm fluent, but the connection from here
to my mouth is not fluent because I grew up
(18:20):
hearing Spanish and responding in English all the time, and
so it's gotten a little bit better over to yours.
I keep saying that I'm gonna like, really.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
It's honesty.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Your brain has to kind of just lock back in
and say, hey, I'm going to tap into what I
know this is in there.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
It's just about flowing with it.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Every time I'm immersed.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
I went on a trip to Costa Rica once with
a friend and she didn't speak any Spanish.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
By the end of the trip, my Spanish was like
so much better.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
You know, every time I go to Florida, like it's
in there, it comes back.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
But it happens when you have to switch back and
forth from England to Spanish because I do junk is
in English and Spanish, and I would I start, dude,
if I start in English and then I have to
do now another ten in Spanish. My brain is like,
you know, like it's just like really really hard to
kind of click it. And I grew up Spanish my
first language, and I didn't want her to speak English
(19:15):
unce I was fourteen.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Wow, yeah, so.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
You have no excuses, but I do feel like I
have the vocabulary of a fourteen year old.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
But no, you don't in Spanish. Oh in Spanish.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Oh thank god you didn't agree, Thank god you didn't
agree them.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
That fourteen year old English.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
She was like, you do because I know the words
like a compromise and constitution in English, and so yeah.
Speaker 7 (19:38):
Those are tough in Spanish, those junkets because it gets
so technical.
Speaker 5 (19:42):
I could hold the conversation.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
And fast, and they want to, you know, they want
to kind of like make it fun and snappy, and.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
You're like, I'm trying to remember my sentence, right.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Yeah, I have to give you some flowers because you
have been so consistent and showing up for our community.
You you know, you really show up for your brothers
and sisters, and specifically in entertainment, and how we continue
to not just tell our stories but really civically engage,
you know, our cultures and values. You know, so it
(20:13):
continue to be you know, amplified and what we make
as artists. But you know, but you have been very
consistent in reminding people that you are Latina and you're
very proud of that. And you know, at a time
where we were doing television, you know, and where we're
all still doing television, but at the beginning when we
started television, you know, Freddie and I talk about this
all the time, where we were the only Latino in
(20:36):
the room, right, Like that's like you were, they only
gave you one, right and you know, so god forbid
there's two Latinos because they're like they.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Can be in the same show because there's too many.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Yeah, but the conversation has really kind of evolving and
and with Freddie and I have been really trying to
discover and one of the explorations of this show is
also to create enough perspective to say that we're we're
trying to redefine main stream by uplifting the most mainstream
audience there is, and that is the Latino audience. The
(21:05):
Latino audience is the most mainstream, the most loyal, the
most trusted. When it comes to the opening box office weekends,
we're the first ones day.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Now on Thursday night, watch all the show.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
You tell us nine pm, We're there at nine pm,
you know, And so so in cultivating that, we we
also as a as an audience, as we demand more
representation is the man, more roles or stories that speak
to us. We gotta continue to cultivate our home, homegrown heroes.
You know, we can take down the individuals that are
breaking the barriers and making it more commercial for us
(21:37):
to see ourselves. Because if there, if we're not commercial,
you know, it's not investible. And if it's not investible,
it cannot be made.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
You know.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
So that's the type of stuff that I think is
so interesting, and you know, I would say, I want
to talk a little bit about your your trajectory as
an actress, because you have been a consistent, you know,
performer and many of our not prime time by daytime too.
You started in soap operas, right, we could have used
her and uh, those heads on Camino, but those head
(22:11):
is Camino with Eric Strata, but maybe it was before
your time.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
The truth was I feel like I.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Don't remember it, but I have definitely heard that is Camino.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
It was Eric Strada had the brightest idea to learn
how to kind of speak Spanish, flew to Mexico and
shot a Spanish soap opera and he was one of
the biggest purposes was Erica Strata had. You know, the
last thing you remember him doing was punch and chips.
So when he went down there and he played opposite
two of the most beautiful Mexican actresses of that time,
(22:44):
and he was in Spanish where those mohad is comino
means two women and one one way, only one road.
Speaker 5 (22:56):
So the whole thing was about him having to pick.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Having to pick and the two women. The whole thing.
It's like fighting for the protecting, you know, the fighting
for that love and.
Speaker 7 (23:08):
The two.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
And so.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
But you know, going full circle to telenovelas, which are
such a big part of our culture. I mean, they
are our mission impossibles, like they are our star Wars.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
I don't know when I was on the so I
was on the soap opera. It was just my first job.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
I was at right after college.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
It was right after college. So I my last semester
there was One Life to Live first, One Life to Live.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
That was the first one.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
Yes, I actually wasn't on. I was the All my
Children episodes. Uh were like crossover episodes. So I was
playing my One Life to Live character episodes of All
my Children?
Speaker 5 (23:47):
How did that happen?
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Crazy?
Speaker 5 (23:49):
How do you?
Speaker 4 (23:49):
How do you?
Speaker 1 (23:50):
You were doing Marvel comics crossovers before Marvel Comics.
Speaker 5 (23:54):
Yes, I was.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
I So my last semester at n y U, I
was in the film and Televis studio and they it
was great because every week they would do a showcase
and they would invite a casting director or an agent.
I met my first agent through that, and then the
casting director. First, the casting director for Guiding Light came
in and I screen tested for Guiding Light, me and
(24:17):
Katie Low's because I went to college with Katie Lows
and we didn't get it. Both of us didn't get it.
And then the casting director for One Life to Live
came through and I again I was a confident teenager.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
So you would have a one on one with them.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
You would like read a scene and then they would
talk to you for a little bit, and so I
read the scene and while she was talking to me,
I went, oh, yeah, and I just screen tested for
Guiding Light last week, like just dropped that in.
Speaker 5 (24:47):
Like yeah, like like for leverage, like.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Yeah, like like like in case you don't know, you
know what I mean. It was just like and I
said it all like yeah, and it was really great.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
It was a great you know, I didn't get it,
but it's okay, it was a great experience.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Like I just made sure to mention it.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
And then three days later they called me in for
like an audition and uh, there was a role that
was being recasted. Yeah, and it was on One Life
to Live. There was a token Latino family, and so
she was it was it was a Latin role.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
This is two thousand end of two thousand three, okay, and.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Very forward thinking for daytime.
Speaker 4 (25:35):
By the way, yes, well yes, on One Life to
Live there was a token black family and there was
a token Latin family. So we were represented, we were represented.
We were very progressive. It also meant all of the
black characters were related and all of the Latin characters
were related.
Speaker 5 (25:53):
Just related.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Yeah, so like we know, you know, because we live
in the same neighborhood. We make babies with the each other.
It makes so much sense.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
So the other four Latino characters on the show were
my aunt, my cousin, my other cousin.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Like yeah, and then it was the same.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
Deal with the black family, you know, So there was
no like, I don't think there were any All the
couples were mixed, do you know what I'm saying, Like, yeah,
there weren't enough.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Character couldn't take the same color, you know, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
No, no, no, no. But like David's character had like
two of his girl my husband. That's why I met
my husband. He was on the show.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
He was my cousin.
Speaker 5 (26:35):
He played he played your cousin.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
So that's so mainstream.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
And so but two of his lovers on the show
were black, So that was you know, how they would
at least get couples of color.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
That was very scandalous for daytime vary scandals.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
Yeah, and then I ended up screen testing, and I
think I screen tested twice. And then the crazy part
of the story that I've told many times is I
got the call that I got the job on the
day I took my last exam for college.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Yeah, so then I was on set like a week later.
Speaker 5 (27:14):
Now you got to graduate, right I did.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
Yeah, I finished a semester. Well, I finished a semester
early because I was poor and couldn't afford the tuition.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
I barely graduated high.
Speaker 4 (27:26):
I did maths credits and a summer session and I
could graduate early and saved my parents a lot of
moner and myself. So yeah, so I so then the
graduation ceremony that was in the spring, I had already
been working.
Speaker 5 (27:44):
Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
So soap operas were your first introduction to to on screen, yes,
which is crazy because it's single handedly probably the hardest
and most taxing thing you can do as an actor. People,
I don't think I understand now how many pages of
dialogue are you shooting a day?
Speaker 2 (28:11):
And how many episodes you're shooting a week?
Speaker 4 (28:13):
And like you're doing six episodes a week, you're doing
on average thirty to forty.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Pages a day.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
Cow Because they shoot so it's shot like a multicam
right where the fourth wall is your cameras and it's
three to five cameras and it's live editing.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
There's someone in a booth going camera one camera.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Do you do it sitcoms?
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Right?
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (28:32):
Just like you do it sitcoms, right, and you shoot
each scene one or two times and then you move on.
Speaker 5 (28:40):
So how do you learn all that dialogue within that period?
Speaker 3 (28:43):
You hide your script in a sofa and you look.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
At it really because that's before self.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
Unless you really fuck something up, they're not going to
correct you. If you basically say the thing, they're going
to move on. Yeah, and also if you say the
words but your performances.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Never, we're going to move on.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
So yeah, it's it's it's super fast and so you
you know, so you can do.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
Five or five scenes in an hour or more, you know,
and so you just fly, fly, fly, and then when
they're done with that set, they move all the cameras
to the next set and they do all those scenes.
And you're shooting six episodes a week, so everything is
also from like different episodes. They would try to do
things like in order at least, like but you're just
jumping around. But it's also their short scenes and they're
(29:34):
very and a.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Couple of people in the scenes, so everybody kind of
balances line.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
Yeah, yeah, there were, It wasn't like I don't remember
it being even No, it's like three four page scenes
it's they're short, and it's like, I.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Mean, look, let me tell you something. That was your
first introduction. They didn't feel as hard, but it's like
a very no.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
No, no, no.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
It was really hard, And I think the biggest thing
I learned was, you know, it wasn't just about the
performance part was really hard because there were a lot
of days I would leave and go I just did
the worst fucking acting money and that's going to be
on television.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
I was like, what is this job?
Speaker 4 (30:11):
Like I And I'm trying to figure it out. I'm watching, like,
you know, the vets that have been there for a
long time. Some of them are crazy.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
They can just turn on water works like literally action
and they're like water coming down their face and they're
crying and you're just like, oh, they can just do
that like and you're so you're trying to figure out
like tricks basically for yourself. But the biggest thing I.
Speaker 4 (30:33):
Think I learned was the working with so many cameras
and what that how that blocking is? And then the
biggest biggest thing I think I learned was it's like
a twenty person cast and a rotation of like seven
to ten directors and you're working with, and then you
(30:53):
never see the writers. You only see the head writer ever. Uh,
and then you're just working with all these different personalities,
And that to me was like the biggest best thing
I walked away from.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
That job with just why because it was I mean,
toxic is like a.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Strong word, but I complex navigation.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
It's a complex It was a very at twenty one
years old, a very complex thing to navigate of. Like
you had these older actors that had been there forever,
you had younger actors that were just starting out. You
had actors in the middle that, like, some were happy
to be there, some were fucking miserable to be there.
Like you just there were so many different dynamics going on,
(31:36):
and you're constant and you're not working. You're working with
the same people a lot, but you're also like thrown
into scenes with people you've never worked with before, and
then you're trying to figure that out. So I think
I felt like it made me, uh, sort of more
flexible and like leaning into just like maybe observing people
or you know what I mean, like when to hang back,
(31:58):
when to be a little bit more of like a
showman and like you know, entertain and like you know
how to kind of read a room, and you know
how to deal with someone that might be difficult, or
you know someone that's like screaming at props because they
don't know their lines and they're trying to stall, you
know what I mean, and like how to handle yourself
in those situations.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
And I was so young, right, and I think nothing
shook me after that.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Yeah, because as soon as you enter the industry, the
industry was a fool of all these personalities, right.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
I still see plenty of that as you go along.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
And so I think for my first thing and then
when I did like Brooklyn nine nine, which was.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
This, did you go from the soaps to that?
Speaker 3 (32:46):
No, there was like six years in between.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Okay, and what happened in those six years.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
Barely working of like recurring guest stars.
Speaker 5 (32:53):
Collectors, Like what recurring?
Speaker 3 (32:56):
I did a recurring on Gossip Girl?
Speaker 5 (33:00):
Would you play?
Speaker 4 (33:01):
I played a minion of Blair, a minion of Blair
during the Columbia school years. I think it was like
season six or something. I did like six or seven episodes.
It was very fun and that was like wild because
uh there there was they were such a hit show.
Speaker 5 (33:22):
Oh yeah, that was like there would.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Be paparazzi when they'd shoot outside. There would be yeah,
gaggles of schoolgirls like outside the trailers, just like waiting
to see Layton or Blake, Like it was insane.
Speaker 5 (33:35):
It was that for you, Like experiencing that for the
first time, I sort of.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
Was like mesmerized by it all and I was like, Wow,
this is crazy, and it just felt like it felt like, uh,
I don't know, I don't know how. It's hard to
describe because it was like at that point they were
like a well oiled machine. They were just like making
the show, but it felt like everything was so much
more more about like the hype and the gossip girl
(34:03):
of it all, and you know, you be. I got
a little yelled at one time for like leaving my
sides on a chair, you know, like and that kind
of thing. And then there was one time sometimes they
would give me scripts and sometimes they wouldn't, and then
I had a scene that made no sense and I
you had an all and I had no script and I.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
Was like, can I get a script? I don't understand
my scene. They were like, oh.
Speaker 5 (34:26):
My god, and I was like what is there?
Speaker 7 (34:29):
You know?
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Was it also the contrast of doing that many scenes
and that many pages and a soap and then going
to do this guess.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
Oh it felt easier, Yeah, easier two scenes today, you
know what I mean? Like one two cameras, like.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
All right, Like then you go to a movie and
you shoot a three page scene for a week, you know,
Oh my god.
Speaker 5 (34:50):
Yeah, it's like did you find the acting styles? Like
did you did you?
Speaker 7 (34:54):
Did you feel that coming from a soap you had
a very specific acting style that you had to do there?
Speaker 5 (35:00):
Did did you find it you had to adjust while
doing a show like well?
Speaker 4 (35:04):
I did? In terms of Gossip Girl was very specific
because they had a very specific cadence to the dialogue
on that show and you had to be word perfect.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
Oh really you dropped the or an and they would
tell you.
Speaker 4 (35:16):
They would tell you, so you had to be the
word perfect and everyone just there was that there was
like a musicality of cadence to that show that I
could sort it that I heard when I was watching
the show before I did it, and uh, and then
when I got there, I remember they were like because
our first episode was almost like an audition, and they
(35:37):
were like basically like if we like you, guys, if
you do well today, we're going.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
To bring you back. I community around.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
The no pressure and they were like, oh, by the way,
don't drop any words.
Speaker 5 (35:48):
All right, So they told you that, right?
Speaker 6 (35:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (35:51):
Yeah, I believe they did tell us.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
And what's crazy is that it was Gossip Girl. Yeah,
and it was like just chill out.
Speaker 4 (36:04):
I definitely like during my time there was a little
got a little like disenchanted with like is it like
this on every show?
Speaker 3 (36:12):
And do I want to do this?
Speaker 4 (36:14):
Like M going to be happy and fulfilled doing this.
But then, you know, like life sends you things sometimes
when you most need them. I was like at a
low point and I booked a guest star on Royal Pains.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
Yeah, with with Mark is a gift? Can we talk
about Mark?
Speaker 3 (36:33):
Can we talk about Mark? Can we please?
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Do you break it down?
Speaker 3 (36:38):
I have wanted to see him in person ever since
this because.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
I was like, they're rebooting it and he's coming back.
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (36:45):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (36:46):
Mark is the kind of number one on the call
sheet that arrives, knows everyone's name on the creuse, everyone
everyone's name is, you know, going up to a grip
and being like, how is your daughter's birthday party, like
the best fucking guy completely memorized, has like this crazy
monologue medical monologue that he's doing like first up in
(37:08):
the day and like spits it out and likes so
collaborative with everyone.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
My storyline, there was like a few of us. It
was like a it was like a girl that crashed
on like a jet ski and he saves me and
then we're like part of this little party group.
Speaker 4 (37:21):
So there's like five guest stars and this learns all
our names every time we're sitting, you know. Sometimes guest
stars are set like yeah, a little separated like regulars. Yeah,
would come over and talk to us and just it
was the loveliest week and everyone was so happy on
set and having so much fun and it felt creative
(37:43):
and fun.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
And I was like, oh, this was in New York. Yeah,
And I was like, if this is what it's like,
this is what could be like in I'm so in.
Speaker 4 (37:57):
And that experience was so magical because I felt like
it gave me something to visualize to like hope and
dream for. And it's actually what materialized on Brooklyn nine nine.
Like that was the vibe we had. And when when
Brooklyn first started, I remember thinking, oh my god, I
got my role pains, like this is that vibe? What?
Speaker 5 (38:19):
And why do you think that is?
Speaker 7 (38:20):
Melissa, Like, like, how do you think a vibe like
that is created? Do you feel that it's created from
the top and it trickles down like who dictates?
Speaker 5 (38:29):
Like I'm Brooklyn nine nine?
Speaker 6 (38:30):
Right?
Speaker 5 (38:30):
Was it was it? And like who who?
Speaker 3 (38:33):
It was? Andy and Andre?
Speaker 4 (38:34):
So every it was Andy and Andre and and I
think to an extent the showrunners, you know, and like yeah,
and they and they also are like this, this is
a no asshole space, you know, Like but when you
have the number one and the number two being so gracious,
so kind to everybody walking on set, greeting the crew,
(38:58):
treating everyone with respect. Act when a guest star rolls through,
no matter how big a star they are, they see
that and there's no room for tomw Like, no one's
gonna try ship.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
In your show speaking of Brooklyn, and what is very
evident is that you were doing something that felt like
the first time of something in a long time on television,
like tonally, to be that kind of outgoing and innovative
to say, hey, we're gonna do a show about this,
you know, it's like there's elements, there's elements of things
(39:40):
that really effortlessly worked in some amazing comedies, and they
were all combined into one formula, and then you had
the perfect cast that was so liberated by just trying
things that that's what it really came across. That it
was you guys are were out there just you're not
going to give up until it was funny. Yeah, you know,
and I and it was that's that's what that was.
(40:01):
Grouper evident. Do you feel like that's kind of the
environment that the producers and the showrunners they're like, let's
let's try this line or let's try this thing, Like
let's like wire, you guys say, improving at times, We.
Speaker 4 (40:10):
Were improving at times, and we would do a lot
of alts, And again I think that tone was set
by Dan and by Andy too. Like Andy, if Andy
hears something in a in a scene that's not working,
that's not as funny as it could be, he cannot
let he cannot move on, you know. And he would
(40:30):
pinpoint moments and he would pinpoint just dynamics that needed
needed tweaks and needed reworking. And that was my Those
were my favorite moments, right like, that's what I love
about single camera comedy, is like if something's not feeling
right or landing, everyone just kind of comes together and
(40:51):
is like, what what can we do?
Speaker 3 (40:53):
You know, should we play? Should we improv? Should we
you know?
Speaker 4 (40:55):
The writer comes with an alt like well we had
this idea, you know what I mean, And it's like
all these people coming together, and then you just fucking
try ship. Then you try like three different versions of
the thing, and sometimes you find something crazy magical that
you're like, oh my, you know where you say cut
and the whole crew laughs and it's the best.
Speaker 7 (41:13):
You know.
Speaker 4 (41:13):
It's like such a high and and he really from
day one like set that tone. Like I remember when
we did the pilot, he was there every day, like
he took his producer role like so seriously.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
Also for him, the stakes were really high.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
I mean yeah, he was just coming off that snel.
Speaker 5 (41:29):
He was like, is that where you met Stephanie was
on the show?
Speaker 4 (41:36):
Yeah, yeah, So Stephanie and I we got cast and
at the time, like you guys were saying, you know,
it was always just one this for us, this was
like we were like, this is really the first time
they've had two Latin latinas on one show and we
were freaking out and we both knew Gina Rodriguez. So
when we booked the pilot, Gina, uh, if you even
(42:00):
been on like Facebook, like this is like pre Instagram,
right like.
Speaker 8 (42:05):
Yeah, like mighty yeah yeah, like like dm us both
and was like, hey, I know you both, and you
both just booked this thing, and we exchanged numbers through that,
and then we were so scared about them deciding to
get rid of one of us that for the Network
table read, we decided to wear our hair very differently
(42:26):
because we were.
Speaker 6 (42:27):
Afraid they would confuse us, even though we looked nothing alike,
right right, No, and we both have wavy hair, and
I remember like we talked about it and we were like, yeah,
how and she was like, well, I'm definitely gonna dress
in all black, and I was like, yeah, I'm gonna
wear like maybe I'll wear white, like something light colored.
Speaker 4 (42:47):
And then I was like, maybe we could do our
hair different and she was like, well, she was like,
my curls don't really Like I was like, my hair straightens.
I can straighten my hair. I was like, I'll wear
my hair straight. And that's literally the reason why Amy
has straight hair on the show and Rosa has big,
curly hair is because from the beginning we just no
one told us to but me behind the scenes made
(43:09):
that decision out of fear, because we just wanted to
look very, very different.
Speaker 1 (43:14):
So you're providing two different perspectives of two different characters.
By the way, your characters can not be more different,
but more different.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
We sound different, we look different.
Speaker 4 (43:22):
But at the time we were just so used to like,
oh there's already we already have a Latin character, or
like people just you know, confusing you like.
Speaker 5 (43:33):
Out of fear, but it was also rooted in reality, right, Yeah,
it was a little bit.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
This is how it goes to point.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
Out like no one ever does this, like someone's going
to change their minds.
Speaker 1 (43:43):
I got to point out something that's like you know,
we we we should have a moment for it to
echo for a second, that the two Latina actresses talk
to one another instead of the clearing a competition, who.
Speaker 5 (43:56):
Stays yeah, yeah and yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
In the common world where they only get one like
and most people have resources or opportunities, and they're like,
I don't know where I'm going to get this next,
so I can't share with anyone.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
That's the thing that we have to learn from.
Speaker 3 (44:12):
You know.
Speaker 1 (44:12):
The example of the two of you coming together and
be like, how do we both stay here? How do
we set ourselves for success? Is where I feel like
a community really needs to continue to resonate, like it's
not a company.
Speaker 3 (44:23):
Never even thought about how that could have Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
Gone to souse.
Speaker 3 (44:27):
You could have not talked to each other, right like
the table read yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
Or not be Caddy, but just like in the back
of your mind also like.
Speaker 3 (44:34):
You could be Caddy.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
Yeah, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (44:36):
Like could there are people that might have.
Speaker 4 (44:38):
The perspective of, like I'm a show up. Make sure
I'm funnier than her, right, you know what I mean,
that I outshine her, like just in case they get
rid of one of us, they're going to keep me,
like you know, but we that never even occurred to us.
Speaker 3 (44:51):
We clung.
Speaker 4 (44:52):
The reason we got so close so fast was we
were both new to like this was both our first show.
It really yeah, it was both our first show and
both first time seeing two Latin characters on a network show.
Speaker 3 (45:09):
And we just like clung to each other.
Speaker 4 (45:11):
Yeah, we were just like we are going to survive
this by like holding onto each other for dear life,
and that's what we did.
Speaker 7 (45:19):
And but but but there's also you two have this
incredible chemistry, right, Like was that instantaneous? Was that something
that I mean really like I'm not saying this to
like blow smoke up your ass, right, but like I
remember hanging out with when us four hung out in.
Speaker 5 (45:35):
Austin, I was like, whoa, they're really they really have
that chemistry like in real life. Yeah, it was. It
was very Laverne and surely very like and I mean
that in the most.
Speaker 3 (45:47):
Time, so different.
Speaker 4 (45:49):
We're so different Jesus, like Texas girl, like I'm from Jersey,
Like we could not we have different we have different tastes,
we have different But but yeah, like the chemistry was
always there, like we.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
Would there's a DNA structure you guys are connected to,
you know, like the esthetics and the and the interest
could be different. There isn't like there's like a sisterhood
that's like rooted in blood.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
Yeah, it's just it's like a soulful.
Speaker 3 (46:19):
Kid is like we knew each other in a different life.
That is the feeling.
Speaker 4 (46:24):
Yes, for sure, And we definitely have when it comes
to comedy, we're very aligned, like the same shit makes
us laugh. And I think also we both started in
theater and so we had kind of similar coming up.
The seventies was a little different because she stayed in
theater for longer and kind of just did some little
(46:44):
guest stars and then like got Brooklyn. So she was
like very very very new to television, whereas I had
worked a little bit more in TV.
Speaker 3 (46:55):
So like in the very beginning was.
Speaker 4 (46:57):
Like, you know, like whispering that, you know, like like
this is you know, the cameras over there, like do this,
you know, like technical things. But I also just thought
she was such an extraordinary actress and she was so
freaking funny, and you know she was like so had
that character, like the voice, the way she stood, the
(47:19):
way she wore those leather pants, like.
Speaker 1 (47:21):
Everything was character trade she built for It is amazing
and so reminder of our audiences. Stephanie Beatrice, uh you know,
coach star in Brooklyn nine nine. She went on to
do some extraordinary roles and in the Heights she was
made a Vela and Kanto. I had the honor of
playing her father on Encanto. And she's just a gifted singer.
Speaker 3 (47:41):
She very gifted sing singers. She has the opposite story.
She didn't think she was a singer. And I was like,
you're a freaking singer. You better fucking audition during the heights.
I've heard you sing on set.
Speaker 5 (47:54):
You could sing?
Speaker 2 (47:55):
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 5 (47:56):
She was like, no, I can't.
Speaker 3 (47:57):
I was like, no, trust me as someone who thought
she could sing, and then was with you.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
I mean, bro like the fact that she's saying all
those uh linn Manuel Miranda composed and lyrical songs.
Speaker 2 (48:08):
Those songs are very.
Speaker 3 (48:10):
Very hard to see our generation song time. It is
not easy to sing his songs.
Speaker 1 (48:16):
So she's so reflecting on the both of you. Now
we're talking about both of your chemistry. You both host
a show called More Better, More Better.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
So I'd like to talk.
Speaker 1 (48:26):
About More Better next because it's not only a sister
podcast to us, but it's also one of the biggest
hits and Michael to the podcast network. So excited to
hear how that came about, and uh and the gift
that you guys have brought to the people who are
in search of more Better. Wilmer Valderramai Rodriguez and this
(48:47):
was part one of two parts with Melissa for Meto.
Speaker 7 (48:55):
Those Amigos is a production from WV Sound and iHeartMedia's
Michael That podcast network hosting
Hey, everybody, This is Freddy Rodriguez and I'm Wilmer Balderama.
Welcome to those amigos. Today is a very special, very special,
very special episode. Yes, because we've never had a dear,
dear amiga the show, and we want to welcome the
first ever Amiga, the first ever Amiga Melissa Fromta.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
You know, everybody in the car who's listening in the car.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
I was like, you, we hope you did not.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Sorry, it's just there's so much that song in this
well we're so happy.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Look, you know, I'm gonna lead with this that that
we don't you know, we don't tend to have guests,
you know, so when we.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Have, you were going to say we don't tend to
have women. I was like, because you hate women.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Accept me.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Mouth, I know that, I think, I think.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Know what what I'm what I'm trying to say is
is what I'm what I told the very few uh
friends that.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Very few women before that.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
You know that when we have a guest, the guest
has to really represent something that's been special, that has
been you know, really uh you know, not just memorable,
but impactful in our lives. So the guests that we
have are people that are like really individuals that I
know are not just only like minded, but I can
provide so much context to the history.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
And you know, also yeah, the female persuasion.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
But we're just so happy.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
And you know, I've told you this before many times,
but I'll tell you again on the air office that
you know, I've always admire you so much, and I
think you're one of the most talented actresses on the planet.
And from someone who like has done a little bit
of comedy, a little bit of drama, to talk to
somebody who has, you know, who has like this same
(02:17):
amount of expertise and capacity to be so free to
be dramatic and so free to be comedic. Yeah, it's
really really really rare in our industry.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
And you process all of that. And by the way,
you're a beautiful woman.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
You know, you're an incredible mother, and you're an amazing
producer but also an amazing director. So like to have
a dear sister of ours coming in.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Best our show really really excited.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
And also you are the host of another Sister you
know episode Another Sister a podcast too, you know, to
the family of Michael Tuda more Better with Stephanie Mitrice
as well. Who's another one of our sisters too, who
also by the way, you both of you are like
just weapons of mass laughter because they you guys are
just so so you two together is like Laverna Chirley.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Oh my goodness, thank you so much, so.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Just so excited, and thank you for accepting our invitation.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
This conversation will be painful, but.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
I dare you.
Speaker 5 (03:19):
Was where are you from?
Speaker 4 (03:21):
I am from New Jersey, from born and bread born
and bred.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
In New Jersey, northeast, New Jersey.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
By what was formerly Giant Stadium for those who are wondering,
close ish to Manhattan.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
My parents are Cuban.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
Both Cuban, born in Cuba.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
Both born in Cuba. Came when they were teenagers. When
my dad came and he was like twelve. My mom
came and she was fifteen. They were high school sweethearts
in Cuba. In Jersey, yeah, they met in New Jersey.
My mom met my dad like very soon after she arrived,
because she was in New Jersey actually with her dad
and stepmother while her mom, uh like kind of found
(04:05):
a place for them in Miami. But then she met
my dad and it was like a kind of like
a love at first sight sort of thing, and she
was like, Mommy, I want to stay I'm at this boy.
And so then she ended up staying with her dad
instead of her mom and her stepmom, uh for those
like high school college years and then they got married
(04:26):
super young, and yeah, so.
Speaker 5 (04:28):
He was she was destined to go to Miami. She
was supposed to.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
Ye, she was supposed to go to Miami, but she
ended up staying in New Jersey.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
What did your grandparents do in Cuba?
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Oh gosh, my.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
On my mom's side, my her dad was a carpenter,
and I believe her mom and her mom was I
think just to stay at home.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Mom.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
The woman, the man that my grandmother ended up marrying
when she came here was like really my willow.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
I didn't see my mom's dad that much. He was
the matre d at Fountain Blue in Miami.
Speaker 6 (05:09):
No.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
And when I was a kid, I thought that was
so fancy.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
I was like, that was the time.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
That was the time, Like we're.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
Talking like eighties, early nineties like, and I just thought
it was like so cool, like a very charismatic guy,
I think until he retired yeah wow.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
And then my dad's my dad's side of the family.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
I don't know that much about it, to be honest.
Speaker 7 (05:36):
Goshcha, did you ever see your grandfather in action at
the Fountain Blue.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
I do have a memory of being really little and
like seeing the lobby and that grand staircase of the
Fountain Blue, and like seeing him in a suit, But
I think it was like really quick. Yeah, I never
liked super ought to see him. It's just like the
(06:01):
title was cool, you know.
Speaker 7 (06:03):
Yeah, he was almost like an actor and right you
ever see those matrix.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
And he was. He was so charming.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
He could make me laugh so much as a kid,
and he was like the sweetest man and he was
the best.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Uh, the anyone in your family dabbled in entertainment at all?
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Not entertainment, But my mom's side of the family has
a lot of visual artists, a lot of painters, a
lot of sculptors. I have a cousin who was like
a music prodigy, a couple other cousins that like danced
so that were younger than me for a while, but no,
no one in entertainment.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
It was all like visual you paint.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
I did start in painting classes when I was like
nine and ten.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
I did it for a few years I did the
Bob Ross technique.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Wife would be excited to hear that, really.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
Yes, which is like not paint by numbers, but like
it's very like, you know, it kind of makes like
anyone can paint a little bit like anyone's or it's
like those painting studios that people go to, you know,
they got a certain ways whine and like yay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Everyone's painting.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
One's good and you're like, everyone can't be that good
at painting.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
It's like there's a certain tricks. So no, I did not.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
Inherit the family gene, but I did always love like drawing,
and I wasn't that good at it though, But my
kid is good.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
At it really yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Yeah, yeah, it gives.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
It gives a generation exactly, and my husband has it
on his side too.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
How young did you get got the bug to perform?
Were you like super young or were you yeah?
Speaker 5 (07:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
My mom put me in dance classes like all women
do with their daughters. And as we as I got
older and like my friends started quitting, I kept going
and then I followed a dance teacher from the rec
center to a dance studio, and then I just wanted
(08:10):
to do all the classes. It was like a dance
and theater studio in my hometown. And when I was ten,
my parents took me to see my first Broadway show
and I lost my mind.
Speaker 5 (08:22):
What was It?
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Was The Secret Garden starring Mandy Patinkin.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
And Daisy Egan and Rebecca Luker Broadway icons.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
It was amazing. It was a Secret Garden.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
And then I got like, uh, I wanted a Secret
Garden journal after that, and I got like all the
Secret Garden stuff and I was just like and listen
to the soundtrack all the time and subsessed with it.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Yeah, so I.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Thing as well.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
The complicated it is.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
So when I was a kid, I fully believed that
I was a singer, and I took voice lessons and
I got up on stage many times and sang when
I got older, and I listened to those performances that.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Your voice change as your girl.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Do you think no, I was just fully delusional, Okay,
I was like, I can totally sing, and I could not,
but I could when it came time to like audition
for colleges, and I knew I wanted to be I
knew I wanted to be a theater major.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
And at the time. I felt very much like an
actor and a dancer for a while.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
At first, when I was like a freshman and sophomore
in high school, I thought I would major in dance
and like go that route or like try to audition
for dance companies right after high school.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
But then I fell in love with acting during high.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
School, and somewhere along the way, I sort of told myself, well,
if I learned how to say well enough, I won't
have to choose because I could do musical theater and
I could just keep acting and dancing and I'll like
figure out the singing part.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
So I was like, I am a singer.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
And then while I was in college and I went
to college with like crazy thing like people that are
on Broadway now, I was like, oh, where'd you go?
I'm not a singer, actually a singer. I'm actually not
that good at this. I yeah, yeah, so yeah, yeah
(10:34):
I was.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
You know, Freddy was a rapper?
Speaker 5 (10:37):
Are you past life?
Speaker 2 (10:42):
I was like you.
Speaker 7 (10:43):
I got around some like real ones, and I was
kind of like, oh, yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
That's what happens, right, You're like I am crushing this
crushing that.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
I was so bold in high school.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
I remember there was a musical theater program I was
in at that day school, and I basically like lobbied
to get the lead, but like in a way where
I was like, so I deserve this.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
I'm a senior and this we all know this role
should go to me.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
Like I'm cocky as fuck, right right, And like I
kind of figured out how to sing it. I was
just like impersonating the person that had sung it before
and kind of it was in my range enough that.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
But like there were lots of other parts.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
I was like, that doesn't and like when it didn't
sound good, I was like, what, I'll just sing low,
no one will hear it.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Like I was so confident a.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
No audition.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
Yeah, the American Idol was around when I was in
high school.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Yeah, oh yeah. I was like this is happening.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
And then very quickly after getting to n y U
and like being in vocal performance class with these.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
I mean but I mean it's not in the back
and you.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Just feel yourself shrinking in your chair. But it's not
everything I knew.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
It's not fair.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
It is not real.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
It's not real, and it's not fair, you know, like
some of these people, uh that are extraordinarily talented and singing.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
They have been doing.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Vocal pull ups for their entire life, entire life, you know,
society like the notes they can hit his.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
Insane and singing like you know, like like painting is
I think like comedic timing. I think is like you
can't there's a big chunk of it cannot be taught,
like you either have it or you don't, you know,
And I yeah, it just it was very humbling.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
And then so then did.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
You change gears into them? Like I think I'm an
actress or.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
You know, I was in the musical theater program at
ed Yu.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
But you must have learned to hole the No, yeah,
don't give yourself more.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
But I know that. I was like, how did I
get here?
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Right?
Speaker 5 (13:07):
And well, you got there for a reason though, I
mean I did.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
But here's the thing. I did I sing for my audition,
I must you have to Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did sing.
But I sang a song.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
What was the song?
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Oh? God, do I remember?
Speaker 2 (13:21):
N is Low?
Speaker 3 (13:22):
I sang?
Speaker 4 (13:23):
And no I care, I'm like, what was my go
to change?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
That's why we're not in the program.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
No, it must have been some music. Who knows. It
might have been like part of Your World or some shit.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
I don't know, Yeah, that's always the go to. Is
that Latin? Or or the Little Mermaid?
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Yeah, it was probably a Disney song. So I sang
for the audition and I did a monologue.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
So anyway, so then when I'm in the program and
I'm watching all these singers, I'm like, holy funk, how
did I get here? I kind of quickly realized that
there were three groups within the class. Right, most people
were extraordinary singers and they were there to become better
actors and better dancers or be comfortable get better with
that movement. And then the medium to small size group
(14:14):
was the extraordinary dancers who and a lot of them
could sing and they were there to like become actors.
And then the small it's great, the one that I
think I was in was people that were actors who
could were there to get better at singing. And I
was also a dancer, so you know, I had I
(14:34):
had I think that helped.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Well kind of dancer were you?
Speaker 4 (14:37):
How did you see like ballet and contemporary and so
you were a dance minor theater jazz. I wanted to
be a dance miner, but the way the program was
structured like there literally wasn't time to do it. But
in my program, I had like three hours of dance
three or four times a week.
Speaker 5 (14:56):
That's kind of they included it in.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
It was included in a program.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
I would start every morning with like three hours of
dance classes and then have acting and singing, and it
was a great program.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Were you consider doing a musical now?
Speaker 6 (15:09):
No?
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Maybe?
Speaker 7 (15:11):
No?
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Yes, live, Yes, it's different, it's different. Television have destroyed
my voice. First of all. I would have to completely
relearn how to.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Sing and how to project yeah, and like how to
sing with this voice, because you know, hours and hours
on a TV set, Like I literally speak lower than
I did when I was younger.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
And that's just kind of happens with our gig.
Speaker 7 (15:39):
But but I'm sure, look, I'm sure you could say
you might have not been yeah good as.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Yours bleed, But I don't know.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
I don't give me, give me a part of your world,
give me give me.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
Kind of like I could like sort of yell on
pay you know, it's kind of that.
Speaker 5 (16:03):
You could yell.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
I can yell a question.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
I have a question. If you go to karaoke and
you pick, what's the karaoke.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Oh no, not part of your world?
Speaker 2 (16:16):
On your world? Would you murder that?
Speaker 3 (16:18):
No?
Speaker 2 (16:20):
What's your what's your?
Speaker 7 (16:20):
What?
Speaker 2 (16:21):
You would? A hundred percent you would.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
No, I'll tell you a go to what's your go to?
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Like job? What from r from.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Rock Rocky Hard? Picture show? Touch me, Bro? That's so hard?
Speaker 5 (16:37):
How does touch that heart? How does it go?
Speaker 3 (16:39):
I'm not going to say.
Speaker 7 (16:40):
How does we're trying to get to Come on, we're
trying to get the melody you said, that'll be the one.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
How does somebody play it on their phone? This is
a trap? No, it's it's you know the one that's Instagram?
Speaker 4 (16:52):
Yeah yeah, but I yeah, I just I yell it
on pitch.
Speaker 5 (16:56):
But how does it?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
But how do you yell?
Speaker 6 (16:58):
Though?
Speaker 3 (16:58):
What do you? What do you get out of here?
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Let me see no way out of here?
Speaker 3 (17:03):
I hate you both. I have an older brother. Okay,
I know this game. I know all your.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Moods America, and we're gonna move on. But did you.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
Did you speak Spanish?
Speaker 8 (17:29):
So?
Speaker 3 (17:29):
We did? We so? So the story is.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
My parents only spoke to us in Spanish until my
brother started elementary school and he had a tea and
one of his teachers called my parents in and she
was like, what are you speaking to him at home?
And they were like Spanish, Like, it's really messing him
up at school because he was speaking in Spanglish.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
But this is the eighties and like, so they scared my.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Immigrant parents and they still spoke to us in Spanish,
but they stopped making us respond in Spanish. So I
grew up like I always say, I'm in my ear,
I'm my brain, I'm fluent, but the connection from here
to my mouth is not fluent because I grew up
(18:20):
hearing Spanish and responding in English all the time, and
so it's gotten a little bit better over to yours.
I keep saying that I'm gonna like, really.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
It's honesty.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Your brain has to kind of just lock back in
and say, hey, I'm going to tap into what I
know this is in there.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
It's just about flowing with it.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Every time I'm immersed.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
I went on a trip to Costa Rica once with
a friend and she didn't speak any Spanish.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
By the end of the trip, my Spanish was like
so much better.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
You know, every time I go to Florida, like it's
in there, it comes back.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
But it happens when you have to switch back and
forth from England to Spanish because I do junk is
in English and Spanish, and I would I start, dude,
if I start in English and then I have to
do now another ten in Spanish. My brain is like,
you know, like it's just like really really hard to
kind of click it. And I grew up Spanish my
first language, and I didn't want her to speak English
(19:15):
unce I was fourteen.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Wow, yeah, so.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
You have no excuses, but I do feel like I
have the vocabulary of a fourteen year old.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
But no, you don't in Spanish. Oh in Spanish.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Oh thank god you didn't agree, Thank god you didn't
agree them.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
That fourteen year old English.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
She was like, you do because I know the words
like a compromise and constitution in English, and so yeah.
Speaker 7 (19:38):
Those are tough in Spanish, those junkets because it gets
so technical.
Speaker 5 (19:42):
I could hold the conversation.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
And fast, and they want to, you know, they want
to kind of like make it fun and snappy, and.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
You're like, I'm trying to remember my sentence, right.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Yeah, I have to give you some flowers because you
have been so consistent and showing up for our community.
You you know, you really show up for your brothers
and sisters, and specifically in entertainment, and how we continue
to not just tell our stories but really civically engage,
you know, our cultures and values. You know, so it
(20:13):
continue to be you know, amplified and what we make
as artists. But you know, but you have been very
consistent in reminding people that you are Latina and you're
very proud of that. And you know, at a time
where we were doing television, you know, and where we're
all still doing television, but at the beginning when we
started television, you know, Freddie and I talk about this
all the time, where we were the only Latino in
(20:36):
the room, right, Like that's like you were, they only
gave you one, right and you know, so god forbid
there's two Latinos because they're like they.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Can be in the same show because there's too many.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Yeah, but the conversation has really kind of evolving and
and with Freddie and I have been really trying to
discover and one of the explorations of this show is
also to create enough perspective to say that we're we're
trying to redefine main stream by uplifting the most mainstream
audience there is, and that is the Latino audience. The
(21:05):
Latino audience is the most mainstream, the most loyal, the
most trusted. When it comes to the opening box office weekends,
we're the first ones day.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Now on Thursday night, watch all the show.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
You tell us nine pm, We're there at nine pm,
you know, And so so in cultivating that, we we
also as a as an audience, as we demand more
representation is the man, more roles or stories that speak
to us. We gotta continue to cultivate our home, homegrown heroes.
You know, we can take down the individuals that are
breaking the barriers and making it more commercial for us
(21:37):
to see ourselves. Because if there, if we're not commercial,
you know, it's not investible. And if it's not investible,
it cannot be made.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
You know.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
So that's the type of stuff that I think is
so interesting, and you know, I would say, I want
to talk a little bit about your your trajectory as
an actress, because you have been a consistent, you know,
performer and many of our not prime time by daytime too.
You started in soap operas, right, we could have used
her and uh, those heads on Camino, but those head
(22:11):
is Camino with Eric Strata, but maybe it was before
your time.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
The truth was I feel like I.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Don't remember it, but I have definitely heard that is Camino.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
It was Eric Strada had the brightest idea to learn
how to kind of speak Spanish, flew to Mexico and
shot a Spanish soap opera and he was one of
the biggest purposes was Erica Strata had. You know, the
last thing you remember him doing was punch and chips.
So when he went down there and he played opposite
two of the most beautiful Mexican actresses of that time,
(22:44):
and he was in Spanish where those mohad is comino
means two women and one one way, only one road.
Speaker 5 (22:56):
So the whole thing was about him having to pick.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Having to pick and the two women. The whole thing.
It's like fighting for the protecting, you know, the fighting
for that love and.
Speaker 7 (23:08):
The two.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
And so.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
But you know, going full circle to telenovelas, which are
such a big part of our culture. I mean, they
are our mission impossibles, like they are our star Wars.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
I don't know when I was on the so I
was on the soap opera. It was just my first job.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
I was at right after college.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
It was right after college. So I my last semester
there was One Life to Live first, One Life to Live.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
That was the first one.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
Yes, I actually wasn't on. I was the All my
Children episodes. Uh were like crossover episodes. So I was
playing my One Life to Live character episodes of All
my Children?
Speaker 5 (23:47):
How did that happen?
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Crazy?
Speaker 5 (23:49):
How do you?
Speaker 4 (23:49):
How do you?
Speaker 1 (23:50):
You were doing Marvel comics crossovers before Marvel Comics.
Speaker 5 (23:54):
Yes, I was.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
I So my last semester at n y U, I
was in the film and Televis studio and they it
was great because every week they would do a showcase
and they would invite a casting director or an agent.
I met my first agent through that, and then the
casting director. First, the casting director for Guiding Light came
in and I screen tested for Guiding Light, me and
(24:17):
Katie Low's because I went to college with Katie Lows
and we didn't get it. Both of us didn't get it.
And then the casting director for One Life to Live
came through and I again I was a confident teenager.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
So you would have a one on one with them.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
You would like read a scene and then they would
talk to you for a little bit, and so I
read the scene and while she was talking to me,
I went, oh, yeah, and I just screen tested for
Guiding Light last week, like just dropped that in.
Speaker 5 (24:47):
Like yeah, like like for leverage, like.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Yeah, like like like in case you don't know, you
know what I mean. It was just like and I
said it all like yeah, and it was really great.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
It was a great you know, I didn't get it,
but it's okay, it was a great experience.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Like I just made sure to mention it.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
And then three days later they called me in for
like an audition and uh, there was a role that
was being recasted. Yeah, and it was on One Life
to Live. There was a token Latino family, and so
she was it was it was a Latin role.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
This is two thousand end of two thousand three, okay, and.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Very forward thinking for daytime.
Speaker 4 (25:35):
By the way, yes, well yes, on One Life to
Live there was a token black family and there was
a token Latin family. So we were represented, we were represented.
We were very progressive. It also meant all of the
black characters were related and all of the Latin characters
were related.
Speaker 5 (25:53):
Just related.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Yeah, so like we know, you know, because we live
in the same neighborhood. We make babies with the each other.
It makes so much sense.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
So the other four Latino characters on the show were
my aunt, my cousin, my other cousin.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Like yeah, and then it was the same.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
Deal with the black family, you know, So there was
no like, I don't think there were any All the
couples were mixed, do you know what I'm saying, Like, yeah,
there weren't enough.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Character couldn't take the same color, you know, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
No, no, no, no. But like David's character had like
two of his girl my husband. That's why I met
my husband. He was on the show.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
He was my cousin.
Speaker 5 (26:35):
He played he played your cousin.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
So that's so mainstream.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
And so but two of his lovers on the show
were black, So that was you know, how they would
at least get couples of color.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
That was very scandalous for daytime vary scandals.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
Yeah, and then I ended up screen testing, and I
think I screen tested twice. And then the crazy part
of the story that I've told many times is I
got the call that I got the job on the
day I took my last exam for college.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Yeah, so then I was on set like a week later.
Speaker 5 (27:14):
Now you got to graduate, right I did.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
Yeah, I finished a semester. Well, I finished a semester
early because I was poor and couldn't afford the tuition.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
I barely graduated high.
Speaker 4 (27:26):
I did maths credits and a summer session and I
could graduate early and saved my parents a lot of
moner and myself. So yeah, so I so then the
graduation ceremony that was in the spring, I had already
been working.
Speaker 5 (27:44):
Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
So soap operas were your first introduction to to on screen, yes,
which is crazy because it's single handedly probably the hardest
and most taxing thing you can do as an actor. People,
I don't think I understand now how many pages of
dialogue are you shooting a day?
Speaker 2 (28:11):
And how many episodes you're shooting a week?
Speaker 4 (28:13):
And like you're doing six episodes a week, you're doing
on average thirty to forty.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Pages a day.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
Cow Because they shoot so it's shot like a multicam
right where the fourth wall is your cameras and it's
three to five cameras and it's live editing.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
There's someone in a booth going camera one camera.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Do you do it sitcoms?
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Right?
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (28:32):
Just like you do it sitcoms, right, and you shoot
each scene one or two times and then you move on.
Speaker 5 (28:40):
So how do you learn all that dialogue within that period?
Speaker 3 (28:43):
You hide your script in a sofa and you look.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
At it really because that's before self.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
Unless you really fuck something up, they're not going to
correct you. If you basically say the thing, they're going
to move on. Yeah, and also if you say the
words but your performances.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Never, we're going to move on.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
So yeah, it's it's it's super fast and so you
you know, so you can do.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
Five or five scenes in an hour or more, you know,
and so you just fly, fly, fly, and then when
they're done with that set, they move all the cameras
to the next set and they do all those scenes.
And you're shooting six episodes a week, so everything is
also from like different episodes. They would try to do
things like in order at least, like but you're just
jumping around. But it's also their short scenes and they're
(29:34):
very and a.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Couple of people in the scenes, so everybody kind of
balances line.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
Yeah, yeah, there were, It wasn't like I don't remember
it being even No, it's like three four page scenes
it's they're short, and it's like, I.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Mean, look, let me tell you something. That was your
first introduction. They didn't feel as hard, but it's like
a very no.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
No, no, no.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
It was really hard, And I think the biggest thing
I learned was, you know, it wasn't just about the
performance part was really hard because there were a lot
of days I would leave and go I just did
the worst fucking acting money and that's going to be
on television.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
I was like, what is this job?
Speaker 4 (30:11):
Like I And I'm trying to figure it out. I'm watching, like,
you know, the vets that have been there for a
long time. Some of them are crazy.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
They can just turn on water works like literally action
and they're like water coming down their face and they're
crying and you're just like, oh, they can just do
that like and you're so you're trying to figure out
like tricks basically for yourself. But the biggest thing I.
Speaker 4 (30:33):
Think I learned was the working with so many cameras
and what that how that blocking is? And then the
biggest biggest thing I think I learned was it's like
a twenty person cast and a rotation of like seven
to ten directors and you're working with, and then you
(30:53):
never see the writers. You only see the head writer ever. Uh,
and then you're just working with all these different personalities,
And that to me was like the biggest best thing
I walked away from.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
That job with just why because it was I mean,
toxic is like a.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Strong word, but I complex navigation.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
It's a complex It was a very at twenty one
years old, a very complex thing to navigate of. Like
you had these older actors that had been there forever,
you had younger actors that were just starting out. You
had actors in the middle that, like, some were happy
to be there, some were fucking miserable to be there.
Like you just there were so many different dynamics going on,
(31:36):
and you're constant and you're not working. You're working with
the same people a lot, but you're also like thrown
into scenes with people you've never worked with before, and
then you're trying to figure that out. So I think
I felt like it made me, uh, sort of more
flexible and like leaning into just like maybe observing people
or you know what I mean, like when to hang back,
(31:58):
when to be a little bit more of like a
showman and like you know, entertain and like you know
how to kind of read a room, and you know
how to deal with someone that might be difficult, or
you know someone that's like screaming at props because they
don't know their lines and they're trying to stall, you
know what I mean, and like how to handle yourself
in those situations.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
And I was so young, right, and I think nothing
shook me after that.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Yeah, because as soon as you enter the industry, the
industry was a fool of all these personalities, right.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
I still see plenty of that as you go along.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
And so I think for my first thing and then
when I did like Brooklyn nine nine, which was.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
This, did you go from the soaps to that?
Speaker 3 (32:46):
No, there was like six years in between.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Okay, and what happened in those six years.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
Barely working of like recurring guest stars.
Speaker 5 (32:53):
Collectors, Like what recurring?
Speaker 3 (32:56):
I did a recurring on Gossip Girl?
Speaker 5 (33:00):
Would you play?
Speaker 4 (33:01):
I played a minion of Blair, a minion of Blair
during the Columbia school years. I think it was like
season six or something. I did like six or seven episodes.
It was very fun and that was like wild because
uh there there was they were such a hit show.
Speaker 5 (33:22):
Oh yeah, that was like there would.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Be paparazzi when they'd shoot outside. There would be yeah,
gaggles of schoolgirls like outside the trailers, just like waiting
to see Layton or Blake, Like it was insane.
Speaker 5 (33:35):
It was that for you, Like experiencing that for the
first time, I sort of.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
Was like mesmerized by it all and I was like, Wow,
this is crazy, and it just felt like it felt like, uh,
I don't know, I don't know how. It's hard to
describe because it was like at that point they were
like a well oiled machine. They were just like making
the show, but it felt like everything was so much
more more about like the hype and the gossip girl
(34:03):
of it all, and you know, you be. I got
a little yelled at one time for like leaving my
sides on a chair, you know, like and that kind
of thing. And then there was one time sometimes they
would give me scripts and sometimes they wouldn't, and then
I had a scene that made no sense and I
you had an all and I had no script and I.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
Was like, can I get a script? I don't understand
my scene. They were like, oh.
Speaker 5 (34:26):
My god, and I was like what is there?
Speaker 7 (34:29):
You know?
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Was it also the contrast of doing that many scenes
and that many pages and a soap and then going
to do this guess.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
Oh it felt easier, Yeah, easier two scenes today, you
know what I mean? Like one two cameras, like.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
All right, Like then you go to a movie and
you shoot a three page scene for a week, you know,
Oh my god.
Speaker 5 (34:50):
Yeah, it's like did you find the acting styles? Like
did you did you?
Speaker 7 (34:54):
Did you feel that coming from a soap you had
a very specific acting style that you had to do there?
Speaker 5 (35:00):
Did did you find it you had to adjust while
doing a show like well?
Speaker 4 (35:04):
I did? In terms of Gossip Girl was very specific
because they had a very specific cadence to the dialogue
on that show and you had to be word perfect.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
Oh really you dropped the or an and they would
tell you.
Speaker 4 (35:16):
They would tell you, so you had to be the
word perfect and everyone just there was that there was
like a musicality of cadence to that show that I
could sort it that I heard when I was watching
the show before I did it, and uh, and then
when I got there, I remember they were like because
our first episode was almost like an audition, and they
(35:37):
were like basically like if we like you, guys, if
you do well today, we're going.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
To bring you back. I community around.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
The no pressure and they were like, oh, by the way,
don't drop any words.
Speaker 5 (35:48):
All right, So they told you that, right?
Speaker 6 (35:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (35:51):
Yeah, I believe they did tell us.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
And what's crazy is that it was Gossip Girl. Yeah,
and it was like just chill out.
Speaker 4 (36:04):
I definitely like during my time there was a little
got a little like disenchanted with like is it like
this on every show?
Speaker 3 (36:12):
And do I want to do this?
Speaker 4 (36:14):
Like M going to be happy and fulfilled doing this.
But then, you know, like life sends you things sometimes
when you most need them. I was like at a
low point and I booked a guest star on Royal Pains.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
Yeah, with with Mark is a gift? Can we talk
about Mark?
Speaker 3 (36:33):
Can we talk about Mark? Can we please?
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Do you break it down?
Speaker 3 (36:38):
I have wanted to see him in person ever since
this because.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
I was like, they're rebooting it and he's coming back.
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (36:45):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (36:46):
Mark is the kind of number one on the call
sheet that arrives, knows everyone's name on the creuse, everyone
everyone's name is, you know, going up to a grip
and being like, how is your daughter's birthday party, like
the best fucking guy completely memorized, has like this crazy
monologue medical monologue that he's doing like first up in
(37:08):
the day and like spits it out and likes so
collaborative with everyone.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
My storyline, there was like a few of us. It
was like a it was like a girl that crashed
on like a jet ski and he saves me and
then we're like part of this little party group.
Speaker 4 (37:21):
So there's like five guest stars and this learns all
our names every time we're sitting, you know. Sometimes guest
stars are set like yeah, a little separated like regulars. Yeah,
would come over and talk to us and just it
was the loveliest week and everyone was so happy on
set and having so much fun and it felt creative
(37:43):
and fun.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
And I was like, oh, this was in New York. Yeah,
And I was like, if this is what it's like,
this is what could be like in I'm so in.
Speaker 4 (37:57):
And that experience was so magical because I felt like
it gave me something to visualize to like hope and
dream for. And it's actually what materialized on Brooklyn nine nine.
Like that was the vibe we had. And when when
Brooklyn first started, I remember thinking, oh my god, I
got my role pains, like this is that vibe? What?
Speaker 5 (38:19):
And why do you think that is?
Speaker 7 (38:20):
Melissa, Like, like, how do you think a vibe like
that is created? Do you feel that it's created from
the top and it trickles down like who dictates?
Speaker 5 (38:29):
Like I'm Brooklyn nine nine?
Speaker 6 (38:30):
Right?
Speaker 5 (38:30):
Was it was it? And like who who?
Speaker 3 (38:33):
It was? Andy and Andre?
Speaker 4 (38:34):
So every it was Andy and Andre and and I
think to an extent the showrunners, you know, and like yeah,
and they and they also are like this, this is
a no asshole space, you know, Like but when you
have the number one and the number two being so gracious,
so kind to everybody walking on set, greeting the crew,
(38:58):
treating everyone with respect. Act when a guest star rolls through,
no matter how big a star they are, they see
that and there's no room for tomw Like, no one's
gonna try ship.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
In your show speaking of Brooklyn, and what is very
evident is that you were doing something that felt like
the first time of something in a long time on television,
like tonally, to be that kind of outgoing and innovative
to say, hey, we're gonna do a show about this,
you know, it's like there's elements, there's elements of things
(39:40):
that really effortlessly worked in some amazing comedies, and they
were all combined into one formula, and then you had
the perfect cast that was so liberated by just trying
things that that's what it really came across. That it
was you guys are were out there just you're not
going to give up until it was funny. Yeah, you know,
and I and it was that's that's what that was.
(40:01):
Grouper evident. Do you feel like that's kind of the
environment that the producers and the showrunners they're like, let's
let's try this line or let's try this thing, Like
let's like wire, you guys say, improving at times, We.
Speaker 4 (40:10):
Were improving at times, and we would do a lot
of alts, And again I think that tone was set
by Dan and by Andy too. Like Andy, if Andy
hears something in a in a scene that's not working,
that's not as funny as it could be, he cannot
let he cannot move on, you know. And he would
(40:30):
pinpoint moments and he would pinpoint just dynamics that needed
needed tweaks and needed reworking. And that was my Those
were my favorite moments, right like, that's what I love
about single camera comedy, is like if something's not feeling
right or landing, everyone just kind of comes together and
(40:51):
is like, what what can we do?
Speaker 3 (40:53):
You know, should we play? Should we improv? Should we
you know?
Speaker 4 (40:55):
The writer comes with an alt like well we had
this idea, you know what I mean, And it's like
all these people coming together, and then you just fucking
try ship. Then you try like three different versions of
the thing, and sometimes you find something crazy magical that
you're like, oh my, you know where you say cut
and the whole crew laughs and it's the best.
Speaker 7 (41:13):
You know.
Speaker 4 (41:13):
It's like such a high and and he really from
day one like set that tone. Like I remember when
we did the pilot, he was there every day, like
he took his producer role like so seriously.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
Also for him, the stakes were really high.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
I mean yeah, he was just coming off that snel.
Speaker 5 (41:29):
He was like, is that where you met Stephanie was
on the show?
Speaker 4 (41:36):
Yeah, yeah, So Stephanie and I we got cast and
at the time, like you guys were saying, you know,
it was always just one this for us, this was
like we were like, this is really the first time
they've had two Latin latinas on one show and we
were freaking out and we both knew Gina Rodriguez. So
when we booked the pilot, Gina, uh, if you even
(42:00):
been on like Facebook, like this is like pre Instagram,
right like.
Speaker 8 (42:05):
Yeah, like mighty yeah yeah, like like dm us both
and was like, hey, I know you both, and you
both just booked this thing, and we exchanged numbers through that,
and then we were so scared about them deciding to
get rid of one of us that for the Network
table read, we decided to wear our hair very differently
(42:26):
because we were.
Speaker 6 (42:27):
Afraid they would confuse us, even though we looked nothing alike,
right right, No, and we both have wavy hair, and
I remember like we talked about it and we were like, yeah,
how and she was like, well, I'm definitely gonna dress
in all black, and I was like, yeah, I'm gonna
wear like maybe I'll wear white, like something light colored.
Speaker 4 (42:47):
And then I was like, maybe we could do our
hair different and she was like, well, she was like,
my curls don't really Like I was like, my hair straightens.
I can straighten my hair. I was like, I'll wear
my hair straight. And that's literally the reason why Amy
has straight hair on the show and Rosa has big,
curly hair is because from the beginning we just no
one told us to but me behind the scenes made
(43:09):
that decision out of fear, because we just wanted to
look very, very different.
Speaker 1 (43:14):
So you're providing two different perspectives of two different characters.
By the way, your characters can not be more different,
but more different.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
We sound different, we look different.
Speaker 4 (43:22):
But at the time we were just so used to like,
oh there's already we already have a Latin character, or
like people just you know, confusing you like.
Speaker 5 (43:33):
Out of fear, but it was also rooted in reality, right, Yeah,
it was a little bit.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
This is how it goes to point.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
Out like no one ever does this, like someone's going
to change their minds.
Speaker 1 (43:43):
I got to point out something that's like you know,
we we we should have a moment for it to
echo for a second, that the two Latina actresses talk
to one another instead of the clearing a competition, who.
Speaker 5 (43:56):
Stays yeah, yeah and yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
In the common world where they only get one like
and most people have resources or opportunities, and they're like,
I don't know where I'm going to get this next,
so I can't share with anyone.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
That's the thing that we have to learn from.
Speaker 3 (44:12):
You know.
Speaker 1 (44:12):
The example of the two of you coming together and
be like, how do we both stay here? How do
we set ourselves for success? Is where I feel like
a community really needs to continue to resonate, like it's
not a company.
Speaker 3 (44:23):
Never even thought about how that could have Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
Gone to souse.
Speaker 3 (44:27):
You could have not talked to each other, right like
the table read yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
Or not be Caddy, but just like in the back
of your mind also like.
Speaker 3 (44:34):
You could be Caddy.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
Yeah, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (44:36):
Like could there are people that might have.
Speaker 4 (44:38):
The perspective of, like I'm a show up. Make sure
I'm funnier than her, right, you know what I mean,
that I outshine her, like just in case they get
rid of one of us, they're going to keep me,
like you know, but we that never even occurred to us.
Speaker 3 (44:51):
We clung.
Speaker 4 (44:52):
The reason we got so close so fast was we
were both new to like this was both our first show.
It really yeah, it was both our first show and
both first time seeing two Latin characters on a network show.
Speaker 3 (45:09):
And we just like clung to each other.
Speaker 4 (45:11):
Yeah, we were just like we are going to survive
this by like holding onto each other for dear life,
and that's what we did.
Speaker 7 (45:19):
And but but but there's also you two have this
incredible chemistry, right, Like was that instantaneous? Was that something
that I mean really like I'm not saying this to
like blow smoke up your ass, right, but like I
remember hanging out with when us four hung out in.
Speaker 5 (45:35):
Austin, I was like, whoa, they're really they really have
that chemistry like in real life. Yeah, it was. It
was very Laverne and surely very like and I mean
that in the most.
Speaker 3 (45:47):
Time, so different.
Speaker 4 (45:49):
We're so different Jesus, like Texas girl, like I'm from Jersey,
Like we could not we have different we have different tastes,
we have different But but yeah, like the chemistry was
always there, like we.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
Would there's a DNA structure you guys are connected to,
you know, like the esthetics and the and the interest
could be different. There isn't like there's like a sisterhood
that's like rooted in blood.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
Yeah, it's just it's like a soulful.
Speaker 3 (46:19):
Kid is like we knew each other in a different life.
That is the feeling.
Speaker 4 (46:24):
Yes, for sure, And we definitely have when it comes
to comedy, we're very aligned, like the same shit makes
us laugh. And I think also we both started in
theater and so we had kind of similar coming up.
The seventies was a little different because she stayed in
theater for longer and kind of just did some little
(46:44):
guest stars and then like got Brooklyn. So she was
like very very very new to television, whereas I had
worked a little bit more in TV.
Speaker 3 (46:55):
So like in the very beginning was.
Speaker 4 (46:57):
Like, you know, like whispering that, you know, like like
this is you know, the cameras over there, like do this,
you know, like technical things. But I also just thought
she was such an extraordinary actress and she was so
freaking funny, and you know she was like so had
that character, like the voice, the way she stood, the
(47:19):
way she wore those leather pants, like.
Speaker 1 (47:21):
Everything was character trade she built for It is amazing
and so reminder of our audiences. Stephanie Beatrice, uh you know,
coach star in Brooklyn nine nine. She went on to
do some extraordinary roles and in the Heights she was
made a Vela and Kanto. I had the honor of
playing her father on Encanto. And she's just a gifted singer.
Speaker 3 (47:41):
She very gifted sing singers. She has the opposite story.
She didn't think she was a singer. And I was like,
you're a freaking singer. You better fucking audition during the heights.
I've heard you sing on set.
Speaker 5 (47:54):
You could sing?
Speaker 2 (47:55):
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 5 (47:56):
She was like, no, I can't.
Speaker 3 (47:57):
I was like, no, trust me as someone who thought
she could sing, and then was with you.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
I mean, bro like the fact that she's saying all
those uh linn Manuel Miranda composed and lyrical songs.
Speaker 2 (48:08):
Those songs are very.
Speaker 3 (48:10):
Very hard to see our generation song time. It is
not easy to sing his songs.
Speaker 1 (48:16):
So she's so reflecting on the both of you. Now
we're talking about both of your chemistry. You both host
a show called More Better, More Better.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
So I'd like to talk.
Speaker 1 (48:26):
About More Better next because it's not only a sister
podcast to us, but it's also one of the biggest
hits and Michael to the podcast network. So excited to
hear how that came about, and uh and the gift
that you guys have brought to the people who are
in search of more Better. Wilmer Valderramai Rodriguez and this
(48:47):
was part one of two parts with Melissa for Meto.
Speaker 7 (48:55):
Those Amigos is a production from WV Sound and iHeartMedia's
Michael That podcast network hosting
Hosts And Creators
Wilmer Valderrama
Freddy Rodriguez
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