September 16, 2024 • 55 mins
This week we’ve got an amazing guest - of this I am sure.
Nunzio himself, actor Jonathan Del Arco, is hanging out with the gang and looking back on his scene-stealing turn as a dancing waiter in the Season 5 episode, “Last Tango in Philly.”
There aren’t many actors in Hollywood who made the jump from The Wonder Years and Blossom to The Sopranos and Star Trek, but he somehow pulled it off, all while navigating the unwelcoming waters for gay actors in 1990s Hollywood.
In addition to his incredible on-screen career, Jonathan has become a philanthropic force, working with 5 Presidential campaigns and winning the 2013 Visibility Award from the Human Rights Campaign. But even with all these accomplishments, he still has some words for Rider about a long-standing grudge he has with the Strong boys. Learn all about it - on a brand new Pod Meets World!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
I don't think I told you guys about this at all,
and I guess, you know, why would I. But I
had this situation and then it kind of it changed
last week, and so I thought I would share this
story because it actually ends up being kind of a
in a roundabout way of very pod meats world ish story.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I was.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
So I did this movie when I was eleven, called
Benefit of the Doubt.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Do you guys this? Of course, so I shot this movie.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
I was like my first big job. I went off
to page Arizona. Donald Sutherland is in it. Amy Irving
played my mom. Christopher McDonald.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Do you guys know him. He's a great doctor. So
I'm not ago.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
So it was like, you know, I was the only
kid on set. I was out in Arizona for I
don't know, like three months.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I'm horrible in the movie.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
I like really struggled as it after I didn't, you know,
I just didn't know what was going on. But I
had so much fun. Of course, like out there in
the desert, I was, you know, getting to shoot guns.
I pull a gun a Donald's otherland. At one point
we had all these boat chase scenes, you know, and
behind the scenes, I'm like reading Stephen King, and I
first tried about Edward Abbey became like this great touchstone
(01:31):
activist writer that I love.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Eleven year old writers Disneyland.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Oh yeah, exactly nice.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
And there were these there are these caves that we
shot at called Antelope Canyon, which is these slot caves
that are these beautif It's like they're open at the
top so the sunlight streams down. You've seen them in
like every commercial or whatever. So we actually shut down
and went there and shot. So last summer, I ended
up in Page, Arizona on my road trip with Alex
(01:57):
and Indy, and we went to the canyons and I
was like, oh my god, I shot a movie here, guys.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
And we did the whole tour and it's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
And then we're hanging out in Page, like on the
street corner and we're walking down and you know, this
tiny town in the corner of Lake Powell, and I
start recognizing things. I'm like, oh my god, Oh my god,
there's the there's the movie theater. It's like I saw
Wayne's World in that movie theater. Like I remember, we
had the whole theater to ourselves. We were laughing and
(02:25):
I had so much fun. And then like I'm like,
wait a minute, Wait a minute, there's there's ice cream.
And we go around the corner and there's like this
ice cream shop and I'm like, wait, they have frybread.
I know they have like Indian frybread, and like, sure enough,
I asked be on the counter. We get frybred and
I'm like all these memories start and I and I
get this like weird crawling sensation in the back of
my mind. I was like, it wasn't it wasn't just
(02:45):
me and my mom and I was the only kid
in the movie.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
I was like, who was my pal? Like who was
my friend?
Speaker 1 (02:50):
I watched Wayne's World We got Frybred, like with this
person I had this like face and I was like,
oh my god, Connie. And I had totally forgotten about
this woman, Connie, who was my best friend. And I'm like, wait,
she was like twenty five and she was the second AD.
Her name was Connie Hoy and she did you know,
(03:12):
so as a second AD, she was the person who
would have been kind of in charge of like getting
me for my trailer. But she was my friend, like
I just I and I had totally forgotten that.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
This person existed.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
I was like, we spent the entire shoot hanging out,
and she was like, you know, I looked at her
as like, you know, my peer, which is.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Just so funny.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
And I was like, why did this twenty five year
old woman spend so much? Like she was so giving
and so awesome, and I was like, and the last
time I'd seen her was at the premiere of the
movie and she was pregnant and I had never seen
her since. And so I'm sitting there having all these
memories flooded. I'm like, I gotta find Connie.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Yeah, So I.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Pick up my phone, pick up my phone. I'm on
the corner page in Indian and Alex were like, let's go.
And I'm like, no, no, no, no. So I do the
research and I find her. I find like an email address.
I send her a letter. I'm like, hey, I don't
know if you remember, but like, thank you, like you
were like my friend. And I had all these positive
and I you know, and within a couple hours.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
She wrote me back and it was like oh.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
And I So we kept writing letters and texting, and
then when I got back to La I went and
met her for sushi and it was amazing. It was like,
she's exactly the same. Of course, she's much older. She
went on to not only raise her kid, but she
married a guy that she worked with on her next
movie who already had kids, and she raised them and
(04:33):
she it was just like and it was exactly the same,
Like we just fell right back into our friendship. And
she had gone on to become a producer. She worked
on like all these legendary films from the nineties, like
Jim Jarmusch films, I don't know if you guys know him,
like a classic. He did the movie dead Man with
Johnny Depp, and like, she worked on that, and she just,
you know, she's got a film buff obviously, So we
(04:55):
started connecting on all the things she's worked on. Anyway,
it was great to reconnect. And then we just have
been in touch and like sending you know, messages every
once in a while. And then of course Donald Sutherland
died and when that happened, she texted me and we
were like, and so I had this plan to when
I was on this road trip this summer. We were
texting and I was like, oh, when I get back,
you know, She's like, I'm going to take you out.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
To lunch and return the favor and catch up again.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
And then last week I'm in the I'm out in
the desert with friends and I get this weird email
from somebody I don't know who's like, hey, I'm trying
to find writer.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Connie died.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Yeah, And it was like just this sudden you know,
oh what Like I was just texting, so yeah, it's like, uh,
and you know, this guy Adam, who was a lifelong
friend of hers, is writing to me and he's like, yeah,
she I didn't know how any of your contact infos,
so he's like finding me through Instagram and whatnot. He's like, because,
(06:00):
but I just, you know, I want to let you
know and if you want to come to the memorial.
And Connie was really you know, affected by your letter
and like she really really croudy, like had told everybody
in her life, you know, like hey, like look this
kid that I worked with remembered me and yeah, just
(06:22):
you know, it's one of those things, like so much
of what we've been doing on this podcast has been this,
you know, like going back and reconnecting with people that
really we took for granted. And then also I just
think about how the industry takes these people for granted,
you know, like when we have especially as a kid,
but when you work on a film, you know, whether
(06:43):
it's good or bad, it's a lived experience of crewe
people and people that dedicate their lives and just are
the unsung heroes, you know, whether it's Addie dis Stefano
or David Combs or you know, and like their name
might not even be in the end credits, you know,
and yet they make the entire thing possible, and they
(07:06):
it's a collaborative art form. And they also changed the
lives of you know, little eleven year old kids who
are totally lost and confused about what they're doing.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
And yeah, so I just.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
You know, I wanted to give a shout out to
Connie Hoy, Connie Maverick Hoy who passed away and just really.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Changed my life.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Was super positive influence, so sweet.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
That's so sweet, and you know, you're right. It ties
in so well with what we've been doing with the podcast.
And it's such a great reminder too that like when
you do have a memory of somebody and they positively
impacted you in some way doing the little bit of work,
it takes if possible to find them and let them
know is so important because you know, you obviously thoroughly
(07:54):
enjoyed reconnecting with her, and she enjoyed reconnecting with you,
but you would have also never known how much should
impacted her until her friend told you, like, wow, she
was so proud that this kid she had worked with
thirty years later is you know, reaching out to her
to reconnect. So, you know, letting somebody know what they
mean to you or what they meant to you, even
(08:15):
if it was for a really short period of time
in your life. You know, how long were you working
on that movie?
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yeah, like three months?
Speaker 5 (08:19):
Right?
Speaker 4 (08:20):
Yeah, you know, three months?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Three months of your life again, you know, and I.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
Saw again and yet you went out of your way
and it turned into a beautiful friendship now as adults,
and unfortunately was cut short. But it's never too late
to reach out until somebody when they met.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Yeah, let people know, you know, and like, and that's
what's so great about the internet, right, Like, that's the
benefit is that we can find each other. We can't
you know, people don't just get lost. We can all
find each other. But yeah, it's a yeah, I'm really sad,
but I'm also really glad that I did at least
get to have that moment when and it was, you know, amazing.
(08:53):
The friendship was right back there.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Oh right, you're still just as cool.
Speaker 6 (08:58):
It's one of those things where, whether you believe in fate,
whether they don't believe in fate, you easily could have
thought about her again after she had already passed away. Yeah,
and you wouldn't have had that opportunity, but you didn't something.
You were in the right place at the right time,
and you had the memory and you were able to reconnect.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
And I don't know whether you believe.
Speaker 6 (09:15):
In higher powers, fate, whatever you want to call it,
something somewhere needed you guys to get together again.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Yeah, at least one more time. So yeah, that's very cool.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
Thank you for sharing with us, writer, and I love
you both very much.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I love you. I love you too.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
Welcome to Pod meets World. I'm Danielle Fischel, I'm.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Right or Strong, and I'm Wilfordell.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
Seasons four and five of Boy Meets World are unique
for many reasons, and one of those reasons makes booking
the rewatch podcast thirty years later a slightly more difficult task.
Gone are the days of rapid fire of up and
coming young names like Carrie Russell, Lindsay Price and Will
Esti's for every episode, making way for actors who were
a little on the older side, say Paul Gleeson, the
(10:10):
guys from the Love Boat, Soopy Sales, Buddy Hackett, and
the incomparable Phil Leads. I know he looked young, but
he was in fact old Phil.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
No, he was not.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
I'm surprised to have to tell you that easy. Many
of these stars, each leaving undeniable contributions to the legacy
of our show, are no longer with us. So when
a scene stealing guest star that was our age pops
up on screen these days, we'd jump at the chance
to talk to them. And today's guest is just that
he's so cool. His first acting job after moving from
(10:42):
Uruguay at the age of ten was on Miami Vice.
Oh not great. He'd quickly book roles on TV mainstays
like The Wonder Years and Blossom, and eventually inserting himself
into the Star Trek canon as the Borg Drone Hugh
on Star Trek the Next Generation, a role he reprised
two other times for the franchise He's been on and
(11:02):
off Broadway, studying acting from New York to Harvard, eventually
appearing on Nip Tuck as the unforgettable character Sophia Lopez,
a transgender patient who's come to McNamara Troy for a procedure.
He's also appeared on twenty four and The Sopranos, and
was a series regular on The Closer and its spinoff,
Major Crimes. He's a political, environmental, and gay rights activist
(11:25):
who has worked for five presidential campaigns and was awarded
the twenty thirteen Visibility Award from the Human Rights Campaign.
But today we are talking to him about one appearance
he made back in nineteen ninety seven as Nunzio, the
handsome waiter at El Coyote who just wants to dance
with Tapanga. Oh and he has a connection to one
(11:46):
of us that might just blow your mind. Welcome to
pod meets World, the wonderful Jonathan Delarco.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
My god, yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
Oh, my goodness, it happens to the best of us.
Thirty years later, here we are.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (12:08):
How strange is that.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
It's so good to see you. Thank you so much
for being here. You you without even knowing it, you
joined a little bit of a club on our podcast
for what we call perfect drive Bys. It's a guest
star who swung in for one episode, gave it all
you had, and it was just absolutely wonderful, So.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
We would kill it, killed it left giving.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
You your flowers. What an episode?
Speaker 2 (12:36):
You're the whole episode.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
It's a yes, I just free watched it because I'm like, literally,
I hadn't seen it since it aired, right, and I'm like, Wow,
they let me do those dance moves. That's really d.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
You're so glad they did it?
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Was you know, I love it?
Speaker 4 (12:58):
You even talking third part?
Speaker 5 (13:00):
Yeah, exactly so. And I was so much older than
you guys, that's no way, no dude, I was like
twenty nine.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
Really okay, I wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
I did not know.
Speaker 5 (13:14):
All these days we have a twenty nine year old
actor being well.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
You know what's funny is that you were then almost
the same age as Trina.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Yeah right right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
Trina I think was like twenty seven or twenty.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Eight, and she and I were actually making out all
the time.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
Yeah, like you would all be arrested.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Now, it's so funny. Well, before we jump in and
talk about Nunzio, I wanted to get a little bit
into your origin story. We know you were born in Uruguay.
Is that where the idea for becoming an actor was born?
Speaker 5 (13:49):
I mean kind of. I was always a performer when
I was a little kid, and I would do like
poppet shows and dirty jokes at my uncle's bar, like
you know, the tips. And I was always just not
kind of an odd kid when I was little. And
then we moved to the US when I was ten,
(14:10):
and so I was immediately the odd man. I mean
I didn't speak English and I had a weird really
already I was ten, so I had this like weird voice,
and I spoke very little English, and I learned English
watching TV over over one summer.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Oh man, And what are your watching? Do you remember
what you were watching to learn English?
Speaker 5 (14:32):
I watched what was on Brady Bunch. We're talking like
seventy six, so Brady Bunch Days, Lucy Happy Days, Gilligan's Island,
all shows that were like big hits.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Classic Mark and Mindy.
Speaker 5 (14:49):
I watched some British like Benny Hill, some really British comedy,
and I like learned English in two months.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
That's amazing. And you have no accent like you.
Speaker 5 (15:00):
It was. So, what's weird is I grew up in Portchester,
New York, and all the kids talk like this. Oh
I didn't I talk like a kid'.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
You do?
Speaker 6 (15:11):
You have what TV actors called a non regional diction,
so you can be from everywhere.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
That's what that's what you want to be. Oh god,
So that was the.
Speaker 5 (15:19):
Iguish I learned. And then I really because of watching TV,
I was like, I think that that's my vibe, Like
I could do that. And then yeah, so I became
you know, I lived near New York, so Broadway was
kind of always there, and I think I was like
maybe fourteen when I saw Matthew Broderick win a Tony
and I watched him win the award and I was like,
(15:42):
I could play that. I mean I didn't know what
the part was, but saw him and I was like, well,
I could do what he's doing. And then I went
ahead and did just like for all the places he
had done and like picked up the scraps and along
the way. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
And so what did your parents think about the stream
you had and pursuing it.
Speaker 5 (16:00):
My mom and dad were like super dreamer people, like
they they like my dad moved here when he was
made there. I had older parents, so they moved to
the States when my dad was already in his fifties,
so like my age and like maybe a little younger
than I am now. My mom was younger than him,
she was in her forties, and he like uprooted the
family and like moved and so okay, and he was.
(16:23):
So they were always very adventurous, my dad in particular,
and they just encouraged it. They were like, go do it.
I don't know, I mean they were very like hands
off parents in a way. They were not helicoptery at all,
maybe because they were older. You know, if you want
to do that, go do that. You seem pretty good
at it. So they they were good. They were really
(16:46):
good about it. My mom when my sag unionship bo
car for it at the time. So yeah, I had
a really supportive family. I wasn't a kid actor, but
super weird because I looked really really young, played kid
rolls until I was I think your Show was probably
the last I think it was. I think it was
(17:08):
the last time casting was like you're not twenty nine, right,
It got weird. I mean I was, you know what,
I mean, and that was I mean, I was playing
a little older than you guys, but not much.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
Yeah yeah, you were a manager of the restaurants. You
were early.
Speaker 6 (17:23):
Twenty Yeah yeah, but you just make it weird to
go dancing with the girl from high school.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
I guess it does. Maybe on set too, I was like,
I know, like, what was I going to talk to
you guys about. You know, I mean, first of all,
I was gay and out and like going to clubs
as a game man, So like, I'm going to talk
to the kids about that. Let me talk about nothing.
I have nothing in common. That's I mean, my girl,
(17:52):
you know.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
Yeah, that's so funny. I love that. Even then for yourself,
you're like, I think this is the last time I'm
going to audition for.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
Nature and then it didn't work for like forever. You guys,
baby faces probably know what I'm talking about. That weird
twilight zone of like you look like a kid, but
you're really a man.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
And we right in your intro we mentioned that your
first big TV job was on Miami Vice, And I'm
not sure there's a cooler show to debut or cool
Which episode?
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Which episode?
Speaker 5 (18:25):
What did you do?
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Which episode was Paul.
Speaker 5 (18:27):
I remember my first gig. It was called God's Work.
It was it was the first episode I think on
television that dealt with AIDS, which was like major taboo
at the time. And Issie Morales played a character whose
I think his lover was sick and like some church
(18:48):
like hospice place. I was this punk kid who was
like graffeiting the church. I don't know. I was like
not a good guy. I was like a brady kid.
That was my first gid. I was crazy.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
And how old were you then?
Speaker 5 (19:04):
So I must have been twenty two, twenty two, okay, yeah, anyway,
and you got to work with you, you know.
Speaker 6 (19:13):
And you got to work with Isi Morales and with
Don Johnson and with the whole I mean everybody.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah, so cool.
Speaker 5 (19:19):
Yeah. I gotated by Tubbs, you know. So I was,
I know, crazy, It's best And I got that because
the director of that had come to see me in
a play and thought I was interesting and took me
out to lunch. And it was a female director. Janelized
she still works a ton brilliant director. She took me
(19:40):
out to lunch. She's like, I think you're a really
interesting actor. Blah blah blah. You should audition for this,
this and that next thing. I know, I'm getting an offer.
I mean, I'm a kid, I'm a young actor getting
an offer to go do Miami Vice. And I arrived
at wardrobe and she's there and I'm like, oh my god,
what are you doing here? She's like, how do you
think you got the job?
Speaker 4 (20:00):
That's so cool, that's amazing. So that's how you find yourself.
Then moving to LA in your early twenties and you
get to appear on some great shows Wonder Years, Blossom,
but it's Star Trek as Borg Drone Hugh. That's just
such a big breakout for you. Did you know anything
about Star Trek when you auditioned.
Speaker 5 (20:19):
Yeah, I did, because well, I watched. One of the
shows I watched and learn English from was the original series. Yes,
I would stay up late at night and I was
on at the time in reruns, so I was a
fan of the original series. And then I tested for
the role that Will Wheaton got on Next Gens Okay Rusher,
So while I was in New York, I tested from
(20:41):
New York for that role. So I was really familiar
with the world, but I had not watched it and
I didn't know, I didn't know I had a fandom,
you know what I mean. I wasn't aware of that
part of it. And also you remember like back then
it was like if you weren't a syndicated show, it
wasn't like cool. Yeah, it was led to the thing
(21:03):
like you guys like syndicate. So I was like, it's
a syndicated show, Like who cares? I mean I didn't
he cares, but I didn't think he was going to
have No.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
It's so crazy to think about, you know.
Speaker 6 (21:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (21:13):
Yeah, it was like filmmaking. It was like grant, you know,
you had a patina not as fancy as.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
So you were. You were a board.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Did you have to do a bunch of makeup and
all that kind of stuff?
Speaker 5 (21:27):
Oh? Oh yeah, I was in heavy, heavy duty makeup.
Speaker 6 (21:30):
And was it still Mike Was it Mike west Moore
that was doing the makeup there at the time?
Speaker 5 (21:34):
Yeah? Yeah. Did you do the Startork two?
Speaker 2 (21:37):
No? I know, I wish no.
Speaker 6 (21:39):
I did what I did a pilot for National Geographic
when I was fifteen, and one of the things I'd do.
They flew me out to Hollywood and I interviewed everyone
on Star Trek and then they Mike Westmore brought me
into the chair and made me up like a Romulin
and then I just got to hang out and interview
everybody like as I'm dressed like a Romulin. I Also,
I've been friends with Wheaton since we were like thirteen,
(21:59):
so I kind of knew that whole world.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
But you go there, I mean, it's exactly what you're saying.
Speaker 6 (22:02):
You go to boy Mets World, and yes, we were network,
but you go to stage two and there's boy Mets World.
You went to see Star Trek. It was like seven
stages worth of stuff. Yeah, and they were took over
the Paramount lot. It was everywhere.
Speaker 5 (22:14):
Yeah, they had they had they seemed like seven I
think they got they had three permanent ones.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Was it three?
Speaker 5 (22:19):
That?
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Okay?
Speaker 5 (22:20):
You know there were more because there were other If
you went there when they were doing uh, deep Space nine,
they had an entire Yeah, they pretty much owned Paramount.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
You have an action figure.
Speaker 5 (22:31):
You know, it's so stupid.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
It's it's the best. It's stupid, it's the best.
Speaker 5 (22:36):
It's really weird. But conventions, you guys know this because
like your ship is right.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
Yeah, but you know, listen, no matter how large our
cult audience has become nothing is touching Star Trek. So, like,
what is your favorite fan story of someone recognizing their
favorite drone?
Speaker 5 (22:55):
Oh my god, I had weird ones. I had like
a weird Japanese stalker that made all of me. Yeah,
but she like got the hint that I wasn't interested.
She definitely some intimate time with the board.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
But most of them have been really sweet. I love
like going to a convention now and having like little kids.
That was in England maybe last year, and this like
cute little eight year old seven year old kid came
up and told them told me I was his favorite character,
and just like I don't give you your grandfather. I mean,
(23:36):
it's so weird that they just yeah, you know, and
it's a weird per set like that. That's so weird
what we do, isn't it That it just kind of
lives on and people Yeah, same, you know, it's amazing.
Speaker 6 (23:47):
Well, Jean Luke Picard wasn't even happy that Doctor Crusher
brought you onto this onto the Enterprise in the first place,
so I mean it is what it is.
Speaker 5 (23:55):
At this point, I got to actually work with him
again on Picard.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
So nice. Yeah, that's so cool, brilliant actor.
Speaker 4 (24:03):
Well, I have one more question for you before we
jump into El Coyote from Boy Meets World. During our research,
we learned that you and the Strong family actually go
way back. Is it true that you played the role
of Adam Larson on a little show called The Mommies
the pilot?
Speaker 5 (24:24):
What and it trade sent me? What they did to
me sent me straight to therapy.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
We talk about this so much of how this happened.
Speaker 5 (24:34):
Yeah, it was messed up. I got the Mommies. It
was do you remember do you remember? I don't You
guys probably don't remember that they were these women that
had NBC had given them this great platform. They were
on TV. They gave every opportunity to launch the series
and it was like a buzz buzz buzz and I
got cat kid. I was old. I mean I was
(24:57):
like not a kid, and you know, director would be like,
could you make that sound younger? And I was like, means,
so I get cast. They filmed the pilot. It was
all exciting before the obviously the Internet and that summer
it gets picked up. But I don't but I don't
know what that means as a kid, right, you don't
(25:18):
as a young person. You're like, I don't know what
it means. I didn't get picked up yet. And then
they air all the ads with me in it. All
the ads are like aired. I'm like in every clip,
all my friends are calling me from New York. Dude,
I saw your ad for your TV show. I'm like, yeah,
I don't doing it anymore. And it was because I
think your brother had a deal something they were I
(25:40):
think they cast me waiting to see if your brother's
deal had fallen through or whatever. Oh and then I
worked with you and that was a funny, like sort
of full circle. But yeah, no, that was that was rough.
I was like, I'm doing it because this was like
the first, the first thing I ever and I think
the only thing I've ever were gotten fired from. Or
(26:03):
it's super crushing. I mean, it's it makes you like
doubt everything you're doing. Yeah, yeah, why am I bad?
And all that.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Yeah, it's so hard with acting.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
You just you can't help it, take it personally right,
because it feels it's you. It's your voice, it's your body,
it's your face, and it's just you can't help but
be like, well I could have done it right. But
it's like the reality is, of course it's it's not you, right, Like,
the reality is it's not personal and it's not about you,
and you're just too old or they're not right for
the part.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
But you can't help it. I mean, especially at that age,
it's just so crushing.
Speaker 5 (26:37):
Ow and you know you guys know, like you get
like the dangling of they show you, like what the
contract is, change, I'm gonna travel, I'm gonna have a
great life, and then it's like nuts so fast. So
I gave up on pilots at that point. I decided
pilots were just just like not the best way in
(26:58):
the door. Well, like just getting a guest spot that
becomes something else is usually a much better trajectory.
Speaker 6 (27:06):
I mean, it's bad enough to be replaced, which I
think ninety nine percent of actors have had happened.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
But when they then go and use the clips that
you're really messed up. That's not cool at all. It's
like that's just taking it.
Speaker 5 (27:20):
To another union, got them taken down. I think, yeah
for it, but it was just humiliating, yeah right, I
mean it's excited that you were. It'd be like showing
the gallery shoot with you in it on a billboard
in it, right, Yeah, I never met your brother. I
never I never hung out with that circle after that.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Yeah, well showed in last didn't didn't you?
Speaker 5 (27:46):
It wasn't my good show.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
But no, he was. He was pretty unhappy.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
It was, you know, because all the part ended up
just being him making out with a girl like that
was the recurring joke is that he's always just hanging
around and it was just a nothing, thankless part.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
He was. He was not happy, but whatever.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
I want to talk Boy Meets World with you. Yes,
do you remember auditioning for Boy Meets World?
Speaker 5 (28:19):
I don't, you know, you have to remember. For you guys,
the show is like a big chunk of your life.
For me, it was a yeah, I feel like I
remember so the really handsome guy that got like said
the other role. I remember him coming in the Sergia
Sergia so we both auditioned and I remember and he
(28:40):
was I'm short, he was really tall and handsome, and
I was like, well, that guy's gonna get it, like
that's like a noe brainer. And he goes and you
hear through the door laughs, and then I just remember,
you know, so many of these sitcoms are like you
know tropes, right of the stereotypical he was like the
stereotypical lover, but kind of a sweet guy Nunzio, right,
(29:03):
that he helps the boys and all that. Yeah, So
I just like so totally leaned into that sort of
self love, right, And I remember they just died. They
just thought it was so funny. So it felt good
because you were in the room and they were just
cracking up, right, So that's all I remember about it.
It's definitely in the room. It was not self tape.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
Right exactly before you audition, did you know anything about
Boy Meets World? Had you ever seen the show? I
know you mentioned you were twenty nine and we were
obviously on Friday nights and probably not watching the show.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
That creepy watching, look right, you were not aware of it?
Speaker 5 (29:40):
Well, I was in acting school and I was I
was taking acting classes and we were all doing Shakespeare
and you know whatever, Chuck Off and what. I think.
We watched Friends and like they were the more adult
shows that we were into. So, I mean, I knew
it was out there because it was a hit, you know,
we I knew the hits, right, and getting job like
(30:02):
that was always great. But I didn't watch it wasn't Yeah,
so what do.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
You remember from filming that week? And we promise you
no story is too small or too detailed, just whatever
you remember about the way.
Speaker 5 (30:17):
I remember. So, I remember being like these kids number one.
I was like, they're all kids number one. The girls
were great, like I had like I was, I navigate
the girls great. The boys were like completely out of control.
I remember the boys were just like crazy, like teenagery,
(30:38):
you know, like I don't know what was happening that week.
It was like a hormonal I don't know what was
I think there were a couple of girls in the
show too that were like eights or something.
Speaker 4 (30:49):
I don't know if it was Sonia and Cookie.
Speaker 5 (30:51):
It was like a sort of like a boy thing
to like sort of show off with the girls. I
don't remember. But there was an older the director was
this older dude.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Yeah, and you guys.
Speaker 5 (31:02):
Were like relent, like you tease him and whatever. The
boys would be like funny with him. Hey. I remember
him turning to me and going, I'm sorry, he's like
kids like, no, I I get it.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
I got it.
Speaker 5 (31:17):
Always really out of control that week, and the kids.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Is always on. We were always on.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
We had so much energy and I think back I
must have been just exhausting.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Oh my god.
Speaker 5 (31:27):
Yeah, so yeah, no connectivity there For me, it was like.
Speaker 4 (31:33):
Can you get me the second you need me, and
not a moment before.
Speaker 5 (31:37):
Also at that age, and you're playing like a peer
of like celeric kids that are stars, right, that have
been a show forever, And all my friends are like
starving actors. You know, there's a very different aesthetic, like
it's a young actor than to like the working kids
are a different world. You guys lived in your yeah
in a way, right, Yeah, sure, But I was reading
(32:00):
some stuff about like the challenges too. I mean I
can't imagine being a kid actor on a sitcomb in
those days. It must have been so weird to have.
I don't know that all the expectations they you must
have had thrust upon you.
Speaker 4 (32:16):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
It was an easy job in some ways, right, Like
compared to shooting single camera or shooting film. It was
a great schedule and we were always laughing, We were
always having fun. But yeah, certainly like the fame and
the pressure and you know, we just didn't know what
we were doing, just were clueless.
Speaker 5 (32:32):
You know and all like the thing to remember too. Like,
I bet a lot of people that are watching now
don't realize that all those shows were run by straight
man men very specific ideas about what was funny, Yes,
I wasn't offensive, or was you know, very very interesting.
I mean definitely, Like I was saying, like the tropes
(32:54):
of being Latino. I mean, I get into it to
be able to get the gigs, but there was a
ton of I mean not your show, but other com
I did were like the racism was sort of inherent
in the writing. You know, yeah, teryotypical you know, Latino thing,
or the stereototypical woman thing, or want to young what
(33:15):
are young boys like? You know, it's funny when you
watch stuff and even like Friends, Oh yeah, Friends, and
you're like, they just make a homophobic joke, and you're like, right,
they totally did.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
They did a whole homophobic episodes of Friends.
Speaker 5 (33:28):
Yeah, and you're like, wow, there was a game writer
around the show too, and you're like that's really interesting. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (33:34):
We've talked about it a lot for Boy Meets World too,
because there were actually, surprisingly, we've been pleasantly surprised that
there were quite a few very progressive episodes and progressive
scenes and progressive thinking, and then every now and then
you get one in there and you're like, this whole
episode is tinged with toxic masculinity or homophobia, like and
(33:55):
it's hard to parse through which one it is. You know, Yeah,
it's you know, the time it was brought UCTs up
their time, and we can't go back and change them.
But it is interesting to notice, and it's and it's
important to recognize and be able to acknowledge it and say,
we don't do that anymore, and we're you know, it's
nice to to see that.
Speaker 5 (34:14):
Change and jump. I guess too. You guys don't forget.
But the audience listening, they had a crank, like what
twenty five episodes a year. Yeah, at some point you're
just going, is this funny or not? Right?
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Yeah? Exactly?
Speaker 5 (34:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
So yeah, Well the dance that's in this episode has
gone viral a few times over the Oh yeah, it
goes viral every every couple of years. It's so funny.
What do you remember from the hot stuff dance routine
in the nightclub?
Speaker 5 (34:41):
I remember getting into like that little tight thing with
like a change. Yeah, all my hair was ridiculously long.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
I mean I still have long hair, but that it
looked great.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
That was ridiculously long. But I remember then not playing
any music for us to dance. Do you remember that?
Speaker 2 (34:58):
They were, oh, of course, And I was.
Speaker 5 (35:00):
Like, I'm sorry, I've never you know. That was like
a live tape situation, like we're supposed to dance to nothing.
Speaker 4 (35:09):
No music.
Speaker 5 (35:10):
I was like, so what will it be be? They're like,
we don't know yet we have the music. That's what
I remember thinking this, this feels super awkward.
Speaker 4 (35:18):
That's another thing we've talked about the amount of episodes
where we have music playing and somebody's supposed to be dancing,
and we've talked about do you remember how awful those
always were because you have nothing to dance too, and
yet you're either supposed to look like you're a good
dancer or a bad dancer, but you don't know what
the sound is going to be, and it's just so uncomfortable, especially.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
When it's a whole room with people because they have
all these background actors.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Yes, they're happy to do Yeah, everybody's doing their own rhythm,
like what are we doing?
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (35:47):
Situation.
Speaker 4 (35:48):
Do people in your life know that you were on
Boy Meets World? Have you ever been recognized for Boy
Meets World?
Speaker 5 (35:54):
So it's something super weird happened. Maybe like fifteen years ago.
I was doing a play that was like an education play.
It was called Books to Life. You can bring a
book to life essentially for the school system. And I
was performing this gang, this play about La Gangs of
all things. It was like a one man show. And
(36:15):
the kids, the Latino kids from like the barrio in
downtown La totally call me out Edmundzio. They're like, what
is happening? Like, yo, that's news too. I was like, what, yo,
you got old? You know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (36:34):
Oh my god.
Speaker 5 (36:36):
Like watched it thinking it was like a.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Year now of course, well.
Speaker 5 (36:39):
Aged twenty years at the time. Yeah, I'm much older now.
Speaker 4 (36:44):
Thank you, thank you for the commment.
Speaker 5 (36:48):
So, but it's weird recause your show. It's kids new kids,
watch it right, yes.
Speaker 4 (36:53):
Yes, yes, And it always is shocking to me when
it's you know, an eleven year old who's like, oh
my gosh y, yeah, so funny.
Speaker 5 (37:03):
It's interesting, right, all our sort of paths.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Yeah, yep.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
It's so great now that there are so many different
opportunities and avenues for actors to make a living in
other ways because it was so it was so much
harder back then. It was like the you know, even
now talking about being able to do conventions, how great
have conventions been for people to help make it make us,
(37:28):
you know, make us a living in between the times
when you're booking jobs. It's like we didn't used to
have those options.
Speaker 5 (37:33):
Yeah, no, I agree. I mean I I because of
Star Trek. I was doing conventions even when I did
your show, because it exists in the seventies. But conventions
now like every show has their own yep, yeah, their
own sort of thing. So yeah, it's fun too. I
mean I always wonder, like when you it must be
weird for you guys to have had like this huge
(37:55):
success so young. One of you said in some quote
I read, it's weird like you the first line of
your obituaries already written. That really kind of made me think,
like that's kind of wild. Because with Star Trek, I'm
also like, god, I hope that's not the first line.
They Yeah, like I big, so that I can you know,
(38:17):
like not that I hate it, but it's like you
don't want to be identified as something did so long ago, right.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
Right, Well, I mean you're on the Sopranos, for God's sakes.
I mean that was the huge show which we didn't
get to talk about, which I would love to have
talked about.
Speaker 4 (38:30):
What we will talk about it Moranos a little bit. Okay,
let's talk Sopranos.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Go for it. Well, what was it like to be
on Sopranos?
Speaker 5 (38:36):
Was like going into the mob? Was it really the
priests and the Sopranos? And I actually self taped that
out of la So I never auditioned for it, and
that was self tape. Wasn't even a thing then. But
I got to New York, they got me, They drove
me to Jersey. I got through hair and makeup and
(38:58):
into my priests got and we were in an Italian
neighborhood shooting on location. Well, they all acted like I
was a priest. They were all like your father thought.
I mean, they were so reverential.
Speaker 4 (39:10):
Let me tell, let me tell our dear listeners, so
they know what we're talking about. You played Father Jose
of Saint Eliza's Church, the Keeper of the Saints hat,
and you had a very intense scene with Polly Walnuts.
Speaker 5 (39:21):
Yeah, who showed up hair already done. You didn't touch
Oh I love that. Shut up camera ready. You didn't
touch his hair on his face? I did. It Definitely
felt like it felt very real, is all I'm going
to say. Like everyone very legitimately like you were walking
into the show. It didn't feel like a bunch of
(39:42):
actors sitting around to you know, be asking about whatever
it was.
Speaker 4 (39:47):
It was just like your time on Boy Meets World.
Speaker 6 (39:49):
Yes, very similar, very similar, very.
Speaker 5 (39:54):
It was superb subversion. Let Yeah, apparently priests very popular
in the mob, so all one messed with me. They
were a little scared that I would put some kind
of hecks on them or sometimes the power of the collar.
Speaker 4 (40:10):
Yes, I also want to talk to you after you
totally killed it on our show. You ended up in
two thousand and three on Ryan Murphy's Nip Tuck, and
you played a trans woman, Sophia Lopez, in an emotional
three episode arc where you visit the doctor to have
your Adams apple shaved down. It was incredibly early to
play a transgender character on television and it is such
(40:33):
a memorable role. What was that experience like for you?
Speaker 5 (40:37):
So that show was so I didn't work since I
finished when I I think your show was the last
thing I did until I did. No, I did your show,
and then I didn't work for several years. I had
and then I did. My manager, who's also my husband,
got me. He's like, do something like, please work tiny
(40:59):
role in a pighilt of a transgender character. The pilot
was called First Monday. It's like, you do this part.
You should just try And I'm like, oh, I don't
know what, what even is that? So I did this
little role as a transgender character. It's like, oh, I
could totally play that. Because back then they weren't that
that's not a topic that was explored. Gender actors existed
(41:21):
in the theater world, but they were not in the industry.
It wasn't like there was a ton of people that
were being considered for these roles. And if you could,
I'm a character actor, so if you could become something
physically different, why not. And then the nip Talk role
came along and it was like nip Talk was just
it broke the mole on everything. They just did whatever
(41:43):
they wanted to. Ryan did whatever he wanted to, and
so yeah, it was definitely, I mean, it's a role
I couldn't play now, obviously because there are transgender actors
playing there, but back then there really weren't that many.
So I feel really lucky I got to play her.
She was an amazing character.
Speaker 4 (42:01):
I was wondering if you could talk to us a
little bit about the differences and opportunities for gay actors
comparing the nineties and now.
Speaker 5 (42:11):
I mean, I was totally in the closet in the
nineties as an actor. I wasn't out, Like I wouldn't
come to set and talk to you about my husband
or my life would yeah, matter of fact, the comics
and I was also kind of like young heart throbby
type of vibe and so like the comics of the
warm up would be like there's a girl here who
(42:32):
wants to know if you've got a girlfriend. That kind
of thing happened to be at Mommies and completely was
like why what do I do? I don't want to
lie about who I am. It was very complicated. It
was like about who I am, but I don't want
to come out and I don't want it to be
this thing. And there were normal people, you know. Definitely
I couldn't have played any of the parts I played
in the sitcoms, right right? That really changed, you know that.
(42:55):
I mean it definitely since Wooling Grace kind of opened
the door. Now I just audition for whatever. There's no
I don't they There's a lot less pigeonholing of gay
actors now. I think we have a much bigger spectrum
of what we can play, and there's more gay characters
that are written in fun I got for a lot
(43:16):
of gay characters because there's a lot of women. There's
a lot of Latino characters now that are way more
complex than they used to be. Back in our day
of the nineties, you had you either like the Latin
lover as Latin lover or like a gang kid in
a drama, right right. That was like the two options.
And then it's changed, you know. I mean, I played
(43:38):
a gay Latino doctor who was a foreigner for like
ten years on a show. Just go like, oh the
moles thrown out. It's much more.
Speaker 4 (43:46):
Free, you know. So that's great.
Speaker 6 (43:49):
I'm sorry, from a business standpoint, when you're married to
your manager, do you still have to give him fifteen percent?
Speaker 5 (43:55):
It's worse than that because when we have bites, he goes.
You know, if we get divorced, I get six and
the ten. So it's actually like a deal because I
one hundred percent make and work for it. Where's my
appointment to such and such and I need this done
(44:16):
and yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (44:18):
How long have you guys been married?
Speaker 5 (44:19):
Thirty well married legally since two thousand and eight, but
we've been up together over thirty years.
Speaker 4 (44:24):
Wow, do you.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
Have any kid?
Speaker 4 (44:25):
He were you guys together when you did Boy Meets World?
Speaker 5 (44:28):
Yeah, one hundred Yeah, that's amazing. We don't have kids.
I'm not a fan of children. I like dogs. Okay,
there you go.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
Yeah, well too well to do parents.
Speaker 5 (44:41):
So yeah, no kid.
Speaker 4 (44:43):
I at least appreciate that you know you don't like
kids and then didn't have them and decided after thank you.
Speaker 5 (44:48):
Kids. Unlike the Pied Piper, kids like love.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
Me, will same with me.
Speaker 5 (44:53):
They says that, I'm like, get away from your kids.
You're bothering me that same way, but they love me.
I love kids, and like, I love kids if they're cool,
like they're just little people to me. They're either little
people or they're little all jerks.
Speaker 4 (45:09):
Right, Yeah, so sometimes they're sometimes they're both.
Speaker 5 (45:12):
Sometimes they're both. I just don't need that in my life.
You know, Yeah, I don't have that gene. So, but
I have lots of friends with kids, lots of gay
friends with kids. That's a whole other topic, the whole
subversion of gay people the kids anywhere.
Speaker 4 (45:31):
Yeah, they yeah, they really halt your life for a
little bit. Yep, it's true. So on top of being
on the Closer and Major Crimes and Picard and Station
nineteen last year, you also somehow find time to be
a vital voice for so many important causes, most notably
for the LGBTQ plus community. And you've worked on three
(45:52):
presidential campaigns, spoken for anti bullying initiatives, You've taken up
environmental issues, and you were a celebrity surrogate for Obama's
twenty twelve campaigns. First, how do you have the time
to be so great?
Speaker 2 (46:07):
He doesn't have kids? He does have kids.
Speaker 4 (46:12):
You're right, You've already answered that one. And then secondly,
what is it that makes you want to speak up
for things that are so important to you?
Speaker 5 (46:21):
Well, we could add fourth campaign because I'm a surrogate
for a comma.
Speaker 4 (46:25):
Like Kamala Harris.
Speaker 5 (46:27):
Okay, great, So I think something happens for human beings.
I read this somewhere like the stages of being a human.
A good human is you get to a stage where
like you need to give back. Yeah, usually people have
a kid, like in their thirties or whatever. I think
at that stage, my giving back was like community, you know,
and yeah, make some sort of causes. That's how I like.
(46:50):
I actually love it just as much as being an actor.
It's really campaigning and working on like something that's bigger
than you. And yeah, money for kids that are getting
bullied or you know, just things that are seemingly unfair
in the world. Try to educate people. So for me,
like it's I love finding time for that because that's
(47:11):
really really a fun fulfilling aspect that sometimes acting doesn't
give me. Right, I think that the industry doesn't really
have an opportunity. I mean, you know everyone in a
while you do work as an actor that feels significant,
but that's kind of rare. But with with sort of
all the social stuff and politics, I understand it and
(47:33):
I speak it, you know what I mean, I get it.
So I feel like it's a talent I have that
I want to like use, for want of a better word,
for the good of all right, So it's exciting. It's
an exciting world, the world of politics. It has the
potential to change so many lives. I think that I
don't really understand me. A lot of people are so
(47:54):
turned off by politics, and yeah, we have a flawed
system and there's just a lot wrong with it, but
there's a lot that without it wouldn't get done right.
So yeah, I'm a real big believer in voting and
getting people to be engaged and not give up. You know,
because at the end of the day, we kind of
(48:14):
hold the keys to the car, so if we all
exercise that power, we would have a much I think
we think. I believe most people are pretty great. You know,
we all like got together and really decided what was important.
We would actually agree more than we think. You know.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
Wow, I'm so impressed by your optimism that you that
you've been able to maintain it, because I feel like
when people go into politics or activism, you can so
quickly turn bitter, you know, or just feel like you're
always fighting and against something.
Speaker 2 (48:46):
But it sounds like you're really.
Speaker 5 (48:47):
There's a lot of disappointment and a lot of you
want to hit your head against the wall and you're
not understand this. Well, it just takes time, and you know,
it just it's we're really big country guys, you know,
I mean every state it's its own little country. And
I think it's hard to find common ground. But I've
(49:07):
seen good enough. I've seen there's more of us that
are on the same page than we think. It was.
Speaker 6 (49:13):
It Churchill who said that democracy is the worst form
of government except for all the others.
Speaker 2 (49:17):
Exactly, and I think that's absolutely true.
Speaker 6 (49:19):
So it's you know, it's you've got a lot of
people with a lot of opinions.
Speaker 5 (49:22):
You know, it's completely what they want for themselves or
for their family or their tribe. I mean think were
super tribal and we're like oriented like gold, blue, red.
And at the end of the day, I mean, you know,
I lived through nine nine to eleven, right we all did.
Do you remember what that felt like? That was weird
couple feeling like, oh, that's what it feels like to
(49:43):
be a united country. Yeah, align for anyone, even if
I don't agree on my particular issues. Anyone that that
truly is striving to bring people together as opposed to
politics of ripping people apart. Is an that now it's
an actual like strategy, right.
Speaker 2 (50:03):
Sure, well 'or easier to control if we're in little groups.
Speaker 5 (50:07):
One hundred percent.
Speaker 6 (50:08):
So it's you know, it's it's unfortunate, but it's true.
So it's you know, anything that brings us all together
scares a lot of people, scares a lot of very
important people.
Speaker 2 (50:16):
So yeah, but.
Speaker 5 (50:17):
For me, it's actually like being an actor and being
involved in these things, they all kind of work hand
in hand, you know, because no matter how famous you
are not, even if you're on TV a little you
have really some kind of platform, even if it's a
small one. So why not like use it for something
that matters to you? You know?
Speaker 4 (50:37):
Yeah, that's great. Well, I love that. Thank you for
sharing that with us. We ask this question to a
lot of our guests that we have forced to watch
episodes of something they did from the nineties. Looking back,
if you could tell young Jonathan anything now, what would
it be?
Speaker 5 (50:58):
Well, that's good. I never thought I was attractive. I
always felt really awkward and like not attractive. I'd be like,
you look good, guy, you know you don't not You're
not the elephant man. You grow up as a as
(51:22):
an immigrant and as gay, and like hiding so much
of what you are, you do not. You have a
weird sense of how you present to the world. And
even though you get affirmed as a young person, Oh
you're you're gonna be the handsome whatever, you're this, you're that,
you still go like, I am still not you know,
(51:44):
what's your brother's name?
Speaker 4 (51:46):
Strong?
Speaker 5 (51:51):
You know you carried. I mean, I'm sure you all
have had that experience as actors. Sure, yeah, like I'm
not as pretty as this one, or I'm not as
as tall as that guy. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (52:01):
Well it's because we're all actors are just by nature,
we're horribly insecure people.
Speaker 5 (52:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (52:07):
Yeah, But I.
Speaker 1 (52:07):
Also think it plays into the thing you were talking about,
you know, right from the beginning, about the trope of
like the Latin lover. You know, I know my wife
she's a Latin actress, and the entire first ten years
of her career, there were only three roles. She would
play the maid, the prostitute, or the drug addict, and
it was like that's it, you know, And then then
everything changed in like ninety eight, when like j lo
Is suddenly like, oh we could have Latin actresses be leads.
(52:29):
But also she's always felt this pressure, like constantly the
roles would be the like vivacious, buxome, Latin, you know,
goddess sort of thing.
Speaker 3 (52:38):
And she's like, that's not me.
Speaker 2 (52:39):
I'm not physically that person.
Speaker 1 (52:41):
But she'd have to go out for these roles and
she so she has this like crazy insecurity about her
looks and it's like, no, you're beautiful, You're just not
that trope, you know, but it was it was like
it would actually hurt her career to not be that.
So I'm impressed like the way that you when you
talk about this audition for Boymans or the way that
you kind of turned to that and made it more
of about like his him owning him, like his his
(53:03):
confidence being less about like being this sexy guy, more
just as confident, like self loving. I think you said,
like I love that that's like, and that spoke to me.
Speaker 5 (53:12):
You remember, he doesn't make the moves on any of
the girls.
Speaker 2 (53:14):
No, No, he's.
Speaker 4 (53:15):
Actually he's like, you're not feeling Nunzio like I'm feeling.
Speaker 5 (53:20):
Very sweet in that way, datory right in any way.
Speaker 1 (53:25):
And I think they didn't write it that way originally.
I think that's because you brought.
Speaker 3 (53:28):
That and they were so much better. It's so much better.
Speaker 5 (53:31):
Well it disarms people, right someone. Yeah, and I think
he needed to be that to get the guys on this,
you know, yes, like I'm going to help these poor
American boys.
Speaker 2 (53:44):
Can you hate that guy?
Speaker 5 (53:45):
Great?
Speaker 4 (53:46):
Well, As your former dance partner, I would like to
say that we are all so proud of you and
your career and your activism and the impressive roles that
you have gotten to play. And we thank you so
much for your time. Thank thank you so much for
being here with us.
Speaker 5 (54:01):
We're talking to you guys you as well.
Speaker 4 (54:03):
You thank you.
Speaker 5 (54:05):
Take care, take care, bye bye.
Speaker 4 (54:08):
Another perfect drive by guest star actor, A perfect guest
to have on this podcast. He's so interesting, such a
great conversation.
Speaker 6 (54:18):
Yeah, and we've talked about this a couple of times,
but it is so difficult to be a guest star
on it I now, especially an established show, and to
come in and you've got.
Speaker 2 (54:28):
What three days maybe total, to.
Speaker 6 (54:30):
Come in and kill it and be you know, you're
still remembered for a role you played for one week
twenty five or thirty years ago.
Speaker 2 (54:37):
That's just impressive, it really is. It blows my mind
that he was with his husband back then. I know,
I don't think about that. Just think about how much
our lives have changed.
Speaker 1 (54:45):
Exactly the last year, and he's had the same partner
since that moment when he was playing amazing character.
Speaker 2 (54:50):
That is like, that's just for me. Such a head
trip to think about it. So cool, cool, cool.
Speaker 4 (54:55):
Well, thank you all for joining us for this episode
of Podmeets World. As always, you can follow us on
Instagram meets World Show. You can send us your emails
podmeets Worldshow at gmail dot com and we have.
Speaker 2 (55:05):
Merch resistance to our merch is futile.
Speaker 4 (55:09):
Podmeetsworldshow dot com will send us out.
Speaker 2 (55:13):
We love you all, pod dismissed.
Speaker 6 (55:16):
Podmeets World is nheart podcast producer and hosted by Danielle Fischel,
Wilfordell and Ryder Strong. Executive producers Jensen Carp and Amy Sugarman,
Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor,
Tara sudbachsch producer, Maddie Moore, engineer and Boy Meets World
superfan Easton Allen. Our theme song is by Kyle Morton
of Typhoon, and you can follow us on Instagram at
(55:36):
podmeets World Show or email us at Podmetsworldshow at gmail
dot com.
I don't think I told you guys about this at all,
and I guess, you know, why would I. But I
had this situation and then it kind of it changed
last week, and so I thought I would share this
story because it actually ends up being kind of a
in a roundabout way of very pod meats world ish story.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I was.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
So I did this movie when I was eleven, called
Benefit of the Doubt.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Do you guys this? Of course, so I shot this movie.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
I was like my first big job. I went off
to page Arizona. Donald Sutherland is in it. Amy Irving
played my mom. Christopher McDonald.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Do you guys know him. He's a great doctor. So
I'm not ago.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
So it was like, you know, I was the only
kid on set. I was out in Arizona for I
don't know, like three months.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I'm horrible in the movie.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
I like really struggled as it after I didn't, you know,
I just didn't know what was going on. But I
had so much fun. Of course, like out there in
the desert, I was, you know, getting to shoot guns.
I pull a gun a Donald's otherland. At one point
we had all these boat chase scenes, you know, and
behind the scenes, I'm like reading Stephen King, and I
first tried about Edward Abbey became like this great touchstone
(01:31):
activist writer that I love.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Eleven year old writers Disneyland.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Oh yeah, exactly nice.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
And there were these there are these caves that we
shot at called Antelope Canyon, which is these slot caves
that are these beautif It's like they're open at the
top so the sunlight streams down. You've seen them in
like every commercial or whatever. So we actually shut down
and went there and shot. So last summer, I ended
up in Page, Arizona on my road trip with Alex
(01:57):
and Indy, and we went to the canyons and I
was like, oh my god, I shot a movie here, guys.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
And we did the whole tour and it's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
And then we're hanging out in Page, like on the
street corner and we're walking down and you know, this
tiny town in the corner of Lake Powell, and I
start recognizing things. I'm like, oh my god, Oh my god,
there's the there's the movie theater. It's like I saw
Wayne's World in that movie theater. Like I remember, we
had the whole theater to ourselves. We were laughing and
(02:25):
I had so much fun. And then like I'm like,
wait a minute, Wait a minute, there's there's ice cream.
And we go around the corner and there's like this
ice cream shop and I'm like, wait, they have frybread.
I know they have like Indian frybread, and like, sure enough,
I asked be on the counter. We get frybred and
I'm like all these memories start and I and I
get this like weird crawling sensation in the back of
my mind. I was like, it wasn't it wasn't just
(02:45):
me and my mom and I was the only kid
in the movie.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
I was like, who was my pal? Like who was
my friend?
Speaker 1 (02:50):
I watched Wayne's World We got Frybred, like with this
person I had this like face and I was like,
oh my god, Connie. And I had totally forgotten about
this woman, Connie, who was my best friend. And I'm like, wait,
she was like twenty five and she was the second AD.
Her name was Connie Hoy and she did you know,
(03:12):
so as a second AD, she was the person who
would have been kind of in charge of like getting
me for my trailer. But she was my friend, like
I just I and I had totally forgotten that.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
This person existed.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
I was like, we spent the entire shoot hanging out,
and she was like, you know, I looked at her
as like, you know, my peer, which is.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Just so funny.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
And I was like, why did this twenty five year
old woman spend so much? Like she was so giving
and so awesome, and I was like, and the last
time I'd seen her was at the premiere of the
movie and she was pregnant and I had never seen
her since. And so I'm sitting there having all these
memories flooded. I'm like, I gotta find Connie.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Yeah, So I.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Pick up my phone, pick up my phone. I'm on
the corner page in Indian and Alex were like, let's go.
And I'm like, no, no, no, no. So I do the
research and I find her. I find like an email address.
I send her a letter. I'm like, hey, I don't
know if you remember, but like, thank you, like you
were like my friend. And I had all these positive
and I you know, and within a couple hours.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
She wrote me back and it was like oh.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
And I So we kept writing letters and texting, and
then when I got back to La I went and
met her for sushi and it was amazing. It was like,
she's exactly the same. Of course, she's much older. She
went on to not only raise her kid, but she
married a guy that she worked with on her next
movie who already had kids, and she raised them and
(04:33):
she it was just like and it was exactly the same,
Like we just fell right back into our friendship. And
she had gone on to become a producer. She worked
on like all these legendary films from the nineties, like
Jim Jarmusch films, I don't know if you guys know him,
like a classic. He did the movie dead Man with
Johnny Depp, and like, she worked on that, and she just,
you know, she's got a film buff obviously, So we
(04:55):
started connecting on all the things she's worked on. Anyway,
it was great to reconnect. And then we just have
been in touch and like sending you know, messages every
once in a while. And then of course Donald Sutherland
died and when that happened, she texted me and we
were like, and so I had this plan to when
I was on this road trip this summer. We were
texting and I was like, oh, when I get back,
you know, She's like, I'm going to take you out.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
To lunch and return the favor and catch up again.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
And then last week I'm in the I'm out in
the desert with friends and I get this weird email
from somebody I don't know who's like, hey, I'm trying
to find writer.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Connie died.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Yeah, And it was like just this sudden you know,
oh what Like I was just texting, so yeah, it's like, uh,
and you know, this guy Adam, who was a lifelong
friend of hers, is writing to me and he's like, yeah,
she I didn't know how any of your contact infos,
so he's like finding me through Instagram and whatnot. He's like, because,
(06:00):
but I just, you know, I want to let you
know and if you want to come to the memorial.
And Connie was really you know, affected by your letter
and like she really really croudy, like had told everybody
in her life, you know, like hey, like look this
kid that I worked with remembered me and yeah, just
(06:22):
you know, it's one of those things, like so much
of what we've been doing on this podcast has been this,
you know, like going back and reconnecting with people that
really we took for granted. And then also I just
think about how the industry takes these people for granted,
you know, like when we have especially as a kid,
but when you work on a film, you know, whether
(06:43):
it's good or bad, it's a lived experience of crewe
people and people that dedicate their lives and just are
the unsung heroes, you know, whether it's Addie dis Stefano
or David Combs or you know, and like their name
might not even be in the end credits, you know,
and yet they make the entire thing possible, and they
(07:06):
it's a collaborative art form. And they also changed the
lives of you know, little eleven year old kids who
are totally lost and confused about what they're doing.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
And yeah, so I just.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
You know, I wanted to give a shout out to
Connie Hoy, Connie Maverick Hoy who passed away and just really.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Changed my life.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Was super positive influence, so sweet.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
That's so sweet, and you know, you're right. It ties
in so well with what we've been doing with the podcast.
And it's such a great reminder too that like when
you do have a memory of somebody and they positively
impacted you in some way doing the little bit of work,
it takes if possible to find them and let them
know is so important because you know, you obviously thoroughly
(07:54):
enjoyed reconnecting with her, and she enjoyed reconnecting with you,
but you would have also never known how much should
impacted her until her friend told you, like, wow, she
was so proud that this kid she had worked with
thirty years later is you know, reaching out to her
to reconnect. So, you know, letting somebody know what they
mean to you or what they meant to you, even
(08:15):
if it was for a really short period of time
in your life. You know, how long were you working
on that movie?
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yeah, like three months?
Speaker 5 (08:19):
Right?
Speaker 4 (08:20):
Yeah, you know, three months?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Three months of your life again, you know, and I.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
Saw again and yet you went out of your way
and it turned into a beautiful friendship now as adults,
and unfortunately was cut short. But it's never too late
to reach out until somebody when they met.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Yeah, let people know, you know, and like, and that's
what's so great about the internet, right, Like, that's the
benefit is that we can find each other. We can't
you know, people don't just get lost. We can all
find each other. But yeah, it's a yeah, I'm really sad,
but I'm also really glad that I did at least
get to have that moment when and it was, you know, amazing.
(08:53):
The friendship was right back there.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Oh right, you're still just as cool.
Speaker 6 (08:58):
It's one of those things where, whether you believe in fate,
whether they don't believe in fate, you easily could have
thought about her again after she had already passed away. Yeah,
and you wouldn't have had that opportunity, but you didn't something.
You were in the right place at the right time,
and you had the memory and you were able to reconnect.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
And I don't know whether you believe.
Speaker 6 (09:15):
In higher powers, fate, whatever you want to call it,
something somewhere needed you guys to get together again.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Yeah, at least one more time. So yeah, that's very cool.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
Thank you for sharing with us, writer, and I love
you both very much.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I love you. I love you too.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
Welcome to Pod meets World. I'm Danielle Fischel, I'm.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Right or Strong, and I'm Wilfordell.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
Seasons four and five of Boy Meets World are unique
for many reasons, and one of those reasons makes booking
the rewatch podcast thirty years later a slightly more difficult task.
Gone are the days of rapid fire of up and
coming young names like Carrie Russell, Lindsay Price and Will
Esti's for every episode, making way for actors who were
a little on the older side, say Paul Gleeson, the
(10:10):
guys from the Love Boat, Soopy Sales, Buddy Hackett, and
the incomparable Phil Leads. I know he looked young, but
he was in fact old Phil.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
No, he was not.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
I'm surprised to have to tell you that easy. Many
of these stars, each leaving undeniable contributions to the legacy
of our show, are no longer with us. So when
a scene stealing guest star that was our age pops
up on screen these days, we'd jump at the chance
to talk to them. And today's guest is just that
he's so cool. His first acting job after moving from
(10:42):
Uruguay at the age of ten was on Miami Vice.
Oh not great. He'd quickly book roles on TV mainstays
like The Wonder Years and Blossom, and eventually inserting himself
into the Star Trek canon as the Borg Drone Hugh
on Star Trek the Next Generation, a role he reprised
two other times for the franchise He's been on and
(11:02):
off Broadway, studying acting from New York to Harvard, eventually
appearing on Nip Tuck as the unforgettable character Sophia Lopez,
a transgender patient who's come to McNamara Troy for a procedure.
He's also appeared on twenty four and The Sopranos, and
was a series regular on The Closer and its spinoff,
Major Crimes. He's a political, environmental, and gay rights activist
(11:25):
who has worked for five presidential campaigns and was awarded
the twenty thirteen Visibility Award from the Human Rights Campaign.
But today we are talking to him about one appearance
he made back in nineteen ninety seven as Nunzio, the
handsome waiter at El Coyote who just wants to dance
with Tapanga. Oh and he has a connection to one
(11:46):
of us that might just blow your mind. Welcome to
pod meets World, the wonderful Jonathan Delarco.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
My god, yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
Oh, my goodness, it happens to the best of us.
Thirty years later, here we are.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (12:08):
How strange is that.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
It's so good to see you. Thank you so much
for being here. You you without even knowing it, you
joined a little bit of a club on our podcast
for what we call perfect drive Bys. It's a guest
star who swung in for one episode, gave it all
you had, and it was just absolutely wonderful, So.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
We would kill it, killed it left giving.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
You your flowers. What an episode?
Speaker 2 (12:36):
You're the whole episode.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
It's a yes, I just free watched it because I'm like, literally,
I hadn't seen it since it aired, right, and I'm like, Wow,
they let me do those dance moves. That's really d.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
You're so glad they did it?
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Was you know, I love it?
Speaker 4 (12:58):
You even talking third part?
Speaker 5 (13:00):
Yeah, exactly so. And I was so much older than
you guys, that's no way, no dude, I was like
twenty nine.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
Really okay, I wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
I did not know.
Speaker 5 (13:14):
All these days we have a twenty nine year old
actor being well.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
You know what's funny is that you were then almost
the same age as Trina.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Yeah right right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
Trina I think was like twenty seven or twenty.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Eight, and she and I were actually making out all
the time.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
Yeah, like you would all be arrested.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Now, it's so funny. Well, before we jump in and
talk about Nunzio, I wanted to get a little bit
into your origin story. We know you were born in Uruguay.
Is that where the idea for becoming an actor was born?
Speaker 5 (13:49):
I mean kind of. I was always a performer when
I was a little kid, and I would do like
poppet shows and dirty jokes at my uncle's bar, like
you know, the tips. And I was always just not
kind of an odd kid when I was little. And
then we moved to the US when I was ten,
(14:10):
and so I was immediately the odd man. I mean
I didn't speak English and I had a weird really
already I was ten, so I had this like weird voice,
and I spoke very little English, and I learned English
watching TV over over one summer.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Oh man, And what are your watching? Do you remember
what you were watching to learn English?
Speaker 5 (14:32):
I watched what was on Brady Bunch. We're talking like
seventy six, so Brady Bunch Days, Lucy Happy Days, Gilligan's Island,
all shows that were like big hits.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Classic Mark and Mindy.
Speaker 5 (14:49):
I watched some British like Benny Hill, some really British comedy,
and I like learned English in two months.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
That's amazing. And you have no accent like you.
Speaker 5 (15:00):
It was. So, what's weird is I grew up in Portchester,
New York, and all the kids talk like this. Oh
I didn't I talk like a kid'.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
You do?
Speaker 6 (15:11):
You have what TV actors called a non regional diction,
so you can be from everywhere.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
That's what that's what you want to be. Oh god,
So that was the.
Speaker 5 (15:19):
Iguish I learned. And then I really because of watching TV,
I was like, I think that that's my vibe, Like
I could do that. And then yeah, so I became
you know, I lived near New York, so Broadway was
kind of always there, and I think I was like
maybe fourteen when I saw Matthew Broderick win a Tony
and I watched him win the award and I was like,
(15:42):
I could play that. I mean I didn't know what
the part was, but saw him and I was like, well,
I could do what he's doing. And then I went
ahead and did just like for all the places he
had done and like picked up the scraps and along
the way. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
And so what did your parents think about the stream
you had and pursuing it.
Speaker 5 (16:00):
My mom and dad were like super dreamer people, like
they they like my dad moved here when he was
made there. I had older parents, so they moved to
the States when my dad was already in his fifties,
so like my age and like maybe a little younger
than I am now. My mom was younger than him,
she was in her forties, and he like uprooted the
family and like moved and so okay, and he was.
(16:23):
So they were always very adventurous, my dad in particular,
and they just encouraged it. They were like, go do it.
I don't know, I mean they were very like hands
off parents in a way. They were not helicoptery at all,
maybe because they were older. You know, if you want
to do that, go do that. You seem pretty good
at it. So they they were good. They were really
(16:46):
good about it. My mom when my sag unionship bo
car for it at the time. So yeah, I had
a really supportive family. I wasn't a kid actor, but
super weird because I looked really really young, played kid
rolls until I was I think your Show was probably
the last I think it was. I think it was
(17:08):
the last time casting was like you're not twenty nine, right,
It got weird. I mean I was, you know what,
I mean, and that was I mean, I was playing
a little older than you guys, but not much.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
Yeah yeah, you were a manager of the restaurants. You
were early.
Speaker 6 (17:23):
Twenty Yeah yeah, but you just make it weird to
go dancing with the girl from high school.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
I guess it does. Maybe on set too, I was like,
I know, like, what was I going to talk to
you guys about. You know, I mean, first of all,
I was gay and out and like going to clubs
as a game man, So like, I'm going to talk
to the kids about that. Let me talk about nothing.
I have nothing in common. That's I mean, my girl,
(17:52):
you know.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
Yeah, that's so funny. I love that. Even then for yourself,
you're like, I think this is the last time I'm
going to audition for.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
Nature and then it didn't work for like forever. You guys,
baby faces probably know what I'm talking about. That weird
twilight zone of like you look like a kid, but
you're really a man.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
And we right in your intro we mentioned that your
first big TV job was on Miami Vice, And I'm
not sure there's a cooler show to debut or cool
Which episode?
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Which episode?
Speaker 5 (18:25):
What did you do?
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Which episode was Paul.
Speaker 5 (18:27):
I remember my first gig. It was called God's Work.
It was it was the first episode I think on
television that dealt with AIDS, which was like major taboo
at the time. And Issie Morales played a character whose
I think his lover was sick and like some church
(18:48):
like hospice place. I was this punk kid who was
like graffeiting the church. I don't know. I was like
not a good guy. I was like a brady kid.
That was my first gid. I was crazy.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
And how old were you then?
Speaker 5 (19:04):
So I must have been twenty two, twenty two, okay, yeah, anyway,
and you got to work with you, you know.
Speaker 6 (19:13):
And you got to work with Isi Morales and with
Don Johnson and with the whole I mean everybody.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah, so cool.
Speaker 5 (19:19):
Yeah. I gotated by Tubbs, you know. So I was,
I know, crazy, It's best And I got that because
the director of that had come to see me in
a play and thought I was interesting and took me
out to lunch. And it was a female director. Janelized
she still works a ton brilliant director. She took me
(19:40):
out to lunch. She's like, I think you're a really
interesting actor. Blah blah blah. You should audition for this,
this and that next thing. I know, I'm getting an offer.
I mean, I'm a kid, I'm a young actor getting
an offer to go do Miami Vice. And I arrived
at wardrobe and she's there and I'm like, oh my god,
what are you doing here? She's like, how do you
think you got the job?
Speaker 4 (20:00):
That's so cool, that's amazing. So that's how you find yourself.
Then moving to LA in your early twenties and you
get to appear on some great shows Wonder Years, Blossom,
but it's Star Trek as Borg Drone Hugh. That's just
such a big breakout for you. Did you know anything
about Star Trek when you auditioned.
Speaker 5 (20:19):
Yeah, I did, because well, I watched. One of the
shows I watched and learn English from was the original series. Yes,
I would stay up late at night and I was
on at the time in reruns, so I was a
fan of the original series. And then I tested for
the role that Will Wheaton got on Next Gens Okay Rusher,
So while I was in New York, I tested from
(20:41):
New York for that role. So I was really familiar
with the world, but I had not watched it and
I didn't know, I didn't know I had a fandom,
you know what I mean. I wasn't aware of that
part of it. And also you remember like back then
it was like if you weren't a syndicated show, it
wasn't like cool. Yeah, it was led to the thing
(21:03):
like you guys like syndicate. So I was like, it's
a syndicated show, Like who cares? I mean I didn't
he cares, but I didn't think he was going to
have No.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
It's so crazy to think about, you know.
Speaker 6 (21:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (21:13):
Yeah, it was like filmmaking. It was like grant, you know,
you had a patina not as fancy as.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
So you were. You were a board.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Did you have to do a bunch of makeup and
all that kind of stuff?
Speaker 5 (21:27):
Oh? Oh yeah, I was in heavy, heavy duty makeup.
Speaker 6 (21:30):
And was it still Mike Was it Mike west Moore
that was doing the makeup there at the time?
Speaker 5 (21:34):
Yeah? Yeah. Did you do the Startork two?
Speaker 2 (21:37):
No? I know, I wish no.
Speaker 6 (21:39):
I did what I did a pilot for National Geographic
when I was fifteen, and one of the things I'd do.
They flew me out to Hollywood and I interviewed everyone
on Star Trek and then they Mike Westmore brought me
into the chair and made me up like a Romulin
and then I just got to hang out and interview
everybody like as I'm dressed like a Romulin. I Also,
I've been friends with Wheaton since we were like thirteen,
(21:59):
so I kind of knew that whole world.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
But you go there, I mean, it's exactly what you're saying.
Speaker 6 (22:02):
You go to boy Mets World, and yes, we were network,
but you go to stage two and there's boy Mets World.
You went to see Star Trek. It was like seven
stages worth of stuff. Yeah, and they were took over
the Paramount lot. It was everywhere.
Speaker 5 (22:14):
Yeah, they had they had they seemed like seven I
think they got they had three permanent ones.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Was it three?
Speaker 5 (22:19):
That?
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Okay?
Speaker 5 (22:20):
You know there were more because there were other If
you went there when they were doing uh, deep Space nine,
they had an entire Yeah, they pretty much owned Paramount.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
You have an action figure.
Speaker 5 (22:31):
You know, it's so stupid.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
It's it's the best. It's stupid, it's the best.
Speaker 5 (22:36):
It's really weird. But conventions, you guys know this because
like your ship is right.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
Yeah, but you know, listen, no matter how large our
cult audience has become nothing is touching Star Trek. So, like,
what is your favorite fan story of someone recognizing their
favorite drone?
Speaker 5 (22:55):
Oh my god, I had weird ones. I had like
a weird Japanese stalker that made all of me. Yeah,
but she like got the hint that I wasn't interested.
She definitely some intimate time with the board.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
But most of them have been really sweet. I love
like going to a convention now and having like little kids.
That was in England maybe last year, and this like
cute little eight year old seven year old kid came
up and told them told me I was his favorite character,
and just like I don't give you your grandfather. I mean,
(23:36):
it's so weird that they just yeah, you know, and
it's a weird per set like that. That's so weird
what we do, isn't it That it just kind of
lives on and people Yeah, same, you know, it's amazing.
Speaker 6 (23:47):
Well, Jean Luke Picard wasn't even happy that Doctor Crusher
brought you onto this onto the Enterprise in the first place,
so I mean it is what it is.
Speaker 5 (23:55):
At this point, I got to actually work with him
again on Picard.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
So nice. Yeah, that's so cool, brilliant actor.
Speaker 4 (24:03):
Well, I have one more question for you before we
jump into El Coyote from Boy Meets World. During our research,
we learned that you and the Strong family actually go
way back. Is it true that you played the role
of Adam Larson on a little show called The Mommies
the pilot?
Speaker 5 (24:24):
What and it trade sent me? What they did to
me sent me straight to therapy.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
We talk about this so much of how this happened.
Speaker 5 (24:34):
Yeah, it was messed up. I got the Mommies. It
was do you remember do you remember? I don't You
guys probably don't remember that they were these women that
had NBC had given them this great platform. They were
on TV. They gave every opportunity to launch the series
and it was like a buzz buzz buzz and I
got cat kid. I was old. I mean I was
(24:57):
like not a kid, and you know, director would be like,
could you make that sound younger? And I was like, means,
so I get cast. They filmed the pilot. It was
all exciting before the obviously the Internet and that summer
it gets picked up. But I don't but I don't
know what that means as a kid, right, you don't
(25:18):
as a young person. You're like, I don't know what
it means. I didn't get picked up yet. And then
they air all the ads with me in it. All
the ads are like aired. I'm like in every clip,
all my friends are calling me from New York. Dude,
I saw your ad for your TV show. I'm like, yeah,
I don't doing it anymore. And it was because I
think your brother had a deal something they were I
(25:40):
think they cast me waiting to see if your brother's
deal had fallen through or whatever. Oh and then I
worked with you and that was a funny, like sort
of full circle. But yeah, no, that was that was rough.
I was like, I'm doing it because this was like
the first, the first thing I ever and I think
the only thing I've ever were gotten fired from. Or
(26:03):
it's super crushing. I mean, it's it makes you like
doubt everything you're doing. Yeah, yeah, why am I bad?
And all that.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Yeah, it's so hard with acting.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
You just you can't help it, take it personally right,
because it feels it's you. It's your voice, it's your body,
it's your face, and it's just you can't help but
be like, well I could have done it right. But
it's like the reality is, of course it's it's not you, right, Like,
the reality is it's not personal and it's not about you,
and you're just too old or they're not right for
the part.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
But you can't help it. I mean, especially at that age,
it's just so crushing.
Speaker 5 (26:37):
Ow and you know you guys know, like you get
like the dangling of they show you, like what the
contract is, change, I'm gonna travel, I'm gonna have a
great life, and then it's like nuts so fast. So
I gave up on pilots at that point. I decided
pilots were just just like not the best way in
(26:58):
the door. Well, like just getting a guest spot that
becomes something else is usually a much better trajectory.
Speaker 6 (27:06):
I mean, it's bad enough to be replaced, which I
think ninety nine percent of actors have had happened.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
But when they then go and use the clips that
you're really messed up. That's not cool at all. It's
like that's just taking it.
Speaker 5 (27:20):
To another union, got them taken down. I think, yeah
for it, but it was just humiliating, yeah right, I
mean it's excited that you were. It'd be like showing
the gallery shoot with you in it on a billboard
in it, right, Yeah, I never met your brother. I
never I never hung out with that circle after that.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Yeah, well showed in last didn't didn't you?
Speaker 5 (27:46):
It wasn't my good show.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
But no, he was. He was pretty unhappy.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
It was, you know, because all the part ended up
just being him making out with a girl like that
was the recurring joke is that he's always just hanging
around and it was just a nothing, thankless part.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
He was. He was not happy, but whatever.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
I want to talk Boy Meets World with you. Yes,
do you remember auditioning for Boy Meets World?
Speaker 5 (28:19):
I don't, you know, you have to remember. For you guys,
the show is like a big chunk of your life.
For me, it was a yeah, I feel like I
remember so the really handsome guy that got like said
the other role. I remember him coming in the Sergia
Sergia so we both auditioned and I remember and he
(28:40):
was I'm short, he was really tall and handsome, and
I was like, well, that guy's gonna get it, like
that's like a noe brainer. And he goes and you
hear through the door laughs, and then I just remember,
you know, so many of these sitcoms are like you
know tropes, right of the stereotypical he was like the
stereotypical lover, but kind of a sweet guy Nunzio, right,
(29:03):
that he helps the boys and all that. Yeah, So
I just like so totally leaned into that sort of
self love, right, And I remember they just died. They
just thought it was so funny. So it felt good
because you were in the room and they were just
cracking up, right, So that's all I remember about it.
It's definitely in the room. It was not self tape.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
Right exactly before you audition, did you know anything about
Boy Meets World? Had you ever seen the show? I
know you mentioned you were twenty nine and we were
obviously on Friday nights and probably not watching the show.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
That creepy watching, look right, you were not aware of it?
Speaker 5 (29:40):
Well, I was in acting school and I was I
was taking acting classes and we were all doing Shakespeare
and you know whatever, Chuck Off and what. I think.
We watched Friends and like they were the more adult
shows that we were into. So, I mean, I knew
it was out there because it was a hit, you know,
we I knew the hits, right, and getting job like
(30:02):
that was always great. But I didn't watch it wasn't Yeah,
so what do.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
You remember from filming that week? And we promise you
no story is too small or too detailed, just whatever
you remember about the way.
Speaker 5 (30:17):
I remember. So, I remember being like these kids number one.
I was like, they're all kids number one. The girls
were great, like I had like I was, I navigate
the girls great. The boys were like completely out of control.
I remember the boys were just like crazy, like teenagery,
(30:38):
you know, like I don't know what was happening that week.
It was like a hormonal I don't know what was
I think there were a couple of girls in the
show too that were like eights or something.
Speaker 4 (30:49):
I don't know if it was Sonia and Cookie.
Speaker 5 (30:51):
It was like a sort of like a boy thing
to like sort of show off with the girls. I
don't remember. But there was an older the director was
this older dude.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Yeah, and you guys.
Speaker 5 (31:02):
Were like relent, like you tease him and whatever. The
boys would be like funny with him. Hey. I remember
him turning to me and going, I'm sorry, he's like
kids like, no, I I get it.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
I got it.
Speaker 5 (31:17):
Always really out of control that week, and the kids.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Is always on. We were always on.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
We had so much energy and I think back I
must have been just exhausting.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Oh my god.
Speaker 5 (31:27):
Yeah, so yeah, no connectivity there For me, it was like.
Speaker 4 (31:33):
Can you get me the second you need me, and
not a moment before.
Speaker 5 (31:37):
Also at that age, and you're playing like a peer
of like celeric kids that are stars, right, that have
been a show forever, And all my friends are like
starving actors. You know, there's a very different aesthetic, like
it's a young actor than to like the working kids
are a different world. You guys lived in your yeah
in a way, right, Yeah, sure, But I was reading
(32:00):
some stuff about like the challenges too. I mean I
can't imagine being a kid actor on a sitcomb in
those days. It must have been so weird to have.
I don't know that all the expectations they you must
have had thrust upon you.
Speaker 4 (32:16):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
It was an easy job in some ways, right, Like
compared to shooting single camera or shooting film. It was
a great schedule and we were always laughing, We were
always having fun. But yeah, certainly like the fame and
the pressure and you know, we just didn't know what
we were doing, just were clueless.
Speaker 5 (32:32):
You know and all like the thing to remember too. Like,
I bet a lot of people that are watching now
don't realize that all those shows were run by straight
man men very specific ideas about what was funny, Yes,
I wasn't offensive, or was you know, very very interesting.
I mean definitely, Like I was saying, like the tropes
(32:54):
of being Latino. I mean, I get into it to
be able to get the gigs, but there was a
ton of I mean not your show, but other com
I did were like the racism was sort of inherent
in the writing. You know, yeah, teryotypical you know, Latino thing,
or the stereototypical woman thing, or want to young what
(33:15):
are young boys like? You know, it's funny when you
watch stuff and even like Friends, Oh yeah, Friends, and
you're like, they just make a homophobic joke, and you're like, right,
they totally did.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
They did a whole homophobic episodes of Friends.
Speaker 5 (33:28):
Yeah, and you're like, wow, there was a game writer
around the show too, and you're like that's really interesting. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (33:34):
We've talked about it a lot for Boy Meets World too,
because there were actually, surprisingly, we've been pleasantly surprised that
there were quite a few very progressive episodes and progressive
scenes and progressive thinking, and then every now and then
you get one in there and you're like, this whole
episode is tinged with toxic masculinity or homophobia, like and
(33:55):
it's hard to parse through which one it is. You know, Yeah,
it's you know, the time it was brought UCTs up
their time, and we can't go back and change them.
But it is interesting to notice, and it's and it's
important to recognize and be able to acknowledge it and say,
we don't do that anymore, and we're you know, it's
nice to to see that.
Speaker 5 (34:14):
Change and jump. I guess too. You guys don't forget.
But the audience listening, they had a crank, like what
twenty five episodes a year. Yeah, at some point you're
just going, is this funny or not? Right?
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Yeah? Exactly?
Speaker 5 (34:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
So yeah, Well the dance that's in this episode has
gone viral a few times over the Oh yeah, it
goes viral every every couple of years. It's so funny.
What do you remember from the hot stuff dance routine
in the nightclub?
Speaker 5 (34:41):
I remember getting into like that little tight thing with
like a change. Yeah, all my hair was ridiculously long.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
I mean I still have long hair, but that it
looked great.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
That was ridiculously long. But I remember then not playing
any music for us to dance. Do you remember that?
Speaker 2 (34:58):
They were, oh, of course, And I was.
Speaker 5 (35:00):
Like, I'm sorry, I've never you know. That was like
a live tape situation, like we're supposed to dance to nothing.
Speaker 4 (35:09):
No music.
Speaker 5 (35:10):
I was like, so what will it be be? They're like,
we don't know yet we have the music. That's what
I remember thinking this, this feels super awkward.
Speaker 4 (35:18):
That's another thing we've talked about the amount of episodes
where we have music playing and somebody's supposed to be dancing,
and we've talked about do you remember how awful those
always were because you have nothing to dance too, and
yet you're either supposed to look like you're a good
dancer or a bad dancer, but you don't know what
the sound is going to be, and it's just so uncomfortable, especially.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
When it's a whole room with people because they have
all these background actors.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Yes, they're happy to do Yeah, everybody's doing their own rhythm,
like what are we doing?
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (35:47):
Situation.
Speaker 4 (35:48):
Do people in your life know that you were on
Boy Meets World? Have you ever been recognized for Boy
Meets World?
Speaker 5 (35:54):
So it's something super weird happened. Maybe like fifteen years ago.
I was doing a play that was like an education play.
It was called Books to Life. You can bring a
book to life essentially for the school system. And I
was performing this gang, this play about La Gangs of
all things. It was like a one man show. And
(36:15):
the kids, the Latino kids from like the barrio in
downtown La totally call me out Edmundzio. They're like, what
is happening? Like, yo, that's news too. I was like, what, yo,
you got old? You know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (36:34):
Oh my god.
Speaker 5 (36:36):
Like watched it thinking it was like a.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Year now of course, well.
Speaker 5 (36:39):
Aged twenty years at the time. Yeah, I'm much older now.
Speaker 4 (36:44):
Thank you, thank you for the commment.
Speaker 5 (36:48):
So, but it's weird recause your show. It's kids new kids,
watch it right, yes.
Speaker 4 (36:53):
Yes, yes, And it always is shocking to me when
it's you know, an eleven year old who's like, oh
my gosh y, yeah, so funny.
Speaker 5 (37:03):
It's interesting, right, all our sort of paths.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Yeah, yep.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
It's so great now that there are so many different
opportunities and avenues for actors to make a living in
other ways because it was so it was so much
harder back then. It was like the you know, even
now talking about being able to do conventions, how great
have conventions been for people to help make it make us,
(37:28):
you know, make us a living in between the times
when you're booking jobs. It's like we didn't used to
have those options.
Speaker 5 (37:33):
Yeah, no, I agree. I mean I I because of
Star Trek. I was doing conventions even when I did
your show, because it exists in the seventies. But conventions
now like every show has their own yep, yeah, their
own sort of thing. So yeah, it's fun too. I
mean I always wonder, like when you it must be
weird for you guys to have had like this huge
(37:55):
success so young. One of you said in some quote
I read, it's weird like you the first line of
your obituaries already written. That really kind of made me think,
like that's kind of wild. Because with Star Trek, I'm
also like, god, I hope that's not the first line.
They Yeah, like I big, so that I can you know,
(38:17):
like not that I hate it, but it's like you
don't want to be identified as something did so long ago, right.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
Right, Well, I mean you're on the Sopranos, for God's sakes.
I mean that was the huge show which we didn't
get to talk about, which I would love to have
talked about.
Speaker 4 (38:30):
What we will talk about it Moranos a little bit. Okay,
let's talk Sopranos.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Go for it. Well, what was it like to be
on Sopranos?
Speaker 5 (38:36):
Was like going into the mob? Was it really the
priests and the Sopranos? And I actually self taped that
out of la So I never auditioned for it, and
that was self tape. Wasn't even a thing then. But
I got to New York, they got me, They drove
me to Jersey. I got through hair and makeup and
(38:58):
into my priests got and we were in an Italian
neighborhood shooting on location. Well, they all acted like I
was a priest. They were all like your father thought.
I mean, they were so reverential.
Speaker 4 (39:10):
Let me tell, let me tell our dear listeners, so
they know what we're talking about. You played Father Jose
of Saint Eliza's Church, the Keeper of the Saints hat,
and you had a very intense scene with Polly Walnuts.
Speaker 5 (39:21):
Yeah, who showed up hair already done. You didn't touch
Oh I love that. Shut up camera ready. You didn't
touch his hair on his face? I did. It Definitely
felt like it felt very real, is all I'm going
to say. Like everyone very legitimately like you were walking
into the show. It didn't feel like a bunch of
(39:42):
actors sitting around to you know, be asking about whatever
it was.
Speaker 4 (39:47):
It was just like your time on Boy Meets World.
Speaker 6 (39:49):
Yes, very similar, very similar, very.
Speaker 5 (39:54):
It was superb subversion. Let Yeah, apparently priests very popular
in the mob, so all one messed with me. They
were a little scared that I would put some kind
of hecks on them or sometimes the power of the collar.
Speaker 4 (40:10):
Yes, I also want to talk to you after you
totally killed it on our show. You ended up in
two thousand and three on Ryan Murphy's Nip Tuck, and
you played a trans woman, Sophia Lopez, in an emotional
three episode arc where you visit the doctor to have
your Adams apple shaved down. It was incredibly early to
play a transgender character on television and it is such
(40:33):
a memorable role. What was that experience like for you?
Speaker 5 (40:37):
So that show was so I didn't work since I
finished when I I think your show was the last
thing I did until I did. No, I did your show,
and then I didn't work for several years. I had
and then I did. My manager, who's also my husband,
got me. He's like, do something like, please work tiny
(40:59):
role in a pighilt of a transgender character. The pilot
was called First Monday. It's like, you do this part.
You should just try And I'm like, oh, I don't
know what, what even is that? So I did this
little role as a transgender character. It's like, oh, I
could totally play that. Because back then they weren't that
that's not a topic that was explored. Gender actors existed
(41:21):
in the theater world, but they were not in the industry.
It wasn't like there was a ton of people that
were being considered for these roles. And if you could,
I'm a character actor, so if you could become something
physically different, why not. And then the nip Talk role
came along and it was like nip Talk was just
it broke the mole on everything. They just did whatever
(41:43):
they wanted to. Ryan did whatever he wanted to, and
so yeah, it was definitely, I mean, it's a role
I couldn't play now, obviously because there are transgender actors
playing there, but back then there really weren't that many.
So I feel really lucky I got to play her.
She was an amazing character.
Speaker 4 (42:01):
I was wondering if you could talk to us a
little bit about the differences and opportunities for gay actors
comparing the nineties and now.
Speaker 5 (42:11):
I mean, I was totally in the closet in the
nineties as an actor. I wasn't out, Like I wouldn't
come to set and talk to you about my husband
or my life would yeah, matter of fact, the comics
and I was also kind of like young heart throbby
type of vibe and so like the comics of the
warm up would be like there's a girl here who
(42:32):
wants to know if you've got a girlfriend. That kind
of thing happened to be at Mommies and completely was
like why what do I do? I don't want to
lie about who I am. It was very complicated. It
was like about who I am, but I don't want
to come out and I don't want it to be
this thing. And there were normal people, you know. Definitely
I couldn't have played any of the parts I played
in the sitcoms, right right? That really changed, you know that.
(42:55):
I mean it definitely since Wooling Grace kind of opened
the door. Now I just audition for whatever. There's no
I don't they There's a lot less pigeonholing of gay
actors now. I think we have a much bigger spectrum
of what we can play, and there's more gay characters
that are written in fun I got for a lot
(43:16):
of gay characters because there's a lot of women. There's
a lot of Latino characters now that are way more
complex than they used to be. Back in our day
of the nineties, you had you either like the Latin
lover as Latin lover or like a gang kid in
a drama, right right. That was like the two options.
And then it's changed, you know. I mean, I played
(43:38):
a gay Latino doctor who was a foreigner for like
ten years on a show. Just go like, oh the
moles thrown out. It's much more.
Speaker 4 (43:46):
Free, you know. So that's great.
Speaker 6 (43:49):
I'm sorry, from a business standpoint, when you're married to
your manager, do you still have to give him fifteen percent?
Speaker 5 (43:55):
It's worse than that because when we have bites, he goes.
You know, if we get divorced, I get six and
the ten. So it's actually like a deal because I
one hundred percent make and work for it. Where's my
appointment to such and such and I need this done
(44:16):
and yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (44:18):
How long have you guys been married?
Speaker 5 (44:19):
Thirty well married legally since two thousand and eight, but
we've been up together over thirty years.
Speaker 4 (44:24):
Wow, do you.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
Have any kid?
Speaker 4 (44:25):
He were you guys together when you did Boy Meets World?
Speaker 5 (44:28):
Yeah, one hundred Yeah, that's amazing. We don't have kids.
I'm not a fan of children. I like dogs. Okay,
there you go.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
Yeah, well too well to do parents.
Speaker 5 (44:41):
So yeah, no kid.
Speaker 4 (44:43):
I at least appreciate that you know you don't like
kids and then didn't have them and decided after thank you.
Speaker 5 (44:48):
Kids. Unlike the Pied Piper, kids like love.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
Me, will same with me.
Speaker 5 (44:53):
They says that, I'm like, get away from your kids.
You're bothering me that same way, but they love me.
I love kids, and like, I love kids if they're cool,
like they're just little people to me. They're either little
people or they're little all jerks.
Speaker 4 (45:09):
Right, Yeah, so sometimes they're sometimes they're both.
Speaker 5 (45:12):
Sometimes they're both. I just don't need that in my life.
You know, Yeah, I don't have that gene. So, but
I have lots of friends with kids, lots of gay
friends with kids. That's a whole other topic, the whole
subversion of gay people the kids anywhere.
Speaker 4 (45:31):
Yeah, they yeah, they really halt your life for a
little bit. Yep, it's true. So on top of being
on the Closer and Major Crimes and Picard and Station
nineteen last year, you also somehow find time to be
a vital voice for so many important causes, most notably
for the LGBTQ plus community. And you've worked on three
(45:52):
presidential campaigns, spoken for anti bullying initiatives, You've taken up
environmental issues, and you were a celebrity surrogate for Obama's
twenty twelve campaigns. First, how do you have the time
to be so great?
Speaker 2 (46:07):
He doesn't have kids? He does have kids.
Speaker 4 (46:12):
You're right, You've already answered that one. And then secondly,
what is it that makes you want to speak up
for things that are so important to you?
Speaker 5 (46:21):
Well, we could add fourth campaign because I'm a surrogate
for a comma.
Speaker 4 (46:25):
Like Kamala Harris.
Speaker 5 (46:27):
Okay, great, So I think something happens for human beings.
I read this somewhere like the stages of being a human.
A good human is you get to a stage where
like you need to give back. Yeah, usually people have
a kid, like in their thirties or whatever. I think
at that stage, my giving back was like community, you know,
and yeah, make some sort of causes. That's how I like.
(46:50):
I actually love it just as much as being an actor.
It's really campaigning and working on like something that's bigger
than you. And yeah, money for kids that are getting
bullied or you know, just things that are seemingly unfair
in the world. Try to educate people. So for me,
like it's I love finding time for that because that's
(47:11):
really really a fun fulfilling aspect that sometimes acting doesn't
give me. Right, I think that the industry doesn't really
have an opportunity. I mean, you know everyone in a
while you do work as an actor that feels significant,
but that's kind of rare. But with with sort of
all the social stuff and politics, I understand it and
(47:33):
I speak it, you know what I mean, I get it.
So I feel like it's a talent I have that
I want to like use, for want of a better word,
for the good of all right, So it's exciting. It's
an exciting world, the world of politics. It has the
potential to change so many lives. I think that I
don't really understand me. A lot of people are so
(47:54):
turned off by politics, and yeah, we have a flawed
system and there's just a lot wrong with it, but
there's a lot that without it wouldn't get done right.
So yeah, I'm a real big believer in voting and
getting people to be engaged and not give up. You know,
because at the end of the day, we kind of
(48:14):
hold the keys to the car, so if we all
exercise that power, we would have a much I think
we think. I believe most people are pretty great. You know,
we all like got together and really decided what was important.
We would actually agree more than we think. You know.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
Wow, I'm so impressed by your optimism that you that
you've been able to maintain it, because I feel like
when people go into politics or activism, you can so
quickly turn bitter, you know, or just feel like you're
always fighting and against something.
Speaker 2 (48:46):
But it sounds like you're really.
Speaker 5 (48:47):
There's a lot of disappointment and a lot of you
want to hit your head against the wall and you're
not understand this. Well, it just takes time, and you know,
it just it's we're really big country guys, you know,
I mean every state it's its own little country. And
I think it's hard to find common ground. But I've
(49:07):
seen good enough. I've seen there's more of us that
are on the same page than we think. It was.
Speaker 6 (49:13):
It Churchill who said that democracy is the worst form
of government except for all the others.
Speaker 2 (49:17):
Exactly, and I think that's absolutely true.
Speaker 6 (49:19):
So it's you know, it's you've got a lot of
people with a lot of opinions.
Speaker 5 (49:22):
You know, it's completely what they want for themselves or
for their family or their tribe. I mean think were
super tribal and we're like oriented like gold, blue, red.
And at the end of the day, I mean, you know,
I lived through nine nine to eleven, right we all did.
Do you remember what that felt like? That was weird
couple feeling like, oh, that's what it feels like to
(49:43):
be a united country. Yeah, align for anyone, even if
I don't agree on my particular issues. Anyone that that
truly is striving to bring people together as opposed to
politics of ripping people apart. Is an that now it's
an actual like strategy, right.
Speaker 2 (50:03):
Sure, well 'or easier to control if we're in little groups.
Speaker 5 (50:07):
One hundred percent.
Speaker 6 (50:08):
So it's you know, it's it's unfortunate, but it's true.
So it's you know, anything that brings us all together
scares a lot of people, scares a lot of very
important people.
Speaker 2 (50:16):
So yeah, but.
Speaker 5 (50:17):
For me, it's actually like being an actor and being
involved in these things, they all kind of work hand
in hand, you know, because no matter how famous you
are not, even if you're on TV a little you
have really some kind of platform, even if it's a
small one. So why not like use it for something
that matters to you? You know?
Speaker 4 (50:37):
Yeah, that's great. Well, I love that. Thank you for
sharing that with us. We ask this question to a
lot of our guests that we have forced to watch
episodes of something they did from the nineties. Looking back,
if you could tell young Jonathan anything now, what would
it be?
Speaker 5 (50:58):
Well, that's good. I never thought I was attractive. I
always felt really awkward and like not attractive. I'd be like,
you look good, guy, you know you don't not You're
not the elephant man. You grow up as a as
(51:22):
an immigrant and as gay, and like hiding so much
of what you are, you do not. You have a
weird sense of how you present to the world. And
even though you get affirmed as a young person, Oh
you're you're gonna be the handsome whatever, you're this, you're that,
you still go like, I am still not you know,
(51:44):
what's your brother's name?
Speaker 4 (51:46):
Strong?
Speaker 5 (51:51):
You know you carried. I mean, I'm sure you all
have had that experience as actors. Sure, yeah, like I'm
not as pretty as this one, or I'm not as
as tall as that guy. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (52:01):
Well it's because we're all actors are just by nature,
we're horribly insecure people.
Speaker 5 (52:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (52:07):
Yeah, But I.
Speaker 1 (52:07):
Also think it plays into the thing you were talking about,
you know, right from the beginning, about the trope of
like the Latin lover. You know, I know my wife
she's a Latin actress, and the entire first ten years
of her career, there were only three roles. She would
play the maid, the prostitute, or the drug addict, and
it was like that's it, you know, And then then
everything changed in like ninety eight, when like j lo
Is suddenly like, oh we could have Latin actresses be leads.
(52:29):
But also she's always felt this pressure, like constantly the
roles would be the like vivacious, buxome, Latin, you know,
goddess sort of thing.
Speaker 3 (52:38):
And she's like, that's not me.
Speaker 2 (52:39):
I'm not physically that person.
Speaker 1 (52:41):
But she'd have to go out for these roles and
she so she has this like crazy insecurity about her
looks and it's like, no, you're beautiful, You're just not
that trope, you know, but it was it was like
it would actually hurt her career to not be that.
So I'm impressed like the way that you when you
talk about this audition for Boymans or the way that
you kind of turned to that and made it more
of about like his him owning him, like his his
(53:03):
confidence being less about like being this sexy guy, more
just as confident, like self loving. I think you said,
like I love that that's like, and that spoke to me.
Speaker 5 (53:12):
You remember, he doesn't make the moves on any of
the girls.
Speaker 2 (53:14):
No, No, he's.
Speaker 4 (53:15):
Actually he's like, you're not feeling Nunzio like I'm feeling.
Speaker 5 (53:20):
Very sweet in that way, datory right in any way.
Speaker 1 (53:25):
And I think they didn't write it that way originally.
I think that's because you brought.
Speaker 3 (53:28):
That and they were so much better. It's so much better.
Speaker 5 (53:31):
Well it disarms people, right someone. Yeah, and I think
he needed to be that to get the guys on this,
you know, yes, like I'm going to help these poor
American boys.
Speaker 2 (53:44):
Can you hate that guy?
Speaker 5 (53:45):
Great?
Speaker 4 (53:46):
Well, As your former dance partner, I would like to
say that we are all so proud of you and
your career and your activism and the impressive roles that
you have gotten to play. And we thank you so
much for your time. Thank thank you so much for
being here with us.
Speaker 5 (54:01):
We're talking to you guys you as well.
Speaker 4 (54:03):
You thank you.
Speaker 5 (54:05):
Take care, take care, bye bye.
Speaker 4 (54:08):
Another perfect drive by guest star actor, A perfect guest
to have on this podcast. He's so interesting, such a
great conversation.
Speaker 6 (54:18):
Yeah, and we've talked about this a couple of times,
but it is so difficult to be a guest star
on it I now, especially an established show, and to
come in and you've got.
Speaker 2 (54:28):
What three days maybe total, to.
Speaker 6 (54:30):
Come in and kill it and be you know, you're
still remembered for a role you played for one week
twenty five or thirty years ago.
Speaker 2 (54:37):
That's just impressive, it really is. It blows my mind
that he was with his husband back then. I know,
I don't think about that. Just think about how much
our lives have changed.
Speaker 1 (54:45):
Exactly the last year, and he's had the same partner
since that moment when he was playing amazing character.
Speaker 2 (54:50):
That is like, that's just for me. Such a head
trip to think about it. So cool, cool, cool.
Speaker 4 (54:55):
Well, thank you all for joining us for this episode
of Podmeets World. As always, you can follow us on
Instagram meets World Show. You can send us your emails
podmeets Worldshow at gmail dot com and we have.
Speaker 2 (55:05):
Merch resistance to our merch is futile.
Speaker 4 (55:09):
Podmeetsworldshow dot com will send us out.
Speaker 2 (55:13):
We love you all, pod dismissed.
Speaker 6 (55:16):
Podmeets World is nheart podcast producer and hosted by Danielle Fischel,
Wilfordell and Ryder Strong. Executive producers Jensen Carp and Amy Sugarman,
Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor,
Tara sudbachsch producer, Maddie Moore, engineer and Boy Meets World
superfan Easton Allen. Our theme song is by Kyle Morton
of Typhoon, and you can follow us on Instagram at
(55:36):
podmeets World Show or email us at Podmetsworldshow at gmail
dot com.
Hosts And Creators
Will Friedle
Danielle Fishel
Rider Strong
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