Show Up and Show Out with Justina Machado

Some careers get built on every no you don't take for an answer. The guys sit down with their dear friend and Tony-nominated actress, Justina Machado for a conversation about legacy, persistence, and showing up for your people.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hey, how you doing. This is Freddie Rodriguez.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Man.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Hi, this is one more about the rama.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
We are at the Dolsamingo's podcast and we have a
very very special guest today.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Yes we do, Yes we do.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
I'm gonna let you introduce our dear friend because yes.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
I think officially your ex wife. She she is.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
She she's my ex wife.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
And I had a conundrums on this. That's right, that's right.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
And I have no sisters, so she's the closest thing
I have to a sister. And I really mean that
in all seriousness, ladies and gentlemen, The incomparable, the the
Tony nominated actress, the multiple award winning nominated actress. Every
time she comes on screen, she is an undeniable four

(01:00):
undeniable talent. It is my great pleasure to have my
sister and my friend Justina.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Moments like this that I wish we had a live audience.

Speaker 4 (01:11):
I know too, because so we could hear the ah, Hi.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Goday, welcome, welcome.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
Wait wait wait, wait you got to repeat that story
you were saying about your mother, he Wilmer.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
But before we get into.

Speaker 4 (01:26):
It, wait, look at it.

Speaker 5 (01:28):
Look at you guys, right, Okay, look at me like, okay, okay, so.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
If you want to bring anyone in from home, that's hello.

Speaker 5 (01:37):
We did celebrity family Feud, which I was nerve wracking.

Speaker 4 (01:41):
I have never done it. Oh no, I did another.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Lot of pressure. Dude.

Speaker 4 (01:44):
A Maudi was crazy.

Speaker 5 (01:48):
We were it was Eva, it was it was Eva's team,
Eva Longoria, myself, Anorthis A, Mario Olasco and Wilmer Valdama
and Amaudi was.

Speaker 4 (01:58):
So competitive with you guys.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Dude.

Speaker 4 (02:01):
He was like, you know, and I was like I
didn't know what to do. And he was like, this
is just supposed to be fun.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
It's supposed to be funny, right.

Speaker 5 (02:08):
But the thing is two things I remember Wilver, Okay,
this is so hilarious.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Woman was like, I.

Speaker 4 (02:14):
Don't even know.

Speaker 5 (02:14):
I don't even think I've ever seen this show before.

Speaker 4 (02:17):
Literally he goes.

Speaker 5 (02:18):
She He's like, I don't even and I was like okay.
And then afterwards my mother.

Speaker 4 (02:24):
Was like, oh my god, that guy's so handsome. Oh
he's so handsock. It was like over and over.

Speaker 5 (02:32):
I was like, I get it, mommy, Mommy, Mommy had
a big crush.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
I know what time it is, yes, yes, speak speaking
of mommy, where is she at right now, my mother.

Speaker 5 (02:45):
My mother is in Chicago's in Chicago?

Speaker 3 (02:47):
Is that where you were born? Justina?

Speaker 4 (02:49):
Born and raised? My friend? You know, we both are
from the city of Chicago.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
Where in Chicago were you born?

Speaker 5 (02:56):
You know, all over the place, but I mean born,
I mean I grew up the first six years in
Lincoln Park before it was gentrified, right when it was
all Puerto Ricans and African Americans.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
So so we got it now, Okay, so it used
to be fun. Yeah, we got to pause because we
got to tell the audience and fun fact about.

Speaker 4 (03:14):
That about the place that you and I went to.

Speaker 3 (03:16):
So so, okay, Justina just said she was born in
Lincoln Park, right, and this is this is an absolute fact.
I too was born in Lincoln Park and we literally
lived five houses away from each other when we were
five years old.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah and you, but you.

Speaker 4 (03:32):
Didn't need until I'm older than Freddy.

Speaker 5 (03:34):
So so yeah, you were like so wait, like a
couple of years older than you think.

Speaker 4 (03:41):
I'm like, no, I'm just.

Speaker 5 (03:41):
Trying to because we left that place when I was
six and then we moved to Humble Park.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (03:47):
Yeah, because's when everything started, That's when it starts to
get gentrified.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
Uh, think about that.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
At some point as strollers actually went across the street
something like that.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
There was a there was a clinic across the street
that we both used to go to, the infant well.

Speaker 5 (04:01):
Infant well for clinic, and I know, and every time
I say that to people, they're like, oh, and I'm
you know.

Speaker 4 (04:07):
Come from humble beginning.

Speaker 5 (04:09):
And so we went to the infant Well for clinic
and we loved the infant Well for clinic.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
We loved the crazy We probably were both there at
the same time and we were like five totally.

Speaker 5 (04:19):
And then he went to grammar school with cousins of
mine because then we moved to the same area again.
Then we were in Bucktown together. And so when I
met Freddy, I was doing a play. I was nineteen
years old and I was doing a play at Victory
Gardens and Freddie's high school class came to see it.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
Yeah. Yeah, when I was crazy fourteen fifteen, my class
want to go see her play. Yeah. But even before that.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
So you saw her in.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
A play when I was like fourteen fifteen, that's so crazy, yeah, czy. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (04:50):
And then we had the same agent and this was
hilarious because we were the only two Puerto Ricans.

Speaker 4 (04:54):
So they would be like, do you know Freddy bradvec
so you know, just you know Chattel. I was like,
uh no, I don't know. And then I didn't know
you yet. We were the only Puerto Ricans at A plus.

Speaker 5 (05:04):
And you know who our agent was, Jeff Garland's ex
wife Mary Carla.

Speaker 4 (05:08):
That was our agent at age Yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
Yeah, So we used to see Jeff when we were
like teenagers and he used to come to the agency
all the time.

Speaker 4 (05:16):
And I tested for was Jeff Garland.

Speaker 5 (05:18):
I was nineteen years old when they flew me out here,
and I didn't know what the hell was going on
in La. Remember back in the day, they used to
put everybody at the Sofa Tel across the street from
the Beverly Center. Do you remember that exactly? So I
was at the Sofa Tel man, I was like, what
is this place? Nobody walks, nobody does anything around here.

(05:40):
And then somebody told me you could just cross the street,
and so I just crossed Beverly all crazy, and then
every car stopped and almost hit me, and I was like, oh,
I thought I didn't know you needed a crosswalk right then?

Speaker 3 (05:52):
And then one other thing her Graham when we lived
both lived in Bucktown. Your grandmother lived on Wilmot a
couple of houses was away from my parents. Yeah, And
that was the last time that I had lived with
my parents was when my grandma, your grandma. My parents
lived right next to each other.

Speaker 4 (06:08):
And I used to work at that McDonald's.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
Yeah, Western, that's right.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
So I just had to get all that out there. Man.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
There was a lot of six degrees of separation before.

Speaker 5 (06:18):
But before six feet afore we were together six year
six feud.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
It was the first time you guys worked together.

Speaker 3 (06:25):
Yeah, first time we worked together. Yeah. Yeah, So we
had met when we were when we were you know, teenagers,
and then we and then we knew each other in
LA when we had both we both moved out there
about the same time.

Speaker 4 (06:35):
Yes, we've in ninety five, I came out here.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
Yes. So were you guys kind of like buddies doing that? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (06:41):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (06:42):
Great?

Speaker 4 (06:42):
Before six feet under everything? Yeah definitely.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
So how crazy is that that? Like, well, I have
two questions. One is like, why were those years before
six feet under? Like I know you guys were working
a lot and all that, but yeah, but then but
then then with six feet under where you started connecting
of the dots or you guys connected dust before that,
Oh no, we were hanging out around.

Speaker 5 (07:01):
Like we already knew that we were both from Lincoln Park,
that we both from Bucktown.

Speaker 4 (07:06):
We knew the same people.

Speaker 5 (07:07):
And then his wife was also from the same neighborhood,
so we knew a lot of the same people. So yeah,
it was and those years, like they had an apartment
in uh in Hollywood, I'm Franklin and Cherimoya and I
had an apartment on Whitley and Franklin, and so I
was always at their crib like she actually.

Speaker 3 (07:29):
She actually met my wife before, remember that story.

Speaker 5 (07:33):
Okay, we were there was a workout place in Chicago
called Women's Women's Workout World, and somebody stole my coat there,
my leather that I had just got from Berlinton. All
hell now, so Chicago is like and literally I went crazy.

Speaker 4 (07:51):
I was going crazy, like this is bushes.

Speaker 5 (07:53):
Somebody took my and then they went and called Elsie,
who I didn't even know. They were like, there's this
Latina girl up there going so crazy. And then Elsie
came up and was all calm, as she always is,
still calm and collected and uh yeah that was Elsie
and I met each other there too, a women's workout.

Speaker 3 (08:10):
She was when she works, she was the aerobics.

Speaker 4 (08:13):
I took her classes, her classes. Yes, I took Elsie's classes.

Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (08:19):
It's so crazy, isn't.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
This introducing the newest sitcom? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (08:25):
Yeah, coming to you know, the world needs sitcoms.

Speaker 3 (08:29):
We had we had to get out all the facts.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
So you came to l A and you were like,
I'm gonna audition. I try this thing. What's the first
thing you you? You grab one?

Speaker 4 (08:37):
I was in New York. First. I didn't come to
l A.

Speaker 5 (08:39):
I went straight to New York because I really wanted
to do theater. I wanted to be a Broadway star.
That's really what I wanted to do. I wanted to
sing and dance, and I mean, of course I wanted
to do movies, but I really thought about the theater first.

Speaker 4 (08:52):
So I went to New York.

Speaker 5 (08:53):
And then they kept I kept getting flown out here
testing for pilots, and so I tested for Manto Williams
had a pilot and it was like a high scream.

Speaker 4 (09:04):
Of Manto Williams the talk show.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
Oh yeah, And then he had a just randomly. So
I was in Washington.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
He had a restaurant and he was seating at the
restaurant at the table over and I was like, oh.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
Man, I won't tell what I was freaking out. I
was like, oh my god, I.

Speaker 4 (09:17):
Haven't seen him and like, so I went in for that.

Speaker 5 (09:19):
It was for CBS, and I didn't get it, and
I went back to New York. And then Dolores Robinson
do you know who she is? She used to be
a big manager. She was Rosie Perez's manager, Wesley Snipes,
Jada Pinkett, she was the first black daughter, Holly Robinson,
her daughter who was on twenty one Jump Street and
all that. So Dolores Robinson tracked me down in Chicago

(09:42):
because I was home visiting, and she was like, it's
so funny.

Speaker 4 (09:45):
She was like, if you come to LA, I'll make
you a star. And I said, and I said.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
I made.

Speaker 4 (09:55):
Thirty years later, I'm like, girl, I'm waiting.

Speaker 5 (10:00):
So cliche. But I was like, I don't like LA.
I don't understand LA. I don't want to go to LA.
But then I my apartment, my sublet ran out, and
I didn't have anywhere to go, so I came to
LA and then I stayed. My first job was Second Noah.
It was a pilot with James Marsden, Jimmy Barsden. He
was back then. We played brother and sister. We're both adopted.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
Shut up. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (10:24):
But then the show got picked up and I got
fired from the front.

Speaker 4 (10:28):
Yeah, and it was my first like real.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
They're forward thinking, this is no They were.

Speaker 5 (10:34):
Like, we were all different ethnicities. Basically, he's dead now.
So Brandon Tartakoff didn't think I was pretty enough for
the Road. That's just Hollywood, right, That's how you find
out because the casting director told me because she was furious.
So she's like, she's like, they're so ridiculous, they're so dumb.
They don't think you're you don't ethereal enough, pretty enough,

(10:55):
they don't, and so he wants to recast you. And
imagine I'm twenty two years old. That shit was like
I was like, what am I going to?

Speaker 3 (11:04):
Like?

Speaker 4 (11:05):
I just kept going. But it was the first big
thing I ever got.

Speaker 5 (11:08):
I was so young, and after that, I thought I
was going to get fired from everything for like years,
For years, I was like.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
Oh my god, they're going to fire me.

Speaker 5 (11:16):
Oh you know, I used to pray for shit like
to go away because I was so scared that I
was going to go through that experience again.

Speaker 3 (11:22):
Wow, Justine, I want to go a little back because
you know, you and I we grew up in very
similar neighborhoods, right, And I've shared this on the show before,
you know, I think it's fair to say that we
grew up in a neighborhood that was predominantly dominated by
gangs and drugs and all that other stuff. And so
I've shared what my journey was coming out of that

(11:44):
and becoming a professional actor, And what was your journey
growing up in that and coming out of that and
becoming an actor. And I say this in the context of, like,
that's not a normal profession that people go into where
we grew up, Right, the majority of the people that
we grew up, Unfortunately a lot of them are better
in jail or whatever. So how was it that you

(12:06):
got into acting when you were in Chicago?

Speaker 4 (12:08):
I got into it.

Speaker 5 (12:09):
Well, first of all, I lived so many different places.
I don't think I never had friends in the neighborhood
because I never lived any like we just we went.
I went to six different schools before I was ten
years old, so so many different places. So it was
mostly just family that I was around a lot. But yes,
we were always in those neighborhoods.

Speaker 4 (12:30):
I think I was.

Speaker 5 (12:31):
Always in my own world in my head, even with
all the crazy shit that was happening around me. I
always was like I don't belong here. I just had
it in my head like I don't belong here. This
is so weird.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
You know.

Speaker 5 (12:45):
People talked a lot of you know how it is.
They're like, oh, yeah, you're an actress. Everybody would ask
if you were an extra, you know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (12:52):
What made you even go I'm going to be an actress?
And what was the first step towards you?

Speaker 5 (12:56):
I think I was young and I wanted to like perform.

Speaker 4 (13:02):
I wanted to be a singer actually.

Speaker 5 (13:04):
And then I was in high school and my best
friend who's still one of my best friends today, her mother,
Mita Nassa La Sarre, was the only Latina agent in Chicago,
but she was my best friend's mom. So I was
eighteen years old, I just graduated from high school.

Speaker 4 (13:23):
I didn't know what I wanted to do. I wasn't
going to go to college.

Speaker 5 (13:26):
I was working at first American Bank on Adams and Wabash, right,
and then she called me at the job and she said,
I know you're not an actress, but there's a theater
looking for a young girl your age for this play.
But I think you have great stage presence because I
had done the Puerto Rican pageant and all of that,

(13:48):
and so I went because I was so desperate. I
was like, I don't know what the hell I'm going
to do in my life, and I couldn't see me
living working at a bank for the rest of my life,
you know. And so I went to the audition in
and I got the role, and then I just kept
on what was Miriam's Flowers mcdalia Cruz wrote it at
the Latino Chicago Theater.

Speaker 4 (14:09):
That's how That's how I got into it.

Speaker 5 (14:11):
And then Jan Ramirez kept saying he was he was
the artistic director. He kept offering me another play and
another play, and he's like, so you think you're an
actress now, and I'm like, no, I'm not an actress.

Speaker 4 (14:21):
I'm just trying to figure out.

Speaker 5 (14:22):
What I have to do because it was so ridiculous
to me to think of acting, you know what I mean, Like,
because nobody nobody supported it, right, Like everybody was like,
you're a joke, you're an extra and nothing wrong.

Speaker 4 (14:34):
And the extra.

Speaker 1 (14:36):
You said those things were their family friends.

Speaker 4 (14:39):
Yeah, family too, not crazy, not crazy.

Speaker 2 (14:42):
That family is the worst friend you have when you're
trying to make it.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
Yes, Wilm, you can say, girl.

Speaker 4 (14:48):
I'm sorry I was. Did you hear I called girl
all the time?

Speaker 1 (14:52):
Literally, I got called girl all the time. Everyone of
my companies.

Speaker 4 (14:57):
Like girl, girl, girl, literally family.

Speaker 5 (15:01):
I remember Freddie and I had an episode on Six
Feet Under where I'm having a we're dancing at the
night club, remember, and I was that. I went home
to Chicago and one of my cousins was like, I
saw you on that show.

Speaker 4 (15:14):
You can't even dance.

Speaker 1 (15:16):
I was like that crazy. It's it's not that you're
on a fucking.

Speaker 4 (15:22):
Show that you're like that I can't like.

Speaker 5 (15:25):
And I can, by the way, But the thing is
is like that's the ship that I would hear and
we know this in the neighborhood, or or you don't
even have that many lines. I watched you with that
and you didn't even how come you're not on the poster?
How come you're not? I mean, it's all I think
that that's what we can. I say we because I
think did you go through that too. I think that

(15:46):
that's a big thing of where we came from, is
that everybody was always talking mad ship.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
Oh yeah, but you think.

Speaker 3 (15:53):
That's projection.

Speaker 5 (15:56):
Because I don't think it's projection.

Speaker 2 (15:59):
Yes, I think it's obviously projection. To your point. I
think you made a really good point there. I think
the overlayer of it is that everyone believes that's not
for us.

Speaker 4 (16:11):
Yes, that is that it's like, it's.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
Not for us, you're crazy the thing you're gonna do it,
that's right, because it's not for any of us, Yes,
meaning Latinos, Latinos our kind, our story, where we come from,
whether grandma just came from doing this in you know,
Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, or Dominical Republic of Venezuela. They're like, oh, yeah,

(16:36):
that's what we used to do. Come out here to
just survive. We don't come out here to dream.

Speaker 4 (16:41):
Oh that is so real, Warmer that.

Speaker 2 (16:44):
I'm telling you, Like I felt that in my heart
when I was coming up. I felt it in my heart.
We have this multi generational we'll just we'll just go
until the light stays on you know, and and then
on it's about keeping the light on. It's not about
expanding the backyard. It's not about getting an extra room.

(17:05):
And what it's just keeping the light on is the surviving.
And it's just like it's literally the curse that gets
passed on to her children, so I think, and that's
where it came for me, that's for sure, because all
my cousins were like, not all my cousins are some.

Speaker 1 (17:22):
You know, but but some cousins were like, put like this,
my dad's brothers.

Speaker 2 (17:29):
We look at my dad be like oh my uh,
my dad's brothers and my mom's sisters. Sometimes their cousins
would be like like, oh, my kids just got honors
in mathematics.

Speaker 1 (17:41):
I'm failing math. I'm failing math.

Speaker 2 (17:44):
And then she'd be like, well, my son just got
another play, and it's like it's really interesting. They're gonna
about getting to college. My son hasn't applied yet. Like
it's like I was the failure all the way up
to like two weeks ago.

Speaker 1 (18:02):
Yes, think about that. Yeah, I just keep it.

Speaker 2 (18:04):
I mean, just keep it super real, and I want
to pass the past the ball back to you on
that On that note, because this is where we break
multi generational curses, and these conversations are the one that
tells the next gen and the next young And so
I'm like, oh, I don't have to take the truth
of the people I trust the most.

Speaker 1 (18:24):
Yeah. Yeah, Like I trust.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
My my my uncle, my tea and my tea and
my cousins to wish me well. And when they don't,
they may have a point, like we're here to tell
you they don't have a point.

Speaker 1 (18:38):
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
It's like, your story is your story to tell, and
whatever is within that story, it's what's on your book,
not what they deemed was possible for you. So I
think a lot of this stuff coming from circle. I
love to hear your perspective on that, because I think
that's that's where that comes from.

Speaker 1 (18:55):
I believe.

Speaker 4 (18:55):
I think it comes from that too. They don't believe it.

Speaker 5 (18:57):
I mean, of course they believe it now because we've
all been successful, right, But I agree with you you
said two weeks whether that was literal or not.

Speaker 4 (19:06):
I feel the same way about myself.

Speaker 1 (19:08):
I might.

Speaker 5 (19:08):
My own mother didn't watch Six Feet Under because she
said that shows weird.

Speaker 4 (19:13):
I'm not watching it. She's like, yeah, she didn't watch it.
She's like, that's just weird. That shows weird.

Speaker 5 (19:20):
I'm like, okay, why don't you keep that to your
I mean, I get it, but it's like, how do
you not go like it really took a long time
for them to to be very supportive, and now that
they're so supportive, it's weird.

Speaker 4 (19:36):
I don't even know how to take it, you know
what I mean. I'm not gonna lie.

Speaker 1 (19:39):
I wish I wish you still hate.

Speaker 5 (19:41):
Yeah, I was like, why be so nice about it?
You know, I think that's exactly what it is. And
also I remember my mother once said this, and I thought, oh,
it makes so much sense that she wanted to be
a dancer, and you know, but she probably felt I mean,
she was born.

Speaker 4 (19:56):
In Puerto Rico.

Speaker 5 (19:57):
She grew up like really in I mean worse than
we did in the city, and she didn't have any
options any and she was really they were very poor,
you know, so they just don't believe it.

Speaker 4 (20:12):
That's what it is.

Speaker 5 (20:12):
And it took me a long time to get over it,
to not think it was, to understand where she was
coming from, to understand where my cousins were coming from.

Speaker 3 (20:20):
You didn't come from a bad room yes, it took
me a.

Speaker 4 (20:22):
Long time, a long time.

Speaker 5 (20:24):
I think I was in my forties when I literally
was like, girl, give them a break. You know, like
you always were brave, you had a lot of courage.

Speaker 4 (20:32):
You know, it's like not everybody has that.

Speaker 5 (20:34):
And also my mom got married when she was sixteen
and had me at eighteen.

Speaker 1 (20:39):
You know, so.

Speaker 4 (20:41):
Not until you.

Speaker 2 (20:41):
Prove it to yourself that you can see where they
came from. Yes, because all the way along the way
it felt like, well are we family? We're not family?
I know it's you know, and we all have very
similar stories like that. And no matter what the profession is.
By the way, anybody who's like listening and watching now,
you know you may have it experience some of this
adversity when you decide to do something that the family

(21:04):
has not achieved.

Speaker 4 (21:05):
Right, you know that's so true the fact.

Speaker 5 (21:07):
And what was I thinking, Oh god, it was about
the family. You see, this is what happens when you
when you're preme.

Speaker 4 (21:17):
The hormones. The hormones haven't kicked anything.

Speaker 3 (21:19):
I also think that there's something that that that comes
with like immigrant families or there's a certain one track mind, right,
and if you deviate from what that one track mind is.
Then they go. Then then they don't know how to
compute that, and sometimes it comes out as they're hating yeah,
and it really is, and they just don't know. They
don't know how to process.

Speaker 5 (21:39):
They don't get it, and they don't want to leave,
Like they didn't want to leave Chicago, you know, like
they were like so crazy about me leaving Chicago. Yes,
they were so crazy about it, like because they wanted
me to be there and help, you know, like that's
what we do. I'm the oldest, I'm the oldest child,
I'm the oldest daughter. There's five of us, so it's like,

(22:00):
you know, like my mom thought I would stay there
and help her, which I understand. I left and helped her,
you know, but it was this whole thing about leaving too.

Speaker 4 (22:10):
That was a big deal in my family.

Speaker 3 (22:12):
So so the pilot that you had did your first
big second that's second, Noah, you got cast out of Chicago.

Speaker 1 (22:18):
No.

Speaker 4 (22:19):
I was living in La. I had just moved to La.

Speaker 3 (22:21):
So what made you?

Speaker 4 (22:23):
Loris Robinson when she saw you.

Speaker 5 (22:25):
When she said, come on, make your stock, make your stock,
and I and I also.

Speaker 4 (22:29):
Didn't have anywhere to live in New York anymore, and
Lauda was here.

Speaker 5 (22:33):
So I came to live with Lauda, our friend Lauda,
who was on the R for fifteen years, and she
got that gig like literally three months after we got here.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
I was like, damn, girl, it's gotta be that easy.

Speaker 4 (22:46):
She got that gig fast.

Speaker 3 (22:47):
Yeah. Wait, so you went from Chicago to New York.
And when you went to New York, was it for
a gig or you were just like, I'm moving to
New York to try to.

Speaker 5 (22:55):
I'm because I realized that I wanted to be an
actor and there was only so far it could go
in Chicago.

Speaker 4 (23:01):
So I had to leave.

Speaker 5 (23:02):
And so the next step was New York because in
Chicago there was nothing I could do except regional theater,
you know for the rest and commercials and industrials. Remember
that back in the day industrials there was.

Speaker 1 (23:14):
Some shows, industrial commercials.

Speaker 5 (23:16):
Yeah, those industrials did all of those. Oh my god,
I did so many of those. But yeah, I was like,
I'm only going to be able to work at the
Good Men, at Stephen Wall at that kind of stuff,
and then I'm not going to be able to do
anything else, you know, because a lot of things didn't
go to Chicago.

Speaker 4 (23:31):
That's when everything was here.

Speaker 1 (23:33):
So you come to LA and then you're like, oh,
this HBO.

Speaker 4 (23:36):
Show And you know, that was five years later.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
But I wonder.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
Was h was the was was six feet under a
moment of like, oh, I'm really doing this? Or did
you feel that feeling of ownership before that show?

Speaker 5 (23:55):
I felt a feeling of ownership before that show. The
only thing I wish I would have felt, excuse me,
during that show, was worthy of being on that show,
because I didn't feel it, you know, and I felt
very like the odd person out, do you say, because
I was just insecure. I was just young and insecure,
and it was just, you know, I was just yeah,

(24:18):
and it didn't have anything to do with the people
that we were working with. I was just young and yeah,
and I was just like, I just never felt a
part of it. And and you know, I was glad
that I got asked back every year because that showed
that because I was I started off as just a
guest star. I was just I had like two episodes,

(24:39):
and then they kept asking me to come back and
asking me to come back, and then finally they made
me a regular, so I think I didn't know how
popular the show was because I was freaked out by
it because I was young and insecure again, so when
people would come up to me, i'd be like all
weird about it. Instead of like being like cool, I'd
be like yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (25:01):
And that's the ship I got from being from Chicago.

Speaker 5 (25:04):
I hate that because you know, there was no support
in Chicago, so you're like, yeah, what do you like?
So I was very weird about the whole thing, like
people loving it.

Speaker 4 (25:13):
I felt like a weirdo. But then when it was over,
I was like, Oh that.

Speaker 1 (25:18):
Was that was a pretty good gig.

Speaker 5 (25:19):
That was pretty gig, And I didn't know how popular
it was because there was no social media.

Speaker 2 (25:23):
Sure, so I felt it when you when you went
to a grocery store and everybody otherwise, it felt like
you were nine to five.

Speaker 5 (25:30):
Yes, exactly. Did you feel the same way for the
seventies show. It's true, like you just felt like you
knew that people liked it and watched it.

Speaker 1 (25:37):
But I was still going to high school on my
first Year's a that's cute.

Speaker 2 (25:42):
It was pretty crazy, you know what they used to
say to me, And he goes, why do you look
like that because of your hair, and why do you
sound like that. You're not even the cute one on
the show. I'm like, but I'm supposed to. It's supposed
to be funny. It's like I'm like trying to like
make up for the fact. They're like, no, it's like
it's part of the joke.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
It's like on my phend what school did you go school?
Taft High School?

Speaker 5 (26:01):
Oh my god, that's right, that's yeah, yeah, yeah, I
know exactly.

Speaker 1 (26:05):
Why theater there? And then yeah, between my junior and
senior year, that's when I got.

Speaker 5 (26:11):
So, wait, you came to La from Venezuela when I
was fourteen?

Speaker 4 (26:15):
Okay, why La are there?

Speaker 1 (26:17):
Like my dad had a brother here?

Speaker 2 (26:18):
Oh okay, yea, so we came and my dad had
a brother here and we just heard from scratch and yeah,
you know, I had to learn how to speak English.

Speaker 1 (26:25):
Wow, you know that's.

Speaker 4 (26:26):
Crazy, it's amazing.

Speaker 3 (26:28):
Yeah, tolready that, he goes, yeah, I didn't even know
English until this age.

Speaker 6 (26:32):
I was like, really, I've known you twenty five years,
so that means that, but then you've only known English
from from that time when I known you, only like speak.

Speaker 2 (26:42):
English, had like fifteen sixteen is where I knew and
then then I booked the seventy show at eighteen.

Speaker 5 (26:49):
But but okay, I know this is I'm the guest here,
but I want to know, Like I know, I look
at me like I'm oprah WINF.

Speaker 1 (26:56):
I know I'm you get a podcast, but you'll get
what I want.

Speaker 5 (26:59):
I just will get back to me. But I want
to know why you were, Like what made you decide
to be an actor?

Speaker 2 (27:05):
So when I was living in Venezuela, it's mandatory for
students to take an arts class. So you're either a singing,
you're either dancing, or you're acting. That's great, that's like
a mandatory class you have to take. And that's a
very Latino shit. Yeah, So when I was in Venezuela,
I lived in a very small town. That's the only

(27:25):
thing we could do. It's just like to have fun
and just do school activities. We learn how to dance,
we learn how to sing. So I was singing and dancing,
acting and whatever. When I came to the United States,
I made the conscious decision that you know, I had
nothing to relate to any of these kids about. It's
the most petrifying scariest experience in my life. So then
I signed up to the theater class because it felt

(27:51):
like the one thing I knew, Like I knew I
was free on stage and like I wasn't feeling awkward
on stage like I was outside of the stage when
I went back to school activities like that, like singing
Nancy whatever, I felt like I belonged. So when when
I was on stage, the more theater I did, the
more it forced me to read, it forced me to

(28:13):
speak aloud, and I was carrying on this little fake
conversations on stage that didn't have the courage to have
outside of the stage. Yeah, So the more the theater,
the better my English. So the faster I learned how
to speak English. So and the more I did it,
the more I fell in love with it. And the
more people like, oh, you're pretty funny, you should give
it a shot commercials or whatever.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
And that's the rest is like the grind, right, But yeah.

Speaker 5 (28:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but that's see, that's so that's kind
of you fell into it, kind of like I fell
into it. But but I did always want to do something,
and I.

Speaker 4 (28:45):
Always had it in my head.

Speaker 5 (28:47):
I did fantasize a lot about it, and I did
make skits up all the time and made my brother
do stuff all the you know, like do plays all
the time. He was like tired of me already.

Speaker 3 (28:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:58):
I didn't know where it was gonna go. Yeah, but
I knew I could do it right, you know. And
then I had the delusion of feeling of like, I mean,
how hard can it be?

Speaker 3 (29:08):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (29:09):
And then that's when.

Speaker 2 (29:10):
And then I started booking because I was just like, oh, okay,
so I know my lines and swing for the fances,
I'm gonna get the part, and like I was just
sucking getting the parts.

Speaker 4 (29:18):
That's basically when.

Speaker 2 (29:19):
But it is like a bliss to inno sense of
knowing that you know, you you thought people were wishing
you well yeah you know. Yeah, so that so you
felt like you had that support until that, like you
start winning and be like really didn't.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
Support you, you know really, but back.

Speaker 4 (29:34):
To you, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 3 (29:36):
But you were already quite accomplished before six feet. I
remember you also did that pilot and you were and
you were but you were like the lead and what
was it called I Love Loop and you played looping.
I remember that.

Speaker 5 (29:50):
Yeah, that was a great pilot. Actually, that was a
great and that's was that comedy. That was a comedy,
and that was a great pilot. And it was castle
Rock and Fox when castle Rock was around, and I
remember when we didn't get picked up, the president of
castle Rock called me and said, the pilot tested so well,
you tested so well, but we don't believe that America

(30:12):
is ready for a Latino family.

Speaker 1 (30:15):
And I guess who was told? Guess who was still
the same thing? You too? Well, yes, all of us,
at some way we would tell it.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
But also Desier naz and and was told the same things.

Speaker 5 (30:26):
Did it And isn't that fucking sad? Sixty years later
they're like, still there's still that conversation. Well, maybe it
wasn't sixty. It was like probably thirty, because it was
like nineteen sixties, right, nineteen fifties. But yet literally I
had no comeback because I was conditioned to believe that
that was true.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
Do you know again, it's not for us.

Speaker 4 (30:46):
It's not for us, and they're saying it like nothing.

Speaker 5 (30:49):
And literally I was like, oh okay, I remember completely.

Speaker 4 (30:53):
I said, oh okay.

Speaker 5 (30:54):
And then I called Dolores and she was black, and
I said, he said, America's not ready for a Latino
family and we maybe made a joke about it whatever,
and then we just kept it moving.

Speaker 4 (31:04):
But that that was like terrible.

Speaker 2 (31:06):
Yeah, imagine how many shows could have further culture on
screen that never made it on screen because some marketing
idiots and at a studio or a network said, hmmm,
well America digestic this way, But then every time they
allowed us to lead, it goes bunkers. For example, like

(31:27):
Desperado was one of those things where you are like, wait,
what like the Mexican guy, yeah, beasts where and then
readefines pop culture r like it's it's that type of
stuff that like I always think back at everything that's
on the shelf, everything that just didn't go because some
marketing persons like, how do we sell this to our existing.

Speaker 1 (31:46):
Audience of twenty eight million people?

Speaker 2 (31:48):
By the way, like many people in those twenty eight
million people you thought are not Latino?

Speaker 1 (31:54):
Yeah, you know, like it's it's anyways we can go now.

Speaker 5 (31:58):
Rabbit hole because it doesn't change, you know, and it's
like it changes for a little bit. It's frustrating. It's
frustrating too. Another thing that's frustrating being a Latina actress.

Speaker 4 (32:07):
Excuse me.

Speaker 5 (32:08):
I don't know if you go through this, but a
lot of I'm so tired of being asked what it's
like to be a Latina actress, you know, on every
freaking TCAs.

Speaker 4 (32:18):
Or this or that, or like, so, do you think
it's getting better? It's like, why don't you ask?

Speaker 1 (32:22):
What's crazy is that we never asked.

Speaker 2 (32:24):
We never started our careers being Latino actors.

Speaker 1 (32:30):
Never.

Speaker 2 (32:30):
We started out as actors and as artists and whose
heart was Latino? Yeah, but we were performing like anybody
else would have, you know. But now it's this trigger
point and like, well, now you have a category.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
Now you have box, you know, which we never had
a box.

Speaker 5 (32:48):
Before, and they remind you all the time and that
would be something great. And now I don't answer those
questions anymore, and I because I'm sick of it, and
I'm like, I don't want.

Speaker 4 (32:59):
To answer that.

Speaker 5 (33:00):
The context is dumb, Like it's like any freaking show
you're on and it's like, oh, so do.

Speaker 4 (33:05):
You think it's getting better for Latinos?

Speaker 1 (33:07):
Do you think?

Speaker 5 (33:08):
It's like why are we talking about the project? Why
are we talking about this? Or or me being a
certain ethnicity and uh portraying another ethnicity. That was a
big deal on one day at a time that she
was Cuban and I was Puerto Rican and that is
so stupid.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
Sid sh Ever that the culture does.

Speaker 5 (33:29):
Really wrong, that we perpetuate that ship too, you know
what I'm saying. It's like, I think it's ridiculous. I
think that people should put in the work. We're not
all the same, We're not a monolith. We have different accents,
we have different ways of speaking. But that that's any
even Caucasian person from.

Speaker 1 (33:46):
Your wing the way. But your win is my win
and his win is my win.

Speaker 2 (33:51):
Specifically at a time where our culture is being muted,
you needed you know, shelf and and also a shrunken
from contribution to the country. So this is these moments
are really important for the next generation's confidence, especially iFly
the Latino community. So I mean to your point, I mean,
it's it's never been more.

Speaker 5 (34:12):
Critical, never been more critical for us to stop that
and to just you know, support, support.

Speaker 1 (34:19):
We gotta show up, we gotta show.

Speaker 5 (34:21):
Up for each other always. And it's like we'd say
that a lot, and I think that we do. We
do it a lot.

Speaker 1 (34:26):
Get a little better.

Speaker 4 (34:27):
That part is getting there, especially because.

Speaker 1 (34:29):
We continue to meet.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
Yes, It's like people like the three of us and
the four of us and the ten of us and
the twenty of us continue to meet and be like,
I know you're Mexican, I know I'm Puerto Rican, I
know on Cuban and and like, and we're continuing to
show up to each other's premieres and things like that.
But we have to change it because otherwise the next
gen just takes their lane and continues to be passed on.

Speaker 4 (34:48):
Yes, exactly.

Speaker 3 (34:50):
And I think part of that change is what you
did on that show on one day at a time.
I mean, first of all, how incredible that you got
to start in that show, how incredible that you got
to work with, how incredible that you got to be
Rita Morano. But but that you got to be the lead.

Speaker 1 (35:05):
That you got to be the face of that show.

Speaker 3 (35:07):
And you deserved every ounce of it, you know. And
and me, I mean obviously because you're my sister, and
so like, I was proud for many other reasons from
an artist, from from from somebody who's in this business.
What made me incredibly proud was that you were leading
the show and it was and it did well, and
it became commercially viable, and you proved that it didn't

(35:29):
matter that it was an all Latino cast, Like, you
prove that people watched and it did well, that that
that it made money, that that it that it gave
all the people who green light, all the people who
put the money down for your TV show, It proved
to them that we could make them their money. So
then that means that they could put more money down
on the next one, right, Because really that's what it's about, right,

(35:50):
Is this what Wilmer just said, Right, Because if you
win and you prove that you can make money, then
that means that I win, and that means it gives
me a chance to do something. And then if I
do good and I proved like I could make money,
and it gives Wilmer a chance and so on and
so forth, you know, And to me, I feel like
that's sort of the engine behind it is we got
to just keep proving that we could, we could be
a commercially viable force.

Speaker 4 (36:11):
Yeah, it's so crazy, and you did it. We did it.

Speaker 5 (36:14):
But even like you know, I won't say the name,
but somebody really big at Netflix came up to me
when the show first Uh, and we were at Norman
Lear's house and he goes, can.

Speaker 4 (36:24):
You believe how the reviews on this show? Can you
believe they like it?

Speaker 3 (36:30):
What mean?

Speaker 4 (36:31):
Yeah? Exactly.

Speaker 5 (36:32):
I think he meant like, Wow, I didn't think, like
all the things you just said, that it was going
to be viable, that people were going to care about it,
that they were going to care about a reboot, that
maybe they were just doing it because they want to
work with Norman Lear. Who wouldn't want to work with
Norman Lear so they give him.

Speaker 1 (36:47):
I know it was.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
Beyond that, because I've had conversations about this over there.

Speaker 1 (36:51):
Oh really, Oh nice, It was beyond that. It was
beyond that.

Speaker 2 (36:53):
They knew that the Latino community was an important audience
member and a very exciting new member for the platform itself,
and they knew that they needed to cultivate that audience
by giving them a place on that screen. So so,
I know, it was definitely your achievement in the shows.
And you were one of the first shows to actually
really test that water doesn't work.

Speaker 1 (37:15):
At this platform. Yeah you know, so it wasn't normally here.

Speaker 4 (37:19):
Wow. Okay, well that's good to know. And I was.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
But you should take those flowers because the truth is,
you know, the show might have had the right pedigree
with the right producer who understood the science the blueprint,
but the truth is a blueprint and a show or
an infrastructure that's worked for the type of shows for

(37:46):
decades means absolutely nothing unless there is a heart that's
beating on that screen and that audiences are saying, that's us,
that's me, that's so and so, and that.

Speaker 1 (37:59):
Only worked because you brought it to life.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
And sure you got writers, sure you got producers, but
it's your ass on that screen telling people this is normal,
this is for you too. And so I'm not gonna
lead the dilemma of like, whose fault was it that
it actually made it on TV? Because you can trust
a producer, but then when he goes to serious, you
got to trust who's on that screen and you got

(38:23):
to let them drive it. So I, for one thing,
and I hope that from today and on you you
take that credit and you tell everybody else that that
sh was possible because we did it right.

Speaker 1 (38:35):
So it's important to.

Speaker 2 (38:36):
Me that you don't you know, you know, you know
that normally is an icon and it's a beautiful He
was a beautiful, beautiful heart.

Speaker 1 (38:44):
And he was very inclusive and he made a lot
of efforts.

Speaker 2 (38:47):
I mean he worked a lot with Botta Latino, so
I worked a lot with him and all the bsas
and all things we did.

Speaker 1 (38:52):
So he cared about our culture, you know.

Speaker 2 (38:55):
But the truth is he allowed you to cook and
he put you in the kitchen because you know, we
all know how to make a meal for everyone else,
you know, And and that was important.

Speaker 4 (39:05):
Thank you, Wilma, because I was the greatest time. That
was one of the greatest times of my life?

Speaker 5 (39:10):
Was it?

Speaker 3 (39:10):
Why?

Speaker 4 (39:11):
Because the best show I've ever been.

Speaker 5 (39:12):
On in my opinion, I mean, like, you know, like
because it was stories being told by us. Everybody. Everybody
there every day was so willing to play and there
were no egos.

Speaker 1 (39:26):
Can I imagine the energy.

Speaker 5 (39:27):
Yes, exactly. And it was just like we just family.
It was true family. It was what I always wanted,
like when you're on a set. And one of the
things I always said is like, if I ever get
to be Number one, which is the star of the show,
I am going to make sure that everybody has a voice.

Speaker 4 (39:44):
I'm not going to be a jerk.

Speaker 5 (39:46):
I'm not, you know, because I dealt with a lot
of jerks, you know what I mean, with their I've
dealt with a lot of that ship and I'm like,
I'm not going to do any of that everybody, and
it was so inclusive and I didn't and you know, like, yeah,
certain things. I had this last say, like I wanted
cold downstage. Everybody hated me for that, but I was like, but.

Speaker 2 (40:05):
By the way, that's an all that's an all sitcum
thing though, yea, and people don't know this part.

Speaker 1 (40:10):
I'm so glad you brought that.

Speaker 2 (40:11):
Yes, because if the sound stage is warm, you're sluggish.

Speaker 1 (40:16):
Yes, if it's cold, you're.

Speaker 4 (40:18):
Sharp, exactly so.

Speaker 5 (40:20):
But I had Rita Moreno, who you know now she's
ninety four, she's about to be ninety five. She was
like eighty five, so she was always cold. And then
Isabella's from Colombia, so that she was always cold and
everybody was like, it's so cold.

Speaker 4 (40:32):
I was like, too bad, I don't care.

Speaker 5 (40:33):
Like that was the only time I literally would put
my foot down, like I'd put the foot down on
the temperature, and yeah, that's about it. Everything else, I
was not gonna step on anybody's toes, you know what
I mean.

Speaker 4 (40:48):
Like the way people had stepped on my toes.

Speaker 3 (40:52):
So but it proved that you could be a leading woman.
And do you feel like that's what led to do
Laura's roach.

Speaker 4 (40:58):
Oh my god, Delora, that was such a good shot.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
I'm sure you had a blast with that. That was
that fun.

Speaker 5 (41:05):
That was actually that was super artistic and bizarre because
we were shooting in a basement in Toronto, like a
sound stage, and everything was handheld. And I won't say
I had fun. I don't think it was fun, but
I think it was because I was eighteen hours on
the setter.

Speaker 1 (41:24):
I was in every shot.

Speaker 5 (41:26):
I was in every shot because I was it was
supposed to be from my point of view, so it
was like a video game. So I was never not
on set, so I was in every every shot. So
they didn't tell me that, by the way, until I
got there. They're like, oh, you're in every shot. I
was like, yeah, I'm the star of the show. They're like, no,
you're in every shot. When when you walk out the
scene ends, I was like, oh, so even if I

(41:47):
was in the background just looking or stuff like that.

Speaker 4 (41:50):
So that wasn't so much fun. But what was fun
was that it.

Speaker 5 (41:54):
Was so interesting and and out there and amazing and like,
and then everybody when you're in Canada, like nobody really
comes visit, so you kind of.

Speaker 4 (42:04):
Like on your own, so you get to do you
know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (42:07):
You don't have a lot of executives showing up, you know,
So it's like we were in our.

Speaker 4 (42:11):
Own little world creating this.

Speaker 5 (42:13):
And I think Amazon made a big mistake by not
giving us the second season.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
How many episodes is that eight?

Speaker 4 (42:20):
And literally I think it deserves another.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
How many days did it take to shoot one?

Speaker 5 (42:26):
We block shot it. That's the new thing everybody wants
to block shoot now, which is doing two episodes at
one time. So which I thought was if.

Speaker 2 (42:33):
You block shot it, then you didn't have You didn't
you didn't have a Well I would say that you
also didn't have the burden of a big budget in
the sense that you didn't have to make a lot
of that back.

Speaker 1 (42:46):
So they could have just given you a second season.

Speaker 4 (42:48):
Of course they could have. I don't think they liked
the show.

Speaker 2 (42:52):
Is either creative or they're saving money like those two things.

Speaker 5 (42:55):
I think Blumhouse loved the show. I don't think Amazon,
the people that were in charge of Amazon at that time.

Speaker 4 (43:00):
I don't think they ever liked it.

Speaker 5 (43:02):
I think they didn't understand it because we had to
actually reshoot a lot of the pilot, Like it changed
a lot because it was it was grittier, it was darker.

Speaker 3 (43:10):
The original world.

Speaker 5 (43:11):
Yeah, that like the original pilot, And they were like, no,
we got.

Speaker 1 (43:14):
The marketing for that was so cool.

Speaker 5 (43:16):
Oh my god, it was so great. But also we
were doing during the strike, yeah, the strike. That also
was whacked to me because like I was all about
the strike. But what I didn't appreciate is them giving
waivers to like people in cans or waivers for this
when it's like, okay, they don't need the waivers. Uh,
this needs a waiver, you know what I mean? This

(43:38):
first show that but you.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
Have to shut down, you couldn't come back to work.

Speaker 5 (43:41):
Well, we couldn't do any press, right, so because there
was no writers.

Speaker 4 (43:45):
Jimmy Kimmel wasn't on none.

Speaker 5 (43:46):
Of those, none of those talk shows, so we had
no press, absolutely no press. And then the writers were
on strike so they weren't allowed to even speak either.
So uh, it was just kind of like come out
no press, Sonny.

Speaker 1 (44:00):
How quickly you forgot about.

Speaker 5 (44:01):
Those days, like like COVID, Like what I was crazy
during COVID.

Speaker 3 (44:08):
Yeah, it was nuts, and I mean.

Speaker 2 (44:10):
The show must go on for us, and it was
like we had such a heavy lift for the network
at that point, and it was annoying because we were
the first show in production out of all Hollywood.

Speaker 1 (44:23):
We were the first to go in production, so we
were in law in La in La.

Speaker 2 (44:28):
We were the first guinea pig. So basically we had
to wear a mask and a plastic shield, I know,
and then we had to have obviously six feet apart
of our chairs and the dividers, and it was it
was eerie, weirre. And then we had the A zone
had their own walking route that the B zone could not.

Speaker 1 (44:50):
So if you were the principal.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
Cast, no one was allowed to talk to you, no
one was allowed to commute with communicate with you, and
only one PA was allowed to be part of the
A zones so they can answer questions or whatever. But basically,
from a moment you got you didn't see I didn't
see our crew member's face that entire time, you almost
forgot you like recarass people by eyes.

Speaker 5 (45:12):
Yeah exactly, and then you're like I did dancing with
the stars during COVID, like right when. And that was
the craziest thing because I took it because I was like,
there's no work, Okay, sure, I'll do dancing with the stars.

Speaker 1 (45:25):
Right.

Speaker 5 (45:25):
I did dancing with the stars, and I thought it
was going to be so fun, and it was great
because it took my mind off of COVID and it
was just about the dancing. But we didn't get to
talk to anybody. The same thing too, We couldn't talk
to anybody. Remember the COVID police they were actually called
the COVID police, and they would separate us and we
had no audience, so we had to stand there while
everybody danced.

Speaker 2 (45:45):
So got forbid, God forbid anyone in the in the
zone a hit COVID suspicion or had any symptoms.

Speaker 1 (45:54):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (45:56):
Yeah, we were shuffling this scene.

Speaker 1 (46:00):
I'm like, what it was?

Speaker 3 (46:02):
It was crazy?

Speaker 4 (46:03):
Yeah, crazy, but on too happier times. Yeah yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:06):
So let's let's go to New York.

Speaker 2 (46:08):
So you're in New York and you say I'm going
to do a play and then you decide to do
this incredible play.

Speaker 5 (46:17):
Well, let me tell you, I'm not in New York.
I'm in LA but let me give you a little
background on this incredible.

Speaker 2 (46:22):
I know, I mean, like we're now transporting us to
New York for that moment, but go ahead.

Speaker 4 (46:25):
For Roman cur Yes, well, I want to tell you
that I did.

Speaker 5 (46:29):
I originated the role of the daughter when I was
nineteen years old at Victory Garden.

Speaker 1 (46:34):
That's the play he saw me I was fourteen.

Speaker 5 (46:37):
And then thirty years later I originate Wait, not thirty
years aren't that old?

Speaker 3 (46:43):
No?

Speaker 4 (46:44):
Maybe yeah, thirty years later maybe ninety two. Shit, it
was so.

Speaker 1 (46:48):
Then ninety three didn't ninety three I did?

Speaker 4 (46:52):
That is fucking thirty years.

Speaker 5 (46:53):
So then thirty years later I originate the role of
the mother on Broadway. So Sergio Trujidro, who I'd worked
with in Mambo Kings in two thousand and five, that's
where I met Jimen Camille because Jimi Kamide was like
this big star from Mexico, but this was his thing
when he was coming to America to start his career,

(47:16):
and he did that Hymen. So Sergio was the choreographer
and then Sergio and his husband got the rights for
the play Real Women Have Curves, but they wanted to
turn it into a musical. So then he just always
had me in mind for the mother, and I thought,
I'm not the mother because the play was so different
than the musical. It was like I just didn't feel

(47:38):
like I was the mother, even though I'm older now
than the character and the thing.

Speaker 4 (47:44):
So that's how it came about.

Speaker 5 (47:45):
And then I did the workshop and then we went
to Boston, and I did that because I said, if
I'm going to do this on Broadway, I'm going to
do the out of towns too, because I don't want
to just come and somebody creates that role and then
I take it. I feel like that's unfair, you know.
So I did Boston and we were at the art
there and then we went to Broadway. So it was
like two years of like workshopping and going to Boston

(48:08):
and then Broadway.

Speaker 3 (48:10):
Wow, that's know you you so so so you do
that you you you uh you know your rectors play
on Broadway. To take me through the moment where like
you get a phone call and they're like you've been
nominated for Tony.

Speaker 5 (48:29):
Well it was a very lonely moment because Broadway is lonely,
you know what I mean. Well, because especially like musicals
because you can't see anybody. You're you're protecting your voice,
you're not going anywhere. So it's like a little bit lonely,
you know. Like so I was laying down of course,
not talking. It was like, you know, because you wake

(48:49):
up like this, You're like, you're like, you go like this,
Oh God, do I sound today? And then you have
to like steam and you do all these things. So
I was I was like, I'm not watching anything. I
don't even know there's no TV anymore. How did we
even know? It was not the nominations. Yes, I was like,
I'm not going on social media. I'm not doing it.

(49:11):
I'm not doing it. And I was just lying in
the bed in the West Village on Jane Street, lying
in the bed, and then I get a text from
my old agent that' says congratulations, and that's how I knew.
And I just I went by myself to a little place,
Joseph Leonard In right across the street from it's in

(49:31):
the village, and I had a cocktail and I had
like a martini and I had like a chicken sandwich,
and I was talking to the bartender and I was like,
I was just nominated for Tony. Yeah, I was just
nominated for a Tony, So I like was walking around
by myself. I was all by myself because you know,

(49:51):
I don't live in New York.

Speaker 3 (49:53):
You know.

Speaker 2 (49:53):
I eventually feel the impact on the culture because all
of us, I hear they were like, yeah, like we
were just calling and texting each other.

Speaker 1 (50:05):
We're like, I mean, it was. It was definitely a
big moment.

Speaker 5 (50:09):
No, I definitely felt it and I felt all the love.
And listen, all the girls came April twenty third. I
remember there was like thirteen, Eva Longoria, Sophia Bergaro, you
name it, like everybody, Jessica.

Speaker 4 (50:23):
Alba, all of them, Becky g they were all there.

Speaker 5 (50:25):
I literally felt like all the love from them, Rosalind Sanchez,
they all came on that day to support and take
pictures and it was amazing. So, yes, I felt it,
and I also realized what a huge accomplishment it was
because I went into that and I was like, I'm.

Speaker 4 (50:43):
Going to get nominated for Tony.

Speaker 5 (50:44):
I'm going to do this because I know that work
that I did on that stage was really really great.

Speaker 1 (50:51):
Oh God, that you were so proud of yourself for that.

Speaker 5 (50:53):
Every night I was proud of myself because there's nothing
like the theater.

Speaker 4 (50:57):
There's nothing like it.

Speaker 5 (50:58):
You know, it should pay more and there shouldn't be
eight shows a week. That's archaic, but there's nothing like
like everybody there, and especially Broadway and the light on
you and the energy and.

Speaker 2 (51:09):
You being a sitcom like you know, God, imagine you've
just been in front of the live audies.

Speaker 4 (51:14):
I love a live audience. I love a sitcom.

Speaker 5 (51:17):
I think sitcoms are the greatest jobs around the right.
I mean, we kept trying to get fred to be
my boyfriend on the show because Gloria I was such
a fan of us on Six Feet Under.

Speaker 4 (51:31):
But bull it just never worked out.

Speaker 5 (51:34):
And we always were always trying to say, well, like,
can we get Freddy for this one? Because I had
a few boyfriends on the show and we always wanted
and I was always like, oh, it would be so great,
little like things, you know.

Speaker 1 (51:46):
I would have been so cool.

Speaker 3 (51:47):
Yeah. Yeah, I find sitcom to be to be a muscle. Man.
It's a It's a muscle that I have not developed
as much as you guys have, but.

Speaker 4 (51:57):
You would do it out the way.

Speaker 3 (51:59):
Oh man, I'm you're a.

Speaker 5 (52:01):
Movie Freddy Freddy was making movie after movie that president
like Walk in the Clouds, the past.

Speaker 1 (52:11):
He won't forget.

Speaker 5 (52:12):
Okay, So when you say, what was it like when
we first got here, it was like it was.

Speaker 4 (52:18):
Mostly me looking for a job and Freddie making movies.

Speaker 1 (52:21):
Yeah, for sure, for sure that's what it was.

Speaker 2 (52:24):
Like I have you know, he's so humble about that
that I have to flex for him, like I have
to literally bring that up on the show.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
He's just he.

Speaker 4 (52:34):
Doesn't ever want to talk about all the movie harsh times.

Speaker 5 (52:36):
That's one of my favorite that that movie was great.
Him and Christian Bale, Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
You guys and Terry Crews crew on the show and
they talked about that guys.

Speaker 3 (52:47):
So what about the movie you do with Champagne Solvely.

Speaker 4 (52:51):
That's a great movie directed Nick Cassavetti's.

Speaker 5 (52:55):
That's a great story too, because that's another time that
I was insecure like a dumb ass, you know, Like
Nick Cassavettis was like, literally, he's like, you're the.

Speaker 4 (53:01):
Only one we kept in the movie. We didn't.

Speaker 5 (53:03):
We cut all the other people. And I was like,
oh god, look at my teeth.

Speaker 4 (53:07):
Like I literally was in ADR.

Speaker 5 (53:09):
I was in the ADR talking man shit about myself,
and even Nick Casavetti's was like yo, I mean like relaxed.
And then and then he comes up to me and
we were supposed to be rehearsing, but he didn't tell
me we're going to improv.

Speaker 4 (53:19):
I had no idea.

Speaker 5 (53:20):
I'm like twenty two years old, improving with me. So
he goes, what's your name? And I go, just see
him a chatto.

Speaker 1 (53:27):
And then Nick.

Speaker 5 (53:27):
Cassavetti's goes, no Justina name, and I said, well, I
didn't know.

Speaker 4 (53:31):
Nobody told me that's not a question.

Speaker 1 (53:34):
Okay.

Speaker 5 (53:35):
Also, my character didn't have a name, but because Sean
Penn started to improv with.

Speaker 4 (53:40):
Me, they kept all of that in. I made up
a name.

Speaker 5 (53:43):
I always wanted to be Carmen Rodriguez because I thought
that was the most beautiful Puerto Rican name ever. Carmen
Rodriguez I love because my name Justina Machado, it just
it's like, what is that?

Speaker 1 (53:53):
You know? I love?

Speaker 4 (53:57):
Just see him a chatto. But I always wanted to
be Rodriguez because to me, that was like.

Speaker 2 (54:01):
Well, so there's so many of them.

Speaker 3 (54:06):
Elizabeth, it's like Smith the Smith.

Speaker 2 (54:09):
Yeah you're right, it is, Yeah, you're definitely the Smith
of the Brown People.

Speaker 4 (54:12):
But She's so lovely. Was great.

Speaker 5 (54:13):
I loved that movie. And that's a great scene. By
the way, it's only one scene. But and that's another thing.
When I went through that movie, they thought it was
an extra or back background I'm sorry, back then it
was that word, but they thought it was a background artist.
And so I'm standing there for a long time and
I was like, and he's like, but who are you.
I'm like, I told you I'm playing this, and he goes, oh,
they had just I can't.

Speaker 2 (54:35):
I can't with with ads and pas who don't do
the homework on that.

Speaker 1 (54:41):
Who is who? I mean? I promise you not on
my sets. Everyone.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
You got to read the script. You gotta have a
cheat sheet of everyone's photos. And even if your background
like the fuck, yes, like yes, respect, yes, they want
to water, get them a water like the fuck?

Speaker 1 (55:00):
So anyways, we can we can go. Let's not it.

Speaker 2 (55:03):
On that note, listen on the fact that we have
one of you, and we're very not only proud but
privileged to be able to see your legacy play out
in front of our eyes, and uh, you're one of
our greats and you should really never forget that.

Speaker 3 (55:17):
Thank you, You're one of the great legends.

Speaker 4 (55:20):
Listen YouTube.

Speaker 5 (55:21):
I'm sitting with two legends right here. Come on, we
all did that. We all broke the doors open for people.
We look young, but it's.

Speaker 4 (55:30):
Like especially Freddy, Oh my god, Freddy. I mean, come on,
Freddy still looks like a little baby.

Speaker 5 (55:36):
Yeah yeah, yeah, Justina, thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (55:40):
For being on those legends.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
Hey, I'm Wilmer Valderrama's just Toreddie rodriguezs And thank you
for watching.

Speaker 1 (55:49):
We'll see you in the next episode. Eight