May 2, 2024 • 47 mins
"There’s a whole audience you’re missing.” On this episode of More Than a Movie, we met with the producer of La Bamba, Academy Award winning filmmaker Taylor Hackford, and explored how a white kid from Santa Barbara ended up becoming the driving force behind a film about a Mexican-American rock star. We talked everything from obtaining life rights to casting Lou Diamond Phillips, and what it truly means to be an ally in Hollywood.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
We saw a lot of people. There was a wide
kind of location casting people around the United States, and
out of Dallas. We got a picture of this guy.
He walked in. It's lou Diamond Phillips. He's a big,
tall guy and he starts reading Bob and you know,
he just it didn't it didn't work, It didn't click. Louise,
(00:23):
who's got a great nose, you know, He goes, you
know what, I know this sounds crazy, but I think
he could play Richie. So Louise calls him. He said,
lou listen, this is a movie called Lababa about a
guy named Richie Valence. We'd like you to read for
that role. And lou goes, what, I'm Bob, I'm reading
(00:47):
for Bob. He said, yeah, we know, come back tomorrow
and let's see what you can do. And he came back.
He read it and we looked at each other and
Louis said, that's my Rigie.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
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 Fumero. 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. There's a few schools of thought in
(01:30):
Hollywood when it comes to improving diversity in front of
and behind the camera. One school says who cares? Basically
may the best man win the job, and in that
case it usually is a man. They're usually white, straight, answis,
and it's not because they're the best at the job.
The second school says, only X people can tell X stories.
(01:52):
If you're black, only you can tell black stories. If
you're Latino, only you can. This strategy, which has been
the dominant strategy for the last ten years or so,
works some of the time as executives are terrified of
being accused of prejudice, but it hasn't made the kind
of impact on the numbers some had hoped for.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Not only does that.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Start to get into some weird territory when it comes
to how people want to identify versus how they're seen,
but it's also wholly impractical. Hollywood is first and foremost
a business, and that business abores risk, So taking a
chance on a first time filmmaker or an unknown actor
scares the shit out of the powers that be, and unfortunately,
(02:34):
the people with the most experience, the least risky people
tend to not be marginalized people, so the cycle of
white guys continues. There's a third school of thought, however,
which I'll call the Ally model. The Ally model essentially
requires a benevolent, white, straight male CIS person, usually who
(02:55):
has clout and a desire to tell a good story
that happens to feature a person or people who are
not like them, to use their clout and influence not
only to get that story made, but to help marginalize
people get opportunities they otherwise wouldn't You've seen this model
at work with people like Brad Pitt, who produced two
(03:15):
Academy Award winning black films in Moonlight and Twelve Years
of Slave, or even Steven Spielberg committing to casting actual
latinos and not some Greek guy in brown face in
the remake of West Side Story. Unfortunately, these examples are
few and far between, but today I have with me
someone who has done this multiple times over his career,
(03:38):
producer and director Taylor Hackford, who, coming off of a
massive box office hit in An Officer and a gentleman
decided to use his heat, his political capital in Hollywood
to make a film about a relatively forgotten, a critically
important character in rock and roll and Latino history, Richie Allens,
and instead of directing it himself, he act Luis Valdez,
(04:01):
a Chicano legend in the theater world, but someone who
the studios hesitated to give a big budget to.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
For the big screen.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
First of all, Taylor Hackford, thank you so much for
being here with us. This is a podcast dedicated to
Latino movies. You are not Latino, but a lot of
people may not realize that you're a soul cowboy. You
were born in Santa Barbara, California. I wonder if you
(04:31):
could tell us a little bit about Taylor Hackford as
a kid.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
And the kind of community he grew up around.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Well, you know, my mother I was raised. I was
a single mother. She was a waitress. She worked in
you know, restaurants around Santa Barbara, and when I was
really young, you know, she couldn't afford daycare, so I
went and I would hang in the kitchen and you know,
the the dishwashers, the bus boys, all the people were Latino,
(04:57):
so they spoke Spanish all the time, so I somehow
got this language in my head. And you know, when
I grew up, I was working class. I know, my
mother was a waitress and a lot of my friends
were Chicanos, and that's just kind of my background. So
I felt an affinity and that kind of came into
FOURD later on when I went to La right.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
And a lot of people don't think about the fact
that Santa Barbara has like a working class section because
you just associated with these grand Spanish style mansions and
all the rest of it. But a lot of your
friends growing up were Chicano and I wonder, you know,
we're here to talk about the movie La Bamba. I
think you were about twelve thirteen when that song comes out.
(05:39):
Do you remember when that song came out and the
impact that it had on your friends and on you
and on that community.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Of course, it was on top forty radio. It was
a rock and roll song. Richie Vallens basically took a
traditional Mexican folk song and put a rock and roll
beat to it and roll guitar. And it's his arrangement
of La Bamba that's so important, because you know, you
(06:08):
got a top forty radio. When do you have a
song in Spanish get into the top ten? It doesn't happen.
So it was groundbreaking. And it was not like, oh gee,
I'm political, I'm you know, I know, man. It was
just it was a great rock and roll song. It
was part of your culture as a teenager in California.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Yeah, and you didn't in those days. But you speak
Spanish now right.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
You you did not, Okay, see glad ogay? See did
that upbringing that experience.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Inspire you to go to the Peace Corps, go to
Bolivia and learn Spanish. You seem to have quite an
affinity for Latin culture, and so I'm curious, you know
what kind of fuels that for you?
Speaker 1 (06:52):
You know, when I went to college, I went to
college in Los Angeles and I went to USC, but
it was it's Vietnam. I graduated and I joined the
Peace Corps. And if we're going to join the Peace Corps,
the whole idea was, you know, why not go someplace
where you could learn Spanish and use it later. My
experience in Bolivia was fascinating, and you know, obviously I
(07:16):
got much more out of it than the Bolivians. But
as an American it's very, very valuable to kind of
encounter and understand the way the majority of the world lives.
So it was a big experience for me, and I
did learn Spanish there. That whole experience was a life
changer for me. You go live in the third world,
(07:37):
you live with people who are not blessed with all
the stuff that you had as somebody who grew up
in America, and so now you can never think of
the world in the same way.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
That's really interesting. It makes you sort of question what
America is. And so this sort of redefines like the
place that you grew up. And you come back and
you work in public television and you start getting into
the music scene, right, you start working on some music programming.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
No two things. Yeah, I'm a child of rock and roll,
So I grew up with rock and roll, and I
taught a history of rock and roll class at the university.
At that time, there was no uninterrupted popular music or
rock and roll on television anyway, going back to the sixties,
I went in and started doing journalism and did you know,
(08:29):
the public TV station we didn't have lots of money
like the commercial stations, but we did have equipment and
we went out and covered the community. So, you know,
the guy who I worked for was Mexican. His name
Eddie Moreno, and Eddie Moreno was a serious journalist. He
really cared about a journalism and he imbued that in me.
(08:51):
But also because he was Mexican and Latino, he was
interested in what was happening in LA I came out.
I came back from the Peace Corps sixty nine. I
started working in the mail room of KCET. Eddie gave
me a shot and so we started covering East Los Angeles.
I was a reporter. I was covering it. I covered
(09:12):
some really interesting things. The thing about great it was
great for me about KCET, the Public Televitis station, is
that it was my film school. I didn't go to Philmo.
I didn't go I went to Peace Corps, came out,
and the great thing that I had is airdates. You know,
I had to get something done and put it on
the air. It's like in film school you got one
project a semester. I had it every week, three times,
(09:34):
four times a week. So in the daytime I worked
as a journalist. At that night I would do music shows.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
It was great, how So.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Once I got out of the mail room and I
started being a producer and a reporter. There was a
friend named Heyesustravigno. He was a producer there and a
really smart guy, and he was Chicano. He was doing reporting.
I mean, Eddie Marina and I were going out and
doing this, but Hazeus was doing his own thing, and
(10:05):
you know, we became really good friends, and I started
hanging with him and seeing he did a show. It's
one thing that I think is important, which is to
do with lebamba. We're talking about when I was training
for the Peace Corps, training at Fresno State up in
the middle of California, and we went out for a
field trip and we went to a place called Del
(10:27):
Rey where Caesar Chavez was organizing the farm workers and
the political arm. Theater political arm of Caesar Chabas's movement
was that Diatto compesino, that's right, And I went there.
I spent two days there and I met Luis Valdez
when I was like twenty two.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Luis Valdez, for those who don't know, as I mentioned earlier,
was and is a legend in the world of Latino theater.
Aside from being an organizer in the fields with Caesar Chavis.
He also created a place called zut Suit that launched
or inspired the careers of dozens of Latino and Chicano
actors that are still working today, including the subject of
our entire season one, Edward James. Almost so it's a
(11:11):
big deal and shows that he's a real motherfucker that
Taylor was even fucking with Louise to begin with.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
And I was training for the Peace Corps and here's
this guy who you know, it was tough. I mean,
Luis is tough, and he was taking his love of
theater and did doing at Jet Prop Theater in the
fields with farm workers and against the growers. And listen,
you know, the growers were not taking it nicely. At night.
(11:41):
There were people, you know, coming by and shooting. You know,
Luis's was toughened by the politics of the fields and
he was very close to Caesar Chavez. So I met.
It wasn't for very long, you know, a couple of
days that I hung there, but I met this guy
and I went, wow, this is a smart, dedicated, committed
(12:01):
political guy and also an artist. So that was an
important part. Then when I was at KCT. Later he Sustavignho.
He was a journalist and of a documentary filmmaker, but
he wanted to do a music show with a young
artist named Danny Valdez. Danielle Valdez. He was the younger
(12:22):
brother of Luis, and he did this show called America
de los Indios and he wrote these songs. He's a singer,
guitar player and unbelievably talented. And I saw this show
and I went, she WHOA, this guy is great. And
Danny and I, you know, became really close friends. I mean,
(12:44):
Danny and I bonded and we were like ermanos and
we just hung and you know, would talk about things
and on, and Danny was so talented. I remember one
night we were over to friend's house and we were
drinking beers and talking and said, you know, we should
do a film about Richie Vallence. You know, because Richie
Valence is Chicano. He had this great voice. You got
(13:07):
a voice as good as his, and this whole story
could be really cool. So Danny and I are like,
I'm going to be the filmmaker, You're going to be
the star, and we're going to do this film. Of course,
neither one of us had a pot to piss him.
We're like nobody's right, and nothing came of it. But
there was a desire and a sense that Danny was
(13:30):
inspiring me and had all the talent to do it. Well.
Cut ten years later, all right, I go and I
make my first feature called The Idol Maker, and then
made my second feature called An Officer and a Gentleman,
which was a huge international hit, and all of a
sudden my stock in Hollywood, because when you do a
hit movie, people go Taylor, who, yeah, that kind of thing.
(13:54):
I get a phone call, it's Danny, and Danny says, hey,
I got two words for you, Richie Valens. Now's the time.
And he was right. But the problem is, when I
first met Danny, he was a young punk like I was.
You know, ten years later he's in his thirties. He's
not really right for Richie anymore. Right, But it was
(14:17):
Danny beldas an e who developed LaBamba. We went to
Hollister and then we went to Watsonville and we met
Connie Valezuela and we got the rights to Richie's life.
That talk about an interesting thing, you know.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
The other thing that's super interesting. Is this commercial you're
about to hear. I have no idea what it is,
and they put it in after, but trust me, it's interesting.
(15:00):
Welcome back to More Than a Movie. I'm your host,
Alex Fumeto. In a later episode this season, you'll hear
our interview with Louis Valdez about his work on LaBamba
and zoot Suit. And when we spoke to him, he
told us about meeting Taylor Hackford for the first time.
Here's Taylor's version.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Of that story.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
So we spoke to Luis Valdez for a while and
he told us, you know, we talked to him about
suit Suit and obviously developing that. He talked about meeting
you when you came to visit the United farm Workers
and Detre Cambecino, and he talked about how he and
Danny would talk about La Bamba also, and you know,
this is like a common thing. Everybody always wonders how
(15:39):
projects come to be, and like, you know, people just
like you know, it's kind of circulates or whatever.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
But well, the important.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Thing here is you understand, and I understand Luis Valdez
is a great artist. Yeah, Luis Feldez is La Bamba, right, Yeah,
But in terms of the chronology. Danny and I talked
about it a long time before. This is an intellectual
he's international theater, He's this and that. He's a he's
(16:06):
a heavyweight. So Danny and I were talking. We got
the rights from Connie, and now it's a question of
all right, we got the rights, but we're going to
do the film. I said, we should go to your brother, Yeah,
because I mean fun he did zutsuit. I mean, Louise
defined Chicano theater in California. He's an important, I think,
(16:28):
intellectual mind. Yeah, so Danny goes, but see it's the
younger brother, older brother. Danny goes, oh no, no, Luise
is never going to do this. So why he goes, no,
it's not going to do it because he's too elevated.
You know, he's got his head in the clouds. He
does he's in I said, Luis Valdeza spent his life
defining the Chicano experience on the stage in California. This
(16:52):
is Richie Valence man. This is a kid, a working
class kid who has a number one hit in America.
So we go to Louise and he kind of goes,
I don't know. I mean I know about Richie, and
I mean, you know, the point is that we convince
Louise to write the screenplay.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
And how do you go about that? This is more
of a producer question, right, Your career is unique, and
you are unique in that you know, some projects you're like,
this is mine to direct, and then other projects you're like, no,
I really am passionate about this. I want to produce it,
but there's other folks who are the right kind of
voice or vehicle for it.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
So you go to a guy like Louis Feldez.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Is immensely talented, who is, like you said, that's kind
of the definitive voice of Latino theater. And then you
know who has made this kind of foray into film
through Zootsuit, which was kind of like a mix between
a feature and the filming of a live stage production.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Right, and how do you go h This is a
two part question. We'll start with the first part, which
is how.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Do you convince Louise and then later how do you
convince the studio system that's typically very conservative that this
guy is the right guy this movie?
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Well, this is how it came about. I mean, once
I kind of said to Luis one you got the
freedom to tell this story. I mean, it's a great story,
and it's what you've been doing your whole life after
Santase State and going through talking about Latinos busting into
the American culture. Lucie Valence did it, so he got it.
(18:22):
But then you know, we realized I had a deal
at Columbia Pictures. They wanted me after an officer and gentlemen,
I went there. I made against all odds, I was
doing films for them.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
What does that mean? You have a deal in those days? Right, Like,
does that mean you have green light power?
Speaker 3 (18:37):
Or like what is it?
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Well? No, right, no, you don't have green light power.
But what you do is that they give you money
to have an office and you hire development people and
you go out and you develop material. Because that's the
way it used to work. You would go out and
you would if you were inspired by something and you
had had success, they said, well, I'll take a roll
(18:58):
of the dice.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
With this guy.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
And I went out and I developed La Bamba, and
the guy who ran it was really important. The guy
who ran Columbia Pictures was a guy named Guy Macawin,
and he was the president of production. He had grown
up as a minor league baseball pitcher. He was from California.
He grew up he remembered LaBamba and I had a
(19:20):
good relationship with him. I said, I'm going to develop
this film about LaBamba. I remember that song. Oh yeah, man,
that was a great idea. I said, well, it's going
to be two things. It's going to be inexpensive. Two,
it's going to be a Latino film, which a whole
Hollywood doesn't deal with. I said, there's a huge population
out there, gigantic, and Hollywood is interested in going out
(19:42):
and selling tickets. And I said, this whole audience you're missing.
He said what I said, Latinos they go to movies
all the time. Nothing is made for them. This is
the story of their life, Richie Vallence. So he said,
go ahead and develop it. So when I went to
Louise and I convinced him. I said, hey, man, I'm
going to be the trojan horse here. You know, we're
(20:05):
going to go in and we're going to get this
film made because I've got a deal, and you're going
to do the script. I didn't promise him that he
was going to direct. I said, I want you to
write the script. But I'm not going to tell you
what to write. I have huge respect for you. I
know that this means something to you. You know, go write.
(20:26):
And Louise said, yes, nothing can get done unless you
write a good script. Louise killed it. He did this
great story because he knew he's writing about his life. Yeah,
he wrote this script about Richie and Richie's family and
about Bob, his brother, an important role because he's the oldest.
(20:46):
He's the guy, but he's really talented artist, but he's
bashing up against white culture and you know, he's a biker.
He's thrown in jail. Bob. When I met him, it
was like, you know, you had this beautiful story about Richie,
but he's Everybody that talked about Richie was like, Richie's
so wonderful. His mother had this altar for him in
(21:07):
her living room. It's like, you know, he's the perfect guy.
Then we met Bob and go, oh, okay, now we're
in good shape because you got the good brother and
the bad brother. And that always says an interesting story
with a mother trying to keep him, you know, in
the middle. And Louise saw that and he wrote a
fabulous script. Well, people in the movie business understand a
(21:29):
good script when they see it. So I turned the
script in Louise has done it, and they go, wow,
this is great. Who's going to direct it? I said,
Luis Valdez is going to direct it. They said, what
you didn't tell us that. I said, listen, the guy's
a director. He did zuit suit. He is a substantial guy,
(21:49):
and I think he needs a shot. And let me
say this. You see that you like this script. You
know why you like it. It's really beautifully done, but
it also is a voice in and the voices of
Chicano culture, and you need a director who understands what's
on the page and even more. And I said, you know,
(22:10):
I'll produce the movie and I'll back Louis up, but
that doesn't mean I'm going to direct the movie. I'm not.
He's got to direct it, and believe me, he's that strong.
So we made this partnership and Guy Macawayne at Columbia said,
you're right, okay, go We've had three and a half
million dollars that we made LaBamba with and at the
(22:30):
time it was you know, that's still a lot more
money than most people had. Yeah. Yeah, Anyway, my point
at that point was just to back Louise up. When
I say that, I mean back him up in the
sense of his vision in the script, his vision in
the film, and just make sure he's protected.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Well, I'm curious on that point because you know, unfortunately,
and this is a big reason why I wanted to
talk to you, Taylor, because I consider you a very
important figure in the kind of recent history of Latino film,
and that is because Latinos have unfortunately not had that
(23:13):
many allies outside of Latino's really pushing for their stories.
And so I'm curious when you so some of the
things that you did in the eighties with this film,
I think those learnings still apply to what's going on today,
because we really haven't come as nearly as far as
(23:35):
you would have thought, you know, from La Bamba. And
so I'm wondering when you're selling a Luis Valdez right like,
I'm sure you know you were aware of all the
you know, beyond just the farm worker stuff. But then
when you're talking to the studio execs, are those the
kinds of experiences that you like, how do you sell
them on?
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Luise?
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Are those types of experiences you're bringing to them or
what is it that they respond to that makes them
go Okay, Taylor, you're right, Louise is the how do
you position him?
Speaker 1 (24:02):
No, I I you know you have a good relationship,
guy Macwhen and I were close number one, number two,
I made him money. Yeah, when you're ahead of a
studio and they said, okay, you make a film, I
go out and I make him money. Then he feels like,
you know, I can trust this guy. And I said
(24:24):
to him, listen, this is smart. You know nobody is.
There's a big audience. Nobody knew it. By the way
I said, there's a big audience here. These people aren't stupid.
It's an audience that nobody is covering. You can do it.
I'll make sure the film is done cheaply enough that
it's not going to kill you. Number one, number two.
(24:44):
If we're really going to speak to that audience, you
think a Gavachro can do it? I mean, pardon me.
You know, in reality, since this you need something authentic,
and you're reading a script that is authentic. You're reading
a script written by a guy who knows what he's
talking about, and you love the script. Well, he can
direct this movie. He can direct actors. He's directed actors
(25:06):
on stage. He comes out of the theater, you know,
Mike Nichols came out of the theater who gave him
a shot to direct a movie. And I'm gonna be there.
I won't be directed in the movie. Guy understand it.
I'm not doing it because I can direct the movie.
I direct movies. I'm going to be a producer, a
good producer. So if Louise needs something, I'm going to
(25:27):
be there. And in one area I was able to
help because I shot a lot of music. Remember back
at KCT, I shot music. Now Louise had not shot music,
he understand, So the musical sequences of Lebamba he was
still in charge of. But I set the cameras, you know,
because I knew what to do. But he's still you know,
(25:48):
lou Diamond Phillips up on stage. It's Louise talking to him,
not me. But I did help there. But the reality
is Guy trusted me.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Which is a producer's job, right, Like you're sort of
like change hats whenever the director whoever needs you. It's
not like you're stepping on his toes, you know, that's
like part of helping him.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
No, no, I listen. I had a lot of respect
for Louise, and second of all, Louise is a he's
a man.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
Yeah, he's a tough guy. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Yeah, you know, step on Louisvilldez's toes.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
He wouldn't allow it.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Yeah, he'll kick back. It was respectful, and I had
respect for Louise.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
He h.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
You know, I think understood that I was there to
try to make the best film and then let's let's
get to the selfish part of it.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
I thought, Hey, nobody's done this. We can make a
great film, and if we make a great film, will
sell lots of tickets and we'll have a hit movie.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Now, that's what you do when you produce a movie, right.
I mean, I'd bought Richie Vallen's catalog from Connie, but
it wasn't like a ripoff. I said, Connie, how much
money you're making per year?
Speaker 3 (26:55):
And she told me.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
I said, if I make this movie, you make ten
times that off the royalties. And I did, and she did.
I had a great relationship with La Conca, with Connie Venezuela.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Who I've heard also is a tough, tough cookie, but.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Oh is amazing.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Yeah, well, you.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Know, but that touches on two points that I think
are important to what's going on today.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
You know.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
One of those is that it has to be a business.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
You know, and this is a theme that I think
we're seeing over and over again in this podcast. You know,
the folks that I'm interviewing who are successful in what
they do, who are Latinos or working in the Latino space.
You know, diversity initiatives and the kind of like identity
politics of it are important, and we need to keep
sort of that social conversation going. But Louis said this,
(27:44):
You know, money is green, and that's the color that
the studios care about, and you really have to make
it a business proposition for them. And that seems like
something you were keenly aware from the beginning. But you
also did something that I think needs to be highlighted,
which is you burned political capital for this. Right When
(28:05):
I ask you, how did you get them to accept
Luis Valdez, what I'm hearing you say is I told
them I believe in this guy.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
You believe in me.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
We have a relationship. You trust me so and I
trust him. Without that, nothing is going to change, right, right,
And so you know, sometimes I'm frustrated. I see great
directors make great movies today, you know, and then they
have an opportunity to sort of do there, darling, the
movie people don't want to let them make and they
choose to make a movie about, you know, them being
(28:36):
a thirteen year old white kid growing up wherever. And
I'm like, this is a lost opportunity you could have
grabbed somebody else, and and that is what you did.
You came off of directing this, and you chose to
tell instead of saying, like, I'm going to tell this
story about me, you know, growing up in Santa Barbara.
You're like, no, Richie fucking Valance, Like, that's the story
I want to tell. You know, at the time, were
(28:59):
you thinking like, you know, I want to make this
like a whole business. Do I want to produce like
a slew of Latino movies? Or were you looking at
as like one thing at a time, Like did you
sort of see it as like this is a business
for my company or was it just about this film?
Speaker 1 (29:15):
No, I think that you got to start somewhere. I mean,
LaBamba was the first film I produced outside of directing.
I produced and directed my movies but this was a
producing job and I did it because I believed in it.
But I also believed it could be successful. And you
know what, it was unfortunately. I mean, it is still
the highest grossing Latino film in Hollywood history. I mean,
(29:38):
but come on, it was what thirty years ago, twenty
five years ago? I mean it should have been you know,
it should have flowed from there once Hollywood smelled there's
money out there in this community. I mean, we broke
a lot of ground at the time. You know who
owned Columbia Pictures. Coca Cola. Wow, And I said, God,
(30:00):
if there's anybody who knows how to market to Latinos,
it's Coca Cola. Yeah, I mean, they know who drink
Coca Cola in market. We actually got Coca Cola to
do displays in supermarkets for the Bamba brilliant. You know,
we were marketing. It was great. Secondly, we released and
I don't know too many films in Hollywood that it ever was.
(30:22):
We did day and date with English and Spanish prints.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Which is so ahead of its time.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
I mean, it's like it's I would say it's ahead
of its times that people don't do it now, But
it's like so brilliant.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
We did twenty five percent of our business. If they're
to prove it, we did twenty five percent of our
business and we opened well in Spanish only prints. That
says it all, doesn't it. I mean twenty five percent.
We ended up by making I think fifty five million
bucks domestic. But you know, at the same time that
was domestic, that was just in the United States for
(30:54):
a little three million dollar movie. That's a good profit
for Columbia Pictures.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
But then Taylor Hackford, person who understands Hollywood and has
worked in this business for decades.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
Why didn't it keep going? What happened? Because this happens
all the time.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Every ten years, there's some big success and then it
just fizzles.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
I can't understand. I can't explain it.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
It has to do with understand. You know. It's funny
I said, I went and got the rights with Danny.
I mean, Luis knows the family dealt with everybody, but
we got the rights. And the big deal about going
to the rights when you walk into a wood woman's
house and you walk in and you see in the
living room an altar with Richie Valen's face on it,
(31:37):
and Jesus and the Virgin. There it is, and you
realize he died at seventeen and a half. And she's
got this homuch. I had to say to her, Nita, listen,
you love your Richie. I understand that. I appreciate Richie.
I'm not directing this. We haven't done the script yet,
(31:57):
we haven't anything. But I'm going to make sure it
has integrity, and Bob's going to be a character in
all those things. But you cannot have control. Okay, you
cannot have control because I need to make a great
movie and you love your baby, and you're gonna say no, no,
no no, And I can tell you right now if
(32:19):
you don't give me control. This really now came down
to she and I then, in fact, I'm going to
walk out of here. We're not going to do it.
And she trusted me. We had this relationship. She trusted me,
and I believe I never ever betrayed Connie Venezuela. My
relationship was to her. Now Luis's was later on too.
Understand that's an important step because by all rights, when
(32:42):
they made Selena Listen, they had Jennifer Lopez. She was fantastic.
They had a great story an incredible story. But you
know what, they went and the producer went and said, oh,
Selena's father, he has final say. You know right there,
I knew right there it's over. They should have killed us.
(33:05):
They should have had one hundred million dollar movie or
two hundred million dollar movie because Selena had just died.
She was huge. It's traumatic. She's got all these great
records out. But the moment you let La familia because
you know what, A can't say that. You can't say this,
you can't do this. You can't do this. In La
Bamba we have you know, Bob takes his younger brother
(33:28):
to Tijuana. They go into a whorehouse bar and that's
where Richie hears La Bamba. That's where he hears the song. Now,
Connie in the long run said fine. But if I
said to Connie, Connie, I'm gonna take Richie down into
a whorehouse at Tijuana, she was absolutely not not my Ritchie.
(33:48):
But Louise, by the way, Louise did it. Louise put
it in the script, he knew how to direct it,
he did all those things. Richie still came out of it.
Sweetest guy in the world does Yeah, But it was real,
and he here's Lebama, and of course we had Los
Lobos on stage doing the original folk version of it. Yeah,
(34:08):
and Richie thieves it and goes in. But see that
scene where I went to Connie and said, you got
to give me control. That's why Selena did not kill us. Selena,
by all right, should have killed us. But when you
saw the film, there was something missing. There was like
the father going, oh, you can't say this, Oh you
(34:29):
can't do that, and so everybody kind of went, you know,
I mean, pardon me, I don't I hope that. No.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
No, it's rumored to be the issue with even the
most recent series that was done on Netflix, where you know,
again this is rumor, but you know that they went
through three different iterations of all of the scripts for
the show as a result of the family's involvement. But
I guess what my question for you then is, you know,
my big question mark is the La Bamba was the success?
Speaker 3 (34:59):
Right?
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Was the This model is the highest grossing and yet
it did not lead to an explosion of Latino film.
It's been thirty six years since LaBamba. Right, you proved
the nineteen eighty seven that there's a business model for
this right, yes, So then.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
What's the obstacle?
Speaker 2 (35:21):
What is Hollywood not understanding and what are we not understand?
What am I, as a Latino filmmaker, not understanding about,
you know, how to make this happen?
Speaker 1 (35:31):
I think that this is the great question. I mean
the fact that thirty six years later, that Lebamba hasn't
been beaten time and time and time again at the
box office. It just it's tragic, it is. I think,
going back to what we were talking about, you can't
leave it to executives. Executives like Guy mac owain could
(35:52):
never have made this movie. I mean they're executives and
they're not creative. You know what happened in LaBamba. I
got an artist, Luis Laldez, who was strong, had a vision,
had a point of view, and was an artist. I
was an artist, so I'm supporting him. And I had
enough clout to go to the guys at the studio
(36:14):
and say, no, stand back, trust me, all right, you're
not gonna waste much money, but trust me, I'm gonna
have I had final cut. See Louise didn't have final cut.
I had final cut. But so what I still made
his movie? Yeah, he got to make his movie. But
the interesting thing was that I, as an artist, understood
(36:35):
you got to be tough, but you also have to
understand the audience gets it. The audience has a as
a nose, and they smell when it's authentic.
Speaker 3 (36:45):
Yeah, they smell bullshit.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Yeah, And I think Lebamba was authentic and that's why
it was successful. I mean, in this instance, I went
out on a limb. I basically said, trust me, I'm
going to go do this and you're not going to
be hurt badly. But if I fuck up, it's me.
You don't have to renew my deal. It's me. I'm
backing up Luis Valdez. But what you cannot do is
(37:08):
ameliorate this material. Then you really got nothing. So I
think that you know, I'm not patting myself on the back.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
No, I mean, I don't want to blow smoke up
your ass, Taylor, but I'm telling you, I wish to
God more producers work were like you today. I mean,
it's like, we need this. This is what we need
is somebody to walk into the room and go, I'm
putting me on the line for this, so do it right,
you know. I mean, yeah, it's necessary. It's it is
(37:37):
that hard to get these movies made that you need
that it is.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
What it is. And I think Louise understood that I
was there for him. I was there and by the way,
you know, realize his brother was one of my best friends,
you know, Danny. He played Memo. He played the uncle
of Ritchie in the film. He was the associate producer.
But remember it all started with he and I having
been talking about him playing Richie.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
Well, Louis was very clear.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
I mean, Louise, one has an immense amount of respect
for you to you know, talked a lot about your
sort of background in music, also being instrumental, and three
that this movie just wouldn't have gotten made, and Connie
would have never given anybody the rights had someone like
you not been there to get them and get involved
and make it happen. Right, So he's you know, he
(38:26):
was pretty clear about all that stuff.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
It's the understanding of that and at the same time,
my understanding that as a filmmaker I was not the
right guy to make this movie. I wasn't and he was.
And therefore my job as a producer is to push
and protect, get everybody out of his way and let
him make the movie, which he did and did brilliantly.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
I am not Taylor Hackford, so I can't protect you.
Sadly from this next commercial break, we'll be read back.
Welcome back to More Than a Movie. I'm your host,
(39:12):
Alex Fumato, and I'm speaking to Taylor Hackford about casting
a young spunky Filipino kids a Chicano rock icon, and
why Lou Diamond Phillips was the best choice for the role.
So let's talk about lou Diamond Phillips. How did you
happen on lou Diamond? You know, in today's day and age,
people will say what you couldn't find one Latino kid.
(39:34):
They could have, you know, sang and dance and done
all that. But you know the way Louis sort of
framed it. I mean, this seemed like you guys cast
a pretty wide net and you landed on a guy
who today is a pretty famous you know, it's had
a pretty big career.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
So talk me through that casting decision again.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
My job is to support Louise, and we had a
great casting director named Judie Lowry, who is a fabulous
casting director. She went on to do a lot of
big shows and we went through the Latin community. But
you know, Richie's got to sing, he's got to dance.
And we saw a lot of people. There was a
wide kind of location casting people around the United States
(40:14):
and out of Dallas. We got a picture of this
guy and he came in for Bob and he came
from Dallas. He came in, he walked in. It's loud,
Diamond Phillips. He's a big, tall guy and he starts
reading Bob and you know, he just it didn't it
didn't work. It didn't click. Louise, who's got a great nose,
(40:35):
you know, He goes, you know what. I know this
sounds crazy, but I think he could play Richie. And
I go, yeah, you may be right. I don't know.
He said, why don't we try it. We haven't any
lux so far. So Louise calls him. Louise calls lude
back in. He said, lou listen, this is a movie
(40:57):
called Lababa about a guy named Richie Valley. We'd like
you to read for that role. And lou goes, what,
I'm Bob, I'm reading for Bob. He said, yeah, we know.
Here's the script. I want you to go home tonight
and we want you to read this, these pages, these scenes,
come back tomorrow and let's see what you can do.
(41:19):
And he came back. He read it, and we looked
at each other and Louis said, that's my Ritchie. That's
my Ritchie. That's the way these things work. You know,
it changed lou Diamond Phillips career is life. He changed ours.
We finally had somebody who worked right. So these are
great casting stories that kind of work, and it's interesting,
(41:41):
I mean, how things change. We were looking for Bob.
We needed a great Bob. Well, a guy came in
named Jesse Borrego who's a fabulous actor, and he was
on a TV series called Fame. And again Luis goes there,
he is, that's great. So you know, again I'm following
(42:01):
what Luis likes. We go and it's been on for
three seasons. It was going off. They had one episode
left and Jesse was just dancing in an episode and
the producer said, no, he's not free. I called it
the producer and I said, hey man, you know one
thing I learned early on. You know, actress, they have
(42:23):
such a fucking hard time in life. They never get
a chance. This role of Bob Venezuela and this movie
is great. You have one left and he's dancing. I'll
work about the schedule.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
The guy says, no, he's not. I thought, fucking asshole, asshole,
you have destroyed this guy's possible career because you know
what it is hard for you know how hard it
is for Latina. They get a great role that's not
a drug dealer. So he said no, Well, lucky for us.
Essi Morales was the next guy that came through the door.
(42:56):
And honestly, Esi was a brilliant bob. He was fantastic,
and you get lou Diamond Phillips in Eastside. They had it.
So anyway, the casting process is just as important as
the script. And again this is all under Luisveldez's guidance. Yeah,
he really knew what was doing. Well.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
I think you hit on something that's a core to it, right,
which is that you need somebody who is this sort
of filter for authenticity. Right, and that's least that Danny,
his brother who worked with you.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
On the film.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
Right, And then it opens things up a little more.
And I'd be curious to know you've been working in
this business a long time and I think sometimes the
perfect can be the enemy of the good. But like
when you're casting, you really do have to think about
what's going to sell this fucking movie, you know, but
like what's going to sell this right? Do you think
sometimes we do ourselves a little bit of a disservice
(43:46):
by being too purest about you know, this person has
to be from here, And.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Yeah, I think so. I mean, I believe you give
I always believe it. I don't care who I'm casting.
You give the role to the best actor. Yeah, take
the role to the best actor, and if they're really great,
they'll make it believable. Isi Morales made you believe he
was a Chicano. You know, Lizabeth Pena, whose Cuban made
you believe she was Chicano. On the other hand, we
(44:13):
had total authenticity, you know. I mean, listen there, I
was a producer, producing job different than directing. And you
know I hired the writer, you know, Danny and I,
but I hired his brother. You know, Louise happened to
do a great script that we wouldn't have been able
to go forward. None of us would have meant anything
(44:34):
if Louise hadn't done it. Luis then made sure that
he was the director because I trusted his nose. But
as a producer, I did have a lot to say.
And I think that my feeling for Chicano's my sense
that I grew up with them. You know, that was
a sense of respect, you know that, you say, I
(44:56):
can be part of this, and I'll make sure I
never had to worry about. I got Louis Veldez there.
He knows what's real and it's not. He knows what's
Chicano what's not. I'm not sitting there, you know, as
a producer going gee, Louis, I'm not so sure this
is He's lived it, he was it. So that was
an important, you know, part of what I was doing,
and that's what producing is about. You try to you
(45:17):
try to line it up around a subject that I
knew because again, at its core, Richie Valens is America,
Richie Valence is Chicano. It's the Latino culture which infuses
this country. And uh, I knew that it was a
great story. That's what you do, and I believed it
(45:38):
all the way through and tried to make it happen
again with Louis Veldez.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
Well Taylor Hackford. I think that's a great place to end.
I just want to say, you know, I wish my
message out there for all you successful non Latino actors, writers, directors,
producers is please be more like Taylor Hackford.
Speaker 3 (46:01):
And I help you. Uh you have a great rest
of your week, and uh we'll go from there.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
Thanks Alex.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
Next week on More Than a Movie. Way before she
was giving feminist speeches in Barbie, America Ferrara was giving
them as an angsty teenager in the critically acclaimed film
Real Women Have Curves, we'll speak to Patricia Cardoso, the
director who gave America Ferrera her first starring role on
the big screen. More Than a Movie. Season two was
(46:36):
produced by Chloe Taglia Ganbe with the help of Reynolds
Gutierres and Veronica Hernandez in partnership with Iheartsmichael Tura podcast network,
hosted by me Alex Fumetto, edited by Rose Reid and
Chloe taglia Ganbe with the help of Saida Cavedo. Executive
producers are Carmen Gratto, Rose Reed, Isaac Lee, and me
Alex Flumetto. Sound designed by Gonzalo Messi. Original music by
(46:58):
Golden Mines Darko and I Am recorded at JTB Studios
and Vaudeville Sound. Our executive producers at iHeart are Giselle
Bansis and Arlene Santana. For more Michael Dudda podcasts, listen
to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your favorite shows.
We saw a lot of people. There was a wide
kind of location casting people around the United States, and
out of Dallas. We got a picture of this guy.
He walked in. It's lou Diamond Phillips. He's a big,
tall guy and he starts reading Bob and you know,
he just it didn't it didn't work, It didn't click. Louise,
(00:23):
who's got a great nose, you know, He goes, you
know what, I know this sounds crazy, but I think
he could play Richie. So Louise calls him. He said,
lou listen, this is a movie called Lababa about a
guy named Richie Valence. We'd like you to read for
that role. And lou goes, what, I'm Bob, I'm reading
(00:47):
for Bob. He said, yeah, we know, come back tomorrow
and let's see what you can do. And he came back.
He read it and we looked at each other and
Louis said, that's my Rigie.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
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 Fumero. 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. There's a few schools of thought in
(01:30):
Hollywood when it comes to improving diversity in front of
and behind the camera. One school says who cares? Basically
may the best man win the job, and in that
case it usually is a man. They're usually white, straight, answis,
and it's not because they're the best at the job.
The second school says, only X people can tell X stories.
(01:52):
If you're black, only you can tell black stories. If
you're Latino, only you can. This strategy, which has been
the dominant strategy for the last ten years or so,
works some of the time as executives are terrified of
being accused of prejudice, but it hasn't made the kind
of impact on the numbers some had hoped for.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Not only does that.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Start to get into some weird territory when it comes
to how people want to identify versus how they're seen,
but it's also wholly impractical. Hollywood is first and foremost
a business, and that business abores risk, So taking a
chance on a first time filmmaker or an unknown actor
scares the shit out of the powers that be, and unfortunately,
(02:34):
the people with the most experience, the least risky people
tend to not be marginalized people, so the cycle of
white guys continues. There's a third school of thought, however,
which I'll call the Ally model. The Ally model essentially
requires a benevolent, white, straight male CIS person, usually who
(02:55):
has clout and a desire to tell a good story
that happens to feature a person or people who are
not like them, to use their clout and influence not
only to get that story made, but to help marginalize
people get opportunities they otherwise wouldn't You've seen this model
at work with people like Brad Pitt, who produced two
(03:15):
Academy Award winning black films in Moonlight and Twelve Years
of Slave, or even Steven Spielberg committing to casting actual
latinos and not some Greek guy in brown face in
the remake of West Side Story. Unfortunately, these examples are
few and far between, but today I have with me
someone who has done this multiple times over his career,
(03:38):
producer and director Taylor Hackford, who, coming off of a
massive box office hit in An Officer and a gentleman
decided to use his heat, his political capital in Hollywood
to make a film about a relatively forgotten, a critically
important character in rock and roll and Latino history, Richie Allens,
and instead of directing it himself, he act Luis Valdez,
(04:01):
a Chicano legend in the theater world, but someone who
the studios hesitated to give a big budget to.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
For the big screen.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
First of all, Taylor Hackford, thank you so much for
being here with us. This is a podcast dedicated to
Latino movies. You are not Latino, but a lot of
people may not realize that you're a soul cowboy. You
were born in Santa Barbara, California. I wonder if you
(04:31):
could tell us a little bit about Taylor Hackford as
a kid.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
And the kind of community he grew up around.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Well, you know, my mother I was raised. I was
a single mother. She was a waitress. She worked in
you know, restaurants around Santa Barbara, and when I was
really young, you know, she couldn't afford daycare, so I
went and I would hang in the kitchen and you know,
the the dishwashers, the bus boys, all the people were Latino,
(04:57):
so they spoke Spanish all the time, so I somehow
got this language in my head. And you know, when
I grew up, I was working class. I know, my
mother was a waitress and a lot of my friends
were Chicanos, and that's just kind of my background. So
I felt an affinity and that kind of came into
FOURD later on when I went to La right.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
And a lot of people don't think about the fact
that Santa Barbara has like a working class section because
you just associated with these grand Spanish style mansions and
all the rest of it. But a lot of your
friends growing up were Chicano and I wonder, you know,
we're here to talk about the movie La Bamba. I
think you were about twelve thirteen when that song comes out.
(05:39):
Do you remember when that song came out and the
impact that it had on your friends and on you
and on that community.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Of course, it was on top forty radio. It was
a rock and roll song. Richie Vallens basically took a
traditional Mexican folk song and put a rock and roll
beat to it and roll guitar. And it's his arrangement
of La Bamba that's so important, because you know, you
(06:08):
got a top forty radio. When do you have a
song in Spanish get into the top ten? It doesn't happen.
So it was groundbreaking. And it was not like, oh gee,
I'm political, I'm you know, I know, man. It was
just it was a great rock and roll song. It
was part of your culture as a teenager in California.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Yeah, and you didn't in those days. But you speak
Spanish now right.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
You you did not, Okay, see glad ogay? See did
that upbringing that experience.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Inspire you to go to the Peace Corps, go to
Bolivia and learn Spanish. You seem to have quite an
affinity for Latin culture, and so I'm curious, you know
what kind of fuels that for you?
Speaker 1 (06:52):
You know, when I went to college, I went to
college in Los Angeles and I went to USC, but
it was it's Vietnam. I graduated and I joined the
Peace Corps. And if we're going to join the Peace Corps,
the whole idea was, you know, why not go someplace
where you could learn Spanish and use it later. My
experience in Bolivia was fascinating, and you know, obviously I
(07:16):
got much more out of it than the Bolivians. But
as an American it's very, very valuable to kind of
encounter and understand the way the majority of the world lives.
So it was a big experience for me, and I
did learn Spanish there. That whole experience was a life
changer for me. You go live in the third world,
(07:37):
you live with people who are not blessed with all
the stuff that you had as somebody who grew up
in America, and so now you can never think of
the world in the same way.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
That's really interesting. It makes you sort of question what
America is. And so this sort of redefines like the
place that you grew up. And you come back and
you work in public television and you start getting into
the music scene, right, you start working on some music programming.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
No two things. Yeah, I'm a child of rock and roll,
So I grew up with rock and roll, and I
taught a history of rock and roll class at the university.
At that time, there was no uninterrupted popular music or
rock and roll on television anyway, going back to the sixties,
I went in and started doing journalism and did you know,
(08:29):
the public TV station we didn't have lots of money
like the commercial stations, but we did have equipment and
we went out and covered the community. So, you know,
the guy who I worked for was Mexican. His name
Eddie Moreno, and Eddie Moreno was a serious journalist. He
really cared about a journalism and he imbued that in me.
(08:51):
But also because he was Mexican and Latino, he was
interested in what was happening in LA I came out.
I came back from the Peace Corps sixty nine. I
started working in the mail room of KCET. Eddie gave
me a shot and so we started covering East Los Angeles.
I was a reporter. I was covering it. I covered
(09:12):
some really interesting things. The thing about great it was
great for me about KCET, the Public Televitis station, is
that it was my film school. I didn't go to Philmo.
I didn't go I went to Peace Corps, came out,
and the great thing that I had is airdates. You know,
I had to get something done and put it on
the air. It's like in film school you got one
project a semester. I had it every week, three times,
(09:34):
four times a week. So in the daytime I worked
as a journalist. At that night I would do music shows.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
It was great, how So.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Once I got out of the mail room and I
started being a producer and a reporter. There was a
friend named Heyesustravigno. He was a producer there and a
really smart guy, and he was Chicano. He was doing reporting.
I mean, Eddie Marina and I were going out and
doing this, but Hazeus was doing his own thing, and
(10:05):
you know, we became really good friends, and I started
hanging with him and seeing he did a show. It's
one thing that I think is important, which is to
do with lebamba. We're talking about when I was training
for the Peace Corps, training at Fresno State up in
the middle of California, and we went out for a
field trip and we went to a place called Del
(10:27):
Rey where Caesar Chavez was organizing the farm workers and
the political arm. Theater political arm of Caesar Chabas's movement
was that Diatto compesino, that's right, And I went there.
I spent two days there and I met Luis Valdez
when I was like twenty two.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Luis Valdez, for those who don't know, as I mentioned earlier,
was and is a legend in the world of Latino theater.
Aside from being an organizer in the fields with Caesar Chavis.
He also created a place called zut Suit that launched
or inspired the careers of dozens of Latino and Chicano
actors that are still working today, including the subject of
our entire season one, Edward James. Almost so it's a
(11:11):
big deal and shows that he's a real motherfucker that
Taylor was even fucking with Louise to begin with.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
And I was training for the Peace Corps and here's
this guy who you know, it was tough. I mean,
Luis is tough, and he was taking his love of
theater and did doing at Jet Prop Theater in the
fields with farm workers and against the growers. And listen,
you know, the growers were not taking it nicely. At night.
(11:41):
There were people, you know, coming by and shooting. You know,
Luis's was toughened by the politics of the fields and
he was very close to Caesar Chavez. So I met.
It wasn't for very long, you know, a couple of
days that I hung there, but I met this guy
and I went, wow, this is a smart, dedicated, committed
(12:01):
political guy and also an artist. So that was an
important part. Then when I was at KCT. Later he Sustavignho.
He was a journalist and of a documentary filmmaker, but
he wanted to do a music show with a young
artist named Danny Valdez. Danielle Valdez. He was the younger
(12:22):
brother of Luis, and he did this show called America
de los Indios and he wrote these songs. He's a singer,
guitar player and unbelievably talented. And I saw this show
and I went, she WHOA, this guy is great. And
Danny and I, you know, became really close friends. I mean,
(12:44):
Danny and I bonded and we were like ermanos and
we just hung and you know, would talk about things
and on, and Danny was so talented. I remember one
night we were over to friend's house and we were
drinking beers and talking and said, you know, we should
do a film about Richie Vallence. You know, because Richie
Valence is Chicano. He had this great voice. You got
(13:07):
a voice as good as his, and this whole story
could be really cool. So Danny and I are like,
I'm going to be the filmmaker, You're going to be
the star, and we're going to do this film. Of course,
neither one of us had a pot to piss him.
We're like nobody's right, and nothing came of it. But
there was a desire and a sense that Danny was
(13:30):
inspiring me and had all the talent to do it. Well.
Cut ten years later, all right, I go and I
make my first feature called The Idol Maker, and then
made my second feature called An Officer and a Gentleman,
which was a huge international hit, and all of a
sudden my stock in Hollywood, because when you do a
hit movie, people go Taylor, who, yeah, that kind of thing.
(13:54):
I get a phone call, it's Danny, and Danny says, hey,
I got two words for you, Richie Valens. Now's the time.
And he was right. But the problem is, when I
first met Danny, he was a young punk like I was.
You know, ten years later he's in his thirties. He's
not really right for Richie anymore. Right, But it was
(14:17):
Danny beldas an e who developed LaBamba. We went to
Hollister and then we went to Watsonville and we met
Connie Valezuela and we got the rights to Richie's life.
That talk about an interesting thing, you know.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
The other thing that's super interesting. Is this commercial you're
about to hear. I have no idea what it is,
and they put it in after, but trust me, it's interesting.
(15:00):
Welcome back to More Than a Movie. I'm your host,
Alex Fumeto. In a later episode this season, you'll hear
our interview with Louis Valdez about his work on LaBamba
and zoot Suit. And when we spoke to him, he
told us about meeting Taylor Hackford for the first time.
Here's Taylor's version.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Of that story.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
So we spoke to Luis Valdez for a while and
he told us, you know, we talked to him about
suit Suit and obviously developing that. He talked about meeting
you when you came to visit the United farm Workers
and Detre Cambecino, and he talked about how he and
Danny would talk about La Bamba also, and you know,
this is like a common thing. Everybody always wonders how
(15:39):
projects come to be, and like, you know, people just
like you know, it's kind of circulates or whatever.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
But well, the important.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Thing here is you understand, and I understand Luis Valdez
is a great artist. Yeah, Luis Feldez is La Bamba, right, Yeah,
But in terms of the chronology. Danny and I talked
about it a long time before. This is an intellectual
he's international theater, He's this and that. He's a he's
(16:06):
a heavyweight. So Danny and I were talking. We got
the rights from Connie, and now it's a question of
all right, we got the rights, but we're going to
do the film. I said, we should go to your brother, Yeah,
because I mean fun he did zutsuit. I mean, Louise
defined Chicano theater in California. He's an important, I think,
(16:28):
intellectual mind. Yeah, so Danny goes, but see it's the
younger brother, older brother. Danny goes, oh no, no, Luise
is never going to do this. So why he goes, no,
it's not going to do it because he's too elevated.
You know, he's got his head in the clouds. He
does he's in I said, Luis Valdeza spent his life
defining the Chicano experience on the stage in California. This
(16:52):
is Richie Valence man. This is a kid, a working
class kid who has a number one hit in America.
So we go to Louise and he kind of goes,
I don't know. I mean I know about Richie, and
I mean, you know, the point is that we convince
Louise to write the screenplay.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
And how do you go about that? This is more
of a producer question, right, Your career is unique, and
you are unique in that you know, some projects you're like,
this is mine to direct, and then other projects you're like, no,
I really am passionate about this. I want to produce it,
but there's other folks who are the right kind of
voice or vehicle for it.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
So you go to a guy like Louis Feldez.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Is immensely talented, who is, like you said, that's kind
of the definitive voice of Latino theater. And then you
know who has made this kind of foray into film
through Zootsuit, which was kind of like a mix between
a feature and the filming of a live stage production.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Right, and how do you go h This is a
two part question. We'll start with the first part, which
is how.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Do you convince Louise and then later how do you
convince the studio system that's typically very conservative that this
guy is the right guy this movie?
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Well, this is how it came about. I mean, once
I kind of said to Luis one you got the
freedom to tell this story. I mean, it's a great story,
and it's what you've been doing your whole life after
Santase State and going through talking about Latinos busting into
the American culture. Lucie Valence did it, so he got it.
(18:22):
But then you know, we realized I had a deal
at Columbia Pictures. They wanted me after an officer and gentlemen,
I went there. I made against all odds, I was
doing films for them.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
What does that mean? You have a deal in those days? Right, Like,
does that mean you have green light power?
Speaker 3 (18:37):
Or like what is it?
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Well? No, right, no, you don't have green light power.
But what you do is that they give you money
to have an office and you hire development people and
you go out and you develop material. Because that's the
way it used to work. You would go out and
you would if you were inspired by something and you
had had success, they said, well, I'll take a roll
(18:58):
of the dice.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
With this guy.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
And I went out and I developed La Bamba, and
the guy who ran it was really important. The guy
who ran Columbia Pictures was a guy named Guy Macawin,
and he was the president of production. He had grown
up as a minor league baseball pitcher. He was from California.
He grew up he remembered LaBamba and I had a
(19:20):
good relationship with him. I said, I'm going to develop
this film about LaBamba. I remember that song. Oh yeah, man,
that was a great idea. I said, well, it's going
to be two things. It's going to be inexpensive. Two,
it's going to be a Latino film, which a whole
Hollywood doesn't deal with. I said, there's a huge population
out there, gigantic, and Hollywood is interested in going out
(19:42):
and selling tickets. And I said, this whole audience you're missing.
He said what I said, Latinos they go to movies
all the time. Nothing is made for them. This is
the story of their life, Richie Vallence. So he said,
go ahead and develop it. So when I went to
Louise and I convinced him. I said, hey, man, I'm
going to be the trojan horse here. You know, we're
(20:05):
going to go in and we're going to get this
film made because I've got a deal, and you're going
to do the script. I didn't promise him that he
was going to direct. I said, I want you to
write the script. But I'm not going to tell you
what to write. I have huge respect for you. I
know that this means something to you. You know, go write.
(20:26):
And Louise said, yes, nothing can get done unless you
write a good script. Louise killed it. He did this
great story because he knew he's writing about his life. Yeah,
he wrote this script about Richie and Richie's family and
about Bob, his brother, an important role because he's the oldest.
(20:46):
He's the guy, but he's really talented artist, but he's
bashing up against white culture and you know, he's a biker.
He's thrown in jail. Bob. When I met him, it
was like, you know, you had this beautiful story about Richie,
but he's Everybody that talked about Richie was like, Richie's
so wonderful. His mother had this altar for him in
(21:07):
her living room. It's like, you know, he's the perfect guy.
Then we met Bob and go, oh, okay, now we're
in good shape because you got the good brother and
the bad brother. And that always says an interesting story
with a mother trying to keep him, you know, in
the middle. And Louise saw that and he wrote a
fabulous script. Well, people in the movie business understand a
(21:29):
good script when they see it. So I turned the
script in Louise has done it, and they go, wow,
this is great. Who's going to direct it? I said,
Luis Valdez is going to direct it. They said, what
you didn't tell us that. I said, listen, the guy's
a director. He did zuit suit. He is a substantial guy,
(21:49):
and I think he needs a shot. And let me
say this. You see that you like this script. You
know why you like it. It's really beautifully done, but
it also is a voice in and the voices of
Chicano culture, and you need a director who understands what's
on the page and even more. And I said, you know,
(22:10):
I'll produce the movie and I'll back Louis up, but
that doesn't mean I'm going to direct the movie. I'm not.
He's got to direct it, and believe me, he's that strong.
So we made this partnership and Guy Macawayne at Columbia said,
you're right, okay, go We've had three and a half
million dollars that we made LaBamba with and at the
(22:30):
time it was you know, that's still a lot more
money than most people had. Yeah. Yeah, Anyway, my point
at that point was just to back Louise up. When
I say that, I mean back him up in the
sense of his vision in the script, his vision in
the film, and just make sure he's protected.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Well, I'm curious on that point because you know, unfortunately,
and this is a big reason why I wanted to
talk to you, Taylor, because I consider you a very
important figure in the kind of recent history of Latino film,
and that is because Latinos have unfortunately not had that
(23:13):
many allies outside of Latino's really pushing for their stories.
And so I'm curious when you so some of the
things that you did in the eighties with this film,
I think those learnings still apply to what's going on today,
because we really haven't come as nearly as far as
(23:35):
you would have thought, you know, from La Bamba. And
so I'm wondering when you're selling a Luis Valdez right like,
I'm sure you know you were aware of all the
you know, beyond just the farm worker stuff. But then
when you're talking to the studio execs, are those the
kinds of experiences that you like, how do you sell
them on?
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Luise?
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Are those types of experiences you're bringing to them or
what is it that they respond to that makes them
go Okay, Taylor, you're right, Louise is the how do
you position him?
Speaker 1 (24:02):
No, I I you know you have a good relationship,
guy Macwhen and I were close number one, number two,
I made him money. Yeah, when you're ahead of a
studio and they said, okay, you make a film, I
go out and I make him money. Then he feels like,
you know, I can trust this guy. And I said
(24:24):
to him, listen, this is smart. You know nobody is.
There's a big audience. Nobody knew it. By the way
I said, there's a big audience here. These people aren't stupid.
It's an audience that nobody is covering. You can do it.
I'll make sure the film is done cheaply enough that
it's not going to kill you. Number one, number two.
(24:44):
If we're really going to speak to that audience, you
think a Gavachro can do it? I mean, pardon me.
You know, in reality, since this you need something authentic,
and you're reading a script that is authentic. You're reading
a script written by a guy who knows what he's
talking about, and you love the script. Well, he can
direct this movie. He can direct actors. He's directed actors
(25:06):
on stage. He comes out of the theater, you know,
Mike Nichols came out of the theater who gave him
a shot to direct a movie. And I'm gonna be there.
I won't be directed in the movie. Guy understand it.
I'm not doing it because I can direct the movie.
I direct movies. I'm going to be a producer, a
good producer. So if Louise needs something, I'm going to
(25:27):
be there. And in one area I was able to
help because I shot a lot of music. Remember back
at KCT, I shot music. Now Louise had not shot music,
he understand, So the musical sequences of Lebamba he was
still in charge of. But I set the cameras, you know,
because I knew what to do. But he's still you know,
(25:48):
lou Diamond Phillips up on stage. It's Louise talking to him,
not me. But I did help there. But the reality
is Guy trusted me.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Which is a producer's job, right, Like you're sort of
like change hats whenever the director whoever needs you. It's
not like you're stepping on his toes, you know, that's
like part of helping him.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
No, no, I listen. I had a lot of respect
for Louise, and second of all, Louise is a he's
a man.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
Yeah, he's a tough guy. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Yeah, you know, step on Louisvilldez's toes.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
He wouldn't allow it.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Yeah, he'll kick back. It was respectful, and I had
respect for Louise.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
He h.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
You know, I think understood that I was there to
try to make the best film and then let's let's
get to the selfish part of it.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
I thought, Hey, nobody's done this. We can make a
great film, and if we make a great film, will
sell lots of tickets and we'll have a hit movie.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Now, that's what you do when you produce a movie, right.
I mean, I'd bought Richie Vallen's catalog from Connie, but
it wasn't like a ripoff. I said, Connie, how much
money you're making per year?
Speaker 3 (26:55):
And she told me.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
I said, if I make this movie, you make ten
times that off the royalties. And I did, and she did.
I had a great relationship with La Conca, with Connie Venezuela.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Who I've heard also is a tough, tough cookie, but.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Oh is amazing.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Yeah, well, you.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Know, but that touches on two points that I think
are important to what's going on today.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
You know.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
One of those is that it has to be a business.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
You know, and this is a theme that I think
we're seeing over and over again in this podcast. You know,
the folks that I'm interviewing who are successful in what
they do, who are Latinos or working in the Latino space.
You know, diversity initiatives and the kind of like identity
politics of it are important, and we need to keep
sort of that social conversation going. But Louis said this,
(27:44):
You know, money is green, and that's the color that
the studios care about, and you really have to make
it a business proposition for them. And that seems like
something you were keenly aware from the beginning. But you
also did something that I think needs to be highlighted,
which is you burned political capital for this. Right When
(28:05):
I ask you, how did you get them to accept
Luis Valdez, what I'm hearing you say is I told
them I believe in this guy.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
You believe in me.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
We have a relationship. You trust me so and I
trust him. Without that, nothing is going to change, right, right,
And so you know, sometimes I'm frustrated. I see great
directors make great movies today, you know, and then they
have an opportunity to sort of do there, darling, the
movie people don't want to let them make and they
choose to make a movie about, you know, them being
(28:36):
a thirteen year old white kid growing up wherever. And
I'm like, this is a lost opportunity you could have
grabbed somebody else, and and that is what you did.
You came off of directing this, and you chose to
tell instead of saying, like, I'm going to tell this
story about me, you know, growing up in Santa Barbara.
You're like, no, Richie fucking Valance, Like, that's the story
I want to tell. You know, at the time, were
(28:59):
you thinking like, you know, I want to make this
like a whole business. Do I want to produce like
a slew of Latino movies? Or were you looking at
as like one thing at a time, Like did you
sort of see it as like this is a business
for my company or was it just about this film?
Speaker 1 (29:15):
No, I think that you got to start somewhere. I mean,
LaBamba was the first film I produced outside of directing.
I produced and directed my movies but this was a
producing job and I did it because I believed in it.
But I also believed it could be successful. And you
know what, it was unfortunately. I mean, it is still
the highest grossing Latino film in Hollywood history. I mean,
(29:38):
but come on, it was what thirty years ago, twenty
five years ago? I mean it should have been you know,
it should have flowed from there once Hollywood smelled there's
money out there in this community. I mean, we broke
a lot of ground at the time. You know who
owned Columbia Pictures. Coca Cola. Wow, And I said, God,
(30:00):
if there's anybody who knows how to market to Latinos,
it's Coca Cola. Yeah, I mean, they know who drink
Coca Cola in market. We actually got Coca Cola to
do displays in supermarkets for the Bamba brilliant. You know,
we were marketing. It was great. Secondly, we released and
I don't know too many films in Hollywood that it ever was.
(30:22):
We did day and date with English and Spanish prints.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Which is so ahead of its time.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
I mean, it's like it's I would say it's ahead
of its times that people don't do it now, But
it's like so brilliant.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
We did twenty five percent of our business. If they're
to prove it, we did twenty five percent of our
business and we opened well in Spanish only prints. That
says it all, doesn't it. I mean twenty five percent.
We ended up by making I think fifty five million
bucks domestic. But you know, at the same time that
was domestic, that was just in the United States for
(30:54):
a little three million dollar movie. That's a good profit
for Columbia Pictures.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
But then Taylor Hackford, person who understands Hollywood and has
worked in this business for decades.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
Why didn't it keep going? What happened? Because this happens
all the time.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Every ten years, there's some big success and then it
just fizzles.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
I can't understand. I can't explain it.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
It has to do with understand. You know. It's funny
I said, I went and got the rights with Danny.
I mean, Luis knows the family dealt with everybody, but
we got the rights. And the big deal about going
to the rights when you walk into a wood woman's
house and you walk in and you see in the
living room an altar with Richie Valen's face on it,
(31:37):
and Jesus and the Virgin. There it is, and you
realize he died at seventeen and a half. And she's
got this homuch. I had to say to her, Nita, listen,
you love your Richie. I understand that. I appreciate Richie.
I'm not directing this. We haven't done the script yet,
(31:57):
we haven't anything. But I'm going to make sure it
has integrity, and Bob's going to be a character in
all those things. But you cannot have control. Okay, you
cannot have control because I need to make a great
movie and you love your baby, and you're gonna say no, no,
no no, And I can tell you right now if
(32:19):
you don't give me control. This really now came down
to she and I then, in fact, I'm going to
walk out of here. We're not going to do it.
And she trusted me. We had this relationship. She trusted me,
and I believe I never ever betrayed Connie Venezuela. My
relationship was to her. Now Luis's was later on too.
Understand that's an important step because by all rights, when
(32:42):
they made Selena Listen, they had Jennifer Lopez. She was fantastic.
They had a great story an incredible story. But you
know what, they went and the producer went and said, oh,
Selena's father, he has final say. You know right there,
I knew right there it's over. They should have killed us.
(33:05):
They should have had one hundred million dollar movie or
two hundred million dollar movie because Selena had just died.
She was huge. It's traumatic. She's got all these great
records out. But the moment you let La familia because
you know what, A can't say that. You can't say this,
you can't do this. You can't do this. In La
Bamba we have you know, Bob takes his younger brother
(33:28):
to Tijuana. They go into a whorehouse bar and that's
where Richie hears La Bamba. That's where he hears the song. Now,
Connie in the long run said fine. But if I
said to Connie, Connie, I'm gonna take Richie down into
a whorehouse at Tijuana, she was absolutely not not my Ritchie.
(33:48):
But Louise, by the way, Louise did it. Louise put
it in the script, he knew how to direct it,
he did all those things. Richie still came out of it.
Sweetest guy in the world does Yeah, But it was real,
and he here's Lebama, and of course we had Los
Lobos on stage doing the original folk version of it. Yeah,
(34:08):
and Richie thieves it and goes in. But see that
scene where I went to Connie and said, you got
to give me control. That's why Selena did not kill us. Selena,
by all right, should have killed us. But when you
saw the film, there was something missing. There was like
the father going, oh, you can't say this, Oh you
(34:29):
can't do that, and so everybody kind of went, you know,
I mean, pardon me, I don't I hope that. No.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
No, it's rumored to be the issue with even the
most recent series that was done on Netflix, where you know,
again this is rumor, but you know that they went
through three different iterations of all of the scripts for
the show as a result of the family's involvement. But
I guess what my question for you then is, you know,
my big question mark is the La Bamba was the success?
Speaker 3 (34:59):
Right?
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Was the This model is the highest grossing and yet
it did not lead to an explosion of Latino film.
It's been thirty six years since LaBamba. Right, you proved
the nineteen eighty seven that there's a business model for
this right, yes, So then.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
What's the obstacle?
Speaker 2 (35:21):
What is Hollywood not understanding and what are we not understand?
What am I, as a Latino filmmaker, not understanding about,
you know, how to make this happen?
Speaker 1 (35:31):
I think that this is the great question. I mean
the fact that thirty six years later, that Lebamba hasn't
been beaten time and time and time again at the
box office. It just it's tragic, it is. I think,
going back to what we were talking about, you can't
leave it to executives. Executives like Guy mac owain could
(35:52):
never have made this movie. I mean they're executives and
they're not creative. You know what happened in LaBamba. I
got an artist, Luis Laldez, who was strong, had a vision,
had a point of view, and was an artist. I
was an artist, so I'm supporting him. And I had
enough clout to go to the guys at the studio
(36:14):
and say, no, stand back, trust me, all right, you're
not gonna waste much money, but trust me, I'm gonna
have I had final cut. See Louise didn't have final cut.
I had final cut. But so what I still made
his movie? Yeah, he got to make his movie. But
the interesting thing was that I, as an artist, understood
(36:35):
you got to be tough, but you also have to
understand the audience gets it. The audience has a as
a nose, and they smell when it's authentic.
Speaker 3 (36:45):
Yeah, they smell bullshit.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Yeah, And I think Lebamba was authentic and that's why
it was successful. I mean, in this instance, I went
out on a limb. I basically said, trust me, I'm
going to go do this and you're not going to
be hurt badly. But if I fuck up, it's me.
You don't have to renew my deal. It's me. I'm
backing up Luis Valdez. But what you cannot do is
(37:08):
ameliorate this material. Then you really got nothing. So I
think that you know, I'm not patting myself on the back.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
No, I mean, I don't want to blow smoke up
your ass, Taylor, but I'm telling you, I wish to
God more producers work were like you today. I mean,
it's like, we need this. This is what we need
is somebody to walk into the room and go, I'm
putting me on the line for this, so do it right,
you know. I mean, yeah, it's necessary. It's it is
(37:37):
that hard to get these movies made that you need
that it is.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
What it is. And I think Louise understood that I
was there for him. I was there and by the way,
you know, realize his brother was one of my best friends,
you know, Danny. He played Memo. He played the uncle
of Ritchie in the film. He was the associate producer.
But remember it all started with he and I having
been talking about him playing Richie.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
Well, Louis was very clear.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
I mean, Louise, one has an immense amount of respect
for you to you know, talked a lot about your
sort of background in music, also being instrumental, and three
that this movie just wouldn't have gotten made, and Connie
would have never given anybody the rights had someone like
you not been there to get them and get involved
and make it happen. Right, So he's you know, he
(38:26):
was pretty clear about all that stuff.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
It's the understanding of that and at the same time,
my understanding that as a filmmaker I was not the
right guy to make this movie. I wasn't and he was.
And therefore my job as a producer is to push
and protect, get everybody out of his way and let
him make the movie, which he did and did brilliantly.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
I am not Taylor Hackford, so I can't protect you.
Sadly from this next commercial break, we'll be read back.
Welcome back to More Than a Movie. I'm your host,
(39:12):
Alex Fumato, and I'm speaking to Taylor Hackford about casting
a young spunky Filipino kids a Chicano rock icon, and
why Lou Diamond Phillips was the best choice for the role.
So let's talk about lou Diamond Phillips. How did you
happen on lou Diamond? You know, in today's day and age,
people will say what you couldn't find one Latino kid.
(39:34):
They could have, you know, sang and dance and done
all that. But you know the way Louis sort of
framed it. I mean, this seemed like you guys cast
a pretty wide net and you landed on a guy
who today is a pretty famous you know, it's had
a pretty big career.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
So talk me through that casting decision again.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
My job is to support Louise, and we had a
great casting director named Judie Lowry, who is a fabulous
casting director. She went on to do a lot of
big shows and we went through the Latin community. But
you know, Richie's got to sing, he's got to dance.
And we saw a lot of people. There was a
wide kind of location casting people around the United States
(40:14):
and out of Dallas. We got a picture of this
guy and he came in for Bob and he came
from Dallas. He came in, he walked in. It's loud,
Diamond Phillips. He's a big, tall guy and he starts
reading Bob and you know, he just it didn't it
didn't work. It didn't click. Louise, who's got a great nose,
(40:35):
you know, He goes, you know what. I know this
sounds crazy, but I think he could play Richie. And
I go, yeah, you may be right. I don't know.
He said, why don't we try it. We haven't any
lux so far. So Louise calls him. Louise calls lude
back in. He said, lou listen, this is a movie
(40:57):
called Lababa about a guy named Richie Valley. We'd like
you to read for that role. And lou goes, what,
I'm Bob, I'm reading for Bob. He said, yeah, we know.
Here's the script. I want you to go home tonight
and we want you to read this, these pages, these scenes,
come back tomorrow and let's see what you can do.
(41:19):
And he came back. He read it, and we looked
at each other and Louis said, that's my Ritchie. That's
my Ritchie. That's the way these things work. You know,
it changed lou Diamond Phillips career is life. He changed ours.
We finally had somebody who worked right. So these are
great casting stories that kind of work, and it's interesting,
(41:41):
I mean, how things change. We were looking for Bob.
We needed a great Bob. Well, a guy came in
named Jesse Borrego who's a fabulous actor, and he was
on a TV series called Fame. And again Luis goes there,
he is, that's great. So you know, again I'm following
(42:01):
what Luis likes. We go and it's been on for
three seasons. It was going off. They had one episode
left and Jesse was just dancing in an episode and
the producer said, no, he's not free. I called it
the producer and I said, hey man, you know one
thing I learned early on. You know, actress, they have
(42:23):
such a fucking hard time in life. They never get
a chance. This role of Bob Venezuela and this movie
is great. You have one left and he's dancing. I'll
work about the schedule.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
The guy says, no, he's not. I thought, fucking asshole, asshole,
you have destroyed this guy's possible career because you know
what it is hard for you know how hard it
is for Latina. They get a great role that's not
a drug dealer. So he said no, Well, lucky for us.
Essi Morales was the next guy that came through the door.
(42:56):
And honestly, Esi was a brilliant bob. He was fantastic,
and you get lou Diamond Phillips in Eastside. They had it.
So anyway, the casting process is just as important as
the script. And again this is all under Luisveldez's guidance. Yeah,
he really knew what was doing. Well.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
I think you hit on something that's a core to it, right,
which is that you need somebody who is this sort
of filter for authenticity. Right, and that's least that Danny,
his brother who worked with you.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
On the film.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
Right, And then it opens things up a little more.
And I'd be curious to know you've been working in
this business a long time and I think sometimes the
perfect can be the enemy of the good. But like
when you're casting, you really do have to think about
what's going to sell this fucking movie, you know, but
like what's going to sell this right? Do you think
sometimes we do ourselves a little bit of a disservice
(43:46):
by being too purest about you know, this person has
to be from here, And.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Yeah, I think so. I mean, I believe you give
I always believe it. I don't care who I'm casting.
You give the role to the best actor. Yeah, take
the role to the best actor, and if they're really great,
they'll make it believable. Isi Morales made you believe he
was a Chicano. You know, Lizabeth Pena, whose Cuban made
you believe she was Chicano. On the other hand, we
(44:13):
had total authenticity, you know. I mean, listen there, I
was a producer, producing job different than directing. And you
know I hired the writer, you know, Danny and I,
but I hired his brother. You know, Louise happened to
do a great script that we wouldn't have been able
to go forward. None of us would have meant anything
(44:34):
if Louise hadn't done it. Luis then made sure that
he was the director because I trusted his nose. But
as a producer, I did have a lot to say.
And I think that my feeling for Chicano's my sense
that I grew up with them. You know, that was
a sense of respect, you know that, you say, I
(44:56):
can be part of this, and I'll make sure I
never had to worry about. I got Louis Veldez there.
He knows what's real and it's not. He knows what's
Chicano what's not. I'm not sitting there, you know, as
a producer going gee, Louis, I'm not so sure this
is He's lived it, he was it. So that was
an important, you know, part of what I was doing,
and that's what producing is about. You try to you
(45:17):
try to line it up around a subject that I
knew because again, at its core, Richie Valens is America,
Richie Valence is Chicano. It's the Latino culture which infuses
this country. And uh, I knew that it was a
great story. That's what you do, and I believed it
(45:38):
all the way through and tried to make it happen
again with Louis Veldez.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
Well Taylor Hackford. I think that's a great place to end.
I just want to say, you know, I wish my
message out there for all you successful non Latino actors, writers, directors,
producers is please be more like Taylor Hackford.
Speaker 3 (46:01):
And I help you. Uh you have a great rest
of your week, and uh we'll go from there.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
Thanks Alex.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
Next week on More Than a Movie. Way before she
was giving feminist speeches in Barbie, America Ferrara was giving
them as an angsty teenager in the critically acclaimed film
Real Women Have Curves, we'll speak to Patricia Cardoso, the
director who gave America Ferrera her first starring role on
the big screen. More Than a Movie. Season two was
(46:36):
produced by Chloe Taglia Ganbe with the help of Reynolds
Gutierres and Veronica Hernandez in partnership with Iheartsmichael Tura podcast network,
hosted by me Alex Fumetto, edited by Rose Reid and
Chloe taglia Ganbe with the help of Saida Cavedo. Executive
producers are Carmen Gratto, Rose Reed, Isaac Lee, and me
Alex Flumetto. Sound designed by Gonzalo Messi. Original music by
(46:58):
Golden Mines Darko and I Am recorded at JTB Studios
and Vaudeville Sound. Our executive producers at iHeart are Giselle
Bansis and Arlene Santana. For more Michael Dudda podcasts, listen
to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your favorite shows.
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