June 19, 2025 • 54 mins
In Part One of their conversation with Gabriel Luna, Wilmer and Freddy dive into his roots in Austin, his early inspiration watching That '70s Show, and his breakout role on Robert Rodriguez’s Matador. Gabriel shares how he went from getting rejected by agents to having iced tea with Robert at the Four Seasons, and how a role meant for someone else became his launching pad. From soccer training to turf toe, and from Apache heritage to presidential encounters, Gabriel opens up about the hustle behind his rise. It’s a journey fueled by belief, brotherhood, and a little bit of destiny.
“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
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, how you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
This is Freddie Rodriguez.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Hey, I'm Wilmer Valderrama, and welcome to those amigos, which
today is going to be Today.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Well, I couldn't be more excited and proud. We've been waiting.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
This man is one of the busiest men in Hollywood rightfully,
so one of the most talented guys we have in
our culture, doing the most mainstream you can get and
also doing exceptional work that's gonna last for a very
very long time. Guero is a very dear friend of mine.
Right we've been in each other's lives and careers, you know,
(00:42):
for the last man, I don't know, fifteen years or so.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
No, no, I said ten.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
What did you guys work?
Speaker 4 (00:48):
Well, i'd see, they'll ray Rice. Well, when we would
have been twenty thirteen, Yes for you and I first
kind of intersected, even though I had been, of course
my iring your careers from afar and and we're not
too far from age. You guys are maybe just touch
touch my senior, I'd say, but although you look, but
(01:12):
you know I was. I was growing up in Austin
as an actor, and I was a of course clocking.
You know, the people who look like me, feel like
they've come from my background who are having these great
success And you needed only look to that seventies show
and see Fez on that that show, and and you,
of course doing everything you did. We talked a little
bit before we started this about these kind of crazy
(01:36):
interwoven paths that we've led, and uh, Freddie, when you
were in town working with Robert, because that's where we work.
We worked with Robert Rodgers.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
The leads of his Yeah, lead Robert and this.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Part and and uh, when l Ray started, there was
From Dusk Till Dawn and Matador, which the two original
programs that were premiering their inaugural year, and you and
I were the leads of those, and so we did
a bunch of press together and all came through and
and then uh, but of course Freddy did Planet Terror,
and one of my best friends from high school was
your standing. His name is Nicholas Signs, and he was
(02:10):
your standing no way man, So there was.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
A that's so crazy.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Wow, Yeah, that's a small world.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
Yeah, I was just talking of today. I told him
I was going to see you. And so I don't
know whether you remember Nick or not. He he certainly
remembers you and always always uh sung your praises. So
we yeah, all all roads do lead.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
To uh and and and you know, to to your point, brother,
one of the things I want to I want to
start by giving you some consistent flowers first and foremost,
because you know, I think we rarely happened to be
in the same room together to kind of make sure
that we we tell each other that we see each other,
(02:50):
that we support each other, that we uplift each other,
and that we we got to be part of each
other's journeys and you know, and and we bonded over
the fact that we didn't have that growing up in industry,
right we were the one Latino in the room, you know,
and none of us were allowed to be in the
same shows together, in the same movies because they just
they had one of us.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
There, you know.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
And the idea that we needed community and that we
could have used that community to say, hey, you know,
we're all walking in the same direction, how do we
how do we set each other up for success? And
all that stuff is something that we really wanted to
cultivate it more. When I first I remember when when
Robert was casting Matator, you know, and Robert Rodriguez had
(03:33):
lunched a network called the l Ray Network, which was
kind of all Robert Rodriguez universe collided into one d yet.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
All the shaw Scope Kung Fu pictures, that's right, all
of you know, all of the Escape from New York.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Riding and stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Stuff that was anything that basically what he was playing
in his office while he was thinking of he programmed
it based on cable network, that's right.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
And he wanted to do this show where it was
gonna like a Gina Latino James Bond, right, and he
was going to be a soccer player, and you know
he was also at the same time it's going to
be kind of like a double agent kind of kind
of situation.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
And the lucky for me, Wilmer was already tasked the
big man, the lead on the other show from.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
That already playing in the backy.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
My my, My point I'm making is that the search,
you know, and when Robert is looking for someone, but
for something in someone, the show is not gonna give
me until he finds it, you know. And the search
began for the lead of this like Latin Flair James Bond.
I mean, the budgets were dope, you know, so like that,
(04:37):
then the production value and he was going to direct
a few episodes and stuff, so it was going to
be it was a hot, hot, hot project.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
I remember very clearly around that time, I fired my
first agent in town because they didn't think that they
could get me in for that. I remember this. This
was in twenty twelve. I was with a small boutique
agency and I had mentioned to them because I had
seen my wife. She was she was really good about
she'd always find she was getting the breakdowns from something
(05:06):
someone was letting, letting her have their password to get
the breakdowns. She's like, baby, there's this part they're looking
for Latino James Bond. You'd be perfect. And I mentioned
it to this agent and they're like, well, I think
they're already kind of maybe finding their people. You might
not be able to get in. And I remember deciding
there and then that this wasn't the place for me.
(05:27):
But I'm not the kind of person that kind of
goes behind people's backs. So I decided that I needed
to fire them first before I commenced my search for
somebody else. So I did. I severed tized with them.
My grandfather passed away, I had to go back to Austin.
This was around Christmas time, so I went back to Austin,
no agent, having feeling, you know, is that the lowest
(05:50):
the low I could be because at that point I
was the oldest male in my family, oldest male in
my immediate family. My father had passed when I was
before I was born, my grandfather Ike when I was
on my fifth birthday, and then my grandfather David at
this point, and then of course my uncle David pass
when I was twelve. So this was this was a
moment in my life where I was like, man, I think,
(06:11):
you know, I'm going home, feeling about as low as
I could feel, not knowing what I was going to
do when I got back to LA But thankfully my family,
all my friends in Austin really replenished my creative well
and made me feel strong and and and and that
I had people on my side. At you know, I
(06:32):
knew that I had my back watching my six and
taking care of me and believed in me. So I
went back and my manager set up some meetings in
the first agent I met with, who I'm not with
them anymore, but they were really, really Uh. You know,
they had the vision that they shared the same vision
I had for myself.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
They saw you as you saw yourself, which is the.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
Guy, you know, the ground wire, the center of the
story and capable of caring the the responsibility at that entails.
And uh, and I'm in that meeting. And then shortly
shortly after the meeting starts, you know what, there's this
one thing that Robert Rodrigue is doing. They're looking for
Latino James Bond. You'd be great for it. And I
was like, I already had decided, Okay, these people were
(07:13):
the people. Left the meeting, told my manager that we're
going with them. Within a couple of weeks time, they
got me the audition with Mary Mary Renew.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yes, I've been Hey, big shout out to Mary, big
shout out, part of all of our careers.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Yeah, and she's actually she actually cast me in The Terminalists,
which I'm in right now, And she's actually she's now
our casting director for the Last of Us. So Mary
is doing a lot of a lot of work and
has championed all of us and a great, a great
debt of gratitude. But so that happens, they get me
(07:46):
to read with Mary, I go in. Uh I met
Omar Epps. I remember that he was he was was
at the audition. Yeah, yeah, it was yeah, it was
really fun. And then and so I uh I it
it kind of starts to progress. And then we had
a to the point where I'm doing a I have
(08:07):
to meet with Robert. So Robert comes in to La,
which he hates coming to La. The fact that he
comes for Jessica's parties is crazy. It's jessic alb parties.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Did you you here are meetings or whatever? He goes, no, no,
I just came here.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
For Jessica's Like, oh, wait, of course, and the I mean,
but she is the dark Angel and yees, yes, yes,
and he has a soft spot in her heart for her,
as we all do. She's aeful person, but one of them. Uh.
So he he comes to La. He's staying at the
Four Seasons where he always stays. He and I have
this meeting and uh we order iced tea's like a
(08:42):
couple of proper Texas boys do. Because he doesn't drink,
even though he tells me the story that he ordered
the one millionth drink at the Four Seasons at some
point in history and they gave him this pass for
free drinks for life, but it's completely lost on him
because he doesn't drink alcohol. But he gets all the
free iced tea as he wants. And We're sitting there
(09:02):
talking about mostly music and our families and my grandfather
who had just passed. And I'm having this meeting on
February nineteenth, which is my grandfather's birthday. And I tell
him that this is wild because my grandpa, when I
was in Austin, used to have a scrap book of
all the plays I was in, you know, reviews that
(09:22):
would be in the Austin American Statesman, which was our
hometown newspaper, and he'd keep the scrap book of all
movies and different things I'd do. And then he'd but
he'd also have bits and pieces of people in town
who you know Rick linklater, and of course Robert Rodriguez
is like, Papa, this is the guy he should work with. Well,
I was like, yeah, well, you know, a few things
(09:43):
got to happen before that happens. And flash forward, you know,
a decade, and I'm sitting there with Robert telling him
this story, and meeting goes really well, I think, And
then He's like, well, I got another meeting. Somebody else
is coming to here in a minute. I was like,
all right, well, i'll see you later. I shook his
hand and say, I see you later. I bought this
(10:03):
death trap of a land Rover when I first moved
to La. The thing is, the thing almost killed me
many times. The break would go all the way to
the way to the floorboard, and I'd have to pump
it just for it to catch, you know. And and
I could hear it. I could hear the valet pulling
it up from wherever they were pulling it, because it
just it rattled like a tin can. And I was
really embarrassed because that thing was screeching all the way
(10:25):
when it came up to the drive. But I left
that feeling really good about it. And then flash forward
a couple of weeks and they decided they wanted to
screen test me. So I go and I meet J. D.
Pardo for the first time, who I love. I just
love so much, and we became friends since, and we've
had so many moments where it was either him or me,
(10:45):
and uh, and the ones I didn't get he got,
and the ones he didn't get by I got and
it's just hilarious. And we had this beautiful conversation a
few months ago. We were at this event and just
and they're like, man, we it's so funny how parallel
we've run. And uh, but we've but we've always been
kind of supported from a farm and were never really
kind of connected, and now we've we've connected. We talked
(11:07):
quite a bit about it. But I remember that day.
It was both of us sitting there signing our our
our next potentially next six years away and uh, gladly
because my first opportunity of of that magnitude, and so
I signed my deal. I go into the room. Robert's
there on a on a skype call because it wasn't
(11:29):
zoom back then, right, two thousand pager now exactly, so
they were all and by the time it was a
revolutionary I was like, wow, this is uh some video
called demolition Man type and and so there I do
my thing feels really natural, as involuntary as breathing. It
(11:53):
just felt right. And then and I can see Robert
there's there. What do you think, Robert? And he's there
on the screen.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
You say that, what do you think they do about?
Speaker 3 (12:03):
To say?
Speaker 2 (12:03):
That's awesome. What do you think, many man, what do
you think?
Speaker 4 (12:06):
Where he goes he takes it, takes a long pause,
he takes out his earbuds, and and then finally I
think we can go into production.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
And my god.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
And then uh, I felt this wave of kind of
flush of I guess just excitement and adrenaline.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Like surreal right like you're standing in front of Robert
Driguez was doing his first two TV shows in.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
The history of his career.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Yeah, like and he's gonna direct it, and he's he's
writing it, you know, and.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
You're gonna be an action hero and Robert.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
Yeah, it's it's it's uh. I mean, well, well, when
I left the room, the first you know, doubt creeps in.
Oh maybe maybe he meant the other guy. Yeah, and
the other guy already or j D. I think Ja
was coming in after me, but he was he was Uh,
he had made it his call. He had made his call,
I think. And then uh, uh, you know, there's a
(12:56):
lot of history. You know, there's a lot of history there.
I'm from Austin where he went to school.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Is that was that where you were born?
Speaker 4 (13:02):
I was born and raised in Austin. Your family goes
deep back into many generations. If you know, five generations
in Austin and Bastrop, Texas.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
What what how far back do you track?
Speaker 4 (13:13):
I mean all the way back to my Apache heritage.
My my great great grandfather is was Geronimo Luna was
his name, great great great I guess. Uh. He was
actually born twelve years before the Great War Chief Geronimo.
So the fact that he is named Geronimo is actually
interesting because it was he actually predates the Great War Chief.
(13:37):
But the on the family, you know, the Apache lands
extent all the way to Durango and and but there
in the hill country is the Lepan Apache and uh,
and so it's just a a long time in Austin.
He was from Austin. I worked with Marcell, his little brother.
Marcel was the DP of my friend Rohelio's student film
(14:00):
when he was getting his master's and so we shot
it at Marcel's house. And so when it came down
to it, when he was making his decision, he told
me this, He said, you know, I asked a round Austin,
and I asked and basically all my brothers and sisters
know you. You know, Roxy knows you. Marcel knows you.
Everybody has really great things to say. You did a
great job in the read and and and so you
(14:21):
were my guy and uh. I remember when I got
the call. I was on my way to Trader Joe's
and I don't remember where my wife was, but I
just got They just called me and said you're you know,
you're the leader. I would have been my manager at
the time. Also, bro, who's a partner? How they bak
(14:41):
take no?
Speaker 2 (14:42):
I mean the you know when you're going back home?
Speaker 4 (14:45):
Well they got Well that was the whole plan when
I came out here was was for them to send
me back with a bigger part because every every show,
because a lot of was happening in Austin at the time.
But it would it would only extend as far as
the kind of day player roles for us.
Speaker 5 (15:00):
You know.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
I did a day player role in a picture called
The Temple Grandon, which was the first time I was
in the hair and makeup trailer with Catherine O'Hara, who
I worked with on the Last of Us. I posted
this really interested, this really cool fifteen sixteen years apart,
this photograph of us, and we recreated the composition of
that photo in the hair and makeup trailer. But anyway,
(15:25):
just day player roles that they would offer in Austin,
and so my whole thing was to go to La.
They'll send you back with a bigger part. Wow. But
we shot Matador in in La. Yeah, oh you shot it. Yeah,
it was It was based. The character was a Dea
(15:46):
agent who was recruited by the CIA to take down
this nefarious character played by Alfred Molina for the great.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
By the way, they get Alfred million to play the
main thing, It's like, oh, man, Alfred is a good.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
Amazing thing. Amazing dude. There was just an incredible honor
to work with him, and Sammy Rotv was in the show,
and a bunch of other really great actors, and.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Get some great cameos in there too, some great Well
you guys showed that you guys really went to Hollywood
party and there we all of us the casts from
from that's still done.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
We like sit around a little table and now he
just kind of walks.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
By a young a young he's a Gonzales.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Yeah, he's a shout out to a so also champion
in fealing it for everybody.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Man.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Absolutely, we love I love that Gal. She was great.
I mean when I got the part, I came down
south By you guys were doing you guys built a
titty twister. Yeah, at south By Southwest, which is of
(16:46):
course the bar and from the tunstill dawn and we
all went and Robert was jamming my cousins who were
in his band. Another connection that we had, my cousin
Delk Steel band named Steel when they played with Robert,
they play under the band name Ching Going Ching.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Realized right, but like literally not until very late I
put that together.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Like I was like, oh my god, you're related to
the bad too.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
Like it was just well, we're actually we're actually just
cousins by you know, the primo is the way we are. Yeah,
my actual blood cousin is the guitar tech. But but
my grandma's made a name of Castile and uh and
her uh uh and the boys we just always said
were some yeah and so, but yeah that you know,
(17:33):
when Robert Casserine they and then he's when he was
doing press, he was like, yeah, you know, I saw
this guy and I knew I knew him, And I
was like, wait a second, I think think I think
your cousin's in my band. Sometimes that's the way deals
come together.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Did your cousins never bring you around when you were younger?
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Yeah. The first time I met Robert was at La
Zona Rosa in Austin, Texas, which is an awesome, awesome
bar that's no longer there creditable music venue. He was playing.
It was George Lopez's birthday. George was there, drunk off
his ass like playing What did he play? I think
(18:11):
he played iron Man. I think like they gave him
the guitar and he like played the rift to iron
Man and then he staged dove off the stage, George away. Yeah,
And I remember that. It was after I had done
my first feature, which is this independent called Falter Grace,
which went to south By Southwestern Competition in two thousand
and five. And I had a copy of this, a
(18:31):
bunch of copies of the DVD, and I remember I
met him after the show. They my cousin went to
introduce me, and my mom gave him the DVD and no,
he didn't even touch it. And then Cecilia, who was
his assistant at the time, I think she may still
be graps it, puts it in her bag and probably
never saw the light a day again. You out with
(18:53):
my mom. This was years This was two thousand and
this would have been yeah, around like two thousand and five. Yeah,
and then it was eight years later that that he
and I were on set doing the show and that
that when you guys did your cameo. That was the
first episode and we were in up in Hummingbird Ranch
up here in see Me Valley where they shoot a
(19:14):
lot of stuff, and it was a really really incredible
I mean, you're sitting there, you're all dressed up all
nights like this cool super spy and who's who becomes
a soccer star? Yeah, infiltrates the soccer team to take
down Fred's character and and doing all this really cool
kind of espionage, you know, slight ahead and.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
It had the toys too, the toys there.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
And it was just it was just such an incredible experience.
Speaker 5 (19:42):
Yeah, what was that like for you? As like a
young guy, young actor from Austin. You've been here pounding
a pavement and then like your first big thing just
so happens to be with the guy who plays in
the band with your cousins. Yeah, well it just so
happens to be from your hometown and.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
Who we all you know, grew up idolizing.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Yeah, yeah, And.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
Did you feel like a deep sense of like responsibility
it was I felt.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
I certainly felt those feelings. Also felt this sense of
kind of manifestation of yeah, you know, an illumination of
the path and the and the and kind of take
like stepping into stride of what kind of I was
(20:29):
supposed to what I was supposed to do? You know?
You know, I think I think at some point, especially
with us in our community and the way, you know,
back then, when it was few and far between, you
had to believe that it was kind of you and
only only you that could that could do this particular thing.
(20:49):
You know what I mean. It was the idea that
what is mine is mine and no one else's and
what is another man's is his, and I don't cover
at that, and I support and celebrate that which is.
It's kind of a beautiful thing about this podcast, what
you guys are doing, and the way you've treated me
my entire career since I got here, since we first met,
you know, to be to be able to communicate with
(21:11):
you and text you and have this, have you be
as couraging as you have been and always so supportive
and that's the idea. You know, we do we do
our thing, deliver excellence and given the opportunity, as Robert
says in his book, and and then you know, shine
turn and pivot and shine that spotlight on others so
that you know, the path stays illuminated, the door stays open,
(21:33):
and people can follow in. And I do remember just feeling,
you know, it's the first time I've been on a
set where it's you know, two hundred extras, and the
first time I've worked on anything pasted a couple of months,
you know, of plays that I would do in Austin
that I get paid five hundred dollars for the entire run.
And and and now here I am full six month
(21:54):
engagement as the leader of this show, working in opposite
out for Lena, and there's a whole new new world.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Did you have to train hard for that?
Speaker 4 (22:03):
Oh yeah, we trained a lot. We We trained with
a lot of professional soccer players first and foremost because
I had to kind of make that passable. And then
worked with Chick Daniels, who was this was kind of
the first.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
It's funny because I'm going to see Arrn Terrorn, Tarrann
tactical Sunday who trains up all of the john Wick
because people. And then course worked and worked with so
many of the guys I'm working with now on the
terminal list. But as far as being on the gun
and working with with firearms and working with with various
weapons systems, I got to meet a guy named Chick
Daniels who's former FBI, who was our technical advisor on
(22:40):
Manador and who I worked with another two or three
times since then. So a lot of work at the range.
And then uh, we had former professional soccer players on
our team to fill out the makeshift that you know.
We were the LA Riot Right team, and we played
all the games down at what at the time was
(23:03):
the stub Hub Center which is now the Dignity Health
Center where the LA Galaxy play, and so that's where
all we shot all the home games and we developed
a relationship there. And at the time Beckham was a
owner of the team, that's right, and so I got that.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Was a very pioneer moment for LA Soccer.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Was United States Soccer and Ben comes in and all
of a sudden, the league is feeling a little different. Absolutely,
people are going to the games. They were going crazy
and just it's it was insane.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
And now we got a traffic coaches l A f
C versus LA Galaxy, and you know they get there's
just a and just the the the game itself and
the league itself, you know, messy and everybody over in Miami.
You know it's it's We were kind of ahead of
the curve at the time, and there weren't a lot
of soccer shows out there. I think that that was
(23:49):
a kind of a special legacy that that show has.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
So you were pulling like double duty then high.
Speaker 5 (23:56):
You were at one part of the day you're learning
how to shoot, you're learning, and then the other part
of the day learning how to become like a professional soccer.
Speaker 4 (24:03):
I still have like a horrible turf toe on my
right foot from one take where I had to I mean,
it was a beautiful in this show. It's a beautiful
goal I basically, I basically, I mean where the spiders
make their webs man, I just just beautifully kind of
like curving, oh right, corner up the top corner man
(24:24):
and the and then the other take, I meg the
keeper and that one looks great too. But then there
there was one take where I went, I run all
the way down the field. There's about one hundred and
fifty some odd extras that they had to move around
the stadium to just show it, and then we can
kind of, you know, with v effects, they were able
to populate the entire stadium and but one of them,
(24:47):
I basically go to strike the ball and I just
dig my entire foot into the turf and I can
still feel it on my big toe right this is
this is been twelve years later, still feel it and
it's just but but that that take is amazing because
it was just it's just it was just surreal just
to have the whole experience of that. And then go
(25:08):
up to the crowd and I grab one of the
red ree Riot flags and my nickname was the Matador
in the show, and so, uh so I take it
out like it's a you know, it's a cape and
then all my all my teammates come through with their
bullhorns and they're kind of, you know this this beautiful
kind of they overcrank the camera. It's this slow most celebration.
It's just all of this uh, really really fun stuff
(25:29):
that I had. This was my dream to do something
like this and to prove that I could carry the
show and not only do that, but do it over
the course of the of the season. HM.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
It was a very special moment. The paradigm had kind
of like shifted, you know, and Rubbert had made such
a signal that he was going to make these Latino
stories feel larger than life, and that he was going
to do the Robert de Riguez thing, which is like,
it doesn't matter who's on that screen. If he's a hero,
he's a hero, right. And one of the things that
(26:10):
I you know, reflect back to it, and I really think,
you know, I think back to in that moment, is
you know he saw something in you that he knew
that was going to you know, be a real resource
for healing for a lot of our culture. You know,
the way you command the screen, Gary, you should know
(26:34):
is so effortlessly powerful. And every you win on this
beautiful run right after that and you and by the way,
you haven't stopped like you've been consistently getting what you deserve,
like the parts that really showcase the beauty of the
craftsmanship of what you you know, what you've been able
to do, and and it's been beautiful to see that
(26:56):
in our generation this is possible, you know, the ability
that you have to create these characters and where they
really contribute not just to the story, but they contribute to,
you know, the overall lord of why you watch the show,
you know, And that's something like I just you know,
(27:17):
I've always try to tell you a little bit every
time I see you, but I'm so happy to tell
you that likes as rare as it was before. You're
making it feel so normal for everyone to just trust
you with the ball and trust our culture with the
ball in this way. And uh, and I think that's
something that I just I couldn't wait to tell you that,
And and think about the run that you had, like
(27:37):
because right after that you was it Agent?
Speaker 4 (27:42):
Yeah? Right?
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Was that the next one that you were like?
Speaker 4 (27:45):
Well, there's a lot there's a couple of things before
we move on from that, as far as like Matador
and what it what I carried with me from that, Uh,
first of all is a memory. Well, first of all
is that guitar, which is was Robert's guitar. Yeah, and
he used to play it. He used to play it
(28:05):
at the monitor, as he did does with every every
production that he ever is on. Yeah, you probably experienced
that don't planetaryer. I'm sure you guys are all experienced.
But it was this guitar which he gave me. And
now I've taken to every single set that I've ever
been on. Most people know me as the guy who
brings guitar to work and never leaves the set and
plays plays tunes for everyone. But the that was really
(28:26):
really special because after because the night that we shot
that you did your cameo was one of the last
nights of the shoot. And so when Robert wrapped, he
got in his Dodge Challenger, which ties into Agents for
Shield because that car is based off the nineteen sixty
nine Dars Charger, which is the car that Robbie Ray's
Ghostwrider drives as the ghost Rider, but Robert had a
(28:49):
version of it. So there's these moments in my career
that always been this kind of foreshadowing things of what
was going to happen. Unbeknownst to me they were they
were these kind of almost like.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Prophecies from the future, goes from the future, right like manifested.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
So he got in his car, took the guitar. Uh
we wrapped at four AM. I got home maybe about
five five thirty, went to bed and I was like,
I think I guess he forgot about the turn. Oh
that's okay. He calls me at six fifteen in the morning,
maybe maybe six thirty, I don't know. I answered thankfully
that I answered because I saw it was him. And
he's like, he's like, gay, so so hiffy, I forgot
to give you that guitar man, And I was like,
(29:23):
oh yeah, well, oh yeah, I didn't know. I didn't
remember that. And then he's like, well, I have meetings today,
but I'm gonna leave it at the conscairs at the
Four Seasons. Go pick it up whenever you can. Is like,
we'll do. So I go over there. I walk up
to the concierge. He goes back in the closet, grabs
the case. It sits right there and open. I open
it up. I look in sign and it's like pulp fiction,
just like shut and I close it up. I start
(29:46):
walking out the door and the concierge looks at me.
He's like hey, I'm like, yeah, old Mexican guy, you know.
He goes, are you a Mariachi?
Speaker 2 (29:56):
I guess I go and I walk out the door.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
My guitar case full of guns in the but no,
it was just that's that's that beautiful. And he's like,
you know what, string with black gut strings, which I
always do, and bringing to work like you always do.
And that's been with me ever since. But uh, in
the other memory mattered or before I before we move on,
at the castle at Robert's house, he hosts Barack Obama,
who was the President of the States at the time.
(30:23):
You were there that night. You and I had a beautiful,
beautiful time, good conversation and and uh you you and
I were part of the clutch to receive the president
enters the house, and you were talking about him showing
heroes as as he intends them to be seen, as
as they are as they appear to us in life,
which is in every shade and every shape and every face.
(30:44):
And and I remember when the President walks in, he
goes and he shook shakes all our hands, and I'm
there in my in this like gray suit that I
bought at the Salvation Army at one point that I
had Taylor, so it looked real nice. And uh, you
know what, that's not true, that's not the suit from
the although I did have that suit it's a freaking
beautiful suit. It sees my language. But this one was
(31:05):
actually one that I borrowed from set that I wore
in the show in Matador. It was a Hugo Boss
Taylor suit that I that I that fell off the
truck and belongs to me now. And so I go
up there, President shakes all our hands. It comes up
to me. Robert's like, and this is Gabrierlone. He's the
leader of our current show. He's the lead of our
current show. I'm already going into the Obama I personation.
(31:25):
You'd probably hear it. And he goes, He goes, and
Roberts like, this is this is what an American hero
looks like according to us, and how we want to
show it. And and the President looks for me. He's like, oh,
well he looks like a superhero, all right. Look at that.
Oh man, that's a nice, great suit. You're lia be sharre.
I was like, thank you, Sarah, appreciate it. And he goes.
(31:46):
We proceed to take this beautiful photograph all of us together.
I go outside. My wife's in line with Danny. Danny's there,
Danny Trejo, who was always around, and we walk in
all the people outside had paid upwards of thirty forty
fifty thousand dollars to be there meet the President the
United States. It was a fundraiser for the DNC. Coming
back inside, my wife takes a single with the with
the president. She's starting to walk off. I was like, baby,
(32:08):
come back for a second, mister president. This is my
wife's Smaranda. It was like, oh, great, this is your wife.
He's not getting a big head? Is he funny to me?
My wife's like, oh yeah. I was like, no, so
she's kidding. My head is firmly screwed on. He's like, well,
i'll tell you what if he is. You just talked
to Michelle. She's got some experience with.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
That this guy. And by the way, it's like, this
is my life. This is imagine, like it's like your life.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
And then you remember we had that discussion with him afterwards,
and I remember this was one of the times where
I was like, I wish Wilmer was native born so
that I can vote him into office to be the president,
because you were so impressive man, while I was so
kind of reserved, kind of didn't didn't you know, it
wasn't asserting, which I didn't assert myself in the conversation.
(32:54):
I was just listening. I was just beholding what was happening.
Wilmer was tip of the spear, front of the front
of the front of the platoon, asking important questions about
immigration policy and and and where are people are and
where are people need to be? And I remember looking
looking at you. I was next to you, and my
wife was here, and you were there just watching you
(33:17):
hold yourself in this way and and and in that
moment aspired to be that. So I'm thankful for that.
So I take that. I take my relationship with you,
and of course Robert and everyone else in the guitar
is what came from Mata. And then we move into
the future where well, I want.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
To say some before we move on.
Speaker 5 (33:34):
Uh, you know, as as you were talking about him
and the stuff that you've been doing, you know, as
someone who's a little older than.
Speaker 4 (33:41):
Both of you and looked younger than.
Speaker 5 (33:46):
Uh, it's been wonderful to see you uh and your trajectory. Uh,
especially And what I love is that we've all worked
with Robert right, and so we kind of know what
his ethos is right, and a lot of what he's
done is that he has made latinos commercially viable, right,
(34:09):
And in our industry, I think at the end of
the day, all the people on the upstairs, all they.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Care about is whether we can make the money or not.
Speaker 5 (34:17):
And he's created this platform where he puts people like
us at the forefront in projects that have themes and
revolve around certain aspects that proved that we could be
commercial or the project could be commercially viable.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
And you're the face of that.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
Right.
Speaker 5 (34:35):
You're playing a soccer player who's like a James Bond. Right,
those are commercially viable themes, yes, and he could have
chosen anybody to play that, but he chose you, right.
And by choosing you, and by you doing the last
of us and you doing everything else that you've done,
you're showing Hollywood that you can be commercially viable. And
(34:56):
if you can prove that you can be commercially viable,
they're going to continue to in invest in people like you.
And that's what's been so wonderful about what Robert has
been doing. It's been so wonderful about what Wilma has
been doing, and and we just got to continue to
do that. You know, the next generation of Gabriel Luna's
and Wilmer and me and and and keep creating projects.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Like that so that we can keep proving that we
can make the money.
Speaker 4 (35:17):
Absolutely man. And and you know, and I think when
I think of you, I always think of I loved,
can't hardly wait. I watched the movie so much do
they say pop? And I was just like, but that
was the thing. It's like Freddie Rodriguez as this one
of the cool kids, you know, and with no specific
kind of framing of it or a reason why a
(35:38):
young Latino is in that position other than they are
in life. And that's just the way it works. And
I remember watching that thing. That's that's that's that's cool.
I like that. I want to I want that, you know,
and and you're and and that's the thing, man, It's
just when given, you know, use whatever resources you have
at your disposal, when given the opportunity to deliver excellence,
(36:00):
never quit. That's what he is, the last line of
rebel without a crew, of Robert's book, And that's what
is what we're all striving to do. And it's working.
It's working in a way that is not only commercially viable,
but is some of the best creative on on screen.
In the Last of Us. You have myself, you have Bedrol,
(36:20):
you have you have Isabella, you have Adiella bar you
have Danny Ramirez. You have all these people, and it's
one of the big shows, if not the biggest show
on the planet at right time, at this present moment.
The you have Diego and in and Or and and
and everyone in that show. You have Asa doing what
(36:43):
she's doing, and you have everybody now in this position
to where it is. It's just it's natural and and
that's that's just a great place to be, especially in
this moment where our culture is trying to another attempt,
another way that they're never going to They can never
snuff us out, no matter how hard they try and
(37:04):
how hard they try to otherise us or or remove
us from the equation. It's it's we're only growing not
only in populace, but also in uh in spirit and
exposure and in proof of our ability and our and
our success, the magnitude of the culture. It's just it's
(37:28):
just too too forceful, too loud, too vibrant to be
snuffed out.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
To talk about this bionary moments. I mean bringing full
circle to the Shield, you know, you know, the Ghostwriter.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
Yeah, when that happened.
Speaker 4 (37:51):
Twenty fifteen, that was the first Mexican American superhero especial
certainly of one of the bigger.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
I mean Tempole care titles.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
Yes, of course, and like one of the first times
that character is going to be brought to life for
this next generation. You know, I think that, you know,
I think obviously Nicholas Case had his quick run with that,
you know, with that movie, but this was the most
the most relevant rendition of that character. I wouldn't be
(38:21):
surprised if you were brought to Doomsday at some point.
But we're not gonna we're not gonna talk about that
right now.
Speaker 4 (38:25):
They might have ran out of chairs.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
But but you know what, you.
Speaker 4 (38:30):
Could put duct type on somebody else's chair who's already wrapped.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
That's right, That's what I'm saying that. But it's gonna
die in the first ten minutes of that movie.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
But but but I think to the point is is
that I remember when you were announced as a Ghostwriter, was.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Like, oh my god, there goes the neighborhood. It's like unstoppable.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
It's like it was a really, really iconic moment because
the comic book world was like, finally we're gonna see this,
this character come to life and it.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
Was a Latino bro.
Speaker 4 (38:59):
Yeah, it was so bad.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
I asked the way that and you came in and
you brought somethings so like, so not just that for
a list, but so necessary to that character. And that
was to me, that was the most exciting season in
the Shield legacy period.
Speaker 4 (39:14):
It was a it was a shift. It was a
shift in the the trajectory of that show. That was
the maiden voyage of Marvel in television. Agent's Shield was
when it first started. Samuel Jackson, Colby, other other characters
who were in the movies were on the show, but
(39:35):
it had started to kind of slide and they didn't
know if they were going to get another season. I
remember they had moved the show to Tuesday nights, the
death Nail slot, Tuesday at nine, and they didn't know
if it was going to continue, and then I guess,
it's twofold. It's the it's it was the the addition
of the ghost writer character. Well, first of all, it
(39:57):
was the restructuring of the season to where it was
three different pods, where there were nine to ten episodes
of a twenty two episode season eight nine ten, three
different kind of stories that all intersect at the end,
and that first nine episodes was the ghostwriter segment of it.
They started the season that way and for nine episodes.
(40:19):
All of a sudden, I was essentially the lead character
of this network action Marvel show that as a new
as a guest star, but the way that the character
was positioned, the history of that character, the popularity of
the character, even though the version I was playing was
only in existence for two years at the time. Created
(40:39):
by my friend Felippe Smith, who we became very close
to home. Oh cool, who's half Jamaican, half Argentine, and
he's a beautiful He was the first American to ever
be published in Japan doing manga, so he's a very
very special individual who's certainly kind of kicked down his
own doors. And with the Robbie Rays character, they told
(41:03):
him he can do what they could do whatever he
wanted with the character, and the first thing he did
was take him away from the bike put him in
a nineteen sixty nine Dods charger because he'd loved the
fast in the Furious movies and it's probably the coolest
silhouette of any muscle car that's ever existed with the
big BDS blower. It's a four to forty HEMI in
it with another beat with a BDS blower on it
that makes it basically a nine hundred horsepower car. And
(41:23):
it's He's like, you know, I just wanted to. I
wanted to kind of piss people off, you know, or
provoke them. Make him a Latin, know, make him a
Mexican American, have him live in in hill Rock Heights,
which is basically the marble version of a Lincoln Heights
or Bull Heights. Have him be be possessed. We changed
(41:45):
it a little bit in the show, but in comic books,
possessed by the his serial killer uncle's spirit, you know,
the Satanic spirit, and him fighting against that at all times,
and being this father figure to his brother who's who
was a paraplegic, and all of these really cool elements
of the story that were not what the Ghostwriter character
(42:06):
was previously. Who was Johnny Blaze, the former stunt man
who who's so cursed. He's like, oh, this is a curse.
I hate this. I hate being the Ghostwriter. But for Robbie.
His life was already cursed. His parents were gone, he
was cursed by this spirit, his brothers in a wheelchair.
He's been thrust into this position of being this father
figure before his time, and the ghostwriter makes him powerful.
(42:30):
So it was this kind of different angle into that character,
and so we do it, and it's the It was
immediately received, well not immediately, because before anyone saw it,
everyone hated the idea. I remember a lot of people
hated the idea that there was a Mexican American ghostwriter.
(42:52):
Like everything, pretty much everything I've done, Terminator, the last
of us playing Tommy Miller's why is this guy doing it?
Until they see us do it?
Speaker 2 (43:01):
Well, see how until they see you do it?
Speaker 3 (43:03):
Let me just give you a little credit on that,
because because one thing is bringing a character and saying, hey,
we're gonna make them Latino, although in those storylines they
were intentionally developed to be a Latino character, which, by
the way, it's why also it works. But then you
need someone to drive that grounded and bring it to
the masses in a way that not only makes sense,
(43:23):
but he lifted and he sores and it and it's free.
So like you brought something so unique to that that
they're like, undeniably they bought that new ghostwriter.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
You know, that's just ky Woes.
Speaker 4 (43:33):
And it was just incredible from start to finish. I
remember when I got the job. They I was at
mar I was in Marfa, Texas at a at a
film festival for a picture I did, trans Pacos. What
I did with another friend of ourtis Clifty Cliffy Cliffy
Collins Junior, Clifton Collins Junior, myself were in this picture
that great Quator directed, who he and his writing partner
(43:55):
Clint Bentley were just nominated for an Oscar for Sing
Sing for his follow up feature, his second one. His
first one was Transpatos, which I was a leader and
the uh. And I was there in Marfa at a
film vessel for this movie and then my team calls me,
uh and they're like, you know that part on Asian
Shield you kept turning down and I was like yeah,
(44:17):
because they had told me there was this part on
Asia Shield. There was a guest star role. And this
is right when the Marvel thing was heating up, and
I was like, you know, I don't want to get
cast in a guest star role as a as maybe
an agent or something else. And then I'm just off
the board for everything else, and so I just kept
saying no. And then finally they're like, you know what,
you should probably go on the internet and look up
what's happening at at comic Con in a couple of weeks,
(44:40):
and I went on or in the following week, i
should say, and everyone is speculating about there's going to
be a ghost Rider in Agents of Shield because there
was all these buses that were wrapped at San Diego
Comic Con with these flaming chain and uh. And I
look it up and sure enough, the latest iteration of
the ghost rider was Robbie Rays, Mexican American from hill
(45:00):
Rock Heights in LA. And that they told me that
this is kind of the that I should look into this,
and I was like, wait a second. Everything about this
dude is a line with me. You know. He you know,
my mom was a fifteen year old widow when she
had me, and she's more so almost like a sibling
now in these days. I'm forty two, she's fifty seven,
(45:20):
and the uh and even even you know, I'd say
to the point where now I'm kind of the paternal
figure for the family. Yeah, take care of her, to
care everybody, my siblings, my grandma and uh and I.
But in this thing, he's this orphaned person who takes
care of his family, takes care of his brother whose
name is Gabriel, and and I'm just like, wow, this
is amazing. I didn't even know this guy existed. And
(45:43):
then they're like, well, they're gonna, you know, Jeff Lobe
and Jed Whedon and mow Tantroon Whedon, they're gonna call
you and set up this thing. And so I'm sitting
there trying to get internet and Marfa because it's really
you know, it's in the desert and all the internet
super spotty. I'm literally sitting in this house that I rented.
I can see we's going down the road. It's like
a one road kind of town. Finally get them on
(46:04):
and they they you know, they're they're like, hey, uh,
you should you know? Do you know anything about this character?
I was like, yeah, I think I know. I was
trying to pretend that I didn't know. And they're like, well,
we'd love you to put down this one scene for us,
and if you could do that, maybe tomorrow tomorrow or
today or whatever. We'd love that and say no problem.
So I went to my my uh my screening just
(46:25):
buzzing because I was like, Wow, this is wild. And
then uh then the next day I I I rented
a room at the Thunderbird Hotel so that I could
because I wasn't gonna stay. I was gonna leave. The
following day. I was like, you know, I'll stay one
more day, get this tape put in, so i'd go up.
My friend Nick helps me. You're stand in, who's there
in Marfa visiting a friend of our? Uh But unbeknown
(46:46):
to me, they were having a day rave down at
the pool. So at my tame So in my tape
all you hear in the background is which is actually
kind of perfect because in my mind Robbie Ray has
kind of listens to this really cool kind of d
M kind of stuff. But I do the scene. I
sent it in. They called me the following day, they're
how fast can you get back to lam Well, I'm
coming in today. Flew in, went home, got dressed, went
(47:09):
to go meet them. Sarah Finn was casting, met the
entire production team, met their kids like and this was
the first sense of the family that they were, and
then then the kind of the kind of thesis statement
that they have, which is really they create this family
culture and they were really great at that, and that's
(47:30):
why the show was as wonderful as it was, and
the fan base feels very much a part of the family.
And and I went that was a Sunday. They called
me the next day to tell me that I got cast.
I was on set that Friday. So in seven days
I went from just not knowing what was gonna you know,
(47:51):
just I mean, you know, I'm just doing my thing.
I was at this film festival to being on set
as the Ghostwriter. As it's being announced at sandie O
Comic Con. Everybody Clark, Gregg, Chloe Bent, everybody Clark was.
They were all in San Diego on that Friday doing
the big hall Ah product presentation, unveiling the fact that
there was gonna be the ghost Rider. And I am
(48:12):
on set squashing a Nazi with my car and uh,
having that.
Speaker 2 (48:18):
Time the time of my life.
Speaker 4 (48:21):
And from one moment to the next, I go back
to my charity, look at my phone, and all of
a suddenly, every every person I've known for the last
you know, in my entire life. It just texted me
that this that they had announced that I was playing
this character, and uh, and that was a huge shift.
I mean it changed a lot in that moment. I mean,
Mattador was was certainly big in my life. And then
(48:41):
as far as just people around the world knowing who
I was, this was kind of the moment. This was
the threshold that I walked through. And uh, and then
we had Then all his left was make the show
and and we we made it. I got to work
with incredible people. We shot in l A. So the
first dude, the first I was so liked. For the
(49:04):
first five six years after Matador, everything was in LA.
I did that. I did Wikes City for ABC. I
did a True Detective here in LA. I did all
these and I thought, well, this is what's supposed to
be right naturally, this is what's supposed to happen. That's
why we move here. And everybody's like, no, bro, you're lucky.
At one point I did a picture called Gravy where
I walked from my apartment in Hollywood to Siren Studios
(49:27):
every day with my guitar in my hand, my other guitar.
This is before Robert baby, this before that, and then
oh no, this was this was I did have this
by then, and uh I got to walk to work.
It's crazy. And now, of course the world has shifted
and they're so you know, every opportunity to get we
have to try to bring work back here because there
(49:48):
is legacy talent in this town. In every department there are.
There are families of grips, There are families of families
of makeup artists, and and they have families that are
been here for decades that you can't just up and
move around, you know. They we need to bring it
all back. Speaking of family legacy families. Eric Norris was
(50:09):
one of my stunt drivers along with Eddie Brown, incredible stuntman,
stunt driver for for uh. And they taught me all
kinds of stuff they probably weren't supposed to teach me,
but you know it's kind of like, what do you
mean in terms of just just precision driving kind of things. Yeah,
and uh, it's kind of an ass, you know. Now
you guys know ABC, I don't know as forgive me.
Speaker 2 (50:31):
It worked out.
Speaker 4 (50:32):
There's still a lot. But Eric was Chuck Norris's son,
and he is Chuck Norris's son. He's an incredible stunt driver. Yeah,
and uh he he uh. He was really fun to
hang out with. And that's another legacy family there in
our business. And I used to tell him Chuck Norris
jokes in the seconder in the second person, so I'd
(50:53):
be like, you know, Eric, your daddy once got bit
by rattlesnake and after seven days of excruciator in pain,
the rattlesnake finally died.
Speaker 2 (51:03):
You know, this is Chuck Norris his house.
Speaker 4 (51:06):
This was Chuck.
Speaker 2 (51:07):
So when I was so, Eric grew this house.
Speaker 4 (51:10):
Yes, yes, this is what I'm saying. You gotta tell
them everything happens exactly. It's just intended to. It's crazy that.
Speaker 3 (51:18):
You had those things like really like geeking now moments
like when when you because first of all, you were
also a terminator.
Speaker 2 (51:26):
Let's suppose we talk about that for a second.
Speaker 3 (51:28):
But the moment when you're like you show up and
you're like, okay, here is you know, ghost Rider's outfit.
Speaker 2 (51:34):
And you're like, damn the jacket, you know, or you
show up to.
Speaker 3 (51:38):
A terminator you're like, there it is the you know,
the the you know, the the chrome's called you know.
Speaker 4 (51:44):
I always say man like when when, especially with things
like that, they're so iconic, Like with the with the
ghost Rider, I had the horseshoe kind of insignia on
the jacket, which was kind of the original design, the
Gary Friederich design from the nineteen seventies comics that flipa
rolled into Robbie's character. But I remember when I put
that jacket on, it was like or when I put
(52:06):
the the the the Air Force jumpsuit when I was
playing the Terminator. You know, it's like there's moments where
the character just snaps into your spine through the costume,
you know, and and there's just these Yeah, the Terminator
thing was another thing where it's it was kind of
it was kind of forecast ahead of time because I
(52:27):
remember doing the ghost Rider in the in the Charger,
which made me think of Robert h in his Dodge
Challenger when he was directing us. I was like, this
is this is so crazy. And then I'm in there
racing down the La River going just ridiculously fast and
because this car was very powerful, and then I was
(52:49):
and then I hear on the walkie They're like, oh man,
this is like grease. It's like grease Lightnings, and I
was like, I get on the walking. I'm like, you know, yeah,
it is kind of like grease, but I'm getting more
Terminator vibes, which is, of course the famous scene where
Robert Patrick and the eighteen wheelers chasing Arnold and Edward
(53:09):
is John Connor down the La River. Yeah. I remember
telling Robert which you mad at or we were on
the First Street Bridge, which is in the First Terminator
where you first see the stop motion endoskeleton of the
terminator after the eighteen wheeler explodes and it emerges and
all the skin is burned off. That was on the
First Street Bridge in La And I remember thinking of
(53:32):
that when I was shooting that. I had to see
him with James Kallis from Battlestar Galactor. We're both on
this thing, and it's just kind of wild that it
all developed that way, because sure enough I would be
Jim Cameron and Tim Miller cast me as a terminator
in twenty eighteen and we went shot the film.
Speaker 1 (53:50):
You're telling so many great stories.
Speaker 5 (53:52):
We're just going to take a slight pause and we're
going to continue on the next episode.
Speaker 3 (53:56):
Stays Unful Part two two episodes Nice Part one, Part
Want Part two.
Speaker 5 (54:00):
Baby Dos Amigos is a production from WV Sound and
iHeartMedia's Michael through That podcast Network, hosted by Me, Freddie Rodriguez,
and Wilmer Valdorama.
Speaker 3 (54:14):
Those Amigos is produced by Aaron Burlson and Sophie Spencer Zabos.
Speaker 5 (54:18):
Our executive producers are Wilmer Valdorama, Freddie Rodriguez, Aaron Burlson,
and Leo Klem at WV Sound.
Speaker 3 (54:25):
This episode was shot and edited by Ryan Posts and
mixed by Sean Tracy and features original music by Madison
Devenport and Halo Boy Our cover.
Speaker 5 (54:33):
Our photography is by David Avalos and designed by Deny Holt.
Speaker 2 (54:38):
And thank you for being there third Amigo today. I
appreciate you, guys.
Speaker 5 (54:41):
I was listening to more podcasts from my heart Visit
the ir Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 2 (54:49):
So your next week
Hey, how you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
This is Freddie Rodriguez.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Hey, I'm Wilmer Valderrama, and welcome to those amigos, which
today is going to be Today.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Well, I couldn't be more excited and proud. We've been waiting.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
This man is one of the busiest men in Hollywood rightfully,
so one of the most talented guys we have in
our culture, doing the most mainstream you can get and
also doing exceptional work that's gonna last for a very
very long time. Guero is a very dear friend of mine.
Right we've been in each other's lives and careers, you know,
(00:42):
for the last man, I don't know, fifteen years or so.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
No, no, I said ten.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
What did you guys work?
Speaker 4 (00:48):
Well, i'd see, they'll ray Rice. Well, when we would
have been twenty thirteen, Yes for you and I first
kind of intersected, even though I had been, of course
my iring your careers from afar and and we're not
too far from age. You guys are maybe just touch
touch my senior, I'd say, but although you look, but
(01:12):
you know I was. I was growing up in Austin
as an actor, and I was a of course clocking.
You know, the people who look like me, feel like
they've come from my background who are having these great
success And you needed only look to that seventies show
and see Fez on that that show, and and you,
of course doing everything you did. We talked a little
bit before we started this about these kind of crazy
(01:36):
interwoven paths that we've led, and uh, Freddie, when you
were in town working with Robert, because that's where we work.
We worked with Robert Rodgers.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
The leads of his Yeah, lead Robert and this.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Part and and uh, when l Ray started, there was
From Dusk Till Dawn and Matador, which the two original
programs that were premiering their inaugural year, and you and
I were the leads of those, and so we did
a bunch of press together and all came through and
and then uh, but of course Freddy did Planet Terror,
and one of my best friends from high school was
your standing. His name is Nicholas Signs, and he was
(02:10):
your standing no way man, So there was.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
A that's so crazy.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Wow, Yeah, that's a small world.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
Yeah, I was just talking of today. I told him
I was going to see you. And so I don't
know whether you remember Nick or not. He he certainly
remembers you and always always uh sung your praises. So
we yeah, all all roads do lead.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
To uh and and and you know, to to your point, brother,
one of the things I want to I want to
start by giving you some consistent flowers first and foremost,
because you know, I think we rarely happened to be
in the same room together to kind of make sure
that we we tell each other that we see each other,
(02:50):
that we support each other, that we uplift each other,
and that we we got to be part of each
other's journeys and you know, and and we bonded over
the fact that we didn't have that growing up in industry,
right we were the one Latino in the room, you know,
and none of us were allowed to be in the
same shows together, in the same movies because they just
they had one of us.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
There, you know.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
And the idea that we needed community and that we
could have used that community to say, hey, you know,
we're all walking in the same direction, how do we
how do we set each other up for success? And
all that stuff is something that we really wanted to
cultivate it more. When I first I remember when when
Robert was casting Matator, you know, and Robert Rodriguez had
(03:33):
lunched a network called the l Ray Network, which was
kind of all Robert Rodriguez universe collided into one d yet.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
All the shaw Scope Kung Fu pictures, that's right, all
of you know, all of the Escape from New York.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Riding and stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Stuff that was anything that basically what he was playing
in his office while he was thinking of he programmed
it based on cable network, that's right.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
And he wanted to do this show where it was
gonna like a Gina Latino James Bond, right, and he
was going to be a soccer player, and you know
he was also at the same time it's going to
be kind of like a double agent kind of kind
of situation.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
And the lucky for me, Wilmer was already tasked the
big man, the lead on the other show from.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
That already playing in the backy.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
My my, My point I'm making is that the search,
you know, and when Robert is looking for someone, but
for something in someone, the show is not gonna give
me until he finds it, you know. And the search
began for the lead of this like Latin Flair James Bond.
I mean, the budgets were dope, you know, so like that,
(04:37):
then the production value and he was going to direct
a few episodes and stuff, so it was going to
be it was a hot, hot, hot project.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
I remember very clearly around that time, I fired my
first agent in town because they didn't think that they
could get me in for that. I remember this. This
was in twenty twelve. I was with a small boutique
agency and I had mentioned to them because I had
seen my wife. She was she was really good about
she'd always find she was getting the breakdowns from something
(05:06):
someone was letting, letting her have their password to get
the breakdowns. She's like, baby, there's this part they're looking
for Latino James Bond. You'd be perfect. And I mentioned
it to this agent and they're like, well, I think
they're already kind of maybe finding their people. You might
not be able to get in. And I remember deciding
there and then that this wasn't the place for me.
(05:27):
But I'm not the kind of person that kind of
goes behind people's backs. So I decided that I needed
to fire them first before I commenced my search for
somebody else. So I did. I severed tized with them.
My grandfather passed away, I had to go back to Austin.
This was around Christmas time, so I went back to Austin,
no agent, having feeling, you know, is that the lowest
(05:50):
the low I could be because at that point I
was the oldest male in my family, oldest male in
my immediate family. My father had passed when I was
before I was born, my grandfather Ike when I was
on my fifth birthday, and then my grandfather David at
this point, and then of course my uncle David pass
when I was twelve. So this was this was a
moment in my life where I was like, man, I think,
(06:11):
you know, I'm going home, feeling about as low as
I could feel, not knowing what I was going to
do when I got back to LA But thankfully my family,
all my friends in Austin really replenished my creative well
and made me feel strong and and and and that
I had people on my side. At you know, I
(06:32):
knew that I had my back watching my six and
taking care of me and believed in me. So I
went back and my manager set up some meetings in
the first agent I met with, who I'm not with
them anymore, but they were really, really Uh. You know,
they had the vision that they shared the same vision
I had for myself.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
They saw you as you saw yourself, which is the.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
Guy, you know, the ground wire, the center of the
story and capable of caring the the responsibility at that entails.
And uh, and I'm in that meeting. And then shortly
shortly after the meeting starts, you know what, there's this
one thing that Robert Rodrigue is doing. They're looking for
Latino James Bond. You'd be great for it. And I
was like, I already had decided, Okay, these people were
(07:13):
the people. Left the meeting, told my manager that we're
going with them. Within a couple of weeks time, they
got me the audition with Mary Mary Renew.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yes, I've been Hey, big shout out to Mary, big
shout out, part of all of our careers.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Yeah, and she's actually she actually cast me in The Terminalists,
which I'm in right now, And she's actually she's now
our casting director for the Last of Us. So Mary
is doing a lot of a lot of work and
has championed all of us and a great, a great
debt of gratitude. But so that happens, they get me
(07:46):
to read with Mary, I go in. Uh I met
Omar Epps. I remember that he was he was was
at the audition. Yeah, yeah, it was yeah, it was
really fun. And then and so I uh I it
it kind of starts to progress. And then we had
a to the point where I'm doing a I have
(08:07):
to meet with Robert. So Robert comes in to La,
which he hates coming to La. The fact that he
comes for Jessica's parties is crazy. It's jessic alb parties.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Did you you here are meetings or whatever? He goes, no, no,
I just came here.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
For Jessica's Like, oh, wait, of course, and the I mean,
but she is the dark Angel and yees, yes, yes,
and he has a soft spot in her heart for her,
as we all do. She's aeful person, but one of them. Uh.
So he he comes to La. He's staying at the
Four Seasons where he always stays. He and I have
this meeting and uh we order iced tea's like a
(08:42):
couple of proper Texas boys do. Because he doesn't drink,
even though he tells me the story that he ordered
the one millionth drink at the Four Seasons at some
point in history and they gave him this pass for
free drinks for life, but it's completely lost on him
because he doesn't drink alcohol. But he gets all the
free iced tea as he wants. And We're sitting there
(09:02):
talking about mostly music and our families and my grandfather
who had just passed. And I'm having this meeting on
February nineteenth, which is my grandfather's birthday. And I tell
him that this is wild because my grandpa, when I
was in Austin, used to have a scrap book of
all the plays I was in, you know, reviews that
(09:22):
would be in the Austin American Statesman, which was our
hometown newspaper, and he'd keep the scrap book of all
movies and different things I'd do. And then he'd but
he'd also have bits and pieces of people in town
who you know Rick linklater, and of course Robert Rodriguez
is like, Papa, this is the guy he should work with. Well,
I was like, yeah, well, you know, a few things
(09:43):
got to happen before that happens. And flash forward, you know,
a decade, and I'm sitting there with Robert telling him
this story, and meeting goes really well, I think, And
then He's like, well, I got another meeting. Somebody else
is coming to here in a minute. I was like,
all right, well, i'll see you later. I shook his
hand and say, I see you later. I bought this
(10:03):
death trap of a land Rover when I first moved
to La. The thing is, the thing almost killed me
many times. The break would go all the way to
the way to the floorboard, and I'd have to pump
it just for it to catch, you know. And and
I could hear it. I could hear the valet pulling
it up from wherever they were pulling it, because it
just it rattled like a tin can. And I was
really embarrassed because that thing was screeching all the way
(10:25):
when it came up to the drive. But I left
that feeling really good about it. And then flash forward
a couple of weeks and they decided they wanted to
screen test me. So I go and I meet J. D.
Pardo for the first time, who I love. I just
love so much, and we became friends since, and we've
had so many moments where it was either him or me,
(10:45):
and uh, and the ones I didn't get he got,
and the ones he didn't get by I got and
it's just hilarious. And we had this beautiful conversation a
few months ago. We were at this event and just
and they're like, man, we it's so funny how parallel
we've run. And uh, but we've but we've always been
kind of supported from a farm and were never really
kind of connected, and now we've we've connected. We talked
(11:07):
quite a bit about it. But I remember that day.
It was both of us sitting there signing our our
our next potentially next six years away and uh, gladly
because my first opportunity of of that magnitude, and so
I signed my deal. I go into the room. Robert's
there on a on a skype call because it wasn't
(11:29):
zoom back then, right, two thousand pager now exactly, so
they were all and by the time it was a
revolutionary I was like, wow, this is uh some video
called demolition Man type and and so there I do
my thing feels really natural, as involuntary as breathing. It
(11:53):
just felt right. And then and I can see Robert
there's there. What do you think, Robert? And he's there
on the screen.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
You say that, what do you think they do about?
Speaker 3 (12:03):
To say?
Speaker 2 (12:03):
That's awesome. What do you think, many man, what do
you think?
Speaker 4 (12:06):
Where he goes he takes it, takes a long pause,
he takes out his earbuds, and and then finally I
think we can go into production.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
And my god.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
And then uh, I felt this wave of kind of
flush of I guess just excitement and adrenaline.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Like surreal right like you're standing in front of Robert
Driguez was doing his first two TV shows in.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
The history of his career.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Yeah, like and he's gonna direct it, and he's he's
writing it, you know, and.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
You're gonna be an action hero and Robert.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
Yeah, it's it's it's uh. I mean, well, well, when
I left the room, the first you know, doubt creeps in.
Oh maybe maybe he meant the other guy. Yeah, and
the other guy already or j D. I think Ja
was coming in after me, but he was he was Uh,
he had made it his call. He had made his call,
I think. And then uh, uh, you know, there's a
(12:56):
lot of history. You know, there's a lot of history there.
I'm from Austin where he went to school.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Is that was that where you were born?
Speaker 4 (13:02):
I was born and raised in Austin. Your family goes
deep back into many generations. If you know, five generations
in Austin and Bastrop, Texas.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
What what how far back do you track?
Speaker 4 (13:13):
I mean all the way back to my Apache heritage.
My my great great grandfather is was Geronimo Luna was
his name, great great great I guess. Uh. He was
actually born twelve years before the Great War Chief Geronimo.
So the fact that he is named Geronimo is actually
interesting because it was he actually predates the Great War Chief.
(13:37):
But the on the family, you know, the Apache lands
extent all the way to Durango and and but there
in the hill country is the Lepan Apache and uh,
and so it's just a a long time in Austin.
He was from Austin. I worked with Marcell, his little brother.
Marcel was the DP of my friend Rohelio's student film
(14:00):
when he was getting his master's and so we shot
it at Marcel's house. And so when it came down
to it, when he was making his decision, he told
me this, He said, you know, I asked a round Austin,
and I asked and basically all my brothers and sisters
know you. You know, Roxy knows you. Marcel knows you.
Everybody has really great things to say. You did a
great job in the read and and and so you
(14:21):
were my guy and uh. I remember when I got
the call. I was on my way to Trader Joe's
and I don't remember where my wife was, but I
just got They just called me and said you're you know,
you're the leader. I would have been my manager at
the time. Also, bro, who's a partner? How they bak
(14:41):
take no?
Speaker 2 (14:42):
I mean the you know when you're going back home?
Speaker 4 (14:45):
Well they got Well that was the whole plan when
I came out here was was for them to send
me back with a bigger part because every every show,
because a lot of was happening in Austin at the time.
But it would it would only extend as far as
the kind of day player roles for us.
Speaker 5 (15:00):
You know.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
I did a day player role in a picture called
The Temple Grandon, which was the first time I was
in the hair and makeup trailer with Catherine O'Hara, who
I worked with on the Last of Us. I posted
this really interested, this really cool fifteen sixteen years apart,
this photograph of us, and we recreated the composition of
that photo in the hair and makeup trailer. But anyway,
(15:25):
just day player roles that they would offer in Austin,
and so my whole thing was to go to La.
They'll send you back with a bigger part. Wow. But
we shot Matador in in La. Yeah, oh you shot it. Yeah,
it was It was based. The character was a Dea
(15:46):
agent who was recruited by the CIA to take down
this nefarious character played by Alfred Molina for the great.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
By the way, they get Alfred million to play the
main thing, It's like, oh, man, Alfred is a good.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
Amazing thing. Amazing dude. There was just an incredible honor
to work with him, and Sammy Rotv was in the show,
and a bunch of other really great actors, and.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Get some great cameos in there too, some great Well
you guys showed that you guys really went to Hollywood
party and there we all of us the casts from
from that's still done.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
We like sit around a little table and now he
just kind of walks.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
By a young a young he's a Gonzales.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Yeah, he's a shout out to a so also champion
in fealing it for everybody.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Man.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Absolutely, we love I love that Gal. She was great.
I mean when I got the part, I came down
south By you guys were doing you guys built a
titty twister. Yeah, at south By Southwest, which is of
(16:46):
course the bar and from the tunstill dawn and we
all went and Robert was jamming my cousins who were
in his band. Another connection that we had, my cousin
Delk Steel band named Steel when they played with Robert,
they play under the band name Ching Going Ching.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Realized right, but like literally not until very late I
put that together.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Like I was like, oh my god, you're related to
the bad too.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
Like it was just well, we're actually we're actually just
cousins by you know, the primo is the way we are. Yeah,
my actual blood cousin is the guitar tech. But but
my grandma's made a name of Castile and uh and
her uh uh and the boys we just always said
were some yeah and so, but yeah that you know,
(17:33):
when Robert Casserine they and then he's when he was
doing press, he was like, yeah, you know, I saw
this guy and I knew I knew him, And I
was like, wait a second, I think think I think
your cousin's in my band. Sometimes that's the way deals
come together.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Did your cousins never bring you around when you were younger?
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Yeah. The first time I met Robert was at La
Zona Rosa in Austin, Texas, which is an awesome, awesome
bar that's no longer there creditable music venue. He was playing.
It was George Lopez's birthday. George was there, drunk off
his ass like playing What did he play? I think
(18:11):
he played iron Man. I think like they gave him
the guitar and he like played the rift to iron
Man and then he staged dove off the stage, George away. Yeah,
And I remember that. It was after I had done
my first feature, which is this independent called Falter Grace,
which went to south By Southwestern Competition in two thousand
and five. And I had a copy of this, a
(18:31):
bunch of copies of the DVD, and I remember I
met him after the show. They my cousin went to
introduce me, and my mom gave him the DVD and no,
he didn't even touch it. And then Cecilia, who was
his assistant at the time, I think she may still
be graps it, puts it in her bag and probably
never saw the light a day again. You out with
(18:53):
my mom. This was years This was two thousand and
this would have been yeah, around like two thousand and five. Yeah,
and then it was eight years later that that he
and I were on set doing the show and that
that when you guys did your cameo. That was the
first episode and we were in up in Hummingbird Ranch
up here in see Me Valley where they shoot a
(19:14):
lot of stuff, and it was a really really incredible
I mean, you're sitting there, you're all dressed up all
nights like this cool super spy and who's who becomes
a soccer star? Yeah, infiltrates the soccer team to take
down Fred's character and and doing all this really cool
kind of espionage, you know, slight ahead and.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
It had the toys too, the toys there.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
And it was just it was just such an incredible experience.
Speaker 5 (19:42):
Yeah, what was that like for you? As like a
young guy, young actor from Austin. You've been here pounding
a pavement and then like your first big thing just
so happens to be with the guy who plays in
the band with your cousins. Yeah, well it just so
happens to be from your hometown and.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
Who we all you know, grew up idolizing.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Yeah, yeah, And.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
Did you feel like a deep sense of like responsibility
it was I felt.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
I certainly felt those feelings. Also felt this sense of
kind of manifestation of yeah, you know, an illumination of
the path and the and the and kind of take
like stepping into stride of what kind of I was
(20:29):
supposed to what I was supposed to do? You know?
You know, I think I think at some point, especially
with us in our community and the way, you know,
back then, when it was few and far between, you
had to believe that it was kind of you and
only only you that could that could do this particular thing.
(20:49):
You know what I mean. It was the idea that
what is mine is mine and no one else's and
what is another man's is his, and I don't cover
at that, and I support and celebrate that which is.
It's kind of a beautiful thing about this podcast, what
you guys are doing, and the way you've treated me
my entire career since I got here, since we first met,
you know, to be to be able to communicate with
(21:11):
you and text you and have this, have you be
as couraging as you have been and always so supportive
and that's the idea. You know, we do we do
our thing, deliver excellence and given the opportunity, as Robert
says in his book, and and then you know, shine
turn and pivot and shine that spotlight on others so
that you know, the path stays illuminated, the door stays open,
(21:33):
and people can follow in. And I do remember just feeling,
you know, it's the first time I've been on a
set where it's you know, two hundred extras, and the
first time I've worked on anything pasted a couple of months,
you know, of plays that I would do in Austin
that I get paid five hundred dollars for the entire run.
And and and now here I am full six month
(21:54):
engagement as the leader of this show, working in opposite
out for Lena, and there's a whole new new world.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Did you have to train hard for that?
Speaker 4 (22:03):
Oh yeah, we trained a lot. We We trained with
a lot of professional soccer players first and foremost because
I had to kind of make that passable. And then
worked with Chick Daniels, who was this was kind of
the first.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
It's funny because I'm going to see Arrn Terrorn, Tarrann
tactical Sunday who trains up all of the john Wick
because people. And then course worked and worked with so
many of the guys I'm working with now on the
terminal list. But as far as being on the gun
and working with with firearms and working with with various
weapons systems, I got to meet a guy named Chick
Daniels who's former FBI, who was our technical advisor on
(22:40):
Manador and who I worked with another two or three
times since then. So a lot of work at the range.
And then uh, we had former professional soccer players on
our team to fill out the makeshift that you know.
We were the LA Riot Right team, and we played
all the games down at what at the time was
(23:03):
the stub Hub Center which is now the Dignity Health
Center where the LA Galaxy play, and so that's where
all we shot all the home games and we developed
a relationship there. And at the time Beckham was a
owner of the team, that's right, and so I got that.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Was a very pioneer moment for LA Soccer.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Was United States Soccer and Ben comes in and all
of a sudden, the league is feeling a little different. Absolutely,
people are going to the games. They were going crazy
and just it's it was insane.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
And now we got a traffic coaches l A f
C versus LA Galaxy, and you know they get there's
just a and just the the the game itself and
the league itself, you know, messy and everybody over in Miami.
You know it's it's We were kind of ahead of
the curve at the time, and there weren't a lot
of soccer shows out there. I think that that was
(23:49):
a kind of a special legacy that that show has.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
So you were pulling like double duty then high.
Speaker 5 (23:56):
You were at one part of the day you're learning
how to shoot, you're learning, and then the other part
of the day learning how to become like a professional soccer.
Speaker 4 (24:03):
I still have like a horrible turf toe on my
right foot from one take where I had to I mean,
it was a beautiful in this show. It's a beautiful
goal I basically, I basically, I mean where the spiders
make their webs man, I just just beautifully kind of
like curving, oh right, corner up the top corner man
(24:24):
and the and then the other take, I meg the
keeper and that one looks great too. But then there
there was one take where I went, I run all
the way down the field. There's about one hundred and
fifty some odd extras that they had to move around
the stadium to just show it, and then we can
kind of, you know, with v effects, they were able
to populate the entire stadium and but one of them,
(24:47):
I basically go to strike the ball and I just
dig my entire foot into the turf and I can
still feel it on my big toe right this is
this is been twelve years later, still feel it and
it's just but but that that take is amazing because
it was just it's just it was just surreal just
to have the whole experience of that. And then go
(25:08):
up to the crowd and I grab one of the
red ree Riot flags and my nickname was the Matador
in the show, and so, uh so I take it
out like it's a you know, it's a cape and
then all my all my teammates come through with their
bullhorns and they're kind of, you know this this beautiful
kind of they overcrank the camera. It's this slow most celebration.
It's just all of this uh, really really fun stuff
(25:29):
that I had. This was my dream to do something
like this and to prove that I could carry the
show and not only do that, but do it over
the course of the of the season. HM.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
It was a very special moment. The paradigm had kind
of like shifted, you know, and Rubbert had made such
a signal that he was going to make these Latino
stories feel larger than life, and that he was going
to do the Robert de Riguez thing, which is like,
it doesn't matter who's on that screen. If he's a hero,
he's a hero, right. And one of the things that
(26:10):
I you know, reflect back to it, and I really think,
you know, I think back to in that moment, is
you know he saw something in you that he knew
that was going to you know, be a real resource
for healing for a lot of our culture. You know,
the way you command the screen, Gary, you should know
(26:34):
is so effortlessly powerful. And every you win on this
beautiful run right after that and you and by the way,
you haven't stopped like you've been consistently getting what you deserve,
like the parts that really showcase the beauty of the
craftsmanship of what you you know, what you've been able
to do, and and it's been beautiful to see that
(26:56):
in our generation this is possible, you know, the ability
that you have to create these characters and where they
really contribute not just to the story, but they contribute to,
you know, the overall lord of why you watch the show,
you know, And that's something like I just you know,
(27:17):
I've always try to tell you a little bit every
time I see you, but I'm so happy to tell
you that likes as rare as it was before. You're
making it feel so normal for everyone to just trust
you with the ball and trust our culture with the
ball in this way. And uh, and I think that's
something that I just I couldn't wait to tell you that,
And and think about the run that you had, like
(27:37):
because right after that you was it Agent?
Speaker 4 (27:42):
Yeah? Right?
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Was that the next one that you were like?
Speaker 4 (27:45):
Well, there's a lot there's a couple of things before
we move on from that, as far as like Matador
and what it what I carried with me from that, Uh,
first of all is a memory. Well, first of all
is that guitar, which is was Robert's guitar. Yeah, and
he used to play it. He used to play it
(28:05):
at the monitor, as he did does with every every
production that he ever is on. Yeah, you probably experienced
that don't planetaryer. I'm sure you guys are all experienced.
But it was this guitar which he gave me. And
now I've taken to every single set that I've ever
been on. Most people know me as the guy who
brings guitar to work and never leaves the set and
plays plays tunes for everyone. But the that was really
(28:26):
really special because after because the night that we shot
that you did your cameo was one of the last
nights of the shoot. And so when Robert wrapped, he
got in his Dodge Challenger, which ties into Agents for
Shield because that car is based off the nineteen sixty
nine Dars Charger, which is the car that Robbie Ray's
Ghostwrider drives as the ghost Rider, but Robert had a
(28:49):
version of it. So there's these moments in my career
that always been this kind of foreshadowing things of what
was going to happen. Unbeknownst to me they were they
were these kind of almost like.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Prophecies from the future, goes from the future, right like manifested.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
So he got in his car, took the guitar. Uh
we wrapped at four AM. I got home maybe about
five five thirty, went to bed and I was like,
I think I guess he forgot about the turn. Oh
that's okay. He calls me at six fifteen in the morning,
maybe maybe six thirty, I don't know. I answered thankfully
that I answered because I saw it was him. And
he's like, he's like, gay, so so hiffy, I forgot
to give you that guitar man, And I was like,
(29:23):
oh yeah, well, oh yeah, I didn't know. I didn't
remember that. And then he's like, well, I have meetings today,
but I'm gonna leave it at the conscairs at the
Four Seasons. Go pick it up whenever you can. Is like,
we'll do. So I go over there. I walk up
to the concierge. He goes back in the closet, grabs
the case. It sits right there and open. I open
it up. I look in sign and it's like pulp fiction,
just like shut and I close it up. I start
(29:46):
walking out the door and the concierge looks at me.
He's like hey, I'm like, yeah, old Mexican guy, you know.
He goes, are you a Mariachi?
Speaker 2 (29:56):
I guess I go and I walk out the door.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
My guitar case full of guns in the but no,
it was just that's that's that beautiful. And he's like,
you know what, string with black gut strings, which I
always do, and bringing to work like you always do.
And that's been with me ever since. But uh, in
the other memory mattered or before I before we move on,
at the castle at Robert's house, he hosts Barack Obama,
who was the President of the States at the time.
(30:23):
You were there that night. You and I had a beautiful,
beautiful time, good conversation and and uh you you and
I were part of the clutch to receive the president
enters the house, and you were talking about him showing
heroes as as he intends them to be seen, as
as they are as they appear to us in life,
which is in every shade and every shape and every face.
(30:44):
And and I remember when the President walks in, he
goes and he shook shakes all our hands, and I'm
there in my in this like gray suit that I
bought at the Salvation Army at one point that I
had Taylor, so it looked real nice. And uh, you
know what, that's not true, that's not the suit from
the although I did have that suit it's a freaking
beautiful suit. It sees my language. But this one was
(31:05):
actually one that I borrowed from set that I wore
in the show in Matador. It was a Hugo Boss
Taylor suit that I that I that fell off the
truck and belongs to me now. And so I go
up there, President shakes all our hands. It comes up
to me. Robert's like, and this is Gabrierlone. He's the
leader of our current show. He's the lead of our
current show. I'm already going into the Obama I personation.
(31:25):
You'd probably hear it. And he goes, He goes, and
Roberts like, this is this is what an American hero
looks like according to us, and how we want to
show it. And and the President looks for me. He's like, oh,
well he looks like a superhero, all right. Look at that.
Oh man, that's a nice, great suit. You're lia be sharre.
I was like, thank you, Sarah, appreciate it. And he goes.
(31:46):
We proceed to take this beautiful photograph all of us together.
I go outside. My wife's in line with Danny. Danny's there,
Danny Trejo, who was always around, and we walk in
all the people outside had paid upwards of thirty forty
fifty thousand dollars to be there meet the President the
United States. It was a fundraiser for the DNC. Coming
back inside, my wife takes a single with the with
the president. She's starting to walk off. I was like, baby,
(32:08):
come back for a second, mister president. This is my
wife's Smaranda. It was like, oh, great, this is your wife.
He's not getting a big head? Is he funny to me?
My wife's like, oh yeah. I was like, no, so
she's kidding. My head is firmly screwed on. He's like, well,
i'll tell you what if he is. You just talked
to Michelle. She's got some experience with.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
That this guy. And by the way, it's like, this
is my life. This is imagine, like it's like your life.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
And then you remember we had that discussion with him afterwards,
and I remember this was one of the times where
I was like, I wish Wilmer was native born so
that I can vote him into office to be the president,
because you were so impressive man, while I was so
kind of reserved, kind of didn't didn't you know, it
wasn't asserting, which I didn't assert myself in the conversation.
(32:54):
I was just listening. I was just beholding what was happening.
Wilmer was tip of the spear, front of the front
of the front of the platoon, asking important questions about
immigration policy and and and where are people are and
where are people need to be? And I remember looking
looking at you. I was next to you, and my
wife was here, and you were there just watching you
(33:17):
hold yourself in this way and and and in that
moment aspired to be that. So I'm thankful for that.
So I take that. I take my relationship with you,
and of course Robert and everyone else in the guitar
is what came from Mata. And then we move into
the future where well, I want.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
To say some before we move on.
Speaker 5 (33:34):
Uh, you know, as as you were talking about him
and the stuff that you've been doing, you know, as
someone who's a little older than.
Speaker 4 (33:41):
Both of you and looked younger than.
Speaker 5 (33:46):
Uh, it's been wonderful to see you uh and your trajectory. Uh,
especially And what I love is that we've all worked
with Robert right, and so we kind of know what
his ethos is right, and a lot of what he's
done is that he has made latinos commercially viable, right,
(34:09):
And in our industry, I think at the end of
the day, all the people on the upstairs, all they.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Care about is whether we can make the money or not.
Speaker 5 (34:17):
And he's created this platform where he puts people like
us at the forefront in projects that have themes and
revolve around certain aspects that proved that we could be
commercial or the project could be commercially viable.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
And you're the face of that.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
Right.
Speaker 5 (34:35):
You're playing a soccer player who's like a James Bond. Right,
those are commercially viable themes, yes, and he could have
chosen anybody to play that, but he chose you, right.
And by choosing you, and by you doing the last
of us and you doing everything else that you've done,
you're showing Hollywood that you can be commercially viable. And
(34:56):
if you can prove that you can be commercially viable,
they're going to continue to in invest in people like you.
And that's what's been so wonderful about what Robert has
been doing. It's been so wonderful about what Wilma has
been doing, and and we just got to continue to
do that. You know, the next generation of Gabriel Luna's
and Wilmer and me and and and keep creating projects.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Like that so that we can keep proving that we
can make the money.
Speaker 4 (35:17):
Absolutely man. And and you know, and I think when
I think of you, I always think of I loved,
can't hardly wait. I watched the movie so much do
they say pop? And I was just like, but that
was the thing. It's like Freddie Rodriguez as this one
of the cool kids, you know, and with no specific
kind of framing of it or a reason why a
(35:38):
young Latino is in that position other than they are
in life. And that's just the way it works. And
I remember watching that thing. That's that's that's that's cool.
I like that. I want to I want that, you know,
and and you're and and that's the thing, man, It's
just when given, you know, use whatever resources you have
at your disposal, when given the opportunity to deliver excellence,
(36:00):
never quit. That's what he is, the last line of
rebel without a crew, of Robert's book, And that's what
is what we're all striving to do. And it's working.
It's working in a way that is not only commercially viable,
but is some of the best creative on on screen.
In the Last of Us. You have myself, you have Bedrol,
(36:20):
you have you have Isabella, you have Adiella bar you
have Danny Ramirez. You have all these people, and it's
one of the big shows, if not the biggest show
on the planet at right time, at this present moment.
The you have Diego and in and Or and and
and everyone in that show. You have Asa doing what
(36:43):
she's doing, and you have everybody now in this position
to where it is. It's just it's natural and and
that's that's just a great place to be, especially in
this moment where our culture is trying to another attempt,
another way that they're never going to They can never
snuff us out, no matter how hard they try and
(37:04):
how hard they try to otherise us or or remove
us from the equation. It's it's we're only growing not
only in populace, but also in uh in spirit and
exposure and in proof of our ability and our and
our success, the magnitude of the culture. It's just it's
(37:28):
just too too forceful, too loud, too vibrant to be
snuffed out.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
To talk about this bionary moments. I mean bringing full
circle to the Shield, you know, you know, the Ghostwriter.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
Yeah, when that happened.
Speaker 4 (37:51):
Twenty fifteen, that was the first Mexican American superhero especial
certainly of one of the bigger.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
I mean Tempole care titles.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
Yes, of course, and like one of the first times
that character is going to be brought to life for
this next generation. You know, I think that, you know,
I think obviously Nicholas Case had his quick run with that,
you know, with that movie, but this was the most
the most relevant rendition of that character. I wouldn't be
(38:21):
surprised if you were brought to Doomsday at some point.
But we're not gonna we're not gonna talk about that
right now.
Speaker 4 (38:25):
They might have ran out of chairs.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
But but you know what, you.
Speaker 4 (38:30):
Could put duct type on somebody else's chair who's already wrapped.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
That's right, That's what I'm saying that. But it's gonna
die in the first ten minutes of that movie.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
But but but I think to the point is is
that I remember when you were announced as a Ghostwriter, was.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Like, oh my god, there goes the neighborhood. It's like unstoppable.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
It's like it was a really, really iconic moment because
the comic book world was like, finally we're gonna see this,
this character come to life and it.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
Was a Latino bro.
Speaker 4 (38:59):
Yeah, it was so bad.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
I asked the way that and you came in and
you brought somethings so like, so not just that for
a list, but so necessary to that character. And that
was to me, that was the most exciting season in
the Shield legacy period.
Speaker 4 (39:14):
It was a it was a shift. It was a
shift in the the trajectory of that show. That was
the maiden voyage of Marvel in television. Agent's Shield was
when it first started. Samuel Jackson, Colby, other other characters
who were in the movies were on the show, but
(39:35):
it had started to kind of slide and they didn't
know if they were going to get another season. I
remember they had moved the show to Tuesday nights, the
death Nail slot, Tuesday at nine, and they didn't know
if it was going to continue, and then I guess,
it's twofold. It's the it's it was the the addition
of the ghost writer character. Well, first of all, it
(39:57):
was the restructuring of the season to where it was
three different pods, where there were nine to ten episodes
of a twenty two episode season eight nine ten, three
different kind of stories that all intersect at the end,
and that first nine episodes was the ghostwriter segment of it.
They started the season that way and for nine episodes.
(40:19):
All of a sudden, I was essentially the lead character
of this network action Marvel show that as a new
as a guest star, but the way that the character
was positioned, the history of that character, the popularity of
the character, even though the version I was playing was
only in existence for two years at the time. Created
(40:39):
by my friend Felippe Smith, who we became very close
to home. Oh cool, who's half Jamaican, half Argentine, and
he's a beautiful He was the first American to ever
be published in Japan doing manga, so he's a very
very special individual who's certainly kind of kicked down his
own doors. And with the Robbie Rays character, they told
(41:03):
him he can do what they could do whatever he
wanted with the character, and the first thing he did
was take him away from the bike put him in
a nineteen sixty nine Dods charger because he'd loved the
fast in the Furious movies and it's probably the coolest
silhouette of any muscle car that's ever existed with the
big BDS blower. It's a four to forty HEMI in
it with another beat with a BDS blower on it
that makes it basically a nine hundred horsepower car. And
(41:23):
it's He's like, you know, I just wanted to. I
wanted to kind of piss people off, you know, or
provoke them. Make him a Latin, know, make him a
Mexican American, have him live in in hill Rock Heights,
which is basically the marble version of a Lincoln Heights
or Bull Heights. Have him be be possessed. We changed
(41:45):
it a little bit in the show, but in comic books,
possessed by the his serial killer uncle's spirit, you know,
the Satanic spirit, and him fighting against that at all times,
and being this father figure to his brother who's who
was a paraplegic, and all of these really cool elements
of the story that were not what the Ghostwriter character
(42:06):
was previously. Who was Johnny Blaze, the former stunt man
who who's so cursed. He's like, oh, this is a curse.
I hate this. I hate being the Ghostwriter. But for Robbie.
His life was already cursed. His parents were gone, he
was cursed by this spirit, his brothers in a wheelchair.
He's been thrust into this position of being this father
figure before his time, and the ghostwriter makes him powerful.
(42:30):
So it was this kind of different angle into that character,
and so we do it, and it's the It was
immediately received, well not immediately, because before anyone saw it,
everyone hated the idea. I remember a lot of people
hated the idea that there was a Mexican American ghostwriter.
(42:52):
Like everything, pretty much everything I've done, Terminator, the last
of us playing Tommy Miller's why is this guy doing it?
Until they see us do it?
Speaker 2 (43:01):
Well, see how until they see you do it?
Speaker 3 (43:03):
Let me just give you a little credit on that,
because because one thing is bringing a character and saying, hey,
we're gonna make them Latino, although in those storylines they
were intentionally developed to be a Latino character, which, by
the way, it's why also it works. But then you
need someone to drive that grounded and bring it to
the masses in a way that not only makes sense,
(43:23):
but he lifted and he sores and it and it's free.
So like you brought something so unique to that that
they're like, undeniably they bought that new ghostwriter.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
You know, that's just ky Woes.
Speaker 4 (43:33):
And it was just incredible from start to finish. I
remember when I got the job. They I was at
mar I was in Marfa, Texas at a at a
film festival for a picture I did, trans Pacos. What
I did with another friend of ourtis Clifty Cliffy Cliffy
Collins Junior, Clifton Collins Junior, myself were in this picture
that great Quator directed, who he and his writing partner
(43:55):
Clint Bentley were just nominated for an Oscar for Sing
Sing for his follow up feature, his second one. His
first one was Transpatos, which I was a leader and
the uh. And I was there in Marfa at a
film vessel for this movie and then my team calls me,
uh and they're like, you know that part on Asian
Shield you kept turning down and I was like yeah,
(44:17):
because they had told me there was this part on
Asia Shield. There was a guest star role. And this
is right when the Marvel thing was heating up, and
I was like, you know, I don't want to get
cast in a guest star role as a as maybe
an agent or something else. And then I'm just off
the board for everything else, and so I just kept
saying no. And then finally they're like, you know what,
you should probably go on the internet and look up
what's happening at at comic Con in a couple of weeks,
(44:40):
and I went on or in the following week, i
should say, and everyone is speculating about there's going to
be a ghost Rider in Agents of Shield because there
was all these buses that were wrapped at San Diego
Comic Con with these flaming chain and uh. And I
look it up and sure enough, the latest iteration of
the ghost rider was Robbie Rays, Mexican American from hill
(45:00):
Rock Heights in LA. And that they told me that
this is kind of the that I should look into this,
and I was like, wait a second. Everything about this
dude is a line with me. You know. He you know,
my mom was a fifteen year old widow when she
had me, and she's more so almost like a sibling
now in these days. I'm forty two, she's fifty seven,
(45:20):
and the uh and even even you know, I'd say
to the point where now I'm kind of the paternal
figure for the family. Yeah, take care of her, to
care everybody, my siblings, my grandma and uh and I.
But in this thing, he's this orphaned person who takes
care of his family, takes care of his brother whose
name is Gabriel, and and I'm just like, wow, this
is amazing. I didn't even know this guy existed. And
(45:43):
then they're like, well, they're gonna, you know, Jeff Lobe
and Jed Whedon and mow Tantroon Whedon, they're gonna call
you and set up this thing. And so I'm sitting
there trying to get internet and Marfa because it's really
you know, it's in the desert and all the internet
super spotty. I'm literally sitting in this house that I rented.
I can see we's going down the road. It's like
a one road kind of town. Finally get them on
(46:04):
and they they you know, they're they're like, hey, uh,
you should you know? Do you know anything about this character?
I was like, yeah, I think I know. I was
trying to pretend that I didn't know. And they're like, well,
we'd love you to put down this one scene for us,
and if you could do that, maybe tomorrow tomorrow or
today or whatever. We'd love that and say no problem.
So I went to my my uh my screening just
(46:25):
buzzing because I was like, Wow, this is wild. And
then uh then the next day I I I rented
a room at the Thunderbird Hotel so that I could
because I wasn't gonna stay. I was gonna leave. The
following day. I was like, you know, I'll stay one
more day, get this tape put in, so i'd go up.
My friend Nick helps me. You're stand in, who's there
in Marfa visiting a friend of our? Uh But unbeknown
(46:46):
to me, they were having a day rave down at
the pool. So at my tame So in my tape
all you hear in the background is which is actually
kind of perfect because in my mind Robbie Ray has
kind of listens to this really cool kind of d
M kind of stuff. But I do the scene. I
sent it in. They called me the following day, they're
how fast can you get back to lam Well, I'm
coming in today. Flew in, went home, got dressed, went
(47:09):
to go meet them. Sarah Finn was casting, met the
entire production team, met their kids like and this was
the first sense of the family that they were, and
then then the kind of the kind of thesis statement
that they have, which is really they create this family
culture and they were really great at that, and that's
(47:30):
why the show was as wonderful as it was, and
the fan base feels very much a part of the family.
And and I went that was a Sunday. They called
me the next day to tell me that I got cast.
I was on set that Friday. So in seven days
I went from just not knowing what was gonna you know,
(47:51):
just I mean, you know, I'm just doing my thing.
I was at this film festival to being on set
as the Ghostwriter. As it's being announced at sandie O
Comic Con. Everybody Clark, Gregg, Chloe Bent, everybody Clark was.
They were all in San Diego on that Friday doing
the big hall Ah product presentation, unveiling the fact that
there was gonna be the ghost Rider. And I am
(48:12):
on set squashing a Nazi with my car and uh,
having that.
Speaker 2 (48:18):
Time the time of my life.
Speaker 4 (48:21):
And from one moment to the next, I go back
to my charity, look at my phone, and all of
a suddenly, every every person I've known for the last
you know, in my entire life. It just texted me
that this that they had announced that I was playing
this character, and uh, and that was a huge shift.
I mean it changed a lot in that moment. I mean,
Mattador was was certainly big in my life. And then
(48:41):
as far as just people around the world knowing who
I was, this was kind of the moment. This was
the threshold that I walked through. And uh, and then
we had Then all his left was make the show
and and we we made it. I got to work
with incredible people. We shot in l A. So the
first dude, the first I was so liked. For the
(49:04):
first five six years after Matador, everything was in LA.
I did that. I did Wikes City for ABC. I
did a True Detective here in LA. I did all
these and I thought, well, this is what's supposed to
be right naturally, this is what's supposed to happen. That's
why we move here. And everybody's like, no, bro, you're lucky.
At one point I did a picture called Gravy where
I walked from my apartment in Hollywood to Siren Studios
(49:27):
every day with my guitar in my hand, my other guitar.
This is before Robert baby, this before that, and then
oh no, this was this was I did have this
by then, and uh I got to walk to work.
It's crazy. And now, of course the world has shifted
and they're so you know, every opportunity to get we
have to try to bring work back here because there
(49:48):
is legacy talent in this town. In every department there are.
There are families of grips, There are families of families
of makeup artists, and and they have families that are
been here for decades that you can't just up and
move around, you know. They we need to bring it
all back. Speaking of family legacy families. Eric Norris was
(50:09):
one of my stunt drivers along with Eddie Brown, incredible stuntman,
stunt driver for for uh. And they taught me all
kinds of stuff they probably weren't supposed to teach me,
but you know it's kind of like, what do you
mean in terms of just just precision driving kind of things. Yeah,
and uh, it's kind of an ass, you know. Now
you guys know ABC, I don't know as forgive me.
Speaker 2 (50:31):
It worked out.
Speaker 4 (50:32):
There's still a lot. But Eric was Chuck Norris's son,
and he is Chuck Norris's son. He's an incredible stunt driver. Yeah,
and uh he he uh. He was really fun to
hang out with. And that's another legacy family there in
our business. And I used to tell him Chuck Norris
jokes in the seconder in the second person, so I'd
(50:53):
be like, you know, Eric, your daddy once got bit
by rattlesnake and after seven days of excruciator in pain,
the rattlesnake finally died.
Speaker 2 (51:03):
You know, this is Chuck Norris his house.
Speaker 4 (51:06):
This was Chuck.
Speaker 2 (51:07):
So when I was so, Eric grew this house.
Speaker 4 (51:10):
Yes, yes, this is what I'm saying. You gotta tell
them everything happens exactly. It's just intended to. It's crazy that.
Speaker 3 (51:18):
You had those things like really like geeking now moments
like when when you because first of all, you were
also a terminator.
Speaker 2 (51:26):
Let's suppose we talk about that for a second.
Speaker 3 (51:28):
But the moment when you're like you show up and
you're like, okay, here is you know, ghost Rider's outfit.
Speaker 2 (51:34):
And you're like, damn the jacket, you know, or you
show up to.
Speaker 3 (51:38):
A terminator you're like, there it is the you know,
the the you know, the the chrome's called you know.
Speaker 4 (51:44):
I always say man like when when, especially with things
like that, they're so iconic, Like with the with the
ghost Rider, I had the horseshoe kind of insignia on
the jacket, which was kind of the original design, the
Gary Friederich design from the nineteen seventies comics that flipa
rolled into Robbie's character. But I remember when I put
that jacket on, it was like or when I put
(52:06):
the the the the Air Force jumpsuit when I was
playing the Terminator. You know, it's like there's moments where
the character just snaps into your spine through the costume,
you know, and and there's just these Yeah, the Terminator
thing was another thing where it's it was kind of
it was kind of forecast ahead of time because I
(52:27):
remember doing the ghost Rider in the in the Charger,
which made me think of Robert h in his Dodge
Challenger when he was directing us. I was like, this
is this is so crazy. And then I'm in there
racing down the La River going just ridiculously fast and
because this car was very powerful, and then I was
(52:49):
and then I hear on the walkie They're like, oh man,
this is like grease. It's like grease Lightnings, and I
was like, I get on the walking. I'm like, you know, yeah,
it is kind of like grease, but I'm getting more
Terminator vibes, which is, of course the famous scene where
Robert Patrick and the eighteen wheelers chasing Arnold and Edward
(53:09):
is John Connor down the La River. Yeah. I remember
telling Robert which you mad at or we were on
the First Street Bridge, which is in the First Terminator
where you first see the stop motion endoskeleton of the
terminator after the eighteen wheeler explodes and it emerges and
all the skin is burned off. That was on the
First Street Bridge in La And I remember thinking of
(53:32):
that when I was shooting that. I had to see
him with James Kallis from Battlestar Galactor. We're both on
this thing, and it's just kind of wild that it
all developed that way, because sure enough I would be
Jim Cameron and Tim Miller cast me as a terminator
in twenty eighteen and we went shot the film.
Speaker 1 (53:50):
You're telling so many great stories.
Speaker 5 (53:52):
We're just going to take a slight pause and we're
going to continue on the next episode.
Speaker 3 (53:56):
Stays Unful Part two two episodes Nice Part one, Part
Want Part two.
Speaker 5 (54:00):
Baby Dos Amigos is a production from WV Sound and
iHeartMedia's Michael through That podcast Network, hosted by Me, Freddie Rodriguez,
and Wilmer Valdorama.
Speaker 3 (54:14):
Those Amigos is produced by Aaron Burlson and Sophie Spencer Zabos.
Speaker 5 (54:18):
Our executive producers are Wilmer Valdorama, Freddie Rodriguez, Aaron Burlson,
and Leo Klem at WV Sound.
Speaker 3 (54:25):
This episode was shot and edited by Ryan Posts and
mixed by Sean Tracy and features original music by Madison
Devenport and Halo Boy Our cover.
Speaker 5 (54:33):
Our photography is by David Avalos and designed by Deny Holt.
Speaker 2 (54:38):
And thank you for being there third Amigo today. I
appreciate you, guys.
Speaker 5 (54:41):
I was listening to more podcasts from my heart Visit
the ir Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 2 (54:49):
So your next week
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Wilmer Valderrama
Freddy Rodriguez
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