Speaker 1: Wilmer Valdorama is an actor, producer, TV personality, best known
Speaker 1: for his role as Fez on that seventies show from
Speaker 1: moving to the US not knowing a single word of
Speaker 1: English to now becoming a successful businessman. We dive deep
Speaker 1: into this interview with Wilmer. This is just be with
Speaker 1: Wilmer Valdorama. How are you?
Speaker 2: I'm excellent, I'm always good.
Speaker 3: How are you good?
Speaker 1: Are you in?
Speaker 3: La I am in? La I am in la I
Speaker 3: am Thankfully I wrapped the show for the season, so
Speaker 3: I have a little downtime and then we have like
Speaker 3: allwering writer's try coming up, so that might be a
Speaker 3: longer extended victship for a while.
Speaker 1: But I remember the last one, and I remember my
Speaker 1: opinion being that reality television show and its explosion being
Speaker 1: like result of that a reaction to that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was crazy, it was done.
Speaker 3: It was an alternative programming of all different sorts. And
Speaker 3: then animation started coming.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, I'm like entertaining a reverend animation and you
Speaker 1: are your you do voices for animation. You did encanto right,
Speaker 1: which I did. I don't know do most people know
Speaker 1: that or do you get like a more sort of
Speaker 1: incognitle life when you do those projects.
Speaker 3: That's a great question. It's a great question.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I think I tend to get in front of them
Speaker 3: as if they were like a primetime show or like
Speaker 3: a blockbuster release, and I try to promote as hard
Speaker 3: as it possibly can. So I think most people know
Speaker 3: that animation is something I love very much, and I
Speaker 3: you know, and I just find I find it very refreshing.
Speaker 3: It's a really fine medium to tell stories. And since
Speaker 3: I was a little boy, I've always thought it'd be
Speaker 3: I'd be so cool to be an animated character, you know.
Speaker 3: So yeah, So when I my first thing was I
Speaker 3: partner up with Walt Disney to do this little preschooler
Speaker 3: show on Saturday Mornings called Handy Manning Okay, And I
Speaker 3: played Handy play Manny And it was a little handy
Speaker 3: man with a team of talking tools and we just
Speaker 3: went around Shee rock Hills, Riggs in anything that was
Speaker 3: broken and along the way you appreciate culture. It was bilingual.
Speaker 3: It was like the first of its kind, and it
Speaker 3: did incredibly well. So and I just got hooked. I
Speaker 3: got hooked at that, you know, coming to a sound
Speaker 3: booth and like playing with the lines over and over
Speaker 3: again and like being able to just do it right there,
Speaker 3: like me, do it one more time, I'll do it
Speaker 3: like this. I'm doing it like that, which was just
Speaker 3: a very thing.
Speaker 1: So it's more free than regular acting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because regular acting, you're crafting a visual interpretation of
Speaker 3: something that was put on a script as a narrative
Speaker 3: blueprint for or an audience to enjoy a certain genre,
Speaker 3: a certain adventure, a certain you know journey, and even
Speaker 3: on television, you know, you you have a certain time
Speaker 3: and strain on like how you're going to tell this,
Speaker 3: and every actor has a different contribution very amount second
Speaker 3: boys over. But when you're performing live action, I mean
Speaker 3: there's is just like a million more elements to the
Speaker 3: art form that has to be engaged as a perfect storm.
Speaker 3: When you're doing animation, you can be as imperfect as
Speaker 3: you want to be, Like you can blove the line
Speaker 3: eleven times. You can't enacting right. Enacting you got to
Speaker 3: get it into takes right.
Speaker 1: But and uh, all the expense, like all the different
Speaker 1: expense that think the time is more critical and versus
Speaker 1: just like being in a booth, it's like more Yeah, I.
Speaker 2: Think so, I think so I think it's a little
Speaker 2: bit more.
Speaker 3: It's a little bit more liberating in the sense that
Speaker 3: when you're doing you know, a feature, you're doing television,
Speaker 3: you have that location for a certain amount of time.
Speaker 3: They have computed that somehow this scene would take a
Speaker 3: you know, about two and they move to the next,
Speaker 3: the next one, so you can get everything in within
Speaker 3: the ten hour or twelve hour block, and so that
Speaker 3: so that becomes that. But for like example, when I
Speaker 3: did you know, when I did in canto, as an example,
Speaker 3: I would do the same line probably twenty five times,
Speaker 3: with all kinds of different colors and momentums and volumes
Speaker 3: and all that too, because sometimes you're not in the
Speaker 3: same booth. Most of the times, you're not in the
Speaker 3: same booth with the rest of the actors, so you're
Speaker 3: kind of playing with yourself.
Speaker 1: Oh interesting, I never have even thought about it, and
Speaker 1: I was wondering, is it much more? What's the so
Speaker 1: you get a movie, a normal movie or a normal
Speaker 1: TV show versus an animated TV show, what's the time
Speaker 1: commitment for you? What's the difference in the time commitment.
Speaker 3: And it's magical when you do a voiceover, because when
Speaker 3: you do a voiceover. You know, you commit to a
Speaker 3: three hour session, a four hour session. Sometimes you can
Speaker 3: do a six hour if you're like really busy, like
Speaker 3: I sometimes I have to get in a lot of
Speaker 3: and the hours that I got in, and then you
Speaker 3: can do multiple episodes in one recording.
Speaker 1: Oh you can bang it out, okay.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: In television it takes eight days to shoot one episode,
Speaker 3: and it takes a full day to maybe shoot three scenes.
Speaker 1: Okay. So if you did a movie and you got
Speaker 1: paid five dollars for a movie, as you're in it,
Speaker 1: it's you and you're an actor versus animation, you're the
Speaker 1: star of both. How much if you got five dollars
Speaker 1: on a regular movie, what would you get on an
Speaker 1: animated movie? Like, how much difference is it in pay?
Speaker 3: Probably about two dollars?
Speaker 1: Oh interesting, Okay, at any level, even if your tom
Speaker 1: cruise around for the most Yeah.
Speaker 2: Okay for the most.
Speaker 3: Yeah, an animation too, Like I mean it's a really
Speaker 3: good I mean you even go down to like the
Speaker 3: toy story of it, all right, I mean in the
Speaker 3: in the second and third movie, maybe everybody gets a
Speaker 3: bump and then maybe there is some box office performance
Speaker 3: budget that goes into making it animation is like every
Speaker 3: dollar counts, right.
Speaker 1: Okay, interesting, I've never heard that or known that, so
Speaker 1: obviously I know who you are, and I talk for
Speaker 1: some reason, I've talked to a lot of people who
Speaker 1: have like one thing that stands out is the biggest
Speaker 1: thing in their career that they're kind of always caring
Speaker 1: whether they like it, they don't. They go back to it,
Speaker 1: like whether it's Tory Spelling or you know, I just
Speaker 1: talked to David Arquette, who like screams his and his
Speaker 1: id indelibly, and Tory Spelling who's now leaning back into it,
Speaker 1: or me with the housewives, like having a podcast called Rewives.
Speaker 1: So what do you think of that? I know, without
Speaker 1: even asking you that that certainly hasn't been your most
Speaker 1: lucrative opportunity, but it's the thing you're the most famous for,
Speaker 1: right because you probably were making no money when you started,
Speaker 1: and everyone thought you guys are millionaires and you were
Speaker 1: just famous but not rich because I know what TV
Speaker 1: paid back then, and you were kids.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, I mean, so I guess we can reference
Speaker 2: back to.
Speaker 3: I would say the seventies show was obviously the big
Speaker 3: one for many reasons because it was. It was like
Speaker 3: the perfect blend of of innovation, you know, genre, you know,
Speaker 3: bending and like we were breaking the mall of sitcom.
Speaker 3: So it was going to work or it was going
Speaker 3: to be a catastrophe. And also we were such an
Speaker 3: interesting experiment because back then at prime time, you were
Speaker 3: against Friends sign felt you know, spencing with me, you
Speaker 3: know eventually Will and Grace. So we were like this,
Speaker 3: you know, this young up and coming cast that was
Speaker 3: somehow the found of voice within the eighteen to forty
Speaker 3: nine demographic. We weren't getting the household numbers like Friends,
Speaker 3: but we were absolutely dominating the eighteen and forty nine
Speaker 3: as you know, and most people would would you know,
Speaker 3: the eighteen forty nine is the like the holy grail
Speaker 3: for works, right, because that's the advertising that se you know,
Speaker 3: corporates are going after that audience. So if you can,
Speaker 3: if you can, if you have the attention of that
Speaker 3: demo and you're one, two or three in this sale
Speaker 3: of like the people that actually you know, invite as
Speaker 3: many other people in the demo, then you have an
Speaker 3: opportunity to grow and that show becomes very profitable and
Speaker 3: therefore you could have an opportunity to ringegotiate and get
Speaker 3: a little bit more for your money.
Speaker 1: And I think so for the viewers, for the listeners.
Speaker 1: People often in the press talk about the household overall
Speaker 1: number because it sounds big. On The Housewives used to be, oh,
Speaker 1: three million. Nobody cares about the household numbers really at
Speaker 1: the network, they're like, oh, but in the demo, and
Speaker 1: they even take it even tighter, like it's eighteen to
Speaker 1: forty nine and then twenty five to forty five. And
Speaker 1: you're getting women, so there could be some edgy audience
Speaker 1: where you've got it, but they're not really purchasers. So
Speaker 1: they want the purchasers of the household. And he's talking
Speaker 1: about and even going deeper, Wilmer was on a show
Speaker 1: that had the younger audience, So they're going to keep
Speaker 1: them in the store to watch the other stuff that
Speaker 1: they're selling them. So you want the young audience because
Speaker 1: you're going to keep that audience for their whole lives
Speaker 1: and also sell them other shit on the network.
Speaker 3: Sorry, that's right, No, that's right.
Speaker 2: I mean, thank you for clarifying that.
Speaker 3: For the listeners, I mean, and furthermore, to just kind
Speaker 3: of complement, would you've started with that then it becomes,
Speaker 3: you know, a networks mandate to fulfill certain demos so
Speaker 3: they can offer a different portfolio to all their advertisers, who,
Speaker 3: by the way, not only funding the network and funding
Speaker 3: the company, but also funding the content.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: So in many ways, it's like this interesting ecosystem that
Speaker 3: has to work together.
Speaker 2: Now it all got incredibly.
Speaker 3: You know, complicated as soon as different economy skills that
Speaker 3: are introducing. I mean, we were talking about the right
Speaker 3: strike and we were talking about you know how alternative
Speaker 3: programming you know, SORE or as as entertainment that was
Speaker 3: learning the same demos that were just as profit but
Speaker 3: they you know, the budgets were not as ambitious when
Speaker 3: it came to making this alternative programming. I'm talking about
Speaker 3: either docu fillows, reality shows, you know, documentaries and all that.
Speaker 3: So they were getting more for their buck because they
Speaker 3: were investing less in the content. And as it started growing,
Speaker 3: you know, we you know, it became a blend of
Speaker 3: like how much can you offer to whatever reviewer you get?
Speaker 3: And then the arrival of streaming right, which absolutely offered
Speaker 3: everything else right because now streaming was spending as much
Speaker 3: as they possibly could to just acquire a subscriber. It
Speaker 3: had nothing to do with advertised there was no song.
Speaker 1: It's a strange thing to like realize there's no ratings,
Speaker 1: but there are downloads, and it's a strange construct for
Speaker 1: thinking about the way they do their numbers. And do
Speaker 1: you feel what has been.
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 1: There's a couple of questions I have for you. So,
Speaker 1: first of all, your experience with streaming versus network television.
Speaker 1: Are you equally satisfied? Is it equally as exciting or
Speaker 1: it's not because it's like a bigger ocean.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it's it's I'm so glad you asked that,
Speaker 3: because I wear two hats, right as an entrepreneur and
Speaker 3: a producer, and then as a performer and just an actor,
Speaker 3: you know, and in many ways, and as a producer
Speaker 3: and for my company. Is it's an incredible opportunity to
Speaker 3: say I can create an idea and I can have enough.
Speaker 2: Gates that I.
Speaker 3: Can knock on to uh to walk in and hopefully
Speaker 3: find a home for the project. As an actor and
Speaker 3: as an actor, accounts tricky because there is tons of
Speaker 3: stuff being made, but not technically like what you would
Speaker 3: probably need or want to do to to pay to
Speaker 3: be the stepping stone to your next job, right, Like
Speaker 3: you can't just like sign on to any TV shows
Speaker 3: even though there's like two hundred TV shows casting you
Speaker 3: kind of you know. So it's like it becomes this
Speaker 3: conversation of you know, uh, you know those critically acclaim
Speaker 3: or high concept or you know, great writer, great direct
Speaker 3: to shows become you know, like a the pic of
Speaker 3: the literal type of situation. You know.
Speaker 2: So it's so it's like give and take with that.
Speaker 3: But I will say, uh, all in all, there is
Speaker 3: a new generation of performers, actors, writers and directors that
Speaker 3: are finding their voice and all these mediums. So I
Speaker 3: think in a different way, it's just evolution and it's
Speaker 3: part of innovation, you know.
Speaker 2: I remember the introduction of cable.
Speaker 3: When you think about network and when cable got introduced,
Speaker 3: First of all, cable was the place that most network
Speaker 3: actors wouldn't even go, right because they're like, yeah, they
Speaker 3: don't have the same budgets, they.
Speaker 2: Don't have the right you know, caliber content. And then and.
Speaker 1: Movie actors go into TV was a big thing now
Speaker 1: you see.
Speaker 3: And exactly, yeah, yeah, the network actors wouldn't go to cable.
Speaker 3: And then cable started producing some innovative stuff because they
Speaker 3: had nothing to lose, and therefore cable became a big
Speaker 3: thread for the network business because now advertisers were like, whoa,
Speaker 3: it's interesting. They're a critically a claim down here, you know.
Speaker 3: So it's like the evolution of the changes and now
Speaker 3: they both got a hit on them because yeah.
Speaker 1: And people used to not want to go to the
Speaker 1: valley from Beverly Hills, but low and hold that happens.
Speaker 1: It's evolution. So because remember eight one A was not
Speaker 1: used to be like, you're not gonna.
Speaker 3: Be a final We're living in the A one A,
Speaker 3: you know, yeah, years a lot of land over there.
Speaker 1: You want it to be A two one three?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Okay, So I have a couple of questions because I
Speaker 1: just I just asked my assistant for pen because you
Speaker 1: made me think of so many different things. So hold
Speaker 1: on being attached to because now I have a Now
Speaker 1: it's such an interesting conversation because I now and I
Speaker 1: wasn't even intending to talk to you about this, but
Speaker 1: this is something I haven't talked about, and I think
Speaker 1: it's interesting in this industry is that it's about like
Speaker 1: so now there's more, there's more, distribution, and it's like
Speaker 1: choosing whether you want to be do you want to
Speaker 1: be distributed in Walmart? Do you want you know, do
Speaker 1: you want to be distributed in Walmart and do volume
Speaker 1: and get some more people, or you want to be
Speaker 1: distributed Hulu and be more niche or you know, Showtime
Speaker 1: or HBO Max and you know, there's all that discussion.
Speaker 1: But I'm finding that I don't even think the average
Speaker 1: consumer is really even understanding what we say when we
Speaker 1: mean distribution. So in in brands, like what's happened in
Speaker 1: the pandemic, is that with brands, any brand, T shirts, soda,
Speaker 1: whatever you're doing, there's a direct to consumer model. Now
Speaker 1: that's why so much retail has changed. So people are
Speaker 1: just going direct and selling their sneakers directly to the
Speaker 1: consumer online. There's no middle person. So now we're getting
Speaker 1: closer to that with entertainment, and now we're talking about
Speaker 1: places where I used to live, like Bravo. And with Bravo,
Speaker 1: let's say that I'm on a Bravo show. Let's say
Speaker 1: I'm on a Bravo show. Coca Cola wants to work
Speaker 1: with me, or some luggage company wants to work for
Speaker 1: They have to call Coke. They have to call Bravo,
Speaker 1: ask Bravo, pay Bravo to ask if I'll hold something,
Speaker 1: and then and that happens. We want to launch a
Speaker 1: show six months from Sunday. I got to do a
Speaker 1: traditional week of media, go through the Dog and Pony Show.
Speaker 1: It's slow, it's not, but it is now. I can
Speaker 1: right now go on YouTube today or Instagram. I can
Speaker 1: entertain in any way I want. I could sell anything
Speaker 1: I want. I could talk about anything I want. I
Speaker 1: could be funny and wacky and do my own three
Speaker 1: minute show and I don't need a middle person. So
Speaker 1: that's why like places like that are becoming more interesting
Speaker 1: because kids aren't watching a forty five minute show on
Speaker 1: cable or even streamers. They're watching their phones. So I'm
Speaker 1: really fascinated and interested in the direct to consumer model
Speaker 1: because I want. I used to say to Andy Coche,
Speaker 1: get the cameras because I have things something, you know.
Speaker 1: So I have the camera right here, it's my phone.
Speaker 1: I could shoot it right now, put it up. There's
Speaker 1: my television show. And I love that. I finally equated
Speaker 1: it to products, and I really get it now. This
Speaker 1: is the direct to consumer model boom right right, throw
Speaker 1: it up.
Speaker 3: And honestly, when you then you start talking about storefronts, right,
Speaker 3: which is metaphorically is the same that we're experiencing and
Speaker 3: content right fronts AKAA, Netflix, Amazon, you know, Disney Plugs, Hulu,
Speaker 3: you know all of these streaming platforms that are out
Speaker 3: there competing and for the same consumer. Yes, I mean
Speaker 3: they don't find what their market product is, what is
Speaker 3: their hero product?
Speaker 1: Bring them in bagship store.
Speaker 3: Right like you're an HBO like you go Game of Thrones,
Speaker 3: be able to watch Game of Thrones.
Speaker 1: Yes, they get you in to it.
Speaker 3: And back in the day when Netflix got had House
Speaker 3: of Cars, you're like, whoa, I'll watch House of Cars
Speaker 3: right like it was the beginning and that.
Speaker 1: Was the window display. That was the window display. So
Speaker 1: then you look down that scroll to that line to
Speaker 1: the right and if you watch this, you also watch it.
Speaker 1: It's amazing. Yeah, so we're.
Speaker 2: Saying by the dress, you also need the shoes, right like.
Speaker 3: It's so I think to your point, which which is
Speaker 3: a very very interesting bringing up this way, the direct
Speaker 3: to consumers become so much more, so much more in
Speaker 3: demand that that all these companies have had to create
Speaker 3: a corporate merger to basically corporate the same audience because
Speaker 3: unfortunately they're you know, if you're asking our fans and
Speaker 3: our supporters and the audiences to tune in to multiple
Speaker 3: tabs to find their shows in the world when they
Speaker 3: can just like you said, they can go to Instagram
Speaker 3: and watch five tens, you know, twenty channels aka individuals
Speaker 3: putting out content and then have their fix of entertainment
Speaker 3: and go back to their day. Now we have to
Speaker 3: now as entertainers, now we have to compete with that
Speaker 3: medium that doesn't Like, as an actor, I'm not necessarily
Speaker 3: great at making social media content, right Like, I'm not
Speaker 3: out here like performing on Instagram, right.
Speaker 1: Like, because when you feel like you're missing out because
Speaker 1: you used to be on either two channel two, four, seven,
Speaker 1: five and then later nine eleven, thirteen, but like there
Speaker 1: were three channels, so you were doing that one thing,
Speaker 1: competing with that one group, and you understood the beast.
Speaker 1: Now you're over here and you start to do really
Speaker 1: well on Instagram, but you don't know how to do TikTok,
Speaker 1: and then you're over and then then you've missing out
Speaker 1: because you're over on YouTube. You've got to be on Netflix,
Speaker 1: like it's all different. But that's all these different pockets
Speaker 1: of audiences. And you could be organizing buttons and be
Speaker 1: famous on TikTok and nobody knows who you are on Instagram. Literally,
Speaker 1: it's crazy that.
Speaker 3: So it kind of leads me into my next mental topic,
Speaker 3: which I've had this many conversations now and now everyone's
Speaker 3: like audiences. We got to get to the audiences, and
Speaker 3: it was all about demos. Now it's about communities. Now
Speaker 3: it's about theater into communities.
Speaker 1: You're going more micro because I'm saying it's fine your medium.
Speaker 1: Like let's say, mister Beast is making fifty million a
Speaker 1: year on YouTube, so like he found his medium and
Speaker 1: he's okay to be just there. So you're talking about
Speaker 1: even more micro than your medium. Now you're on YouTube,
Speaker 1: but who are you on? What lane?
Speaker 4: That grow?
Speaker 3: So to your point that micro is in your mainstream.
Speaker 1: Exactly, and that's TikTok. There are worlds on TikTok. I
Speaker 1: walked into the beauty room and landed in there, and
Speaker 1: it has been extraordinary for me because I just happened
Speaker 1: to walk into the right room I could. I walked
Speaker 1: into the mac and cheese room, I walked into the
Speaker 1: beauty room.
Speaker 3: Right right, and and the point is you understood your
Speaker 3: strength in those categories, and therefore you could really really
Speaker 3: effortlessly perform, create, develop, and explore.
Speaker 2: You know what that destination.
Speaker 3: Has for you As a production company, uh CEO and founder.
Speaker 3: I have multiple pillars in my company and multiple departments
Speaker 3: that work as its own individual companies for the same
Speaker 3: division of saying, you know, we don't longer need to
Speaker 3: fit most like we know to. You need to just
Speaker 3: cater to the stories and the people that share the
Speaker 3: same interest as we do. Because that's because, like you said,
Speaker 3: you know, life is too short. Like wow, pitching the
Speaker 3: same show to thirty different networks that you got to say,
Speaker 3: I made this for Netflix, I made this for CBO.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And if you try to please that, it's the
Speaker 1: same thing as marketing products. If you try to please everybody,
Speaker 1: you end up pleasing nobody, which you can when you're
Speaker 1: in one lane is dip into something else to see
Speaker 1: if they're going to take that. Now you've got two
Speaker 1: things they're interested in. So for me, it was beauty,
Speaker 1: and then I realized, unexpected, they're interested in luggage. Reviewing
Speaker 1: luggage like random.
Speaker 3: So, but it leads into it leads into lifestyle, right, yes,
Speaker 3: List said, so for me, it's been about I love drama,
Speaker 3: I love comedy, right, it started out that way.
Speaker 2: I just I love comedy.
Speaker 3: I did it for almost ten years, and then I
Speaker 3: switched to drama and now I've done there for almost
Speaker 3: thirteen years and so so successfully been able to enjoy both.
Speaker 3: And I think my success is the fact that my
Speaker 3: success comes from the fact that I've been able to
Speaker 3: enjoy both. Because if you show up to work, you're
Speaker 3: going to keep the light on, right, But the most
Speaker 3: important thing is if you continue to enjoy that opportunity
Speaker 3: in that road, then you're going to most likely continue
Speaker 3: to travel it and you'll find work and you'll find.
Speaker 2: Opportunity right right. So it's kind of like that's the circuit.
Speaker 1: So these are your anchors. NCIS has been an anchor,
Speaker 1: and that seventies show brand has been an anchor. Which
Speaker 1: what has been your most economically successful venture as an entity,
Speaker 1: like the seventies show experience or the NCIS or your
Speaker 1: production company. What has been the best business venture?
Speaker 3: It's interesting, I mean, now that I'm thinking about it,
Speaker 3: I would say both that seventies Show and NCIS have
Speaker 3: been both incredibly fruitful for me. I think that going back,
Speaker 3: and I took a long break from television after I
Speaker 3: finished seventy Show, and I was only able to do
Speaker 3: that because you know, back then, the fees for television
Speaker 3: and the money and budgets for television were a lot.
Speaker 2: Greater than they are now.
Speaker 3: Okay, you know they've cut you know, they're like, can
Speaker 3: you do it for this much interestings have to take
Speaker 3: pay cards and start again. Some of their quotes are
Speaker 3: not being honored, right, So I have to kind of
Speaker 3: start myself from scratch on both shows and able to
Speaker 3: put myself to this place. So I would say that
Speaker 3: network TV is still iconically the place where could be
Speaker 3: the most lucrative when it.
Speaker 1: Comes to your business, because I hit it right both times.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was very fortunate.
Speaker 3: And then in between I had some great runs, right, Like,
Speaker 3: I did a lot of different stuff and showed up
Speaker 3: in different places, and you know, I did a Minority
Speaker 3: Report for one season on Fox, and then I did
Speaker 3: Awake on NBC for another season, and uh, and then
Speaker 3: I did From Dustill Down with Robert Rodriguez and that
Speaker 3: was like a great series for three years, and that
Speaker 3: was also an interesting medium where Robert directed and all that.
Speaker 3: So I was able to really dance with all these
Speaker 3: different genres. And then, you know, and I was doing
Speaker 3: some films and and and and independent films that really
Speaker 3: were allowing to show the industry that I could do
Speaker 3: more than what they've ever you know.
Speaker 2: Assumed from the beginning.
Speaker 3: So a lot of chapters, I had to really reinvent
Speaker 3: myself for the opportunity that was coming next. And now
Speaker 3: I'm staying at a place where I'm blessed that my
Speaker 3: fans and my supporters have followed me at every job,
Speaker 3: because that's also very important for now Market City before
Speaker 3: a studio to be like, oh this is you can
Speaker 3: bet on this horse if you're going to put them
Speaker 3: on the show, you know. And with NCIS there was
Speaker 3: a lot of crazy changes, and I was able to
Speaker 3: really create a great partnership with the writers and the
Speaker 3: showrunners and most importantly, you know, my cast, to create
Speaker 3: a different dynamic for a show that's been on for
Speaker 3: twenty years. You know. So now the show is still
Speaker 3: number one, It is still amazing.
Speaker 1: It's amazing, and you never had to you never had
Speaker 1: to be type cast or do a rint that you
Speaker 1: were the seventies show kid. You sort of made great
Speaker 1: choices to like be able to be both, which many
Speaker 1: people are still stuck in what they were and people
Speaker 1: don't see them differently. So I feel like I don't
Speaker 1: want to say you were lucky, because I don't think
Speaker 1: you were. I think it was proactive. It sounds like
Speaker 1: you're very intentional. But I think that's definitely a feat
Speaker 1: where you can really enjoy the fact you can enjoy
Speaker 1: the campiness of that seventies show because it doesn't define
Speaker 1: you and it's not all that anyone's ever seen you as,
Speaker 1: which I think is really nice, you know, like thank.
Speaker 2: You, no, thank you.
Speaker 3: I actually to your point, and we're going to really
Speaker 3: kind of break it down. I got to say I
Speaker 3: knew because I ripped the page from a lot of
Speaker 3: my colleagues and a lot of friends who played similar
Speaker 3: characters like mine in the eighties and the nineties, and
Speaker 3: I realized that if I was going to have a
Speaker 3: shot at actually making this a career after that seventy show,
Speaker 3: I knew that I had to start the reinvention two
Speaker 3: to three years before I ended that. So every summer
Speaker 3: I would do a movie every summer, I would do
Speaker 3: something else chess. Yeah, yeah, because I knew that it
Speaker 3: wasn't about everything is for the fans, They'll get me wrong,
Speaker 3: But in that moment, it was about the industry understanding
Speaker 3: that there was life seven, show ninety name than that, right,
Speaker 3: you know what?
Speaker 1: I did the same thing on Housewives, and Housewives is
Speaker 1: a harder rint to do. You need you need like
Speaker 1: a bucket of alcohol to rinse off the housewives. But
Speaker 1: I was starting that rint real soon second season.
Speaker 3: What was your what was your what? What was the
Speaker 3: when did you see the writing on the wall that
Speaker 3: You're like, hmm, I got to really jump off and
Speaker 3: understand the platform that I'm at and what it gives
Speaker 3: me an uh signal and frequency, and how I can
Speaker 3: use that and motivate into the next chapter of my life.
Speaker 2: When was that moment?
Speaker 1: Well, I was obviously much older than you. I was
Speaker 1: in my late thirties and I was broke, so I
Speaker 1: you know, didn't when I started. I didn't have a
Speaker 1: lot of options, but I could. I've never made a
Speaker 1: big brand plan in my life, but I'm always playing chess.
Speaker 1: It's the way my mind works like that. Pieces moves
Speaker 1: to that piece, and that's you know, and you're aware
Speaker 1: of the pieces, but you're also aware of the board.
Speaker 1: So when I was on Housewives very quickly, like in
Speaker 1: the first season, second season, I was thinking to myself,
Speaker 1: like almost secreting, and I'm going to get a spinoff.
Speaker 1: I don't know why I thought it, just like I
Speaker 1: was thinking about a spinoff already and pushing that. And
Speaker 1: then also, you're in a bucket with a bunch of
Speaker 1: different people and they're all women, and we're getting similar
Speaker 1: but different opportunities. And when I became breakout and I
Speaker 1: was getting quote unquote better opportunities down to something dumb
Speaker 1: from a showroom wanted me to come in for free
Speaker 1: clothes to hosting the Today Show. I was keeping my
Speaker 1: stuff close to the vest. I was in my own lane.
Speaker 1: I was trying not to overshare what I was doing
Speaker 1: because I saw that being a problem. I saw women
Speaker 1: were getting jealous. And when I got to the Today
Speaker 1: Show to host it, they said, oh, this cast member
Speaker 1: of yours said why not me, I'm better than her.
Speaker 1: I'd be like I saw it was cutthroat, and so
Speaker 1: I read and I wrote this in my book. I
Speaker 1: was in my own lane. And by the way, it
Speaker 1: wasn't always popular. I was gay keeping certain things. I
Speaker 1: wasn't telling everybody everything I was doing and where I
Speaker 1: was going because guess what, I was running my own game.
Speaker 1: I'm not your family, Okay, I was running my own game. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was running my own game early. And it's not
Speaker 1: show friends, it's show business. And I was not I
Speaker 1: never have screwed anybody over, but I was running my
Speaker 1: own game. It was my rodeo, and I was going
Speaker 1: to the end zone. So and the decisions always changed.
Speaker 1: And I wasn't showing up like all housewives want to
Speaker 1: show up everywhere together and five women together. I wasn't
Speaker 1: showing up on these red carpet events of four other women.
Speaker 1: If I had to go, I would go. But even
Speaker 1: when I came back to the housewives for all that
Speaker 1: money the second time around, I definitely was separating. I
Speaker 1: wasn't doing press together. I didn't want to be clumped in. Sorry,
Speaker 1: not sorry, just what I didn't want to do.
Speaker 2: You know, That's that's the secret, sauce.
Speaker 3: I mean, look, if there's one thing that people could
Speaker 3: walk away with and for this specific section of where
Speaker 3: conversation is don't tell anyone anything you're dreaming about.
Speaker 1: I don't connect dots. It's my number one role. I
Speaker 1: do not connect dots about anything.
Speaker 2: Exactly what I was going to say.
Speaker 1: I don't say where I had.
Speaker 3: Lun like somebody hasn't figured it out, and then you
Speaker 3: say something that it finally plays for them, and then
Speaker 3: that dream has now been blue egg because somebody will
Speaker 3: do whatever they take to get it from you.
Speaker 1: Yep, And even something stupid like we're oh, I had
Speaker 1: lunch there today. Give some extra piece of information to
Speaker 1: somebody I don't know, Oh, or I know Jen and
Speaker 1: she knows your dad, and then some weird thing comes
Speaker 1: out about someone's cheating about like I just don't. I
Speaker 1: don't play games like I tell my best friends everybody everything.
Speaker 1: But that's it. Like the rest is like, I don't
Speaker 1: tell anybody anything. I am private to a fault. I
Speaker 1: don't care. That's just yeah.
Speaker 2: And you know what sad.
Speaker 3: You know, you find that you can build real industry
Speaker 3: relationships and friendships when people don't know what you're up to.
Speaker 1: That and when they know you'll never tell anybody anything,
Speaker 1: they tell you. I'm a vault. That's a big one too, exactly.
Speaker 3: That's big good royalty and respecting this thing is really
Speaker 3: really rare, you know. And I had to start years
Speaker 3: before I finished seventy shows. So every year I would
Speaker 3: do a different type of independent movie that only the
Speaker 3: industry would see.
Speaker 2: I would go to can Film Festival with a movie.
Speaker 3: I would go to uh Sun Dance Film with the movie,
Speaker 3: and the industry we're seeing me in different carriacters, exactly.
Speaker 1: Getting it wasn't about the money, it was about the
Speaker 1: street cred. I got the same thing with my brand
Speaker 1: Skinny Girl deal Forbes cover was like, boom, now we
Speaker 1: have street cred. Now we are separated. We could do
Speaker 1: our own thing. We're not clumped in you know. Yeahul,
Speaker 1: but you went back in because you did went on Netflix.
Speaker 1: And I went back in because I went back and
Speaker 1: the money was too good, and that, you know, it
Speaker 1: required another navigation of not just rinsing, but being from
Speaker 1: a different perspective. It's just it's wild. You have to
Speaker 1: like think about those things. Sometimes going backwards is going forward.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you have financial reason. It's very very interesting. And
Speaker 1: you've also you know, you're not obviously not a kid,
Speaker 1: and now you're an activist and you're charitable, and you
Speaker 1: really are a voice in the Latino community. So like
Speaker 1: you have, you have a lot of personal responsibility that
Speaker 1: you take on, that you put on yourself to message
Speaker 1: things like this for your daughter about the fact that
Speaker 1: you came to this country did not speak English. Is
Speaker 1: that true.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't know how to even know how to
Speaker 2: say hi.
Speaker 3: It's pretty bad. I didn't really realize, uh one, the responsibility,
Speaker 3: but to the opportunity to really expand on it when
Speaker 3: I was doing seventy show. In fact, I think most
Speaker 3: people didn't even know I was Latino. They thought I
Speaker 3: was Indiana Ers or or some other ethnicity, you know.
Speaker 3: So in many ways, I feel like you played to
Speaker 3: my advantage in where I was able to create a
Speaker 3: character that was so ambiguous that kind of I welcome
Speaker 3: most you know, we're just seeing how funny the character
Speaker 3: was and the shenanigans they will get into, and that
Speaker 3: became almost universal and colorless, and that really helped. So
Speaker 3: then then when I started hearing young peop people say hey,
Speaker 3: you know, not until I saw you in television, I
Speaker 3: saw myself, which it started like in the early two thousands,
Speaker 3: I was like, oh wait, what's going on.
Speaker 1: You know, Ah, you didn't know you were going to
Speaker 1: be the representation of anything.
Speaker 4: You just know.
Speaker 2: I was just trying to keep the light on.
Speaker 3: Okay, Yeah, I just got to the country four years ago,
Speaker 3: five years ago, seventy show, which.
Speaker 1: Is crazy, by the way, how you came to this
Speaker 1: country to be like, explain that. How old are you?
Speaker 1: So I was.
Speaker 3: I was about to turn fourteen, So I was thirteen
Speaker 3: years old, and I came to the United States in
Speaker 3: nineteen ninety three. I was born in Miami because my
Speaker 3: mother and my father had married in Miami and then
Speaker 3: back in the early eighties. I was born in nineteen eighties,
Speaker 3: so that around that time, the dollar in a boliad,
Speaker 3: which from Venezuela, were almost one in one because of
Speaker 3: you know, oil and all of that stuff happening in
Speaker 3: Latin America, specifically with Venezuela. So my parents kind of
Speaker 3: moved back to Venezuela and we started working in the
Speaker 3: agriculture industry. So my mom and my dad met in Miami,
Speaker 3: had me in Maryland, my sister, and then we decided
Speaker 3: to move back to Venezuela, and so we were in
Speaker 3: Venezuela for about ten years. And then there was a
Speaker 3: nationally there was a military coup on the government and
Speaker 3: that didn't succeed with a young general by the name
Speaker 3: of Google Chavis and didn't succeed. So we you know,
Speaker 3: so my dad saw the writing on the wall now
Speaker 3: and he was just like, we probably need to get back,
Speaker 3: as this is not a good signal, you know.
Speaker 2: And and he was very smart.
Speaker 3: He sold most of the stuff we had in Venezuela,
Speaker 3: minus our little hut, a little house in the little
Speaker 3: town that we lived in. And then we came back
Speaker 3: to the United States and I came back to Miami,
Speaker 3: and none of us don't want to speak English, you know.
Speaker 3: My dad's a little bit, but my mom still doesn't
Speaker 3: speak English because she was like dedicated to raising children,
Speaker 3: you know. And then we came to Los angelest And
Speaker 3: the way it all happened was I was always singing,
Speaker 3: dancing and acting since I was six years old in
Speaker 3: Venezuela because we lived in such a small little town,
Speaker 3: there was nothing to do. There was one movie theater
Speaker 3: and they only played and they played a robo couple
Speaker 3: year round, you know.
Speaker 2: So so literally like that was like my own inspiration.
Speaker 3: But when I came to thes abuelans, I decided, because
Speaker 3: I didn't know how to speak English, I decided that
Speaker 3: I would go back to theater and singing and dancing
Speaker 3: because it was going to force me to read. It
Speaker 3: was gonna force me to speak out loud and fake
Speaker 3: conversations on stage that I didn't have the courage of
Speaker 3: having outside of the stage. So then the more I
Speaker 3: did theater, the more I feel in love with it.
Speaker 3: And then more I came hearing and you should give
Speaker 3: it a try, and you're pretty good, funny, you're pretty silly,
Speaker 3: and I was like, oh okay, and I had a
Speaker 3: crazy accent. So it's a perfect storm of things. I
Speaker 3: was showcased a couple of a couple of interacting classes
Speaker 3: and I got representation. This teacher is a last boyd
Speaker 3: you know, who decided to teach me for free because
Speaker 3: I couldn't afford the classes. She basically said, I think
Speaker 3: you're ready to adition for commercials and stuff, and and
Speaker 3: she introduced me to an agent. He said, we're not
Speaker 3: gonna represent you. We're going to send you out and
Speaker 3: see what feedback we get.
Speaker 1: Hip hop, right, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And then.
Speaker 3: Basically they will send me out. They will get this
Speaker 3: amazing feedback. He's hilarious, such an interesting take for the
Speaker 3: stuff that we give him.
Speaker 4: Wow. You know.
Speaker 3: So ultimately, the more I auditioned, and more of the
Speaker 3: best feedback I got, and then they kept saying, you know,
Speaker 3: but he has an accent. Can he lose his accent?
Speaker 3: Because people don't have accents on television. Ah, they wanted
Speaker 3: me to lose my accent. They wanted me to change
Speaker 3: my name to something that sounding more Latino than we
Speaker 3: met at Lama because they thought that doesn't sound Latino
Speaker 3: because there typically has to be Lopez.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: So it was a whole thing, but I found.
Speaker 3: It, and then they kept sending me out, and then
Speaker 3: one day auditioned for this pilot called Teenage Wasteland. I
Speaker 3: audition four times and I, you know, I get the
Speaker 3: contract and you'll you'll you'll like this part. I got
Speaker 3: the contract and I'm in this last audition with my dad.
Speaker 3: We don't have the part yet, but to make your
Speaker 3: sound case. And the contract says that I was going
Speaker 3: to make fifteen thousand dollars for the pilot the first episode.
Speaker 3: It's not bad for back then, No, no, no, I
Speaker 3: mean talking that was to nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I made and fifty dollars the whole first season
Speaker 1: of Houseise.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, by the way for alternative for reality.
Speaker 3: That was like good money, you know.
Speaker 1: What I mean, the whole season.
Speaker 3: Oh, the whole season, the whole season.
Speaker 1: But I carved. I wrote down you can't take a
Speaker 1: piece of my business, which became the Bethany clause, which
Speaker 1: is like a famous thing for reality people. So I
Speaker 1: didn't know because I was being smart. I was like you,
Speaker 1: I mean, I spoke English, but I didn't know a
Speaker 1: damn thing and I was reading this thing and I
Speaker 1: was just trying to focus. So what happened? So you're
Speaker 1: looking at the contract.
Speaker 2: Oh no, I love that you offer that.
Speaker 3: Because Danny swayed for reality, really the other became a thing,
Speaker 3: you know, yes, but yeah, So the fifteen thousand dollars
Speaker 3: were the first episode and ten thousand dollars per episode
Speaker 3: if he went to Wow. Now I was eight seventeen,
Speaker 3: about to turn eighteen years old. Okay, we have just
Speaker 3: gone to America maybe four years prior to that, and
Speaker 3: my first job was to just learn how to speak English.
Speaker 2: I was a boy.
Speaker 3: I was a bus boy at a restaurant called Catholic
Speaker 3: Visue and Studio City and senior at Mianitaria, and you know,
Speaker 3: and my uncle used to was to work there, and
Speaker 3: then he got me a little job there. I was like,
Speaker 3: you know, the runner of dishes and stuff. And I
Speaker 3: was auditioning photo commercials here and there, but not getting much,
Speaker 3: you know. So so finally, you know, after a couple
Speaker 3: of little gigs that got me the money to pay
Speaker 3: for the union and became a screen Actor's Skill member.
Speaker 3: I was able to audition for the pilot so fast,
Speaker 3: fast struck into the pilot edition.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: I told my dad that, imagine, if.
Speaker 3: You get if I get this apartment, that's like me
Speaker 3: if you get it very good, if you don't get
Speaker 3: it very good.
Speaker 2: And I was like, okay, very good.
Speaker 3: And I went in and auditioned my ass off and
Speaker 3: I went home, and you know, this is a really
Speaker 3: tough time for my family. We were laid in the
Speaker 3: rank for you know, a couple of months, and my
Speaker 3: dad was like working over time, trying to like not
Speaker 3: even break even. And we were just in a situation
Speaker 3: where were eating dinner every other night. And by the way,
Speaker 3: we weren't sad about it. It was like it was
Speaker 3: just what you know, it's like the immigrant way. You
Speaker 3: come here it and you know, we eat one day,
Speaker 3: we eat the next day or not. You know, it
Speaker 3: doesn't mean until you you get it together, because because
Speaker 3: we always know that you put in enough hours, you
Speaker 3: will get it together, you know. So for us, it
Speaker 3: was mathematical. It was nothing emotional. It wasn't boohoo. Latinos
Speaker 3: don't complain about you know. Yeah, it's it's like we
Speaker 3: got to make money.
Speaker 2: That's so it is, you know.
Speaker 3: So we were doing pretty not good. And I told
Speaker 3: my dad Maine if I get it. Then we got
Speaker 3: home and I get a phone call from what my
Speaker 3: agent who now became my agent, and says, hey, they
Speaker 3: want you to come back tomorrow. And I said, okay, yeah,
Speaker 3: they want you to come back tomorrow and the day after.
Speaker 1: That and the day after and I've never had done
Speaker 1: to cry and I and I.
Speaker 3: Was like what and my mom and you know the
Speaker 3: days where you pick up the phone and listen to
Speaker 3: the other line, you know, like everybody in the lines,
Speaker 3: and and everyone starts screaming because they understood that my
Speaker 3: face man, that I got it, and we were just like,
Speaker 3: if even if the show doesn't go fifteen thousand dollars,
Speaker 3: we can pay the rent. We don't have to go
Speaker 3: to ninety nine cents stores. We can go to the
Speaker 3: Ralphs like you know. It was this conversation. We're like,
Speaker 3: oh my god, like, oh my god, I have to fire,
Speaker 3: you know. And I and that was one of the
Speaker 3: most iconic moments in my life when I remember looking
Speaker 3: outside the window in like que it like a movie,
Speaker 3: saw an American flag.
Speaker 2: From the neighbor.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I have chilled right now.
Speaker 3: And I literally said to myself, that's what this is.
Speaker 3: That's what this country is. It's this is what it
Speaker 3: was built for. So Dreams had a show, I'd be impossible.
Speaker 3: So when that happened, I didn't, you know, I wasn't
Speaker 3: thinking magazine's interviews.
Speaker 4: Fam.
Speaker 2: I was thinking, like, oh my god, they're gonna.
Speaker 3: Pay me for acting this badness. And then I went
Speaker 3: and then I shot the show. Before I even shot
Speaker 3: the show, I looked in the mirror and I said
Speaker 3: to myself, anything and everything that comes out of my
Speaker 3: mouth will be the most memorable, the funniest. And I said,
Speaker 3: I am going to relentlessly be the best at this character.
Speaker 3: And I just went in there and I just my
Speaker 3: first line was ridiculous on the seventies show. And I
Speaker 3: remember the moment when they say action and my first
Speaker 3: line was about to happen, and I say, in my way,
Speaker 3: I rarely do the voice, but I'm gonna do it
Speaker 3: here for you. But I literally said, I mean I
Speaker 3: said this right because I am not doing English.
Speaker 2: But she has tremendo. Yes, And the audience exploded.
Speaker 3: My co stars like almost bro character and like it
Speaker 3: was this moment where the magical moment of hearing the audience,
Speaker 3: I just made them laugh. It seems like a check.
Speaker 3: I feel like if I keeping this trajectory, I'm not
Speaker 3: getting fired. And then I decided I'm going to be
Speaker 3: the best. I'm going to be the best at what
Speaker 3: I do. And I became a student of every role
Speaker 3: on the set. You know, every department had every department
Speaker 3: from directors right, and I taught myself to making production.
Speaker 3: I taught myself how i've creatively developed something because the
Speaker 3: producers Marcy Carcy and Tom Warner were so beautiful to
Speaker 3: open the door to teach me stuff. And I took
Speaker 3: it from there, but you know, that year I would
Speaker 3: able to.
Speaker 2: Pay off our debt.
Speaker 3: And then I took my mom to Ralphs and then
Speaker 3: you know, and then my dad was letting me borrow
Speaker 3: the family car, which was a four TOURUS station wagon
Speaker 3: with the hood that was a different color of the car.
Speaker 3: And then I used to put the cassette adapter for
Speaker 3: the CD rum and that's why I listened to music
Speaker 3: on the way to work. And then I finally was like,
Speaker 3: my dad's like, you should buy yourself a car, and
Speaker 3: I went and bought a ninety nine Mercury Cougar. It
Speaker 3: was like briand new relaunch of the model, and I
Speaker 3: was like very cool cloth seats and fake wood detail,
Speaker 3: and I was like this thing is. And people used
Speaker 3: to say, is this a Jaguar and I used to say,
Speaker 3: yes it is, because it has you know, the cougar emblem.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's a coug war. It's a coug War.
Speaker 4: Wait.
Speaker 1: I've never needed I feel like Ellen, I've never needed
Speaker 1: tissues on the set here because it's a set, it's
Speaker 1: my couch. But I'm just saying like you got me,
Speaker 1: like the way you first of all that just the story,
Speaker 1: but the way you told the story, and I was
Speaker 1: sitting here like, and you know, I'm thankful to you
Speaker 1: for you know, giving me that gift, like you just
Speaker 1: took like you just took me there where I was
Speaker 1: like in your house and like feeling that sort of
Speaker 1: pride and desperation at the same time, but like not
Speaker 1: desperate because you just were still happy. I don't know,
Speaker 1: there was something about the way you told that story
Speaker 1: that you brought me to tears, would the chills because
Speaker 1: it's I can't and it's so amazing how you literally
Speaker 1: remember it from a granular, porous perspective.
Speaker 3: I can't forget it, you know, and so much about
Speaker 3: those first couple of years of my career.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: I used to described it the other day like this
Speaker 3: to a friend. It was like I never give my
Speaker 3: back to the room. Even when I exited the room,
Speaker 3: I was bowing thank you, you know, and I would
Speaker 3: just exit the door. I was so grateful somebody had
Speaker 3: believed that I could do it. Wow, because if you
Speaker 3: were to really really visualize the little town that I
Speaker 3: that I grew up in, and you know, watching I
Speaker 3: Love Lucy and watching Chips and watching you know, Charlie's
Speaker 3: angels and like seeing that and growing, you know, growing
Speaker 3: in this household and thinking to myself, one day, I'm
Speaker 3: going to do that.
Speaker 2: And you know, it's so interesting.
Speaker 3: When we first came to America, my dad took us
Speaker 3: to Hollywood Boulevard and so I don't remember because we
Speaker 3: couldn't see instead of somebody was getting their star on
Speaker 3: the Walk of Fame, and I looked to my dad
Speaker 3: and I said, Dad, one day, one day, I'm gonna
Speaker 3: have a star on the Walk of Fame. And you know,
Speaker 3: it still hasn't happened, but I know it's possible. And
Speaker 3: you know, and even the bigger promise that even I
Speaker 3: forgot to mention in the beginning, you know, maybe about
Speaker 3: four to five months before of that audition, my dad's
Speaker 3: car gets stolen and he gets stolen from the front
Speaker 3: of the house. And if you know, in Los Angeles,
Speaker 3: the car is the lifeline to all of it. Like
Speaker 3: I needed that car because he was going from mechanics
Speaker 3: shep to mechanic SHEP bring in and they would pay
Speaker 3: him to transport parts. And he had a for sale
Speaker 3: sign on the window and he would drop it with
Speaker 3: a for sale sign in the window while he was
Speaker 3: hustling with the car until the car sold for a.
Speaker 2: Little bit more than he bought it for.
Speaker 3: Then he bought another car, put another for sale sign,
Speaker 3: and then you know, sell it off until the car
Speaker 3: get a little nicer, a little nicer, and then you
Speaker 3: can make a little bit more cash while still doing
Speaker 3: and then that car gets stolen. Wow. And that was
Speaker 3: the first time I saw my dad, you know, with
Speaker 3: a with a with an energy of desperation, and hearing
Speaker 3: his voice changed unlike I've ever heard it in my
Speaker 3: whole life. Then that moment he had like almost midnight,
Speaker 3: when he heard the car take off, and he looked
Speaker 3: at the window and he was just gone. I looked
Speaker 3: at my day and say, Dad, don't worry because I'm
Speaker 3: gonna be this and this before seven show, I was like,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna be this successful actor and I'm gonna make
Speaker 3: all this money and I'm gonna have restaurants and have
Speaker 3: this and we're gonna never gonna this bounce house, and
Speaker 3: so don't worry about this. And my dad looked at
Speaker 3: me and I was was thirteen, I was I think
Speaker 3: I was, Yeah, I was about thirteen, No, No, sorry,
Speaker 3: I was I was about six fifteen years old or
Speaker 3: something like that, and I said to my dad, No,
Speaker 3: it was closer to Yeah, I think it was closer
Speaker 3: to I was probably about fifteen or so. It wasn't
Speaker 3: month it was. I was fifteen years old. And I
Speaker 3: said to my dad, Papa, don't worry, blah blah blah blah,
Speaker 3: and you're never gonna need to work again, and you know,
Speaker 3: I'm going to take it. And my dad looked to me,
Speaker 3: and my mom was she was still pacing around. He goes, okay, me, Oh,
Speaker 3: that's very good.
Speaker 2: Oh then, and I.
Speaker 3: Felt like he had given me permission to go ahead
Speaker 3: and do it.
Speaker 1: That's unbelievable. And they set you up to do it
Speaker 1: with the work ethic and that you were a team
Speaker 1: and getting on the phone and it was like a
Speaker 1: win for everyone. It's outrageous. Wow. So was that your
Speaker 1: rose of your whole career?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: That was the lift off, you know, that was the liftop.
Speaker 3: I think the show wasn't ever a clear hit until
Speaker 3: probably the end of season two beginning of season three.
Speaker 3: We were like the step childs of television. Like nobody
Speaker 3: wanted to acknowledge that we were good.
Speaker 2: Nobody.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like it was like it was like your you know,
Speaker 3: we weren't even critically acclaimed. They were like what is
Speaker 3: this right? But the audiences discovered us, you know, and
Speaker 3: they switched our times lib multiple times.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: We started up between the Simpsons and the X Files
Speaker 3: and Sunday nights and that was like the night of television,
Speaker 3: and they switched us around. And then finally, you know,
Speaker 3: the show found an audience. And then you know, it's
Speaker 3: so funny. Nobody could recognize me in real life, right
Speaker 3: Like I would be standing next to Ashton and and
Speaker 3: people would be like, hey, say say.
Speaker 2: A fest for me, and I'd be like hi.
Speaker 3: You know, people wouldn't recognize it because my character spoke
Speaker 3: and carry themselves so different, So they just thought a person,
Speaker 3: that thing was a real thing that was alive.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: That was that was the beginning of that And and
Speaker 3: you know, I gave a lot of things and a
Speaker 3: lot of and I'm very grateful to my agents. Eventually,
Speaker 3: when I I went through h I changed my agents,
Speaker 3: standed up at UTA and I had Shaney Rose's Wide
Speaker 3: and she put together a beautiful team with Tracy Jacobs
Speaker 3: and and the Nancy Gates and Jeff Senelsan and at
Speaker 3: the time, Jason Shapiro and and a few more than
Speaker 3: I'm for sure forgetting. And I'm sorry because this was
Speaker 3: not a credit for Goal, but a group of individuals
Speaker 3: that saw me beyond fest and so every summer that
Speaker 3: would fight to get me in the room, and nobody
Speaker 3: wanted to meet in the room.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I bet you were totally typecast. Yeah wow, what
Speaker 1: an amazing story. And now you're developing Zora with you
Speaker 1: starring and producing, not directing or producing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I producing it. And uh, I've even started
Speaker 3: at Sorrow for Walt Disney, which is you know, I mean,
Speaker 3: I magine I could theream of a lifetime, right, Like
Speaker 3: the only hero the Latino community really has that iconically,
Speaker 3: a character that showed us as like a romantic and
Speaker 3: smart and clevered and.
Speaker 1: Just funny and funny and so funny is great for
Speaker 1: you because it's like you get to be legitimate and
Speaker 1: it is a hero and it's respected brand but funny
Speaker 1: and like a little whacky, like you could have your
Speaker 1: own take on that. As the first thing I was thinking, like,
Speaker 1: you know, it's amazing, what a great I would never
Speaker 1: thought of that, but like, what a great fit. How exciting.
Speaker 3: It's really exciting, and I think to your point, it
Speaker 3: is a role that finally care really tap into all
Speaker 3: my weapons.
Speaker 1: Yes, marries everything at the same time. It's legit, it's
Speaker 1: funny and stupid, it's wacky, it's like, you know, it's respect,
Speaker 1: it's like a kid hero, it's Latino. Yeah, it kind
Speaker 1: of checks all the boxes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know.
Speaker 3: And honestly this I went and looked for the titles.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: I think it's the more that my my production company,
Speaker 3: and I'm really greatful to God in the industry and
Speaker 3: my fans. But the production company, you know, has evolved
Speaker 3: into something else. It's not a pot deal anymore. It's
Speaker 3: a multi department, multi layered what it's called w B Entertainment. Okay,
Speaker 3: I'm thinking about changing the name of some point because
Speaker 3: I'm kind of becoming allergic to my name in the title.
Speaker 3: But but I think at the time it made sense
Speaker 3: because that was what they wanted to buy. It was
Speaker 3: product from me, you know. But but I think me
Speaker 3: me Hoo Productions Productions.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's okay, Hope Productions.
Speaker 3: That's very funny. That's actually Hope Productions. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But will never forget it. It's kind of cute.
Speaker 4: I like it.
Speaker 3: It just made you know what, I'm seriously and I'm
Speaker 3: not even joking.
Speaker 1: I believe you.
Speaker 3: I like it.
Speaker 1: It's just like, yeah, I like it because it also
Speaker 1: has a double entendre of like me, Hollywood, Like there's
Speaker 1: like layers, you know what I meant.
Speaker 2: Totally Yeah makes sense.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, that's good.
Speaker 1: Yeah. But yeah.
Speaker 3: So the production company started really and I've been trying
Speaker 3: to infuse the sense of less, dream bigger in our company.
Speaker 3: And now we have had the opportunity to develop tons
Speaker 3: of different things for different studios and I and now
Speaker 3: I have a first look at OSCBS Studios, which has
Speaker 3: been a great home. I have great partners, and netflixs
Speaker 3: have great partners of Walt Disney really empower me to
Speaker 3: uplift and expand on the idea that our stories, no
Speaker 3: matter what color we're can actually transcend culture and can
Speaker 3: invite most while still being authentic and rooted into who
Speaker 3: we really are and what we've been in America, without
Speaker 3: you know, any political agenda, mostly going back to the
Speaker 3: fundamentals of entertainment. We just want to entertain people. We
Speaker 3: want people to walk away feeling awesome. And we want
Speaker 3: them to feel proud of who they are, you know,
Speaker 3: no matter what color you are. And then the fact
Speaker 3: that I'm able to you know, get in front of
Speaker 3: the camera some of the business and also a joy
Speaker 3: because I can really uh shape tonally who we are
Speaker 3: culturally in America. And you know, there's a lot of
Speaker 3: rebuilding that we have to do. For image, a lot
Speaker 3: of stuff has been deleted from the books to history.
Speaker 3: I mean, you're also see in the banning of a
Speaker 3: lot of books and and so a lot of this
Speaker 3: conversation really fires me up to do content that's kind
Speaker 3: of live forever that you can't just get take off
Speaker 3: the shelf and uh.
Speaker 2: And that's I think that's the next phase.
Speaker 3: Of our culture, to be able to reintroduce us as
Speaker 3: who we really are uh and told by us uh.
Speaker 2: And so so we're producing all kinds of different things.
Speaker 3: We have an alternative department, you know, we do alternative
Speaker 3: programming in the sense of uh you know, uh DOCU
Speaker 3: follows documentaries and game shows and stuff. And then we
Speaker 3: have a scripted department where we do drama in comedy together.
Speaker 3: We'll also double an animation and then we uh. Then
Speaker 3: we also have a podcast department. I became partners with
Speaker 3: Ihearts on a network, So we now own a network
Speaker 3: called Michael Tuda Podcast Network, which you know, is available
Speaker 3: everywhere that you get your podcast, And in that we're
Speaker 3: curating some grave voices and and and really kind of
Speaker 3: inviting the community to discover and adapt to podcasting as is.
Speaker 3: They are a little late adapters to podcasts, you know,
Speaker 3: so we're excited to kind of pioneering that. But we're
Speaker 3: also making podcasting uh then not only is for them,
Speaker 3: but it's for everyone. So we're really hoping that we
Speaker 3: can combine and it's being phenomenal already. So we have production,
Speaker 3: we have developed production and distribution through iHeart uh and
Speaker 3: we have a pipeline of amazing content that we're going
Speaker 3: to do there uh and you know, and and so on.
Speaker 3: And then I have a management company, co Allied Management,
Speaker 3: which represents Latin American writer, producers and directors from Central
Speaker 3: and South America, and.
Speaker 2: We bridge the gap.
Speaker 3: We need more hands on deck because there's a lot
Speaker 3: of aboundance and Latino stories that are being developed, but
Speaker 3: we're not enough people to run it, not enough direct
Speaker 3: so we build a very premium product a management company
Speaker 3: do to really curate these voices and really introduce them
Speaker 3: to Hollywood and expand on that. And it's been a joy,
Speaker 3: I mean, it's and a joy to see this later projects.
Speaker 3: And that's besides, like you mentioned, the activism, which has
Speaker 3: been also another great jour in my life to partner
Speaker 3: up with some great organizations that do really great stuff
Speaker 3: that are all just in line with everything we're producing.
Speaker 1: It's amazing. And the two things that really jump off
Speaker 1: the page for me is is really the work like
Speaker 1: the work ethic like that. The way you've had good
Speaker 1: connect this is the same with me. I mean, I
Speaker 1: am You're probably to other people have a reputation of
Speaker 1: being kinder and jetler, like I have a tough reputation,
Speaker 1: but I am tough but fair. Like everybody knows that
Speaker 1: it's not always pleasant to do a deal with me,
Speaker 1: but that I'm always fair like I that's just who
Speaker 1: I'm known as. And I so I have good relationships
Speaker 1: with the first book I ever did with you know,
Speaker 1: even with Bravo, with everyone, and I just have noticed
Speaker 1: that and people have to really listen and understand that
Speaker 1: the relationship the minute you start the clock is running
Speaker 1: like it's the same relationships then as they are now.
Speaker 1: You see the same people up here, same people on
Speaker 1: the way down, Like it's just all these relationships that
Speaker 1: connect like a web. And how you know, so many
Speaker 1: times will someone come to me and say, well, we
Speaker 1: should we work with that person, and I'll have had
Speaker 1: an unpleasant experience to them. I'll be like, absolutely not.
Speaker 2: That kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: And you have to do you know, yep, you gotta
Speaker 1: be good the whole way through, like do it well
Speaker 1: or don't do it at all. So I just noticed
Speaker 1: that you have really a made really good choices, b
Speaker 1: just have an incredible work ethic, but have nurtured all
Speaker 1: these relationships and are all coming together into one because
Speaker 1: you're doing so many different things in the same pot now.
Speaker 1: And then that you're like, you've curated because we're getting older.
Speaker 1: You're younger than I am, but we're older. You curate
Speaker 1: the career career you want And it sounds ridiculous, but
Speaker 1: you saying that you're playing Zoro, which is a convergence
Speaker 1: of all these things, is funny. Like David Arquette, who's
Speaker 1: made a lot of money on different businesses, he's not
Speaker 1: just the scream guy and he plays like and you know,
Speaker 1: he's like a little chill and like that, so you
Speaker 1: think you think he's like, you know not, you know,
Speaker 1: really like this business guy. And he owns the rights
Speaker 1: to Bozo like you you own the rights to Zorro.
Speaker 1: Like it's a convergence of him being funny and being
Speaker 1: wacky and he's got this rights to this real entity
Speaker 1: of Bozo the clown. And I'm thinking of you as Zoro.
Speaker 1: So I'm seeing these people. We're all like, you're all
Speaker 1: like auditioning for all this time for like when you
Speaker 1: get in your forties and fifties and like now it's
Speaker 1: not the dress. R get to have the life you
Speaker 1: want because of all these things you've done and this
Speaker 1: and I hate to sound like a Karen, but much
Speaker 1: of the younger generation wants it now and they want
Speaker 1: to know right now. And it's like, you know, stir
Speaker 1: the pot, like just like let the butter melt. It's
Speaker 1: all come. You just got to handle it right and
Speaker 1: like nurture it and it comes together now. So that's
Speaker 1: what I'm getting from you. And it's amazing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it's a difference between making a full
Speaker 3: dinner versus a sandwich right, like, and which is a
Speaker 3: snap fast food.
Speaker 1: You're not satisfied, it's just you're eating to eat. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you've got like a yeah. I agree. So you're amazing,
Speaker 1: really good.
Speaker 3: I appreciate that so much and it means a lot.
Speaker 3: And honestly, I was very excited to talk to you
Speaker 3: for all the very same reasons. I really do respect, uh,
Speaker 3: you know, the choices, the the you know, the force
Speaker 3: side to all of these different aspects to your to
Speaker 3: your life, into your career, because it really it really
Speaker 3: speaks to the sanity that you have to keep no
Speaker 3: matter how top for the high level, the frequency is
Speaker 3: in which you have to perform to have a grounding
Speaker 3: and be able to get past that storm and then say,
Speaker 3: get you the sunny days now, because the storm gave
Speaker 3: me the ability to say, I can see it coming,
Speaker 3: I can avoid it, you know, So it was important
Speaker 3: to go through all those those those dry seasons in
Speaker 3: low and low seits.
Speaker 1: Yes it's a texture and it's the quilt.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's a texture exactly.
Speaker 3: It's a texture kind of paves the road and now
Speaker 3: you're capable to either go on the freeway or off
Speaker 3: road and you'll it's amazing.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, yeah, well, you know, the thing about the
Speaker 1: show has been very successful, which I'm very proud of.
Speaker 1: But like, the one thing I wasn't thinking about when
Speaker 1: doing it, because a lot of things I do is like,
Speaker 1: it's going to be successful. I had this idea and
Speaker 1: it's going to be great, and we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about this. And what I love the most about it
Speaker 1: is just like I I'm not social. I never leave
Speaker 1: my house unless i'm like I have to. I leave
Speaker 1: my house, my daughters will cross. I'm being paid to
Speaker 1: be over here, and that's I'm just very very antisocial.
Speaker 1: And it's surprising, but I'm always in pajamas.
Speaker 2: I mean, definitely me.
Speaker 1: You're incredibly beyond beyond beyond. I'm very much an introverted,
Speaker 1: like from a leave the house. It's weird and everyone's
Speaker 1: shocked by that. But the one thing the show has
Speaker 1: given me is like to meet Like I feel I
Speaker 1: spent an hour with you. I don't spend an hour
Speaker 1: with my own friends half the time, Like I feel
Speaker 1: like I know you, so now I know you? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so now I know you so Like now that's exciting.
Speaker 1: I've met so many people like now I know you,
Speaker 1: and I really like know about your life stories that
Speaker 1: probably some of your friends don't even know. So I'm
Speaker 1: excited to meet you and to have known you and
Speaker 1: like all these interesting people that I would never have
Speaker 1: known anything about. So I'm so grateful and thank you
Speaker 1: so much for coming to like talk to me, and
Speaker 1: now I know you. We know each other.
Speaker 2: No, I'm insane.
Speaker 3: You know that this is also exciting because the moment
Speaker 3: we see each other in person, it's not as I.
Speaker 1: Think, it's a hug, right, yes, one hundred percent, So
Speaker 1: I can't wait for that to happen. Love to your family.
Speaker 3: You have one child, yes, I have a two year
Speaker 3: all she just turned two of February fifteen. She's a
Speaker 3: dance glass right now, so that's that's hilarious every time.
Speaker 3: She just started school too, and you know, we're teaching
Speaker 3: her English, Spanish and Mandarin. She's really pretty good Spanish
Speaker 3: because my mom, you know, it's all day Spanish with her,
Speaker 3: so she's pretty by linguent now. But we're trying to
Speaker 3: equip her with with you know, with tools that we
Speaker 3: never had, you know, and uh, and also she's living
Speaker 3: like a pretty similar upbringing like I did. You know,
Speaker 3: she's eating the same with my parents, you know, yeah, everything.
Speaker 2: So so it's been really great.
Speaker 3: She dances first and and talks later, you know, so
Speaker 3: that that's ultimately that's amazing.
Speaker 1: And you married, uh, someone in the industry, or I
Speaker 1: call it a civilian, yes, yes, yeah, civilian.
Speaker 3: Yeah basically, yeah, basically someone who who's expectations less a
Speaker 3: lot more realistic than mine ever were, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and so she, yeah, she's a very special human being.
Speaker 3: Amanda makes it look very easy.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: She gets along better with the dolphin than with human beings.
Speaker 3: You know, she loves nature. She's a dive master, she's
Speaker 3: a scuba divert and wow and rescue. She's a badass,
Speaker 3: you know. And and she really u taught me to
Speaker 3: you know, to take deep breads and to look up
Speaker 3: and enjoy the green trees. You know, because when we
Speaker 3: do this and we're just like we're going, we're going,
Speaker 3: we're going, we got this. We gotta do everything this
Speaker 3: sometimes you kind of straight away of the recent why
Speaker 3: you work so hard and why you do this so much.
Speaker 1: That's why that story was really good for me today.
Speaker 1: That story was like, you're a good storyteller.
Speaker 4: Like you.
Speaker 1: I was there in the living room on the phone. Well,
Speaker 1: it's so nice to know you, and I can't wait
Speaker 1: to meet you in person. And I appreciate you taking
Speaker 1: the time, I really do. So good luck and congratulations
Speaker 1: and keep in touch and let me know. I can't
Speaker 1: wait to follow you now the second I get off
Speaker 1: follow you on my social media to hear.
Speaker 3: What you're Yeah, I'm gonna look for you too again,
Speaker 3: so blessed will be able to have this conversation.
Speaker 2: It was actually felt good to.
Speaker 3: Get a lot of that stuff out of you know,
Speaker 3: I don't really talk about this stuff very often, but
Speaker 3: it is nice to reconnect with that. So I'm so
Speaker 3: glad that you connected with my story because you know,
Speaker 3: it's so raw and my brain still you know, those
Speaker 3: moments are just so incredibly unforgettable and uh, you know,
Speaker 3: I'm excited when I get to relive it and say
Speaker 3: it aloud to somebody who can relate to it too.
Speaker 3: So so thank you for having me in the show
Speaker 3: and I continue all the success and I'm always around
Speaker 3: if you if you need a cup of shirt.
Speaker 1: Thank you, awesome, Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Awesome.
Speaker 1: Ke have a good day. Oh my god, do I
Speaker 1: love wilmavel drama. He had me crying. This show gives
Speaker 1: me so many gifts that I end up becoming their
Speaker 1: friends and bonding with them and like knowing them and
Speaker 1: we're crying and this meaningful, beautiful story. What a great experience.
Speaker 1: I adore Wilmer. That was incredible. I am so lucky.
Speaker 1: I'm so happy. Thank you so much, Rate review and subscribe.
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm literally early on my phone to find
Speaker 1: Wilmer and follow him right now, so I can't believe
Speaker 1: I didn't know him. This is exciting, Wow, amazing. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much,