Staying in the Game with Jesse Garcia

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
I'm Kamila Ramon at Amilis Artiz and every week we'll
cover everything, embracing every part of our identity as professional athletes,
female Latina entrepreneurs and pereo enthusiast baby to amias and achievement,
trying our best and keeping it light, all while empowering
you to know your worth and fight for what's yours.

(00:27):
That's right, Kami, and remember, okay, no pasa, It's not
that deep.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
So grab your confecito and join us. This is a guys.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
We are so pumped for our guests today. My friend
jesse Garcia is here with us.

Speaker 4 (00:43):
You may know.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
Him and an absolutely iconic actor from Flaming Hat, The
Mother and so many other films.

Speaker 4 (00:49):
Jesse, we are so excited to have you here today.
Thank you for joining us.

Speaker 5 (00:52):
I'm excited to be here. I actually didn't really realize
who I was going to be on the show with him.
Like now that I know, I'm so excited. I didn't
really get the details. They're like, oh, do the show,
my yeah, can let's do it? Like oh oh oh.

Speaker 4 (01:05):
Oh that's my potson instructor.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yeah, yeah, amazing, that is amazing.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
So we actually met because Jesse like was like, Yo,
you're doing these classes is so dope. And I was like,
oh my god, you need a passle on. He's like
are you sure? And I was like, yeah, absolutely, you
need one.

Speaker 4 (01:19):
And now he has one.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
And I'd like to say that I contribute to how
he trains for his roles.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Wait, so I have to while we're on this peloton
subject matter, Jesse, which are your favorite classes of comy?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Is it like the true Oneton rides?

Speaker 3 (01:36):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:36):
Man, they vary. They they're all good, you know, they're
all they got. They go hard. The Spanish ones are
really good because I think a different side of your
personality comes out. Oh.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Vocabulary, very educational. Vocabulary, very educational. Don't repeat anything that
I say in my Spanish classes as well. I like
to tell people, Yeah, Jesse, thank you for for joining us.
Who by the way, you just released a new movie
and you're currently working on a top secret role which
might not be so secret until right now, as you're

(02:11):
about to share with us a little snippit.

Speaker 5 (02:14):
Yeah, Alexander and Terrible horrible, no good, very bad road
trip out.

Speaker 4 (02:18):
That's a tonwister. I don't know how I mean, you're
working on the film, so you know how to say
it quickly? Can you say it?

Speaker 5 (02:21):
Yeah? Well I did the first I was in the
first movie. Like it's like, it's not a sequel by
any means. But the movie I did before was Alexander
and Terrible, Horrible, no good, very Bad Day.

Speaker 4 (02:30):
You had a small role in the right.

Speaker 5 (02:31):
Small role in that. Yeah, does it not really related?
I say that there. I say that they're in the
same universe, but they're different timelines, So like, you know,
it's that's me in that timeline, and I kind of
like did I don't think it made the movie, but
I but I one of the producers, and I kind
of figured out a way to do a little a
little easter egg where I was an animal wrangler in

(02:53):
the first one, and and I wore I think leopard
pattern or zebra pattern pants like pajamas one day and
then with crocs. Yeah, I did a thing.

Speaker 4 (03:06):
Just so I it sounds like something I would wear.

Speaker 5 (03:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:12):
So yeah, so that was a little nod to the
past role that you have.

Speaker 5 (03:16):
Had, not to the first one. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (03:18):
Yeah, Wow, that's amazing.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
Well, every single episode we start with a little gafecito
like catch up kind of situation.

Speaker 4 (03:27):
I think something very cool about you is that you
were a cheerleader.

Speaker 3 (03:33):
That is I love that so much because that is
such a challenging sport.

Speaker 4 (03:38):
Can you tell us a little bit about how you
got into.

Speaker 5 (03:40):
That senior year high school? I was football, wrestling track
all through high school, and our coaches took us to
a University of Wyoming football game is kind of like
starting the season type of thing. I saw the cheerleaders
warming up and they did a chair where like, you know,
they had their hands on their ass and and I'm like, oh, yeah,
I could do that. And the high school cheerleading coach

(04:02):
was sitting right next to me. She goes, you know,
the to get scholarships for that. I said, what should
I quit football and wrestling and cheerleader and she's like, yeah,
if you want to, Like of course I didn't. And
then a wrestling tournament she hooked me up with meeting
me with the cheerleading coach at Eastern Wyoming College in

(04:22):
Torrents and Wyoming, and I met with her after the
wrestling season was done, tried out for like an hour.
She goes, yeah, cool, you got great potential if you
want a scholarship, come so That's how I did it.
Like I tried out for an hour and Toss Toss
Susie were boring around a little bit, and made the
squad and then eventually two years there and then I

(04:44):
went to University of Nebraska and cheered at Nebraska.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
Do you say that like it's easy to just like
throw somebody around and literally there's like so much technique
to that.

Speaker 5 (04:52):
Yeah. Yeah yeah. And I was small at the time too.
I was like one fifty five, one sixty and I'm
grown up. Ask gorilla, but.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
Were you were you? So you were the base?

Speaker 5 (05:08):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, you know.

Speaker 4 (05:11):
He was doing the back like, yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
That is incredible.

Speaker 4 (05:17):
Wow, Yes, could you still do that if you needed to?

Speaker 5 (05:22):
Yeah, I mean it's like it's not dissimilar to uh,
what is it the the yoga that people partner yoga?

Speaker 3 (05:31):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't know the name of it,
but I forgot what it's called partner yoga.

Speaker 4 (05:36):
Yeah, I know what you're talking about.

Speaker 5 (05:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
So when we talk about Rollins, Wyoming, what was what
was that like growing up in Rollins?

Speaker 5 (05:46):
So I grew up in a smaller town called Hannah,
which is about eight hundred people in the middle of nowhere.

Speaker 4 (05:53):
It's undred people's crazy crazy.

Speaker 5 (05:55):
Yeah, it's like most city blocks, right, and that's that's
how many people New.

Speaker 4 (06:00):
York right now.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
So it's your building.

Speaker 5 (06:02):
That's the building.

Speaker 4 (06:03):
Literally.

Speaker 5 (06:04):
Yeah, it's like it's it's funny. It's like small towns
like that. It's like you don't lose your boyfriend or girlfriend,
you lose your turn.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
Oh my god.

Speaker 5 (06:18):
And that's how it was. You know, people would break
up and they would you know, people would fight each
other over whoever got you know, the relationships next and then.

Speaker 4 (06:25):
The piping leg hot.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
Oh.

Speaker 5 (06:28):
Every everyone knew each other's business.

Speaker 4 (06:30):
You knew everything.

Speaker 5 (06:31):
Everything.

Speaker 4 (06:32):
It was like the spiciest thing that happened in town.

Speaker 3 (06:35):
Love.

Speaker 5 (06:36):
I mean everyone had kids. Everyone had kids, young people
having kids.

Speaker 3 (06:40):
You know.

Speaker 5 (06:41):
So I grew up in a small town of like
eight hundred people like that deflection.

Speaker 4 (06:46):
Yes, I'm not going to tell you it was about me,
and I'm not going to tell.

Speaker 5 (06:52):
You no no kids here. Uh, a small town about
eight hundred people. There's a coal mining town. The coal
mine is it's been retired and I had I kind
of made my parents move to the next town over,
which is Rawlins, Rawlins. It's about forty five minutes away
and there's seven thousand people like in that town a
little over and because I wanted to join sports, I

(07:14):
wanted to do sports, I wanted to be like I
had a lot of friends there, and it's just a
bigger town. It's not a really city. It's just town.
And uh, you know, was there through all through high
school and played football, wrestling and track, had a great time.
It's like and it's a small town like everything again,
it's like everyone knows each other's business and it's you know,

(07:36):
it is what it is.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
In comparison to the population. What was the Latino community like.

Speaker 5 (07:42):
There's actually quite a quite a bit. There's the south side,
you know, it's like it's always south sides across the
tracks where all the Latinos, like a lot of Latinos stayed.
Not to say that, yeah, not to say that there
wasn't some affluent Latinos on the north of the tracks,
but there was. You know, that's a big population of
Latino Latinos on the other side of the tracks, which
is where I lived and grew up on that side

(08:04):
of town. But there's a lot, a lot, a lot
more you.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
Would think fascinating and your parents immigrated from Mexico.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
Correct or did.

Speaker 5 (08:13):
My mom my dad? Did my dad? Did my dad immigrated?
He was hekkas.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (08:20):
I think it was he fourteen fifteens like that when
he immigrated, and then my mom and Wyoming, My mom
and I were born in the same hospital.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (08:29):
Yeah, that's cute. He put it on a very special
shirt for you.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
I did. I did. I think you're really gonna like
it in the back.

Speaker 4 (08:38):
Mexico.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
Hey, this is gifted to me. This is gifted to
me one day, I know. I'm Yeah.

Speaker 4 (08:51):
So that's love.

Speaker 5 (08:52):
That's great.

Speaker 3 (08:52):
Man.

Speaker 5 (08:53):
We all we should we should all be waving the
same flag anyway.

Speaker 4 (08:55):
Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
That's true.

Speaker 5 (08:57):
Yeah, she'd be supporting each other.

Speaker 4 (08:59):
Yeah the hundred.

Speaker 3 (09:01):
Would you did you find it more challenging to train
for like football season wrestling season? Or was it more
challenging for you to train for cheerleading?

Speaker 5 (09:11):
I learned more in cheerleading. I learned more when I
went to Nebraska, and Nebraska I trained in the same
facilities as the football players did. Yeah, and so I
got huge. I mean, I'm not much smaller than now
as I was then, but I'm just different on like
I'm built differently now, But I was. That's where I

(09:32):
learned how to lift. That's where I learned how to
power a lift. That's where you know, I learned kind
of more of the crossfity circuit training style with heavy lifting,
and I got huge. I was like I was. I
was a big boy for twenty one, twenty twenty one
year old and throwing these girls around and catching them.
But football and wrestling they were different. I find have

(09:53):
known some of the stuff I know now right for
training a football and wrestling, i'd have been a monster.
I was starving myself for you know, the whole season.
I got down to one twenty six at one point
my junior year.

Speaker 4 (10:06):
Oh why were we doing that?

Speaker 5 (10:08):
I didn't know any better.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
Oh wow, just burning calories and not consuming enough.

Speaker 5 (10:13):
Yeahs, not just not eating, ruining my metabolism. It's just
like a bad thing that I think wrestlers do. They're
thinking that they need to smaller to be stronger, and
once I wait, yeah, I lost I think fifteen and
four days one time, because one week I lost fifteen
and four days.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
That's insane, like wrestlers boxers, like, that's a.

Speaker 2 (10:37):
Whole another world.

Speaker 5 (10:38):
And then I gained eleven overnight.

Speaker 3 (10:40):
Oh my god, how that's wild.

Speaker 5 (10:43):
Chipmunk face just kind of a little like all the wrestlers,
you know, they turn into chipmunks as seen as the
season's over. Oh my god, the ones that dieded.

Speaker 4 (10:51):
Now I have a question for you now, as you
have like different roles, have you had to like.

Speaker 3 (10:56):
Drop way like a lot for the different roles that
you're playing or.

Speaker 5 (11:01):
I mean some they tell you that they want you
to be in shape, like King Saneta back in the day.
They just you know, they wanted me kind of to
be a gay sex symbol. So I had, you know,
a month to train to get to wherever I could
get to. So I did what I could. And again
if I wish if I had had the information then
as I do now, wouldn't have been as hard. But

(11:22):
I even though it doesn't look like it, and I
was still chunky. I lost probably fifteen to twenty for
Flaming Hot just because of COVID. I got fat. And
then now the one I'm working on now on Odyssey,
it's you know, they said, you know, this is very
very little time to prep for it. Like I had
a week and a half and they go like if

(11:42):
oh wow, if we your you know, your arms and
shoulders are going to show a lot. So if you
hear some you know, if you need some help, let
us know.

Speaker 4 (11:49):
So then you shoulder press for expe.

Speaker 5 (11:51):
I've actually got I put on a little bit of
way since the since we started the show, lost a
little bit of weight, put on a little bit of muscle,
uh huh, just because I've been lifting. I don't know,
lift a ton. I don't really lift. I left maybe
once or twice a week normally. I then do pilates
and spin and then yoga to try to stay actor pilates.

Speaker 3 (12:10):
I went to pilates yesterday. I was like, I'm gonna die.
I'm gonna die in pilates.

Speaker 5 (12:15):
I don't know, it's hard.

Speaker 4 (12:17):
I like it hard.

Speaker 5 (12:18):
Yeah, the slow fore counts and for four down, four up,
that's it. That's it's hard.

Speaker 1 (12:22):
I think like the worst part is just at least
at my plates class, the first ten minutes is just
like core activation. My I'm like trembling and my abs
are on fire, and I'm like literally the ten minutes
first minutes, I'm like, why the fuck did I sign
up for this class?

Speaker 2 (12:36):
Like why am I here? Why am I here?

Speaker 1 (12:38):
But then afterwards it's like, all right, like this girl
feels it's funny.

Speaker 5 (12:42):
Because I'm because I'm a little bit bigger, I'm a
little bit more muscular, baby baby Mexican gorilla. I walk
in and sometimes I feel like the instructors are like, oh, okay,
look at this mead heead walking into the class, but
you slay, But I fucking slay, dude telling you. Then
they go and then they at the end they go,

(13:03):
fuck you're strong. I'm like, yeah, motherfucker, Like what do
you think?

Speaker 3 (13:07):
I I love that so much, I have to confess.
I also feel that way because I like lift weights
and like the girls that are like actively like in
pilates classes, they're like a very specific like body type,
and I show up and sometimes I feel like I'm like,
you know, the more like more built person there, and

(13:27):
I'm like, I just look like a meathead in pilates
right now. It just feels that way, like whenever you're
doing anything like and but it makes me very happy
and proud to see that like other people are also
going to pilates no matter the build.

Speaker 4 (13:40):
Yet I love plate.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
You know, you know, you know it's hilarious.

Speaker 1 (13:44):
Uh, like I I'm I have an athletic body, right,
and so like I have a.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
Six pack like all this stuff, and so I'm tell.

Speaker 4 (13:51):
Us more.

Speaker 1 (13:53):
And like I get in there and I'm like holding
these plagues and stuff and like all these people next
to me are holding these pants and I'm.

Speaker 2 (13:59):
Little like shaking, like don't don't tun to that. I
drop and I'm like fuck, yeah.

Speaker 5 (14:06):
It's a different one. It's different when the fucking sled
is moving. Yeah, yeah, it's different.

Speaker 3 (14:12):
It's all aesthetic. Mellie's not strong at all. She wasn't
an Olympian.

Speaker 5 (14:18):
You're an olympian.

Speaker 3 (14:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
Yeah, Soccer, I mean if it doesn't if nothing here
like oh.

Speaker 5 (14:24):
Yeah yeah, okay, yeah the backdrop I was a little
bit more observant, I would have known.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
Yeah, for Colombia soccer. But cool, like like my parents
also immigrated here and I.

Speaker 5 (14:36):
Got to represent Colombia is crazy about soccer, like they
take that shit's serious.

Speaker 2 (14:42):
Yeah, and Candina even more.

Speaker 4 (14:45):
But I do love a Melia.

Speaker 3 (14:46):
I've told you this before, but the love that the
Colombia women's team.

Speaker 4 (14:50):
Is getting is amazing. Yeah, I'm really happy about that.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:54):
Absolutely, While we're on this subject of soccer, because I could.
I could be here all day, Jesse, are you a
fan of any well one obviously sport, but are you
a like a fanboy of any any teams fanboy?

Speaker 5 (15:06):
No, like I So I play. I always wanted to
play soccer when I was a kid. But one, Wyoming
doesn't have any a soccer program. When we lived in Colorado,
which is like our parents. My parents just didn't have
any money like to put us in any kind of
soccer programs because that's if that's not in a school program. Also,

(15:27):
I was in the second grade. If it's not in
a school program, it's there's no way my parents were
gonna be able to afford it. Plus, you know, my
my parents were a little over protective. They didn't want
me getting hurt. And whether it was because they were
actually scared that I was going to get hurt or
they didn't want to take me to the doctor if
I got hurt, right, So there's a I can't fault
them for any of that stuff. But I do. I

(15:48):
do love soccer. I go to the LAFC for games here.
You know, a lot some of my buddies are owners,
and so I get I get good seats. Uh, and
then Austin too. I have some friends that have some sweets,
and I go to the the games over there, the
matches over there. I get it. If I get invited
to something, I'll go. But I don't really take the
time to watch sports because it's for me. It's like

(16:10):
I don't care enough. I don't care enough. I'm not
invested enough into a certain sport for me to take
three to five hours a day on a weekend when
I could be doing other things or going to the
movies or so.

Speaker 4 (16:25):
I was gonna ask like, what, like, what else are
you doing?

Speaker 5 (16:27):
Yeah, going to the movies. A yard sale on the weekends.

Speaker 3 (16:32):
Oh, we can find some really good stuff on your
yard sales in La. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (16:36):
Now I gotta get rid of shit. Now I got
too much stuff in my room.

Speaker 1 (16:40):
What is the craziest thing you've purchased at a yard sale?

Speaker 5 (16:44):
Craziest? I mean I buy knives. I have a thing
for knives.

Speaker 2 (16:49):
Well, I do love knives.

Speaker 4 (16:51):
Oh my god, Okay, you have to go to Argentina
get some knives.

Speaker 2 (16:54):
That's true.

Speaker 5 (16:55):
I bought a I got a gigantic pencil.

Speaker 4 (16:59):
Oh does it work?

Speaker 5 (17:01):
Yeah, it's like a look at that. Look at that lead.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
Wow, it works.

Speaker 3 (17:05):
It's like the length of your body horizontally. That's that
is a very large pencil.

Speaker 5 (17:10):
It's a very large pencil. I like buy pens, like
I have a thing for pens too, Like writing. I
don't know why, because it's like a lost art. Nobody
really writes anymore.

Speaker 4 (17:20):
A good pen A long way though.

Speaker 5 (17:21):
Camera gear. I'm always looking at camera lenses even if
I can't, if it's not compatible with what I have,
I can always buy an adapter, Like I shoot a lot. Yeah,
random stuff like that, like a smoke machine. Why I
would when I'm gonna need one?

Speaker 2 (17:37):
You never know, you never know, Yeah, photo.

Speaker 5 (17:40):
Shoots or something. I'm like, I'm just gonna make a
moody in here. You're a little like fog. We're not
ruling as across the bedroom floor.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
Love that so much, Jesse, we were talking. I believe
this was off camera before, but you said you haven't
drank in twenty five years, and you know, I feel
like this is also something our generation is is really
hanging on to, like not drinking as much, taking care
of more of your body health and wellness. Can you
talk to us more about that? Decision, when it happened,

(18:09):
and how your life maybe has changed because of it.

Speaker 5 (18:14):
Well, really, I never had a problem. It was mostly
kind of off. I partied. I did party pretty hard,
a lot harder than my parents think I did. My
mom thinks I did.

Speaker 4 (18:25):
I mean, didn't we all?

Speaker 3 (18:26):
Yeah, I'm like, it's your fault that you made me
grow up in Miami.

Speaker 4 (18:32):
Okay, that's not my fault, that's your fault.

Speaker 2 (18:34):
Coming was at the club at like fifteen?

Speaker 5 (18:36):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, we would. I started at fourteen.
I started drinking at fourteen. I would, Which did I think?
I feel like it's about normal, isn't it. Yeah, I
don't know, ish, I don't know. Sounds like Wyoming, it's normal.
I would go party with my friends. I would go
party with my friends, and I don't think. I really
don't think my parents ever knew. There might've known. One

(18:58):
time I came home six in the morning, like half
of my hair back here, I have shipped all over
my face and like I was just trashed. I got grounded.
I think that's the only time I ever got grounded.
My parents was just so disappointed.

Speaker 4 (19:10):
It's your fault for making me grow up in Wyoming.

Speaker 5 (19:12):
Yeah, exactly, And then am I.

Speaker 2 (19:15):
Supposed to do?

Speaker 4 (19:16):
Mom?

Speaker 2 (19:16):
Mom, I'll take it. Turns, we're taking turns.

Speaker 5 (19:20):
I stopped for a while when I was in Nebraska.
When I was going to school in Nebraska, I just
I always kind of just want felt like I wanted
a healthier lifestyle. But then you know, it's college. My
friends are like, dude, you're in college. Just have a
good time. So I did. And then when I moved
to Atlanta to start studying acting, the last time I
partied I went. I went to a Labor Day weekend.

(19:44):
Labor Day weekend two thousand, I went to a party
at my friend Dan's house and just had the best time.
But I got hammered and I drove home. Oh and
I didn't get an accident, and I I realized in
the way home that this was really stupid. And I
had a friend with me, and like, this is just
bad all the way around. Yeah, And it wasn't that

(20:08):
that kind of made me say I'm going to stop,
because I always kind of I'd been playing with the
idea of stopping for a while, and it really what
it was, and it had a part. I'm sure it
has something to do with it but I just decided
that it was more important for me to have a
healthy lifestyle, for me to focus on acting and filmmaking,

(20:31):
and if this was what I wanted to do, I
wanted to be focused. So I stopped cold turkey. I
stopped drinking labor After that Labor Day weekend party two thousand,
I had got that much off the top of a
glass of wine that my buddy Judson gave me on
a Thanksgiving Day. He apparently was a very expensive bottle

(20:51):
of wine. I got tipsy off of that. It's like
one of those ones where you're standing and you kind
of can't can't stop moving, uh huh. Like I'm like, oh,
this is terrible. I went to a nap, I came
back out an hour later. I'm be like, all right,
I was it. That was the last. That was the
last little sip. So twenty five almost twenty five years ago,
and I've had accidental drinks since then, Like I like,

(21:12):
it looks like my my, my water and it's soda
and vodka or something like that. Or someone's given me
like a kombuchu a champagne one time, and like minor, minor,
minor drinks, but nothing nothing, I have a feeling I
would like it now, so I don't, and it's just

(21:33):
not it's just not important to me.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
Thank you for sharing that I know, uh well, especially
you know the one of the I guess decisions that
you made, like driving. I think we've all probably have
been there at some point in our in our lives,
uh And I like to touch on the matter just
because in the lives that we also live, like whether
it's on camera on TV, you're an actor, commy's instructor,

(21:56):
Like we're always at these like social events and parties,
and like the peer pressure is real.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
It's so hard. It's so hard.

Speaker 5 (22:02):
It's not actually it's not like we tell ourselves as hard.
But it's not like it's okay, scream.

Speaker 3 (22:08):
At me, Jesse, tell me what I need to hear,
tell me I want to hear it.

Speaker 5 (22:13):
It's not that it's not that you just have to
make for me. I just like my argument is like
you just have to make the decision that this is
more important to you than satisfying other people's insecurities about
needing to have a social lubricant.

Speaker 2 (22:27):
Oh that part, damn, that's what I needed. That's what
I needed.

Speaker 3 (22:32):
The facts honestly, one of the best. Like I'm not
gonna say that I don't drink, because I do. But
one of the best things that I have done, though,
is like, like lessen the amount that I drink, Like
I don't.

Speaker 4 (22:42):
I don't drink often.

Speaker 3 (22:46):
When I do well, I have fun, but it doesn't
happen as often as it used to, for sure. And
I think this job, the job that I have right now,
is something that made me realize it in order for
me to show up in the way that I want
to show up and in the light that I want
to show up for other people, like I have to
number one, be okay myself, and like alcohol is a depressant,
so let's face it, Like I just be walking around

(23:06):
and be like, why am I supposed sad today? I
was like, oh, yeah, because you had wine this weekend
or whatever, and be like, okay, that makes sense. I
started to pay attention a little bit more to why
I was feeling the way that I was feeling when
I was feeling it, and a lot of it came
back to that. So I have a lot more awareness
of when I'm making those decisions for sure.

Speaker 5 (23:24):
Yeah, And it's funny because over the past twenty five years,
the amount of people, the amount of friends even like
acquaintances or or people I don't really know that come
up to me and say, dude, I stop drinking, like
I'm a month or I'm two years. A conversation that
I had with them at some point, and or just
saying like it's it's not important to me, or having
a small giving them a small nugget of why why

(23:47):
I don't do it. They go, I'm in a lot,
like I don't drink anymore, and and so it's like
we don't really you know, you don't realize the impact
that you're having on others just by kind of like
hold holding holding your ground and saying like this, I
don't need to drink to have a good time. Also,
if it's that that kind of party, I can go
home like I don't need, I don't need to be there.

Speaker 4 (24:09):
Isn't sleep so great?

Speaker 5 (24:10):
Oh I wish I knew what that was.

Speaker 4 (24:12):
You don't sleep.

Speaker 2 (24:13):
You don't sleep the worst.

Speaker 5 (24:16):
No, I'm on last last night, night before was kind
of the first night and probably two monthst I only
woke up twice. My sleep is so bad because I
can't I'm I'm on my time's all messed up because
we're travel. Yeah, just travel. And I was just in
Greece like a week and a half ago, two weeks ago.

(24:36):
Now I'm getting ready to go to Italy on Monday.
I know, my life is so horrible. It's tough. Yeah,
and then we you know, it goes like shooting schedules
is like it's not a normal job. So we can
go from shooting normal hours on Monday to adjusting to Friturdays.

(24:57):
It's like we're you know, we go home at whenever
on Saturdayriday, Saturday morning.

Speaker 1 (25:02):
So Kamila asked me this because I also travel quite
often as well, covering soccer games all over the country.
And one of the questions I get is like, how
do you stay in a routine? You know, when I
try to prioritize one, it's like sleep and then two
like can I just get to work out it and
get it in before.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
The craziness pops off?

Speaker 1 (25:19):
So how do you do you have something that's just
like you have to keep part of your routine because
it's so hard to even have one.

Speaker 5 (25:27):
Yeah, Like even when I'm working, like i I'll in
Albuquerque this last time I shot when I shot Alexander
made friends with the gym owner and he was real
excited to have me in the gym. Then I got
Eva to come to the gym and she stole my trainer,
so he would open the gym for us. He would

(25:49):
give us a key and we can go in at
like three or four in the morning, whatever we needed
to go. So for me, it's like getting getting even
if I'm just in the hotel doing thirty minutes yoga
or doing something to where I have a little I
can say that I did a little bit. There's a
couple of there's a week a couple of weeks ago
where it was just the shooting hours are brutal and
it's just like but we also got a lot of

(26:10):
hiking in during during the day because it's a very
active movie. So I didn't get any workouts in that week.
But I like to try to start the day with something,
even if it's twenty minutes thirty minutes. Ideally it's I
get an hour to kind of do my thing. But
you know, you don't need that much same.

Speaker 3 (26:30):
You don't need that much sometimes just a little bit,
just like get the heart rate move in, especially after
you like being on a plane for a very long time.

Speaker 4 (26:37):
Is what saves you.

Speaker 3 (26:38):
But it's so hard to like get it in, especially
like immediately after a flight, immediately after a flight, and
I'm like, I just want to vegetate, but getting in
it makes me feel so, so, so much better. Yeah,
you mentioned Eva Longoria big love, which Latina doesn't.

Speaker 4 (27:01):
And if they don't, what's wrong with you love the woman?

Speaker 3 (27:05):
You've worked with her, you worked with j Lo, Like,
what's it like working with absolute powerhouses Latina women who
have literally fought their entire lives to build their career,
literally like with every ounce of energy.

Speaker 1 (27:23):
They have in their bodies, and now you're standing next
to them and like yourself, Jesse, I mean I think
Latinos as well.

Speaker 2 (27:29):
Just to add to Tom.

Speaker 5 (27:30):
Said, yeah, well those two specifically, I mean they're both
they are both powerhouses, and they both built their own
empires in completely different ways. And I I know Eva
better than I know Jen. But Eva and I are
kind of like cosmic soulmates, like we've we've known of
each other and met each other in different events over
the years, but it wasn't until we did Flame and

(27:50):
Hot together that we kind of realized how much we
had in common and what we like, like are you
know we we send each other weird shit on Instagram,
aliens and kind of like, you know, an article.

Speaker 4 (28:07):
Like nobody else would understand.

Speaker 5 (28:09):
Yeah, and me like, yeah, I know. It's like what
do you what do you think it means? What do
you think it means? We at the end? That mean?
What about the solo solar eclips is it happened? What happens?

Speaker 2 (28:22):
It's like the inside of the inside jokes.

Speaker 5 (28:24):
You think it's you think it's a like a you know,
time shift. Do you think it's gonna be real after this?
What's happening.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
Is that normally you guys are that like jet lag
on all.

Speaker 5 (28:36):
We're weirdos. We're weirdos. I love weird people. They're the best.
The last movie I did with with Eva Alexander, the
director said, and it was funny because he told us this,
like when we're doing press, he goes Eva and Jesse
alone or a dream the two of them together are
such fucking trouble because her and I a nightmare? A

(28:59):
chilldren children do.

Speaker 2 (29:01):
They have to wrangle you on set to constantly like.

Speaker 5 (29:05):
Where where are Jesse and Eva? Like they're over the
hill looking at rocks.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
Looking at rocks.

Speaker 5 (29:12):
Yeah, like where I found this one in Albertquerque. We're like,
we're looking at rocks. This is it's really pretty black rock.

Speaker 4 (29:18):
I also take rocks from like different places that I
go visit.

Speaker 5 (29:22):
So yeah, but Jen, you know, like they all like
the work means so much to them, right and and
Jen and I had a really great time too.

Speaker 3 (29:30):
And.

Speaker 5 (29:32):
They just want the work to be good. And the
movie where the two movies were working on a completely
different genres of her and Jen and I were doing
The Mother, which is a big action drama and that's
kind of the tone of the set, you know, so
we're just trying to get the We're doing the best
we can to get the scene right and kind of
like figuring things out as we go. Uh. They're they're

(29:53):
both kind of like powerhouses that have built these empires
that you know, everyone looks up to.

Speaker 2 (29:59):
Totally were you Valangoria's was it her fiftieth I was.

Speaker 5 (30:04):
I was still in Greece working.

Speaker 2 (30:05):
Okay, Okay, you.

Speaker 4 (30:07):
Missed the party I did. I have a question for you,
because well, we're going to get into your story.

Speaker 3 (30:14):
A little bit more, because I want to know like
how you transitioned into acting because we took covered cheerleading
and then you all of a sudden we're in Atlanta,
so we have to talk about that. But right now,
where my head's at is, like, do you feel pressure
as you're doing these roles for these Latino films that
are representing, you know, like normal American families rather than
like Narcos or like Latino families that are doing something

(30:37):
illegal and that's why they're successful. Do you feel pressure
to like make these films good or make them like
be the representation of future Latino films.

Speaker 5 (30:49):
Every movie that I do or TV show that I do,
I want it to be good, right, So like Narcos,
I think it's mostly within a Latino community that gives Uh,
they give Narcos a bad rap because it's glorification of
the of the cartel life. Sure, but it's also telling

(31:09):
a story, right, you know what I mean? And the
and the jump and then the platform that it gave
so many filmmakers and so many Latinos and Latinas on
that show to go off to come off of that
and be very successful is astronomical. Right That notes coming
out and being part of black Panther and he's coming
back to being in a Doomsday and a bunch of

(31:31):
the actors and coming out to be in very successful
TV shows and movies and within Mexico, within the Latin
Latino and the Spanish speaking market and coming crossing over
and being like Alejandro ra and then Horror Horizon right
like he and he's killing like he just where he
worked with Tom Cruise, like everyone's doing really great work.
So I think shows like like Narcos, which was a

(31:54):
great show, it's not meant to be a documentary. It's
not meant to be like telling everything exactly because some
of it's some of us glorified, some of it's embellished
a little bit, and uh, it's you know, for me,
it's like take the win, learn and move on and

(32:15):
do something, do better next time. Yeah, because the show
was great, it was very entertaining. Most people loved it,
including Latinos, and there's a lot of Latinos that didn't
like it. I went to an event and there was
like a handful of us from Narcos were invited, and
there was a couple of other Latino shows there that
everyone talked about. All these other shows, but no one
gave any love to Narcos and I go, I see

(32:37):
you guys, but I think you're wrong, and I think
you're I think we deserve our flowers too. The Narcos,
even even if it does kind of glorify the cartel
lifestyle a bit, it still doesn't make it so that
it didn't exist. Right the show that the life exists
and it still exists right now, retelling the story and

(32:57):
giving latinos a platform to showcase their abilities and the
filmmaking abilities, their acting abilities and go on to be stars.
It's great. I'm all for it. Take the win, you
know what I'm saying. So when do I feel the
pressure to you? I just want I want to make
good movies and good TV shows I want to make.

(33:18):
I do want to make universal stories that everyone can watch,
everyone can feel good watching and feel like they relate to,
which I think Flaming Hot was one of them. And
I think Alexander is another good example that Alexander is
a based on the Latino, a Mexican American family on
their journey to Mexico to discover themselves, but amongst a

(33:40):
bunch of comedy, right and it's nothing's hitting you overhead
of it with it, there's no agenda, there's no politics
in it. It's just just like a normal family trying
to figure out who they are and who they are
within their family and discovering things along the way and
kind of moving and learning and keep going right, just
like any other family.

Speaker 3 (34:00):
Yeah, well, I personally also watched Narcos, and I thought
it was very captivating, very well made, obviously very successful.
But you do see a lot of dialogue about that
online as well, So it's very interesting to hear your
take from somebody in the industry as to how you
see it being an opportunity for latinos in the space.

Speaker 5 (34:21):
Look how many it's the proof is there? Like, look,
how many of those people are have amazing careers right
now Like they were you know not they weren't very
recognizable or hadn't done very much work before the show,
and now after the show that they've been in they've
been in Narcos, everyone has a pretty great career. Everyone's

(34:45):
either they've turned into directors and filmmakers and writers as
well as actors, and they've become names and kind of
entities within that market and some are crossing over it.
It's silly not to take the win and keep moving.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
Interesting that perspective.

Speaker 3 (35:00):
We skipped through all of your acting story. We went
from Nebraska where you were cheerleading. In college, you majored
in exercise science.

Speaker 4 (35:10):
Is that correct?

Speaker 5 (35:11):
That's correct? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (35:12):
Respect, respect, And then how did you transition from a
major in exercise science to acting in Atlanta?

Speaker 5 (35:19):
It was when I originally went to school, I didn't
even know if I wanted to go to college. I got.
I went to college because I got a cheerleading scholarship,
so I didn't I wasn't even I thought it was
going to go to like massage therapy school and learn
massage and acupuncture and do that Eastern medicine. That's what
I thought I was gonna do. That was gonna move
to Colorado and do that. But I got a scholarship.
I'm like, all right, cool, I don't know. I'll try college.

(35:41):
It's easy. So I went computer science. I hated it.
Then I went computer applications. Then I went general because
I was just like failing all the computer stuff, and
then picked exercise science. When I moved to Nebraska. The
thing I wish I would have done, and I kind
of my advice for young people if they're deciding to
go to college right after high school, which I think

(36:03):
people should travel and kind of like have a little
bit of a life before they go to school. I say,
take take two or three four years. I think school
is kind of wasted on the youth because we're forcing
young people to figure out what they want to be
with you.

Speaker 4 (36:15):
Are you supposed to know?

Speaker 3 (36:17):
You do not?

Speaker 5 (36:18):
They're not supposed to know afford it.

Speaker 2 (36:20):
If you don't have a scholarship, it's insane.

Speaker 5 (36:25):
And college might not even be right for you. I
mean a lot the trade, the idea of having a
tradesmanship and learning things physically with your hands and something
that tangible is starting to be lost. I diedrest, but
I wish I would have done what I wish I
would have done in college. Is not worry about a major,
even though exercise science and is actually still holds kind

(36:49):
of like a very prominent aspect of my life right
now because I'm I'm such a nerd about all this
stuff and I was a personal trainer for many years.
Is I wish I would have done all the art
classes I wanted to do. I wish I would have
done sculpting. I wish i'd have done pottery. I wish
I would have done photography. I wish I would have
done writing. I wish I would have done all these
other things that what I in my heart I really

(37:11):
wanted to do. But I did all of these classes
that I thought I needed to do in order to
survive in life, instead of thriveing life, instead of feed
this artist that had been suppressed throughout my young, young
and young life, you know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (37:27):
So I can relate to that story a lot.

Speaker 2 (37:29):
My dad was like, you need to be like a
doctor as a mathematician Latino families.

Speaker 3 (37:34):
Yeah, as immigrants, you want to make sure that your
family have like that your kids are better off than
you were when you got to this country. So my
dad telling me, you know, I want to be I
want you to be a doctor instead of like a
cycling instructor.

Speaker 4 (37:46):
Like who would have thought I would have ended up here?

Speaker 3 (37:48):
Right?

Speaker 4 (37:48):
So there is that like level of them wanting to
protect you. But I can totally relate.

Speaker 5 (37:53):
Yeah. So one of my classes, I was my third
year of college and I still kind of was still
figuring out what I wanted to do. And I met
a girl in one of my classes a friend of mine.
The short story of it is is like on campus
one day we were talking, uh, and she told me
she was going to go to this actor model search
thing in Chicago and this is in Lincoln, Nebraska, and

(38:16):
I said, cool, let me know how it goes. And
she went and this guy named Judson Vaughan who had
these acting classes there. He's an actor, writer, director, producer.
I'd been in a bunch of movies, had his classes,
and he invited her to go study in Atlanta, and
she goes, you should come with me, and I said no,
I'm okay. In my head, I'm thinking like, one, I
don't I don't know you. I don't know you. Two

(38:41):
like I don't really know you. And then three like
I had a full ride scholarship basically, and I was
actually making money to go to school with all the
other other grants and scholarships at University of Nebraska, which
I had just stop putting. Yeah cheerleading dude, thought, thought yeah.

(39:02):
And then I end up going to one of like
these actor models sorts of things, knowing, damn, well, I'm
not a model.

Speaker 2 (39:09):
What excuse you? Watch your mouth talk to my friend
like that. I'm sure there's many called the Internet that
have something.

Speaker 4 (39:15):
Different to say.

Speaker 5 (39:16):
I know there's a Mexican gorilla market out there. Simmer
Dad traps for days.

Speaker 3 (39:25):
If I look up Jesse Garcia, Garcia, Zaddi, Zanni, many a.

Speaker 4 (39:31):
Thread will pop up.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
Commie's really good at finding Reddit stuff, Reddit conversations.

Speaker 2 (39:36):
You probably all over read it.

Speaker 5 (39:38):
Probably I probably got some wiki feet out there somewhere.
But I went to one of these things, and of
course I didn't get picked for anything. Uh, but I go,
what's this? For some reason, they gave me the bug
about acting? So I called her up. She said she's
been talking to Judson about me. I talked to Judson
for forty five minutes within that phone call. Just I'm

(40:00):
gonna drop everything. Nebraska moved to Atlanta A week later.
I was in Atlanta, like I drove to Wyoming. I
told my parents I was moving to Atlanta to study acting.
They go, huh, okay, well let us know if you
need any help. I go huh, and then I go
because my mom freaked out. I wanted to move three
and a half hours to Wyoming to uh Eastern Wyoming College,

(40:20):
and then I'm moving across the country. She later told
me she thought I'd be gone for six months and
hate it and come back.

Speaker 3 (40:26):
Is this a common thread for you because you were like, oh,
I hate computer science. I'm gonna do exercise science. Like
I don't want to do football. I want to do cheerleading.

Speaker 4 (40:33):
I don't want to like go study this in college anymore.
I want to be an actor.

Speaker 3 (40:37):
And like whatever you like commit yourself to, you also
are like successful at.

Speaker 5 (40:43):
It, Sagittarius, there you go.

Speaker 2 (40:49):
Okay, I sensed it.

Speaker 5 (40:55):
Yeah, okay, So I moved. I moved to Atlanta, Georgia.
I picked up this girl, Jennifer, moved to Atlanta. We
drove straight through. It was like seventeen hours. Got to
Judson's house, passed out for like a day, and then
started classes that week. And so I went to two
classes a week, booked my went, I did an extra
gig background on a movie called Boycott. It's an HBO

(41:19):
movie about Martin Luther King, and then I uh, I
went to Then I had my first audition. I booked
my first audition, and the driveway of this on the
set of this movie that my friends were working, because
the guy dropped out the driveway. I was just in
a driveway they could come to set and I did
this thing in a driveway of the set and they go, cool,

(41:41):
can you be here at seven am tomorrow. I'm like, yeah, man,
I'll be there. So it was my first audition and
it's like this movie called Yeah, just like that. I'm like, oh,
this is how you do it. Come on, let's go.

Speaker 2 (41:50):
You're like, I'm in.

Speaker 4 (41:51):
I don't think my Sagittarius powers go that deep, but
I do. They do. Teach me how to tap in.

Speaker 5 (42:01):
Yeah, So I was there for I was in Atlanta
for three and a half years. I kind of like
got out of Atlanta what I needed to do at
the time, so I wasn't the same market that it
is now. Moved here to la in December of two
thousand and three, kind of kept going with the with
the internet submissions like online castings and short films and

(42:23):
trying to get myself in the door somehow, and ended
up seeing a breakdown for this tiny little movie, non
union movie called Kensanira, and I submitted for the I
knew the who the casting director was cause I did
a workshop with him in Atlanta a couple of years prior.
I said, hey, man, I'm in la if I if

(42:45):
you haven't read you know, if you haven't found the
lead guy, I'd love to read for it. He goes, no,
come on in, and I read for it and I
got it and the movie ended up going to Sundance
in two thousand and six and swept the awards and
started my career.

Speaker 1 (42:57):
Love it, you know, you know that it just shows
like you had that I guess determination but also courage
because you wrote write the casting director, you wrote them
like so really it's like you you shoot your.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
Shot for an opportunity.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
Similar Camilla as a Peloton instructor, because she literally wrote
the CEO at five in the morning one day and
then got a response at nine in the morning and
he look.

Speaker 2 (43:20):
At her mouth. It's insane.

Speaker 1 (43:21):
Yeah, So like uh if for our listeners like that's
it's just so incredible to hear these types of stories
where like you just kind of like, heck with it,
I'm gonna write it and if I get a note
to no, but if I get a yes, you never know.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
What this can lead to.

Speaker 5 (43:34):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I've had a couple of buddies in
mine who've like like cold emailed peoples, are cold texting
people like Hey man, what are you doing? What's what's
your movie? I want to I want to work on
your movie and like cold texting. Yeah, but my buddy
has the probably the most gigantic balls you've ever seen
in your life.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
That's a little it's a little scary, yeah.

Speaker 5 (43:56):
For him.

Speaker 2 (44:00):
Ideals, get wells gets.

Speaker 4 (44:02):
I gotta send some more energies to my ovaries. Grow
some courage girl.

Speaker 2 (44:08):
Yeah, guys, big overaries.

Speaker 5 (44:11):
That's the worst I gonna happen.

Speaker 4 (44:12):
No, yeah, yeah, did you ever think about like quitting
your acting career?

Speaker 5 (44:22):
So kids came out and I got a handful of movies.
So two thousand and seven I did. I did a
bunch of movies. One movie paid me really well, the
first time I've ever got made that kind of money.
This is back in the day when it was actually
money to shoot movies. And I didn't get paid ton

(44:43):
but I got paid more money than I'd ever been paid. Uh,
And the movie never came out. So that a handful.
There's two movies that year that I did that never
came out, and I did a couple of.

Speaker 4 (44:52):
TV shows movies that didn't come out the same year.

Speaker 5 (44:55):
They never came out. Now there's two movies I was
the lead of that just didn't They just died. I'm
still trying to figure out a way get those movies.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
That's insane.

Speaker 4 (45:01):
I mean, yeah, how long did you film for I
don't know.

Speaker 5 (45:05):
One was probably month and a half or so and
the other one and it was a big movie is
with Woman of al d Rama. Lawrence Fishburne.

Speaker 3 (45:15):
Was in it.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
A good movie too, But so it didn't come out.
But like contractually, like you got paid for that work, yea, yeah, okay.

Speaker 5 (45:23):
Yeah, it just didn't come out. I just no one
just no one got their flowers for it. Wow.

Speaker 4 (45:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (45:27):
Yeah, I'm still working on trying to get that movie out.
You can watch the trailer online. It's called Days of Wrath.

Speaker 4 (45:35):
Okay.

Speaker 5 (45:36):
And then and then two thousand and eight happened and
there's a rider of strikes and pending sack strikes and
the recession and I went from you know, having a
decent amount of money, thinking the next year was going
to be huge too, making more money, to start chipping
away at my savings. And at the time, I was
advised not to invest in certain things. And it may

(45:58):
or may not have been good good information for me
to have because the market crashed, and I you know,
if I'd have bought a house or something like that,
I probably would have lost it. So for a couple
of years, you know, I got to a point where
I ended up moving in with a buddy who didn't
charge me much for rent. I got a couple of
jobs here and there, enough to kind of keep me

(46:20):
in the game. And then and then I rented this
apartment that I'm in right now, But then I couldn't
afford to live in it. So I was CouchSurfing while
I was renting this house this apartment out so that
I could have a few hundred bucks in my pocket
at the end of the month, you know, for me
and my dog, and I'd buy buy him food and
buy me a little bit of food and kind of
like that house sit here and there and one of

(46:43):
my buddies, Uh, Brian, really he was a savior for
me at the time, and someday I'll repay him. Well,
he kept like let me stay with him for a
long time, probably close to a year wow. And then
a little bit little I started figuring out hustles like
Airbnb stuff and renting out a room and got back
on my feet to where at least I didn't have

(47:03):
to couch surf anymore. And then in twenty thirteen, I
had a couple of auditions and ended up booking from
Dustill Dawn with Robert Rodriguez. So I worked on that
show for a few years and that was kind of
that was amazing. That was probably one of the funnest
shows I worked on too. I learned so much, like
all the action stuff that I do now is because

(47:23):
of the training I did on that show, Like Robert
has his own thing, and I learned how to do
the looks over the shoulder and kind of like do
poke quick pose like fun poses after a fight scene
or just just do cool shit, you know what I mean,
Like because you as an act and a lot of
your own stunts, a lot of them, but you know
the stunts, the stunts are really important that they came
in and did some like the big falls and falls

(47:44):
off of buildings, but they really they really encourage us
to do as much as we can. So it's mostly
us on camera, but if like it's.

Speaker 3 (47:53):
It's stuff that I know, literally exercise, I know, but
if it's like big podcasts, go of cheerleader.

Speaker 5 (48:03):
Eva was a cheerleader too.

Speaker 4 (48:05):
Oh dope, wow, yeah.

Speaker 5 (48:08):
And then the show ended in twenty sixteen, and I
did a couple of small things, but then everything dried
up for some reason, like no, like no auditions really
were coming in. I wasn't booking anything, and I thought
maybe I peaked. I was like, was that it that
I am? I? Am I done? Little?

Speaker 3 (48:28):
Did you know?

Speaker 5 (48:30):
Am I done?

Speaker 1 (48:31):
So?

Speaker 5 (48:32):
And I talked a couple of friends about it, and
there was like, no, I just keep going and like,
but I was so in my head and I was
a bit depressed about it, and I thought myself tapes
were good and like, I thought I was doing all
the right things. And then I one day it was
I have a I spent my time between La and Austin,
and I was at my Austin house. I was working
on something. I think I was outside work in the

(48:52):
yard or building something. And I ended up having this
conversation with myself like, Okay, what's wrong, Like I'm not working,
I'm in my head, I'm not working. What am I
going to do? Okay, what are my options here? I
can quit? I can quit acting, Like, all right, what
do I do if I quit? Well, I can build

(49:13):
houses I can do all the construction stuff that I'm
good at already. I can sell cars. I can figure
out other kind of internet hustles. I can Airbnb. I
can find a way I could do it well if
fulfill me creatively. Not the same. It's different, and plus
the money is different, like the acting money. When the
acting money is good, it's good. It's not always good,

(49:33):
but it's good sometimes and I go, Okay, what else
can I do? I can direct, which is what I'm
working on, but it's not immediate. It's starting over, even
though that I've been doing it for at that point
for almost twenty years. It's not the same. Like how
a lot of actors get into directing is by being
on a series. If they haven't shot their own movie,
they're on a series and at some point the studio

(49:57):
will say like, hey, do you want to direct something.
They'll give you like you'll you'll shadow somebody one, two, three, four,
ten times, and then they'll give you an episode and
have people help you throughout the way. And that's how
you kind of get into directing TV. I guess it's
too far down line. I can't it's not immediate, it's
it will happen. But that's not the solution right now.

(50:19):
So I started talking. So I asked myself, I go,
what was I like when I first started acting? What
was my attitude when you first start doing something? The
naivete that you that you have, the the you know,
you're green, you don't really you haven't had your heart
broken yet, there's the you're you're not calloused, you know.
I go, what was my attitude at that time? I

(50:42):
thought I was gonna make a difference. I'm like, I'm
gonna go I'm moving to Atlanta. I'm gonna take these classes.
I want to make like I'm gonna do something cool.
Maybe I'll be in cool stuff, maybe I won't. Maybe
I'll meet famous people, maybe I won't. Like the whole
unknown aspect of it was exciting, right, I'm excited to
do things. Oh, I got an audition, let's beak about it.

(51:02):
So I was, and I kept and I go, Okay,
who are the people I was looking up to at
that time?

Speaker 3 (51:07):
You know?

Speaker 5 (51:08):
And when I was twenty one years old? I started
when I was twenty one years old in two thousand
and a lot of the people I was looking up
to are now my peers. And my friends, and I
thought about it, and I said, okay, if I you know,
me meeting those people back in the day, it was like,
would have been super exciting, like meeting Edward James, almost

(51:28):
like the og Legend, which who I ended up getting
to work with. And I was, you know, a friend
and a mentor of mine might have been stoked, right,
But meeting you know, a handful of the people who
are now my friends and my brothers and sisters to me.
And I said to myself, I go, Okay, if the

(51:49):
twenty one year old version of jesse Garcia were to
meet the twenty eighteen version of jesse Garcia, how would
the twenty one one year old version react. Would he
be kind of starstruck? Would he be stoked to meet him?
Would he be like look up and go like, holy shit,
that's that's jesse Gercieah, Like what's the conversation going to

(52:13):
be like? Like would he be proud of him? Would
he say keep going? What would he say?

Speaker 2 (52:17):
Like?

Speaker 5 (52:17):
What you would? What you're doing matters, like, you know,
without knowing what's going on in the head and the
life of the twenty eighteen year old twenty eighteen version, right,
because everyone's got their own ship.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
You'd say, you still you still have those triceps?

Speaker 4 (52:31):
Yeah, yeah, Use that's such a beautiful thing.

Speaker 5 (52:37):
So I asked myself, I go, would I be proud?
Would the twenty one year old version be proud of
the twenty eighteen year old version? And would he go
farck if I could have any little bit of his
success that would be awesome, because you know, at the time,
I'd done h Ken Sanata which came out, which is
a really beautiful movie that means my Luna, which is
like a small part, but another beautiful movie, Avengers small part,

(52:58):
and Avengers from Dust Till Dawn, a handful of other
things that I got to do, the first of the
Alexander and Terrible Horrible nuggad very bad day, small small
part than that, And I would he be stoked, maybe
a little starstruck, and kind of go like, dude, whatever
you're doing, keep doing, I'm proud of you. And I
sat there and I go, yeah, I go, yeah, I

(53:20):
would he would be so proud of like the twenty
eighteen version, and I go, Okay, I go, I go,
that's it. And I just got to keep going. I
gotta keep going. I can't you know what would the
twenty year old one year old version. He goes, yeah,
you know, live your life. You know, if that's what
you want to do and you want to quit, fine,
but that's just part of the journey. So I had

(53:42):
to figure out it's like, Okay, what am I? What
can I be doing better now that I've gotten out
of my head? No, I've gotten past Like, I'm not
feeling sorry for myself. I'm not going to be depressed
about this. Let's fix it. I got an acting coach,
a couple acting coaches, Samantha Stiglitz l Lee Elton Smith,
who've helped me out a lot over the years. Uh,

(54:05):
took more time with myself tapes, you know, just approached
it in a different mentality, where like this, I'm always
kind of like I have to like me, they're like me.
If they don't, they don't, which is kind of how
I am, right, And it's I have been for a
long time.

Speaker 2 (54:19):
How old were you at the time when you when
you realized this or so it's.

Speaker 5 (54:24):
Twenty eighteen, thirty seven, thirty seven, thirty eight nine nine.

Speaker 2 (54:30):
Love that yeah something like that, Yeah, I love that.

Speaker 1 (54:33):
I mean, there's so it's just it's like never too
late to have that conversation with yourself and like re
spark that not not not just like interest, but that
belief in yourself.

Speaker 5 (54:44):
You know, it's forget we forget, you know, like I
so many actors would kill the have a little bit
of what I've had. And you know, I'm proud of
what I've done, not all of it, but I'm proud
of ninety nine percent of what we should. You're a
huge in even out of their one percent, Like it's
even if they're not my best work or I'm not

(55:04):
super proud of the maybe is, but one Like I.

Speaker 3 (55:07):
Was just saying, like you're a huge inspiration and you,
whether you like it or not, you represent something so
important for the Latino community.

Speaker 4 (55:13):
You really have no choice.

Speaker 3 (55:15):
I know that you are proud of that, but it's
just it's it's really amazing to hear your story and
to hear those moments of you like doubting yourself and
not just like doubting yourself, sitting in it and being like, Okay,
I'm gonna like continue to take a step forward, but
I love that pause where you like re established a

(55:37):
career plan or a path for growth based off of actions,
and like, really you identified your areas for growth and
then you challenge them by taking action and hiring a
coach that was going to be like, hey, you know
you actually like I wouldn't say you stuck at something,
but you kind of suck at this, Like can we
make that a little bit better?

Speaker 4 (55:54):
Like what can we work on to set you up
for success? Because I feel like a lot of people
we get.

Speaker 3 (55:59):
Paralyzed when we get into these moments and we try
and we feel like we're like hitting a wall. But
there are ways you don't pick at that wall, even
if it's made out of cemental and like get over
it or bust through.

Speaker 5 (56:12):
Yeah, I mean that wall really it represents ego, you
know what I mean? That's that's what that is. Is
kind of like me getting over myself and my ego
thinking I'm doing I like doing my way. And you know,
getting an outside perspective of is not a bad thing.
You may not always agree with it and may not
be the way for you to do it, but just
to have someone in your corner that will go let

(56:34):
you try this. What do you think about this? Like
how about this perspective? You know what I mean so
like I'm doing lots of things now. I've like it's
it's so funny, like as I've gotten older, like, ah,
I'm gonna take a hip hop class. Love so doing.
I've been doing hip hop for like with my friend
Kayla Johnson for since September October someone. Yeah, and it's

(56:57):
very like I'm still going there. I'm like, fucker, suck.

Speaker 2 (57:01):
No joke, you get out of it. Oh that makes
me want to like do this again.

Speaker 1 (57:05):
So when I when I stopped playing soccer, retired from
Freshel Soccer, I moved to New York City and like
one of the first months there, I'm like, wow, like
I'm in New York, Like I could do like any
class here, right, And I was like, you know what,
and I saw it like on this app I used
to use its like class past. I was like, there's
like a dance class that I could do. Keep in mind,
like totally have never seen else before.

Speaker 2 (57:25):
Oh, And I was like, do I do something out
of my comfort zone? And I'm like fuck yeah I do.

Speaker 1 (57:29):
So I go and I literally like you know, when
you look at yourself in the mirror and like everybody
else is doing so good and you're just like trying
to keep up with like and I'm like, oh my god,
I feel so dumb. But then it's also like so cool,
like to do something that you're scared of. Oh, Jesse,
you just made me want to like actually do another
class again.

Speaker 3 (57:48):
Definitely took a video and definitely send it to me
so I can post it on social media so that
everybody can appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (58:01):
Jesse.

Speaker 4 (58:02):
And now you're in the Odyssey, Yes, tell us more
Christopher Nolan film. Yeah, we're just shooting.

Speaker 5 (58:11):
What I can say it is it's epic in all ways.
It's the scale of it is is every he keeps
raising the bar, We're going to see new things that
have never been seen on the camera. And it's you know,
it's the same as always. It's practical. It's you know,
as practicals can be, and it's the actors are all incredible,

(58:32):
and it's it's going to be it's it's going to
be epic.

Speaker 4 (58:39):
The hiking that you were doing mentioning earlier, is it
a part of this.

Speaker 5 (58:43):
Yeah, just to get the set really, I mean part
of it was set, but like just to get the set, okay,
it was just like like they're like we're going real,
real sets, real locations.

Speaker 3 (58:54):
Did you did you see where Christopher Nolan was taking
a Gen Sherman class on Peloton and she was talking
about Tennant? Oh yeah, tell him, Please tell him that
his friends at Peloton say hello.

Speaker 4 (59:09):
And that we're excited to watch the film.

Speaker 3 (59:10):
But yeah, so he was like taking a taking a
Gen Sherman class, like thinking he was like safe, like
nobody was gonna talk shit about him, nobody was gonna
like come up to him and be like, what's up,
Christopher Nolan? And then she's like, I just watched Tennant.
He's like, I love a Christopher Nolan film, but I
need those three hours back. And he was like laughing
about it, mentioned it in an interview.

Speaker 4 (59:28):
It was like a whole thing.

Speaker 2 (59:29):
It was all over the news and all the news.

Speaker 4 (59:32):
It was all over the news. So tell him we
send him love and that we're excited to watch his
next one.

Speaker 1 (59:39):
Jesse questioned for you, and this is literally like back
to basics, and I think our our listeners would love
to know too, how do actors memorize these scripts? Like
what is the key to memorization and like also not
just memorization, but also improv and getting to character.

Speaker 5 (59:55):
It depends like some sometimes a script like I'll read
it once or twice and I got it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:00):
Jealous.

Speaker 5 (01:00:01):
But other times it's like I just can't, Like it's
it takes.

Speaker 4 (01:00:04):
Repetition once or twice is crazy, it's very it's.

Speaker 5 (01:00:08):
Like it just hass Yeah, when you're warmed up and
like especially if you're working on a TV show, sometimes
you're that's just how your brain's working, Like you can
read it once or twice or and you're good to go.
But for me, my memory isn't probably from recreational activities
when I was young. Uh isn't that what it is?

(01:00:29):
Not what it could be. So I'm doing a lot
of adplus and like other peptides now to reconnect some
neuropathways so I can have better, better memorization. But sometimes
it's sometimes it's there, sometimes it isn't. It's just I
find ways to connect, connect dialogue and connect. I also
see where words and sentences are on the page right,

(01:00:52):
So like when dialogue is written out, I see I
see patterns like I'll I'll know which ones come where.
But also it's like repetition, like I think the flm
of flameing hot monologues. I just I sat with for
weeks and every time I have a break, I would
go over it and try to figure it out. But
also it was it always easy for you?

Speaker 4 (01:01:11):
Or is this something you like grew into?

Speaker 5 (01:01:14):
No, I mean it's the dialogue. It really isn't that
easy for me, Like it's memorizing all that stuff is
not it's for me. It's repetition. Like my buddy's saying,
who can look at it once or twice and have
it memorized. It's it's unbelievable, like the amount of words
that he can remember. Just it's such a talent and
such a talent. I don't. I don't have it like

(01:01:35):
I sometimes I do, Like sometimes I'll read it once
or twice and I got it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:38):
But yeah, it's so funny because like I, like I said,
I cover soccer games. So we have press meetings, we
meet with the coaches, meet with the athletes, and this
is the day before game. So the day of game,
we obviously need to storytell. We need to talk about
every all the information that we learned in the matter
of like five hours condensed into a you know, a

(01:01:58):
two hour match, and there's just one Kyle Martine. He
won't even write a single thing down, Okay, and then
game starts, He's on camera and blah blah blah blah blah,
and there am I I'm like like literally, you know,
and then I'll have him like bullet pointed, and then
I'll rehearse like in the hotel room, and I'm you know,

(01:02:19):
I have to like go the extra fifty miles to
nail it, where like some people are just naturally talented,
I'm like, god, dang it, why did I get that
that gene?

Speaker 5 (01:02:28):
Have you ever not done it? And to see what
happens we.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
I mean, shoit, I'm a little scared. Should I could never? Should?

Speaker 5 (01:02:35):
I never?

Speaker 2 (01:02:37):
Should? I should you not not on like a Jesse?
If I lose my job, I'm coming knocking at your door.

Speaker 5 (01:02:44):
Just maybe just kind of have faith in yourself that
you know what you're doing.

Speaker 2 (01:02:48):
I love this. Okay, Wow, Will, well, my god, you
have to you have to Will.

Speaker 4 (01:02:52):
We're back. You have to report back. And He's like, Jesse,
you need to get me a job.

Speaker 5 (01:02:57):
What if what if you were just listening to your
your your fellow colleagues instead of in your head?

Speaker 3 (01:03:03):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:03:05):
Yeah, that's actually trust and trust that you know the stories,
have your cheats, something that you might remember. But I
bet you have it. I bet you have it more
than you think you do.

Speaker 1 (01:03:16):
You're probably right. I mean that's really like I appreciate that.
I really should try it. I'm gonna try it. That's
my that's my challenge for this next month. I'm gonna
I'm gonna say it.

Speaker 2 (01:03:26):
That's my challenge. Hey, let's go.

Speaker 4 (01:03:28):
You got this. I believe in you.

Speaker 3 (01:03:29):
Actually, I believe in your in your little brain Jesse.
Before we take it into our last section, I want
to ask you something that we like to ask.

Speaker 4 (01:03:36):
Everybody on the show.

Speaker 3 (01:03:37):
When you think about your life there, what do you
think is a factor that contributed the most to your success?

Speaker 5 (01:03:50):
First off, it's a foundation that of the of the
of the training that I got when I moved to Atlanta. Right,
so Judson Vaughan at what films? What Films doesn't exist anymore,
but the foundation of what we did there is a
big foundation of what I do.

Speaker 3 (01:04:04):
Now.

Speaker 5 (01:04:05):
I'm not a method actor. I'm kind of like the
bare bones of it is like learn my words, say
my words, you know, don't like, don't move shit around
that I don't need to move shit around and kind
of also be free, like not be afraid to make mistakes.
For me, going to class and doing workshopping any kind

(01:04:28):
of thing where you're going in to learn, that's not
where you For me, it's not where you go to
be awesome. It's where you go to make mistakes. It's
where you go to take risks. And when you do
all that and you get comfortable with making mistakes and
taking risks and seeing what works and what doesn't, I
think the byproduct of that is becoming good. Even if
it's becoming good at making that mistake, when you make

(01:04:50):
that mistake, when you're on the spot, you don't fold,
you don't kind of like implode when you make a mistake.
I remember blowing a line on when we were doing
and the Avengers, and there's a big shot like the
cranes coming in and swooping down into the into the
hell Carrier and back on me, and I went blah
blah blah blah, and I was like, toward the end

(01:05:11):
of the take, I'm like, and Sam Jackson goes, what
the fuck you say? And I go and I laugh
about it. But if I had, you know, if I'd
have been a little bit more in my head about it.
I might have imploded and got worse and worse and
worse as as as the day went on. But I
you know, I turned it around, got it the next
take and whatever one they used. But so like for me,
it's like, uh, for me, it was the training that

(01:05:34):
that I started with with Judson and then kind of
finding finding my own way a bit, you know, just ye,
finding ways of making things interesting to me. I think
what a lot of the mistake a lot of actors do.
Actors specifically, they they go in to an audition or

(01:05:59):
even a sh a show or a movie doing what
they think everyone else wants them to do, as opposed
to I'm getting I got called in for this audition
because they want to see my version, right, They want
to see my version of this, even if they give
a comp right they say it's they're welcome for Johnny
Depp or Benicio del Toro. I'm not Johnny Depp or

(01:06:21):
Benisio del Toro, right, I'm Jesse Garcia, and I'm gonna
give you my version. So when I do my version,
I'm like fuck it, Like I don't really pay, Like again,
this is this is I've been doing this for a
long time, and it's it's not really necessarily a great
actor advice for young people like people just started. But
for me, it's like, I'm gonna do my version first,

(01:06:44):
and if they like what I'm doing, then they're gonna
come in and go, oh, we love that. Can we
try something this way? We go further with that, or
maybe a book job. And that's how I do it,
because that's the version I think it should be right
as opposed to someone me going in and trying to
do you know, Johnny Depp's version of Jack Sparrow that's
been done. No one wants to see that. They want

(01:07:06):
to see your version. So for me, it's like, again,
it's taking risks and not being afraid to make mistakes none.
You know, it's not life or death. You get a job, cool,
If you don't get a job, it's cool. Some of
us life changing could be life changing, but some of
it might not be either, Like I didn't really work
for two years after Flaming Hot came out for whatever reason,

(01:07:29):
whether it's the politics of the company, like the industry,
or who knows. Right, I'm on a really big job
now and it's a really cool job now, but it
took you know, it's two years and you just kind
of have to be patient and you know, have other
things going on in your life. For me, acting is
not my life. It's what I do for a living.
And the other things that I do that are my

(01:07:50):
life feed my artistry. Right, So like that's the other
thing too, is like I don't I'm not in a
You have to be careful not to get caught in survival, right.
You have to learn how to thrive, even if you're
struggling a little bit, how to how to feed this artist,
how to feed you know, the thing that you're you're

(01:08:11):
focusing on doing, but still knowing that you have a
life outside of it. I think it's just finding finding
our way in your own way and kind of like
figuring out what that is as opposed to trying to be,
you know, a carbon copy or emulating someone else's.

Speaker 4 (01:08:24):
Super super quick.

Speaker 3 (01:08:26):
What would you say to somebody because right now everything
on like social media is like, oh this is so cringe,
this person, so cringe, this person so cringe until they're
not and they're successful. Like, what would you say to
somebody who's like afraid to do something especially creative? Because
they're afraid of being cringe.

Speaker 5 (01:08:43):
It's so I think it's social medias can be so
poisonous sometimes. Who like, if I'm trying to do something,
if I want to, I mean, I think it's me
putting on a hip hop dance videos cringe just for me, right,
I'm not worried about what other people are thinking. It's
mostly about me going like, ah, man, I'm not ready

(01:09:03):
to do that yet. But for people who want to,
like say they want to make a short film, then
they want to put it online. But other people are
saying like, noah, I don't do that, that's cringe. Who cares? Like,
who whose opinion are you really? You know who you're
trying to please? No, we're only we're on this, you know,
in this timeline for a finite amount of time. And

(01:09:26):
if we're worried about what's cringey to other people, it's
gonna like how are the people's like the thing that
we think they're going to think is cringe in the moment,
And if they do something down the line, they're going
to go, oh man, remember that work that they did
back in the day. That was just like how they
started out and they were beginning and how now you
can see how it goes right, Like even like any

(01:09:50):
filmmaker that you admire, any actor that you admire, everyone's
everyone's done questionable work, right, or even something that's like
going like oh that's not it doesn't quite work, or
that's interesting. That's not a great film, but it's interesting,
you know what I mean? So who cares? I don't,
I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:10:07):
Who cares? From the now what? Who cares?

Speaker 3 (01:10:19):
All Right, we're gonna We're gonna wrap with our segment
I Got my Phone well Side, which is a sessions
where we help people, we like give them an assist
so that they're well versed in music and in sport, especially.

Speaker 4 (01:10:30):
Football with Meli.

Speaker 3 (01:10:31):
But because we have you on today and you want
to know, like what is your like hype go to
like hype track like pump up song man, when you're
like getting in the game, like ready.

Speaker 4 (01:10:45):
To function up.

Speaker 5 (01:10:48):
I mean All the Bad Bad Bunnies Fast album right now.

Speaker 2 (01:10:52):
Absolutely, it's like it's it's been four months since it's
release and it's.

Speaker 5 (01:10:56):
Still still still it still goes hard.

Speaker 4 (01:10:59):
It still goes hard.

Speaker 3 (01:11:03):
Man.

Speaker 5 (01:11:03):
I have so many that like I have a list
that I just kind of go through I don't really know.
I'm I really big. I'm into uh afrobeats lately, like
I been have I have been, But it's kind of
like the thing I wake up and I put afro
beats on it and it just kind of starts my day.
Good energy, anything, anything hard and basy, Well, let me.

Speaker 4 (01:11:22):
Give you, let me put you on. We love him.
He just dropped and new track him h I M
and it is sold. So if you haven't listened to it,
get on it.

Speaker 1 (01:11:34):
So and LETI I took your I took your peloton class.
Remember that commy, So that's actually Jesse. That's a good class.
You could take U commies class uh.

Speaker 3 (01:11:45):
For me.

Speaker 2 (01:11:50):
For sports the world of sports.

Speaker 1 (01:11:52):
This podcast is released in what around May June, So
it's gonna be a crazy summer of soccer. So coming
up we have like three US Women's Social team games.
There's two US men's soccer games. There's also the Gold
Cup which Jesse you might be able to see Mexical
against potentially the USA, and the FIFA Club World Cup.

(01:12:12):
So it's a summer again of soccer. I might age
a few years after, like come August, but.

Speaker 5 (01:12:18):
That's I love going. I love going I love going
to the matches. I think it's a lot of fun.
But I just unless I'm going with a purpose, I
just don't Yeah yeah, Like, so if I were to go, we.

Speaker 2 (01:12:33):
Got to get you to some games. I'll get your
person to the games.

Speaker 3 (01:12:36):
Yeah, correct, cool, Jesse, it was such an honor to
have you. I am so happy that you did the
time to chat with us today. Thank you so much
for everything that you're doing for our community.

Speaker 4 (01:12:48):
For my literal like.

Speaker 2 (01:12:53):
Yeah, well yeah that too.

Speaker 3 (01:12:54):
Thank you for paying my bills that too, her salary,
for giving me amazing content to watch on my ouch. No, really,
you're the best, and I just love how humble and
open you were in this conversation.

Speaker 4 (01:13:06):
So thanks for joining.

Speaker 2 (01:13:07):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 5 (01:13:08):
I'm so like, I was like, wait, wait, I really
had no idea what I really had no idea what
I was getting myself into. So this is awesome. It
is really our first time talking other than dig digital text.

Speaker 2 (01:13:21):
Yeah yeah, yeah, that's amazing. Oh well, thank you so much, Jess.

Speaker 1 (01:13:25):
We really appreciate for jumping on, being so open sharing
all the incredible things that are coming up for you.
We wish you the best, Keep on going, keep on
being that inspirational Latino.

Speaker 2 (01:13:35):
Okay it is so again, Thanks so much.

Speaker 1 (01:13:37):
This is you, guys.

Speaker 4 (01:13:39):
We'll catch you next time.

Speaker 2 (01:13:40):
Bye bye.

Speaker 3 (01:13:47):
And iHeart women's sports production and partnership with Deep Blue
Sports and Entertainment.

Speaker 1 (01:13:51):
For more podcasts, listen to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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