Speaker 1: This is he said a yadjo with Eric Winter and
Speaker 1: Rodlin fantag.
Speaker 2: Oh let me, he said, Yeah, I'm so excited to
Speaker 2: have this guest with us today. She is a new
Speaker 2: generation of Latin representation in Hollywood.
Speaker 3: She got her big break on ABC's The Baker in
Speaker 3: the Beauty Show that we watched. We had a little
Speaker 3: friends in that show. She starred in the highly anticipated
Speaker 3: hocus Pocus Too and played milagro Reyes in Blue Beetle.
Speaker 2: And she's currently starring with Riba McIntyre on the ABC's
Speaker 2: hit show Happy.
Speaker 4: So on ABC, Stay there again, you said, oh, And.
Speaker 2: She's currently starring with Riba McIntyre on the NBC's hit
Speaker 2: show Happiest Place. Please Welcome to the show. Belisa Escobedo Hello, Hello, Hey, Hi,
Speaker 2: how are you.
Speaker 1: I'm good? How are you guys?
Speaker 2: We're so good, so good on.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me. This is awesome.
Speaker 3: We're saying we're fans of yours in from Baker in
Speaker 3: the Beauty We loved that show. We had Lisa that
Speaker 3: was a very close friend of ours.
Speaker 1: Yes, Lisa, I love her so much. Lisa is such
Speaker 1: a good show.
Speaker 2: I know. Lisa is like my sister I love. I
Speaker 2: love Lisa so much and even Carlos Card. Yeah, the
Speaker 2: show was so great and you and you showed this
Speaker 2: in Puerto Rico, which was so dear to me.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, always Puerto Rico. I've had two projects
Speaker 1: now that shot there. Blue Beetle, we shot a little
Speaker 1: bit of it there. Oh yes, yeah, so it's so crazy.
Speaker 1: I just you know, I'm not I'm Mexican, I'm not
Speaker 1: Puerto Rican, but I have such this like huge connection
Speaker 1: to Puerto Rico because all of my like most pivotal
Speaker 1: projects have been shot out there.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Love it there.
Speaker 3: I love that you're an La native as well. I
Speaker 3: grew up in La myself. I know you're South Pasadena.
Speaker 3: My my dad grew up in Pasadena. Oh my god,
Speaker 3: family Altadina. I grew up in La Pente, City of Industry,
Speaker 3: if you know that area.
Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, I actually went to uh grew up
Speaker 1: in South past for a bit, and then I moved
Speaker 1: to Whittier and so that's where I went to like
Speaker 1: middle school and finish out my high school years out there.
Speaker 1: High school, well, I didn't go to high school out there.
Speaker 1: I actually I auditioned for Loxa, La County High School
Speaker 1: for the Arts. It's a public school out here, and
Speaker 1: so I ended up commuting there every day, but went
Speaker 1: to Hillview Middle School in Whittier.
Speaker 3: So you always knew you wanted to be in entertainment
Speaker 3: as an actress. That's what that's what the focus was
Speaker 3: in your performing.
Speaker 1: Arts pretty much. Yeah. I think in like fifth grade,
Speaker 1: I got to do a school play and that was
Speaker 1: the first time I kind of channeled all this energy
Speaker 1: I had inside of me, and standing on that stage,
Speaker 1: I was like, Oh, this is this is the feeling
Speaker 1: I've been looking for, and it was just It's so
Speaker 1: I'm sure all of you remember your first time before
Speaker 1: and that feeling of being like, oh, this is what
Speaker 1: I want to do. This is the feeling I'm going
Speaker 1: to chase forever like I.
Speaker 4: Had the opposite.
Speaker 3: Like for me, she's you completely like I wanted to
Speaker 3: be an actress, performer her whole life. I was, so
Speaker 3: I got approach to being in the business. When I
Speaker 3: was in junior high I was so afraid. I was like,
Speaker 3: in front of my peers, I could be big, loud,
Speaker 3: have fun, be myself, but public speaking or being in
Speaker 3: front of people watching me. I would be so nervous,
Speaker 3: freaked out. Tried a couple things in classes. I was like, Nope,
Speaker 3: not for me, he can't do it. It wasn't until
Speaker 3: my twenties that I actually resurfaced back into the entertainment
Speaker 3: space and took a drama class in college and was like, Okay,
Speaker 3: this is kind of fun. I've shed some of my
Speaker 3: insecurities of being nervous. Still took a while for that
Speaker 3: to fully fade throughout my career, where I was just like,
Speaker 3: I don't care anymore.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna do whatever I need to do.
Speaker 2: Before me, even when I met you, you didn't love
Speaker 2: a public speaking at all. Still you'll be petrified about
Speaker 2: well I have to speak in public. No, I'm going
Speaker 2: you've you're actually very good at it.
Speaker 3: No, you're more comfortable, more comfortable, but not I was.
Speaker 3: I've always been more then. I think acting has become
Speaker 3: easier for me in that sense that you're not looking right.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm looking at my partner, acting opposite somebody
Speaker 3: or a group, but I'm not speaking to a crowd
Speaker 3: that's just staring at me. That is a whole different beast.
Speaker 3: Like great public speakers, but I'm getting better at that.
Speaker 2: I was the opposite. It would be like, do you
Speaker 2: want me to perform from you? I can dance, I can.
Speaker 1: Give me a microphone, I'll do anything.
Speaker 2: I'm ready.
Speaker 1: I'm ready.
Speaker 3: I what was your first you know gig that sort
Speaker 3: of set the path where you're going. Your parents are going, Okay,
Speaker 3: this is uh, it's working, this is what she wants
Speaker 3: to wants to do, and it's happening, I'd.
Speaker 1: Say, because I didn't start auditioning for anything. My parents
Speaker 1: were like, we love you, we support you, but we
Speaker 1: have no way, Like, we don't know how to get
Speaker 1: you in there, we don't know what classes to take.
Speaker 1: So I kind of just sought it out all online.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't until I dropped out of college and
Speaker 1: moved back home. I went to the New School for
Speaker 1: Drama in New York, moved back home, moved back in
Speaker 1: with my mom, and started doing community theater GASA and
Speaker 1: Boyle Heights. Josefina Lopez runs that theater and she's you know,
Speaker 1: so pivotal to the Latino Arts and anyway, that was
Speaker 1: my first time kind of like booking something. It was,
Speaker 1: you know, first theater production and then they actually helped
Speaker 1: me get the ABC Discovered showcase and that's how I
Speaker 1: first got my agent and my manager. So they've been
Speaker 1: such a blessing and I'm such a like community theater advocate.
Speaker 4: That's incredible.
Speaker 3: And we have a lot of listeners that ask questions
Speaker 3: like that all the time, like how do I get in?
Speaker 4: What do I do?
Speaker 3: And right, everybody's got a different journey to getting to
Speaker 3: that place of getting to break whatever it is, whether
Speaker 3: like the ABC program is huge, A lot of people
Speaker 3: come out of that because it opens a lot of opportunity.
Speaker 2: So for the Baker on the Beauty, they they saw
Speaker 2: I'm assuming they saw you at this showcase, so they okay,
Speaker 2: so they were familiar with your work and then you
Speaker 2: auditioned for the Baker on the Beauty.
Speaker 1: Yes, Baker in the Beauty was actually my third audition
Speaker 1: that I had ever been on with my agencies, and
Speaker 1: so it was nerve wracking and I was just like
Speaker 1: going along with it. I was like, Okay, we've got
Speaker 1: the callback. Okay, cool, and you know, mind you my
Speaker 1: agents are like dang like this. But they were so
Speaker 1: great and kind of just like not freaking me out
Speaker 1: in the beginning, but also being like this is really good,
Speaker 1: like keep you know. So they were great. They were
Speaker 1: great kind of easing me into it while.
Speaker 3: You were working to get that opportunity where you did
Speaker 3: you have another job on the side that you were
Speaker 3: helping to navigate through.
Speaker 1: Yes, I've actually off and on up until twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: I've been a briefsta cocktail waitress, just kind of going
Speaker 1: back and forth. Really yeah, yeah, and I appreciate that
Speaker 1: so much. I feel like it truly has shaped me
Speaker 1: into the type of person and the type of artist
Speaker 1: I am. You know, it's very humbling to be serving
Speaker 1: someone a coffee and they're like, didn't I just see
Speaker 1: you in a movie?
Speaker 2: So so way, So after the BA, after the Baker
Speaker 2: on the Beauty, when it didn't come back from a
Speaker 2: second season, you went back to being a barista.
Speaker 1: I did went back to being a barista after before
Speaker 1: I did Blue Beetle, I was bristaying. And then after
Speaker 1: Blue Beetle, you know the strike kids, So I was
Speaker 1: I was back in the barista. I went to bartending
Speaker 1: for a bit for like a solid year.
Speaker 4: Yeah amazing.
Speaker 3: I mean I love this kind of stuff because this
Speaker 3: is what people need to hear when it comes to
Speaker 3: our business, like, there's absolutely again, there's no linear path
Speaker 3: to success. You can be rocking on you know, some program.
Speaker 3: First of all, it's hard to get a show that
Speaker 3: even gets on the air. Then you get a show
Speaker 3: that gets on the air, show gets.
Speaker 4: Canceled, fun show. You're like, oh, this could go another season. Nope.
Speaker 3: Now I want to go back to working to make
Speaker 3: some money to do my passion and get my other
Speaker 3: career going that I really want. You get a huge movie,
Speaker 3: strike hits. People don't understand how it affects everybody. You
Speaker 3: know different, and everybody thinks if you're in Hollywood, you're
Speaker 3: on a big movie, you're on a big show. You
Speaker 3: don't have to do anything. You just have everything at
Speaker 3: your fingertips. And it's like, no, our business is very finicky.
Speaker 3: It's tricky to navigate, and yes, you still need to
Speaker 3: make money to pay your bills to then pursue the
Speaker 3: dream of getting something that's stable and ongoing.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, well, Lisan, you came out of stage
Speaker 2: in the business that is so unpredictable, and he's so unstable,
Speaker 2: you know, because my god, because your first big gig
Speaker 2: was the Bacon and the beauty and then pandemic and
Speaker 2: those two things have been brutal for the business. You know,
Speaker 2: it's never been it's never been the same. Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: never been the same. And we're hoping and hoping. It's
Speaker 2: funny because I keep hearing my team, right, my manager,
Speaker 2: my agent, they're always like, it's gonna start picking up. Oh,
Speaker 2: it's gonna get better. Oh it's gonna start picking up.
Speaker 2: And I'm going saying that for two years. It's like,
Speaker 2: what the heck is going on? It's really it's pretty brutal.
Speaker 2: So any work that we get it is indeed a
Speaker 2: blessing because you you just never know.
Speaker 1: It absolutely is and that it is such a big
Speaker 1: misconception and it's you know, one that I had to
Speaker 1: kind of realize as well after my first show of like, Okay,
Speaker 1: this isn't that's it. I never have to work again.
Speaker 1: You know. It's rough, and I think the biggest thing
Speaker 1: with this industry is you just have to have like
Speaker 1: a solid backbone and just feel like I'm going to
Speaker 1: keep going because there are so many no's and even
Speaker 1: from the yes's, like there's still a no coming and
Speaker 1: that's it's gonna hurt, and it's like, you know, you
Speaker 1: get beat down and you just have to keep you
Speaker 1: have to go back again, and that's hard. I won't
Speaker 1: say that that's an easy thing to keep getting up.
Speaker 1: It's hard.
Speaker 2: Listen, and I'm sure you know that I've been doing
Speaker 2: this for a long time. Right before, right before I
Speaker 2: came to record this podcast with you, I get this
Speaker 2: phone call from my agent and this is Ross and
Speaker 2: they sent me the email maybe a couple of weeks back.
Speaker 2: I didn't really pay attention to it because it shoots
Speaker 2: in Miami, and I love Miami, but it means that
Speaker 2: I will have to once again leave my family for
Speaker 2: like six months at a time. But it's really interesting.
Speaker 2: But you know what, agents they keep pushing, you know,
Speaker 2: because their main focus is for you to do a job.
Speaker 2: And so he calls me again, says Ross. You know
Speaker 2: they call it again. It's for Peacock. Is this thing
Speaker 2: is straight to series? This is the name. It shoots
Speaker 2: in Miami. I know because of your lifestyle and your
Speaker 2: kids and you, it's going to be a no. But
Speaker 2: I think you should read it. You should read it.
Speaker 2: And the character is not on the pilot, but they're
Speaker 2: sending only you the scenes of the second and third
Speaker 2: episode that the character is in for you for you
Speaker 2: to please read it to see if you're interested. Now
Speaker 2: they don't want to They're not ready for an offer,
Speaker 2: so they don't they don't want to send you an offer.
Speaker 2: They might want you to read with the director. And
Speaker 2: I was like, very just pass you know what i mean,
Speaker 2: I'm going if you know already that this is something
Speaker 2: that I'm going to say no, And now you're telling
Speaker 2: me that they want me to read for something that
Speaker 2: I'm like the third lead. Are they out of their minds?
Speaker 2: It's like really, and it puts it puts everything into
Speaker 2: perspective when it shows you things are so difficult. It
Speaker 2: doesn't really matter at what level you are at. You
Speaker 2: have to fight for things like you just started.
Speaker 3: Always just limited the amount of programming. Every so every
Speaker 3: movie starting the planet is doing TV. So it just
Speaker 3: taking away more jobs from people that are coming up
Speaker 3: or just TV people that have worked in TV for years,
Speaker 3: because it's just all a big mess as far as
Speaker 3: it's all crossover mess, you know, as far as opportunity goes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I feel like right now such a big
Speaker 1: thing that's like kind of hitting the surface? Is everything
Speaker 1: shooting in crazy places? I know, Like I heard about this.
Speaker 1: I don't know which network it was, but it kind
Speaker 1: of like a sitcom and it was shooting in like Scotland.
Speaker 4: Is it for Fox?
Speaker 1: I think it might be, yes, because Fox.
Speaker 3: Is doing most content overseas. Scotland's become a huge hub,
Speaker 3: even for comedy and a lot of their comedies. Even
Speaker 3: for sure in Canada, it used to be if you
Speaker 3: were doing a comedy it was la comedies were always
Speaker 3: going to be la. Dramas you could have to relocate,
Speaker 3: but there was still a lot of dramas here. Now
Speaker 3: I know for a fact that Fox is doing a
Speaker 3: lot overseas, and I've heard Scotland Lana Parilla.
Speaker 4: Is that for Fox?
Speaker 3: I don't know, but she's doing a show and it's
Speaker 3: in Scotland. In Scotland, I think it might be for Fox.
Speaker 2: Is it? It might be that she went all the
Speaker 2: way there.
Speaker 4: For drama that I don't think it has to be set.
Speaker 4: I don't know if it does.
Speaker 2: I am about to leave to go to Budapest, Hungary
Speaker 2: for five weeks for a movie that is a home
Speaker 2: invasion and the house is supposed to be in Georgia.
Speaker 4: Why are we going to even Atlanta doesn't work anymore.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, this could be a stage.
Speaker 2: And I love traveling. That's amazing. I'm going to go
Speaker 2: to Budapest, but I'm going a home invasion out of Georgia.
Speaker 2: I'm like, it's very confusing, I know. Anyways, so it's well,
Speaker 2: talk to us about the sitcom now that you because
Speaker 2: you are working.
Speaker 1: You're working.
Speaker 3: Yes, you got Reba McIntyre, who's who's I hear I've
Speaker 3: never worked with her here She's amazing, and you're angel.
Speaker 3: Talk to us about the show Happy, happiest place.
Speaker 1: Happiest place. Yes, we just got picked up for a
Speaker 1: second season, which is amazing, and yeah, happiest place. It's me.
Speaker 1: I play Reba McIntyre's half sister, which makes total sense
Speaker 1: because we look exactly alike. I've been told out my
Speaker 1: whole life. But it's just such a I you know,
Speaker 1: I think right now, so much content we make. It
Speaker 1: can be really intense and it can be emotionally taxing
Speaker 1: as the actor. And I just love this project because
Speaker 1: I mean not to be say happy so much, but
Speaker 1: it really is just a happy show. And you know
Speaker 1: it feels like I'm back in theater because we perform
Speaker 1: in front of a live audience. And I've gotten so
Speaker 1: lucky with the casts that I've been a part of.
Speaker 1: This one included of just being surrounded by great people,
Speaker 1: people that I enjoy being around and who I learned
Speaker 1: from every day. You know, Riba, Melissa Peterman, and Rex
Speaker 1: Lynn are like legends in the industry, especially Melissa and
Speaker 1: Riba their sitcom queens, and so being able to watch
Speaker 1: them do what they're known for is like such an
Speaker 1: awesome feeling. And you know, you're just like, oh, of
Speaker 1: course you of course you're the queen of this, Like
Speaker 1: it's so easy. So it's such a fun experience. We
Speaker 1: have Pablo Castel Blanco and to call A Black Alk
Speaker 1: as well on the show, and they bring in such
Speaker 1: like just things I've never seen, just so different, and
Speaker 1: I'm just so happy that, you know, we're getting another
Speaker 1: chance to keep going with the story.
Speaker 2: It's huge, that's amazing. And listen, doing sitcom is not
Speaker 2: is not easy. I don't I don't do a lot
Speaker 2: of sitcoms.
Speaker 1: And the.
Speaker 2: What is the coach that I love? Oh my good goodness, Leslie,
Speaker 2: Leslie can I'm sure you've heard of Leslie Can. She
Speaker 2: deals with all the sitcom people. So every time that
Speaker 2: I'm tackling trying to do something like a three camp Leslie,
Speaker 2: it's very specific the timing, the one, two, three's the jokes,
Speaker 2: which gives me a little bit of a of a
Speaker 2: hard time because I'm going but I don't see it
Speaker 2: that way.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: My rhythm is a little different. And to be able
Speaker 2: to do sitcom is a very very specific and special skill.
Speaker 2: And it's incredible how usually sitcom actors they go from
Speaker 2: one sitcom to the next and they have the casting
Speaker 2: directors and producers and networks. They have their group that
Speaker 2: they believe can tackle sitcom, you know, because it's a
Speaker 2: very different animal. So it's an incredible thing that right
Speaker 2: off the bat, you know, boom, you got a sitcom,
Speaker 2: which is it's not easy. It's not easy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it definitely going into it learning how to
Speaker 1: work with that many you know, cameras and just totally different.
Speaker 1: I've been lucky where I've worked on a lot of
Speaker 1: films and coming off of like Focus Pocus and Blue Beetle,
Speaker 1: such different just ways of creating the art. You know,
Speaker 1: it's different process, the different things you have to think about.
Speaker 1: So it is a switch, and I think sometimes there
Speaker 1: can be this misconception as well that sitcoms are like easy,
Speaker 1: Like it's like, ah, you're just being up there and
Speaker 1: being silly at all. No, there's actually so much you're
Speaker 1: thinking about. You're trying not to get in your other
Speaker 1: persons shots, so you're like weirdly standing like this. And
Speaker 1: one thing is we can get a new scene thrown
Speaker 1: down and be like, hey, we got to film this,
Speaker 1: and it's you get five minutes and you're like, okay, okay, cool,
Speaker 1: let's go yes, And that's thrilling to me. I think
Speaker 1: it's like an adrenaline rush. But it's definitely something that
Speaker 1: I didn't expect going into it. It is a different
Speaker 1: beast to tackle and it's been fun learning.
Speaker 2: Yeah, is there a specific thing that you're looking forward
Speaker 2: to doing brought away or musical or like a fool
Speaker 2: on drama? Indeed, like what is your north?
Speaker 1: I would love to go back to theater just because
Speaker 1: that's that's where I first fell in love with acting,
Speaker 1: and being on a sitcom has given me like a
Speaker 1: taste of that, like live audience, feel again and Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think I'm really ready to just be on a
Speaker 1: stage again and be putting in the work and see
Speaker 1: it come from like this little baby to this huge production.
Speaker 1: And I always find that in any any project you're
Speaker 1: a part of you like bond with the cast, but
Speaker 1: with theater it's such like a blood in tears and sweat,
Speaker 1: and you come out of it and you're like, we
Speaker 1: did that, We did it.
Speaker 2: Beautiful, that's beautiful. Did you have one sibling?
Speaker 1: I do. I have an older brother that is.
Speaker 2: Not part of the arts at all.
Speaker 1: No. No, I'm the only one in my family so far.
Speaker 1: I've got a lot of younger cous but so far
Speaker 1: that has entered this industry, and so it's fun bringing
Speaker 1: them along for the ride too.
Speaker 2: I'm assuming they're so so proud and so happy, right,
Speaker 2: did they support?
Speaker 1: Yeah? They are. I think I think they've just kind
Speaker 1: of been rolling with it as well, like cheering me
Speaker 1: on every time. But I know sometimes they have moments
Speaker 1: where they're like, oh my gosh, I can't you know,
Speaker 1: I can't believe you're doing this. So it's awesome.
Speaker 4: You're on TV every week, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3: On a network show, which is incredible. Yes, And you're
Speaker 3: not in Scotland.
Speaker 1: And I'm not in Scotland. I get to shoot here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that Scotland wouldn't be bad. It'd be amazing to gore.
Speaker 2: You're so lucky, like you go lucky too. He's been
Speaker 2: on a show for seven years that shoots like ten
Speaker 2: minutes from the house.
Speaker 1: Is unbelievable.
Speaker 2: It's beautiful. I'm going on, when is it going to
Speaker 2: be me? Everything? In God?
Speaker 1: Please?
Speaker 4: Please?
Speaker 2: I want to shoot it.
Speaker 3: I was manifesting it for years. I was passing on things.
Speaker 3: I was like, nope, I'm not gonna go, not gonna go.
Speaker 3: When you have kids, it becomes very complicated as far
Speaker 3: as coming and going and just at any moment. I
Speaker 3: think that's why it's been hard even for us now,
Speaker 3: is that because I'm here until my show is done,
Speaker 3: we have to kind of decide, all right, how long
Speaker 3: can you go? You know, kids aren't going to go
Speaker 3: there fully in school, so you got to pick and
Speaker 3: choose what you're going to do and when you're going
Speaker 3: to do it and how long it takes you away.
Speaker 3: It's you're at a young age, don't have worry about
Speaker 3: any of this stuff. Right now, you can go travel
Speaker 3: the world and work on anything you want and it's
Speaker 3: a very freeing experience.
Speaker 1: Yes, I just were I just missed my cats, but
Speaker 1: that's the only thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you can bring them, you can bring them along
Speaker 3: maybe to some places, but yeah, that would be pets.
Speaker 4: Yeah, having pets is also a challenging you know moment
Speaker 4: in it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, once you have kids and everything changes too.
Speaker 3: Are you going to go back to being a barista
Speaker 3: during hiatus or no, thankfully I will.
Speaker 4: Or mar between. No, it's it's good that you don't
Speaker 4: have to.
Speaker 3: But even I I just love and I admire the
Speaker 3: truth behind that story. Like you can be working on
Speaker 3: hit movies and hit shows and still go back to
Speaker 3: something you have to do in order to get the
Speaker 3: next thing, And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that
Speaker 3: in our business. That's the way our business actually works.
Speaker 3: That's most, that's most actors.
Speaker 2: But I think I think Belissa from now on is
Speaker 2: going to be I'm not saying I hope to God
Speaker 2: is smooth sailing, but everything is cyclical, so you know
Speaker 2: it's going to go like this. But I think from
Speaker 2: now on, because of this incredible opportunity with the Riba show,
Speaker 2: that is going to probably go go on for a
Speaker 2: long time. I'd say second seasons, but I think from
Speaker 2: now on you'll be fine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what we're open. That's what it's like a
Speaker 1: running joke with my team after any like the projects
Speaker 1: I've booked there like okay, no more bracing, Like we're
Speaker 1: getting you away from the coffee shop.
Speaker 2: Yes, I think.
Speaker 3: And the truth is, I mean, look, I know you're
Speaker 3: in your twenties and this is still so early in
Speaker 3: your career, but you've done more than so many people have,
Speaker 3: even that have been trying this for years.
Speaker 4: You know, if you think about it, you're.
Speaker 3: A been a part of huge shows that have gotten
Speaker 3: shows that have gotten on the air. That's just a
Speaker 3: big accomplishment. Big movies, another show for a second season.
Speaker 3: These are these are you know, massive wins in the
Speaker 3: scope of our business.
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, I feel so absolutely blessed and happiest place.
Speaker 1: This show couldn't have come at a better time. It
Speaker 1: was also another low point where I moved back I
Speaker 1: had lived in New York, was bracing, and then just
Speaker 1: you know, I hadn't booked anything, ran out of money
Speaker 1: and was like, okay, Mom, I've got to move back
Speaker 1: home with you again, and the day after I landed
Speaker 1: in La I had my first audition for Happiest Place,
Speaker 1: and within within two weeks moving back completely unemployed, no
Speaker 1: idea what I was going to do. Life changed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's amazing. Good for you.
Speaker 4: When do you guys start your second season?
Speaker 1: We're going to start up back in August. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so nice little break. But it's definitely this industry, you know,
Speaker 1: it's so up and down. Your life can change in
Speaker 1: a week. I mean, you just never and it's really
Speaker 1: just about like continuing to pursue it. And I credit
Speaker 1: everything to my support group, you know, my family, my
Speaker 1: mom especially. I was so many times like this is it.
Speaker 1: I'm done with acting like I can't handle this up
Speaker 1: and down. It's affecting me. And she would always tell me, like,
Speaker 1: what else will you do? Not in the sense that
Speaker 1: you can't do anything else, but I've never seen you
Speaker 1: so happy as I do when you're acting like I
Speaker 1: just don't see you feeling that from anything else, And
Speaker 1: that that would always keep me going because she's right.
Speaker 2: She is right, and you're very special. Listen, and you
Speaker 2: can ask Lisa dal if you don't believe me. I
Speaker 2: remember when I saw they're baking on the Beauty and
Speaker 2: it was a fir time I saw you, and I
Speaker 2: think I even mentioned to you Eric, because we saw
Speaker 2: the whole show. I wanted to support Lisa. She's like
Speaker 2: a sister. And it was shot in Puerto Rico. I
Speaker 2: know all the crew because that that crew went to
Speaker 2: Fantasy Island when I was doing Fantasy Island, and I
Speaker 2: remember telling Lisa, oh my god, the girl that plays
Speaker 2: your daughter, that girl, she's really really phenomenal. There was
Speaker 2: a simplicity and a groundness and honesty. There's some honesty
Speaker 2: about you when you act that. I was like, she
Speaker 2: is amazing. So I'm so happy that you that that
Speaker 2: is just only going up. You know, it's amazing.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Thank you. Lisa is amazing. So
Speaker 1: she's still like my mom. I'll never not be like
Speaker 1: my mom, you know.
Speaker 2: I know she's a truly special human being. Anyways, we
Speaker 2: appreciate you. Thank you so much for doing this, and
Speaker 2: good luck with everything. We're very happy, very happy for you.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me. This was awesome.
Speaker 1: Of course, enjoyed Budapest.
Speaker 2: Oh my godness, you will not will bye. Was gat
Speaker 2: the sweetest, Oh my god, and she's so guys, she's
Speaker 2: so good. She's super talented, very talented.
Speaker 3: Again, I just love her honesty and just right there
Speaker 3: in her own life experience and storytelling. These are what
Speaker 3: listeners ask all the time, and like you're getting firsthand
Speaker 3: information of what it's like in the grind and what
Speaker 3: it takes to continue to believe in yourself.
Speaker 2: So so this was so good. And it's always pretty
Speaker 2: cool to be able to support this new generation of
Speaker 2: Latinas you know that are out there working, trying, auditioning
Speaker 2: up and down, because it's very important for our community
Speaker 2: to see more and more representation. And her story is
Speaker 2: it's pretty unique because it never happens this way that
Speaker 2: you do three auditions and boom you get something that
Speaker 2: is ant TV show.
Speaker 4: Big job like jobs that got on the air, and a.
Speaker 2: Huge movie and two huge movies, two huge movies around.
Speaker 3: Bubato and then still having to go back to do
Speaker 3: other work. Crazy to keep pushing through it, I know.
Speaker 2: So I think it's I love it. Listen. And I remembered,
Speaker 2: like I said to you, the first time I saw her,
Speaker 2: I was like, oh my god, this girl is really
Speaker 2: really good. Who is this girl? And I called Lisa
Speaker 2: about it. I'm just happy. I'm just happy that she's
Speaker 2: doing well.
Speaker 3: I got asked the other day about a fan like,
Speaker 3: what was something you would have like, was there a
Speaker 3: moment in your career that was super pivotal and it's
Speaker 3: this is a true story, but I told you about
Speaker 3: it the other night.
Speaker 4: It's like, yeah, I basically stopped.
Speaker 3: And I mentioned this, I think on the podcast before
Speaker 3: and somebody asked me what the show was, but I
Speaker 3: almost stopped the business after a Dawston's Creek audition and
Speaker 3: they were like, what role was it? And I said, oh,
Speaker 3: it was the role of that Kurse Smith got and
Speaker 3: great for him. But I remember that being such a
Speaker 3: pivotal moment of how you just can't stop if this
Speaker 3: is what you want to do. And I did stop.
Speaker 3: That's what's crazy. And it slowed my momentum down so
Speaker 3: much about where I could have maybe been sooner in
Speaker 3: this business. I was very fortunate, clearly it was, you know,
Speaker 3: in my path to still do this business. But some
Speaker 3: people never come back to the business when they stop.
Speaker 3: Some people do come back. It's never the same. And again,
Speaker 3: I don't know how far it set me behind my peers.
Speaker 3: Who are in it with me at that time for
Speaker 3: over a year stop completely like no auditions. My agent
Speaker 3: would call me and said, you want to audition? I said no,
Speaker 3: and you weren't doing what just going to call it.
Speaker 3: I thought I was gonna be a firefighter. I was like,
Speaker 3: I quit the business. Like I went and was about
Speaker 3: to start the academy for LAFD and then got Days
Speaker 3: of Our Lives.
Speaker 4: I got two soaps that came my way, and.
Speaker 3: I said, you know what, I'll just pressure me, pressure
Speaker 3: me and said, go audition for passions and go audition
Speaker 3: for Days of our Lives.
Speaker 4: And I was like, oh god, okay, I don't know.
Speaker 3: And I did, and I got both of them offered,
Speaker 3: and Days ended up having the first test, so they
Speaker 3: ended up getting the the I took them. But that
Speaker 3: then that got me back in the business. So I
Speaker 3: went back to my regular job at the time was modeling.
Speaker 3: So I went back to doing that, you know, but
Speaker 3: I had to go back to a job right which
Speaker 3: was that's where it was. So I was doing that
Speaker 3: at the time and then decided, while I was, you know,
Speaker 3: have my savings, I was going to I'm going to
Speaker 3: be a firefighter. So It's weird how your journey can
Speaker 3: just shift and it sounds like, you know, she went
Speaker 3: through these moments as well, where it's what do I do?
Speaker 3: How do I stay with this? The times are hard,
Speaker 3: the industry is difficult. They're dropping shows and consolidating things
Speaker 3: left and right.
Speaker 2: I have acquaintances and friends of mine that we all
Speaker 2: started together, you know, twenty something years ago that I will.
Speaker 2: You know, do you usually see the same phases when
Speaker 2: you auditioned for things. It's the same phases over and over.
Speaker 4: Sometimes friends sometimes you.
Speaker 2: And I can probably say that ninety percent of them
Speaker 2: I've never seen. I've never seen them ever again, So
Speaker 2: I get. I don't know if they pursued something else,
Speaker 2: you know, got married and I was I remember there's
Speaker 2: a girl that when I did Famla actually you know
Speaker 2: what from Fame La, which is the first job that
Speaker 2: I did in Los Angeles. It was a big deal.
Speaker 2: It was Sony Pictures producing this whole thing. I think
Speaker 2: Leslie Margherite, Leslie Marguerite, very talented, triple threat. I think she.
Speaker 2: I think she's doing Broadway. Chris Kane.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Stephanie got married to a lawyer and basically had kids,
Speaker 2: and that she's a housewife. I don't Heidi that her
Speaker 2: father was a big, big producer. I have never seen
Speaker 2: any of these people active. Again, Yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 4: It's wild. It's wild.
Speaker 3: It's not like other professions where people usually just stay
Speaker 3: put and you know, grow within that career, that type
Speaker 3: of field, like you either stick in this for the
Speaker 3: long haul or you end up.
Speaker 2: It was so weird with me, Eric because I just didn't.
Speaker 2: I just didn't have any other choice. You know. I
Speaker 2: never I never go to the point that I was like,
Speaker 2: I'm never going to do I want to I want
Speaker 2: to quit. I hate it, and i've I've my heart
Speaker 2: has been broken many times because of part that I
Speaker 2: want to do that don't get or I booked them
Speaker 2: and I get let go, you know, or my accident
Speaker 2: has always been a problem. So I've had a lot
Speaker 2: of disappointment. But I don't think I ever went to
Speaker 2: a point of I'm out, I'm going to do something else,
Speaker 2: like to me and I think that's a testament of
Speaker 2: why I'm still in it. You know, it's because I
Speaker 2: don't have anything else that I want to do. Nothing
Speaker 2: else interests me. So it's really crazy.
Speaker 4: Well, I ended on a sad note.
Speaker 1: It is.
Speaker 4: Kind of go back and talk to her. She made
Speaker 4: me happier talking. We were like, he just.
Speaker 2: Said he wasn't. She makes him happier.
Speaker 3: Us not talking to each other, but us talking to
Speaker 3: her was uplifting. I felt inspired and then we're like, man,
Speaker 3: it was so hard and so many friends.
Speaker 2: But listen, we we came, we came out on tom
Speaker 2: we're still going at it and we're doing really well.
Speaker 2: You know how blessed we are. Like I say, every
Speaker 2: time I open my eyes, I say, I say thank
Speaker 2: you God, because our life is pretty. It's pretty nice,
Speaker 2: it's pretty beautiful.
Speaker 3: We're very, very lucky in any profession when you can
Speaker 3: just succeed at what you want to do.
Speaker 2: We make it a living doing what we love exactly.
Speaker 4: That's a win for anybody out there in any profession.
Speaker 4: I love you, it's been fun. Love you. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 4: Don't forget to write us a review and tell us
Speaker 4: what you think.
Speaker 2: If you want to follow us on Instagram, check goes
Speaker 2: out at he said ajav or an email Eric and
Speaker 2: Ross at iHeartRadio dot com. He said, AJAB is part
Speaker 2: of iHeartRadio's Mike would do that podcast network.
Speaker 4: See you next time.
Speaker 1: I