April 25, 2024 • 36 mins
“I didn’t think I had a shot at Richie.” Nearly 40 years after its release, La Bamba remains a cinematic landmark for representation and one of the highest-grossing Latino films of all time. We interviewed the star of the movie, Lou Diamond Phillips, about landing his big break, inhabiting the role of Chicano music icon Richie Valens, and bonding with the late singer’s family on set.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
So then you fly out.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
So sure enough, they're flying me out. What's funny is
that for the next two or three days they're using
me as the reader because they're continuing to read Bob's
and Richie's and Donna's.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
So you're reading, you're reading with other Bobs and other Richies.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Uh huh, and all the Donnas. You know, they flew
me out. I guess they wanted to get, you know,
the best bag for their buck.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Do you remember who any of those people were, where
any did any of them pan out to have careers?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yes? Helen Hunt read four? No really get it?
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Yeah? Wow? Yeah, wow?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah. She was great. I will say, and this is
one of a few times I've ever said this. When
I walked in, I didn't think I had a shot
at Richie.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Huh. Why is that?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Because John Stamuss's picture was already up on the wall.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Welcome to More Than a Movie, a podcast that gives
you a behind the scenes look at your favorite movies.
I'm your host, Alex blumt. Last season, we did a
deep dive on American met This season, I'll focus on
a different movie. Each episode feature interviews with the biggest actors, directors, writers,
and producers behind them and tap into the history of
Latinos in film. In my house growing up, there were
(01:19):
two types of music playing, Cuban music and rock and roll.
The playlist was not uncommonly the Rolling Stones or Rare Earth,
followed by Cacao and Celia Cruz. But there wasn't a
lot of music out there that bridged the gap between
these two worlds for me, my American side and my
Latino one. Until I heard LaBamba. Little Alex would pull
(01:41):
out the bongo drums. Yes we really had bongo drums,
and I'd bang away at them, singing La bamba offbeat
at the top of my lungs, or dancing around yelling
over and over again. While LaBamba is originally Mexican, not Cuban,
it comes from Vera Cruz, where many of the songs
had the same African influence his Cuban music had, so
(02:02):
it sounded familiar, except the version I was singing was
not the Verakrusian folk song. It was the version I'd
seen in the nineteen eighty seven film by the same
name about this rock and roll legend named Richie Vallens,
who also felt caught between his American life and his
Latino one, and the film starred this Latino kid whose
(02:22):
name was weirdly Lou Diamond Phillips. As it turns out,
Lou wasn't technically Latino. He's Filipino, Native American and a
couple other things mixed in. But as anybody who lives
in La knows, Filipinos are just the Latinos of Asia.
In fact, I learned to make my lazoonskin extra crispy
watching a Filipino dude on YouTube. So I was psyched
when Lou said he'd joined us on more than a
(02:43):
movie to talk about how that iconic role changed his life.
This whole episode is about how the coming together of
cultures and of people can often produce the greatest work. Well,
ladies and gentlemen, I am here with the most notable,
honorary Latino in the history of cinema. In fact, I
(03:06):
think there's still probably a fair share of the audience
that believes he's Latino. He is a legendary actor. You've
seen him in everything from LaBamba to Stand and Delivered
Young Guns to I mean, his IMDb goes on and on.
Mister Lou Diamond Phillips, thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
It is absolutely my you know, my honor and my pleasure.
It has always been my privilege to represent Laarasa and
you know, to be Latino adjacent.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
I know, technically you're on team Asian, and I understand
geographically why, but we share so much in common, right DNA.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
I mean, it's you know, we are the Latinos of
the Pacific, and I think that's been one of the
most interesting conundrums of categorizing Filipinos. And in this day
and age when people are hyper focused on DNA and
categorization and labels and whatnot, you know, the Philippines has
always been a crossroads. And yes, you know, we are
(04:06):
Asian influenced, we are Pacific Islander influenced, we are Indonesian influenced.
But there's also a long centuries long tradition of Spanish influence,
you know. So it's it's an interesting, you know, place
to be. But it's also been you know, one of
one of the things that I taken a heart in
representing the Latino culture and doing it with pride and
(04:28):
with respect. You know the fact that I am at
least physically, for lack of a better word, approvable in
those roles, you know, and that the Latino directors and
writers were the ones who chose me. You know, I've
always feel justified in playing those roles.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
So was the acting bug always there from a really
young age? Or when was the moment that you were like, hey,
I might actually I want to do this.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Well, you know, in sixth grade. I was still in
the Philippines at the time, on the Naval Air station.
I was born there, left, traveled around quite a bit,
and then went back from seventeen to seventy four, and
I had a bunch of rambunctious, you know, young friends,
and we were, you know, all a little precocious, and
the teachers, I remember to the Statemus Greenberg and Ms
(05:12):
McGain made us ride our own play. So we ripped
off Charlie Brown. You know, I think the statute of
limitations is you know, used up by this point. But
you know I wrote, I wrote myself all the best
lines as Linus and I got laughs, and you know
that was when the bug bit. But then when I
got down to Corpus Christie discovered something called the University
Interscholastical League, which you know in Texas we actually compete
(05:36):
in drama very much like you know, you would compete,
you know, compete in track or you know, basketball or
something like that. And so through junior high and high school,
I was winning awards and you know, nothing like positive
reinforcement to go okay, you're good at something. And I
fell in love with it and decided this is what
I was going to do for the rest of my life,
much to the chagrin of my you know, high school
(05:58):
counselor my drama teacher tried to talk me out of it.
Really certainly parents. Yeah, no, they're like, what are you kidding.
You're a kid from a small town in Texas and
you think you're going to be in the movies. And
I was like, well, yeah, you know, and so I
would not be interred. And I majored in theater at
the University of Texas at Arlington, and you know, one
thing led to another, and yeah, it all worked out. Okay.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I'm curious, like, you know, before LaBamba hits and we'll
get to talking about Labama obviously, but like you know,
I know, you did a film called Trespasses right before LaBamba.
You were behind the camera as well.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah it was okay, So the little tiny Christian film
is called Angel Alley. For the next few years, I
supported myself as an actor, not only with theater, but
with a comedy troupe called The Zero Hour, which would
do midnight shows on Fridays and Saturdays. I hooked up
with a man named Adam Rourke who became my film mentor,
and so he opened up something called the Film Actors
Lab in Dallas, and I was one of his first students,
(06:56):
trained specifically for film. The whole philosophy of of the
Film Actor's Lab was take what you've learned in college
or in other acting classes, whether it's your Meisner, your Stella, Adler,
or you know, any of this stuff, and applied to
how do you hitch marks, how do you match how
do you play it close up versus a master? How
do you tell a story out of order? You know,
because an employe you get to go from beginning to end.
(07:18):
So it was all of the the brass tacks of
being an actor on film.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
And you were doing this in college.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
I was, Yes, I was. I was doing concurrently while
I was in college, still doing Paul's play, still doing
professional plays, and you know, landing things, you know, like
on the Dallas Show at the time, Texas was a
right to work state, so they were doing. My second
job was literally a really really bad TV movie called
time Bomb that we called stink Bomb. But I've been
(07:45):
friends with Billy D Williams and Morgan Fairchild ever since. Wow,
And yeah, I mean it was It was an incredibly
formative period, you know, in my life. And that the
Trespasses credit actually came about because right after Tender Mercies
there was a rancher who, like many people you know,
saw devalse performances, said well he's not doing anything, you know,
(08:09):
and then they go, well I can do that. Yeah. Yeah,
he mortgaged his ranch. He made this really really bad
film and couldn't sell it. You know, he was out
a million bucks. And you know I had heard about me,
you know, I had heard about Adam in the film
actor's lab in Dallas. Came to us, showed us the movie,
said I have a distributor who will actually give me
the money back for this and distribute it. Get this
(08:32):
if I can put in two fight scenes in a raight?
Was I Wow? And I was writing all of the.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Is that just like treading on old Western tropes? Like
what was that about?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
You know? And so literally, it was my first and greatest,
one of my greatest exercises in a post mortim and
how to make a movie work. Because I saw the
original film. I got to see all the outtakes obviously
the script, and this is two years later, and you know,
things like, oh my goodness, the girl who was nine
then is now eleven and has sprouted six inches. We
(09:10):
have to put her in a car accident and a
full body chat. You know, so literally coming up with
really really practical ways to make the movie work. And
it's still not a good movie, but you know, it
got sold, and you know, I appeared in it, Adam
appeared in it. I'm credited as a you know, as
a screenwriter in it's.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
And it sounds like it was it was a little
bit of your film school. I mean, I've heard people say,
like the best film school is making a bad movie.
You know, yeah, making a movie, but they just usually
turn out bad when it's when it's your first exactly.
And so with Labama, I've heard you say, you know,
it sort of shot you out of a cannon. But
what I'm hearing is there was, you know, as there
(09:50):
usually is, like all these years of sort of invisible
preparation that gets you ready for that moment when LaBamba.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Calls one hundred percent. And I have said this to
young acting students. A matter of fact, I just went
back to my alma mater, the University of Texas at Arlington,
and I taught a week long residency there, not only
to the theater students, but the musical theater students and
the film students. And once again, it's like you can't
sort of look at what happened to me out of
context and go, oh, my gosh, he's an overnight success,
(10:20):
because as you said, I was working in the film
business and teaching for four years and writing prior to
you know, Levamba coming along, and there is an inordinate
amount of luck that has to happen to you in
your career. You have to be in the right place
at the right time. But as you said, when that
moment comes, you have to be prepared because if you're
(10:41):
with that opportunity, it's going to be a while before
it comes back around.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
We'll be back after the break, Welcome back more than
a movie. I'm your host, Alex Fumado, and we are
talking to lou Diamond Phillips about how exactly. He landed
the role that would change his life forever. So I'm curious,
(11:09):
you know, leading into La Bamba, you initially auditioned for
the part of Bob, which eventually goes to Issim Morales.
Do you remember getting that call those sides? What is like?
You know, what's the kind of earliest moment that you remember, Like, hey,
they're doing a movie about this guy, Richie Vallens is
not quite as famous as Buddy Holly, He's not quite Elvis, right, Like,
(11:31):
you know what was that first like huh moment?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Well, it was totally It's a mistake. It wasn't It
did not happen that kind of way. I mean back
in the day, man, you know, you used to not
get the sides until you got to the audition is
cold reading. It was a cold reading, you know, if
you were smart and you got there half an early
hour early and you would sit and review them before
(11:56):
you had to go in, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
So I'm teaching at the Film Actors Lab. I get
a call from my agency. Ah, they know I also
do Legit Theater, which was.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
An agency based in Dallas at that time. So we're
talking about a regional talent agency.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
A regional talent agency, a regional casting director Rody Kent,
who was wonderful who put me in the Dallas series
and also a couple of other television movies and whatnot.
You know, there weren't a whole lot of guys that
looked like me, right, you know. So, yeah, so I'm
an ethnic guy in a sea of you know, good looking,
young white guys who you know, end up on the
Dallas series. You know, I used to joke that I'd
(12:32):
keep a red Dan Danna and a switchblade in my
car for auditions, because that's usually what I got called for.
You know, hey, want to cut you, you know.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
The unfortunate story of almost every brown actor.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
I feel like exactly, you know, but I got a
lot of work, and once again, that's a training route.
So now I get this call from my agency and
it's the agency assistant. She goes, yeah, it's a musical
about Frankie Valley, right, and you know, and now, now,
(13:04):
of course there's Jersey Boys, which makes all the sense
in the world, but at the time there wasn't.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
You're like, how do I fit into how does my
ex filipino looking in this film? Yeah right, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
So you know, screw it. You know, I'm auditioned for
and so to make matters worse what sort of I
don't know. It seemed to justify that was that the
actual audition was in a legit theater in downtown Dallas.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
You know.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
So I get there.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Which is lucky because you're very comfortable on the stage
at this point because you've been doing local theater productions
exactly tons.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
So it's all good. So I go to this audition
and I walk in the door and there are these
people I've never seen before. Phylisparza, the associate producer, Judy Lowry,
l a casting director, and a couple of other people.
Was Taylor Hackford there, No, neither Taylor was there. Louis
(14:02):
val was not there, nor Danny Valdez. But coming to
Texas with Standy Valdez's idea because they'd already done La, Chicago,
New York.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
And Miamis I understand it.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
I believe. So when all was said and done, they
saw six hundred people. So they hand me the sides
and immediately I'm going, this is a movie, and I'm
looking at this, and then Phil and JUNI explain that
this is a biopic about Richie Vallens, And I'm like, oh.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
You know you did you you knew who Richie Allens
was at the very.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Least, yes, yes, in broad Strucks.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Right, like the guy who did Labomba probably like.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Right exactly and died in the plane crash with Buddy Holly.
So now they start filling in the blanks. So I
actually go on tape. Well, here's the thing. You come
in and you read first. Okay, they had me read
for both roles. There's about a dozen guys there from
you know, swore the Caucasians to you know, real Latino
you know dudes, and maybe light skinned African American or two.
(15:06):
All right, right, so you know, I mean it's dolls.
So they read me for Bob first, you know, maybe
because of my resume, I don't know. Then they read
me for Richie, and Junie came out she goes, I'm
not supposed to do this, but can you wait until
the end of the rest of the auditions. And I'm like, oh, okay,
sure of course, you know. So I'm hanging out, you know,
(15:27):
for like four hours looking at all these things, and
you know, I actually get a chance to memorize the stuff,
and the reason they asked me to wait is to
put me on tape at the end of the day.
So they put I think me and one other guy
on videotape at the end of that day after seeing
like a dozen people for both roles, and Junie at
the end of the day says, I'm not supposed to
do this either. Here's the full script. Who you're probably
(15:50):
going to be hearing from us, you know. So she
gives me the full script. I go home that night
and now there are very few opportunity in life where
you go, this is the big one.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
I read that, and I went, this is the big one.
This is the big one.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
When you said that to yourself, are you thinking I'm
auditioning for Richie or are you thinking I'm auditioning for me?
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Either one?
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Either one. So you don't you don't know the part.
You're just looking at the movie and going, this is
the break.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yeah, this is the break.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
And that casting director must have loved you to say that,
because she hadn't even really you know, the other the
main producers hadn't even seen you. So she's saying, I'm
gonna go to bat is what she's saying.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
That's exactly so at any rate, I get the call,
and the funny thing is Rody Kent calls me. She goes, Okay,
you got a problem. I said, what's that? I had
landed a TV movie with Dabney Coleman, like three or
four scenes, really good scenes, right, that would cover my rent? Yeah,
all right, she goes, but they want you to go
to la to continue to audition for La Amba during
(16:56):
the same time. So to go to La you can,
I have to turn down the sure thing. What do
you want to do? Wow? Yeah, so obviously I rolled
the dice. Now. My mentor, Adam Roorke, he was a
realist man. He was such a practical dude. He's from Brooklyn.
He goes, Louke, you go out there, you kick their ass.
(17:17):
There's not a snowballs chance in hell you get neither
one of these roles, but go out there and impress
them and maybe you play the drummer.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
That's great, you know. I mean he's not wrong, right,
I mean, this is so wrong. That's that's why I
said wow when you said that, because it's like, it's
so rare that you get three or four medi scenes
that will pay your bills. You know. I mean that's like,
you know, you're teaching acting classes, like trying to make
ends meet, and here comes a paycheck and and an opportunity,
(17:49):
and you you know, you had the bass to say no,
but you had an intuition. It sounds like about it.
You felt you could feel something was different about this,
or you were just a gambler because I know you
like to play poke.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Yeah there is that, but.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
And I am a pretty good poker player, you know, so.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
To do you know, the the gambler parlance. I was
betting on myself, you know, just like everybody trying to
talk me out of majoring in theater in college. I
knew that I could do this. I knew I was
destined to do this. I knew this was an opportunity
to prove that I could go to the big leagues,
you know. And I obviously had done so well in
my audition that JUNI was willing to, you know, stick
(18:28):
her neck out and say we'll be in touch, which
they never they never do. You know. I knew I
had nailed the initial audition and could only, you know,
either improve upon it or screw it up, which you
know wasn't really in my playbook.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Pata by l La Bamba. The advertising money, the advertising money,
com commercialeza ostead. We'll be back after the break, bim
(19:09):
benitos d nuevo. I mean he goes to more than
a movie. We're here talking about La Bomba with our guest,
Blue Diamond Phillips. So then you fly out, But do
you remember landing? Had you ever been to La before?
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Strangely enough, I had gone the year before because I
heard of a couple of other auditions, one of which
was Platoon, and I couldn't even get in the door
because I didn't have an LA agent, right, couldn't even
get in the door.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
So I but this time you're showing up. They're flying
you out to La so exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
You know, which is the same thing? You know, I mean,
too many kids get off the bus storry. I think
that you know they're going to walk in and knock
people's socks off. You can't even get in a building sometimes, man,
you know, So sure enough they're flying me out. What's
funny is that for the next two or three days
they're using me as the reader because they're continuing to
(20:00):
Bob's and Richie's and Donna's.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
So you're reading, you're reading with other bobs and other richies.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Uh huh, and all the donnas. You know, they flew
me out. I guess they wanted to get, you know,
the best bang for their buck.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Do you remember who any of those people were? Were
any did any of them pan out to have careers?
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Yes? Helen Hunt read for no really? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Wow yeah, wow.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Yeah. She was great. Maybe a little too mature, yeah,
you know, I mean it was just she just she
just was so grounded, so grounded, gave a great audition.
Just you know, you know, h have the kind of
night you can pay. I think that Luis was looking
for most of the richies. No, I will say, and
this is one a few times I've ever said this.
When I walked in, I didn't think I had a
(20:44):
shot at Richie.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Huh. Why is that?
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Because John Stamuss's picture was already up on the wall.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
No, stop it? Yeah, are you being for Richie? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (20:54):
I guess it was just stuff on the wall. I
you know, I don't know. I never asked about it.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
And you were you looked at it and you said,
he said, that's a very handsome man. That's an undeniably
handsome man. On that wall.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
I did, I did, and I could see him in
a pompadour, you.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Know, with that hair. I mean, you have great hair,
but you know there's there's great hair in their Stamos hair.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Yeah, exactly. That's a museum mullets.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
That's a museum mullet. That's correct. Yeah, substitute beach boy
hair exactly. So you are sitting in this room, yeah,
like an unofficial employee of the production reading with all
these people. Yes, but that must have also been an
advantage because you're just going over it right.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
That is exactly right, my friend. I heard every single
direction that Luis gave to people for Bob and for Richie,
and I'm taking mental notes right yep. So so then
they read me for Bob with somebody else who's coming
in for reading Richie. And then I remember that night,
this was a Tuesday. I think they tolew me out
(22:02):
over the weekend previous like Sunday, and Louis Veldez passing
me in the hall where I'm sitting on a chair
in the hallway and he goes, lou Tomorrow, you read
for you read for Richie, and I'm like, oh my god,
now I put all my thought and energy into Bob
because I thought that Richie was unavailable. So I thought, okay,
well maybe there's still a shot. And I remember walking
(22:23):
down Lassiana a boulevard and passing a fruit stand and
I bought a thing of blueberries because i'd read once
that Tim Hutton, you know, used to keep blueberries with
him because he had an ulcer. And so I thought, okay, fine,
you know, you know, if possible on Tim Hutton and
likes blueberries, I'm gonna have some blueberries. Yeah. And I
had an epiphany. I had an ephany walking down Lassiana
(22:44):
a boulevard. It's like, I don't have to prepare to
be Richie. I am Richie. I'm a kid with big
dreams with you know, a mountain of things against you know,
against him, an unknown ethnic kid, you know, a middle
class family. You know, I don't have to act those teams.
I have those streams just going and be me.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
So you got you had that epiphany. Now you walk
in for your Richie addition. Now you know they're really
looking at you for this and and what does that
consist of?
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Once again, I just I just read and that night,
you know, Luis Veldez tells me on a Wednesday night, Okay,
I'm gonna screen test you tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
It was like and the screen tested me, and yet again,
there was one other person left. You know, I had
already done a read with east Side, and it was
it was very obvious to me that he was going
to be the guy.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
So I show up there's yet another guy. Uh, a
soap opera guy that I hadn't heard of. I guess,
you know, I don't know. I don't know why politically
he was there. But east Side, Danielle von Zernik, was
Vitena and Rassinna Psota. We're all screen testing without competition. Wow.
So I felt like they were just getting approved. Yeah.
So what's interesting is that the very next morning, Friday,
(23:59):
I go back in, I get called back in to
read some more Donnas because they weren't totally sold, you know,
And so I go back in. I'd read with another
you know, eight Donnas in the morning. And what's weird
is throughout that week I become very very friendly with
the office staff, Right, they were all so nice to me.
(24:21):
I go in that morning and nobody talks to me.
As a matter of fact, I can see them consciously
not making eye contact, and I'm thinking, ah, shit, I
didn't get it. I didn't get it, and they feel bad. Yeah,
So around eleven thirty, Louis Valdez goes out maybe the
bathroom comes back, and he goes, Loop, come into my office,
(24:42):
you know. So I go into the office and there's Junie,
there's Danny Valdez, Luis Taylor Hackford, and they sit me
down and I think, Okay, here it is, you know,
and Louise pulls up a chair like right in front
of me, and he says, Louke, how would you like
to play Richie Bellens?
Speaker 1 (25:00):
You know?
Speaker 2 (25:00):
I burst into tears.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
They were just waiting for Columbia to approve the screen test.
And that's why nobody wanted to talk to me, because
they all knew I was first choice. They just needed
to wait until Columbia said yes. And literally, Juny and
Luis took me to lunch. They had already booked me
a flight back to Dallas because I packed for four
days or whatever. I had to pack a full suitcase,
(25:23):
be back that next Sunday night, and you know, and
start rehearsal for a week and then filming the week
after so yeah, So.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
I mean, man, what a life changing experience. Now we've
mentioned Louise fel Does a few times, we spoke with Louise.
We also got the opportunity to interview Taylor as well.
What did you know about Louis Veldez going into this
because you're from Texas, not from California, where you know,
Louise is known as the author of suit Suit, the
(25:54):
co founder of Datro Campecino, the guy who broke Edward
James almost his career, right, Like, what did you know
going into this about him? By the way, this is
pre internet guy, so there's not a Google search that
can be done, you.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Know, no, no, one hundred percent. So yeah, that week,
that week alone where I had, you know, a three
foot tall stack of material on Ritchie and videos and
a little bit of a video, and I had to
learn guitar in a week, and I had learned sixteen
songs because I don't play. I still don't play.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Yeah, no, no, it was. It was a very very
intense week. But in that week I also got a
massive education in Luis Valbez. Now I was already familiar
with zoot Suits.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Because it had been performed in Texas. Well.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
No, it was on Broadway.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
It was.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
It was, you know, fairly famous. At that point, I
had not seen it was I was aware of it.
I was also obviously aware of Edward James, almost a
big fan of his on Miami Vice. Yeah right, massive,
you know, there's a guy who looks like me on TV.
So I became incredibly grateful because in the first couple
of years of being in Hollywood, being with Louis Lades,
(27:04):
being with Danny Beldes, being with people from the Theatro Campasino,
being with people who were activists, Edward James, almost a
number of these people who believed in advancing opportunities for people.
These were my comrades. Through Luis and Danny, I fastened
for and marched with Caeser Javis Wow, you know, hung
(27:24):
out with the Kennedys and with Reverend Jesse Jackson, and
you know, just just just a number of people. I mean,
it used to be, you know, in the late eighties
early nineties been called the usual suspects because whether it
was for Rescatte or Amnesty International or ox Fam or
any of these they're you know, the same people that
always showed up, you know, Petty Almost, Jackson Brown and
(27:45):
Ed Harris and you know a number of those people
who were really amazing and committed to social change, you know.
And so because both those films had at its heart
equality and the American dream and you know, working for
it and opening doors, it naturally led itself to reflecting
(28:08):
that in life. I did that in college. I did
that in high school. You know, I was president of
the student council. I was you know, in the Quantus Club.
I went to boy State, the Leadership Forum in Austin,
you know, I mean I was involved in an activist
long before this came along. This gave me an opportunity
to do it on a very very large scale.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
And you shot in those worlds right in La Bamba.
Like it wasn't a film that where they where there
was sort of things were recreated on set, you know,
I mean there was, but I mean there were scenes
that happened in very natural settings. Can you talk a
little bit about Yeah, tell me.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
First week, very first week we went to Watsonville. They
had reserved an area of the Apricot orchard for us
to be able to film in and pick you know,
the thing that I left out about the screen test
is when I was standing out so that I used
to smoke. I don't any more, but I was having
a cigarette, you know, while the other guy was in there.
But as I'm standing outside the sound stage, this red
(29:08):
tea bird pulls up a dude with a leather jacket
and you know, guinea t and wrap around balaama sunglasses
and you know, he gets out of the car, looks
at me and gives me one of those. And I went, oh,
my god, that's the real Bob Morales.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Oh it was.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
And it was. And when I got back from Texas
on that Sunday night after packing, Bob Morales picked me
up at the airport and took me to the house.
Then Richie bought his mom, Connie, and I met Mama Connie,
Connie Junior, Irma Mario, I met the whole family, Rosie.
I met everybody that night. I stayed in that house.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
You stayed in the house. Wow.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
I stayed in that house that night, you know. And
they were a part of every day of rehearsal. They
were part of every day of filming. We got very
very close and on the very very first day of
filming in Watsonville, my pickup time for the van is
six thirty, But at like five point forty five, there's
this banging on my door and it's Connie, Richie's mom going, Richie,
(30:06):
it's time to go to work. And that's the way
it was for the entire shoot.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Wow, I've heard you talk about this a little bit
about how unlike playing someone like Buddy, Holly or Elvis
right where they all were already household names. Yes, there
wasn't that kind of weight on you. It was a
different kind of pressure that was related to this very
real young man's family being around you all the time,
(30:35):
sort of watching you. I mean the mom you know,
Connie called you Richie that morning, right.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Yeah, the whole family did every day of the shooting.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Was that ever? I mean respectfully like to them, but like,
was that ever weird? I mean, you know, we're talking
about someone who's whose son passed away tragically.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
No, for me, it was validating.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
It was okay.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
For me, it was validation. You know, it was like, okay,
I'm on the right track. But one time I was
not called Richie was the night we were filming him
getting on the plane and we shot it at Burbank Airport.
Fake snow, huge wind machines blowing plastic snow everywhere, hot
as hell. But I'm in a fricking fur coat, man,
And Richie's supposed to be sick, and Taylor and Louise
(31:20):
had cautioned the family to not come that night, but
Connie came. Oh yeah, Connie came, and they're they're touching
my makeup up, literally on the runway. And Connie walks
up and I could see that she's already this you know,
something wrong. And I know immediately there is something wrong
because she says, lou, can I ask you something? And
(31:40):
I went, oh, my goodness, what have I done? She's
calling me, lou What's what's going on? I said, Connie,
of course, And I stood up and she collapses into
my arms and she starts pounding on my chess, going
why did you go? Why did you have to go?
And thirty years, man, thirty years of her holding onto
that and in that moment, to be able to have
(32:01):
that the tharsis because she was twelve when Richie passed,
so she had very, very vivid memories of it, and
you know, we were able to give her that moment.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Wow, yeah, incredible. I think that's a good segue into
the legacy, right for you to step into that role
and revive that legacy in that way. You can't prove
the statistically, but my gut is that he became a
household name because of that movie. You know again, right,
(32:33):
like he was a whole new generation. So I wonder, like,
what's crazy is like right after that movie, I feel
like you did two other huge movies, so then it
was like you did that, and then it was like
it wasn't like there was a lull. It was like
Stand and Deliver and Young Guns, right.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Like my first three films in Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Nuts. That's insane, I mean.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
To be honest. You know, even to this day, I
don't know if they it gets celebrated the way it
should be. You know, both of those films, both of
those films. Yeah, you know, we now have you know, awareness,
We now have you know, a desire to be inclusive.
There's a grassroots movement to support films you know, with
performers and directors and writers of color. Yeah, didn't exist
(33:13):
back then, right, we were pioneers. Not to pat myself
on the back too much, but you know, both of
those films are in the national Registry of Films for
their contribution to the culture of America, and yet Standley
Deliver gets one OSCAR nomination. We swept the Independent Spirit Awards.
The Lavamba doesn't get one. Okay, it'd be a different
(33:37):
story today. But then again, I probably wouldn't be cast
in those films today. So what's interesting is it takes
a full year for Levama to come out. I got
paid scale about six thousand dollars, and I give half
of that to my mother, just which you would. Yeah,
we filmed it in June and July of eighty six.
Come December of that year, I'm almost out of money.
(33:59):
I got to go back to text. Nobody is casting
me in movies because I'm an unknown kid from Texas playing,
as you said, an obscure Mexican American rock and roller.
You know who's a footnote and Buddy Holly story in
a six million dollar negative pickup film through Columbia. It
does not have blockbuster written on it, okay.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
And there aren't a ton of roles being written for
guys who look like you. No in the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
No, no, So I'm not getting in the door on
any of them. Okay. So in December of that year,
I land an episode of Miami Vice which is going
to pay me as much as love and did. Okay.
In that episode called Red Tape, Vigo Mortensen is my partner,
and Annette Benning is the girlfriend of the bad guy. Okay,
(34:46):
and I have one scene with Edward James almost now.
Eddie was supposed to do a cameo in Laamba as
East Size father, you know, because Richie and Bob had
different fathers. Yeah, okay, but it didn't work out. So
he's he's very very aware of the film, and he's
very aware that I'm the kid that got the role.
So we have one scene together. At the end of
(35:07):
the scene, Eddie says to me, what are you doing
next month? And I went, this is January. I went,
I think you want to have lunch. I'll be in
la you know. He goes, all right, here, when you
get back to La call this number. I'm doing a film.
You need to be in it. And that's how I
got to understand and delivery.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Well, I think that's a great place to end, because
that's like a whole other movie. We would need to
do a whole episode on.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
I appreciate it, man, Thank you so much, Alex. What
a wonderful conversation.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
Same here man. Really appreciate your time, you bet take care.
That's our show next week. Before Ludamond Phillips was ever
even aware of a Richie Allens movie, somebody had to
convince Richie's family to trust them with the story and
attach a director and get the money to tell it.
And who better than the guy who would go on
to direct the Academy Award winning film Ray To bring
(35:57):
this young rock icon to life. I'll speak to producer
Taylor Hackford about what it takes to get a movie
made that doesn't star white people and how to be
a good ally next time on More Than a Movie.
More Than a Movie Season two was produced by Chloe
(36:17):
Taglia Gmbe with the help of Reynolds Kutierras and Bveronica
Hernandez in partnership with Iheart's Michael Dura podcast network, hosted
by me Alex Fumetto, edited by Rose Red and Chloe
Taglia Ganbe with the help of Saide Cavedro. Executive producers
are Carmen Gratto, Rose Red, Isaac Lee, and me Alex Fumetto.
Sound designed by Gonzalo Messi original music by Golden Mines,
(36:39):
Darko and Ieme recorded at JTB Studios and Vaudeville Sound Our.
Executive producers at iHeart are Gazelle Bansis and Arlene Santana.
For more Michael Duda podcasts, listen to the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows
So then you fly out.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
So sure enough, they're flying me out. What's funny is
that for the next two or three days they're using
me as the reader because they're continuing to read Bob's
and Richie's and Donna's.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
So you're reading, you're reading with other Bobs and other Richies.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Uh huh, and all the Donnas. You know, they flew
me out. I guess they wanted to get, you know,
the best bag for their buck.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Do you remember who any of those people were, where
any did any of them pan out to have careers?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yes? Helen Hunt read four? No really get it?
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Yeah? Wow? Yeah, wow?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah. She was great. I will say, and this is
one of a few times I've ever said this. When
I walked in, I didn't think I had a shot
at Richie.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Huh. Why is that?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Because John Stamuss's picture was already up on the wall.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Welcome to More Than a Movie, a podcast that gives
you a behind the scenes look at your favorite movies.
I'm your host, Alex blumt. Last season, we did a
deep dive on American met This season, I'll focus on
a different movie. Each episode feature interviews with the biggest actors, directors, writers,
and producers behind them and tap into the history of
Latinos in film. In my house growing up, there were
(01:19):
two types of music playing, Cuban music and rock and roll.
The playlist was not uncommonly the Rolling Stones or Rare Earth,
followed by Cacao and Celia Cruz. But there wasn't a
lot of music out there that bridged the gap between
these two worlds for me, my American side and my
Latino one. Until I heard LaBamba. Little Alex would pull
(01:41):
out the bongo drums. Yes we really had bongo drums,
and I'd bang away at them, singing La bamba offbeat
at the top of my lungs, or dancing around yelling
over and over again. While LaBamba is originally Mexican, not Cuban,
it comes from Vera Cruz, where many of the songs
had the same African influence his Cuban music had, so
(02:02):
it sounded familiar, except the version I was singing was
not the Verakrusian folk song. It was the version I'd
seen in the nineteen eighty seven film by the same
name about this rock and roll legend named Richie Vallens,
who also felt caught between his American life and his
Latino one, and the film starred this Latino kid whose
(02:22):
name was weirdly Lou Diamond Phillips. As it turns out,
Lou wasn't technically Latino. He's Filipino, Native American and a
couple other things mixed in. But as anybody who lives
in La knows, Filipinos are just the Latinos of Asia.
In fact, I learned to make my lazoonskin extra crispy
watching a Filipino dude on YouTube. So I was psyched
when Lou said he'd joined us on more than a
(02:43):
movie to talk about how that iconic role changed his life.
This whole episode is about how the coming together of
cultures and of people can often produce the greatest work. Well,
ladies and gentlemen, I am here with the most notable,
honorary Latino in the history of cinema. In fact, I
(03:06):
think there's still probably a fair share of the audience
that believes he's Latino. He is a legendary actor. You've
seen him in everything from LaBamba to Stand and Delivered
Young Guns to I mean, his IMDb goes on and on.
Mister Lou Diamond Phillips, thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
It is absolutely my you know, my honor and my pleasure.
It has always been my privilege to represent Laarasa and
you know, to be Latino adjacent.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
I know, technically you're on team Asian, and I understand
geographically why, but we share so much in common, right DNA.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
I mean, it's you know, we are the Latinos of
the Pacific, and I think that's been one of the
most interesting conundrums of categorizing Filipinos. And in this day
and age when people are hyper focused on DNA and
categorization and labels and whatnot, you know, the Philippines has
always been a crossroads. And yes, you know, we are
(04:06):
Asian influenced, we are Pacific Islander influenced, we are Indonesian influenced.
But there's also a long centuries long tradition of Spanish influence,
you know. So it's it's an interesting, you know, place
to be. But it's also been you know, one of
one of the things that I taken a heart in
representing the Latino culture and doing it with pride and
(04:28):
with respect. You know the fact that I am at
least physically, for lack of a better word, approvable in
those roles, you know, and that the Latino directors and
writers were the ones who chose me. You know, I've
always feel justified in playing those roles.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
So was the acting bug always there from a really
young age? Or when was the moment that you were like, hey,
I might actually I want to do this.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Well, you know, in sixth grade. I was still in
the Philippines at the time, on the Naval Air station.
I was born there, left, traveled around quite a bit,
and then went back from seventeen to seventy four, and
I had a bunch of rambunctious, you know, young friends,
and we were, you know, all a little precocious, and
the teachers, I remember to the Statemus Greenberg and Ms
(05:12):
McGain made us ride our own play. So we ripped
off Charlie Brown. You know, I think the statute of
limitations is you know, used up by this point. But
you know I wrote, I wrote myself all the best
lines as Linus and I got laughs, and you know
that was when the bug bit. But then when I
got down to Corpus Christie discovered something called the University
Interscholastical League, which you know in Texas we actually compete
(05:36):
in drama very much like you know, you would compete,
you know, compete in track or you know, basketball or
something like that. And so through junior high and high school,
I was winning awards and you know, nothing like positive
reinforcement to go okay, you're good at something. And I
fell in love with it and decided this is what
I was going to do for the rest of my life,
much to the chagrin of my you know, high school
(05:58):
counselor my drama teacher tried to talk me out of it.
Really certainly parents. Yeah, no, they're like, what are you kidding.
You're a kid from a small town in Texas and
you think you're going to be in the movies. And
I was like, well, yeah, you know, and so I
would not be interred. And I majored in theater at
the University of Texas at Arlington, and you know, one
thing led to another, and yeah, it all worked out. Okay.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I'm curious, like, you know, before LaBamba hits and we'll
get to talking about Labama obviously, but like you know,
I know, you did a film called Trespasses right before LaBamba.
You were behind the camera as well.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah it was okay, So the little tiny Christian film
is called Angel Alley. For the next few years, I
supported myself as an actor, not only with theater, but
with a comedy troupe called The Zero Hour, which would
do midnight shows on Fridays and Saturdays. I hooked up
with a man named Adam Rourke who became my film mentor,
and so he opened up something called the Film Actors
Lab in Dallas, and I was one of his first students,
(06:56):
trained specifically for film. The whole philosophy of of the
Film Actor's Lab was take what you've learned in college
or in other acting classes, whether it's your Meisner, your Stella, Adler,
or you know, any of this stuff, and applied to
how do you hitch marks, how do you match how
do you play it close up versus a master? How
do you tell a story out of order? You know,
because an employe you get to go from beginning to end.
(07:18):
So it was all of the the brass tacks of
being an actor on film.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
And you were doing this in college.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
I was, Yes, I was. I was doing concurrently while
I was in college, still doing Paul's play, still doing
professional plays, and you know, landing things, you know, like
on the Dallas Show at the time, Texas was a
right to work state, so they were doing. My second
job was literally a really really bad TV movie called
time Bomb that we called stink Bomb. But I've been
(07:45):
friends with Billy D Williams and Morgan Fairchild ever since. Wow,
And yeah, I mean it was It was an incredibly
formative period, you know, in my life. And that the
Trespasses credit actually came about because right after Tender Mercies
there was a rancher who, like many people you know,
saw devalse performances, said well he's not doing anything, you know,
(08:09):
and then they go, well I can do that. Yeah. Yeah,
he mortgaged his ranch. He made this really really bad
film and couldn't sell it. You know, he was out
a million bucks. And you know I had heard about me,
you know, I had heard about Adam in the film
actor's lab in Dallas. Came to us, showed us the movie,
said I have a distributor who will actually give me
the money back for this and distribute it. Get this
(08:32):
if I can put in two fight scenes in a raight?
Was I Wow? And I was writing all of the.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Is that just like treading on old Western tropes? Like
what was that about?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
You know? And so literally, it was my first and greatest,
one of my greatest exercises in a post mortim and
how to make a movie work. Because I saw the
original film. I got to see all the outtakes obviously
the script, and this is two years later, and you know,
things like, oh my goodness, the girl who was nine
then is now eleven and has sprouted six inches. We
(09:10):
have to put her in a car accident and a
full body chat. You know, so literally coming up with
really really practical ways to make the movie work. And
it's still not a good movie, but you know, it
got sold, and you know, I appeared in it, Adam
appeared in it. I'm credited as a you know, as
a screenwriter in it's.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
And it sounds like it was it was a little
bit of your film school. I mean, I've heard people say,
like the best film school is making a bad movie.
You know, yeah, making a movie, but they just usually
turn out bad when it's when it's your first exactly.
And so with Labama, I've heard you say, you know,
it sort of shot you out of a cannon. But
what I'm hearing is there was, you know, as there
(09:50):
usually is, like all these years of sort of invisible
preparation that gets you ready for that moment when LaBamba.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Calls one hundred percent. And I have said this to
young acting students. A matter of fact, I just went
back to my alma mater, the University of Texas at Arlington,
and I taught a week long residency there, not only
to the theater students, but the musical theater students and
the film students. And once again, it's like you can't
sort of look at what happened to me out of
context and go, oh, my gosh, he's an overnight success,
(10:20):
because as you said, I was working in the film
business and teaching for four years and writing prior to
you know, Levamba coming along, and there is an inordinate
amount of luck that has to happen to you in
your career. You have to be in the right place
at the right time. But as you said, when that
moment comes, you have to be prepared because if you're
(10:41):
with that opportunity, it's going to be a while before
it comes back around.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
We'll be back after the break, Welcome back more than
a movie. I'm your host, Alex Fumado, and we are
talking to lou Diamond Phillips about how exactly. He landed
the role that would change his life forever. So I'm curious,
(11:09):
you know, leading into La Bamba, you initially auditioned for
the part of Bob, which eventually goes to Issim Morales.
Do you remember getting that call those sides? What is like?
You know, what's the kind of earliest moment that you remember, Like, hey,
they're doing a movie about this guy, Richie Vallens is
not quite as famous as Buddy Holly, He's not quite Elvis, right, Like,
(11:31):
you know what was that first like huh moment?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Well, it was totally It's a mistake. It wasn't It
did not happen that kind of way. I mean back
in the day, man, you know, you used to not
get the sides until you got to the audition is
cold reading. It was a cold reading, you know, if
you were smart and you got there half an early
hour early and you would sit and review them before
(11:56):
you had to go in, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
So I'm teaching at the Film Actors Lab. I get
a call from my agency. Ah, they know I also
do Legit Theater, which was.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
An agency based in Dallas at that time. So we're
talking about a regional talent agency.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
A regional talent agency, a regional casting director Rody Kent,
who was wonderful who put me in the Dallas series
and also a couple of other television movies and whatnot.
You know, there weren't a whole lot of guys that
looked like me, right, you know. So, yeah, so I'm
an ethnic guy in a sea of you know, good looking,
young white guys who you know, end up on the
Dallas series. You know, I used to joke that I'd
(12:32):
keep a red Dan Danna and a switchblade in my
car for auditions, because that's usually what I got called for.
You know, hey, want to cut you, you know.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
The unfortunate story of almost every brown actor.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
I feel like exactly, you know, but I got a
lot of work, and once again, that's a training route.
So now I get this call from my agency and
it's the agency assistant. She goes, yeah, it's a musical
about Frankie Valley, right, and you know, and now, now,
(13:04):
of course there's Jersey Boys, which makes all the sense
in the world, but at the time there wasn't.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
You're like, how do I fit into how does my
ex filipino looking in this film? Yeah right, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
So you know, screw it. You know, I'm auditioned for
and so to make matters worse what sort of I
don't know. It seemed to justify that was that the
actual audition was in a legit theater in downtown Dallas.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
You know.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
So I get there.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Which is lucky because you're very comfortable on the stage
at this point because you've been doing local theater productions
exactly tons.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
So it's all good. So I go to this audition
and I walk in the door and there are these
people I've never seen before. Phylisparza, the associate producer, Judy Lowry,
l a casting director, and a couple of other people.
Was Taylor Hackford there, No, neither Taylor was there. Louis
(14:02):
val was not there, nor Danny Valdez. But coming to
Texas with Standy Valdez's idea because they'd already done La, Chicago,
New York.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
And Miamis I understand it.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
I believe. So when all was said and done, they
saw six hundred people. So they hand me the sides
and immediately I'm going, this is a movie, and I'm
looking at this, and then Phil and JUNI explain that
this is a biopic about Richie Vallens, And I'm like, oh.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
You know you did you you knew who Richie Allens
was at the very.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Least, yes, yes, in broad Strucks.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Right, like the guy who did Labomba probably like.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Right exactly and died in the plane crash with Buddy Holly.
So now they start filling in the blanks. So I
actually go on tape. Well, here's the thing. You come
in and you read first. Okay, they had me read
for both roles. There's about a dozen guys there from
you know, swore the Caucasians to you know, real Latino
you know dudes, and maybe light skinned African American or two.
(15:06):
All right, right, so you know, I mean it's dolls.
So they read me for Bob first, you know, maybe
because of my resume, I don't know. Then they read
me for Richie, and Junie came out she goes, I'm
not supposed to do this, but can you wait until
the end of the rest of the auditions. And I'm like, oh, okay,
sure of course, you know. So I'm hanging out, you know,
(15:27):
for like four hours looking at all these things, and
you know, I actually get a chance to memorize the stuff,
and the reason they asked me to wait is to
put me on tape at the end of the day.
So they put I think me and one other guy
on videotape at the end of that day after seeing
like a dozen people for both roles, and Junie at
the end of the day says, I'm not supposed to
do this either. Here's the full script. Who you're probably
(15:50):
going to be hearing from us, you know. So she
gives me the full script. I go home that night
and now there are very few opportunity in life where
you go, this is the big one.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
I read that, and I went, this is the big one.
This is the big one.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
When you said that to yourself, are you thinking I'm
auditioning for Richie or are you thinking I'm auditioning for me?
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Either one?
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Either one. So you don't you don't know the part.
You're just looking at the movie and going, this is
the break.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yeah, this is the break.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
And that casting director must have loved you to say that,
because she hadn't even really you know, the other the
main producers hadn't even seen you. So she's saying, I'm
gonna go to bat is what she's saying.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
That's exactly so at any rate, I get the call,
and the funny thing is Rody Kent calls me. She goes, Okay,
you got a problem. I said, what's that? I had
landed a TV movie with Dabney Coleman, like three or
four scenes, really good scenes, right, that would cover my rent? Yeah,
all right, she goes, but they want you to go
to la to continue to audition for La Amba during
(16:56):
the same time. So to go to La you can,
I have to turn down the sure thing. What do
you want to do? Wow? Yeah, so obviously I rolled
the dice. Now. My mentor, Adam Roorke, he was a
realist man. He was such a practical dude. He's from Brooklyn.
He goes, Louke, you go out there, you kick their ass.
(17:17):
There's not a snowballs chance in hell you get neither
one of these roles, but go out there and impress
them and maybe you play the drummer.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
That's great, you know. I mean he's not wrong, right,
I mean, this is so wrong. That's that's why I
said wow when you said that, because it's like, it's
so rare that you get three or four medi scenes
that will pay your bills. You know. I mean that's like,
you know, you're teaching acting classes, like trying to make
ends meet, and here comes a paycheck and and an opportunity,
(17:49):
and you you know, you had the bass to say no,
but you had an intuition. It sounds like about it.
You felt you could feel something was different about this,
or you were just a gambler because I know you
like to play poke.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Yeah there is that, but.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
And I am a pretty good poker player, you know, so.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
To do you know, the the gambler parlance. I was
betting on myself, you know, just like everybody trying to
talk me out of majoring in theater in college. I
knew that I could do this. I knew I was
destined to do this. I knew this was an opportunity
to prove that I could go to the big leagues,
you know. And I obviously had done so well in
my audition that JUNI was willing to, you know, stick
(18:28):
her neck out and say we'll be in touch, which
they never they never do. You know. I knew I
had nailed the initial audition and could only, you know,
either improve upon it or screw it up, which you
know wasn't really in my playbook.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Pata by l La Bamba. The advertising money, the advertising money,
com commercialeza ostead. We'll be back after the break, bim
(19:09):
benitos d nuevo. I mean he goes to more than
a movie. We're here talking about La Bomba with our guest,
Blue Diamond Phillips. So then you fly out, But do
you remember landing? Had you ever been to La before?
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Strangely enough, I had gone the year before because I
heard of a couple of other auditions, one of which
was Platoon, and I couldn't even get in the door
because I didn't have an LA agent, right, couldn't even
get in the door.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
So I but this time you're showing up. They're flying
you out to La so exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
You know, which is the same thing? You know, I mean,
too many kids get off the bus storry. I think
that you know they're going to walk in and knock
people's socks off. You can't even get in a building sometimes, man,
you know, So sure enough they're flying me out. What's
funny is that for the next two or three days
they're using me as the reader because they're continuing to
(20:00):
Bob's and Richie's and Donna's.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
So you're reading, you're reading with other bobs and other richies.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Uh huh, and all the donnas. You know, they flew
me out. I guess they wanted to get, you know,
the best bang for their buck.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Do you remember who any of those people were? Were
any did any of them pan out to have careers?
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Yes? Helen Hunt read for no really? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Wow yeah, wow.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Yeah. She was great. Maybe a little too mature, yeah,
you know, I mean it was just she just she
just was so grounded, so grounded, gave a great audition.
Just you know, you know, h have the kind of
night you can pay. I think that Luis was looking
for most of the richies. No, I will say, and
this is one a few times I've ever said this.
When I walked in, I didn't think I had a
(20:44):
shot at Richie.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Huh. Why is that?
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Because John Stamuss's picture was already up on the wall.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
No, stop it? Yeah, are you being for Richie? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (20:54):
I guess it was just stuff on the wall. I
you know, I don't know. I never asked about it.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
And you were you looked at it and you said,
he said, that's a very handsome man. That's an undeniably
handsome man. On that wall.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
I did, I did, and I could see him in
a pompadour, you.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Know, with that hair. I mean, you have great hair,
but you know there's there's great hair in their Stamos hair.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Yeah, exactly. That's a museum mullets.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
That's a museum mullet. That's correct. Yeah, substitute beach boy
hair exactly. So you are sitting in this room, yeah,
like an unofficial employee of the production reading with all
these people. Yes, but that must have also been an
advantage because you're just going over it right.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
That is exactly right, my friend. I heard every single
direction that Luis gave to people for Bob and for Richie,
and I'm taking mental notes right yep. So so then
they read me for Bob with somebody else who's coming
in for reading Richie. And then I remember that night,
this was a Tuesday. I think they tolew me out
(22:02):
over the weekend previous like Sunday, and Louis Veldez passing
me in the hall where I'm sitting on a chair
in the hallway and he goes, lou Tomorrow, you read
for you read for Richie, and I'm like, oh my god,
now I put all my thought and energy into Bob
because I thought that Richie was unavailable. So I thought, okay,
well maybe there's still a shot. And I remember walking
(22:23):
down Lassiana a boulevard and passing a fruit stand and
I bought a thing of blueberries because i'd read once
that Tim Hutton, you know, used to keep blueberries with
him because he had an ulcer. And so I thought, okay, fine,
you know, you know, if possible on Tim Hutton and
likes blueberries, I'm gonna have some blueberries. Yeah. And I
had an epiphany. I had an ephany walking down Lassiana
(22:44):
a boulevard. It's like, I don't have to prepare to
be Richie. I am Richie. I'm a kid with big
dreams with you know, a mountain of things against you know,
against him, an unknown ethnic kid, you know, a middle
class family. You know, I don't have to act those teams.
I have those streams just going and be me.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
So you got you had that epiphany. Now you walk
in for your Richie addition. Now you know they're really
looking at you for this and and what does that
consist of?
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Once again, I just I just read and that night,
you know, Luis Veldez tells me on a Wednesday night, Okay,
I'm gonna screen test you tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
It was like and the screen tested me, and yet again,
there was one other person left. You know, I had
already done a read with east Side, and it was
it was very obvious to me that he was going
to be the guy.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
So I show up there's yet another guy. Uh, a
soap opera guy that I hadn't heard of. I guess,
you know, I don't know. I don't know why politically
he was there. But east Side, Danielle von Zernik, was
Vitena and Rassinna Psota. We're all screen testing without competition. Wow.
So I felt like they were just getting approved. Yeah.
So what's interesting is that the very next morning, Friday,
(23:59):
I go back in, I get called back in to
read some more Donnas because they weren't totally sold, you know,
And so I go back in. I'd read with another
you know, eight Donnas in the morning. And what's weird
is throughout that week I become very very friendly with
the office staff, Right, they were all so nice to me.
(24:21):
I go in that morning and nobody talks to me.
As a matter of fact, I can see them consciously
not making eye contact, and I'm thinking, ah, shit, I
didn't get it. I didn't get it, and they feel bad. Yeah,
So around eleven thirty, Louis Valdez goes out maybe the
bathroom comes back, and he goes, Loop, come into my office,
(24:42):
you know. So I go into the office and there's Junie,
there's Danny Valdez, Luis Taylor Hackford, and they sit me
down and I think, Okay, here it is, you know,
and Louise pulls up a chair like right in front
of me, and he says, Louke, how would you like
to play Richie Bellens?
Speaker 1 (25:00):
You know?
Speaker 2 (25:00):
I burst into tears.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
They were just waiting for Columbia to approve the screen test.
And that's why nobody wanted to talk to me, because
they all knew I was first choice. They just needed
to wait until Columbia said yes. And literally, Juny and
Luis took me to lunch. They had already booked me
a flight back to Dallas because I packed for four
days or whatever. I had to pack a full suitcase,
(25:23):
be back that next Sunday night, and you know, and
start rehearsal for a week and then filming the week
after so yeah, So.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
I mean, man, what a life changing experience. Now we've
mentioned Louise fel Does a few times, we spoke with Louise.
We also got the opportunity to interview Taylor as well.
What did you know about Louis Veldez going into this
because you're from Texas, not from California, where you know,
Louise is known as the author of suit Suit, the
(25:54):
co founder of Datro Campecino, the guy who broke Edward
James almost his career, right, Like, what did you know
going into this about him? By the way, this is
pre internet guy, so there's not a Google search that
can be done, you.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Know, no, no, one hundred percent. So yeah, that week,
that week alone where I had, you know, a three
foot tall stack of material on Ritchie and videos and
a little bit of a video, and I had to
learn guitar in a week, and I had learned sixteen
songs because I don't play. I still don't play.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Yeah, no, no, it was. It was a very very
intense week. But in that week I also got a
massive education in Luis Valbez. Now I was already familiar
with zoot Suits.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Because it had been performed in Texas. Well.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
No, it was on Broadway.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
It was.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
It was, you know, fairly famous. At that point, I
had not seen it was I was aware of it.
I was also obviously aware of Edward James, almost a
big fan of his on Miami Vice. Yeah right, massive,
you know, there's a guy who looks like me on TV.
So I became incredibly grateful because in the first couple
of years of being in Hollywood, being with Louis Lades,
(27:04):
being with Danny Beldes, being with people from the Theatro Campasino,
being with people who were activists, Edward James, almost a
number of these people who believed in advancing opportunities for people.
These were my comrades. Through Luis and Danny, I fastened
for and marched with Caeser Javis Wow, you know, hung
(27:24):
out with the Kennedys and with Reverend Jesse Jackson, and
you know, just just just a number of people. I mean,
it used to be, you know, in the late eighties
early nineties been called the usual suspects because whether it
was for Rescatte or Amnesty International or ox Fam or
any of these they're you know, the same people that
always showed up, you know, Petty Almost, Jackson Brown and
(27:45):
Ed Harris and you know a number of those people
who were really amazing and committed to social change, you know.
And so because both those films had at its heart
equality and the American dream and you know, working for
it and opening doors, it naturally led itself to reflecting
(28:08):
that in life. I did that in college. I did
that in high school. You know, I was president of
the student council. I was you know, in the Quantus Club.
I went to boy State, the Leadership Forum in Austin,
you know, I mean I was involved in an activist
long before this came along. This gave me an opportunity
to do it on a very very large scale.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
And you shot in those worlds right in La Bamba.
Like it wasn't a film that where they where there
was sort of things were recreated on set, you know,
I mean there was, but I mean there were scenes
that happened in very natural settings. Can you talk a
little bit about Yeah, tell me.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
First week, very first week we went to Watsonville. They
had reserved an area of the Apricot orchard for us
to be able to film in and pick you know,
the thing that I left out about the screen test
is when I was standing out so that I used
to smoke. I don't any more, but I was having
a cigarette, you know, while the other guy was in there.
But as I'm standing outside the sound stage, this red
(29:08):
tea bird pulls up a dude with a leather jacket
and you know, guinea t and wrap around balaama sunglasses
and you know, he gets out of the car, looks
at me and gives me one of those. And I went, oh,
my god, that's the real Bob Morales.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Oh it was.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
And it was. And when I got back from Texas
on that Sunday night after packing, Bob Morales picked me
up at the airport and took me to the house.
Then Richie bought his mom, Connie, and I met Mama Connie,
Connie Junior, Irma Mario, I met the whole family, Rosie.
I met everybody that night. I stayed in that house.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
You stayed in the house. Wow.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
I stayed in that house that night, you know. And
they were a part of every day of rehearsal. They
were part of every day of filming. We got very
very close and on the very very first day of
filming in Watsonville, my pickup time for the van is
six thirty, But at like five point forty five, there's
this banging on my door and it's Connie, Richie's mom going, Richie,
(30:06):
it's time to go to work. And that's the way
it was for the entire shoot.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Wow, I've heard you talk about this a little bit
about how unlike playing someone like Buddy, Holly or Elvis
right where they all were already household names. Yes, there
wasn't that kind of weight on you. It was a
different kind of pressure that was related to this very
real young man's family being around you all the time,
(30:35):
sort of watching you. I mean the mom you know,
Connie called you Richie that morning, right.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Yeah, the whole family did every day of the shooting.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Was that ever? I mean respectfully like to them, but like,
was that ever weird? I mean, you know, we're talking
about someone who's whose son passed away tragically.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
No, for me, it was validating.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
It was okay.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
For me, it was validation. You know, it was like, okay,
I'm on the right track. But one time I was
not called Richie was the night we were filming him
getting on the plane and we shot it at Burbank Airport.
Fake snow, huge wind machines blowing plastic snow everywhere, hot
as hell. But I'm in a fricking fur coat, man,
And Richie's supposed to be sick, and Taylor and Louise
(31:20):
had cautioned the family to not come that night, but
Connie came. Oh yeah, Connie came, and they're they're touching
my makeup up, literally on the runway. And Connie walks
up and I could see that she's already this you know,
something wrong. And I know immediately there is something wrong
because she says, lou, can I ask you something? And
(31:40):
I went, oh, my goodness, what have I done? She's
calling me, lou What's what's going on? I said, Connie,
of course, And I stood up and she collapses into
my arms and she starts pounding on my chess, going
why did you go? Why did you have to go?
And thirty years, man, thirty years of her holding onto
that and in that moment, to be able to have
(32:01):
that the tharsis because she was twelve when Richie passed,
so she had very, very vivid memories of it, and
you know, we were able to give her that moment.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Wow, yeah, incredible. I think that's a good segue into
the legacy, right for you to step into that role
and revive that legacy in that way. You can't prove
the statistically, but my gut is that he became a
household name because of that movie. You know again, right,
(32:33):
like he was a whole new generation. So I wonder, like,
what's crazy is like right after that movie, I feel
like you did two other huge movies, so then it
was like you did that, and then it was like
it wasn't like there was a lull. It was like
Stand and Deliver and Young Guns, right.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Like my first three films in Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Nuts. That's insane, I mean.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
To be honest. You know, even to this day, I
don't know if they it gets celebrated the way it
should be. You know, both of those films, both of
those films. Yeah, you know, we now have you know, awareness,
We now have you know, a desire to be inclusive.
There's a grassroots movement to support films you know, with
performers and directors and writers of color. Yeah, didn't exist
(33:13):
back then, right, we were pioneers. Not to pat myself
on the back too much, but you know, both of
those films are in the national Registry of Films for
their contribution to the culture of America, and yet Standley
Deliver gets one OSCAR nomination. We swept the Independent Spirit Awards.
The Lavamba doesn't get one. Okay, it'd be a different
(33:37):
story today. But then again, I probably wouldn't be cast
in those films today. So what's interesting is it takes
a full year for Levama to come out. I got
paid scale about six thousand dollars, and I give half
of that to my mother, just which you would. Yeah,
we filmed it in June and July of eighty six.
Come December of that year, I'm almost out of money.
(33:59):
I got to go back to text. Nobody is casting
me in movies because I'm an unknown kid from Texas playing,
as you said, an obscure Mexican American rock and roller.
You know who's a footnote and Buddy Holly story in
a six million dollar negative pickup film through Columbia. It
does not have blockbuster written on it, okay.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
And there aren't a ton of roles being written for
guys who look like you. No in the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
No, no, So I'm not getting in the door on
any of them. Okay. So in December of that year,
I land an episode of Miami Vice which is going
to pay me as much as love and did. Okay.
In that episode called Red Tape, Vigo Mortensen is my partner,
and Annette Benning is the girlfriend of the bad guy. Okay,
(34:46):
and I have one scene with Edward James almost now.
Eddie was supposed to do a cameo in Laamba as
East Size father, you know, because Richie and Bob had
different fathers. Yeah, okay, but it didn't work out. So
he's he's very very aware of the film, and he's
very aware that I'm the kid that got the role.
So we have one scene together. At the end of
(35:07):
the scene, Eddie says to me, what are you doing
next month? And I went, this is January. I went,
I think you want to have lunch. I'll be in
la you know. He goes, all right, here, when you
get back to La call this number. I'm doing a film.
You need to be in it. And that's how I
got to understand and delivery.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Well, I think that's a great place to end, because
that's like a whole other movie. We would need to
do a whole episode on.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
I appreciate it, man, Thank you so much, Alex. What
a wonderful conversation.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
Same here man. Really appreciate your time, you bet take care.
That's our show next week. Before Ludamond Phillips was ever
even aware of a Richie Allens movie, somebody had to
convince Richie's family to trust them with the story and
attach a director and get the money to tell it.
And who better than the guy who would go on
to direct the Academy Award winning film Ray To bring
(35:57):
this young rock icon to life. I'll speak to producer
Taylor Hackford about what it takes to get a movie
made that doesn't star white people and how to be
a good ally next time on More Than a Movie.
More Than a Movie Season two was produced by Chloe
(36:17):
Taglia Gmbe with the help of Reynolds Kutierras and Bveronica
Hernandez in partnership with Iheart's Michael Dura podcast network, hosted
by me Alex Fumetto, edited by Rose Red and Chloe
Taglia Ganbe with the help of Saide Cavedro. Executive producers
are Carmen Gratto, Rose Red, Isaac Lee, and me Alex Fumetto.
Sound designed by Gonzalo Messi original music by Golden Mines,
(36:39):
Darko and Ieme recorded at JTB Studios and Vaudeville Sound Our.
Executive producers at iHeart are Gazelle Bansis and Arlene Santana.
For more Michael Duda podcasts, listen to the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows
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