Speaker 1: Welcome back to those amigos with Freda Rodriguez and yours
Speaker 1: truly when my mother, Ama, well, what do you uh,
Speaker 1: what are we doing here? What is this thing that
Speaker 1: we continue to sit on?
Speaker 2: You know, still a little coffee? Are we gonna move
Speaker 2: on to something else?
Speaker 3: I don't know. I think we're gonna have to spice
Speaker 3: us up a little bit. Spice it up, man, spice
Speaker 3: it up.
Speaker 2: With our good friend there, Aaron was good.
Speaker 3: Uh, everything is everything.
Speaker 1: I am just having a great time listening to you
Speaker 1: all reflect on life and everything in between.
Speaker 3: And thank you for being here.
Speaker 1: Aaron is one of our executive producers here whose whose
Speaker 1: knowledge for conversation is in incomparable. So we're so grateful
Speaker 1: to you here with us here, and you know it lead
Speaker 1: us into our next conversation next Chad. You know, you
Speaker 1: know I will be you know I would be fullished
Speaker 1: in our point out. That has been such a privilege
Speaker 1: to get to know you on such a level. And
Speaker 1: you know, it's crazy we know each other so well,
Speaker 1: and every episode we dig deeper on the roots of
Speaker 1: how this all really happened, and it continued to validates
Speaker 1: why I think you're such a special human being that
Speaker 1: I'm so proud that it show can you know, introduced
Speaker 1: to so many people too, and and you know, and
Speaker 1: to give like some of our existing friends and family
Speaker 1: and just you know, maybe some of our fans, you know,
Speaker 1: a window at what it took for us to get
Speaker 1: to their homes or to the theaters, you know, and
Speaker 1: and so that's fun. And as we think about that,
Speaker 1: you know, I think about inspiration.
Speaker 3: What is this inspiration?
Speaker 1: We talked about our breaks, you know, we talked about
Speaker 1: what it took there, the mentality that we had to
Speaker 1: have to go into these rooms and conquer Goliath in
Speaker 1: different ways and not know that we were actually performing
Speaker 1: at that level and giving ourselves that great in that
Speaker 1: space to kind of appreciate that trajectory from you and
Speaker 1: from me. But there's a lot of inspiration that had
Speaker 1: to be around us, I would think, right, I would
Speaker 1: think that we would have to have had certain images,
Speaker 1: certain individuals that did it first perhaps, or individuals that
Speaker 1: you know that somehow, you know, we're along the way
Speaker 1: that kind of helped us see a deeper version of
Speaker 1: ourselves or more I don't know, a vulnerable yet powerful
Speaker 1: version of ourselves. And you know, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: people I believe in my career that I can look
Speaker 1: back at, well, I mean who was my inspiration who
Speaker 1: told me that I could too? So for you, like,
Speaker 1: what were some of those images, What were some of
Speaker 1: those individuals that you were like, oh, that's like me,
Speaker 1: or like oh I can do it like them, or
Speaker 1: even if that wasn't it just like just knowing that
Speaker 1: the possibility was, you know, was was out there for
Speaker 1: you to reach out to, Like who were some of
Speaker 1: these images when some of these people that inspire you?
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, you know, for me growing up in Chicago
Speaker 4: and having two older brothers, I was lucky enough to
Speaker 4: almost live their teenage years vicariously do them right, And
Speaker 4: so we would you know, we lived in a in
Speaker 4: a one television household with like a lot of Latino families. Oh, absolutely,
Speaker 4: the dials, the hangar as, the pliers to like change
Speaker 4: the channel. But I remember really early on watching TV
Speaker 4: with my brothers and them pointing out, always pointing out
Speaker 4: who the Latino Latino actors are, right, I mean.
Speaker 3: We obviously grew up with like with the Rita.
Speaker 4: Morenos of the world, with the Anthony Quinns of the world.
Speaker 3: You know people like that.
Speaker 4: I remember vividly, like Jimmy Smith's being on TV and
Speaker 4: my brothers pointing.
Speaker 3: Out, like, yo, that guy's Latino.
Speaker 4: You know. I remember seeing East SiGe Morales in the
Speaker 4: in the in the eighties. I remember seeing Andy Garcia
Speaker 4: in the nineties when he first came out and what
Speaker 4: a what an incredible movie star he was, right, I mean,
Speaker 4: it was the first time I had ever really seen
Speaker 4: someone like that and and speak Spanish and like a
Speaker 4: like a major.
Speaker 1: Blockbuster studio movie, you even play other ethnicities, right, but yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, right, playing playing Italian and The Godfather or
Speaker 4: the Untouchables, you know. And then I remember seeing Leguzamo,
Speaker 4: our mutual friend John Leguizamo. And the reason why John
Speaker 4: resonated a lot with me was, you know, seeing Jimmy
Speaker 4: who was so classy and or or Andy who was
Speaker 4: born in Cuba, like John, was one of the first
Speaker 4: guys that I saw that I felt like I could
Speaker 4: see that guy in my neighborhood. You know, there was
Speaker 4: a deeper familiarity with him, and so I remember watching
Speaker 4: him and following him closely and really being proud of
Speaker 4: what he was doing and also giving me the inspiration
Speaker 4: and an example of what I could do when I started.
Speaker 1: And how different, right, I mean, he was such a
Speaker 1: different type of performer and he was doing it.
Speaker 3: Like nobody else was.
Speaker 1: He allowed himself to be a different type of performer
Speaker 1: that was bringing something to the table that was not going.
Speaker 3: To be forgotten.
Speaker 1: Every perform you remember every performance, yeah, I mean even
Speaker 1: as like all the way to like the clown and spawn, right,
Speaker 1: Like he's done so much iconic stuff to that point,
Speaker 1: and then he does the clown and you're like what
Speaker 1: you know, but he was taking shots and he was
Speaker 1: taking chances with his performances and his choices that just
Speaker 1: most actors wouldn't, you know. And you know some people
Speaker 1: would be afraid to do it, to do those too
Speaker 1: well because they could get typecasts, you know.
Speaker 3: And he was just one of those guys.
Speaker 1: And he was unapologetically Latino the entire time at a
Speaker 1: time where Latino wasn't necessarily the popular cast.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, and wasn't afraid to be a character actors scrappier,
Speaker 4: yeah yeah, And came from that generation of what we
Speaker 4: were talking about this earlier, of like character actors, you know,
Speaker 4: like creating characters and voices and completely losing yourself and
Speaker 4: the character. And he definitely embodied that. You know what
Speaker 4: about you, I mean, you know you you came here
Speaker 4: as a teenager, and this is pre internet, pre cable.
Speaker 4: I would assume like, what was I mean, what were
Speaker 4: you watching out in Venezuela that that inspired you, that
Speaker 4: made you think that it was possible for you.
Speaker 1: So in Venezuela, you know, Venezuela is like always ten
Speaker 1: years late to get like new programming. So my collective
Speaker 1: archives of television memories, Yes, it was crazy until I
Speaker 1: was watching first of all, I Love Lucy in Spanish,
Speaker 1: course in Spanish, in Spanish, which by the way, I
Speaker 1: never knew he had an accent until I watched it
Speaker 1: in English and in the United States.
Speaker 2: So wait, wait, so what did it sound like? How
Speaker 2: did he sound in Spanish?
Speaker 1: He sounded like the entire cast was speaking in Spanish.
Speaker 1: It was not in Spanish. None of them had accents. Huh, right,
Speaker 1: so they were speaking Spanish.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So when I came to the United States and then
Speaker 1: I was learning how to speak English, I went back
Speaker 1: because I've seen every episode of I Love Lucy, and
Speaker 1: when I started watching I Love Lucy again, I realized, oh,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, that's what Lucy both sounds.
Speaker 3: Like, and he has an accent, right, and I didn't
Speaker 3: know that.
Speaker 2: Huh.
Speaker 1: So that was a magical moment for me. When I
Speaker 1: heard his accent. I was like, oh, that's like me.
Speaker 1: I have an accent. I just learned how to speak English.
Speaker 1: I have an accent too. But you know, beyond that,
Speaker 1: back and when it's well that we were watching stuff
Speaker 1: from you know, there was a live action Spider Man
Speaker 1: from the seventies or in the early eighties, you know
Speaker 1: whatever there was, you know, lu Forarigno's Hole, Charlie's Angels,
Speaker 1: you know, chips. I wanted to be punched so bad,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, and you think about all those shows,
Speaker 1: you know further, and then you kind of had a
Speaker 1: collect every think like the Simpsons were playing and like
Speaker 1: The Fresh Prince, you know, shows like that that were like,
Speaker 1: you know, obviously making its way into syndication around the world. Literally,
Speaker 1: did I know the syndication was created by the one
Speaker 1: guy that didn't have an accent and then eventually had
Speaker 1: an accent when I watched him in English and the
Speaker 1: United States, and that was Ricky Ricardo.
Speaker 3: Leasi Ernest.
Speaker 2: I didn't know he created Syndication.
Speaker 1: Yes, he was the He was the guy who who said, Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna show with one more than one cameras and
Speaker 1: we're going to record it, right and once they recorded it,
Speaker 1: this thing was available for sale internationally everywhere. So he
Speaker 1: accident to create it, the Syndication in the multi camp
Speaker 1: format and you know that that entire thing, you know,
Speaker 1: and and they owned it, you know. So so those
Speaker 1: are the kind of inspirations that I grew up with,
Speaker 1: like The Punch, you know, I grew up with Chico
Speaker 1: and The Man, you know USA, you know. So these
Speaker 1: were shows that like somehow was creating the solution that
Speaker 1: we were also included pop culture. You come to America
Speaker 1: and start watching TV and you realize that it's leaning
Speaker 1: away in the other side, which is fine, right, Like
Speaker 1: I didn't see anything wrong with it until I realized
Speaker 1: what America really looked like and what was really reflected
Speaker 1: on those stories, right, I never really knew you know,
Speaker 1: where we were in that in that in that inclusion meter,
Speaker 1: you know, did you feel like they were did you
Speaker 1: feel like when you were in Venezuela that they were
Speaker 1: specifically showing those shows because they were latinos in it. No,
Speaker 1: I think that they were selling contact around the world,
Speaker 1: and I think that the things that were really popular
Speaker 1: in the United States were an easy cell for international markets, right,
Speaker 1: and you know, they were also selling like packages, you know,
Speaker 1: like maybe CBS Corps at the time, We're sending all
Speaker 1: their CBS sitcoms, you know, and then we're selling them
Speaker 1: across the world. I don't know what some of those
Speaker 1: factors playing in that time, but I was growing up
Speaker 1: with that. And then when it came to movies, you know, Rocky,
Speaker 1: you know, Cobra everything still yeah, you know, Conan Terminator,
Speaker 1: you know, everything are no right, like in our countries
Speaker 1: and back in in Latin America, these movies action movies
Speaker 1: were the ones that they played every weekend in TV,
Speaker 1: you know, on TV.
Speaker 3: So these were some of these images.
Speaker 1: But I mean to me, these characters, you know, were
Speaker 1: larger than live but they were capable, and there was
Speaker 1: like these single mission guys. Yeah, Arnold's Commando, you know, like.
Speaker 2: Commando, you know, all these things.
Speaker 1: You know, you watch all the Godfathers in Spanish, you know,
Speaker 1: and yeah, was.
Speaker 2: It always in Spanish?
Speaker 3: Yeah, because we're watching free channels.
Speaker 1: Right, there was only two channels, Karakas and Venevicion, and
Speaker 1: they syndicate all this stuff.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: During the weekends, they would play The Extorcists, the Rocky movies. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they played Superman, the Christopher Reeve movies, right every weekend.
Speaker 3: And in the movie theaters.
Speaker 1: We had a tiny little movie theater on the weekends
Speaker 1: and we had only RoboCup, like robo We played Robo
Speaker 1: cup all year round in the movie theater, you know.
Speaker 1: But you know again, so these were some of the influences.
Speaker 1: And I think Punch, yeah, Dessi or Naz for me,
Speaker 1: we're like, oh, Punch is like it's like a hero,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: It's like out there catching the bad guys.
Speaker 1: Desi er Nas wearing a suit, is playing music at
Speaker 1: a life band, and you know, he started doing a
Speaker 1: scene with John Wayne, He's doing a cameo on the show.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: It's like I was like, how cool is that? You know?
Speaker 1: And so I think those things really inspire me and
Speaker 1: started like opening my mind. But never, never, as I
Speaker 1: was growing up, ever thought that I'd be one of
Speaker 1: these guys that eventually could create something that could maybe
Speaker 1: outlive me.
Speaker 3: Does it?
Speaker 4: Does it ever freak you out that, like, you know,
Speaker 4: you just described your childhood, you describe what you were
Speaker 4: watching like you're that guy now, like you're you're Eric
Speaker 4: Estrada now right to this next generation of kids in
Speaker 4: Venezuela and Colombia all.
Speaker 2: Through the world. You know, does that ever? Do you
Speaker 2: ever think about that?
Speaker 1: I never, I've never really take a moment to I
Speaker 1: can appreciate the fact that what I've done somehow, I've
Speaker 1: made it out there. When you really hit me was
Speaker 1: when I went to Venezuela to visit a bunch of
Speaker 1: years ago, many many years ago, and there was a
Speaker 1: channel there, Sony Entertainment Television, and Sony had all the shows,
Speaker 1: but they had him in English, you know, they just
Speaker 1: subtitled in Spanish, and.
Speaker 3: He did really well for young people.
Speaker 1: Young people loved watching it in English and reading the
Speaker 1: subtitles in Latin America. And when I went down there
Speaker 1: and I saw that my show was playing and the
Speaker 1: small little town that I grew up in, yeah, you.
Speaker 3: Actually saw on TV. Oh wow, that's it.
Speaker 1: That's when I was like, what just happened? Yeah, in
Speaker 1: the same living room that I grew up. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: I was watching the shows.
Speaker 3: Now these shows are full circle coming.
Speaker 1: In this way, and so that was a moment that
Speaker 1: really felt, oh, like, when I'm doing is something real?
Speaker 1: It's not just like you know, it's not just playing right,
Speaker 1: and you know you always knew that it was there
Speaker 1: was something to it, you know, but I just think
Speaker 1: you know it doesn't. The impact is like when when
Speaker 1: you walk down the streets of London and you've never
Speaker 1: been to London before, and all of a sudden someone's like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, grew up.
Speaker 3: Watching your show with a British accident and you're like, whoa.
Speaker 3: I mean like I've never been here.
Speaker 1: Somehow somebody knows that I exist a different like Singapore.
Speaker 1: Was walking down Singapore and these two ladies were leaving
Speaker 1: the store after that closed it and then they looked
Speaker 1: at me because oh I couldn't speak English, and so
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff that it really kind of hits
Speaker 1: you and makes you go, whoa, man, this is Maybe
Speaker 1: what we're doing is it is larger than we think,
Speaker 1: and like what we are putting on that screen is
Speaker 1: also you know, like what are we inspiring you know
Speaker 1: people with.
Speaker 3: Did you have you had instances like that? Did you
Speaker 3: think to yourself like WHOA, Like, you know, it was
Speaker 3: cool making the movie, and now it's like, yeah.
Speaker 4: I just recently this sort of encompasses it. I had
Speaker 4: somebody around the holidays, I did this holiday movie and
Speaker 4: this around the holidays, I ran into a fan randomly
Speaker 4: and they said, you know, I love this this holiday movie.
Speaker 3: You did it.
Speaker 2: It's called Nothing Like the Holidays.
Speaker 4: It was a legamo and media of course, and and
Speaker 4: she said, you know, me and my me and my
Speaker 4: father used to watch this movie every holiday.
Speaker 2: And I was like, oh, that's beautiful, you know.
Speaker 4: And then and then she gets tears in her eyes
Speaker 4: and she's like, but he's passed away, you know. But
Speaker 4: that's the thing that we had, is that we would
Speaker 4: watch this movie together.
Speaker 1: And now she'll watch that movie and it'll take her
Speaker 1: back to her dad.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, But it's been stuff like that, you know, really
Speaker 4: receiving the emotional impact that I've had on people, you know,
Speaker 4: and that really means a lot to me because that's
Speaker 4: really what I'm doing right, Like I'm I'm I'm offering
Speaker 4: a form of escapism for people, right and you don't
Speaker 4: know what's happening in people's lives, and you know you
Speaker 4: really think about that, right, Like, like, we come into
Speaker 4: people's most intimate spaces, right, we come into people's living rooms,
Speaker 4: we come into people's bedrooms, spaces that only only very
Speaker 4: few people are allowed to be into, and we're moving
Speaker 4: people emotionally in these spaces that are very intimate and
Speaker 4: dear to them, you know. And I think that that's
Speaker 4: why when you run into these kinds of people that
Speaker 4: they feel that they know you because you've moved them
Speaker 4: emotionally in these intimate spaces. I mean, they spent hours
Speaker 4: with you hours man hours, you know the same way
Speaker 4: that we did, right, you know, they like like like
Speaker 4: the vision that you that you shared with me in Venezuela,
Speaker 4: the same way we did.
Speaker 2: Right, we're coming up.
Speaker 4: We're watching Punch, you know, chase people down the one
Speaker 4: on one you know, like, but but we spend so
Speaker 4: much time with them in our living room.
Speaker 3: Did you think about what what was your show?
Speaker 4: Was?
Speaker 3: It? Was it Punch? Like there was it Chips? Which
Speaker 3: one was? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Chips man, yeah, all of that chips.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I remember specifically seeing Eric Ostrada and.
Speaker 1: Going like, oh wow, man, there's like one of us,
Speaker 1: you know, he did a Spanish soap opera.
Speaker 2: Those those coming, those those coming, those those weirdest gummy coming.
Speaker 1: And which means two women on the one.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: And I watched that soap opera in Spanish. You did
Speaker 1: my mom in Venezuela. I think we were back in
Speaker 1: the United States at this point. I forget, but it
Speaker 1: was yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, And it was crazy about it.
Speaker 1: It's like I grew up watching him Punch, so of
Speaker 1: course as a little boy, I was like, oh, Punch
Speaker 1: is in a Spanish stillingela, Like I started watching him
Speaker 1: in those those modism comino and and the dude. The
Speaker 1: show is quite literally what the title was.
Speaker 3: It was.
Speaker 1: Women to figure out which one and they both were like,
Speaker 1: you have to pick yea.
Speaker 3: It weren't even mad about him two women at the
Speaker 3: same time. Is that what the whole show was about?
Speaker 3: What the show is about?
Speaker 1: The whole time he needs to make a decision between,
Speaker 1: you know, between these two actresses to the two these
Speaker 1: two characters.
Speaker 3: Wow, and it's the dilemma, you.
Speaker 1: Know, you know, why is his destiny but the other
Speaker 1: one he's in love with.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: It's like like it was so it was so crazy,
Speaker 1: but only Spanish stilling over lets can sell you on
Speaker 1: that fantasy, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, wow.
Speaker 4: I remember my mom watching that, you know, but but
Speaker 4: I you know, you were asking me was it paunch?
Speaker 2: Was it?
Speaker 4: I remember I remember watching you ever seen this movie
Speaker 4: Internal Affairs with with Andy Garcia Richard Gear.
Speaker 3: I don't know how well.
Speaker 2: We got a hold of the video tape back in
Speaker 2: like the eighties and we had that.
Speaker 4: Movie on heavy rotation, and I remember Andy had a
Speaker 4: couple of lines in Spanish in that movie, and.
Speaker 3: It blew my mind.
Speaker 4: It was like the first time I had ever met
Speaker 4: I couldn't comprehend. It was like, well, wait, this guy
Speaker 4: is the lead guy, Richard Gear, major Hollywood movie and
Speaker 4: he's speaking Spanish. You know, it blew I don't I
Speaker 4: don't remember ever seeing that, like in like a major
Speaker 4: American film.
Speaker 3: Like that before.
Speaker 1: And when you see an American actor speak her language,
Speaker 1: it's like, you know, culture just like oh my, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, It becomes it becomes interesting. Like
Speaker 1: I've seen Ben Affleck. Dude, fool.
Speaker 2: Can speak better Spanish than you and I.
Speaker 4: By the way, he sounds like, you know, like.
Speaker 3: You know, he literally does.
Speaker 2: He sounds like he's from like TG.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you know, but we give them so much
Speaker 1: respect because whoever tries, you know, our culture rewards and
Speaker 1: we're loyalty, you know.
Speaker 3: And it's beautiful to see what actors really try. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I think it's becoming more possible now with our
Speaker 1: where characters are finally more in tune with the responsibility
Speaker 1: we have as we portray these characters on screen. You know,
Speaker 1: back then, you know, some of these characters were either
Speaker 1: not the imperfect or the bad guys you know, or
Speaker 1: you know, they were in the mob or whatever it is,
Speaker 1: you know. And and so to to see that there
Speaker 1: is a a new generation of Latino characters, did you
Speaker 1: feel a little responsible for like what you do now
Speaker 1: or how you pass down the torch?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: Man, that's a good question. Do I feel responsible?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Yeah, to an extent, I feel the responsibility. I always
Speaker 4: felt the responsibility, especially after seeing those guys and me
Speaker 4: realizing that I'm the guy who came next. I'm like,
Speaker 4: if I got to follow that up, man, I better
Speaker 4: be on my A game twenty four to seven, you know.
Speaker 4: So yeah, in that sense, I felt the responsibility. You know,
Speaker 4: A great feeling is when I meet like new actors
Speaker 4: you know, who are coming up, who are doing wonderful work.
Speaker 2: Who who.
Speaker 4: Say to me that they've you know, watched me when
Speaker 4: they were in school, or they came up watching me,
Speaker 4: or they studied my work and that inspired them to
Speaker 4: become actors. And so that, you know, I always feel
Speaker 4: this responsibility, not not necessarily to like mentor them, but
Speaker 4: to but to really be available to people like that,
Speaker 4: you know, because they're just going through what we went
Speaker 4: through now, uh, and if there's anything that I.
Speaker 3: Could ever offer.
Speaker 4: So that they don't fall into any pitfalls or or
Speaker 4: learn certain etiquettes or or you know, certain gems of
Speaker 4: how our industry works, and to make the path maybe
Speaker 4: a little more or smoother for them, you know.
Speaker 1: And you said something that really triggered another point for
Speaker 1: us is, you know, they're about to go through similar
Speaker 1: journeys that we went through. Right now, how is this
Speaker 1: industry and compared to when we broke, you know, in comparison,
Speaker 1: like what do they have against them, you know, you know, and.
Speaker 3: What they have for them?
Speaker 1: I would say, if you you know, if I go first,
Speaker 1: I would say that what they have what they have
Speaker 1: for them, is that the level of technology that can
Speaker 1: support your independent art from the industry itself is so
Speaker 1: much more available for you to show what you can be.
Speaker 1: You can sharpen your tools sooner to become a director,
Speaker 1: to become a writer, to become mean, there's so much
Speaker 1: Like you can go to YouTube and teach yourself how
Speaker 1: to write a screenplay.
Speaker 3: You can go to YouTube and teach.
Speaker 1: Yourself how to light a simple scene so you can
Speaker 1: shoot it with an iPhone or whatever. You know, you
Speaker 1: have a situation here now where like you know, you
Speaker 1: have a moment in time now where where where I
Speaker 1: think young people, you know have the tools if they
Speaker 1: really want it, and at that point they can make
Speaker 1: their own stuff and they can work backwards from it. Now,
Speaker 1: what they have against them is a fracture industry who's
Speaker 1: trying to figure out how to sustain how to sustain
Speaker 1: a signal, how to sustain an audience, how to engage
Speaker 1: with content that can continue to push limits and not
Speaker 1: feel the same movie with a different title.
Speaker 3: Right, How do you open the door.
Speaker 1: For new talent and for a new wave of superstars
Speaker 1: who can expand ideas into levels and universes that television
Speaker 1: and movies have not gone before. And there's a struggle
Speaker 1: for that entry point, you know, and how do you
Speaker 1: break in? But so it's an interesting balance, right because
Speaker 1: for us, when we aim to be what we are now,
Speaker 1: our biggest struggle was that there were not enough parts
Speaker 1: for Latinos. And if they were, you knew where they were,
Speaker 1: You knew what they were and where they wanted you
Speaker 1: to be. And I started thinking about also, you know,
Speaker 1: there was only four channels doing network stuff.
Speaker 3: Cable wasn't really the.
Speaker 1: Aboundance of opportunity like you thought, you know, and you know,
Speaker 1: theater you know, they was not sustainable for a lot
Speaker 1: of actors, right, and then movies were like, you know,
Speaker 1: a pop here eight months later, popped there, you know.
Speaker 1: And so it's likeness, instant of signal. But do you think,
Speaker 1: for you in your mind, what do they have for
Speaker 1: them and what do they.
Speaker 4: Have against It's a good question, right, I Mean, if
Speaker 4: we're just talking about sort of Latinos and latinos, you know,
Speaker 4: it's what they've always had against them, right I And look,
Speaker 4: I'm just pointing out the facts, right, I mean, just
Speaker 4: turn on the TV and and and count how many
Speaker 4: Latinos and latinos you see on TV right now, Right,
Speaker 4: So that's indicative of the opportunities that that's being afforded,
Speaker 4: whether it's you or I or the generation that came
Speaker 4: after us or the generation who was here before us. Right. So,
Speaker 4: so the opportunities are certainly slim. It's hard to say
Speaker 4: whether it's it was slimmer back then or it's slimmer now.
Speaker 4: You know, you know, when you try to gauge how
Speaker 4: many of our people that you see on TV, at
Speaker 4: least like what you said. You know, back then, we
Speaker 4: at least had like movies. Movies were abundant, whether whether
Speaker 4: it was you know, studio movies.
Speaker 1: Or the I mean there was three or four releasing
Speaker 1: every weekend, and they're all were like real, yeah, real.
Speaker 3: Iconic stuff that we still remember to yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: And people were making money on movies.
Speaker 1: They were making movies for the first time, like ideas
Speaker 1: for the first time, refreshed ideas. They're always trying to do,
Speaker 1: what's a movie we haven't made, Let's put that in
Speaker 1: three thousand screens.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Nowadays it's like, who, how do we get capitalized on
Speaker 1: on the success of that movie?
Speaker 3: Let's make another one like that?
Speaker 4: You know, yeah, yeah, I mean even you know, it's
Speaker 4: it's great that that fans have grown up watching my movies,
Speaker 4: you know, from the nineties, from the two thousands, you know.
Speaker 4: And I'll sometimes get fans that will go, hey, man,
Speaker 4: how come you don't make you know, they'll name one
Speaker 4: of my movies from the nineties and two thousands, and
Speaker 4: I'll just go, well, they don't make movies like that.
Speaker 3: Anymore, man, They just don't.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And if they do, you know, there's there's no
Speaker 4: budget behind those movies. People are not making moneies off
Speaker 4: those movies, you know. So at least when we were
Speaker 4: coming up, we had we had a couple of different
Speaker 4: avenues that we can that we could go in. Now,
Speaker 4: the movies that actors, you know, have the opportunity to
Speaker 4: fight for are these gigantic budget movies, and they're so
Speaker 4: far and few between, right, So then that that means
Speaker 4: that a lot of the quote unquote movie stars are
Speaker 4: sort of funneling into the movie into the TV industry,
Speaker 4: right right, And now everything is sort of name driven
Speaker 4: in the television industry, which it wasn't like that when
Speaker 4: you and I were coming up, And so a lot
Speaker 4: of those roles are being gobbled up by them right,
Speaker 4: and so like the newer generation, although it may seem
Speaker 4: like the opportunities are more vast, a lot of those
Speaker 4: roles are being gobbled up by other actors so that
Speaker 4: there's less opportunities for them.
Speaker 2: I think, I don't know, I may I may be wrong.
Speaker 3: I know, I think you're right.
Speaker 1: I think you're nailing it, dude, because the illusion is
Speaker 1: that there's so many streaming platforms, there's so many networks,
Speaker 1: cable networks, you know that that are all making script
Speaker 1: is stuff, nonscripted stuff.
Speaker 3: So the illusion is that there should be tons of parts.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you know, it's it's also seems like, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, it's not going to be things that are
Speaker 1: going to help you the amount of stuff that you're
Speaker 1: going to have to do to sustain, right, the volume
Speaker 1: that you have to now capture or or or get
Speaker 1: as an actor in order to just sustain. Because because
Speaker 1: there's no such thing as like, I just got a
Speaker 1: movie that a lot of people saw and that's going
Speaker 1: to pave the way for me to get a new movie, Bryan,
Speaker 1: give me that energy to now I'm going to get
Speaker 1: a TV show and all that. So that makes it
Speaker 1: really difficult, right, because now it's like, you could do
Speaker 1: four movies and nobody saw that she have to go
Speaker 1: back to audition for the next one, right, because there's
Speaker 1: no such thing as that, And so I guess why
Speaker 1: all the question is, you know what we think about this?
Speaker 1: You know, how does that translate to multiple industries?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 1: Multiple careers of different genres, different industries. What can people
Speaker 1: expect to think about right now? Like what would you be?
Speaker 1: What would be the advice for a young person that's like, okay,
Speaker 1: well I want to be you know, I want to
Speaker 1: be a doctored or I want to be you know, like,
Speaker 1: how do we you know, what is inspiration for that?
Speaker 1: We can talk about that. It fuels ambition again into
Speaker 1: in this younger generation.
Speaker 2: Well that was part one. Stay tuned for part two.
Speaker 3: Stay tuned. Those Amigos coming right back.
Speaker 4: Dose Amigos is a production from w V Sound and
Speaker 4: iHeartMedia's Michael through That podcast network, hosted by me, Freddie
Speaker 4: Rodriguez and Wilmer Valdorama.
Speaker 1: Those Amigos is produced by Aaron Burlson and Sophie Spencer's Abos.
Speaker 4: Our executive producers are Wilmer Valdorama, Freddie Rodriguez Aaron Burlson
Speaker 4: and Leo Clem at WV Sound.
Speaker 1: This episode was shot and edited by Ryan Posts and
Speaker 1: mixed by Sean Tracy and features original music by Madison
Speaker 1: Devenport and Halo Boy.
Speaker 4: Our cover our photography is by David Avalos and designed
Speaker 4: by Deny host.
Speaker 3: Claw And thank you for being a third amigo today.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys always listening to those amos.
Speaker 4: For more podcasts from My Heart, visit the ir Heart
Speaker 4: Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 4: favorite shows.
Speaker 3: So you next week.