WEBVTT - “The Audacity to Dream” 0:00:05.120 --> 0:00:07.400 Oh man, they gave us a podcast, and they gave 0:00:07.480 --> 0:00:12.319 us a podcast. We are so hello, Hello, here we 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:13.960 are and the podcast. 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:15.120 I'm Freddie Rodriguez. 0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:19.080 Say my name is my name? My name, I'm Wilmer Valderama. 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:22.239 I'm very excited for all of you who have been 0:00:22.520 --> 0:00:29.880 witnessing this union. It feels like it's like a wedding now, no, 0:00:29.960 --> 0:00:32.440 I I just also want to call out to all 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:34.919 the fans and and all the supporters of the podcast. 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:37.520 You know, we're a couple of episodes in now and 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:40.760 the feedback has been awesome, you know, and you guys 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:43.240 are downloading and that means a lot to us because 0:00:43.680 --> 0:00:46.560 these conversations as therapeutic as they are for us, yeah, 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:48.400 so they're also for you. 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:50.080 It's like a big therapy. 0:00:49.760 --> 0:00:54.400 Session, like every dinner and every coffee you and I 0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:55.840 have ever it is. 0:00:55.960 --> 0:00:58.160 Yeah, we're just sort of unloading, you know. 0:00:58.400 --> 0:00:59.280 Ask me how I'm doing. 0:00:59.560 --> 0:01:01.800 How are you I'm tired? You're tired? 0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:03.320 Yeah, yes, I'm really tired. 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:05.399 But but but why are you tired? And we had 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:08.160 this discussion upstairs, but we're gonna we're gonna open it 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:09.880 up to the audience. Where are you tired? 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:14.280 You know, I'm tired because I've I've realized that in 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:20.000 the growth of some of my entrepreneurial ambitious I realized 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:23.680 that I'm only one man. Yes, and I've been really 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:26.840 privileged to have like an amazing team, right, Like the 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:29.280 department heads of all of our our entire company do 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:33.160 a beautiful, effortless job of keeping you know, the dream 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:34.800 rolling in different. 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:35.800 Hills, you know. 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:39.240 So, so that's been that's been great. But I'm a 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:41.640 little tired because I'm also shooting a full time show. 0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:46.039 I'm shotting a full procedural drama on on CBS, and 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:50.160 so in between takes, I'm sending my emails. Between scenes, 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:53.280 I'm making calls, and lunchtime I'm doing my zooms. And 0:01:53.280 --> 0:01:55.360 then when I get home, I finish my catchups and 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:56.960 I read the scripts that I got to read or 0:01:56.960 --> 0:01:58.920 whatever it is. Yeah, and then I hang out with 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:01.040 my four year old daughter, and you know, and that's 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:02.840 kind of how it's been. It's been working, you know, 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:04.120 But I. 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:06.720 Don't know how you find the hours in the day. Really, 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:09.760 it's impressive, bro, I'm not I'm not just saying that 0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:12.000 because you're in front of me. I thought I worked 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:14.079 hard and then I saw you and I was like, 0:02:14.680 --> 0:02:17.680 I ain't got sh it on this, No, bro, you. 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:19.639 Know you know what it is. I think we talk 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:20.600 about it all the time. 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:23.320 It's like, you know, you get an opportunity to do 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:26.799 something our families have never done, and you're like, well, 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:30.600 not only have to really know it, yeah, but I 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:33.280 also have to now kind of you know, drive it forward. 0:02:33.360 --> 0:02:34.360 You know, I have to kind. 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:37.120 Of like, okay, do it in a level that nobody's 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:40.400 ever done before. And you know which actually kind of 0:02:40.480 --> 0:02:43.280 drives us, you know, to to our episode of the week. 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:46.400 I think a lot about what we've been talking all 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:51.800 the way up to now. And you know, yes, if 0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:54.639 anybody can hear that, it's my washer and dry that's 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:55.519 just outside the door. 0:02:56.040 --> 0:02:58.320 Just didn't just didn't. You know we are and to 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:00.560 speak easy. You got you do have to go through 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:01.280 the life room. 0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:05.200 You got coffee, you got laundry, I got it tied 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:07.040 and downy, we got room keys. 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:11.880 But without without like strain too far away from the episode. 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:14.640 One of the things that I was excited to explore 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:21.760 today is the audacity to dream something different than our family. 0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:32.679 How and why did we have the you know, last 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:38.160 to dream something our parents were so far remove know 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:40.880 they were, you know, and and I wanted to explore 0:03:40.880 --> 0:03:43.080 it because in the last couple of episodes we've gone 0:03:43.120 --> 0:03:46.440 to know each other's stories before we were even an 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:50.880 idea to our family. And you know, the inspirations, the 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:51.600 thing that it took. 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:53.000 What was that break? You know? 0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:58.320 But like the mentality, like what multi generational expectation did 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:02.480 you have to break to make what we do possible? 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:04.480 Like you know what I'm saying, you know, you know 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:08.280 where I'm going, and you know, I know we covered 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:10.240 a little bit of this in the previous episode, but 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:13.960 I think what you're saying is, and this is where 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:17.480 both of our families are similar because they came from 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:22.000 somewhere else to the United States. Is there's a bit 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:26.120 of a one track mind, right, wouldn't you agree a 0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:26.560 little bit? 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:30.800 Right? We're families because they're somewhere else. Right, Your family 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:35.920 was in Venezuelan and Colombia, in Puerto Rico, and and uh, 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:39.000 you know, there is this mentality of like we're gonna 0:04:39.080 --> 0:04:45.159 leave this beautiful country landscape weather, uh, and We're going 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:49.000 to go somewhere else because that's where the opportunities are, right, 0:04:49.160 --> 0:04:51.440 And I think that there's a bit of a blueprint 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:54.919 that comes with that. Right. Sometimes a blueprint is you 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:57.520 go there, you go to school, you get a job, 0:04:57.839 --> 0:05:00.159 you get married, you have a couple of kids, and 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:02.880 that's the way life goes. And that blueprint is to 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:07.240 be repeated in some way. And when you deviate from 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:11.760 that blueprint is when I guess us we have to 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:13.680 ask ourselves what you just said? You know, where do 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:20.960 we get the audacity. 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:20.640 I mean and bigging back in with what you're saying. 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:22.960 I think it's a sort of interesting thing to reflect 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:28.720 that that our parents were also taught by their their 0:05:28.760 --> 0:05:34.840 parents and their parents' parents to do enough to survive, right, 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:37.760 like continue to search and making sure the light stays on. 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:40.080 Survive is the key word there, right. 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:42.880 Like and in our culture, you know, we're we're workers, right, 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:43.520 We're you. 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:45.799 Know, we're we are in the beehive, like just working 0:05:45.839 --> 0:05:48.240 and working and working, you know, and you know, and 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:53.240 I think that you know, I think I also wonder 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:57.880 there was always thinking my dad. Did my dad think 0:05:57.920 --> 0:06:02.800 about long terms to build? I don't think he was 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:08.839 equipped to understand how to create multi generational wealth or 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:09.680 what he was going to. 0:06:09.760 --> 0:06:11.279 Leave behind right. 0:06:11.680 --> 0:06:13.839 I think he was kind of caught in a web 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:16.320 where he just needed to make sure there was enough 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:19.080 food on the table and that we had a roof, 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:25.240 no matter, no matter the cost to himself and my parents' 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:28.520 relationship and that of stuff. So it's interesting to think 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:32.440 about that, and that's why, like that sacrifice almost made 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:37.200 me feel like, oh, that sacrifice. 0:06:36.600 --> 0:06:43.160 Is being made so I can do something more right, right. 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:46.800 And I don't know where along the way I thought 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:50.640 that that was what the sacrifice was for, but I 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:53.320 quite literally think now as I look back, not just 0:06:53.400 --> 0:06:57.640 culturally but the trajectory of the Valda Lama family, everything 0:06:57.640 --> 0:06:59.520 that was done just so it was so. 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:04.400 We, my sisters and I had a better shot, And like, 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:06.120 why aren't you gonna do that better shot? 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:07.120 I mean, think about it. 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:10.120 You remember you telling me about your your grandfather, the 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:12.160 hard heart is working guy. You got a day off 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:14.120 and he's like, I'm gonna help my neighbor paint the. 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:15.680 House, right, you know what I mean? 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:18.840 Like like it's it's like the ever search of just 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:21.000 not just being in service, but like affording you. 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:25.240 A better step in the ladder, like a little. 0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:27.360 Higher stuffing about it, right, Like to get closer to 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:30.480 you know, do you know where I'm going with one percent? 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:35.000 And that's a really interesting observation. I think that I 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:38.120 don't think i'm speaking abo having my parents too, right. 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:40.920 I don't think that my parents or my dad, or 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:46.800 my uncles or aunts came to Chicago and we're thinking 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:51.320 about generational wealth or what to leave behind or any 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:54.520 of the things that you just mentioned. I think they 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:57.880 were just trying to survive, right, check a check right 0:07:58.000 --> 0:08:00.160 week per week, maybe save a little bit and go 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:02.760 and buy a house, or buy a building, or maybe 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:04.880 invest a little here and there. But I think that 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:07.600 that was the extent of it. I think that that 0:08:07.760 --> 0:08:12.480 them us growing up in the States, we started to 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:17.200 learn about generational wealth. We started to learn about leaving 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:23.080 things behind or leaving stuff behind for our kids. And 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:26.720 that's one of the luxuries that we get from living here, right, 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:29.360 That that that our that our folks didn't get when 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:30.800 they were living where they were living. 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:33.320 At So so in that same vein, like, what do 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:37.320 you think what was the common denominator from for for 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:40.600 us to have a different mentality, right, Like, we had 0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:43.440 to have been aware of the struggle, right, that's number 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:46.200 one I would say, like, that's ingredient number one. See 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:50.960 our parents struggling to keep it even Yeah, Like maybe 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:54.679 that's the ingredient one. But then like what makes you go, 0:08:55.320 --> 0:08:58.520 I'm going to be this right? And but for us, like, 0:08:58.559 --> 0:09:01.800 look again, we picked a whole artist states get in 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:05.160 so so do as we say, not as we did, right, 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:09.360 But it is a very funny thing to think about, Like, 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:11.959 you know, Okay, now I'm going to be a little 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:15.960 more ambition than ambitious than my parents. 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:20.080 But like what made you go, Oh, but I'm going 0:09:20.160 --> 0:09:21.559 to go that much more ambitious? 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:26.320 Right? Yeah? Let me ask you something before you decided 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:29.319 to go down this path, were there other things that 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:32.720 you were interested in, other professions that you were interested 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:36.000 in or interested in pursuing, Like what what were you 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:36.360 interested in? 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:40.440 So when I first got to the United States at thirteen, yeah, coo, 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:42.280 so I was about to turn fourteen, but really I 0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:45.920 was thirteen. I wanted to be a pilot for the 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:49.199 Air Force. I wanted to fight and f sixteen No way, man. 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:51.520 I saw those those fighter jets and I was like, 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:53.960 I want to do that, and I want to do 0:09:54.000 --> 0:09:56.079 it wearing the American flag on my shoulder. 0:09:56.440 --> 0:09:57.640 He's like, that's what I want to be. 0:09:58.080 --> 0:09:58.320 Yeah. 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:03.720 I started meeting different people from different branches of the military, 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:04.920 and I was like, I want to serve, you know. 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:09.600 And the other one was psychology. 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:10.400 Hmm. 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:12.840 I was fascinated by strangers. 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:13.520 Yeah. 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:18.040 I am still very much fascinated by the human mind. 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:23.160 You know how every decision is based on thousands of echoes, 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:28.720 of lessons and traumas that shape your instinct every single day, 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:34.760 And like peeling those layers was fascinating to me, you know, 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:37.720 And I think that's that's that's that was an interesting 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:38.280 thing for me. 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:40.040 I mean, I was fascinated by it. I was really 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:43.360 intrigued by it. And I think as soon as I 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:45.240 become an actor, it's like, oh I. 0:10:45.120 --> 0:10:48.080 Can I can't play I'll play a pilot on TV 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:50.560 or a film, and but at the same time, I 0:10:50.600 --> 0:10:54.440 get to explore individuals, people and all these characters. 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:56.120 But you don't but you don't think that if you 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:58.600 would have gone down the path of becoming a pilot 0:10:58.760 --> 0:11:02.480 or or or psychology, you don't think that you would 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:06.880 have approached that with the same fervor and ambition that 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:11.040 you approached acting. So it may be, it may be 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:14.440 that that component was in you no matter what, right, 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:17.880 and you just happened to choose acting and so then 0:11:17.920 --> 0:11:21.000 you activated that component in you that made you go 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:25.360 further than So this would have been inevitable in whatever 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:27.280 profession you would have chosen. 0:11:27.400 --> 0:11:29.280 Yeah, which, which is kind of what I'm trying to 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:31.880 get to, you know, I'm trying to get to what 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:34.800 is the common denominator that could really. 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:35.480 Be passed on? 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:36.560 Yeah? 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:38.959 Like what how do we pass this on to everyone listening? 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:39.400 Right? 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:42.920 Like how do they relate to this point? 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:43.480 Yeah? 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:47.040 And we're trying to make everyone out there it's either 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:50.599 carrying the burden of multi generation or inheritance. 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:51.200 Yeah. 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:58.120 Right, some maybe enjoying, right, enjoying what's been passed down, 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:03.280 right and right. But but but for most people, like 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:06.720 like us growing up, we were passed down you know, 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:10.280 the ability to just like survive, like just do enough 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:13.400 to live, you know what I mean, and be a worker, 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:16.080 you know, work hard work or work as many hours 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:18.160 as you can, you know, because that's like that was 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:18.520 the way. 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:30.760 Yeah, what about you? 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:34.240 Did you would you have had a different profession at 0:12:34.240 --> 0:12:34.640 some point? 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:35.040 Do you think? 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:37.800 Because I know your family was going in one direction, right, 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:38.240 your brother. 0:12:38.360 --> 0:12:43.400 Yeah, yeah, I think back I and I know I've 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:46.520 said this a couple of times. I just wasn't you know, 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:49.520 I wasn't interested in anything else, Like, there was nothing 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:52.720 else I was particularly interested in. And so when I 0:12:52.800 --> 0:12:56.320 discovered the arts, I think that I think that one, 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:59.880 I was born with a certain uh and I'm just 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:03.240 ambitious person by nature, and so I think that whatever 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:05.800 I would have chosen, if I was passionate about it, 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:08.880 I would have approached it with the same ambition and fervor. 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:15.880 I think that survival, right our our family's position in 0:13:17.720 --> 0:13:24.800 the United States and their need for survival was injected 0:13:24.800 --> 0:13:27.000 in me at such a young age, and so there 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:29.800 was this there was this do or die attitude. You know, 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:32.040 there was this all my eggs that are in one 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:36.320 basket attitude because you know, I didn't have a trust fund, right, 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:38.960 My family wasn't rich. I didn't have anything to fall 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:42.520 back on, and so there was this attitude of like, 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:49.240 this is going to work or nothing, buddy, and that's it. Yeah, 0:13:49.320 --> 0:13:51.360 because I had not I didn't have rich parents, or 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:53.480 I didn't have like a rich uncle who was going 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:54.640 to leave me a million bucks. 0:13:54.679 --> 0:14:01.520 You know, do you think that's what's missing from most ingredients. 0:14:01.520 --> 0:14:05.319 So for most recipes to success, the ambition aspect. No, 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:07.640 what you had just mentioned is like it has to work. 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:11.679 I have anything else, I want to do nothing else. 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:15.200 You think that leap and faith in you is what 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:19.920 Actually it's the ingredient that that that separates you from 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:21.960 trying it and doing it? 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:25.920 You know, is it? Is it sort of the magic bullet? 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:27.640 Is it the magic ingredient? 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:31.040 You have to be that delusional to be like, I mean, 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:32.720 I can't do nothing else? 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:36.000 Why else? But why else would you choose a profession 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:39.160 where where you just don't know where your next check 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:41.880 is coming from? You have to be a tad delusional 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:45.720 in order to right and and it and it's you 0:14:45.800 --> 0:14:48.360 against the two three hundred other people. 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:50.720 And we're the first parachute is in our family? 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:54.680 Right? Like, yeah, you know, while while you're you know, 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:58.880 I've met your your siblings. You know they all are normal. 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:04.200 Well, I'm like, I like you and I Marilyn and 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:06.680 I are pretty crazy. 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:10.960 No, but they you know, right, they they did what 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:13.480 what the parents expected them to do and are doing 0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:15.640 very well at it. Right. But but we had a 0:15:15.680 --> 0:15:19.160 certain we had a screw loose uh in there to 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:20.320 say I'm gonna. 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:21.840 Jump in the ring and this is the only thing 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:22.960 I want to do, and this is it. 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:26.440 So I mean that trigger is something for me because 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:29.480 I had made a promise to my parents. 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:32.120 Going back to that episode, what we talked about. 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:34.760 My dad's car was tolen, and I told my dad, 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:37.000 don't worry, Dad, I'm gonna be an actor. I'm gonna 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:40.040 make this money and I'm gonna have restaurants and i'm gonna, 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:42.480 you know, I'm gonna we're gonna buy us a house. 0:15:42.480 --> 0:15:44.120 We're never gonna have to pay rent again. That are 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:47.680 like all these things that I have promised. I feel 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:50.440 like when he gave me permission, like when he said, okay, mayho, 0:15:50.560 --> 0:15:54.200 you can do that, I feel like, oh, not only 0:15:54.280 --> 0:15:57.080 he gave me permission, Not only he say yes, I 0:15:57.120 --> 0:15:59.960 could go to soccer practice, you know, to acting class. 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:03.640 I know, like you could try that. But I feel like, Okay, 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:05.360 now I have to make this work because. 0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:06.920 You made a promise. Yeah. 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:09.680 Interesting, you know, I don't know, and I and I 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:14.760 think this this hypothesis, this interesting philosophy or equestion. 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:17.160 So you were being beholden to this thing I had 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:18.520 committed you committed. 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:19.880 Yeah, right, I committed. 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:23.400 I committed to saying this is okay, I got to 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:25.640 take care of my family. I'm taking the role of 0:16:26.320 --> 0:16:28.920 this was fifteen years old, right, I'm like, I'm gonna 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:32.360 make sure that we don't have to worry like this again, 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:34.040 and then my mom and my dad doesn't have to 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:34.800 worry this hard. 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:37.720 And you're the oldest, right, the oldest. Yeah, so there's 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:42.680 also that component being the oldest the two younger sisters, 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:47.160 right like right, like you know. 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:51.400 Yeah, I still think I still I'm still wondering what 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:54.880 was that that other thing? Right because you go, okay, 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:59.280 well I'm gonna be I'm going to be an actor. 0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:02.720 Right I could just learn how to speak English three 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:05.399 years before that, right right, right, like I'm going to 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:09.720 be an actor and thinking it was just like saying 0:17:09.920 --> 0:17:13.639 I'm going to be a lawyer, I'm going to be 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:15.119 a cop, I'm going to. 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:17.840 Be a teacher, like it was just like going to 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:20.120 be an actor, like what But. 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:23.879 But I remember you saying when when you started to 0:17:23.920 --> 0:17:25.879 tell me that you started acting, I was like, well, Wilmore, 0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:28.399 did did you do it? When you told me your 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:30.480 story about you know, your first auditions, and all that, 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:32.040 and I'm like, well, did you do it before? And 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:34.640 you were always like, well, I was. I was sort 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:37.160 of the class clown. I was sort of this So 0:17:37.359 --> 0:17:42.560 like you, you you recognize that you had this particular 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:47.240 ability way way before you had the audacity of hope. Right, 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:52.240 So maybe subconsciously you were like, well, I I was 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:55.440 born with an ability to kind of do it. Yeah. 0:17:55.680 --> 0:17:59.480 Maybe that was as opposed to saying I want to 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:00.760 be a star? Are I want? 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:04.440 You know, there's nothing wrong with that. Yeah, there's nothing 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:05.040 wrong with that. 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:08.239 You know. Uh, you know it's funny, and this is 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:10.919 like an awful comparison, but just follow me for a second. 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:14.320 I remember reading an article with Michael Jordan and they 0:18:14.400 --> 0:18:16.679 said they asked him, you know, could could anybody be 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:21.919 Michael Jordan? And he said no, people could be at 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:24.679 different levels or degrees of Michael Jordan goes, but I 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:29.080 was born with a with a very specific ability to 0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:33.560 do what I do, and and within my journey, I 0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:37.959 just I just kept developing that thing, that skill that 0:18:38.040 --> 0:18:40.520 I was born with, you know. And he recognized that 0:18:40.600 --> 0:18:43.640 really early on, you know, So it could be that 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:47.320 you were born with a very specific ability to do 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:50.919 something your your subconscious told you that, and you just 0:18:51.119 --> 0:18:53.680 kind of went with that because because what else would 0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:56.359 make you go that crazy to put your eggs in 0:18:56.400 --> 0:18:57.640 that basket? You know what I mean? 0:18:57.760 --> 0:19:01.119 Yeah? Yeah, because I was always in dancing and actings. 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:02.720 I was six years old, but I did it just 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:07.159 because it was mandatory in school, right, Like in Venezuela, 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:09.879 these classes are mandatory, but you must. 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:13.439 Have gotten everybody's doing it, but you must have gotten 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:15.200 somebody going like hey. 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:19.119 I mean I saw people laughing, right, probably more than 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:22.480 everybody else. Was tasting the fruits of an entertainer. I 0:19:22.520 --> 0:19:25.879 was like, oh, I'm entertaining high school right right. But 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:28.120 but they were not until I came to the United States, 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:30.440 where I was like, okay, the more acting now I 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:34.080 do it in school, the better my English, right right, 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:35.480 so using it from my English, and then there I 0:19:35.520 --> 0:19:37.000 was like, hey, you should do some commercials. You make 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:39.240 some money here there or whatever. And that's like that's like, wha, 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:40.960 I can make money doing this thing. 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:41.480 Yeah. 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:45.320 I never was thinking I was going to be like successful, 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:47.960 famous actor like that. The ambition wasn't that I'm going 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:51.320 to be the most famous, you know. The ambition was 0:19:51.359 --> 0:19:53.119 like Oh, I heard that I can make a couple 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:55.760 of commercials and make little money, right, and then that 0:19:55.880 --> 0:19:58.560 turned into the first pilot of you know, the show. 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:02.320 And but but but A foundation of that was rooted 0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:06.960 in very early experiences when you were doing it in school. 0:20:07.119 --> 0:20:08.280 And I'm sure everybody I was. 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:11.960 Subliminately shopping a tool, right, like basically but everybody. 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:15.280 I'm sure it was getting a laugh. But the laughs 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:19.440 and the looks might have been different towards you, because 0:20:19.480 --> 0:20:25.840 I think that people recognize or might have recognized, an 0:20:25.880 --> 0:20:29.320 ability that you may not have even recognized in yourself. 0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:31.959 Yeah, you know, I don't think. 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:36.600 I don't think I fully comprehended that I maybe was 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:39.760 equipped to do it, Yeah, until I started doing it. 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:42.159 What about you, did you have a moment where you 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:45.600 were like, wait, I've never done this before, but it 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:47.520 came natural. 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:51.399