Speaker 1: Unpacking the Toolbox is a production of Shondaland Audio in
Speaker 1: partnership with iheartradioshas Katie.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, Sergio, you are such a handsome.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: At the time of this recording, it's been a hot
Speaker 2: minute since I've seen Sergio Lopez Rivera in person.
Speaker 4: Hello.
Speaker 2: Same, Yeah, I mean, Betsy's known you the longest, and
Speaker 2: we can all go through where we first met you.
Speaker 2: I was guest starring on a show where I met you,
Speaker 2: and you look the same.
Speaker 3: What.
Speaker 4: It's so fucked up. I mean, it's so fucking It's
Speaker 4: like it's like the portrait of Dorian Gray or whatever
Speaker 4: that thing is. Where's your portrait?
Speaker 3: There's a decaying portrait in my head? Yeah, yes, yes,
Speaker 3: you know what. I think. It's a sleep sleep.
Speaker 4: I don't look like you when I sleep.
Speaker 2: Yeah, neither do I. And also being in Hollywood with
Speaker 2: our hours that we have worked with you in our masts,
Speaker 2: I see you without sleep and you look the same.
Speaker 2: And what I'm just so upset about is that you
Speaker 2: were a person behind the cameras. Kiermu and I are
Speaker 2: supposed to be the greatest looking human beings of all time, because.
Speaker 3: You are.
Speaker 5: I always talked about how happy I was that I
Speaker 5: didn't have the pressures that like Tony Goldwin and Scott
Speaker 5: foleyhead where they had to look good take their shirts
Speaker 5: off every other episode. I was finding that Huck could
Speaker 5: look hungover like it's all good, you know.
Speaker 4: What I mean, no juicing, no juicing for no juice
Speaker 4: or Huck. Well, the people listening, it is so exciting
Speaker 4: to see Sergio. We've all known each other for many,
Speaker 4: many years, and we're very excited to dig into the
Speaker 4: story and the history of one of our favorite human
Speaker 4: beings and one of the most talented people on Earth. Yes,
Speaker 4: he might have won big awards recently in the past
Speaker 4: couple of years, but that's just the tip of it.
Speaker 2: Because it's an Oscar right it is. Sergio Lopezervera is
Speaker 2: one of the most awarded and respected makeup artists in Hollywood.
Speaker 4: Not only is he a makeup artist, but Sergio has
Speaker 4: literally designed virtually every show which we won't name right
Speaker 4: now because there is a strike going on and we
Speaker 4: aren't supported. But since a show very very long time ago,
Speaker 4: we've always worked with Sergio to design the entire look
Speaker 4: of the hair and makeup and the cares from usually
Speaker 4: the pilot series on and the ability to actually not
Speaker 4: only do make up with the artistry that he doesn't
Speaker 4: trust me. I've experienced it. It's terrifying. I think my
Speaker 4: husband just sort of is like, could he just come
Speaker 4: over every day for something because you look so good?
Speaker 4: But the idea that he actually is somebody who can
Speaker 4: design an entire look for a character in conjunction with
Speaker 4: a customer is mind boggling.
Speaker 6: It is my favorite thing to do, and honestly, I
Speaker 6: will get deeper into this, but the opportunity that I
Speaker 6: was given by shandaland where it just worked for everyone
Speaker 6: if I were in charge of staffing the hair and
Speaker 6: makeup trailer, because you guys understood something that a lot
Speaker 6: of producers and production companies don't understand, which is, if
Speaker 6: you let me create an environment a family, I can
Speaker 6: control the amount.
Speaker 3: Of toxicity or the lack of toxicity.
Speaker 6: And I can sort of custom build this incredible department
Speaker 6: that yes they're talented, and yes they'll have an opportunity
Speaker 6: to showcase their talents, but mostly it's the fact that
Speaker 6: I like to work with beautiful human beings things like that,
Speaker 6: and so it was a dream for me, like actually
Speaker 6: unimaginable because this had never happened before. It was almost
Speaker 6: like a branding for chandaland that I can tell you
Speaker 6: stories about guest stars that would come in one of
Speaker 6: our shows and they would already know that this makeup
Speaker 6: and herit team was special or extraordinary or whatever, and
Speaker 6: then they would leave these thank you cards at the
Speaker 6: end because they had not had experiences like that in
Speaker 6: television before. So it was pretty cool. And I owe
Speaker 6: it all to them, you know, because they trusted me.
Speaker 6: It was huge, huge, And.
Speaker 2: For everybody listening, like who doesn't know about the hair
Speaker 2: and makeup people. If you are lucky enough to be
Speaker 2: on a show that has longevity, which Shondaland shows fortunately do.
Speaker 2: They are the people with you at four o'clock in
Speaker 2: the morning, the proximity to your face. They know what
Speaker 2: you smell like after coffee. They know when you are
Speaker 2: nervous about doing a sex scene and your clothes are
Speaker 2: coming off and someone's coming to my trailer to paint
Speaker 2: my butt cover a ZiT I have on my butt.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's how close you are.
Speaker 4: Bets, no boundaries, old, don a second. Have you had
Speaker 4: your butt painted?
Speaker 2: Yes, our mutual dearest dearest friend who we also worked with,
Speaker 2: Denise Hooper. She when I would have sex scenes, she
Speaker 2: would come into the trailer and I would be like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, like there's like weird. I mean, whatever
Speaker 2: it is, a mosquito, bite, a ZiT, a patch of cellulite, like,
Speaker 2: whatever it is, and you're just like you are my
Speaker 2: person who can come in here, and I trust. And
Speaker 2: so I think that's also why Sergio, you've really it
Speaker 2: was so amazing what you did, because I think that
Speaker 2: it's forgotten almost about that, Like the hair and makeup
Speaker 2: departments on production are so close with the actors and
Speaker 2: with each other and are working such long hours in
Speaker 2: each other's personal space that if everyone can get along
Speaker 2: and it can be an environment of real collaboration and inspiration,
Speaker 2: it goes so much better.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it goes so much better, so much further. When
Speaker 6: an actor goes into the hair makeup trailer, there is
Speaker 6: a hierarchy right in their mind, like the department head
Speaker 6: is obviously the better makeup artists or the better hairdresser,
Speaker 6: and then the key is the second best, and then
Speaker 6: the third is the worst makeup artist, when that in
Speaker 6: fact is not true. I have thirdy is that right,
Speaker 6: thirdy for department heads and.
Speaker 3: They have thirdy for me.
Speaker 6: That's how we do this because we would rather assist
Speaker 6: an incredible person than hire a complete douche that just
Speaker 6: comes with a great resume, but nobody can stand him,
Speaker 6: because even just one person, one energy, can throw it
Speaker 6: all off, you know, like literally my third have more
Speaker 6: credits than me, It just doesn't matter. I needed to
Speaker 6: get rid of that hierarchy because at the end of
Speaker 6: the day, I needed you as an actor to feel
Speaker 6: as comfortable with me as I did with my third.
Speaker 6: I needed you to be as confident because as I
Speaker 6: grew within Shandland, it was and harder for me to
Speaker 6: be the person on set making sure that you feel okay.
Speaker 6: And it was very, very important that you trusted my team.
Speaker 4: Delegation is such a huge part of a learning curve
Speaker 4: because I found that too is you know, you can't
Speaker 4: be everywhere all at once, and it's really important that
Speaker 4: you trust the points of view. And for me, one
Speaker 4: of the first things we had to delegate was having
Speaker 4: somebody that we super super trusted in this department. First
Speaker 4: of all, to help design a look which is coherent
Speaker 4: with a character which is a whole other thing that
Speaker 4: a lot of people don't understand and what hair and
Speaker 4: makeup does when it comes to when you're part of
Speaker 4: the architect of how a character is articulated in the
Speaker 4: way that they look. But also over the years with Sergio,
Speaker 4: I would know that if he felt as though there
Speaker 4: was trouble or somebody was upset or they seemed vulnerable
Speaker 4: in the trailer, he could always text me or the
Speaker 4: creator of the show and say I always say, like
Speaker 4: sunny with the chance of rain, Like Cou'd say, like,
Speaker 4: how's it going, what's the weather? Like can you go?
Speaker 4: You know they're thunderstorms. They haven't kind of arrived yet.
Speaker 3: Wow, Yeah, light sprinkle.
Speaker 4: Light sprinkle, and go like nine to one one hurricane
Speaker 4: and you kind of like running down.
Speaker 2: So makeup trailers also where the drum, I mean not
Speaker 2: the drum, but it's like where people's secrets come out.
Speaker 2: It's like where people dish on a Monday after a
Speaker 2: long weekend. It's like where people feel for whatever reason.
Speaker 2: And I think it's been like this is the beginning
Speaker 2: of time and hollyweird. But like you come to your
Speaker 2: Hollywood makeup trailer, that's where you're like, oh, you know,
Speaker 2: this is what's going on in my personal life, my home.
Speaker 2: Like it's a really very odd the makeup, wouldn't you agree?
Speaker 7: Gee?
Speaker 2: Like the makeup trailers where we talk the most gossip.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, it's where Carrie would feed her little dog bacon.
Speaker 7: Remember every morning, That's right, she would feed her bacon.
Speaker 5: But and then we would have our food, and there
Speaker 5: they'd be delivering our food. We'd be eating while you
Speaker 5: guys are trying to put makeup on our face.
Speaker 3: Oh this is so good. Thank you for bringing that up.
Speaker 6: Ladies say go on the record has to say listen,
Speaker 6: I understand your window for eating is short, so is mine.
Speaker 6: But if you're going to eat while I'm attempting to
Speaker 6: make you look really good, maybe not a double double cheeseburger.
Speaker 6: Maybe something more friendly like a carrot stick. Okay, then
Speaker 6: you can do something.
Speaker 4: Straws are great. Straws are great. Just smoothie with the
Speaker 4: freaking straw smoothie.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so many minerals and vitamins in there.
Speaker 5: We'd be running lines constantly in the makeup trailer. Remember
Speaker 5: we have actors come in that weren't getting their makeup
Speaker 5: done to come run line while Katie and I were
Speaker 5: getting their makeup or carry so you were dealing with
Speaker 5: all of that, people yapping at each other.
Speaker 7: The music's playing. The music is very important and making
Speaker 7: as well.
Speaker 4: Yes, there is hugely music playing in a hair and
Speaker 4: makeup trailer. Yeah, and depending on the mood of the trailer,
Speaker 4: it's like, not only are you a genius visionary in
Speaker 4: terms of visual abilities, but you have to be a DJ.
Speaker 6: Yeah, listen, you have to be a DJ. You have
Speaker 6: to be a brother therapist. You have to be a therapist.
Speaker 6: You have to be like an emotional support human for
Speaker 6: another human.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we could get you one of those bibs that
Speaker 4: you were that's say emotionally.
Speaker 6: Yes, this is the part that nobody trains you for.
Speaker 6: You know, like, you could go to the best school,
Speaker 6: you could graduate top of your class, you could work
Speaker 6: with the most amazing producers, and nobody teaches you how
Speaker 6: to listen to someone. Nobody teaches you that the goal
Speaker 6: is to let this person who is upset or happy
Speaker 6: or whatever it is, be as ready as possible to
Speaker 6: step on set and do their job right now they're here,
Speaker 6: so that I can do my job. There's something you
Speaker 6: need that morning after lunch whatever, that you're going to
Speaker 6: need to feel free to speak, you're going to need
Speaker 6: to feel free to express yourself. And so there's a
Speaker 6: lot of trust and professionalism that go into staffing a trailer,
Speaker 6: because you're right, I'm not supposed to know like eighty
Speaker 6: percent of the things.
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 6: You know, you're just there holding the space for someone.
Speaker 2: You're in a lock box, right, Oh yeah.
Speaker 4: But I think what's interesting is you started to talking
Speaker 4: about something. I actually don't know the answer to this question,
Speaker 4: which is weird because I thought I knew so much.
Speaker 4: How did you get into this? Like, what was your
Speaker 4: path to this career?
Speaker 2: I'm not sure if very many Spaniards come to Hollywood
Speaker 2: and become top awarded makeup artists, but maybe I'm wrong.
Speaker 4: How the fuck did you get here?
Speaker 6: I know, I know, you know, it's interesting, Okay. I
Speaker 6: was born and raised in Spain. I was raised in
Speaker 6: Northern Spain in Santander. Is a beautiful and it's a beautiful,
Speaker 6: absolutely gorgeous part of Europe is Northern Spain. If you
Speaker 6: haven't been, I highly recommend it, and if you like food,
Speaker 6: I highly highly recommend it.
Speaker 3: It's my top top thing anyway.
Speaker 6: But I was born in sixty seven, which means that
Speaker 6: I grew up in a dictatorship because Franco did not
Speaker 6: die until seventy five, I believe, and so seventy seven
Speaker 6: is the first time Spain is a democracy ever. So
Speaker 6: I'm saying this because I really cannot separate my journey
Speaker 6: as a makeup artist that you know, was born in Spain.
Speaker 6: I came to Hollywood from the fact that I was
Speaker 6: a gay boy in Spain in nineteen sixty seven, you know,
Speaker 6: because it forced me to understand that I wasn't safe.
Speaker 6: I may have been safe in my own house, but
Speaker 6: I wasn't safe in the city. I was in sane
Speaker 6: in the country. There was no allies or no outlet
Speaker 6: for me to know what living an authentic life would
Speaker 6: look like. I knew instantly that I needed to become
Speaker 6: two people, you know, in order to survive, to simply
Speaker 6: survive my family, and so I needed to be able
Speaker 6: to become the person that they needed me to be,
Speaker 6: which was mostly just a good boy and my real me,
Speaker 6: you know, which was a good boy who was also gay,
Speaker 6: who was also confused and needed a lot of support.
Speaker 6: And so what happened was I found a lot of
Speaker 6: support and outlet in watching movies.
Speaker 3: I just loved movies, and so.
Speaker 6: This one time I rented Oh, I was obsessed with
Speaker 6: The Exorcist, obsessed with.
Speaker 2: You and Sergio Bear hanging too.
Speaker 6: But I loved the movie so much that, under false
Speaker 6: pretenses whatever, I kind of convinced my parents to buy.
Speaker 6: You know, this was the age of the VCR, and
Speaker 6: Sony had come out with like this new VCR where
Speaker 6: you could like freees frame and then freees frame forward
Speaker 6: and freees frame. So in my version of the movie,
Speaker 6: Linda Blair was literally swallowing her vomit as opposed to you,
Speaker 6: because I just lovedys and forward and everything. And I
Speaker 6: just to torture my sisters because I wanted to replay
Speaker 6: the anyway. I was obsessed with them. And I remember
Speaker 6: asking my dad, I said, Dad, where do they make
Speaker 6: these things? And he, you know, pleasant He's like, Hollywood.
Speaker 6: I'm like, where's Hollywood. It's like that's California, California and
Speaker 6: the United States. I'm like, well, that's where I'm going there.
Speaker 6: Suddenly it was like a seed, you know, I'm talking.
Speaker 6: I mean I'm nine or ten years old, right, and
Speaker 6: I'm like the seed was planted that there was an
Speaker 6: outlet for me, There was a place for me to
Speaker 6: be where I most likely could be myself, could be authentic,
Speaker 6: could experience what it would be like to be myself,
Speaker 6: just myself. So even though I didn't come until I
Speaker 6: was nineteen, those ten years, I was just obsessed with
Speaker 6: putting one foot in front of the other to make.
Speaker 3: It to Hollywood for a couple of reasons.
Speaker 6: One of them was to leave my family, but not
Speaker 6: because I don't love my family out door, Dan, but
Speaker 6: simply because I have no one to be gay with.
Speaker 5: Sure, did you have a group of friends at all
Speaker 5: in Spain? There like that were close friends that knew
Speaker 5: you were gay, that you were able to hang out with.
Speaker 6: And I didn't come out to anyone until I moved
Speaker 6: to America.
Speaker 7: Oh wow.
Speaker 6: And so I mean I came at nineteen, but I
Speaker 6: think the first time I said the words I'm gay,
Speaker 6: I think I was twenty.
Speaker 7: Oh wow.
Speaker 6: And then I came to my mom at twenty one,
Speaker 6: and then you know, that didn't go so well, so
Speaker 6: I freaked out and I didn't come out to my
Speaker 6: dad until five years later. It was just a mess
Speaker 6: boy yeah, and so you know, you realize, gosh, all
Speaker 6: I want is to be able to experience what everyone
Speaker 6: else around me gets to experience. They're not thinking about
Speaker 6: their sexuality all the time. I'm thinking about my sexuality
Speaker 6: all the time because it could be a problem. And
Speaker 6: so that is such a driving force, I think, because
Speaker 6: you're not thinking, oh, I'm going to become a makeup
Speaker 6: artist and go to Hollywood and win awards, but you thinking, oh,
Speaker 6: I want to live my life authentically.
Speaker 3: What does that look like?
Speaker 6: And when you take care of your authenticity when you're
Speaker 6: that young, I promise you have zero tolerance for the crap,
Speaker 6: the suffering, the everyday suffering. Like I could never be
Speaker 6: at a desk job, you know, I could never know
Speaker 6: anything other than what brings me pleasure. It's a hard
Speaker 6: way to learn that lesson because there's a lot of
Speaker 6: introspect that goes in, like to trying to figure out
Speaker 6: why do I feel empty and why do I feel
Speaker 6: like I'm an impostor and so yeah, I can't really
Speaker 6: separate it. But I came when I was nineteen. My parents,
Speaker 6: of course wanted me to go to college, which I
Speaker 6: did for two years.
Speaker 2: Nice where did you go, well, I went to.
Speaker 3: Valanova University in Pennsylvania the first first year.
Speaker 7: You kidding?
Speaker 3: I didn't speak English.
Speaker 6: I didn't speak English like nothing, I literally, I mean
Speaker 6: I came on a plane, but I might as well
Speaker 6: be a boat.
Speaker 3: Okay, we will.
Speaker 2: Be back with more after the break.
Speaker 4: So, and you didn't speak the language, but you managed
Speaker 4: to get through two years of sitting there and just
Speaker 4: looking adorable, like, what the hell did you do that?
Speaker 3: Hell?
Speaker 6: Well, honestly, this is almost embarrassing.
Speaker 4: Because awesome, go for it, right, No, it's just.
Speaker 6: That I was renting a room from a Spanish professor
Speaker 6: who teaching at a university. My parents felt very comfortable
Speaker 6: having that arrangement, right, So okay, I'm renting a room
Speaker 6: down the street from the campus and he has to
Speaker 6: help me. He takes me to the registration office. He
Speaker 6: is like, okay, well you can't take this, because you
Speaker 6: can take that. And what I ended up with my
Speaker 6: first semester was pottery, photography, battery.
Speaker 3: Photography, drawing, and our history. I was really good at
Speaker 3: our history in.
Speaker 4: All terrific tools.
Speaker 7: Right for being a creative makeup artist.
Speaker 6: Yeah, but you know when you're nineteen and you have
Speaker 6: essentially escaped your situation. I think you don't experience fear.
Speaker 6: You just don't you experience acceleration. You are like, are
Speaker 6: you kidding me?
Speaker 2: I'm out, I'm out of here. I'm got out.
Speaker 6: I get to wipe the cafeteria tables as my job.
Speaker 6: I get to work at a dry cleaners. Are you
Speaker 6: kidding me?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 2: Yeah, hell yes, Are those some of the things you did?
Speaker 3: Sure? Well.
Speaker 6: I applied for a job in the cafeteria and I had.
Speaker 3: To wear this polo that was really bad.
Speaker 6: It was a terrible polo, Like I hate this polo anyway,
Speaker 6: But I started wiping tables and I did it for
Speaker 6: one afternoon and I was like, this is not I
Speaker 6: am better than this. I just I don't know what
Speaker 6: I'm going to do.
Speaker 2: But I'm not doing this.
Speaker 4: I'm not wearing that polo. It boiled down to fashion,
Speaker 4: I mean immediately.
Speaker 6: And also it was a used polo, like it was washed,
Speaker 6: and I was like, oh no.
Speaker 2: No, oh my god.
Speaker 6: I went down the street on Lancaster Avenue and I
Speaker 6: applied for these drag cleaders that had to help wanted
Speaker 6: and thank god, this man, this Greek man that on
Speaker 6: the I think he saw himself in me.
Speaker 3: So he gave me a.
Speaker 6: Job and I worked at a dragtonners while I was
Speaker 6: going to school.
Speaker 7: Wow.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so you get through two years and then you
Speaker 4: decide to drop out.
Speaker 6: Well, yeah, I did my first semester in Villanova and
Speaker 6: then I transferred to UCLA Extension in.
Speaker 3: La I flew out here for the interview.
Speaker 6: And you know, it was like may or something. It
Speaker 6: was beautiful California day. I'm like, oh, I found my home.
Speaker 6: This is where I want to be, and yeah, I
Speaker 6: dropped out. It was such a sense of an urgency
Speaker 6: inside of me. That is like anytime I sat in
Speaker 6: a classroom for like an hour an hour and a half,
Speaker 6: I'd be like, oh my god, this is not at
Speaker 6: all what I want to do. But dropping out of
Speaker 6: school comes with such stigma. You know, my family is
Speaker 6: no different. So I had to be really, really sure
Speaker 6: of myself. And this is something that has helped me.
Speaker 6: In my family. I didn't do the things the way
Speaker 6: that the rest of my family did them, and I
Speaker 6: had to be very very sure of myself to not
Speaker 6: be dissuaded due to something I didn't want to do.
Speaker 5: Well, look at you, now, you gotta Oscar Now, so
Speaker 5: all that that's right? Were you doing makeup stuff throughout Sergio,
Speaker 5: like when you were in the first college in Vilenova
Speaker 5: and then transfer to use in between. Were you doing
Speaker 5: all sorts of makeup stuff?
Speaker 6: Yes, because I also I have a huge love of photography,
Speaker 6: and one of my classes in College of Lenova was photography.
Speaker 6: It was great because Leonova itself didn't have a dark
Speaker 6: room on campus, but brent Mar did the college for girls,
Speaker 6: and so I used to have to go to Brentmar
Speaker 6: for my class and that I would spent my weekends
Speaker 6: in that dark room because I didn't have any friends.
Speaker 6: I didn't know anybody, and I'm a little bit of
Speaker 6: an introvert. I loved my company, and I was just
Speaker 6: in that dark room developing photographs. And the photographs were
Speaker 6: pictures of people from school or class or whatever that
Speaker 6: I would ask if they would be my model, and
Speaker 6: then I would take them. I loved in the eighties.
Speaker 6: I loved shooting in cemeteries. I thought it was so
Speaker 6: edgy and cool.
Speaker 4: Everybody did come on, yeah, you know, like.
Speaker 3: Put a long coat. Look.
Speaker 2: I truly never did that, so I missed the boat.
Speaker 2: I didn't do that I bet Giermo did gearma to do.
Speaker 4: Oh oh that.
Speaker 7: I have so many photo shoots and cemeteries.
Speaker 6: It's so cool, right, you were so edgy. Yeah, like,
Speaker 6: let's post here on someone's remain.
Speaker 2: So you're doing photography and you're you have models that
Speaker 2: you're doing the makeup and sort of styling it. So
Speaker 2: you have such an aesthetic to what things look like.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, and I love doing that. And before I
Speaker 6: moved to America, I spent two years. I studied in
Speaker 6: Ireland and I studied in England for the two years
Speaker 6: before coming to America. So even though I studied in Ireland.
Speaker 6: In England, my English was really really terrible.
Speaker 4: But who could understand anybody?
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, yeah, that's true. I mean it.
Speaker 4: Spent somewhere you were in Ireland, it can be pretty fair.
Speaker 3: Yeah that's true.
Speaker 6: No, But when I was in Oxford, I my friends,
Speaker 6: the girls that I was in class with, I would
Speaker 6: take them to the cemetery or to like there was
Speaker 6: the beautiful train tracks that like went on forever in
Speaker 6: black and white, really.
Speaker 3: Sort of like moody pictures. I mean, I love it.
Speaker 6: So I would do the makeup, I would do the hair,
Speaker 6: I would do the styling, so I kind of always
Speaker 6: did that. When I moved to La I started photographing
Speaker 6: dance students, like students who needed headshots and didn't have
Speaker 6: the money, and because I didn't have a studio, I
Speaker 6: would take them to the beach because I figure that
Speaker 6: at sunset, that magic hour light is better than any
Speaker 6: makeup foundation you could possibly have, So in black and
Speaker 6: white with that magic light, it's perfect. They yeah, yeah,
Speaker 6: they got the job, They got the job.
Speaker 2: How did production happen for you? Like, how did photography
Speaker 2: and make up and studies turn into how did you
Speaker 2: get onto a set?
Speaker 6: My first job gosh, I don't have to think about
Speaker 6: this in so long, but my first job in the
Speaker 6: industry actually was a driver.
Speaker 3: I was I started transportation.
Speaker 2: My god, I'm dead.
Speaker 4: Did you know how to drive?
Speaker 3: I did go to the DMV in still I don't remember,
Speaker 3: but I did.
Speaker 4: I did.
Speaker 3: I think I got my driver lessons that twenty one,
Speaker 3: So it was all good.
Speaker 6: But I was working at a fitness studio, like at
Speaker 6: the reception, and then, you know, it was not a
Speaker 6: great situation.
Speaker 3: I lost that job.
Speaker 6: You know, I think the owner was a little shady
Speaker 6: and I wasn't responding to him, so I think anyway,
Speaker 6: he let me go. And so in the weekend that
Speaker 6: I was sort of like free, I went to this
Speaker 6: party and I met this person who happened to be
Speaker 6: a transportation coordinator, and he said, well, if you have
Speaker 6: a car and you need a job, come, you know,
Speaker 6: be on the corner of Willoughby and whatever on Monday
Speaker 6: morning at seven, And it was to drive for the movie.
Speaker 3: Are you ready? House Party two? No, House Party two? Yes, Betsy,
Speaker 3: Oh my god, So I'm there.
Speaker 6: This was actually one of the most informative observational experiences
Speaker 6: I've ever done. I was exactly what he told me
Speaker 6: to be at exactly the time he told me to be.
Speaker 6: But the setting up of the bit of the base
Speaker 6: camp was starting to happen right like that. Actually that
Speaker 6: early morning activity. This is my first time in a set.
Speaker 6: I've never been. I don't know who anybody or what
Speaker 6: they do. But I stood there for about an hour
Speaker 6: watching it sort of come to life, and really quickly
Speaker 6: understood that the pas were getting bullied and abused every day.
Speaker 3: Like I knew that right away.
Speaker 6: I saw this young girl running this way with four
Speaker 6: cups of coffee running this way for seventeen binders, running
Speaker 6: that sweating, crying whatever.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh my, for everyone listening who doesn't know,
Speaker 2: a PA is a production assistant, and they are.
Speaker 6: They are the foundation of this business.
Speaker 7: They really are.
Speaker 2: But they are what some would are you the lowest
Speaker 2: on the totem pole.
Speaker 4: It's like being a waitress, a waitress from hell.
Speaker 6: Yeah that's right, yes, yes, yes, So just to make
Speaker 6: a little bit of a left turn.
Speaker 3: By the way, I always say that the.
Speaker 6: Most important job in a set that affects my job
Speaker 6: is the PA that runs based campaign.
Speaker 2: Oh definitely, your day.
Speaker 3: Is just not the same if that person and doesn't
Speaker 3: have it together.
Speaker 5: I mean, they're in charge of getting you the actor
Speaker 5: in your chair at the right time.
Speaker 2: And also getting you all the information of what's happening
Speaker 2: on stat of.
Speaker 3: The information exactly.
Speaker 6: If they're really good, they're going to tell you the
Speaker 6: order of the first three shots. Right, we're going to
Speaker 6: do and over the shoulder, we're going to turn around,
Speaker 6: we're going to close in, boom done. I know exactly
Speaker 6: what it isn't a priority when you tell me what
Speaker 6: the shot is, I don't have to waste my time
Speaker 6: touching up the wrong actor, right, you know what I mean.
Speaker 6: But if you tell me super wide, I'm not going
Speaker 6: to touch up anybody, there's no lass looks, go for it.
Speaker 4: And so for people who don't necessarily know all the
Speaker 4: ins and outs of how a show or a set works,
Speaker 4: so base camp very often is where everybody's getting ready
Speaker 4: and all the trucks are parked and the whole nine
Speaker 4: yards and nine times out of ten, wherever you're filming
Speaker 4: isn't at base camp, right, So you have to figure
Speaker 4: out a way to get the actors and the peoples
Speaker 4: to the place you're filming, be at a stage or
Speaker 4: be at a location, which is why all that timing
Speaker 4: is so important, right, Serge. I mean, it's like you've
Speaker 4: got this really hard job when you're on set because
Speaker 4: you only have a limited amount of time to fix
Speaker 4: any issue that's going on, or else everything stops. And
Speaker 4: when everything stops, then everybody starts to get pissy because
Speaker 4: it's costing money. So it's a whole delicate, crazy ass dance.
Speaker 4: So you have to do it.
Speaker 3: Really is, it really really is.
Speaker 6: And the thing is there are two forces here that
Speaker 6: work against each other. One of them is the training.
Speaker 6: We have received, which basically I think it's a little
Speaker 6: bit outdated. This thing that we need to do a
Speaker 6: complete touch up every single time that the cameras stop
Speaker 6: rolling like that is crazy, unsustainable, unrealistic, crazy, And so
Speaker 6: it becomes a thing about very individual Like if I'm
Speaker 6: in charge of you for a scene, Katie, and I
Speaker 6: look at you and I'm like, you look great, even
Speaker 6: though I haven't touched you for twenty minutes.
Speaker 3: I don't have the need to touch you.
Speaker 6: But let's say that I'm working with an actor or
Speaker 6: actress that I know that if I just do a
Speaker 6: little powder or the motion of powder. How many times
Speaker 6: have I touched people up with nothing on my puff?
Speaker 5: There's always that one actor who's like, you better touch
Speaker 5: me up.
Speaker 7: No matter what.
Speaker 2: Actors are so cuckoo about this stuff. It's so weird.
Speaker 6: I love knowing everybody's idiot secrecies, you know, like because
Speaker 6: there are some actors that just need that last look
Speaker 6: or the even just making eye contact with you, and
Speaker 6: they know that.
Speaker 7: Okay, then you check them and they're good.
Speaker 6: Something becomes easier they can drop something off.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love that. I love I think it's because
Speaker 3: you know, I'm a codependent person. But I love.
Speaker 6: I love facilitating that I can do something so that
Speaker 6: you can do your job.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 6: It's amazing, right, And so that's why I appreciate the
Speaker 6: basic MPAs because them doing their jobs is making my
Speaker 6: job so much easier, you know, when they're good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so hold on, you're a driver, you see that
Speaker 2: PAS might not be for you. Is this how we
Speaker 2: get into makeup?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 6: What I realized though, is like you need to treat
Speaker 6: those people.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 6: That was the thing for me always. If I have
Speaker 6: the privilege to have come all the way from Spain
Speaker 6: to do this and I am here and I am
Speaker 6: doing it, i am here, I feel so privileged that
Speaker 6: what I want to preserve is my joy. I want
Speaker 6: to preserve the joy that I have for my job,
Speaker 6: and that is threatened every single day, you know, by
Speaker 6: outside forces and outside.
Speaker 3: Stresses, you know.
Speaker 6: And so for me, it all became about how do
Speaker 6: I become just a happy human being that gets to
Speaker 6: do what they love to do for a living, you know,
Speaker 6: And so I've always taken care of that. My mental
Speaker 6: health hugely important. I understood that this could be a
Speaker 6: monster that could eat your life if you were not
Speaker 6: careful and so from driving I learned so so much
Speaker 6: about life on set and base camp and what so
Speaker 6: many departments do because as transport I would have to
Speaker 6: run errands for makeup, and I would have to run
Speaker 6: errands for a wardrobe or for the director or get
Speaker 6: us movie from whatever, you know, like all of this stuff,
Speaker 6: and it was incredible. It was incredibly valuable for me
Speaker 6: because it allows you to develop respect for all these
Speaker 6: other departments that are working around you, what a hard
Speaker 6: day looks like for them as opposed to what it
Speaker 6: looks like for you, and just have that kind of empathy.
Speaker 6: That's what makes you. I think it makes you a
Speaker 6: great leader. Eventually, from transportation, I would just get hired
Speaker 6: by this guy and Griffith was his name, and he
Speaker 6: would hire me different movies, so sometimes I would be
Speaker 6: driving the director would just be the director's driver. So
Speaker 6: he put me in a movie with a director named
Speaker 6: Bill Duke, African American director lovely man, and I did
Speaker 6: like three movies with him, and one of the movies
Speaker 6: I did with him starred Jeff Goblum.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, amazing.
Speaker 6: Jeff Goblum was getting rid to do a movie in
Speaker 6: Spain and so my boss, the director, Bill, said to him,
Speaker 6: you know Surgious from Spain. You should take him with
Speaker 6: you as your driver, you know.
Speaker 3: So he did, he did, Yes, he did.
Speaker 4: Okay, So, by the way, that's a movie Sergio and
Speaker 4: Jeff Goldbloom Spain.
Speaker 3: I have so many stories, you guys. You know.
Speaker 6: We went to Spain, and something nobody knew is that
Speaker 6: I had actually never.
Speaker 3: Driven in Spain. Never.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 6: I couldn't say that to anybody, because I mean, I
Speaker 6: wanted the job, so I said yes, yeah. And also
Speaker 6: I found out that we not only had to drive
Speaker 6: in Madrid, we had to also drive in Barcelona, and
Speaker 6: we had to drive to Barcelona.
Speaker 3: So what I did, and listen for those of you
Speaker 3: out there.
Speaker 6: Who are listening, who are beginning your careers, perhaps because
Speaker 6: this is how creative you have to be, I could
Speaker 6: not be found out that I did not know how
Speaker 6: to drive around Madrid way. And so what I did
Speaker 6: is I would get the location for each day the
Speaker 6: day before, and I would go by myself and run
Speaker 6: it from my house to his hotel to the thing
Speaker 6: I'm back, and I would do it a couple of times.
Speaker 7: Wow smart.
Speaker 6: And then so every morning, I just knew exactly where
Speaker 6: I was going. Blah blah blah blah bah. Nobody ever knew.
Speaker 6: In the process of filming that movie, Jeff Goldblum's co
Speaker 6: star in that movie was Mimi Rodgers, and so, as
Speaker 6: luck would have it, Mimi also had a driver and
Speaker 6: Jeff had a driver. But Jeff never wanted to do
Speaker 6: anything outside of work, never, so I would take him
Speaker 6: to his hotel and then I would just hang out
Speaker 6: with Mimi and his.
Speaker 3: And her driver, and we became really really close friends.
Speaker 3: To this day, we're very close friends.
Speaker 6: But when I came when when I came back from
Speaker 6: working on that movie, Mimi called me and said, you know,
Speaker 6: I just lost my assistant.
Speaker 3: Do you have any intro on being my assistant? And
Speaker 3: so I said, of course, you know.
Speaker 6: Wow, a different turn, a different job in the industry,
Speaker 6: yet another level of the industry.
Speaker 2: The story is wild. Sergio.
Speaker 6: So I worked for her for three years. She is
Speaker 6: absolutely amazing. I love her so so much. But it
Speaker 6: was her who gave me that final push. She said
Speaker 6: to me, Sergia, I love you. I would keep you
Speaker 6: here forever, but it is obvious to me that what
Speaker 6: you have to do is do makeups. You need to
Speaker 6: go out there and do makeup. And so I got
Speaker 6: this book that was like a guide to how to
Speaker 6: become a makeup artisan in Hollywood. I remember lots of resources,
Speaker 6: including schools, and so I found the best school, which
Speaker 6: at the time was Joe Blasco. It was so expensive,
Speaker 6: so expensive. It was like seven thousand dollars back in
Speaker 6: nineteen ninety five or whatever.
Speaker 3: Wow, that would have been so much now, wow, so
Speaker 3: much money.
Speaker 6: And so I called my grandmother and I said, can
Speaker 6: I borrow this money?
Speaker 3: She said yes. Wow.
Speaker 6: After I graduated. Okay, wait, hold on you guys, I graduated.
Speaker 6: This is such a funny story. It was from eight
Speaker 6: to four every day, four months, three months or something
Speaker 6: like that.
Speaker 3: Eight to four.
Speaker 6: But then there was a lab from four to six
Speaker 6: every day that was voluntary. I was there every day
Speaker 6: until the very end of lab because I loved it.
Speaker 3: I was devouring it. This was my dream as a child.
Speaker 6: I used to hide myself with my sister's dolls in
Speaker 6: the bathroom and give the makeovers. I'm like, this was like,
Speaker 6: this was show in me that I finally was here
Speaker 6: with a teacher that was a makeup artist in Hollywood
Speaker 6: just for me four to six every day, two hours
Speaker 6: where I just got to take it all in. It
Speaker 6: was so amazing for me.
Speaker 4: Wow, Sergio.
Speaker 6: And so on the day of graduation, I've never come
Speaker 6: to like American school, so I really don't know how
Speaker 6: the order is or the process of graduate or whatever.
Speaker 6: But anyway, they were like selecting different people, saying their names,
Speaker 6: and they would come up and get the diploma. But
Speaker 6: then they started talking about this person in the class
Speaker 6: that had worked so hard, had done.
Speaker 3: Such an amazing job.
Speaker 6: Blah blah blah, and I started getting like a ball
Speaker 6: of pain in my stomach of jealousy. I was like,
Speaker 6: who the fuck is this person? I worked so hard too,
Speaker 6: but I was so threatened all of a sudden until
Speaker 6: they mentioned my name.
Speaker 3: It was me. It was me, this person they were
Speaker 3: talking about.
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 3: Oh so I.
Speaker 6: Graduated number one of that class.
Speaker 3: Wow, wow, which was great.
Speaker 2: I just think it's so inspiring because I talked to
Speaker 2: so many young people trying to get in this business
Speaker 2: and they feel like there's supposed to study and it
Speaker 2: just happens and it doesn't Like I too, was working
Speaker 2: all my side hustle jobs until my late late twenties,
Speaker 2: you know, like it took ten years of that sort
Speaker 2: of hustle before I even really call myself a working actor.
Speaker 3: You know. Yeah.
Speaker 6: One of the things that I think it's a mistake
Speaker 6: that we keep making Hollywood is in reality, your career
Speaker 6: shouldn't look like anybody else's. You know, It's okay to
Speaker 6: get inspired by someone, you know, but I think one
Speaker 6: mistake that we make is that we're constantly comparing ourselves
Speaker 6: a trajectory with you know, whatever high point somebody else
Speaker 6: might have had in their career, when in reality, you
Speaker 6: get a much better gift if you've become curious about
Speaker 6: how you can have this career for yourself.
Speaker 4: I guess that makes total sense. And actually it's true
Speaker 4: on the producing end when you pick projects, because I
Speaker 4: think what a lot of people do is they just
Speaker 4: try to do something which was successful in another realm exactly.
Speaker 4: And yes, it's the same sort of thing where it's like,
Speaker 4: the one thing we don't ever want to do. I
Speaker 4: don't want to do is what I did before. So
Speaker 4: it's not a determinant that it was successful for somebody else.
Speaker 4: It's just this is something that speaks to you. So
Speaker 4: it's the same thing we all have. These were blueprints
Speaker 4: in our lives that you think, well, this is the
Speaker 4: way so and so did it, or this is the path.
Speaker 4: But this is a perfect example. There's no straight path.
Speaker 6: There is no straight path. And by the way, your
Speaker 6: definition of success might be completely different from my.
Speaker 3: Exactly, you know.
Speaker 6: And that's one of the things that we were talking
Speaker 6: about during the Oscar campaign.
Speaker 3: Because obviously it was such a big deal.
Speaker 6: I mean such a big deal to get nominate it
Speaker 6: and too, I mean, the whole process was is so insane.
Speaker 6: But everybody was asking me, what does it feel like
Speaker 6: to have achieved a dream? And I'm like, I achieved
Speaker 6: my dream like thirty years ago. You know, when I
Speaker 6: achieved my dream thirty years ago. This is awesome and
Speaker 6: I'm so proud and I'm so happy to get here.
Speaker 6: But this changes nothing, nothing for me. I mean, if
Speaker 6: I'm taking my cues from what's around me, I need,
Speaker 6: you know, of one hundred thousand followers I need, blah
Speaker 6: blah blah, I need more nominations I need And the
Speaker 6: truth is none of those things signify success for me.
Speaker 6: Success is for me that I do what I love
Speaker 6: to do. I love every I do every day what
Speaker 6: I would do for free.
Speaker 2: I so feel like that.
Speaker 6: You know, and how lucky and so. But I can't
Speaker 6: be paying attention to what this other makeup artist is
Speaker 6: doing without a makeup because it's impossible and it's also
Speaker 6: not fair.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's a waste of time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, total waste of time.
Speaker 6: And I continue to be successful every single time I
Speaker 6: choose my truth.
Speaker 3: That's it.
Speaker 7: We'll be right back, guys, Sergio.
Speaker 5: Would your sisters ever wake up in the morning and
Speaker 5: go to their barbies and be like, my Barbie looks fierce.
Speaker 7: And you were like did it?
Speaker 3: It would be like who gave my Barbie a mohawk?
Speaker 6: Because I used to think that the hair will grow
Speaker 6: back obviously, right, I mean like, oh.
Speaker 4: And apparently you didn't have the Barbie with the little
Speaker 4: hole in the head where it.
Speaker 6: Just what No, this was no, these were the early
Speaker 6: barbies I had those two, I mean, no, help y.
Speaker 6: One thing I have to say, this is a big
Speaker 6: part of my story as a child, is that do
Speaker 6: you guys remember in America, you guys had the Barbie
Speaker 6: heads that were like three dimensional, yes, right, just the head. Well,
Speaker 6: in Spain there was a version of that doll, but
Speaker 6: it was bigger. It was actually kind of like life size,
Speaker 6: and the bus was like, you know, like shoulders right,
Speaker 6: And her name was Gwendolen and somebody had given that
Speaker 6: doll to one of my sisters.
Speaker 3: I had three sisters, and at.
Speaker 6: This point, at the point that I was, you know,
Speaker 6: waking up to the fact that I loved makeup and
Speaker 6: I needed to put makeup and draw and sketch and
Speaker 6: do be an artists or whatever, I found this abandoned
Speaker 6: doll on top of my sister's murphy bed and I
Speaker 6: had to devise a plan on how I was going
Speaker 6: to get that doll in the bathroom when I took
Speaker 6: a shower, because I share a bathroom with my sisters,
Speaker 6: two of them are teenagers, there's already all kinds of
Speaker 6: makeup crap in the bathroom and everything, and I need it.
Speaker 7: I need it.
Speaker 3: I needed to do it. I just needed to do it.
Speaker 6: But the thing is, I am in a family back
Speaker 6: to early seventies Franco Catholicism.
Speaker 3: Yeah, my family is super religious, like.
Speaker 6: It's everything is an obstacle, everything is an impossibility. So
Speaker 6: I had to I had to figure out when is
Speaker 6: the moment or all of my family is in one room.
Speaker 6: So that was Saturday nights when we were all watching
Speaker 6: movies or TV together. So I would excuse myself, very
Speaker 6: responsible for me, and say I'm gonna take a shower.
Speaker 6: And so what I would do first, I would go
Speaker 6: into my sister's bedroom, which was adjacent to the bathroom,
Speaker 6: sharing the wall or a facade of the building with
Speaker 6: the bathroom, and I would unlock their window and I
Speaker 6: would run out again, and I was like, okay, bye,
Speaker 6: I'm going to the bathroom. I locked myself in the bathroom,
Speaker 6: crawl out the window and they'll go like this on
Speaker 6: the side of the building.
Speaker 3: Ye, I mean my sister's bedroom.
Speaker 6: Crawl inside, God, take it out, put it under my arm.
Speaker 6: Now I was like eight years old, so like this
Speaker 6: doll was pretty big.
Speaker 4: Definitely the size of you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, wow, definitely.
Speaker 6: And so I would go back to the bathroom window,
Speaker 6: crawl back inside and start my makeovers. And then I
Speaker 6: had to clean her all up and go back out
Speaker 6: and put her back.
Speaker 3: Before the movie ended. And you know what I mean.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and you guys, I did this for years whow years.
Speaker 5: Gwendolen can talk the stories that she would have, Oh.
Speaker 4: So talking about learning how to work with a time schedule.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's great for production. You're like, no kidding, this
Speaker 2: is nothing, this is so true. Wow, great for production.
Speaker 3: I never even thought about it. I should have made
Speaker 3: my own call sheets. You should because you feel like, yes.
Speaker 4: I don't have to resk my life and limb, I
Speaker 4: just have to apparently get her out every five minutes problem.
Speaker 3: But the end of this story.
Speaker 6: One day I decided, because I had seen it out
Speaker 6: in some music video or something, that I wanted to
Speaker 6: give her super glossy, super red lips. Right, that was
Speaker 6: my design for the evening, And so my sisters had
Speaker 6: a lip glass. I was red the same deal, go out,
Speaker 6: pick it up, come back in by this glass.
Speaker 3: Obviously you put it on plastic.
Speaker 6: And he doesn't have the same. It didn't tint it.
Speaker 6: It was like, oh, it's shiny, but it's not. It's
Speaker 6: not doing what I want to do. And then I
Speaker 6: spotted red male.
Speaker 3: Polish, like, so I just put I.
Speaker 6: Did the most beautiful red lips in this lacquer red right,
Speaker 6: oh shit, And I'm like, oh my gosh, so beautiful,
Speaker 6: blah blah blah blah. Of course, when I the time
Speaker 6: cleanup came, it didn't come off, and I'm like, oh shit,
Speaker 6: oh this requires nail polish remover. So I got the
Speaker 6: nail polish remover and I went like this, and then
Speaker 6: I just.
Speaker 3: It came off.
Speaker 6: And then I just went like that and I kind
Speaker 6: of like cleaning her whole face and I took.
Speaker 3: Off all of her features. I took her everything.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, she was just so faceless. She was
Speaker 2: just like faceless man.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 6: And it was the saddest, most heartbreaking thing. And I
Speaker 6: had to put her back and never play with her.
Speaker 2: A cat.
Speaker 3: On her?
Speaker 4: What the fuck happened to Gwendolen?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 4: Who wiped off her face?
Speaker 6: I put her back the way she was, which was
Speaker 6: kind of like on top of that murphy bed, sort
Speaker 6: of behind other clutter and facing the wall.
Speaker 3: I couldn't even look at her anymore.
Speaker 4: She wasn't an active plaything at that point.
Speaker 5: Your sister didn't really care about her, Yeah, no, exactly.
Speaker 3: She was just like, you know, wow.
Speaker 5: And then you had to butcher up, like when you
Speaker 5: were done in the bathroom, come back out and butcher
Speaker 5: up with your face.
Speaker 7: Family, right.
Speaker 6: That little both of my chest hairs out, you know, Wow,
Speaker 6: scraped by Beard, my eight year old Beard All No,
Speaker 6: But I have to say that that kind of mindset
Speaker 6: where you understand your environment, you understand the unfairness of
Speaker 6: your environment, and you figure out how to not let
Speaker 6: that environment trap you. I think that at such an
Speaker 6: early age serves me so well for the rest of
Speaker 6: my life and for the rest of my career, you know,
Speaker 6: because when a problem presents itself, now there's also a
Speaker 6: whole bunch of solutions that come together with the problem.
Speaker 6: In a way, it's just a matter of being creative
Speaker 6: and also being detached from the things you're attached because
Speaker 6: sometimes those things have to go. Yeah, there are tools
Speaker 6: that really helped.
Speaker 4: I think for pretty much everybody in this business too.
Speaker 4: It is that sort of idea of problem solve. It's
Speaker 4: that idea of, yeah, there's a way to figure this out.
Speaker 4: But it's amazing that you were doing something at eight
Speaker 4: that you went an oscar for that you you want
Speaker 4: an oscar for, Gwendolyn. I mean you should have freaking
Speaker 4: thanked Gwendolyn.
Speaker 6: Just for the record, I would have, and I swear,
Speaker 6: I mean, trust me. Because our oscars were during the pandemic,
Speaker 6: there were rules about how many people could speak, because
Speaker 6: after each speaker they had to change the ball of
Speaker 6: the mic and stuff like that. So it came down
Speaker 6: to us. Only one of us could speak. So it
Speaker 6: was obvious, for obvious reasons, that it was not going
Speaker 6: to be me.
Speaker 4: We forgive you and go ahead blame COVID.
Speaker 6: It's fine, but I do I think at My husband
Speaker 6: wrote he was obsessed with writing my speech, right, and
Speaker 6: I'm like, okay, write my speech. I'm not even sure
Speaker 6: that I can speak, but go ahead. And it had
Speaker 6: that in it, you know, it had the story of
Speaker 6: like no, it was connecting the dots of this little kid, which,
Speaker 6: by the way, had I fallen off of that thing,
Speaker 6: I would have broken my neck. Oh my god, from
Speaker 6: the window sill to the street. But I have just
Speaker 6: to emphasize how dire a situation I was in, as
Speaker 6: a gay boy that was just discovering that he was gay,
Speaker 6: Falling off that ledge and breaking a leg and arm,
Speaker 6: splitting my head open was less scary than having my
Speaker 6: father running to me in the bathroom or find out
Speaker 6: in any way. Absolutely, by eight years old, dying was
Speaker 6: less scary than confronting my parents with the truth.
Speaker 3: I mean essentially I.
Speaker 4: Totally understand them. Wow, absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 2: I just think what's also so amazing and that the relationships.
Speaker 2: I mean, I first came to know you when you
Speaker 2: were really on Kate Walsh, right, and you two are
Speaker 2: very good friends. And you know you work so closely
Speaker 2: with Viola Davis, and you did a bunch of us.
Speaker 2: I think you did Bellamy and Me and Darby and
Speaker 2: a bunch of people. But these women, You're like there,
Speaker 2: person like, how does this become this thing?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: How do you collaborate on so many different projects with
Speaker 2: these incredible leading women who are such superstars in our industry.
Speaker 4: Without them all killing each other to try to make
Speaker 4: sure that they don't lose you.
Speaker 2: No, Sergio's mine, Sergio's my, Sergio's mine exactly.
Speaker 7: Gwendolen's like he's mine.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. The booming boys from Beyond the Graves. I
Speaker 3: have no.
Speaker 4: Features, noubt, but I.
Speaker 3: Still have feeling I used to be pretty, you know, Katie.
Speaker 6: The truth is, I go back to figuring out how
Speaker 6: you want to experience your life. You may not approach
Speaker 6: what's important to you the same way as another actor might,
Speaker 6: and for me, I much more important to me is
Speaker 6: to bring my authenticity and to just try to create
Speaker 6: authentic relationships with the people that I work with. And
Speaker 6: if I can't do that, I really have to seriously
Speaker 6: think about whether or not it's worth it for me
Speaker 6: to have this job.
Speaker 3: That's how much I value.
Speaker 6: My joy When I leave Hollywood, and I'm going to
Speaker 6: put a nice bow on that experience. I wanted to
Speaker 6: really be something I'm very proud of. I constantly want
Speaker 6: to honor my inner child because he had it really tough,
Speaker 6: and he had no one to talk to, there were
Speaker 6: no allies for him. The fact that I was able
Speaker 6: to do this, And so when I work with Viola,
Speaker 6: I think I work with Viola because she and I
Speaker 6: connect in a level that is outside of what I
Speaker 6: do for her.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 6: And also I think it's important also for her. I
Speaker 6: think she could have a better makeup artist. Probably she
Speaker 6: went out there and found it, but I think she
Speaker 6: values what we have and so do I.
Speaker 4: And I think the fact is that I mean obviously
Speaker 4: with Viola, which he's written about too.
Speaker 3: And yeah, a deep, deep.
Speaker 4: Well of pain, and there is something about people who
Speaker 4: understand what it means to survive and mean to figure
Speaker 4: out ways of transforming your life in the way that
Speaker 4: you want.
Speaker 3: But never never sacrificing yourself, and never take it for granted.
Speaker 4: Because I know, certainly we were joking about this the
Speaker 4: other day, but it's like, I know, still I still
Speaker 4: go to parties and there's free food. This is sad,
Speaker 4: but I still always go like, wow, the food's free.
Speaker 4: And then I wait, first, sure, like I'm so lucky,
Speaker 4: Like how did I get here? And I'm like, wait
Speaker 4: a second. You're five hundred years old, You've been earning
Speaker 4: a living for five million years? What's wrong with you?
Speaker 4: But it is that thing, and I think I feel
Speaker 4: really lucky. I mean, I think that's the key.
Speaker 3: Isn't that amazing?
Speaker 6: I mean, I think tupping into that gratitude is fuel.
Speaker 6: It doesn't end when you stop saying the thing you're
Speaker 6: grateful for. That thing you're grateful for. You say it
Speaker 6: out loud, and the first person to hear it is you.
Speaker 6: And I'm telling you that fuel for the next time.
Speaker 6: The next time you're in a situation, your awareness is
Speaker 6: going to lead you to the gratitude and over and
Speaker 6: over and over and over again until you string together
Speaker 6: this incredible life of having been present, having been authentic
Speaker 6: and I don't know, just joyful. You know, my career
Speaker 6: in Hollywood fits my life and not the other way around.
Speaker 2: Sergio, there is a book that we all need. I'm
Speaker 2: super excited about it. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure people listening,
Speaker 2: whatever your careers may be, I just feel like so
Speaker 2: many of the things you say can be so useful
Speaker 2: no matter what job you're trying.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it is truly a privilege to work in this industry,
Speaker 6: even though it has changed so much it's almost unrecognizable.
Speaker 6: It's brutal. And the things that this industry has taught
Speaker 6: us to value is how to work when you have
Speaker 6: a one hundred for fever, how to sacrifice your sleep
Speaker 6: for work, sacrifice your family for work, sacrifice your diet
Speaker 6: for work, sacrifice your mobility for work, and praising everybody
Speaker 6: that was able to do that. I'm sure you guys
Speaker 6: know hundreds of stories of like can you imagine she
Speaker 6: works with a fever? And the truth is that is
Speaker 6: not good. That is not good because what it does
Speaker 6: it removes our ability to be actual humans. You know,
Speaker 6: it's a double edged sword because yes, of course you
Speaker 6: want to be an ultimate professional, but you don't want
Speaker 6: to you don't want to tell the world that it's
Speaker 6: okay to treat you this way.
Speaker 4: Yes, no, there's there's a thin line between sacrificing for
Speaker 4: art and killing yourself, you know exactly. Yeah, that's really
Speaker 4: well put. Well, this is what a joyous experience this
Speaker 4: is podcast.
Speaker 3: Gosh, that's a pleasure for me.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for this.
Speaker 2: Really, we love you.
Speaker 3: We love you guys so much.
Speaker 2: Scandal is executive produced by Sandy Bailey, alex Alcea, Lauren Homan,
Speaker 2: Tyler Klang, and Gabrielle Collins. Our producer and editor is
Speaker 2: Vince de Johnny, with music by Chad Fisher. Unpacking the
Speaker 2: Toolbox is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, visit the iHeartRadio app
Speaker 2: or anywhere you subscribe to your favorite shows.