Speaker 1: So it's happy. Welcome to those amigos.
Speaker 2: Welcome to do a media you know, that's that's how
Speaker 2: we do things.
Speaker 1: I am we.
Speaker 3: So uh here, we are here, We are there.
Speaker 2: You know a little water for them, are we are
Speaker 2: we switching.
Speaker 1: Up in a little while. Yeah, we'll brobably switch it
Speaker 1: to guns, you know.
Speaker 4: But because it's apropos, we are in your speakeasy.
Speaker 2: And and and for those.
Speaker 4: Of you out there who can't really see this magnificent space,
Speaker 4: this is Wilmer Valderrama is wonderful speakeasy. I mean, this
Speaker 4: thing is pretty impressive. I hope that one day we
Speaker 4: just get the kinda put the camera around. But there's
Speaker 4: this awesome bar over there.
Speaker 1: Hey, Aaron, you went into the yourself a bit.
Speaker 5: Absolutely absolutely, what's going on, y'all. My name is Aaron.
Speaker 5: I'm a producer for Docent Migos. Consider me your third
Speaker 5: amigo for today's episode. I'm over here. And if you
Speaker 5: have any questions or things. If the audience out there
Speaker 5: wants to ask any of our wonderful gentlemen a question,
Speaker 5: I'll be here to present it to you all.
Speaker 1: But I'm excited for the journey. And yeah, let's have
Speaker 1: a good time.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Eron Wilmer, I want to know what the inspiration
Speaker 4: was behind this thing? And I'm I'm every time I
Speaker 4: come here, I just I never want to leave.
Speaker 1: Me too, me too so much. Nobody can get me
Speaker 1: to go anywhere anymore. What was it?
Speaker 2: What was the inspiration?
Speaker 3: Like, you know, I gotta say, I think Timothy Alton
Speaker 3: discovered me, right, And everybody knows about this guy for
Speaker 3: a very.
Speaker 1: Long time, and I discover him late.
Speaker 3: And I just love that every single one of these
Speaker 3: pieces has said so much, and every piece had an
Speaker 3: opinion about itself.
Speaker 2: Like what would you how would you describe his style?
Speaker 3: It's like vintage new, but it's really a vintage, but
Speaker 3: it's made new.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: He also uses vintage artifacts and then gives it new purpose, right,
Speaker 3: Like there's just stuff like that, and it's just really
Speaker 3: you know, the deep collars, I don't know, it feels
Speaker 3: like something I've never had before, and I feel inspirational
Speaker 3: to me, you know, in many ways. And but yeah,
Speaker 3: so so I got my first lamp from him, and
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, this is cool. And then he
Speaker 3: turned into a couch, and then he turned into a table,
Speaker 3: and then he turned into like a in artwork and
Speaker 3: it's just start aspiring ball from But I'm like, I'm
Speaker 3: like a you know, I'm like a Timothy Olton double
Speaker 3: R L guy, you know. So I love that that
Speaker 3: stuff is my It's.
Speaker 2: Very indicative of the style.
Speaker 4: I mean, even even like this, like I don't know
Speaker 4: if y'all could see it, woman has this wonderful kind
Speaker 4: of bronze tin roof here ceiling should.
Speaker 2: I Yeah, yeah, it's wonderful.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well yeah, it was definitely like this experiment and
Speaker 3: that you imagine telling your your lady that the room
Speaker 3: downstairs is something that you even have a stage there man,
Speaker 3: And yeah, we have a piano there, we have Sheila,
Speaker 3: he's goes there.
Speaker 1: I think one day we'll have Sheil come in and
Speaker 1: do a thing, you know.
Speaker 2: And we had people perform on that day.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I think uh Leo clam who's one of
Speaker 3: the ex producers. He's just an incredible producers. Done a beautiful,
Speaker 3: beautiful work. And you know, we had we had a
Speaker 3: little birthday here and but we had a little piano there.
Speaker 3: We have she like the bongos that she gave me
Speaker 3: for my birthday and stuff. So we're I mean, I look,
Speaker 3: I just I love this. I love music. I love
Speaker 3: this this corner.
Speaker 4: I mean you could have like a full band up there, man,
Speaker 4: I mean this is like this reminds me of the
Speaker 4: space that I would see like in New York, somewhere
Speaker 4: like downtown.
Speaker 1: I think.
Speaker 3: So, you know, I feel like you know has that
Speaker 3: you know I you know you talk about the wells
Speaker 3: covered newspapers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what's that about.
Speaker 3: So my friends found this guy who was selling thirty
Speaker 3: years of headlines, real newspapers, thirty years, and he was
Speaker 3: selling for a one hundred bucks.
Speaker 1: So he for the whole bundle.
Speaker 3: Yes, he just wanted it out of his garage. So
Speaker 3: I bought the whole thing. And then I said, uh,
Speaker 3: you know what am if you put it on the walls.
Speaker 3: And so we have like headlines from you know, Mike Tyson,
Speaker 3: you know Mike Tyson in the ear and you know
Speaker 3: the eighty four Olympics, you know Kobe Bryant joining the
Speaker 3: Lakers eighty four.
Speaker 2: He had eighty four Olympics newspaper.
Speaker 3: Yeah and yeah, so that became the one paper of
Speaker 3: the room, and he just felt like the whole place
Speaker 3: had an opinion.
Speaker 1: But speaking of opinions.
Speaker 3: You know, we still and I have some Yeah, we
Speaker 3: don't know why we're here, we're doing this kind of
Speaker 3: what we're here?
Speaker 1: How do we do this?
Speaker 5: Like?
Speaker 1: What happened?
Speaker 2: Did we do this?
Speaker 1: Welcome to those? Am he goos?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 2: Yes, welcome to those.
Speaker 3: The podcast so you explore the many topics that run
Speaker 3: through Freddy's and might.
Speaker 4: Have our brains, so that you can get a sense
Speaker 4: of what it's like when Wilmar and I get together
Speaker 4: and we just talk and all of a sudden it's
Speaker 4: like three four hours later.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, perfect segway into like how do we ended
Speaker 3: up here with microphones and speakeasy and like how did
Speaker 3: this happen?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I feel like there was a lead up to that day, though,
Speaker 4: because woman and I have known each other twenty five
Speaker 4: years or so, and I found that every time that
Speaker 4: you and I got together, whether we're on a plane
Speaker 4: to London or whatever, it's always like five six seven
Speaker 4: hours of us just talking and it always seems so seamless,
Speaker 4: it didn't seem forced or anything, and so I always
Speaker 4: felt like that was the foundation of why we came
Speaker 4: here today. However, that leads us to the night we
Speaker 4: got together we had a group text between myself, Wilmer
Speaker 4: and shout out to Jay, Hernandez and Rock and we
Speaker 4: had a group text, and for like a year we
Speaker 4: kept saying, when are we getting together?
Speaker 1: When do we get together? When do we get together?
Speaker 4: Finally it was the it was the strike right, and
Speaker 4: it was Jay goes, come on, I know none.
Speaker 2: Of you bastards are working, so let's go and have dinner.
Speaker 4: And we finally did it, and we got together and
Speaker 4: what was that wonderful restaurant.
Speaker 1: We went too.
Speaker 3: It's a it's an Argentina and restaurant on Marroo's my
Speaker 3: favorite steak house in Los Angeles. Highly recommend visiting. Beautiful
Speaker 3: family own. The mom is still doing all the is
Speaker 3: it really?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Everybody who you met was you know, brothers, and it's
Speaker 3: beautiful and it's been there forever. I mean it's like
Speaker 3: this hidden jam and yeah, it's it's amazing.
Speaker 1: But so we we ended up showing up who he said, Hey,
Speaker 1: you know what six o'clock dinner.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because you know we're all like like three old men.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we can go bed early. Cut to you know,
Speaker 3: two thirty in the morning. We're still talking and close
Speaker 3: to doing and We're on Merrows telling your mama so
Speaker 3: fat jokes. Like it got to a point where we
Speaker 3: just started talking about anything.
Speaker 4: Okay, hold on, did everybody hear that we were on
Speaker 4: Melrose at three in the morning telling your mama jokes?
Speaker 4: So you could imagine the cars that were passing by,
Speaker 4: and we're watching j Hernandez and Freddie Rodriguez looking like
Speaker 4: three three delinquents Mels at three. Yeah, which is a
Speaker 4: quick shout out to a Warmer. First show he produced
Speaker 4: called Yo Mama, which I was an incredible fan of,
Speaker 4: and as we're there al Melrose, I brought it up
Speaker 4: and we fell right into the ya Mama jact. Yeah.
Speaker 1: No, I that was my first Frankenstein.
Speaker 3: That was my first audacious Uh maybe I could be
Speaker 3: a producer too, you know.
Speaker 1: And then I created this thing and MTV says yes.
Speaker 3: But speaking of all the you know, origin stories and
Speaker 3: all that, I think about our culture, and I think
Speaker 3: about the likability, the likability, the likability of all of
Speaker 3: us somehow ended up embracing a life of you know, entertainment.
Speaker 3: What was that moment for you? Just kind of getting
Speaker 3: down to it, like, what was that moment for that
Speaker 3: you you were like, oh, you know, I want to
Speaker 3: be an actor.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I mean, and this is the absolute truth.
Speaker 4: I really wasn't good at anything else.
Speaker 2: And I'm dead serious.
Speaker 4: I feel like I started acting when I was like thirteen,
Speaker 4: and I feel like it's such a crucial age where
Speaker 4: you're trying to find yourself and you're trying to find
Speaker 4: your identity. And I had cousins who were studious, and
Speaker 4: I had friends who were athletes and so on and
Speaker 4: so forth, and I just wasn't really good at any
Speaker 4: of that stuff. And it wasn't until I found acting
Speaker 4: and I found the arts that I really found what
Speaker 4: I felt was my calling, which was in contrast to
Speaker 4: what my parents had planned for me. Right, My parents
Speaker 4: migrated from Puerto Rico to Chicago, didn't speak English. And
Speaker 4: I don't know if you experienced this with your parents,
Speaker 4: but definitely like one track mind, right, came from Puerto
Speaker 4: Rico to Chicago, worked, raised their kids, one of their
Speaker 4: kids to go to school, one of their kids to
Speaker 4: get jobs, you know, lead a normal life. And then
Speaker 4: here I come like, I want to be I want
Speaker 4: to get altita, I want Yeah, what it is that
Speaker 4: it's a hobby, you know, because there was so many
Speaker 4: plays and so much off I was doing in Chicago
Speaker 4: at that time, and it wasn't until I started to
Speaker 4: do it professionally that they started to see that I
Speaker 4: could actually pay the rent.
Speaker 2: But it just it just didn't compute for a long time.
Speaker 2: You know, did you have the same.
Speaker 3: Experience pretty similar? I mean in the sense that you know,
Speaker 3: we are we see, came here to work. We came
Speaker 3: from the different country to you know, where'd you guys,
Speaker 3: where'd you guys come from? Well, we came from Venezuela.
Speaker 3: So my mother is Columbia. My father's Venezuelan, so you know,
Speaker 3: we but they had met at Miami, and you know,
Speaker 3: we'll get deep into that later. But I but I
Speaker 3: think the moment that I said to myself, oh why
Speaker 3: not acting right was almost by necessity, in a weird
Speaker 3: illusion away, you know.
Speaker 2: Necessity.
Speaker 1: Yeah, necessity.
Speaker 3: I felt like you know, I was I was still
Speaker 3: in high school, you know, but I was always acting,
Speaker 3: singing and dances just for fun. You know, I never
Speaker 3: did it professionally. And I remember my dad used to
Speaker 3: drive this masta, you know, held put up for sales
Speaker 3: sign on the moss die and yeah, something like that
Speaker 3: and he would put it for sale sign. And he
Speaker 3: would use this car to transport parts from shop to shop.
Speaker 3: And if for sale sign, he will sell the car
Speaker 3: for a little profit. They would buy another one a
Speaker 3: little more expensive, would put it for sale sign, then
Speaker 3: buy another one, put it for sales sign. And that
Speaker 3: car was just hustling, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 3: then one day that car got.
Speaker 1: Stolen from the front of the house.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, and I saw for the first time, you know,
Speaker 3: the uncertainty and the concern, and the and the fear
Speaker 3: from my mom and from my dad.
Speaker 4: And because that was the money man, that was the
Speaker 4: money maker, that was the train, right, and that was
Speaker 4: what was carried in us buy and well that he
Speaker 4: was selling that he was also making some money and
Speaker 4: using the car and that was a lifeline.
Speaker 3: And you know, in Los Angeles you need a car.
Speaker 3: Like you to get around, you need a car. And
Speaker 3: you know, honestly, that was the moment when I saw
Speaker 3: their concern, I said to myself, I got to get
Speaker 3: in the game. And I was maybe fourteen fifteen years old,
Speaker 3: and I said, I got to do this. And you know,
Speaker 3: remember hearing this commercial. Are you between the ages of
Speaker 3: sixteen was it? Oh man, are you between the fourteen
Speaker 3: and sixty years old? Do you think you got it
Speaker 3: takes to what it takes to to be a TV
Speaker 3: personality and commercials and you know morning Saturday morning shows. Uh.
Speaker 1: Then come to the Hilton and laxah blah blah. We
Speaker 1: do a showcase where industry.
Speaker 3: Experts, industry experts, they are going to deem to see
Speaker 3: if you got what it is?
Speaker 1: If you got it?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I told my dad and my Dad's like,
Speaker 3: what what is this?
Speaker 1: You know? So we go we showed up this showcase
Speaker 1: and then he was like, but did.
Speaker 2: You do it before that? Or did you just have
Speaker 2: a natural I guess I was doing theater right.
Speaker 3: I was singing and dancing, you know, but again because
Speaker 3: it was like extra codc activities and in school, that
Speaker 3: was the why I did it, you know, because it
Speaker 3: was fun.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: I was like, and I didn't know how to speak English.
Speaker 3: So the more I did that, the faster I was
Speaker 3: learning how to speak English.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but you know the audacity of thinking that you
Speaker 3: could be that, That's something that I think culturally we
Speaker 3: all have. Yeah, but into it takes a certain amount
Speaker 3: of perfect storms to happen, you.
Speaker 2: Know, right, perfect storms.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so what you say to your family, Hey, I
Speaker 3: want to audition and or like I wanted to how
Speaker 3: does this happen to you?
Speaker 1: Decided you in the theater.
Speaker 2: Or yeah, I sort of stumbled into it.
Speaker 4: In the Chicago public school systems at that time, the
Speaker 4: arts were practically non existent, just to be honest, And
Speaker 4: so my school had no arts, no sports, nothing extracurricular.
Speaker 4: And this is a really important point. You know, what
Speaker 4: happens to kids at that age if there's no direction, right,
Speaker 4: if there's nothing that they're necessarily interested in, whether it's
Speaker 4: the art of sports or something else, then they're susceptible
Speaker 4: to becoming a product of their environment.
Speaker 2: Okay, and I grew up in Chicago. I grew up
Speaker 2: in the inner city.
Speaker 4: I grew up wear a lot of gangs, a lot
Speaker 4: of drugs, a lot of graffiti, a lot of everything
Speaker 4: that you would imagine is in the urban environment. And
Speaker 4: I found myself pretty much going in that direction, or
Speaker 4: saw that I could have gone in that direction if
Speaker 4: I had no If I had no direction, family saw
Speaker 4: it as well. And so when I discovered acting, I've
Speaker 4: just found my calling. But a lot of that was
Speaker 4: just because I wasn't good at anything else, you know,
Speaker 4: and people need to understand that, you know, not every
Speaker 4: kid is a is an athlete, not every kid is
Speaker 4: a mathematician.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: You got to find the thing that that the thirteen
Speaker 4: year old kid is good at and then they'll thrive.
Speaker 1: What's the strength and how do you cultivate that? Exactly? Yeah,
Speaker 1: And honestly this.
Speaker 3: Is one of the purposes of where I feel this
Speaker 3: show hopefully be a space for it to explore all
Speaker 3: these ideas and all these thoughts, all these subjects. You know,
Speaker 3: how do you demystified? Right, how do you how do
Speaker 3: you disarm the thought of.
Speaker 1: Any ambition you have?
Speaker 3: You know, I think that there's so much in culturally
Speaker 3: that we have to kind of fight against, you know,
Speaker 3: in order for us to break ground, or break new
Speaker 3: environments or go into new roads, right take take new
Speaker 3: chapters that perhaps our family never thought realistic for us, right,
Speaker 3: you know. So, so I really hope that this space
Speaker 3: that this podcast you know, kind of allows us to
Speaker 3: disarm those thoughts, to create a new a new way
Speaker 3: of thinking, you know, and I think you think about
Speaker 3: the generation that we're experiencing right now, and you know,
Speaker 3: the youngans who are going to carry the torch from
Speaker 3: whatever we were able to humbly achieve.
Speaker 1: And I think that's the.
Speaker 3: Part of this experiment, you know. And we'd like to
Speaker 3: invite everyone who's who's joining us in this podcast to say, hey, like,
Speaker 3: remember when you used to dream big?
Speaker 1: Right like, is it too late to keep dreaming?
Speaker 3: You know, bring some friends, you know, but perhaps the
Speaker 3: third amigo that can inspire you and me, you know
Speaker 3: into other ways you know, that can hopefully translate into
Speaker 3: inspiration for others. You know, this is a show for everyone,
Speaker 3: and we hope that everyone really really enjoys it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a show for everyone.
Speaker 4: You know. I want to hear other people's journeys as well,
Speaker 4: whether you're in the entertainment industry or not.
Speaker 2: You know, what's it like to be in business, what's
Speaker 2: it like to be a doctor or a nurse or
Speaker 2: a teacher or that.
Speaker 4: I want to know what that journey is like and
Speaker 4: how culturally that's impacted you and how that steered your
Speaker 4: journey or whatever decisions you made in that journey.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and what life hacks you know, what ways do
Speaker 3: you can you hack the life that was perceived or
Speaker 3: stereotypically given to you, And how do you break that
Speaker 3: apart and say, hey, you know, I'm going to rewrite
Speaker 3: a new chapter, like how can we do that? And
Speaker 3: then you know, also, let's make sure this is fun,
Speaker 3: you know, you know, you.
Speaker 1: Know, because that's just who we are, you know.
Speaker 3: I think one thing I can say about Latinos is
Speaker 3: that when things get a little complicated, you know, we
Speaker 3: don't complain about it.
Speaker 1: We turn the music a little. Yeah. So let's I
Speaker 1: had a question real quick, how did you two meet?
Speaker 5: Because this is like a dope friendship and I know
Speaker 5: it's been years in the making, and I just want
Speaker 5: to say, like, when was the first time y'all connected
Speaker 5: and knew like, okay, this is going to be like
Speaker 5: a brother or like life.
Speaker 1: Or something like that.
Speaker 5: Like how did you all come across each other?
Speaker 1: That's a great question, that's a weird question.
Speaker 3: I'd say, well, you should go first, because there's multiple
Speaker 3: instances in my life when you and I crosspass words.
Speaker 4: It's like, yeah, this is yeah. I remember I was
Speaker 4: doing I was doing a show I want to say
Speaker 4: nineteen ninety eight, maybe ninety nine, and I remember you
Speaker 4: came to visit a friend and you came on set
Speaker 4: and I think I was shooting at Sony or something,
Speaker 4: and I remember the hair person or the makeup person said, hey, you.
Speaker 1: See that guy.
Speaker 2: He's he's a Latino actor like you.
Speaker 4: And I remember them specifically pointing you out as you
Speaker 4: walked in and you said hello to your friend. And
Speaker 4: at that point I really hadn't met too many other
Speaker 4: Latino Latina actors in Hollywood.
Speaker 2: Man. I really fell alone, you know. And I just
Speaker 2: remember looking at you and going.
Speaker 4: Like, whoh, there's somebody else like me, you know. And
Speaker 4: then I believe your show came out after and obviously
Speaker 4: seeing you on that, I was incredibly proud to see you,
Speaker 4: you doing your thing. And then I just remember being
Speaker 4: out and us having mutual friends and meeting through mutual friends.
Speaker 4: I remember seeing you, I don't know if it was
Speaker 4: Conan O'Brien or whatever, and you were dancing sad side.
Speaker 2: And I was like, he dances sas like man, like,
Speaker 2: you know, I.
Speaker 4: Grew up dancing South Simon didn't get you know, And
Speaker 4: that you spoke Spanish, and which is crazy. You tell
Speaker 4: me that Spanish was your first language and you didn't
Speaker 4: speak English because your English was so impeccable, I would
Speaker 4: have never guessed that you only spoke Spanish. So there
Speaker 4: were a lot of elements that you possessed that felt
Speaker 4: very familiar to me.
Speaker 2: And you just felt like somebody that I had grown.
Speaker 1: Up with, you know.
Speaker 2: And then when we actually met and we started talking,
Speaker 2: I was like, this guy's the coolest freaking guy in
Speaker 2: the world, man, you know.
Speaker 4: And every time we as I said in the beginning
Speaker 4: of the show, every time we talked, it was always
Speaker 4: like three four hours and we always.
Speaker 2: Just you know, just enjoyed each other's company.
Speaker 1: Well, my mine is very similar, you know.
Speaker 3: I think first of all, I remember seeing you a
Speaker 3: six feet under and I was like, and then see
Speaker 3: your Rodriguez, you know, Rodriguez and the credits, I was like, damn,
Speaker 3: you know, and I'm telling you, you what you say
Speaker 3: to me, I feel incredibly just telling of the environment
Speaker 3: and the climbing in which we're coming up as performers,
Speaker 3: you know, I didn't have anything else to compare ourselves to, right,
Speaker 3: and there was like maybe a few of us on
Speaker 3: network TV and cable TV, and you know, I saw
Speaker 3: you a six feet under and you were I mean
Speaker 3: incredible in that Then I realized I started then seeing
Speaker 3: you in so many other movies before that, and I
Speaker 3: was like, oh, this is the same guy I liked
Speaker 3: in this movie.
Speaker 1: This is the same guy I liked in that product.
Speaker 3: And so to me, it was like just to see
Speaker 3: that almost created this mirage that like we weren't just
Speaker 3: the one person in the room, right, Like we weren't
Speaker 3: like the only Latino on the show, the only Latino
Speaker 3: in the movie. And it made me realize that I
Speaker 3: wasn't that I wasn't that alone. But you know, it
Speaker 3: goes full circle to say, like, you know, the moment
Speaker 3: I met you, your your and you know, you were
Speaker 3: unapologetically Latino, and I was like, dude, like it's really
Speaker 3: is it was really beautiful.
Speaker 1: To see that.
Speaker 3: And I say, you know, to your point, some of
Speaker 3: these conversations that we were having, you know, kept untapping
Speaker 3: and un rambling some of the many layers that we
Speaker 3: have never been allowed to talk about because you know,
Speaker 3: you get kind of corner into you know, promote the
Speaker 3: show and you know, talk about the why the show
Speaker 3: and about your character, and you never have the space
Speaker 3: to kind of talk a little bit about what it
Speaker 3: took for you to have the tools that you did,
Speaker 3: and back then you were doing some of the most
Speaker 3: pop culturally moments in history. And I remember seeing you
Speaker 3: go through the ALBUMA Awards and whatever, and I was like,
Speaker 3: of course, I mean like you were.
Speaker 1: You were absolutely lifting our community for.
Speaker 3: So long, but they weren't that many of us, so
Speaker 3: the signal was like just brewing, you know, like we
Speaker 3: were just making them, you know, and but you were
Speaker 3: part of this community that was just breaking ground for
Speaker 3: all of us. And I was it was more than proud.
Speaker 4: I was.
Speaker 3: I just wanted to be like that. I just wanted
Speaker 3: to continue to aspire to do that, you know. And
Speaker 3: but it was our conversations. And I remember when I
Speaker 3: truly fell in love with Freddie Rodriguez was when we
Speaker 3: were on a flight to London, That's right, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: and we ended up sitting together like just randomly and
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh, Freddie, nice to see you, and like yeah.
Speaker 1: And You're like the same.
Speaker 3: And then we did not take one blink of a
Speaker 3: nap as from the moment we boarded to the moment
Speaker 3: we landed, to the moment.
Speaker 1: We got our bags, we were talking. I don't know
Speaker 1: how long.
Speaker 3: That flight was like thirteen hours, thirteen hours, and we
Speaker 3: talked about all of it, and that's when I knew,
Speaker 3: you know, you're gonna be my family for life.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you, brother. I received that.
Speaker 4: And you know what's interesting about that, you know, us
Speaker 4: talking like that for thirteen hours, I mean, what does
Speaker 4: that say. It said is that there's a lot that
Speaker 4: we were holding back. Right. I don't want to say
Speaker 4: it's like a therapy session, but you know it goes
Speaker 4: to show that that, at least as I'm speaking for myself,
Speaker 4: you know, like I didn't really have too many other
Speaker 4: people that I can talk to like that that understood
Speaker 4: the journey, that understood the steps, that understood starting how
Speaker 4: we started and what it was to be there. You
Speaker 4: said something a minute ago that was really interesting. A
Speaker 4: lot of the projects that we've done, we're always the
Speaker 4: only Latino in that project, you know, and that gets
Speaker 4: lonely man, right, you know, you know, you go from
Speaker 4: movie to movie, show to show, and you're always the
Speaker 4: only Latino person, you know, and you don't have somebody
Speaker 4: else there that you can relate to or talk to.
Speaker 4: And so so then when you get on a plane
Speaker 4: in London for thirteen hours.
Speaker 1: It's like I gotta let it alone.
Speaker 2: I gotta let it out.
Speaker 1: But there was a lack of community, right, there's a
Speaker 1: lack of.
Speaker 3: Awareness, you know, And we were all, you know, lone
Speaker 3: ranger in this thing in different directions, right, we were
Speaker 3: segregated from each other and not allowed to technically commute
Speaker 3: artistically because you're right, like tokenly, you know, we were
Speaker 3: placed in different projects. And by the way, we were
Speaker 3: also where able to play against stereotypes and so many
Speaker 3: different ways, you know, and some all that stuff.
Speaker 1: So it's pretty unbelievable. For me.
Speaker 3: It was like, you know, I had an accent, So
Speaker 3: when I was looking at you as a Latina and
Speaker 3: you did not have an accent but also spoke Spanish,
Speaker 3: I was like, I gotta be like this guy because
Speaker 3: I literally could have ship my accent. And I think
Speaker 3: for right now, I think you can hear that I
Speaker 3: decided to give up on that question.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I never but I never felt it was like
Speaker 4: at the forefront.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it wasn't strong enough to be the night in jobs,
Speaker 3: but it also wasn't like clean enough to play you know,
Speaker 3: the full American guy, you know. But but I mean,
Speaker 3: I to your point I think having our journeys, you know,
Speaker 3: clashing this way, and for us to be able to
Speaker 3: historically record these moments and and say like, we can
Speaker 3: leave this behind and you know, not just for our children,
Speaker 3: but humbly to those who are next. And there's a
Speaker 3: beautiful community out there that has been waiting for this space,
Speaker 3: and I dare to say they're inheriting a space that's
Speaker 3: so much more open, so much more marketable, so much
Speaker 3: more fruitful. And I think the idea that this podcast
Speaker 3: can start this conversation in many ways.
Speaker 1: On that level, it's amazing.
Speaker 3: And I you know, I invite everybody in the studio
Speaker 3: system in Hollywood and all other industries to kind of discover,
Speaker 3: you know, how much of a partner this community can be,
Speaker 3: how much of.
Speaker 4: A partner, how vast our audiences, how big our audiences,
Speaker 4: The audience that's going to tune in to listen to this,
Speaker 4: the audience that has followed us for the last thirty years,
Speaker 4: that have watched all our things.
Speaker 1: And we're going to talk about all those things.
Speaker 3: We're going to bring all of our friends, you know,
Speaker 3: to come and validate these stories. Don't take it just
Speaker 3: from us, but yeah, the idea that we can bring
Speaker 3: other individuals that were part of that journey and also
Speaker 3: individuals that may be part of the journey we're going next,
Speaker 3: and we hope everyone enjoys it.
Speaker 1: And that leads me to my next wondrous question.
Speaker 3: We've been able to talk a little bit of like
Speaker 3: the inspiration, what like what kicked our butts into artistry?
Speaker 3: You know, but I think a lot of people have
Speaker 3: not had the opportunity to hear who is Freddie Rodriguez?
Speaker 1: You know, like where do you come from? Who are
Speaker 1: your parents? You know, who were you as a kid,
Speaker 1: who were you as a student?
Speaker 3: You know, like what what things happen in your life
Speaker 3: that kind of shape what Freddie Rodriguez is today? Because
Speaker 3: although we have to artistry, there's a whole lifetime that happens,
Speaker 3: the play of factor and the choices you make as
Speaker 3: an actor in the in the in your views and your.
Speaker 1: Philosophies of life. And I love to hear that, Oh, well,
Speaker 1: thank you.
Speaker 4: I hope we have another episode in us maybe maybe
Speaker 4: we'll well look at that.
Speaker 3: We got to refill our cup refilled and we welcome
Speaker 3: Maryant Episode two.
Speaker 1: Who is Freddie Rodriguez?
Speaker 2: Salute?
Speaker 4: Dos Amigos is a production from WV Sound and iHeartMedia's
Speaker 4: Michael Tuda podcast network, hosted by Me, Freddie Rodriguez, and
Speaker 4: Wilmer Valderama.
Speaker 3: Those Amigos is produced by Aaron Burlison and Sophie Spencer's Zebos.
Speaker 4: Our executive producers are Wilmer Valderama, Freddie Rodriguez, Aaron Burlison,
Speaker 4: and Leo Klem at WV Sound.
Speaker 3: This episode was edited by Ryan Posts and Aaron Burlison
Speaker 3: and features original music by Madison Devenport and Halo Boy.
Speaker 4: Our cover art photography is by David Avalos and designed
Speaker 4: by Deny holtz.
Speaker 3: Claw and special thanks to every single interview for joining
Speaker 3: this journey and I hope you continue to enjoy us.
Speaker 4: For more podcasts from my Heart, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 4: Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 3: See you or hear us in a week or so.