March 6, 2025 • 29 mins
Inspiration can strike from any source, whether it’s a person, place, or moment. No matter how it arrives, it has the power to propel us through life's challenges. In this episode, Wilmer and Freddy reflect on the key artistic figures who have shaped their creative paths. They discuss the impact of influential icons like Andy Garcia, Jimmy Smits, and Desi Arnaz, and how these figures helped define a vision of success for them. Lastly, they share the methods and approaches they hope will inspire the next generation of creators.
“Dos Amigos” is a comedic and insightful podcast hosted by two friends who’ve journeyed through Hollywood and life together. Wilmer Valderrama and Freddy Rodriguez push through the noise of everyday life and ruminate on a bevy of topics through fun and daring, and occasionally a third amigo joins the mix!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome back to those amigos with Freda Rodriguez and yours
truly when my mother, Ama, well, what do you uh,
what are we doing here? What is this thing that
we continue to sit on?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
You know, still a little coffee? Are we gonna move
on to something else?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
I don't know. I think we're gonna have to spice
us up a little bit. Spice it up, man, spice
it up.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
With our good friend there, Aaron was good.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Uh, everything is everything.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
I am just having a great time listening to you
all reflect on life and everything in between.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
And thank you for being here.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Aaron is one of our executive producers here whose whose
knowledge for conversation is in incomparable. So we're so grateful
to you here with us here, and you know it lead
us into our next conversation next Chad. You know, you
know I will be you know I would be fullished
in our point out. That has been such a privilege
(01:02):
to get to know you on such a level. And
you know, it's crazy we know each other so well,
and every episode we dig deeper on the roots of
how this all really happened, and it continued to validates
why I think you're such a special human being that
I'm so proud that it show can you know, introduced
to so many people too, and and you know, and
to give like some of our existing friends and family
(01:25):
and just you know, maybe some of our fans, you know,
a window at what it took for us to get
to their homes or to the theaters, you know, and
and so that's fun. And as we think about that,
you know, I think about inspiration.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
What is this inspiration?
Speaker 1 (01:43):
We talked about our breaks, you know, we talked about
what it took there, the mentality that we had to
have to go into these rooms and conquer Goliath in
different ways and not know that we were actually performing
at that level and giving ourselves that great in that
space to kind of appreciate that trajectory from you and
from me. But there's a lot of inspiration that had
(02:06):
to be around us, I would think, right, I would
think that we would have to have had certain images,
certain individuals that did it first perhaps, or individuals that
you know that somehow, you know, we're along the way
that kind of helped us see a deeper version of
ourselves or more I don't know, a vulnerable yet powerful
version of ourselves. And you know, there's a lot of
(02:28):
people I believe in my career that I can look
back at, well, I mean who was my inspiration who
told me that I could too? So for you, like,
what were some of those images, What were some of
those individuals that you were like, oh, that's like me,
or like oh I can do it like them, or
even if that wasn't it just like just knowing that
the possibility was, you know, was was out there for
(02:51):
you to reach out to, Like who were some of
these images when some of these people that inspire you?
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Yeah, well, you know, for me growing up in Chicago
and having two older brothers, I was lucky enough to
almost live their teenage years vicariously do them right, And
so we would you know, we lived in a in
a one television household with like a lot of Latino families. Oh, absolutely,
the dials, the hangar as, the pliers to like change
(03:19):
the channel. But I remember really early on watching TV
with my brothers and them pointing out, always pointing out
who the Latino Latino actors are, right, I mean.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
We obviously grew up with like with the Rita.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Morenos of the world, with the Anthony Quinns of the world.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
You know people like that.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
I remember vividly, like Jimmy Smith's being on TV and
my brothers pointing.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Out, like, yo, that guy's Latino.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
You know. I remember seeing East SiGe Morales in the
in the in the eighties. I remember seeing Andy Garcia
in the nineties when he first came out and what
a what an incredible movie star he was, right, I mean,
it was the first time I had ever really seen
someone like that and and speak Spanish and like a
like a major.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Blockbuster studio movie, you even play other ethnicities, right, but yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
Yeah, yeah, right, playing playing Italian and The Godfather or
the Untouchables, you know. And then I remember seeing Leguzamo,
our mutual friend John Leguizamo. And the reason why John
resonated a lot with me was, you know, seeing Jimmy
who was so classy and or or Andy who was
(04:29):
born in Cuba, like John, was one of the first
guys that I saw that I felt like I could
see that guy in my neighborhood. You know, there was
a deeper familiarity with him, and so I remember watching
him and following him closely and really being proud of
what he was doing and also giving me the inspiration
(04:49):
and an example of what I could do when I started.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
And how different, right, I mean, he was such a
different type of performer and he was doing it.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Like nobody else was.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
He allowed himself to be a different type of performer
that was bringing something to the table that was not going.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
To be forgotten.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Every perform you remember every performance, yeah, I mean even
as like all the way to like the clown and spawn, right,
Like he's done so much iconic stuff to that point,
and then he does the clown and you're like what
you know, but he was taking shots and he was
taking chances with his performances and his choices that just
most actors wouldn't, you know. And you know some people
(05:29):
would be afraid to do it, to do those too
well because they could get typecasts, you know.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
And he was just one of those guys.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
And he was unapologetically Latino the entire time at a
time where Latino wasn't necessarily the popular cast.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Yeah yeah, and wasn't afraid to be a character actors scrappier,
yeah yeah, And came from that generation of what we
were talking about this earlier, of like character actors, you know,
like creating characters and voices and completely losing yourself and
the character. And he definitely embodied that. You know what
about you, I mean, you know you you came here
(06:06):
as a teenager, and this is pre internet, pre cable.
I would assume like, what was I mean, what were
you watching out in Venezuela that that inspired you, that
made you think that it was possible for you.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
So in Venezuela, you know, Venezuela is like always ten
years late to get like new programming. So my collective
archives of television memories, Yes, it was crazy until I
was watching first of all, I Love Lucy in Spanish,
(06:40):
course in Spanish, in Spanish, which by the way, I
never knew he had an accent until I watched it
in English and in the United States.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
So wait, wait, so what did it sound like? How
did he sound in Spanish?
Speaker 1 (06:51):
He sounded like the entire cast was speaking in Spanish.
It was not in Spanish. None of them had accents. Huh, right,
so they were speaking Spanish.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
So when I came to the United States and then
I was learning how to speak English, I went back
because I've seen every episode of I Love Lucy, and
when I started watching I Love Lucy again, I realized, oh,
wait a minute, that's what Lucy both sounds.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Like, and he has an accent, right, and I didn't
know that.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
So that was a magical moment for me. When I
heard his accent. I was like, oh, that's like me.
I have an accent. I just learned how to speak English.
I have an accent too. But you know, beyond that,
back and when it's well that we were watching stuff
from you know, there was a live action Spider Man
from the seventies or in the early eighties, you know
whatever there was, you know, lu Forarigno's Hole, Charlie's Angels,
(07:40):
you know, chips. I wanted to be punched so bad,
you know, you know, and you think about all those shows,
you know further, and then you kind of had a
collect every think like the Simpsons were playing and like
The Fresh Prince, you know, shows like that that were like,
you know, obviously making its way into syndication around the world. Literally,
did I know the syndication was created by the one
(08:02):
guy that didn't have an accent and then eventually had
an accent when I watched him in English and the
United States, and that was Ricky Ricardo.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Leasi Ernest.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I didn't know he created Syndication.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yes, he was the He was the guy who who said, Hey,
I'm gonna show with one more than one cameras and
we're going to record it, right and once they recorded it,
this thing was available for sale internationally everywhere. So he
accident to create it, the Syndication in the multi camp
format and you know that that entire thing, you know,
and and they owned it, you know. So so those
(08:33):
are the kind of inspirations that I grew up with,
like The Punch, you know, I grew up with Chico
and The Man, you know USA, you know. So these
were shows that like somehow was creating the solution that
we were also included pop culture. You come to America
and start watching TV and you realize that it's leaning
(08:54):
away in the other side, which is fine, right, Like
I didn't see anything wrong with it until I realized
what America really looked like and what was really reflected
on those stories, right, I never really knew you know,
where we were in that in that in that inclusion meter,
you know, did you feel like they were did you
(09:15):
feel like when you were in Venezuela that they were
specifically showing those shows because they were latinos in it. No,
I think that they were selling contact around the world,
and I think that the things that were really popular
in the United States were an easy cell for international markets, right,
and you know, they were also selling like packages, you know,
like maybe CBS Corps at the time, We're sending all
(09:36):
their CBS sitcoms, you know, and then we're selling them
across the world. I don't know what some of those
factors playing in that time, but I was growing up
with that. And then when it came to movies, you know, Rocky,
you know, Cobra everything still yeah, you know, Conan Terminator,
you know, everything are no right, like in our countries
and back in in Latin America, these movies action movies
(09:59):
were the ones that they played every weekend in TV,
you know, on TV.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
So these were some of these images.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
But I mean to me, these characters, you know, were
larger than live but they were capable, and there was
like these single mission guys. Yeah, Arnold's Commando, you know, like.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Commando, you know, all these things.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
You know, you watch all the Godfathers in Spanish, you know,
and yeah, was.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
It always in Spanish?
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Yeah, because we're watching free channels.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Right, there was only two channels, Karakas and Venevicion, and
they syndicate all this stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
You know.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
During the weekends, they would play The Extorcists, the Rocky movies. Yeah,
they played Superman, the Christopher Reeve movies, right every weekend.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
And in the movie theaters.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
We had a tiny little movie theater on the weekends
and we had only RoboCup, like robo We played Robo
cup all year round in the movie theater, you know.
But you know again, so these were some of the influences.
And I think Punch, yeah, Dessi or Naz for me,
we're like, oh, Punch is like it's like a hero,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
It's like out there catching the bad guys.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Desi er Nas wearing a suit, is playing music at
a life band, and you know, he started doing a
scene with John Wayne, He's doing a cameo on the show.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
You know.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
It's like I was like, how cool is that? You know?
Speaker 1 (11:15):
And so I think those things really inspire me and
started like opening my mind. But never, never, as I
was growing up, ever thought that I'd be one of
these guys that eventually could create something that could maybe
outlive me.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Does it?
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Does it ever freak you out that, like, you know,
you just described your childhood, you describe what you were
watching like you're that guy now, like you're you're Eric
Estrada now right to this next generation of kids in
Venezuela and Colombia all.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Through the world. You know, does that ever? Do you
ever think about that?
Speaker 1 (11:52):
I never, I've never really take a moment to I
can appreciate the fact that what I've done somehow, I've
made it out there. When you really hit me was
when I went to Venezuela to visit a bunch of
years ago, many many years ago, and there was a
channel there, Sony Entertainment Television, and Sony had all the shows,
(12:13):
but they had him in English, you know, they just
subtitled in Spanish, and.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
He did really well for young people.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Young people loved watching it in English and reading the
subtitles in Latin America. And when I went down there
and I saw that my show was playing and the
small little town that I grew up in, yeah, you.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Actually saw on TV. Oh wow, that's it.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
That's when I was like, what just happened? Yeah, in
the same living room that I grew up. Yeah, that
I was watching the shows.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Now these shows are full circle coming.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
In this way, and so that was a moment that
really felt, oh, like, when I'm doing is something real?
It's not just like you know, it's not just playing right,
and you know you always knew that it was there
was something to it, you know, but I just think
you know it doesn't. The impact is like when when
you walk down the streets of London and you've never
(13:09):
been to London before, and all of a sudden someone's like, hey,
you know, grew up.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Watching your show with a British accident and you're like, whoa.
I mean like I've never been here.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Somehow somebody knows that I exist a different like Singapore.
Was walking down Singapore and these two ladies were leaving
the store after that closed it and then they looked
at me because oh I couldn't speak English, and so
that kind of stuff that it really kind of hits
you and makes you go, whoa, man, this is Maybe
what we're doing is it is larger than we think,
and like what we are putting on that screen is
(13:39):
also you know, like what are we inspiring you know
people with.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Did you have you had instances like that? Did you
think to yourself like WHOA, Like, you know, it was
cool making the movie, and now it's like, yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
I just recently this sort of encompasses it. I had
somebody around the holidays, I did this holiday movie and
this around the holidays, I ran into a fan randomly
and they said, you know, I love this this holiday movie.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
You did it.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
It's called Nothing Like the Holidays.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
It was a legamo and media of course, and and
she said, you know, me and my me and my
father used to watch this movie every holiday.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
And I was like, oh, that's beautiful, you know.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
And then and then she gets tears in her eyes
and she's like, but he's passed away, you know. But
that's the thing that we had, is that we would
watch this movie together.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
And now she'll watch that movie and it'll take her
back to her dad.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
Yeah, But it's been stuff like that, you know, really
receiving the emotional impact that I've had on people, you know,
and that really means a lot to me because that's
really what I'm doing right, Like I'm I'm I'm offering
a form of escapism for people, right and you don't
know what's happening in people's lives, and you know you
(15:00):
really think about that, right, Like, like, we come into
people's most intimate spaces, right, we come into people's living rooms,
we come into people's bedrooms, spaces that only only very
few people are allowed to be into, and we're moving
people emotionally in these spaces that are very intimate and
dear to them, you know. And I think that that's
(15:22):
why when you run into these kinds of people that
they feel that they know you because you've moved them
emotionally in these intimate spaces. I mean, they spent hours
with you hours man hours, you know the same way
that we did, right, you know, they like like like
the vision that you that you shared with me in Venezuela,
the same way we did.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Right, we're coming up.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
We're watching Punch, you know, chase people down the one
on one you know, like, but but we spend so
much time with them in our living room.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Did you think about what what was your show?
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Was?
Speaker 3 (15:52):
It? Was it Punch? Like there was it Chips? Which
one was? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Chips man, yeah, all of that chips.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
I remember specifically seeing Eric Ostrada and.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Going like, oh wow, man, there's like one of us,
you know, he did a Spanish soap opera.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Those those coming, those those coming, those those weirdest gummy coming.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
And which means two women on the one.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
And I watched that soap opera in Spanish. You did
my mom in Venezuela. I think we were back in
the United States at this point. I forget, but it
was yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, And it was crazy about it.
It's like I grew up watching him Punch, so of
course as a little boy, I was like, oh, Punch
is in a Spanish stillingela, Like I started watching him
(16:44):
in those those modism comino and and the dude. The
show is quite literally what the title was.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
It was.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Women to figure out which one and they both were like,
you have to pick yea.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
It weren't even mad about him two women at the
same time. Is that what the whole show was about?
What the show is about?
Speaker 1 (17:05):
The whole time he needs to make a decision between,
you know, between these two actresses to the two these
two characters.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Wow, and it's the dilemma, you.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Know, you know, why is his destiny but the other
one he's in love with.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
You know.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
It's like like it was so it was so crazy,
but only Spanish stilling over lets can sell you on
that fantasy, you know.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, wow.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
I remember my mom watching that, you know, but but
I you know, you were asking me was it paunch?
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Was it?
Speaker 4 (17:46):
I remember I remember watching you ever seen this movie
Internal Affairs with with Andy Garcia Richard Gear.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
I don't know how well.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
We got a hold of the video tape back in
like the eighties and we had that.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
Movie on heavy rotation, and I remember Andy had a
couple of lines in Spanish in that movie, and.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
It blew my mind.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
It was like the first time I had ever met
I couldn't comprehend. It was like, well, wait, this guy
is the lead guy, Richard Gear, major Hollywood movie and
he's speaking Spanish. You know, it blew I don't I
don't remember ever seeing that, like in like a major
American film.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Like that before.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
And when you see an American actor speak her language,
it's like, you know, culture just like oh my, you
know what I mean, It becomes it becomes interesting. Like
I've seen Ben Affleck. Dude, fool.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Can speak better Spanish than you and I.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
By the way, he sounds like, you know, like.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
You know, he literally does.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
He sounds like he's from like TG.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Yeah, but you know, but we give them so much
respect because whoever tries, you know, our culture rewards and
we're loyalty, you know.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
And it's beautiful to see what actors really try. Uh.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
And I think it's becoming more possible now with our
where characters are finally more in tune with the responsibility
we have as we portray these characters on screen. You know,
back then, you know, some of these characters were either
not the imperfect or the bad guys you know, or
you know, they were in the mob or whatever it is,
(19:33):
you know. And and so to to see that there
is a a new generation of Latino characters, did you
feel a little responsible for like what you do now
or how you pass down the torch?
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Man, that's a good question. Do I feel responsible?
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (19:49):
Yeah, to an extent, I feel the responsibility. I always
felt the responsibility, especially after seeing those guys and me
realizing that I'm the guy who came next. I'm like,
if I got to follow that up, man, I better
be on my A game twenty four to seven, you know.
So yeah, in that sense, I felt the responsibility. You know,
(20:11):
A great feeling is when I meet like new actors
you know, who are coming up, who are doing wonderful work.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Who who.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
Say to me that they've you know, watched me when
they were in school, or they came up watching me,
or they studied my work and that inspired them to
become actors. And so that, you know, I always feel
this responsibility, not not necessarily to like mentor them, but
to but to really be available to people like that,
(20:39):
you know, because they're just going through what we went
through now, uh, and if there's anything that I.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
Could ever offer.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
So that they don't fall into any pitfalls or or
learn certain etiquettes or or you know, certain gems of
how our industry works, and to make the path maybe
a little more or smoother for them, you know.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
And you said something that really triggered another point for
us is, you know, they're about to go through similar
journeys that we went through. Right now, how is this
industry and compared to when we broke, you know, in comparison,
(21:22):
like what do they have against them, you know, you know, and.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
What they have for them?
Speaker 1 (21:29):
I would say, if you you know, if I go first,
I would say that what they have what they have
for them, is that the level of technology that can
support your independent art from the industry itself is so
much more available for you to show what you can be.
You can sharpen your tools sooner to become a director,
(21:53):
to become a writer, to become mean, there's so much
Like you can go to YouTube and teach yourself how
to write a screenplay.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
You can go to YouTube and teach.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Yourself how to light a simple scene so you can
shoot it with an iPhone or whatever. You know, you
have a situation here now where like you know, you
have a moment in time now where where where I
think young people, you know have the tools if they
really want it, and at that point they can make
their own stuff and they can work backwards from it. Now,
what they have against them is a fracture industry who's
(22:25):
trying to figure out how to sustain how to sustain
a signal, how to sustain an audience, how to engage
with content that can continue to push limits and not
feel the same movie with a different title.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Right, How do you open the door.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
For new talent and for a new wave of superstars
who can expand ideas into levels and universes that television
and movies have not gone before. And there's a struggle
for that entry point, you know, and how do you
break in? But so it's an interesting balance, right because
for us, when we aim to be what we are now,
(23:07):
our biggest struggle was that there were not enough parts
for Latinos. And if they were, you knew where they were,
You knew what they were and where they wanted you
to be. And I started thinking about also, you know,
there was only four channels doing network stuff.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
Cable wasn't really the.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Aboundance of opportunity like you thought, you know, and you know,
theater you know, they was not sustainable for a lot
of actors, right, and then movies were like, you know,
a pop here eight months later, popped there, you know.
And so it's likeness, instant of signal. But do you think,
for you in your mind, what do they have for
them and what do they.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
Have against It's a good question, right, I Mean, if
we're just talking about sort of Latinos and latinos, you know,
it's what they've always had against them, right I And look,
I'm just pointing out the facts, right, I mean, just
(24:05):
turn on the TV and and and count how many
Latinos and latinos you see on TV right now, Right,
So that's indicative of the opportunities that that's being afforded,
whether it's you or I or the generation that came
after us or the generation who was here before us. Right. So,
so the opportunities are certainly slim. It's hard to say
(24:28):
whether it's it was slimmer back then or it's slimmer now.
You know, you know, when you try to gauge how
many of our people that you see on TV, at
least like what you said. You know, back then, we
at least had like movies. Movies were abundant, whether whether
it was you know, studio movies.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Or the I mean there was three or four releasing
every weekend, and they're all were like real, yeah, real.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Iconic stuff that we still remember to yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
And people were making money on movies.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
They were making movies for the first time, like ideas
for the first time, refreshed ideas. They're always trying to do,
what's a movie we haven't made, Let's put that in
three thousand screens.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Nowadays it's like, who, how do we get capitalized on
on the success of that movie?
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Let's make another one like that?
Speaker 4 (25:12):
You know, yeah, yeah, I mean even you know, it's
it's great that that fans have grown up watching my movies,
you know, from the nineties, from the two thousands, you know.
And I'll sometimes get fans that will go, hey, man,
(25:33):
how come you don't make you know, they'll name one
of my movies from the nineties and two thousands, and
I'll just go, well, they don't make movies like that.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Anymore, man, They just don't.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
Yeah, And if they do, you know, there's there's no
budget behind those movies. People are not making moneies off
those movies, you know. So at least when we were
coming up, we had we had a couple of different
avenues that we can that we could go in. Now,
the movies that actors, you know, have the opportunity to
fight for are these gigantic budget movies, and they're so
(26:04):
far and few between, right, So then that that means
that a lot of the quote unquote movie stars are
sort of funneling into the movie into the TV industry,
right right, And now everything is sort of name driven
in the television industry, which it wasn't like that when
you and I were coming up, And so a lot
of those roles are being gobbled up by them right,
(26:25):
and so like the newer generation, although it may seem
like the opportunities are more vast, a lot of those
roles are being gobbled up by other actors so that
there's less opportunities for them.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
I think, I don't know, I may I may be wrong.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
I know, I think you're right.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
I think you're nailing it, dude, because the illusion is
that there's so many streaming platforms, there's so many networks,
cable networks, you know that that are all making script
is stuff, nonscripted stuff.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
So the illusion is that there should be tons of parts.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Yeah, but you know, it's it's also seems like, you know,
you know, it's not going to be things that are
going to help you the amount of stuff that you're
going to have to do to sustain, right, the volume
that you have to now capture or or or get
(27:16):
as an actor in order to just sustain. Because because
there's no such thing as like, I just got a
movie that a lot of people saw and that's going
to pave the way for me to get a new movie, Bryan,
give me that energy to now I'm going to get
a TV show and all that. So that makes it
really difficult, right, because now it's like, you could do
four movies and nobody saw that she have to go
(27:37):
back to audition for the next one, right, because there's
no such thing as that, And so I guess why
all the question is, you know what we think about this?
You know, how does that translate to multiple industries?
Speaker 4 (27:49):
Right?
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Multiple careers of different genres, different industries. What can people
expect to think about right now? Like what would you be?
What would be the advice for a young person that's like, okay,
well I want to be you know, I want to
be a doctored or I want to be you know, like,
how do we you know, what is inspiration for that?
(28:12):
We can talk about that. It fuels ambition again into
in this younger generation.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Well that was part one. Stay tuned for part two.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
Stay tuned. Those Amigos coming right back.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
Dose Amigos is a production from w V Sound and
iHeartMedia's Michael through That podcast network, hosted by me, Freddie
Rodriguez and Wilmer Valdorama.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Those Amigos is produced by Aaron Burlson and Sophie Spencer's Abos.
Speaker 4 (28:41):
Our executive producers are Wilmer Valdorama, Freddie Rodriguez Aaron Burlson
and Leo Clem at WV Sound.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
This episode was shot and edited by Ryan Posts and
mixed by Sean Tracy and features original music by Madison
Devenport and Halo Boy.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
Our cover our photography is by David Avalos and designed
by Deny host.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Claw And thank you for being a third amigo today.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
I appreciate you guys always listening to those amos.
Speaker 4 (29:05):
For more podcasts from My Heart, visit the ir Heart
Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
So you next week.
Welcome back to those amigos with Freda Rodriguez and yours
truly when my mother, Ama, well, what do you uh,
what are we doing here? What is this thing that
we continue to sit on?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
You know, still a little coffee? Are we gonna move
on to something else?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
I don't know. I think we're gonna have to spice
us up a little bit. Spice it up, man, spice
it up.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
With our good friend there, Aaron was good.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Uh, everything is everything.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
I am just having a great time listening to you
all reflect on life and everything in between.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
And thank you for being here.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Aaron is one of our executive producers here whose whose
knowledge for conversation is in incomparable. So we're so grateful
to you here with us here, and you know it lead
us into our next conversation next Chad. You know, you
know I will be you know I would be fullished
in our point out. That has been such a privilege
(01:02):
to get to know you on such a level. And
you know, it's crazy we know each other so well,
and every episode we dig deeper on the roots of
how this all really happened, and it continued to validates
why I think you're such a special human being that
I'm so proud that it show can you know, introduced
to so many people too, and and you know, and
to give like some of our existing friends and family
(01:25):
and just you know, maybe some of our fans, you know,
a window at what it took for us to get
to their homes or to the theaters, you know, and
and so that's fun. And as we think about that,
you know, I think about inspiration.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
What is this inspiration?
Speaker 1 (01:43):
We talked about our breaks, you know, we talked about
what it took there, the mentality that we had to
have to go into these rooms and conquer Goliath in
different ways and not know that we were actually performing
at that level and giving ourselves that great in that
space to kind of appreciate that trajectory from you and
from me. But there's a lot of inspiration that had
(02:06):
to be around us, I would think, right, I would
think that we would have to have had certain images,
certain individuals that did it first perhaps, or individuals that
you know that somehow, you know, we're along the way
that kind of helped us see a deeper version of
ourselves or more I don't know, a vulnerable yet powerful
version of ourselves. And you know, there's a lot of
(02:28):
people I believe in my career that I can look
back at, well, I mean who was my inspiration who
told me that I could too? So for you, like,
what were some of those images, What were some of
those individuals that you were like, oh, that's like me,
or like oh I can do it like them, or
even if that wasn't it just like just knowing that
the possibility was, you know, was was out there for
(02:51):
you to reach out to, Like who were some of
these images when some of these people that inspire you?
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Yeah, well, you know, for me growing up in Chicago
and having two older brothers, I was lucky enough to
almost live their teenage years vicariously do them right, And
so we would you know, we lived in a in
a one television household with like a lot of Latino families. Oh, absolutely,
the dials, the hangar as, the pliers to like change
(03:19):
the channel. But I remember really early on watching TV
with my brothers and them pointing out, always pointing out
who the Latino Latino actors are, right, I mean.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
We obviously grew up with like with the Rita.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Morenos of the world, with the Anthony Quinns of the world.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
You know people like that.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
I remember vividly, like Jimmy Smith's being on TV and
my brothers pointing.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Out, like, yo, that guy's Latino.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
You know. I remember seeing East SiGe Morales in the
in the in the eighties. I remember seeing Andy Garcia
in the nineties when he first came out and what
a what an incredible movie star he was, right, I mean,
it was the first time I had ever really seen
someone like that and and speak Spanish and like a
like a major.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Blockbuster studio movie, you even play other ethnicities, right, but yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
Yeah, yeah, right, playing playing Italian and The Godfather or
the Untouchables, you know. And then I remember seeing Leguzamo,
our mutual friend John Leguizamo. And the reason why John
resonated a lot with me was, you know, seeing Jimmy
who was so classy and or or Andy who was
(04:29):
born in Cuba, like John, was one of the first
guys that I saw that I felt like I could
see that guy in my neighborhood. You know, there was
a deeper familiarity with him, and so I remember watching
him and following him closely and really being proud of
what he was doing and also giving me the inspiration
(04:49):
and an example of what I could do when I started.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
And how different, right, I mean, he was such a
different type of performer and he was doing it.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Like nobody else was.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
He allowed himself to be a different type of performer
that was bringing something to the table that was not going.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
To be forgotten.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Every perform you remember every performance, yeah, I mean even
as like all the way to like the clown and spawn, right,
Like he's done so much iconic stuff to that point,
and then he does the clown and you're like what
you know, but he was taking shots and he was
taking chances with his performances and his choices that just
most actors wouldn't, you know. And you know some people
(05:29):
would be afraid to do it, to do those too
well because they could get typecasts, you know.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
And he was just one of those guys.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
And he was unapologetically Latino the entire time at a
time where Latino wasn't necessarily the popular cast.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Yeah yeah, and wasn't afraid to be a character actors scrappier,
yeah yeah, And came from that generation of what we
were talking about this earlier, of like character actors, you know,
like creating characters and voices and completely losing yourself and
the character. And he definitely embodied that. You know what
about you, I mean, you know you you came here
(06:06):
as a teenager, and this is pre internet, pre cable.
I would assume like, what was I mean, what were
you watching out in Venezuela that that inspired you, that
made you think that it was possible for you.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
So in Venezuela, you know, Venezuela is like always ten
years late to get like new programming. So my collective
archives of television memories, Yes, it was crazy until I
was watching first of all, I Love Lucy in Spanish,
(06:40):
course in Spanish, in Spanish, which by the way, I
never knew he had an accent until I watched it
in English and in the United States.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
So wait, wait, so what did it sound like? How
did he sound in Spanish?
Speaker 1 (06:51):
He sounded like the entire cast was speaking in Spanish.
It was not in Spanish. None of them had accents. Huh, right,
so they were speaking Spanish.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
So when I came to the United States and then
I was learning how to speak English, I went back
because I've seen every episode of I Love Lucy, and
when I started watching I Love Lucy again, I realized, oh,
wait a minute, that's what Lucy both sounds.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Like, and he has an accent, right, and I didn't
know that.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
So that was a magical moment for me. When I
heard his accent. I was like, oh, that's like me.
I have an accent. I just learned how to speak English.
I have an accent too. But you know, beyond that,
back and when it's well that we were watching stuff
from you know, there was a live action Spider Man
from the seventies or in the early eighties, you know
whatever there was, you know, lu Forarigno's Hole, Charlie's Angels,
(07:40):
you know, chips. I wanted to be punched so bad,
you know, you know, and you think about all those shows,
you know further, and then you kind of had a
collect every think like the Simpsons were playing and like
The Fresh Prince, you know, shows like that that were like,
you know, obviously making its way into syndication around the world. Literally,
did I know the syndication was created by the one
(08:02):
guy that didn't have an accent and then eventually had
an accent when I watched him in English and the
United States, and that was Ricky Ricardo.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Leasi Ernest.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I didn't know he created Syndication.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yes, he was the He was the guy who who said, Hey,
I'm gonna show with one more than one cameras and
we're going to record it, right and once they recorded it,
this thing was available for sale internationally everywhere. So he
accident to create it, the Syndication in the multi camp
format and you know that that entire thing, you know,
and and they owned it, you know. So so those
(08:33):
are the kind of inspirations that I grew up with,
like The Punch, you know, I grew up with Chico
and The Man, you know USA, you know. So these
were shows that like somehow was creating the solution that
we were also included pop culture. You come to America
and start watching TV and you realize that it's leaning
(08:54):
away in the other side, which is fine, right, Like
I didn't see anything wrong with it until I realized
what America really looked like and what was really reflected
on those stories, right, I never really knew you know,
where we were in that in that in that inclusion meter,
you know, did you feel like they were did you
(09:15):
feel like when you were in Venezuela that they were
specifically showing those shows because they were latinos in it. No,
I think that they were selling contact around the world,
and I think that the things that were really popular
in the United States were an easy cell for international markets, right,
and you know, they were also selling like packages, you know,
like maybe CBS Corps at the time, We're sending all
(09:36):
their CBS sitcoms, you know, and then we're selling them
across the world. I don't know what some of those
factors playing in that time, but I was growing up
with that. And then when it came to movies, you know, Rocky,
you know, Cobra everything still yeah, you know, Conan Terminator,
you know, everything are no right, like in our countries
and back in in Latin America, these movies action movies
(09:59):
were the ones that they played every weekend in TV,
you know, on TV.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
So these were some of these images.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
But I mean to me, these characters, you know, were
larger than live but they were capable, and there was
like these single mission guys. Yeah, Arnold's Commando, you know, like.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Commando, you know, all these things.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
You know, you watch all the Godfathers in Spanish, you know,
and yeah, was.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
It always in Spanish?
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Yeah, because we're watching free channels.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Right, there was only two channels, Karakas and Venevicion, and
they syndicate all this stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
You know.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
During the weekends, they would play The Extorcists, the Rocky movies. Yeah,
they played Superman, the Christopher Reeve movies, right every weekend.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
And in the movie theaters.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
We had a tiny little movie theater on the weekends
and we had only RoboCup, like robo We played Robo
cup all year round in the movie theater, you know.
But you know again, so these were some of the influences.
And I think Punch, yeah, Dessi or Naz for me,
we're like, oh, Punch is like it's like a hero,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
It's like out there catching the bad guys.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Desi er Nas wearing a suit, is playing music at
a life band, and you know, he started doing a
scene with John Wayne, He's doing a cameo on the show.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
You know.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
It's like I was like, how cool is that? You know?
Speaker 1 (11:15):
And so I think those things really inspire me and
started like opening my mind. But never, never, as I
was growing up, ever thought that I'd be one of
these guys that eventually could create something that could maybe
outlive me.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Does it?
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Does it ever freak you out that, like, you know,
you just described your childhood, you describe what you were
watching like you're that guy now, like you're you're Eric
Estrada now right to this next generation of kids in
Venezuela and Colombia all.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Through the world. You know, does that ever? Do you
ever think about that?
Speaker 1 (11:52):
I never, I've never really take a moment to I
can appreciate the fact that what I've done somehow, I've
made it out there. When you really hit me was
when I went to Venezuela to visit a bunch of
years ago, many many years ago, and there was a
channel there, Sony Entertainment Television, and Sony had all the shows,
(12:13):
but they had him in English, you know, they just
subtitled in Spanish, and.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
He did really well for young people.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Young people loved watching it in English and reading the
subtitles in Latin America. And when I went down there
and I saw that my show was playing and the
small little town that I grew up in, yeah, you.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Actually saw on TV. Oh wow, that's it.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
That's when I was like, what just happened? Yeah, in
the same living room that I grew up. Yeah, that
I was watching the shows.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Now these shows are full circle coming.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
In this way, and so that was a moment that
really felt, oh, like, when I'm doing is something real?
It's not just like you know, it's not just playing right,
and you know you always knew that it was there
was something to it, you know, but I just think
you know it doesn't. The impact is like when when
you walk down the streets of London and you've never
(13:09):
been to London before, and all of a sudden someone's like, hey,
you know, grew up.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Watching your show with a British accident and you're like, whoa.
I mean like I've never been here.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Somehow somebody knows that I exist a different like Singapore.
Was walking down Singapore and these two ladies were leaving
the store after that closed it and then they looked
at me because oh I couldn't speak English, and so
that kind of stuff that it really kind of hits
you and makes you go, whoa, man, this is Maybe
what we're doing is it is larger than we think,
and like what we are putting on that screen is
(13:39):
also you know, like what are we inspiring you know
people with.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Did you have you had instances like that? Did you
think to yourself like WHOA, Like, you know, it was
cool making the movie, and now it's like, yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
I just recently this sort of encompasses it. I had
somebody around the holidays, I did this holiday movie and
this around the holidays, I ran into a fan randomly
and they said, you know, I love this this holiday movie.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
You did it.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
It's called Nothing Like the Holidays.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
It was a legamo and media of course, and and
she said, you know, me and my me and my
father used to watch this movie every holiday.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
And I was like, oh, that's beautiful, you know.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
And then and then she gets tears in her eyes
and she's like, but he's passed away, you know. But
that's the thing that we had, is that we would
watch this movie together.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
And now she'll watch that movie and it'll take her
back to her dad.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
Yeah, But it's been stuff like that, you know, really
receiving the emotional impact that I've had on people, you know,
and that really means a lot to me because that's
really what I'm doing right, Like I'm I'm I'm offering
a form of escapism for people, right and you don't
know what's happening in people's lives, and you know you
(15:00):
really think about that, right, Like, like, we come into
people's most intimate spaces, right, we come into people's living rooms,
we come into people's bedrooms, spaces that only only very
few people are allowed to be into, and we're moving
people emotionally in these spaces that are very intimate and
dear to them, you know. And I think that that's
(15:22):
why when you run into these kinds of people that
they feel that they know you because you've moved them
emotionally in these intimate spaces. I mean, they spent hours
with you hours man hours, you know the same way
that we did, right, you know, they like like like
the vision that you that you shared with me in Venezuela,
the same way we did.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Right, we're coming up.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
We're watching Punch, you know, chase people down the one
on one you know, like, but but we spend so
much time with them in our living room.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Did you think about what what was your show?
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Was?
Speaker 3 (15:52):
It? Was it Punch? Like there was it Chips? Which
one was? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Chips man, yeah, all of that chips.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
I remember specifically seeing Eric Ostrada and.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Going like, oh wow, man, there's like one of us,
you know, he did a Spanish soap opera.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Those those coming, those those coming, those those weirdest gummy coming.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
And which means two women on the one.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
And I watched that soap opera in Spanish. You did
my mom in Venezuela. I think we were back in
the United States at this point. I forget, but it
was yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, And it was crazy about it.
It's like I grew up watching him Punch, so of
course as a little boy, I was like, oh, Punch
is in a Spanish stillingela, Like I started watching him
(16:44):
in those those modism comino and and the dude. The
show is quite literally what the title was.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
It was.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Women to figure out which one and they both were like,
you have to pick yea.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
It weren't even mad about him two women at the
same time. Is that what the whole show was about?
What the show is about?
Speaker 1 (17:05):
The whole time he needs to make a decision between,
you know, between these two actresses to the two these
two characters.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Wow, and it's the dilemma, you.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Know, you know, why is his destiny but the other
one he's in love with.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
You know.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
It's like like it was so it was so crazy,
but only Spanish stilling over lets can sell you on
that fantasy, you know.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, wow.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
I remember my mom watching that, you know, but but
I you know, you were asking me was it paunch?
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Was it?
Speaker 4 (17:46):
I remember I remember watching you ever seen this movie
Internal Affairs with with Andy Garcia Richard Gear.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
I don't know how well.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
We got a hold of the video tape back in
like the eighties and we had that.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
Movie on heavy rotation, and I remember Andy had a
couple of lines in Spanish in that movie, and.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
It blew my mind.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
It was like the first time I had ever met
I couldn't comprehend. It was like, well, wait, this guy
is the lead guy, Richard Gear, major Hollywood movie and
he's speaking Spanish. You know, it blew I don't I
don't remember ever seeing that, like in like a major
American film.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Like that before.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
And when you see an American actor speak her language,
it's like, you know, culture just like oh my, you
know what I mean, It becomes it becomes interesting. Like
I've seen Ben Affleck. Dude, fool.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Can speak better Spanish than you and I.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
By the way, he sounds like, you know, like.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
You know, he literally does.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
He sounds like he's from like TG.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Yeah, but you know, but we give them so much
respect because whoever tries, you know, our culture rewards and
we're loyalty, you know.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
And it's beautiful to see what actors really try. Uh.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
And I think it's becoming more possible now with our
where characters are finally more in tune with the responsibility
we have as we portray these characters on screen. You know,
back then, you know, some of these characters were either
not the imperfect or the bad guys you know, or
you know, they were in the mob or whatever it is,
(19:33):
you know. And and so to to see that there
is a a new generation of Latino characters, did you
feel a little responsible for like what you do now
or how you pass down the torch?
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Man, that's a good question. Do I feel responsible?
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (19:49):
Yeah, to an extent, I feel the responsibility. I always
felt the responsibility, especially after seeing those guys and me
realizing that I'm the guy who came next. I'm like,
if I got to follow that up, man, I better
be on my A game twenty four to seven, you know.
So yeah, in that sense, I felt the responsibility. You know,
(20:11):
A great feeling is when I meet like new actors
you know, who are coming up, who are doing wonderful work.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Who who.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
Say to me that they've you know, watched me when
they were in school, or they came up watching me,
or they studied my work and that inspired them to
become actors. And so that, you know, I always feel
this responsibility, not not necessarily to like mentor them, but
to but to really be available to people like that,
(20:39):
you know, because they're just going through what we went
through now, uh, and if there's anything that I.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
Could ever offer.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
So that they don't fall into any pitfalls or or
learn certain etiquettes or or you know, certain gems of
how our industry works, and to make the path maybe
a little more or smoother for them, you know.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
And you said something that really triggered another point for
us is, you know, they're about to go through similar
journeys that we went through. Right now, how is this
industry and compared to when we broke, you know, in comparison,
(21:22):
like what do they have against them, you know, you know, and.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
What they have for them?
Speaker 1 (21:29):
I would say, if you you know, if I go first,
I would say that what they have what they have
for them, is that the level of technology that can
support your independent art from the industry itself is so
much more available for you to show what you can be.
You can sharpen your tools sooner to become a director,
(21:53):
to become a writer, to become mean, there's so much
Like you can go to YouTube and teach yourself how
to write a screenplay.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
You can go to YouTube and teach.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Yourself how to light a simple scene so you can
shoot it with an iPhone or whatever. You know, you
have a situation here now where like you know, you
have a moment in time now where where where I
think young people, you know have the tools if they
really want it, and at that point they can make
their own stuff and they can work backwards from it. Now,
what they have against them is a fracture industry who's
(22:25):
trying to figure out how to sustain how to sustain
a signal, how to sustain an audience, how to engage
with content that can continue to push limits and not
feel the same movie with a different title.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Right, How do you open the door.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
For new talent and for a new wave of superstars
who can expand ideas into levels and universes that television
and movies have not gone before. And there's a struggle
for that entry point, you know, and how do you
break in? But so it's an interesting balance, right because
for us, when we aim to be what we are now,
(23:07):
our biggest struggle was that there were not enough parts
for Latinos. And if they were, you knew where they were,
You knew what they were and where they wanted you
to be. And I started thinking about also, you know,
there was only four channels doing network stuff.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
Cable wasn't really the.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Aboundance of opportunity like you thought, you know, and you know,
theater you know, they was not sustainable for a lot
of actors, right, and then movies were like, you know,
a pop here eight months later, popped there, you know.
And so it's likeness, instant of signal. But do you think,
for you in your mind, what do they have for
them and what do they.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
Have against It's a good question, right, I Mean, if
we're just talking about sort of Latinos and latinos, you know,
it's what they've always had against them, right I And look,
I'm just pointing out the facts, right, I mean, just
(24:05):
turn on the TV and and and count how many
Latinos and latinos you see on TV right now, Right,
So that's indicative of the opportunities that that's being afforded,
whether it's you or I or the generation that came
after us or the generation who was here before us. Right. So,
so the opportunities are certainly slim. It's hard to say
(24:28):
whether it's it was slimmer back then or it's slimmer now.
You know, you know, when you try to gauge how
many of our people that you see on TV, at
least like what you said. You know, back then, we
at least had like movies. Movies were abundant, whether whether
it was you know, studio movies.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Or the I mean there was three or four releasing
every weekend, and they're all were like real, yeah, real.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Iconic stuff that we still remember to yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
And people were making money on movies.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
They were making movies for the first time, like ideas
for the first time, refreshed ideas. They're always trying to do,
what's a movie we haven't made, Let's put that in
three thousand screens.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Nowadays it's like, who, how do we get capitalized on
on the success of that movie?
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Let's make another one like that?
Speaker 4 (25:12):
You know, yeah, yeah, I mean even you know, it's
it's great that that fans have grown up watching my movies,
you know, from the nineties, from the two thousands, you know.
And I'll sometimes get fans that will go, hey, man,
(25:33):
how come you don't make you know, they'll name one
of my movies from the nineties and two thousands, and
I'll just go, well, they don't make movies like that.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Anymore, man, They just don't.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
Yeah, And if they do, you know, there's there's no
budget behind those movies. People are not making moneies off
those movies, you know. So at least when we were
coming up, we had we had a couple of different
avenues that we can that we could go in. Now,
the movies that actors, you know, have the opportunity to
fight for are these gigantic budget movies, and they're so
(26:04):
far and few between, right, So then that that means
that a lot of the quote unquote movie stars are
sort of funneling into the movie into the TV industry,
right right, And now everything is sort of name driven
in the television industry, which it wasn't like that when
you and I were coming up, And so a lot
of those roles are being gobbled up by them right,
(26:25):
and so like the newer generation, although it may seem
like the opportunities are more vast, a lot of those
roles are being gobbled up by other actors so that
there's less opportunities for them.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
I think, I don't know, I may I may be wrong.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
I know, I think you're right.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
I think you're nailing it, dude, because the illusion is
that there's so many streaming platforms, there's so many networks,
cable networks, you know that that are all making script
is stuff, nonscripted stuff.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
So the illusion is that there should be tons of parts.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Yeah, but you know, it's it's also seems like, you know,
you know, it's not going to be things that are
going to help you the amount of stuff that you're
going to have to do to sustain, right, the volume
that you have to now capture or or or get
(27:16):
as an actor in order to just sustain. Because because
there's no such thing as like, I just got a
movie that a lot of people saw and that's going
to pave the way for me to get a new movie, Bryan,
give me that energy to now I'm going to get
a TV show and all that. So that makes it
really difficult, right, because now it's like, you could do
four movies and nobody saw that she have to go
(27:37):
back to audition for the next one, right, because there's
no such thing as that, And so I guess why
all the question is, you know what we think about this?
You know, how does that translate to multiple industries?
Speaker 4 (27:49):
Right?
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Multiple careers of different genres, different industries. What can people
expect to think about right now? Like what would you be?
What would be the advice for a young person that's like, okay,
well I want to be you know, I want to
be a doctored or I want to be you know, like,
how do we you know, what is inspiration for that?
(28:12):
We can talk about that. It fuels ambition again into
in this younger generation.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Well that was part one. Stay tuned for part two.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
Stay tuned. Those Amigos coming right back.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
Dose Amigos is a production from w V Sound and
iHeartMedia's Michael through That podcast network, hosted by me, Freddie
Rodriguez and Wilmer Valdorama.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Those Amigos is produced by Aaron Burlson and Sophie Spencer's Abos.
Speaker 4 (28:41):
Our executive producers are Wilmer Valdorama, Freddie Rodriguez Aaron Burlson
and Leo Clem at WV Sound.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
This episode was shot and edited by Ryan Posts and
mixed by Sean Tracy and features original music by Madison
Devenport and Halo Boy.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
Our cover our photography is by David Avalos and designed
by Deny host.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Claw And thank you for being a third amigo today.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
I appreciate you guys always listening to those amos.
Speaker 4 (29:05):
For more podcasts from My Heart, visit the ir Heart
Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
So you next week.
Hosts And Creators
Wilmer Valderrama
Freddy Rodriguez
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