Speaker 1: Hey, there are folks quick, can you name the highest
Speaker 1: grossing Spanish language movie of all time? It's okay, I
Speaker 1: couldn't either, But then I found out who wrote, directed,
Speaker 1: and starred in it, and I said, oh, that guy.
Speaker 2: We love that guy, and that guy just happens to
Speaker 2: be our guest right here today on this episode of
Speaker 2: Amy and TJ.
Speaker 1: Welcome everybody to the show.
Speaker 3: Rose.
Speaker 1: This is like, you're giddy. You know him, you know
Speaker 1: him so well, you love him and everything you've seen,
Speaker 1: and now we got him in here with us.
Speaker 4: A you Henneo Derbez and that smiles, even his face,
Speaker 4: like as soon as you see it, it makes what
Speaker 4: doesn't matter what kind of day you're having, all of
Speaker 4: a sudden you feel lighter, brighter, better. He is that
Speaker 4: light and certainly everything he's been touching as a blade
Speaker 4: has been turning to gold. I mean, it's an incredible story.
Speaker 4: A Hano, thank you for being with us, and congratulations
Speaker 4: on all of your remarkable success.
Speaker 3: Oh, thank you guys. First of all, thanks for so
Speaker 3: beautiful introduction. I had chills. Thank you very much, thank you,
Speaker 3: thank you, thank you. Well. Yeah, I am, I'm a
Speaker 3: very familiar face to all Latinos. Let's say they've been
Speaker 3: watching my shows for decades, but I'm a kind of
Speaker 3: a new phase for the for the Americans. It's it's
Speaker 3: a great story because I had a career my entire life.
Speaker 3: I worked in Mexico, from Mexico for all Latin America,
Speaker 3: and and eleven years ago after my I did a
Speaker 3: movie called Instructions Not Included. That was the one who
Speaker 3: had the title of the highest crossing Spanish language film
Speaker 3: ever worldwide. And that movie changed my and so eleven
Speaker 3: years ago I moved to the US and I started
Speaker 3: from scratch in my career here in the US. So
Speaker 3: it's been it's been a trip.
Speaker 4: You started from scratch. You have a you know, a
Speaker 4: star on the Hollywood Walk of FG, which is always
Speaker 4: like that big You've made it moment, and that is
Speaker 4: that was nine years ago. Even so all you've done
Speaker 4: since then. When I see you, I think of how
Speaker 4: to be a Latin lover. I think about the Overboard
Speaker 4: remake because that is literally my favorite movie, the original
Speaker 4: of all time. And you all just did Anna Faris.
Speaker 4: It was such a cute flip on a script that
Speaker 4: I loved. But Dora, the Lost City of gold. I mean,
Speaker 4: you just name it. And so all of you have
Speaker 4: been on the big screen for some many of us.
Speaker 4: But now you're wrapping up a highly successful four seasons
Speaker 4: on Apple plus Acapulco and we've been watching it all
Speaker 4: morning long. It just puts you on a good mood.
Speaker 4: It's such a great fun just like it's It's something
Speaker 4: that you don't have out there and a lot of
Speaker 4: the streaming services, something that's wholesome even and fun.
Speaker 3: To watch absolutely well. I always wanted to. I remember
Speaker 3: that I grew up watching a series with my parents,
Speaker 3: The Beverly Hill Billies, the Monsters, the Adams Family, the
Speaker 3: Love Boats, you name it, many many many, and I
Speaker 3: was like, why they don't do family stuff right now?
Speaker 3: Everything is about kidnapping, murders, blood, sex, violence, And I
Speaker 3: wanted to do something that could you could watch with
Speaker 3: your family. And also I wanted to portray Mexico in
Speaker 3: a different way because every time you would turn on
Speaker 3: the news and you hear about Mexico, it's always about
Speaker 3: narcos killing all the bad stuff that I know it's there,
Speaker 3: but Mexico is more, much more than that, and I
Speaker 3: really wanted to show Mexico the others side of Mexico
Speaker 3: that sometimes the news doesn't show. So that's why we
Speaker 3: came up with this idea of a Capulco that it's
Speaker 3: it's based slightly based in in How to Be a
Speaker 3: Latin Lover. It's like the prequel of How to Be
Speaker 3: a Latin Lover that if you if you haven't watched
Speaker 3: the movie, it's a very very very funny movie with
Speaker 3: Sana Hayek, Robbulo, Kristen Bell, Michael Sarah. It's a great
Speaker 3: cast and it was hilarious and Raquel Welch also it
Speaker 3: was her last movie. So anyway, we decided to do
Speaker 3: this prequel called Akapulco, and thank god we've been on
Speaker 3: the air for the last four seasons.
Speaker 1: You talked about how successful a lot fat might I
Speaker 1: know you were wildly successful in Mexico. Everybody knows you,
Speaker 1: of course in Latin America. But to compare for me,
Speaker 1: if you will, compare might be the wrong word, but
Speaker 1: success in Mexico as a television or movie star and
Speaker 1: success in Hollywood as a television or movie star, and
Speaker 1: some of that. You could talk about the practical rewards
Speaker 1: and what life looks like. But for you personally, How
Speaker 1: did those two accomplishments even compare or feel different to
Speaker 1: conquering Mexico or and then conquering a certain degree Hollywood.
Speaker 3: It's completely different. I remember that I tried to do
Speaker 3: the crossover for many many years. I remember that I was,
Speaker 3: let me tell you really quickly story I was in.
Speaker 3: I fell in love with Hollywood. Since I was a kid.
Speaker 3: I used to go to the movie theaters to watch
Speaker 3: Hollywood movies with my mom and we watched like three
Speaker 3: movies on Friday, four movies on Saturday, three movies. It
Speaker 3: was insane. I really loved with movies. And every year
Speaker 3: I was watching the Oscars, and one day I told
Speaker 3: my mom while we were watching the Oscars, that's what
Speaker 3: I want to do when I grow up. I want
Speaker 3: to tell stories. I want to be a storyteller. And
Speaker 3: since then I fell in love with Hollywood. But then
Speaker 3: I started working in Mexico. Thank god, I had a
Speaker 3: very successful career. And it was until my mom died
Speaker 3: when I was forty two. And when I somebody called me,
Speaker 3: I always think that it was my mom from heaven
Speaker 3: reminding me that I had a dream. But anyway, she
Speaker 3: passed after she passed. Like two weeks later, I received
Speaker 3: the call from an agent from Hollywood, and that's when
Speaker 3: I remember, of course I had a dream. So first
Speaker 3: thing I did, I said, yeah, let's have a meeting
Speaker 3: in la And I immediately called Berlitz and I started
Speaker 3: taking English lessons because my English was really, really really
Speaker 3: it is still I'm still a working progress, but it
Speaker 3: was really bad back then. And I started learning English,
Speaker 3: real English at forty two, and well, yeah, and here
Speaker 3: I am. I started. I had a meeting then I
Speaker 3: long story, I'm not gonna bore you, but I ended
Speaker 3: up three years after that meeting. I ended up doing
Speaker 3: a play in Broadway on Broadway at the Helen Hayes
Speaker 3: Theater called Latino Loagues. And then I did a movie
Speaker 3: with Adam Sandler Blah blah blah blah blah, Jack and Jill.
Speaker 3: And then I did a TV series with Rob Schnyder
Speaker 3: called Rob and I was ten years later, after trying
Speaker 3: to do the crossover, finally I did Broadway. I did
Speaker 3: my movie with Adam Sandler, I did a series and
Speaker 3: many other things in the middle and then I said, Okay,
Speaker 3: I I had it. I'm going to go back to
Speaker 3: my country because this it was taking a lot of
Speaker 3: energy from me. Because I had my career in Mexico.
Speaker 3: I was like shooting all the week long my my
Speaker 3: TV shows, and then during the weekends I was coming
Speaker 3: to the US to do my stuff. It was insane.
Speaker 3: So I said, not anymore, and I went back to
Speaker 3: Mexico and to do my movie called Instruction Not Included.
Speaker 3: And when I quit the American Dream and I came back,
Speaker 3: it came back when it is the theaters. So it's
Speaker 3: a it's a it's a great story. You know.
Speaker 1: I'm curious about the We were just talking about this
Speaker 1: with Bad Money the other night. Well, he did Saturday
Speaker 1: Night Live. He did, He hosted Saturday Night Live. English
Speaker 1: is not his first language either, and I was thinking
Speaker 1: about how terrifying that is if I had to go
Speaker 1: to fans and get in front of a live television audience,
Speaker 1: no matter how good my French might be. When you
Speaker 1: started learning English at forty two, how long before you
Speaker 1: got the first gig in which you had to perform
Speaker 1: in English? And what did that feel like? Having to
Speaker 1: like this is it? You got to try out the
Speaker 1: English you've been learning and do it on camera.
Speaker 3: That's a great question. I this is a story I
Speaker 3: went to I came to La as a tourist one
Speaker 3: not a tourists. I had to learn English after that meeting.
Speaker 3: I remember that I took my meeting and I said,
Speaker 3: I need urgently to take English lessnse. So I went
Speaker 3: to Berlin's. I took like a week intense week course
Speaker 3: and then the teacher sent me to see a play
Speaker 3: called Latino Loogux that was in a at the current theater,
Speaker 3: this small theater in La and I saw this monologues
Speaker 3: and I said I I cannot do this. I have
Speaker 3: to be honest with me. I can't do this. But
Speaker 3: but the director.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: There was a Latin actor who knew me. He saw
Speaker 3: me in the in the audience and he presented me
Speaker 3: with the director. The director invited me, if you ever
Speaker 3: want to do a monologue, just call me and come
Speaker 3: to La and do it. And I was like, I
Speaker 3: didn't tell him, but I was like, I cannot do this.
Speaker 3: I know my ligit. I cannot do this. Well. It
Speaker 3: was in my head for three months and after three
Speaker 3: months I said I'm gonna do it. So I called
Speaker 3: the director. They sent me three monologues. I learned the
Speaker 3: monologues by I mean literally by the book. I didn't
Speaker 3: know what I was saying. I was trying to do
Speaker 3: some research, but it was a lot of slang and
Speaker 3: things that were related with the culture, and I was
Speaker 3: afraid of asking because I didn't want to lose the opportunity.
Speaker 3: So I just learned everything just by the book memory memorized.
Speaker 3: I didn't I saw I was not understanding what I
Speaker 3: was saying. And I finally showed up like six months later.
Speaker 3: So I was still learning English when I stood up
Speaker 3: in front of this audience in La and I delivered
Speaker 3: my first monologue like nine months after I started studying
Speaker 3: and studying English. And that night, after that monologue, I
Speaker 3: went to a hotel, to my hotel to sleep, and
Speaker 3: I had an internal bleeding because of the stress I had,
Speaker 3: and I ended up. I ended up in the hospital.
Speaker 3: I had to call nine one one because I was fainting.
Speaker 3: I called the reception. I was like, I feel really bad.
Speaker 3: So anyway, story short story, I went to the hospital
Speaker 3: because I was because the amount of stress that I
Speaker 3: had that night, it was insane.
Speaker 1: Jesus.
Speaker 4: I mean that just speaks to what you put yourself
Speaker 4: through there was a physical manifestation of the stress and
Speaker 4: the worry, all the hard work. I'm for the pressure
Speaker 4: you put on yourself to be the best, but my goodness, yeah,
Speaker 4: and then what did you change?
Speaker 3: Did you?
Speaker 4: How did you evolve from that where Okay, I can
Speaker 4: now get up and perform and not feel this terrible
Speaker 4: and this scared. How long did it take?
Speaker 3: Well? I after that night, I continued every every single
Speaker 3: weekend without any payment. They just let me perform. I
Speaker 3: had to pay my own hotels, flights, everything. So every
Speaker 3: weekend I was like going back to LA to perform
Speaker 3: until three years later. Three years later, every single weekend
Speaker 3: performing we ended up on Broadway with that play. That
Speaker 3: was a play that we presented on Broadway. So but
Speaker 3: before that, it was insane, I know, and I was
Speaker 3: I wasn't Broadway and I was telling my my, my,
Speaker 3: my friends. The actors that were performing with me. I
Speaker 3: was like, why you never told me that I was
Speaker 3: mispronouncing a lot of words And they were like, well,
Speaker 3: we thought you were like playing with the with the language,
Speaker 3: making fun of the language. I was like, no, no, no,
Speaker 3: it was me mispronouncing. But let me tell you story,
Speaker 3: uh I? I mean after I decided to do this.
Speaker 3: I mean I I went to the hospital that day.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry because I'm like, I don't want you to
Speaker 3: confuse you. I decided to to finally perform in English
Speaker 3: every weekend. Then I went back to Mexico. I I
Speaker 3: did Broadway in La, no Broadway in New York, and
Speaker 3: then I went back to La to do the Adam
Speaker 3: Sander movie, then the Rob Schneider and then I quit
Speaker 3: the American Dream. But I was still working in Mexico
Speaker 3: with my show on my TV shows that were airing
Speaker 3: every single week at the same time. So it was
Speaker 3: really really tired, tired for me. And then I had
Speaker 3: to make a decision. When the movie opens in two
Speaker 3: thoy thirteen and it became the highest grossing splanis Langlas
Speaker 3: film in the US and worldwide, my agents told me,
Speaker 3: you need to come to the US, and it's now
Speaker 3: or never. So I closed my office, my production company,
Speaker 3: every my entire life. I shut down my entire life
Speaker 3: in Mexico to move to the US. And I was
Speaker 3: fifty two by then, So it's been it's been an
Speaker 3: insane adventure.
Speaker 4: And you know, a you hennyway, I think it is
Speaker 4: so cool for people to hear and to listen because
Speaker 4: people think I'm too old. I can't do this, I
Speaker 4: can't learn that. I can't be that vulnerable. I can't
Speaker 4: push myself that hard. I'm this age to hear you
Speaker 4: tell your story and to see your level of success.
Speaker 4: It wasn't luck, it wasn't right place, right time. It
Speaker 4: was courage, and it was hard work. And that was
Speaker 4: and of course you're talented, you have to have that foundation.
Speaker 4: But that is so inspirational and I appreciate. I know
Speaker 4: people listening appreciate hearing your story because we give up
Speaker 4: too quickly. But to hear what you did and to
Speaker 4: see your success, it's awesome.
Speaker 1: Even I appreciate hearing it.
Speaker 3: Oh, thank you. It was. It was hard because I
Speaker 3: remember that I was fifty two when I took a
Speaker 3: lip of faith and I left everything behind. Everyone. Everyone
Speaker 3: in Mexico was telling me, are you crazy? I mean,
Speaker 3: you have a family, You had the highest My show
Speaker 3: was number one on ratings in Mexico. Imagine like, I
Speaker 3: don't know if all of a sudden, Jimmy fallon quitting
Speaker 3: his job and going to China to start all over
Speaker 3: in another language.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that would be saying.
Speaker 3: It was insane in the room. Are you crazy? Your
Speaker 3: show is number one on the Are you going to
Speaker 3: quit your show? Your production company? Everything? But I felt
Speaker 3: inside of me that it was my dreams. Inside was
Speaker 3: a kid that I and I fought for it like
Speaker 3: it left ten years before and it didn't really happen.
Speaker 3: So it was now or never. So I moved to
Speaker 3: LA and it was this is a true story. When
Speaker 3: I took them, I make the decision to move to
Speaker 3: the US. June nineteenth, I was flying with my wife
Speaker 3: finally with all my luggage to start a new life
Speaker 3: in the US. And that day we woke up at
Speaker 3: four am. We say we said goodbye to my house
Speaker 3: for many many years, friends, family, and I was on
Speaker 3: the airplane with my wife and I was like, I
Speaker 3: asked her, do you think we're making the right decision?
Speaker 3: And she was like, my love, it's too late. Let's
Speaker 3: just go for it. We were flying and when we
Speaker 3: landed in LA we had hundreds of messages. While we
Speaker 3: were flying from Mexico to LA. They gave me the
Speaker 3: start in the Hollywood Book of Fame. While we were flying.
Speaker 3: I mean, if I put this in a movie, They
Speaker 3: will say, come on the day you were moving from Mexico,
Speaker 3: that day you received it. Well, that really happened in
Speaker 3: real life.
Speaker 2: And when we come on sign oh come on it
Speaker 2: no way, this is the universe asking your question that
Speaker 2: you asked me when we were about to take off.
Speaker 3: So it's crazy that that same day, when we were flying,
Speaker 3: I received the news that I got the starting the
Speaker 3: Hollywood Block of Fame.
Speaker 4: It's called validation from the universe.
Speaker 1: Yeah, are you one of those folks who again, I've
Speaker 1: been on board with this more of the past few
Speaker 1: years because of my dear Amy Robot here. But don't
Speaker 1: ignore the signs from the universe. Are you one that
Speaker 1: now pays attention to signs? Are you one that follows
Speaker 1: or you one that kind of has ignored them a
Speaker 1: lot of times in your life? Because this one was
Speaker 1: a clear sign.
Speaker 3: Absolutely. I I I'm always looking for those signs that
Speaker 3: life is given you. And the first time I really
Speaker 3: understood the value of flowing. Actually I'm right right now,
Speaker 3: I'm writing a movie about about that. But the first
Speaker 3: time I pay attention was when I in two thousand
Speaker 3: and one, I was doing my shows were like number one.
Speaker 3: For the first time I was the peak of my
Speaker 3: career in television in Mexico and I wanted to transition
Speaker 3: to movies and nobody wanted to hire me. And I
Speaker 3: was like, but why, I mean, I have the highest ratings.
Speaker 3: All the companies wanted to work with me, but not
Speaker 3: the the movie directors, the director from the movies. They
Speaker 3: didn't want to hire me, and they said, you are
Speaker 3: too commercial, too commercial for us, you are the TV comedian.
Speaker 3: So they never gave me the opportunity. And that's when
Speaker 3: I and back then, I said this is not fair.
Speaker 3: Life is not fair. I was blaming on everyone and
Speaker 3: and but because of that, I had the courage to
Speaker 3: start writing my first movie, because I said, if nobody's
Speaker 3: gonna is giving me the opportunity, I have to build
Speaker 3: my own opportunity. And that day I sat down to
Speaker 3: start writing my own movie. Twelve years later, that movie
Speaker 3: was instructions not included. When I I was finishing the movie,
Speaker 3: I told my produce, my co producer, I was like,
Speaker 3: I want to put at the very end in the
Speaker 3: credits something like I want to thank all the people
Speaker 3: who rejected me, because thanks to them, I could make
Speaker 3: this movie. I didn't do it but that was a lesson.
Speaker 3: Sometimes life is you you feel that this is unfair.
Speaker 3: Why is this happening to me? It's the universe telling
Speaker 3: you it's this way, not this way.
Speaker 1: You didn't have to put that at the end of
Speaker 1: your movie at all, because when you were on the
Speaker 1: Oscar stage with your cast from Coda getting a freaking Oscar,
Speaker 1: I assure you that was a bigger message than anything
Speaker 1: you could have put at the credits.
Speaker 3: Now I got Chelsea, yeah.
Speaker 4: Oh yes, we didn't even talk about Soda that movie.
Speaker 4: My god, what I've seen it twice now, but your performance,
Speaker 4: along with everyone else in that cast, that had to
Speaker 4: be What was that moment like you've just described how
Speaker 4: you have, you know, just paved your way like a bulldozer,
Speaker 4: just finding a way, forging your own path to be
Speaker 4: standing on that stage for that incredible piece of art.
Speaker 4: What was that moment? Like?
Speaker 3: It was surreal. As I told you before, I used
Speaker 3: to watch the Oscars every year since I was eight
Speaker 3: years old. I was watching every year the Oscars with
Speaker 3: my mom by my side. So if you see the
Speaker 3: video when we are receiving the Oscar at the very end,
Speaker 3: you will see me back looking at the sky and
Speaker 3: I was talking with my mom. It's it's there. I
Speaker 3: don't have the picture right now, but I was like Mom.
Speaker 3: Inside of me, I was like telling Mom, I'm here.
Speaker 3: I mean, I know, many many years ago, I was
Speaker 3: on the other side of the TV in my house
Speaker 3: in Mexico watching the Oscars. Now I'm here. Finally. I
Speaker 3: couldn't believe it. And I swear that year there were
Speaker 3: there were many, many, many movies with it was Leonardo DiCaprio,
Speaker 3: Jennifer Lawrence, will Smith, Al Pacino, Lady Gaga, your Red Letto.
Speaker 3: The casts of the other movies was insane, and we
Speaker 3: were small independent movie with no big names. So I
Speaker 3: was absolutely sure that we were not gonna win. It
Speaker 3: was like so I enjoyed the Oscars so bad because
Speaker 3: I was like, I'm sure this, It's just I we're
Speaker 3: not gonna win. I don't have to speak anything. So
Speaker 3: I was just watching the Oscars. I was a little
Speaker 3: bit shocked by the slap because that year was well
Speaker 3: remember but all of the time when they said and
Speaker 3: the winner is coda, I just couldn't believe. I'm I
Speaker 3: don't have I don't remember what happened when between they
Speaker 3: said coda, and I went to the stage. I was like,
Speaker 3: it was like all the memories coming into my head
Speaker 3: and the shock that I don't even remember what happened
Speaker 3: between they said code and I went to the stage.
Speaker 3: It was insane.
Speaker 1: But how did your life change from the moment you
Speaker 1: got off that stage. We've seen the projects you've been
Speaker 1: doing and what now, But really what how did you
Speaker 1: feel life got different from you? Almost literally from the
Speaker 1: moment you walked off that stage.
Speaker 3: Everything changes in your life. I remember that in just
Speaker 3: I was shooting a movie called Radical and I had to.
Speaker 3: I stopped shooting for just twenty four hours to go
Speaker 3: to the Oscars, and then I went back to Mexico
Speaker 3: and just the airport was insane, insane. I couldn't walk
Speaker 3: when I came back to my country because the press
Speaker 3: was there and they didn't let me even walk outside
Speaker 3: the airport and a lot of offers, and I remember
Speaker 3: that I had to. It's very dangerous when you you
Speaker 3: get to that point, because you have to make a
Speaker 3: lot of big decisions. And I think I was not
Speaker 3: ready for that, because you have a lot of voices
Speaker 3: like don't take any job, wait for something more important,
Speaker 3: and on the other side, it's like, no, no, no,
Speaker 3: this is a great opportunity. It's really really, really life changing.
Speaker 3: It's complicated. And then on the other hand, I'm well
Speaker 3: known for being a comedian, so constantly everyone wanted me
Speaker 3: to do comedy, and I want to do more drama.
Speaker 3: So it was like also a struggle, a big struggle
Speaker 3: in what kind of offers take and what to do
Speaker 3: with my career from now on. So it's been a challenge, I.
Speaker 4: Mean, and I think it's so cool to see your
Speaker 4: work and to see you building your career across two cultures,
Speaker 4: and to be able to be bilingual and to have
Speaker 4: some Spanish and some English in your projects, to ring
Speaker 4: and unite two neighboring countries together in the midst of
Speaker 4: a lot of political upheaval. How do you balance making
Speaker 4: the art you make with the realities that you see
Speaker 4: all around you? I mean, that has to be tough,
Speaker 4: you know. Do you speak out? Do you say what
Speaker 4: you think? Do you feel like you would be ostracized
Speaker 4: in a way if you actually spoke how you truly feel?
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm just curious, as an artist and as
Speaker 4: a Mexican, how you balance that.
Speaker 3: It's really hard to balance because, as I just mentioned,
Speaker 3: I want to do something more significant, something deeper, especially
Speaker 3: after Coda. When I was shooting Coda, I remember that
Speaker 3: we had the project and I beg you to watch
Speaker 3: a movie called Radical, because Radical was one of the
Speaker 3: projects that I wanted to do for many, many years.
Speaker 3: But the studios were like, no, no, no, you are the
Speaker 3: funny guy. You did a one hundred million dollars with
Speaker 3: instruction not included overboarded also one hundred million dollars at
Speaker 3: the box office, so you need to continue doing comedies.
Speaker 3: And I wanted to do something deeper, something different. I
Speaker 3: wanted to explore drama, et cetera. And Coda, thank God,
Speaker 3: was the project that opened a small door to start
Speaker 3: changing that that vision that all the producers have of me.
Speaker 3: So it's helped me a lot because after Code, I
Speaker 3: did Radical that won the Sundance Film Festival and it's
Speaker 3: based on a true story. It's incredible. You have to
Speaker 3: watch it. And but still until this day is for
Speaker 3: me a very very complicated because the studios, the producers,
Speaker 3: they were always asking me to commercial stuff and I
Speaker 3: don't really want to. I want to do something different,
Speaker 3: and that's been the struggle to balance my entire life
Speaker 3: between I know that I can make a lot of
Speaker 3: money and at the box office, at least in Latin America.
Speaker 3: I've been always thank god I have a very faithful
Speaker 3: fan base, but at the same time, I want to
Speaker 3: do something different, and it's been it's been very complicated
Speaker 3: to find the balance I.
Speaker 1: Have there and trying to find the balance. You're talking
Speaker 1: about some somebody's offering you something and then somebody saying, hey,
Speaker 1: you need to hold on for something bigger. Has there
Speaker 1: been something or projects that have come along that you
Speaker 1: did say no to and then you see how they
Speaker 1: came out later and you go, damn, I could have
Speaker 1: done that better, or man, I would have Do you
Speaker 1: have those roles and movies that you have given up
Speaker 1: and just something that still sticks with you, like, damn,
Speaker 1: I shouldn't have given that one up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, since the beginning of my career, Okay, let me
Speaker 3: I said no. I said no to Alphonso when he
Speaker 3: was in his first movie. He was he was a student,
Speaker 3: he was not well known. I was I was already
Speaker 3: working on TV. And he called me for his first
Speaker 3: movie project, and and I said no to him, and
Speaker 3: and I think that's why I've never worked with him again, because.
Speaker 1: Why do you say no?
Speaker 3: Because I was I just had my first TV show.
Speaker 3: After many many years of uh you know, uh struggling
Speaker 3: of asking for jobs in Mexico, I was starting my
Speaker 3: career and this is I got finally my first TV
Speaker 3: show in Mexico when Alphonso called me and he was
Speaker 3: still a student at UH and in the in Mexico,
Speaker 3: in in a place in a school called well whatever,
Speaker 3: c CEC. I think it's CCC and UH, and he
Speaker 3: was doing his how do you call his final exam
Speaker 3: with a movie called solo only with your I know
Speaker 3: how it translates to do English like only with your
Speaker 3: partner or only with your something. So uh. The thing
Speaker 3: is that I was doing the skilly show and I
Speaker 3: was like, I'm too busy right now. This guy is
Speaker 3: a very nice students, but I don't have time to
Speaker 3: do things. So thank you allphone, so thank you very much.
Speaker 3: And I didn't do that, so I of course I
Speaker 3: regretted a lot. And now we're friends. He's a friend
Speaker 3: of mine, but he's never hired me again.
Speaker 4: And do you have a lot of I can only
Speaker 4: imagine how many young men and women, especially from Mexico,
Speaker 4: look up to you and say, I want to do
Speaker 4: what Aohinio did, I want to be like him? What
Speaker 4: advice do you give, especially those young folks, but anyone
Speaker 4: truly who looks at someone's improbable story like yours and think,
Speaker 4: how could I do that? Or I could never do that?
Speaker 3: I would say, And it's something I always mentioned to
Speaker 3: especially to students. Never say I cannot do this. Ever,
Speaker 3: it's complicated, but the only way that I've at least
Speaker 3: in my experience. Don't put your life or your opportunities
Speaker 3: in somebody else's hands. Create your own opportunities. So I'm
Speaker 3: always telling if you want to make a movie, or
Speaker 3: you want to make it TV show, whatever you want
Speaker 3: to do, write it yourself. But I'm not a writer, okay,
Speaker 3: So go and work as a waiter, or go wash
Speaker 3: cars or do whatever you want, make some money, and
Speaker 3: then hire a writer and sit down with him with him.
Speaker 3: Not just please write something, No, sit down with him.
Speaker 3: Develop your own script. And that's the only way you're
Speaker 3: going to achieve your dreams. Don't wait until someone calls you.
Speaker 3: Create your own opportunities. Don't ask for a job, Come
Speaker 3: and knock at the door with the proposal. That's what
Speaker 3: it changed my life.
Speaker 1: How do you the folks you do tell that to
Speaker 1: the maybe young students are up and coming actors, writers, directors,
Speaker 1: How do they receive that news? I asked that because
Speaker 1: sometimes a younger generation gets no, no, sometimes criticized for
Speaker 1: wanting it all too quickly, or I'll I'll use a
Speaker 1: YouTube channel and I just want to go viral kind
Speaker 1: of a thing. And they look at you and they
Speaker 1: see your success. They don't know the grind and the
Speaker 1: every weekend for three years in la flights you're making right,
Speaker 1: So how do they receive that news when you tell
Speaker 1: them put your head down and get to work.
Speaker 3: I feel that nowadays generation they don't understand that anymore.
Speaker 3: It's like they, as you just said, they want everything quick,
Speaker 3: easy and and and unfortunately this device, it's it's danger
Speaker 3: because anyone from your house, from your home, you can
Speaker 3: just put it in front and do this. For the
Speaker 3: reason that I don't understand why you have ten million
Speaker 3: US and now you're famous. And of course how can
Speaker 3: why I would listen to Ans or TG or Amy
Speaker 3: or or Robert de Niro or whever you want. When
Speaker 3: I know that by doing I'm going to have ten
Speaker 3: million reviews and companies are gonna pay me a lot
Speaker 3: of money for doing so. It's that's another world.
Speaker 4: How old are your kids are you, Haniel?
Speaker 3: I have three grown ups thirty well, yeah, thirty seven,
Speaker 3: thirty three, and thirty one, and a little one eleven.
Speaker 3: The little one, Yeah, the little one is like that.
Speaker 3: I didn't we were not expecting to have another kid,
Speaker 3: but we finally decided to and she changed my entire life.
Speaker 3: So and now I'm struggling with having her off screen
Speaker 3: as much as possible.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's eleven. You said we had a twelve year old.
Speaker 3: Here you are eleven. So we have to make them
Speaker 3: understand that this is not good for anyone.
Speaker 4: But I think it's pretty cool to hear about the
Speaker 4: fact that you and your adult children and your wife
Speaker 4: all forming a company together. I mean, that is the dream,
Speaker 4: isn't it for so many people? Just to do what
Speaker 4: you love and then to do it with the people
Speaker 4: you love. How has that been navigating that?
Speaker 3: Well, let me tell you all my kids, for some reason,
Speaker 3: they decided to be to get to be in the
Speaker 3: show business. So all of them are independent and all
Speaker 3: of them are successful. They are starring each one of them.
Speaker 3: They're starting already their own movies, serious TV shows. And
Speaker 3: my three kids and my wife is a very popular
Speaker 3: pop singer right now, she's in Mexico, she's touring. She's
Speaker 3: always like performing in front of twenty five thousand people.
Speaker 3: So we decided one day to do a show called
Speaker 3: Traveling with Lost Their Best Traveling with their Best family,
Speaker 3: and you can watch it and on Amazon worldwide, and
Speaker 3: I think in the US unfortunately it's in a small
Speaker 3: platform called vix but it's one of the most and
Speaker 3: I think it's number one series for Amazon in Latin America.
Speaker 3: So every single year we do a trip. We just
Speaker 3: launched Japan season. We went to Japan with the entire
Speaker 3: family and it's really really successful. I don't know why
Speaker 3: it was for me, it was an experiment, but it
Speaker 3: worked really well. I was like, people are not going
Speaker 3: to be interested in me traveling with my family. It's
Speaker 3: gonna be it's not gonna happen. People are not gonna
Speaker 3: watch this. Well, it was a huge success. So after
Speaker 3: five seasons, we decided to launch a studio with my
Speaker 3: entire family and we are going to start We're going
Speaker 3: to start working in our own stuff. We're not going
Speaker 3: to wait for companies, studios or platforms to hire us.
Speaker 3: We're going to start producing our own stuff with our
Speaker 3: own ideas. And that's the idea of this to you.
Speaker 1: And you wonder why they want you to keep doing comedy.
Speaker 1: You've gone through everything you touched. This was number one,
Speaker 1: this was the highest person in this, this was number
Speaker 1: one here, and this was number one. So yeah, they
Speaker 1: see your number one resume and it's hard. Why would
Speaker 1: we have him step out of that lane where he's successful.
Speaker 1: But to your point, it's a good one. I think
Speaker 1: a lot of actors that already struggle with that, even
Speaker 1: musicians right trying to try something new. So I applaud
Speaker 1: you for doing so and sticking with it. My last
Speaker 1: question for you has to do with you know you
Speaker 1: mentioned it at the top right. It's difficult to see
Speaker 1: and you're trying to give a different impression in our
Speaker 1: view of Mexico. And I know we've turned the TV
Speaker 1: here every single day and the debates are going on
Speaker 1: in politics. I'm not going to get into a political debate,
Speaker 1: but it has gotten nasty with immigration talk and the
Speaker 1: ice raids. If you had a chance to, I know,
Speaker 1: you can't sit down with every single American who's maybe
Speaker 1: you applaud in the ice raids and maybe don't maybe
Speaker 1: have a colder heart when it comes to the compassion
Speaker 1: for people who are maybe here illegally for whatever reason.
Speaker 1: If you had a chance, though, to just make a
Speaker 1: plead to them to soften their hearts a little bit
Speaker 1: about what they're seeing. Nobody here wants anyone to break
Speaker 1: the law and get away with it. We all can
Speaker 1: agree on that, but there's a little compassion sometimes that's
Speaker 1: missing from the conversation. For you, if you could just
Speaker 1: take a moment for those Americans, what would you say
Speaker 1: to them to try to possibly just soften the heart
Speaker 1: or give a little different perspective.
Speaker 3: Thank you for this opportunity and for this question. I
Speaker 3: would say, I know that we just see or feel
Speaker 3: that all these people coming to this country are stealing jobs.
Speaker 3: First of all, they're not stealing anything. They are the
Speaker 3: ones that start America at four am by cooking cleaning.
Speaker 3: When you arrive to your office, a Latino already cooked
Speaker 3: your breakfast, or clean your floor or whatever in any area.
Speaker 3: We are hard working people, but we're in this country
Speaker 3: not because we want to make more money or steal
Speaker 3: a job. Most of the people that are all these
Speaker 3: immigrants that come to the US are clean, are running
Speaker 3: away from violence. It's not their fault. I swear. I've
Speaker 3: seen these people that are constantly threatened. They rape their
Speaker 3: woman's their child, they're steal their houses. The narcos sometimes
Speaker 3: many of them, they're constantly making. All these people flee
Speaker 3: from their countries because they're again they're raping, stealing, There's
Speaker 3: no job opportunities, so these people are starving, so they
Speaker 3: come to the US just to find some peace, to
Speaker 3: find a decent way to make a living, and to
Speaker 3: feed their families and their kids. So I just want
Speaker 3: to put this on the table, because they're not criminals,
Speaker 3: or they're not just looking well, let's go to the
Speaker 3: US to make more money. Why not. No, they're literally
Speaker 3: fleeing from being killed or being raped or starving, and
Speaker 3: all they want is to work decently and try to
Speaker 3: feed their families.
Speaker 4: You know, and we appreciate that. I can't imagine just
Speaker 4: the pull that must but you must feel, and so
Speaker 4: many other just Latino Americans and Latinos around the world
Speaker 4: just feeling torn because people don't understand unless you've walked
Speaker 4: in their shoes. And I think that's what we're all
Speaker 4: hoping for.
Speaker 3: I mean, so.
Speaker 4: Many of us just want there to be just more
Speaker 4: perspective and bigger hearts and just a willingness to try
Speaker 4: and understand and to ask questions instead of to throw accusations.
Speaker 3: So yeah, we appreciate that, no think. And of course
Speaker 3: in one and I don't know in between, in ten
Speaker 3: thousand people probably are two that are not good people,
Speaker 3: but they're like pointing them like they're like they they're
Speaker 3: like gang members, like you kill assistance or rapers. They're not.
Speaker 3: They're good people and they're they have families, and it
Speaker 3: breaks my heart to see how they are like reporting
Speaker 3: them and tearing them away from their kids and making
Speaker 3: I don't know, it's a mess. It's a very complicated subject.
Speaker 4: Well, the art that you make, uh and certainly just
Speaker 4: even programs like Alcopolco, which I love that you're part
Speaker 4: of your mission is to show people your culture, your people,
Speaker 4: not in the way they've been depicted on the news,
Speaker 4: but in the way you live, breathe see experience them.
Speaker 4: And anyone who travels to your beautiful country knows the same.
Speaker 4: We're huge fans.
Speaker 1: We're there.
Speaker 4: We try to be there at least once a year.
Speaker 4: We love the West and the East coast. They are
Speaker 4: and we I still want to go to Mexico City.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start going on the weekend. Get my Spanish better.
Speaker 3: Yes, Mexico City. It's a great, great city. It's it's
Speaker 3: it's it's so completely different from anything else you'll see.
Speaker 3: And great food, by the way, it is in there.
Speaker 4: It's on my list. But yes, we are just huge
Speaker 4: fans of yours and your work and just continued success.
Speaker 4: I don't think that you need any like adda boys
Speaker 4: from us, because certainly you are self motivated in a
Speaker 4: way most people are not, and you have read benefits
Speaker 4: and just your warm heart, your beautiful smile.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you about you being okay. We know
Speaker 1: whatever happens, you're gonna be fine. You'll work your way
Speaker 1: out of it. It'll be fine.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: It is an absolute pleasure and it's an inspiration. Look,
Speaker 1: we didn't know how this was going to go and
Speaker 1: how much stuff to promote, but once you started talking,
Speaker 1: we just wanted to talk to you back. So if
Speaker 1: you know no notes. We just wanted to have a
Speaker 1: conversation with you man, and this is absolutely been beautiful
Speaker 1: for it. Thank you so much, this man.
Speaker 3: Thank you for this opportunity. I was really nervous because
Speaker 3: i know your podcast is listening by many many people,
Speaker 3: and I'm always worried about my English because I'm still
Speaker 3: working on my English every single day, I swear. But
Speaker 3: now that I happened in eleven year old, she constantly
Speaker 3: request me, like, Dad, it's not this, it's that. And
Speaker 3: I'm always speaking in Spanish at home because I want
Speaker 3: her not to lose the Spanish, but I'm losing my
Speaker 3: English because of that.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 4: Please give love to your beautiful family, and thanks for
Speaker 4: being on the podcast.
Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you for inviting me. Thank you very much.