Speaker 1: I asked him one question, how many of you have
Speaker 1: had a brother, sister, father, mother, grandfather, grandmother and her
Speaker 1: uncle direct relative that has been in prison before you.
Speaker 1: This is Edward James almost on PBS promoting the movie
Speaker 1: he had just directed, produced and started, called American Me Easily.
Speaker 1: I mean just by a few, maybe out of five hundred,
Speaker 1: there was maybe six or seven people men who did
Speaker 1: not raise their hands. And almost was asked a simple question,
Speaker 1: how the hell did you shoot this movie in a
Speaker 1: real prison with real inmates? So he described his experience
Speaker 1: in folsome prisons speaking to a group of inmates, and um,
Speaker 1: I asked them how many would like to have their sons,
Speaker 1: or their grandsons, or their you know, the nephews, their
Speaker 1: nieces are relative after them come in here. And then
Speaker 1: none of them raised their hands. I said, okay, fine,
Speaker 1: help me make this movie. And they did. Almost was
Speaker 1: a household name at the time. He had spent five
Speaker 1: years in Miami, Ice nominated for an Oscar, and now
Speaker 1: he was talking to mainstream audiences about his passion project.
Speaker 1: It's the first time in the history of this country
Speaker 1: that that that we saw of penal institution opened up
Speaker 1: this way allowed to be photographed and inmates used. And
Speaker 1: the first time in the history of this country that
Speaker 1: the fulsome prison, one state prison where Black's wides, Brown's yellows,
Speaker 1: and reds all worked together towards one common goal, in
Speaker 1: one time, common understanding. The film leaves you with a
Speaker 1: pessimistic message, doesn't it. Well, No, it leaves you with
Speaker 1: the truth. Welcome to more than a movie, American Mean,
Speaker 1: a podcast that digs into the history and mystery of
Speaker 1: American Mean, a film directed by and starring Edward James
Speaker 1: Almost that had a huge impact on Latino cinema and culture.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Alex Fomero, and I'll be diving into
Speaker 1: the controversy behind the movie. This iconic film was a
Speaker 1: big deal for the Latino community, especially Chicanos, but unfortunately,
Speaker 1: its legacy was dealt a serious blow when several of
Speaker 1: the film's game consultants were murdered shortly after its release.
Speaker 1: Even Edward James Almost was possibly threatened and extorted. In fact,
Speaker 1: while I've been researching and interviewing people related to this
Speaker 1: film that came out thirty years ago, over and over again,
Speaker 1: I get eerily similar responses like I won't talk about
Speaker 1: that or flat out leave this alone. On each episode,
Speaker 1: all peel back a layer on the mystery and myths
Speaker 1: surrounding American Me. By the way, if you haven't listened
Speaker 1: to our first episode, stop, go back and start there,
Speaker 1: or this ship is just going to be too confusing.
Speaker 1: Let's review the fallout after the release of American Me. One.
Speaker 1: Although there was critical acclaim, there was heavy blowback to
Speaker 1: the movie, both from the Latino community and the Mexican mafia. Two,
Speaker 1: several people who were associated with the film were murdered
Speaker 1: after the movie came out, and three, the rumor is
Speaker 1: that it was so bad there was a bounty on
Speaker 1: Edward James Almost, and some say he even paid anything
Speaker 1: from a hundred thousand to a million dollars to the
Speaker 1: Mexican Mafia to stay alive. And even though he said
Speaker 1: he did, it really looks like Almost never got permission
Speaker 1: from the Mexican Mafia to tell this story, at least
Speaker 1: not the version that ended up on screen. So why
Speaker 1: would he do all this? In order to better understand that,
Speaker 1: we're dedicating this entire episode to the one the only
Speaker 1: Edward James Almost. But first, let's recap who Edward James
Speaker 1: almost plays In this movie. American Me tells the story
Speaker 1: of Montoya Santana, leader of Lapri Meta gang, and it
Speaker 1: follows him from juvie to prison, where he eventually is murdered.
Speaker 1: The film shows Santana's turn from law street kid to
Speaker 1: gang leader, to convicted felon to disenchanted, but that Dono
Speaker 1: questioning his life choices. Santana has seen on both sides
Speaker 1: as both the victim of violence and the perpetray er
Speaker 1: of it. We first meet Almost as the older version
Speaker 1: of Santana, having graduated from juvie to fulsome prison almost
Speaker 1: plays him as a confident prison thug hungry for power
Speaker 1: on the inside, comfortably doling out orders to underlings, power
Speaker 1: became our game, power to provide everything you find outside.
Speaker 1: But later, when Santana has let out of prison, he
Speaker 1: is no longer in control of the world around him.
Speaker 1: He struggles. That's painfully demonstrated in a scene where Santana
Speaker 1: can't perform with his girlfriend until he turns a consensual
Speaker 1: exchange into an act of violence. The scene is juxtaposed
Speaker 1: with another scene in prison where his gang sexually assaults
Speaker 1: an enemy. It's a bleak sequence, but it's a turning
Speaker 1: point for Santana and the film. He's become a monster,
Speaker 1: and he realizes he's no longer in control of the violence.
Speaker 1: The violence is controlling him. From that point on, Almost
Speaker 1: plays the character as a man changed, someone looking not
Speaker 1: for redemption per se, but for who is when you
Speaker 1: take the gang life away from him. In the final
Speaker 1: scene of the movie, Santana, who has rejected the gang's
Speaker 1: way of life and is about to pay the price
Speaker 1: for it, faces down his assailants with confidence. You've got
Speaker 1: a lot of heart cutting on, maybe too much, so
Speaker 1: he's gotta give it your best shot. You know. It's
Speaker 1: a clear and tragic message. No matter how alluring the
Speaker 1: power and control of gang life may seem, you can
Speaker 1: never truly escape the consequences of it, even if you
Speaker 1: mean well. But who was Edward James almost before he
Speaker 1: stepped into the role of Montoya Santana. Edward James Almost
Speaker 1: was born February in East Los Angeles for the people
Speaker 1: living under a rock but somehow listening to this podcast
Speaker 1: about a film he directed. Here's a list of a
Speaker 1: only a few of his credits. Zoot Suit, Miami Vice,
Speaker 1: Blade Runner, The Ballot of Gregorio Cortes Stand and Deliver
Speaker 1: talent for the game Selina Twelve, Angry Men, the remake
Speaker 1: Beverly Hills, Chihuahua, and of course Battlestar Galactica. He has
Speaker 1: been nominated for a Tony and an Oscar. He won
Speaker 1: an Emmy, an Independent Spirit Award, and a slew of
Speaker 1: other industry accolades. And he's won so many Latino awards
Speaker 1: like Ima Hins and Alma's that at a party I
Speaker 1: once gave him a Latino Barbecue Lifetime Achievement Award in absentia.
Speaker 1: Of course, He's also an activist who has spoken at
Speaker 1: the United Nations and lobbied Washington on behalf of Latino Causes.
Speaker 1: American me as a project was in many ways a
Speaker 1: piece of propaganda. It was designed to serve almost as
Speaker 1: activist objectives, which in this case were to get kids
Speaker 1: off the streets, to stop joining gangs, and end the
Speaker 1: cycle of violence once and for all. That's a pretty
Speaker 1: lofty goal, some might say, and the way it almost
Speaker 1: decided to try to do it, by taking on the
Speaker 1: story of an actual gang, was very risky day injurious even,
Speaker 1: and it yielded some pretty deadly results when Edward James
Speaker 1: Almost was building his career. The word Hispanic wasn't even
Speaker 1: on the U S Census when the word first appeared
Speaker 1: on the census in nineteen eighty. The decade that followed
Speaker 1: saw attention being paid for the first time to this
Speaker 1: newly created pan ethnicity that then numbered at fourteen million Mexicans,
Speaker 1: Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and other folks of different Latin American
Speaker 1: backgrounds united to consolidate economic and political power. Industries took notice,
Speaker 1: including Hollywood movies starring and about Hispanics in the nineteen
Speaker 1: eighties included LaBamba Norte, Crossover Dreams, and Born in East
Speaker 1: l A. The first notable Latino film of the decade
Speaker 1: was zoot Suit in one starring Edward James Almost. The
Speaker 1: last was eight Stand and Deliver starring Edward James Almost.
Speaker 1: We literally watched Almost become a movie star over the
Speaker 1: course of seven years. Zoot Suit was the o G
Speaker 1: Chicano gangster story, and it showed how racial discrimination by
Speaker 1: whites and police pushed communities to organize in other ways
Speaker 1: for safety and power, including gangs. In many ways, it
Speaker 1: was a prequel to American Me. The movie would change
Speaker 1: Edward James almost his life forever. And I remember falling
Speaker 1: to the ground as when I got the phone call
Speaker 1: from the Mark Taper asking me to play that role.
Speaker 1: I felt out crying because I knew what this meant.
Speaker 1: Almost plays El Pachuco, a mythical character meant to literally
Speaker 1: embody Chicano culture. In other words, Edward James almost makes
Speaker 1: his on screen debut basically playing Chicano man Our Patrico
Speaker 1: realities will only make sense if you grasp their stylization.
Speaker 1: It was a secret thing to living to put on
Speaker 1: the Zoo. You can see how Alachuko's kind of spoken
Speaker 1: word way of narrating influence Santana's voiceover at the beginning
Speaker 1: of American me Zo zud New Suit. It sounded all
Speaker 1: the same. It was his role in zoot Suit that
Speaker 1: caught the eye of casting director Jane Feinberg when she
Speaker 1: was casting Ridley Scott's two sci fi classic Blade Runner.
Speaker 1: Eddie had known for a long time and I brought
Speaker 1: him in to meet with Ridley. And it was Eddie's
Speaker 1: idea to pay a multi national, multi ethnic, multi lingual
Speaker 1: character who had a vocabulary of his own, and already
Speaker 1: that early in his career. Almost was asserting his will
Speaker 1: on the process. Listen to Ridley Scott talk about how
Speaker 1: Almost invented city speak, the fictional language in the film.
Speaker 1: That was tricky because Eddie was saying, what's this city speak?
Speaker 1: So Eddie god bless and drew me crazy coming up
Speaker 1: with ideas of esperanto and rhythms of speech that actually
Speaker 1: vaguely dovetail inmate sense into what he had to say
Speaker 1: in terms of the drama. He was absolutely obsessed. Without
Speaker 1: getting that right to me, it paints a picture of
Speaker 1: a guy who won, isn't afraid of powerful white people
Speaker 1: like Ridley Scott, and two wants to put his stamp
Speaker 1: on everything he does. A lot of actors just show
Speaker 1: up and interpret the role on the page. Not Almost.
Speaker 1: He was a guy who, whether he knew it then
Speaker 1: or not, wanted to be a filmmaker. Edward James Almost
Speaker 1: his star was on the rise in the nineteen eighties,
Speaker 1: but his big break, the way he became a household name,
Speaker 1: all started with a phone call with the Michael calling me.
Speaker 1: I'm asking me if I wanted to work on Miami Vice,
Speaker 1: and I said, thank you, but I can't do this
Speaker 1: right now. Michael Mann, who would go on to direct
Speaker 1: Hate Last of the Mohicans and Collateral, was the creator
Speaker 1: of Miami Vice and almost still refused the role. I
Speaker 1: was afraid of a Miami Vice getting me to that
Speaker 1: point of making me known, but not allowing me to
Speaker 1: do Latino thing projects unheard of at that time. I mean,
Speaker 1: it wasn't even a whisper in Edward James Almost was
Speaker 1: running a small furniture business to support his family. He
Speaker 1: was driving a sixteen year old car. He was paying
Speaker 1: a modest mortgage of two hundred and fifteen dollars a month.
Speaker 1: This was not a rich man we're talking about. But
Speaker 1: he was developing a few films and he wasn't ready
Speaker 1: to go down the path of playing a stereotype. And
Speaker 1: people say, well, but if he becomes successful, then it
Speaker 1: will help you over here to do this. They're not
Speaker 1: gonna want to do stuff that looks like this. I
Speaker 1: had a huge responsibility, meaning almost felt a responsibility to
Speaker 1: his community that was more important than his career. He
Speaker 1: said no to Michael Mann and Miami Vice. When his
Speaker 1: wife overheard the phone call, she said, quote, I think
Speaker 1: you should go talk to your son. He's in the room, crying,
Speaker 1: asking why his dad doesn't want to work. Almost has
Speaker 1: said that moment felt like a knife to the heart,
Speaker 1: but he remained firm. He said he didn't want to
Speaker 1: have an exclusive contract. Twenty four episodes of Miami Vice
Speaker 1: means ten months of filming and only two months to
Speaker 1: do other projects. But Man wouldn't give up. The fifth time,
Speaker 1: Michael Mann called he offered almost a non exclusive contract
Speaker 1: with creative control over his character and a lot of money.
Speaker 1: I mean the money he was offering me was more
Speaker 1: money than my father had made in this entire lifetime,
Speaker 1: working forty five years of his life. He had never
Speaker 1: acquired what I was going to make in one season
Speaker 1: on this television show. Almost joined Miami Vice and stayed
Speaker 1: on the show for five years. In Miami Advice, I
Speaker 1: played a lieutenant Lieutenant Martin Castillo, and um, it was
Speaker 1: probably one of the most interesting journeys that I took,
Speaker 1: and because it was such a well received commercial piece
Speaker 1: of work, and that's when he got the Emmy and
Speaker 1: the Golden Globe. But Almost felt he needed to do
Speaker 1: something that would have a direct impact on his community.
Speaker 1: He took a role playing a high school teacher named
Speaker 1: him Escalante in film Stand and Deliver, and he transformed
Speaker 1: from an intimidating cop into a bookish teacher who saw
Speaker 1: math as a ticket out of the hood. Scores would
Speaker 1: have never been questioned if my kids did not have
Speaker 1: Spanish surnames and come from barrio schools. You know that
Speaker 1: he received an Academy Award nomination for the movie Stand
Speaker 1: and Deliver catapulted almost to movie star status. By he
Speaker 1: had succeeded in what few actors, let alone Latino actors,
Speaker 1: had been able to accomplish. He was playing characters that
Speaker 1: had depth and nuance. He did TV and he did movies.
Speaker 1: He got non exclusive contracts, and he got creative control
Speaker 1: over his characters. But one thing I noticed about almost
Speaker 1: his career is that he doesn't make the obvious decision
Speaker 1: an actor would usually make. If you're an actor coming
Speaker 1: up who wants to be famous, you don't drive the
Speaker 1: director of Alien crazy by insisting on controlling what you
Speaker 1: say in the movie. You don't tell the future to
Speaker 1: Rector of Heat what your character is gonna do in
Speaker 1: the TV show. You do as you're told. But almost
Speaker 1: I think saw himself and seize himself first and foremost
Speaker 1: as a role model. It's even evidenced by the first
Speaker 1: starring movie role he chose, neighborhood hero him Escalante. The
Speaker 1: fucking movie is literally called stand and Deliver. So when
Speaker 1: he chooses the movie that would become his directorial debut,
Speaker 1: he wasn't just choosing it as Edward James Almost the actor.
Speaker 1: He was choosing it as Edward James Almost the activist.
Speaker 1: To Edward James Almost, making American Me was more than
Speaker 1: a movie, and we'll hear more about that side of
Speaker 1: him after the break with my guest Raphael Augustine. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to More Than a Movie American mem Alex Fumeto.
Speaker 1: In the first half of this episode, we dug into
Speaker 1: the actor Edward James Almost and how his career ascension
Speaker 1: into Hollywood royalty brought him to the making of American Me.
Speaker 1: For the record, we reached out to Mr Almost three
Speaker 1: separate times to see if he talked to us. Each
Speaker 1: time he declined, in fact, you'd have a hard time
Speaker 1: finding anything online after we're Almost discussed as American Me
Speaker 1: at all. So instead, in this part of the episode,
Speaker 1: we dive into the man Edward James Almost, who is
Speaker 1: a mentor to my guest Raphael Augustine. I could not
Speaker 1: get Edward James almost, but I have the next best
Speaker 1: thing sitting right in front of me. My name is everyone.
Speaker 1: And to his credit, he actually didn't say no. He
Speaker 1: said I can't, which is a big difference. That is
Speaker 1: a big difference. Okay, big Zach Morris time out. Um
Speaker 1: fuck yeah, it's a big difference. When we were recording this,
Speaker 1: this just kind of like flew by me. But wow,
Speaker 1: now just thinking about it, the man said he can't
Speaker 1: talk about it, can't. It's been thirty years. Okay, time
Speaker 1: in I think. Um, I mean, I'm never going to
Speaker 1: speak about his feelings into all of this, but I'm
Speaker 1: here just to really talk more about who he is
Speaker 1: as a person. When Ralpha was a student at U c.
Speaker 1: L A. He interned at a film festival called La Leaf,
Speaker 1: founded by Edward James almost, And it just so happened
Speaker 1: that one day, this is no lie. One day I
Speaker 1: was working I was fixing a desk. I was literally
Speaker 1: like like laying down on the floor, working like up
Speaker 1: and doing the nail. Because even at a Latino film
Speaker 1: festival that make you do manual la I'm telling you
Speaker 1: that's the main reason I was there. Uh, he walks
Speaker 1: in and I was like, there he is freaking Edward
Speaker 1: James almost walks in and I'm literally working under the table.
Speaker 1: Did you say hi from under the table? Yeah? No,
Speaker 1: Well I I stood up quickly, and he was just
Speaker 1: like think. He was so gracious. He was like, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for being I mean almost student volunteer, right,
Speaker 1: So he was like, thank you so much for being here,
Speaker 1: for being part of the movement. I was like, movement,
Speaker 1: we don't even know what moment we're doing, but that
Speaker 1: that a lot that one sentence being part of the
Speaker 1: movement is So I feel like from everything I've learned
Speaker 1: about him and my own interactions with him, emblematic of
Speaker 1: who he is is he views himself as constantly within
Speaker 1: a movement, right. Can you talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: that ethos? Yeah, of course. I mean not just the
Speaker 1: like the lack of representation movement in Hollywood, not just
Speaker 1: like lack of proper funding for school education movement. He's
Speaker 1: also talking about the Chicano movement and everything else that
Speaker 1: he's been working on, and and that it took me
Speaker 1: an entire like year to figure out. I was like,
Speaker 1: what movement is he talking about? Like what? So I'm
Speaker 1: like trying to interpret and understand what he was saying
Speaker 1: until I finally saw all these like latinos in Hollywood
Speaker 1: in one space celebrating together, and I was like, Holy hell,
Speaker 1: this is the movement. There's so little of us, but
Speaker 1: we're powerful in like our art, in our intent and
Speaker 1: the stories we're trying to tell. Let's get into that.
Speaker 1: So what do you know about Edward James? Almost? Like
Speaker 1: how does how much do you know about how Edward
Speaker 1: James almost goes from a kid living in l A
Speaker 1: to Edward James almost Um Well, from all the years
Speaker 1: of working with him and just hearing his stories, I
Speaker 1: know that he started in music and he brings so
Speaker 1: much by the way he brings so much music to
Speaker 1: his characters. But that's a separate thing. That's his like,
Speaker 1: that's his process. And also this was a little interesting
Speaker 1: about him, um he and he embraces and studies so
Speaker 1: many different cultures that while everybody was doing suits suit
Speaker 1: as a it's like the Chicano masterpiece, right, He's performing
Speaker 1: Pachuco as if it was kabuki theater. That's what's so
Speaker 1: legendary about him. Like when he does Blade Runner. Really,
Speaker 1: Scott didn't ask him to create a new language. They
Speaker 1: didn't ask him to do like the ore Gami. He
Speaker 1: did that himself. In fact, almost his most famous line
Speaker 1: in the movie Too Bad She Won't Live, But then again,
Speaker 1: who does that was ad libbed? He was surprised Ridley
Speaker 1: Scott left it in. He even invented the made up
Speaker 1: language in the movie city Speak. And that's why he's
Speaker 1: so freaking amazing. That's why we love him so much.
Speaker 1: I have spoken to some folks who were involved in
Speaker 1: the making of American me and I won't say who
Speaker 1: they are yet because they frankly are afraid to talk
Speaker 1: about American me um and but one of the things
Speaker 1: that I've heard is that there were several versions of
Speaker 1: the script and that e j O did his own
Speaker 1: pass on the script, and that the studio Universal wasn't
Speaker 1: happy with that as a final product, and so they
Speaker 1: brought in more writers, and that there was a lot
Speaker 1: of tension between him and those writers because he did
Speaker 1: not like being rewritten. He did not like he wanted
Speaker 1: absolute and total control over the fin product. And that
Speaker 1: seems to be a theme in how he works and
Speaker 1: in the making of this movie. We've heard many times
Speaker 1: that he saw American Me as I don't think he
Speaker 1: would call it this, but I would call a propaganda piece,
Speaker 1: right that it's a it's a piece of politics, it's
Speaker 1: a piece of it was it's I'm gonna make this
Speaker 1: movie and it's going to have an impact on the
Speaker 1: community and especially youth in the community, and it's going
Speaker 1: to dissuade them from a certain life path, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, I will say that if anyone takes anything
Speaker 1: about this conversation, it's that his intent was intentional. When
Speaker 1: people watch The Godfather today, we romanticize that and we
Speaker 1: all like, man, we want to have power and being
Speaker 1: in the mafia. You know, when he made American Me,
Speaker 1: he wanted to make sure he did the exact opposite
Speaker 1: of The Godfather. Right. So I say that because I'm
Speaker 1: not just talking to a writer in Hollywood. I'm talking
Speaker 1: to someone who lives and breathes thinking about Latino's roles
Speaker 1: in Hollyoad. So when we approached the theme to this movie,
Speaker 1: I want to kind of talk about it that way.
Speaker 1: And one of the things that you can't ignore in
Speaker 1: this movie is the use of sexual violence as what
Speaker 1: seems to me like a deterrent to to joining a
Speaker 1: gang right or to gang life. That's really complicated. When
Speaker 1: you watch this movie, how did that sexual violence impact
Speaker 1: you when you first watched it as a youth and
Speaker 1: what do you think about it now as someone who
Speaker 1: sort of thinks about identity in in in cinema. Oh Jesus,
Speaker 1: So I would say that when Quint Tarantino was a child,
Speaker 1: he want He said that one of the movies the
Speaker 1: most impacted him was Deliverance and that rape scene in
Speaker 1: that movie. Uh, he said, it's stuck with him for
Speaker 1: a very long time. And I think the same thing
Speaker 1: happened to me with the American me. I wasn't ready
Speaker 1: for that moment. I was like and shocked, and it's
Speaker 1: just something that sticks with you. It's like the one
Speaker 1: thing in that film that I wasn't prepared for. And
Speaker 1: I grew up with a lot of gang violence around
Speaker 1: like my neighborhood, so I always knew how to maneuver
Speaker 1: my way around, like the Cholas and Scholas. Um. I
Speaker 1: don't have much else to say about that particular moment,
Speaker 1: but I could just tell you as a kid, I
Speaker 1: was like, what am I watching this is so crazy.
Speaker 1: Multiple times in the movie we see sexual violence. In
Speaker 1: a scene at his mother's grave, Santana finds out from
Speaker 1: his father he's the product of rape and you were born.
Speaker 1: I tried to love you, but every time I looked
Speaker 1: at you, I wondered who your real father was. I
Speaker 1: wondered which sailors glad you carried inside you. In a
Speaker 1: critical woman in the film, Santana is the victim of
Speaker 1: sexual assault, while in Juvie. Many believe these two scenes
Speaker 1: were the catalyst for real life murders. This depiction of
Speaker 1: male on male sexual assault in a culture we know
Speaker 1: to be machista also reads as intentionally homophobic, like what's
Speaker 1: shameful about it? Isn't just that you were assaulted and
Speaker 1: made to feel powerless, but that it was by a man.
Speaker 1: So I asked Rafa if he was reading the use
Speaker 1: of violence by almost the same way I was, and
Speaker 1: what he thought the reaction would be if American me
Speaker 1: came out today Jesus Christ in the same way that
Speaker 1: we react to Game of Thrones. I mean, you watch
Speaker 1: it in game with their ownes. I don't. I don't think,
Speaker 1: oh I want to join wester Row's I watched American Men,
Speaker 1: and that I don't want to join that, right? Um?
Speaker 1: I for me, actually, the thing that I would most
Speaker 1: want to know today is how based on reality it is?
Speaker 1: If that's I mean, I don't know if that's true
Speaker 1: or if it's not true. I don't know what the
Speaker 1: intent of the writers were, But that's where my brain
Speaker 1: goes every time I watch something that's based loosely based
Speaker 1: on real life, Like why did we want to exploit
Speaker 1: this moment for what effect? And if and if there's
Speaker 1: any kernel of truth to it? How do you think, uh,
Speaker 1: a man being sexually assaulted by another man, how do
Speaker 1: you think that that victim is perceived by a large
Speaker 1: portion of Latino or Chicano culture? Is it fair to
Speaker 1: say that people would make some people might see that
Speaker 1: victim as like emasculated or soft or or less than right?
Speaker 1: Like is there a certain amount of like? Yeah, but
Speaker 1: I wouldn't let that happen to me. The only thing
Speaker 1: I can say is that American Me was the most
Speaker 1: stolen movie in Blockbuster history. So a lot of people
Speaker 1: related to it, a lot of people admired it, and
Speaker 1: God knows what that particular scene did to people, but
Speaker 1: it definitely did not glamorate like fat lifestyle for sure.
Speaker 1: For sure. I think that's yeah, and I think and
Speaker 1: I think that was the intent correct, right. Um So,
Speaker 1: so you watch this movie and then I think, who's
Speaker 1: who's stealing this movie a blockbuster? That's where my break
Speaker 1: coming up on More Than a Movie. We'll talk about
Speaker 1: how American Me Ever got made in the first place,
Speaker 1: and how the movies Fallout changed Edward James almost his
Speaker 1: career forever. Welcome back to More Than a Movie American Me.
Speaker 1: I'm Alex Fumero. We're talking to one of Edward James
Speaker 1: almost his closest friends, Raphael Augustine. He's telling me how
Speaker 1: this movie and it's fallout, the threats, the murders, may
Speaker 1: have changed almost his career. I've said this, but one
Speaker 1: of the main reasons I wanted to do this podcast
Speaker 1: was because of what could have been with American Me.
Speaker 1: It could have been The god Father or Main Streets
Speaker 1: in the sense that it could have launched the careers
Speaker 1: of a ton of movie stars and a slew of
Speaker 1: follow up films. I wanted rawa to help articulate why
Speaker 1: that missed opportunity matters so much. It's lack of jobs.
Speaker 1: It's lack of access, it's lack of opportunity to have
Speaker 1: one film that hires so many and then they're not
Speaker 1: being another. Um, this is life changing for a lot
Speaker 1: of people who work in the industry and try to
Speaker 1: work in the industry at that time. Right. Um. The
Speaker 1: thing about the reaction to the movie, it also felt
Speaker 1: like it was too raw and too powerful and not
Speaker 1: who who are you pleasing? You weren't pleasing like the
Speaker 1: American movie audience. You weren't pleasing the Latino community. You
Speaker 1: weren't pleasing members of of like this section of our
Speaker 1: society that are dealing with the criminal justice system. So
Speaker 1: who are you pleasing? Like? It's a strong, raw testament
Speaker 1: of a period in time that he captured and he
Speaker 1: made a statement with it. Um, when we look back,
Speaker 1: I still think it. I mean I saw that movie
Speaker 1: probably like a few years back, and I was like, Jesus,
Speaker 1: this is still like hard to watch and it's still
Speaker 1: very powerful. But maybe it's one of those things that
Speaker 1: it's ahead of its time, Like people weren't ready for this,
Speaker 1: and the community wasn't ready for this either, like the
Speaker 1: Hollywood community or the Latino community, and now Latinos have
Speaker 1: taken over Hollywood and we have and now very little
Speaker 1: has changed. And that's that's what's so heartbreaking. We have
Speaker 1: known impositions of power. We have very very little writers
Speaker 1: and directors. Um you know, you know our percentages across
Speaker 1: the United States, and we're like, what five percent of
Speaker 1: the speaking roles, four percent of the speaking roles of
Speaker 1: the population, We're one in five Americans. And then behind
Speaker 1: the camera it's atrocious. And then at the executive level,
Speaker 1: and it was, and it was worse then, and that's
Speaker 1: when he chose to make American. This was this was
Speaker 1: a unicorn. What was happening here was a fucking unicorn,
Speaker 1: you know, in fact, like Scarface, for whatever kind of
Speaker 1: commercial success it had and cult success like it got,
Speaker 1: the studio's got a bad rap. So like part of
Speaker 1: the reason that this movie even happened the way is
Speaker 1: this script existed for years before it got made. And
Speaker 1: part of the reason, in fact, that role that ever
Speaker 1: James almost plays was supposed to be for al Pacino
Speaker 1: to play, and the studio yes, and the studio was
Speaker 1: like no, because we're gonna get major blowback because by
Speaker 1: that time there was enough kind of organizing going on
Speaker 1: in Hollywood. I think National Hispanic Media Coalition was like
Speaker 1: making a big deal about stuff. And and so Pacino,
Speaker 1: by the way, who made who made a career playing
Speaker 1: I mean outside of The Godfather of course, playing Latino
Speaker 1: lead rules in Scarface. Cuban American Puerto Rican's interesting. Tell
Speaker 1: me about it. He was trying to do the trifecta
Speaker 1: and he was trying to get and they were like, yo, yo, yo,
Speaker 1: what's up. I'm not sure that he agreed to do it,
Speaker 1: but I know that's who the producers initially wanted and
Speaker 1: the writer originally wanted. But but then they were like, no,
Speaker 1: we need to do oh yeah, we need to do
Speaker 1: this with the Latino lead. And so they went out
Speaker 1: at e j Oh. I don't even think he had
Speaker 1: been nominated for Standard Delivery yet, but like they you know,
Speaker 1: he had made the movie, and they were like, well
Speaker 1: cast him, and he actually said to them, I'm not
Speaker 1: interested unless I can direct, and then they said, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't know, this guy's never directed before. So the
Speaker 1: compromise with the studio is that Robert M. Young will
Speaker 1: basically co direct the movie with almost so to me,
Speaker 1: that means that there were two tracks into producing this film,
Speaker 1: because I understood that he also had this article for
Speaker 1: years and was trying to make it himself. It's very
Speaker 1: possible that he was that he wanted to make this
Speaker 1: movie himself, but that the stars aligned right. It doesn't
Speaker 1: make a lot of money and it becomes a kind
Speaker 1: of cult hip. But that's you know, that's sort of
Speaker 1: after the fact. This is where you really got to
Speaker 1: interact with him. What has what has the last twenty
Speaker 1: years of his career looked like out of the limelight,
Speaker 1: like not not the stuff we've seen him do on screen.
Speaker 1: Before I get into the the organizational work and community
Speaker 1: work that he's done. Um, I do want to say
Speaker 1: that a testament to his character is a story that
Speaker 1: I heard from people close to him that he was
Speaker 1: offered the film In the Line of Fire, which is
Speaker 1: that Clan Eastwood movie about someone trying to kill the
Speaker 1: president of the United States. Edward James almost turned it
Speaker 1: down because he said to everyone around him, we cannot
Speaker 1: have a Latino or Mexican American try to kill the
Speaker 1: president of the United States. That's irresponsible, spot on, But
Speaker 1: do you think any actor today would pass up on
Speaker 1: that role? For that reason, and I think that, to
Speaker 1: me is the story the best represents Edward James almost.
Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit about the institutional work
Speaker 1: and also just like what that means, you know, like
Speaker 1: like for people outside of Hollywood, Like, how is this
Speaker 1: this guy's changing lives? Let's be real, he has changed lives.
Speaker 1: You're one example of that, But tell tell me a
Speaker 1: little bit more about that. So for decades, the man
Speaker 1: gets pulled as the only representation of our community, right,
Speaker 1: he gets pulled in many different directions, and he always
Speaker 1: shows up, if it's political activism, if it's to make
Speaker 1: sure people in the Latino community get out to vote,
Speaker 1: to make sure that he's fighting for proper funding and
Speaker 1: school educations, to make sure there's proper representation in Hollywood,
Speaker 1: and all these things start aligning to become this institute
Speaker 1: that we created, the Latino Film Institute. And it all
Speaker 1: stems not just from the leaf, right, the Los Angeles
Speaker 1: Latino International Film Festival that Lupo Divos told me, this
Speaker 1: is where the Latino industry community comes together. It's truly
Speaker 1: when we launched the Youth Cinema Project, that's when everything changed.
Speaker 1: I mean, the man himself has told me, when I
Speaker 1: leave this earth, people will not remember me for my activism,
Speaker 1: and people will not remember me for my Hollywood work.
Speaker 1: They will only remember me for the Youth Cinema Project.
Speaker 1: He has found new meaning and life because of this work.
Speaker 1: What is it? So the Youth Cinema Project essentially took
Speaker 1: film graduate school and put it in fourth grade. What
Speaker 1: we do is not revolutionary the age that we do
Speaker 1: it it is. And to me, this is full circle
Speaker 1: for Mr. Almost because he's he started. He really came
Speaker 1: into national consciousness by portraying him a man who argued
Speaker 1: that marginalized students and children will rise to the level
Speaker 1: of expectation and no one believed they would until someone
Speaker 1: believed in them. And now he's doing the same thing,
Speaker 1: but through film in schools. Because what does film do
Speaker 1: it a film project, as you know as a producer yourself,
Speaker 1: the amount of communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity that goes
Speaker 1: into a film, those are like the four pillars at
Speaker 1: all schools want to accomplish. So the project itself is
Speaker 1: not the film, it's the student. It's the amount of work,
Speaker 1: a self advocacy, the growth then wanting to read and
Speaker 1: write because They're not thinking we're studying. They're thinking, we're
Speaker 1: making a film. The idea of telling your own story,
Speaker 1: the social emotional empowerment. This work is truly changing lives.
Speaker 1: And this is the work that he knows he's gonna
Speaker 1: be remembered for. And this is the work that I
Speaker 1: also think he's going to be remembered for. Because you
Speaker 1: wait until right now we're all throughout the state of
Speaker 1: not all, but we're working a lot of school districts
Speaker 1: throughout the state of California. You wait until the rest
Speaker 1: of the United States gets a hold of this, Like
Speaker 1: how we're gonna have a fighting chance in Hollywood if
Speaker 1: you start post college. We have plenty of brilliant artists
Speaker 1: in our community, we just don't have the access and funding.
Speaker 1: So that's what we're trying to address. How do we
Speaker 1: prove to people that were worth investing in and how
Speaker 1: do we help them get that access into Hollywood. So
Speaker 1: in a way, I wonder if you think, I mean,
Speaker 1: do you think Edward maybe Edward James almost would be
Speaker 1: doing this stuff if he were like directing a film
Speaker 1: every year years, you know, But do you think that
Speaker 1: maybe the kind of aftermath of American May like ironically
Speaker 1: sort of like pushed him into a more direct action
Speaker 1: kind of way of intervening in young people's lives, because
Speaker 1: he made this movie to intervene in young people's lives, right,
Speaker 1: But he sort of ends up actually intervening in young
Speaker 1: people's lives, correct. And I think this is the way
Speaker 1: I think of American may It is so easy to
Speaker 1: get projects that are about gangs and Narco's green lit
Speaker 1: by our community, right, And I think he was able
Speaker 1: to get this green lit and then turned it on
Speaker 1: its head. That's how I'd like to choose to think
Speaker 1: of this film. Because he's told me he's tried for
Speaker 1: nearly twenty years to make the film about the first
Speaker 1: Latino Middle of Honor winner, and he can't get anyone
Speaker 1: too to want to do that project. But when it
Speaker 1: comes to gangsters and when it comes to like Narco's,
Speaker 1: people want to jump on that right away. Well maybe
Speaker 1: it lets you know, uh, maybe a youth cinema project
Speaker 1: director will make that movie. And we truly hope. So.
Speaker 1: I mean, the stories that are coming out of the
Speaker 1: our public schools are they'll break your heart. They're so powerful,
Speaker 1: so so powerful, because our kids might not have the
Speaker 1: money and might not have like the access, but we
Speaker 1: have our we have the stories is what we have.
Speaker 1: I do have one last question that I ask everybody,
Speaker 1: what is your favorite scene in American may Oh my god,
Speaker 1: let me think about that, you know, my the the
Speaker 1: scene that always sticks with me is when he first
Speaker 1: comes out of prison and he's taking in his neighborhood
Speaker 1: for the first time, and like, that's that sh It
Speaker 1: makes me want to cry because when someone is like
Speaker 1: so institutionalized and then they see the outside world for
Speaker 1: the first time, and I felt, I felt how both
Speaker 1: magical and scary it was to him, and for some reason,
Speaker 1: even as a child, like I really responded to that.
Speaker 1: It's cool, thanks man, Yeah, man, for sure. You know
Speaker 1: what's so interesting, like hearing you your talk, is when
Speaker 1: you look back at Dustin Hoffmann. No one will ever
Speaker 1: remember him as a Jewish American actor, and people don't
Speaker 1: look back at all Pacina go, that's an Italian American actor.
Speaker 1: But when they look back at it Regie's almost they
Speaker 1: do say, that's a Latino American and that's that's crazy.
Speaker 1: That's crazy because to me, being Latino is a uniquely
Speaker 1: American experience, Like in and in Cuba, you're not Latino.
Speaker 1: Cuban and Ecuador or not Latino. I'm Ecuadorian. In Mexico,
Speaker 1: you're not Latino. Your Mexican. But in the United States,
Speaker 1: we're all Latino. We made it up here, That's what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. So being Latino is uniquely fucking American. And
Speaker 1: that's the uphill battle that we're still having. We're Latinos
Speaker 1: are still being mothered. Do you only speak Spanish? How
Speaker 1: do we write your stories? How do we program your
Speaker 1: to you? You know, it's it's still something that we're
Speaker 1: all trying to conquer and overcome in Hollywood, and the
Speaker 1: work is only beginning. It's the only beginning. That's what's
Speaker 1: so sad like we're moving backwards. I mean, we're moving
Speaker 1: backwards from the day that Desire Nest was the start
Speaker 1: of the biggest show and every American was accustomed to
Speaker 1: living with Desi Ernzz, a Cuban American in their households.
Speaker 1: We've worked backwards of that. On the next episode, we
Speaker 1: meet actor Jacob Vargas. You know him from Traffic Next
Speaker 1: Friday and currently in National Treasure, Edge of History on
Speaker 1: Disney Plus. But Jacob's big break came from playing Santana's
Speaker 1: younger brother Paulito in American Me. And I remember one
Speaker 1: scene specifically was the you know, the end of the
Speaker 1: movie where where where we do the drive by. I mean,
Speaker 1: he was a wreck. He was like an emotional wreck,
Speaker 1: like he was like crying, and I remember you're saying
Speaker 1: that this is you know this, there's just too much
Speaker 1: of this. It's too much of this happy cabinet and
Speaker 1: out in our community, Jacob. That's in the next episode
Speaker 1: of More Than a Movie. American Mean. More Than a
Speaker 1: Movie American Me is a production of Eggsile Content Studios
Speaker 1: and Trojan Horse in partnership with My Heart's Michael Ura
Speaker 1: podcast network. The show is produced by me Alex Fumeto
Speaker 1: at Anger Yuka on the Internets and our senior producers.
Speaker 1: Nigel Da Rose Red and Cream Taps are the executive producers.
Speaker 1: Production assistants from Sabine Jansen and now Vaio and Stella Emmett.
Speaker 1: Mixing and sound designed by the Guado Albornos. Our executive
Speaker 1: producers at I Heart are Gazel Bonzas and Arlee and Santana.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts, listen to the I Heart Radio app
Speaker 1: Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.