Speaker 1: I don't think I told you guys about this at all,
Speaker 1: and I guess, you know, why would I. But I
Speaker 1: had this situation and then it kind of it changed
Speaker 1: last week, and so I thought I would share this
Speaker 1: story because it actually ends up being kind of a
Speaker 1: in a roundabout way of very pod meats world ish story.
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 3: So I did this movie when I was eleven, called
Speaker 3: Benefit of the Doubt.
Speaker 2: Do you guys this? Of course, so I shot this movie.
Speaker 1: I was like my first big job. I went off
Speaker 1: to page Arizona. Donald Sutherland is in it. Amy Irving
Speaker 1: played my mom. Christopher McDonald.
Speaker 2: Do you guys know him. He's a great doctor. So
Speaker 2: I'm not ago.
Speaker 1: So it was like, you know, I was the only
Speaker 1: kid on set. I was out in Arizona for I
Speaker 1: don't know, like three months.
Speaker 2: I'm horrible in the movie.
Speaker 1: I like really struggled as it after I didn't, you know,
Speaker 1: I just didn't know what was going on. But I
Speaker 1: had so much fun. Of course, like out there in
Speaker 1: the desert, I was, you know, getting to shoot guns.
Speaker 1: I pull a gun a Donald's otherland. At one point
Speaker 1: we had all these boat chase scenes, you know, and
Speaker 1: behind the scenes, I'm like reading Stephen King, and I
Speaker 1: first tried about Edward Abbey became like this great touchstone
Speaker 1: activist writer that I love.
Speaker 4: Eleven year old writers Disneyland.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, exactly nice.
Speaker 1: And there were these there are these caves that we
Speaker 1: shot at called Antelope Canyon, which is these slot caves
Speaker 1: that are these beautif It's like they're open at the
Speaker 1: top so the sunlight streams down. You've seen them in
Speaker 1: like every commercial or whatever. So we actually shut down
Speaker 1: and went there and shot. So last summer, I ended
Speaker 1: up in Page, Arizona on my road trip with Alex
Speaker 1: and Indy, and we went to the canyons and I
Speaker 1: was like, oh my god, I shot a movie here, guys.
Speaker 3: And we did the whole tour and it's beautiful.
Speaker 1: And then we're hanging out in Page, like on the
Speaker 1: street corner and we're walking down and you know, this
Speaker 1: tiny town in the corner of Lake Powell, and I
Speaker 1: start recognizing things. I'm like, oh my god, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: there's the there's the movie theater. It's like I saw
Speaker 1: Wayne's World in that movie theater. Like I remember, we
Speaker 1: had the whole theater to ourselves. We were laughing and
Speaker 1: I had so much fun. And then like I'm like,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, Wait a minute, there's there's ice cream.
Speaker 1: And we go around the corner and there's like this
Speaker 1: ice cream shop and I'm like, wait, they have frybread.
Speaker 1: I know they have like Indian frybread, and like, sure enough,
Speaker 1: I asked be on the counter. We get frybred and
Speaker 1: I'm like all these memories start and I and I
Speaker 1: get this like weird crawling sensation in the back of
Speaker 1: my mind. I was like, it wasn't it wasn't just
Speaker 1: me and my mom and I was the only kid
Speaker 1: in the movie.
Speaker 3: I was like, who was my pal? Like who was
Speaker 3: my friend?
Speaker 1: I watched Wayne's World We got Frybred, like with this
Speaker 1: person I had this like face and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, Connie. And I had totally forgotten about
Speaker 1: this woman, Connie, who was my best friend. And I'm like, wait,
Speaker 1: she was like twenty five and she was the second AD.
Speaker 1: Her name was Connie Hoy and she did you know,
Speaker 1: so as a second AD, she was the person who
Speaker 1: would have been kind of in charge of like getting
Speaker 1: me for my trailer. But she was my friend, like
Speaker 1: I just I and I had totally forgotten that.
Speaker 2: This person existed.
Speaker 1: I was like, we spent the entire shoot hanging out,
Speaker 1: and she was like, you know, I looked at her
Speaker 1: as like, you know, my peer, which is.
Speaker 2: Just so funny.
Speaker 1: And I was like, why did this twenty five year
Speaker 1: old woman spend so much? Like she was so giving
Speaker 1: and so awesome, and I was like, and the last
Speaker 1: time I'd seen her was at the premiere of the
Speaker 1: movie and she was pregnant and I had never seen
Speaker 1: her since. And so I'm sitting there having all these
Speaker 1: memories flooded. I'm like, I gotta find Connie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I.
Speaker 1: Pick up my phone, pick up my phone. I'm on
Speaker 1: the corner page in Indian and Alex were like, let's go.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, no, no, no, no. So I do the
Speaker 1: research and I find her. I find like an email address.
Speaker 1: I send her a letter. I'm like, hey, I don't
Speaker 1: know if you remember, but like, thank you, like you
Speaker 1: were like my friend. And I had all these positive
Speaker 1: and I you know, and within a couple hours.
Speaker 2: She wrote me back and it was like oh.
Speaker 1: And I So we kept writing letters and texting, and
Speaker 1: then when I got back to La I went and
Speaker 1: met her for sushi and it was amazing. It was like,
Speaker 1: she's exactly the same. Of course, she's much older. She
Speaker 1: went on to not only raise her kid, but she
Speaker 1: married a guy that she worked with on her next
Speaker 1: movie who already had kids, and she raised them and
Speaker 1: she it was just like and it was exactly the same,
Speaker 1: Like we just fell right back into our friendship. And
Speaker 1: she had gone on to become a producer. She worked
Speaker 1: on like all these legendary films from the nineties, like
Speaker 1: Jim Jarmusch films, I don't know if you guys know him,
Speaker 1: like a classic. He did the movie dead Man with
Speaker 1: Johnny Depp, and like, she worked on that, and she just,
Speaker 1: you know, she's got a film buff obviously, So we
Speaker 1: started connecting on all the things she's worked on. Anyway,
Speaker 1: it was great to reconnect. And then we just have
Speaker 1: been in touch and like sending you know, messages every
Speaker 1: once in a while. And then of course Donald Sutherland
Speaker 1: died and when that happened, she texted me and we
Speaker 1: were like, and so I had this plan to when
Speaker 1: I was on this road trip this summer. We were
Speaker 1: texting and I was like, oh, when I get back,
Speaker 1: you know, She's like, I'm going to take you out.
Speaker 3: To lunch and return the favor and catch up again.
Speaker 1: And then last week I'm in the I'm out in
Speaker 1: the desert with friends and I get this weird email
Speaker 1: from somebody I don't know who's like, hey, I'm trying
Speaker 1: to find writer.
Speaker 3: Connie died.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it was like just this sudden you know,
Speaker 1: oh what Like I was just texting, so yeah, it's like, uh,
Speaker 1: and you know, this guy Adam, who was a lifelong
Speaker 1: friend of hers, is writing to me and he's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: she I didn't know how any of your contact infos,
Speaker 1: so he's like finding me through Instagram and whatnot. He's like, because,
Speaker 1: but I just, you know, I want to let you
Speaker 1: know and if you want to come to the memorial.
Speaker 1: And Connie was really you know, affected by your letter
Speaker 1: and like she really really croudy, like had told everybody
Speaker 1: in her life, you know, like hey, like look this
Speaker 1: kid that I worked with remembered me and yeah, just
Speaker 1: you know, it's one of those things, like so much
Speaker 1: of what we've been doing on this podcast has been this,
Speaker 1: you know, like going back and reconnecting with people that
Speaker 1: really we took for granted. And then also I just
Speaker 1: think about how the industry takes these people for granted,
Speaker 1: you know, like when we have especially as a kid,
Speaker 1: but when you work on a film, you know, whether
Speaker 1: it's good or bad, it's a lived experience of crewe
Speaker 1: people and people that dedicate their lives and just are
Speaker 1: the unsung heroes, you know, whether it's Addie dis Stefano
Speaker 1: or David Combs or you know, and like their name
Speaker 1: might not even be in the end credits, you know,
Speaker 1: and yet they make the entire thing possible, and they
Speaker 1: it's a collaborative art form. And they also changed the
Speaker 1: lives of you know, little eleven year old kids who
Speaker 1: are totally lost and confused about what they're doing.
Speaker 2: And yeah, so I just.
Speaker 1: You know, I wanted to give a shout out to
Speaker 1: Connie Hoy, Connie Maverick Hoy who passed away and just really.
Speaker 2: Changed my life.
Speaker 3: Was super positive influence, so sweet.
Speaker 4: That's so sweet, and you know, you're right. It ties
Speaker 4: in so well with what we've been doing with the podcast.
Speaker 4: And it's such a great reminder too that like when
Speaker 4: you do have a memory of somebody and they positively
Speaker 4: impacted you in some way doing the little bit of work,
Speaker 4: it takes if possible to find them and let them
Speaker 4: know is so important because you know, you obviously thoroughly
Speaker 4: enjoyed reconnecting with her, and she enjoyed reconnecting with you,
Speaker 4: but you would have also never known how much should
Speaker 4: impacted her until her friend told you, like, wow, she
Speaker 4: was so proud that this kid she had worked with
Speaker 4: thirty years later is you know, reaching out to her
Speaker 4: to reconnect. So, you know, letting somebody know what they
Speaker 4: mean to you or what they meant to you, even
Speaker 4: if it was for a really short period of time
Speaker 4: in your life. You know, how long were you working
Speaker 4: on that movie?
Speaker 2: Yeah, like three months?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, three months?
Speaker 2: Three months of your life again, you know, and I.
Speaker 4: Saw again and yet you went out of your way
Speaker 4: and it turned into a beautiful friendship now as adults,
Speaker 4: and unfortunately was cut short. But it's never too late
Speaker 4: to reach out until somebody when they met.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let people know, you know, and like, and that's
Speaker 1: what's so great about the internet, right, Like, that's the
Speaker 1: benefit is that we can find each other. We can't
Speaker 1: you know, people don't just get lost. We can all
Speaker 1: find each other. But yeah, it's a yeah, I'm really sad,
Speaker 1: but I'm also really glad that I did at least
Speaker 1: get to have that moment when and it was, you know, amazing.
Speaker 1: The friendship was right back there.
Speaker 3: Oh right, you're still just as cool.
Speaker 6: It's one of those things where, whether you believe in fate,
Speaker 6: whether they don't believe in fate, you easily could have
Speaker 6: thought about her again after she had already passed away. Yeah,
Speaker 6: and you wouldn't have had that opportunity, but you didn't something.
Speaker 6: You were in the right place at the right time,
Speaker 6: and you had the memory and you were able to reconnect.
Speaker 2: And I don't know whether you believe.
Speaker 6: In higher powers, fate, whatever you want to call it,
Speaker 6: something somewhere needed you guys to get together again.
Speaker 2: Yeah, at least one more time. So yeah, that's very cool.
Speaker 4: Thank you for sharing with us, writer, and I love
Speaker 4: you both very much.
Speaker 2: I love you. I love you too.
Speaker 4: Welcome to Pod meets World. I'm Danielle Fischel, I'm.
Speaker 2: Right or Strong, and I'm Wilfordell.
Speaker 4: Seasons four and five of Boy Meets World are unique
Speaker 4: for many reasons, and one of those reasons makes booking
Speaker 4: the rewatch podcast thirty years later a slightly more difficult task.
Speaker 4: Gone are the days of rapid fire of up and
Speaker 4: coming young names like Carrie Russell, Lindsay Price and Will
Speaker 4: Esti's for every episode, making way for actors who were
Speaker 4: a little on the older side, say Paul Gleeson, the
Speaker 4: guys from the Love Boat, Soopy Sales, Buddy Hackett, and
Speaker 4: the incomparable Phil Leads. I know he looked young, but
Speaker 4: he was in fact old Phil.
Speaker 2: No, he was not.
Speaker 4: I'm surprised to have to tell you that easy. Many
Speaker 4: of these stars, each leaving undeniable contributions to the legacy
Speaker 4: of our show, are no longer with us. So when
Speaker 4: a scene stealing guest star that was our age pops
Speaker 4: up on screen these days, we'd jump at the chance
Speaker 4: to talk to them. And today's guest is just that
Speaker 4: he's so cool. His first acting job after moving from
Speaker 4: Uruguay at the age of ten was on Miami Vice.
Speaker 4: Oh not great. He'd quickly book roles on TV mainstays
Speaker 4: like The Wonder Years and Blossom, and eventually inserting himself
Speaker 4: into the Star Trek canon as the Borg Drone Hugh
Speaker 4: on Star Trek the Next Generation, a role he reprised
Speaker 4: two other times for the franchise He's been on and
Speaker 4: off Broadway, studying acting from New York to Harvard, eventually
Speaker 4: appearing on Nip Tuck as the unforgettable character Sophia Lopez,
Speaker 4: a transgender patient who's come to McNamara Troy for a procedure.
Speaker 4: He's also appeared on twenty four and The Sopranos, and
Speaker 4: was a series regular on The Closer and its spinoff,
Speaker 4: Major Crimes. He's a political, environmental, and gay rights activist
Speaker 4: who has worked for five presidential campaigns and was awarded
Speaker 4: the twenty thirteen Visibility Award from the Human Rights Campaign.
Speaker 4: But today we are talking to him about one appearance
Speaker 4: he made back in nineteen ninety seven as Nunzio, the
Speaker 4: handsome waiter at El Coyote who just wants to dance
Speaker 4: with Tapanga. Oh and he has a connection to one
Speaker 4: of us that might just blow your mind. Welcome to
Speaker 4: pod meets World, the wonderful Jonathan Delarco.
Speaker 5: My god, yeah.
Speaker 4: Oh, my goodness, it happens to the best of us.
Speaker 4: Thirty years later, here we are.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 5: How strange is that.
Speaker 4: It's so good to see you. Thank you so much
Speaker 4: for being here. You you without even knowing it, you
Speaker 4: joined a little bit of a club on our podcast
Speaker 4: for what we call perfect drive Bys. It's a guest
Speaker 4: star who swung in for one episode, gave it all
Speaker 4: you had, and it was just absolutely wonderful, So.
Speaker 2: We would kill it, killed it left giving.
Speaker 4: You your flowers. What an episode?
Speaker 2: You're the whole episode.
Speaker 5: It's a yes, I just free watched it because I'm like, literally,
Speaker 5: I hadn't seen it since it aired, right, and I'm like, Wow,
Speaker 5: they let me do those dance moves. That's really d.
Speaker 4: You're so glad they did it?
Speaker 2: Was you know, I love it?
Speaker 4: You even talking third part?
Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly so. And I was so much older than
Speaker 5: you guys, that's no way, no dude, I was like
Speaker 5: twenty nine.
Speaker 4: Really okay, I wouldn't.
Speaker 2: I did not know.
Speaker 5: All these days we have a twenty nine year old
Speaker 5: actor being well.
Speaker 4: You know what's funny is that you were then almost
Speaker 4: the same age as Trina.
Speaker 2: Yeah right right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: Trina I think was like twenty seven or twenty.
Speaker 1: Eight, and she and I were actually making out all
Speaker 1: the time.
Speaker 5: Yeah, like you would all be arrested.
Speaker 4: Now, it's so funny. Well, before we jump in and
Speaker 4: talk about Nunzio, I wanted to get a little bit
Speaker 4: into your origin story. We know you were born in Uruguay.
Speaker 4: Is that where the idea for becoming an actor was born?
Speaker 5: I mean kind of. I was always a performer when
Speaker 5: I was a little kid, and I would do like
Speaker 5: poppet shows and dirty jokes at my uncle's bar, like
Speaker 5: you know, the tips. And I was always just not
Speaker 5: kind of an odd kid when I was little. And
Speaker 5: then we moved to the US when I was ten,
Speaker 5: and so I was immediately the odd man. I mean
Speaker 5: I didn't speak English and I had a weird really
Speaker 5: already I was ten, so I had this like weird voice,
Speaker 5: and I spoke very little English, and I learned English
Speaker 5: watching TV over over one summer.
Speaker 2: Oh man, And what are your watching? Do you remember
Speaker 2: what you were watching to learn English?
Speaker 5: I watched what was on Brady Bunch. We're talking like
Speaker 5: seventy six, so Brady Bunch Days, Lucy Happy Days, Gilligan's Island,
Speaker 5: all shows that were like big hits.
Speaker 2: Classic Mark and Mindy.
Speaker 5: I watched some British like Benny Hill, some really British comedy,
Speaker 5: and I like learned English in two months.
Speaker 3: That's amazing. And you have no accent like you.
Speaker 5: It was. So, what's weird is I grew up in Portchester,
Speaker 5: New York, and all the kids talk like this. Oh
Speaker 5: I didn't I talk like a kid'.
Speaker 3: You do?
Speaker 6: You have what TV actors called a non regional diction,
Speaker 6: so you can be from everywhere.
Speaker 2: That's what that's what you want to be. Oh god,
Speaker 2: So that was the.
Speaker 5: Iguish I learned. And then I really because of watching TV,
Speaker 5: I was like, I think that that's my vibe, Like
Speaker 5: I could do that. And then yeah, so I became
Speaker 5: you know, I lived near New York, so Broadway was
Speaker 5: kind of always there, and I think I was like
Speaker 5: maybe fourteen when I saw Matthew Broderick win a Tony
Speaker 5: and I watched him win the award and I was like,
Speaker 5: I could play that. I mean I didn't know what
Speaker 5: the part was, but saw him and I was like, well,
Speaker 5: I could do what he's doing. And then I went
Speaker 5: ahead and did just like for all the places he
Speaker 5: had done and like picked up the scraps and along
Speaker 5: the way. Yeah.
Speaker 4: And so what did your parents think about the stream
Speaker 4: you had and pursuing it.
Speaker 5: My mom and dad were like super dreamer people, like
Speaker 5: they they like my dad moved here when he was
Speaker 5: made there. I had older parents, so they moved to
Speaker 5: the States when my dad was already in his fifties,
Speaker 5: so like my age and like maybe a little younger
Speaker 5: than I am now. My mom was younger than him,
Speaker 5: she was in her forties, and he like uprooted the
Speaker 5: family and like moved and so okay, and he was.
Speaker 5: So they were always very adventurous, my dad in particular,
Speaker 5: and they just encouraged it. They were like, go do it.
Speaker 5: I don't know, I mean they were very like hands
Speaker 5: off parents in a way. They were not helicoptery at all,
Speaker 5: maybe because they were older. You know, if you want
Speaker 5: to do that, go do that. You seem pretty good
Speaker 5: at it. So they they were good. They were really
Speaker 5: good about it. My mom when my sag unionship bo
Speaker 5: car for it at the time. So yeah, I had
Speaker 5: a really supportive family. I wasn't a kid actor, but
Speaker 5: super weird because I looked really really young, played kid
Speaker 5: rolls until I was I think your Show was probably
Speaker 5: the last I think it was. I think it was
Speaker 5: the last time casting was like you're not twenty nine, right,
Speaker 5: It got weird. I mean I was, you know what,
Speaker 5: I mean, and that was I mean, I was playing
Speaker 5: a little older than you guys, but not much.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, you were a manager of the restaurants. You
Speaker 4: were early.
Speaker 6: Twenty Yeah yeah, but you just make it weird to
Speaker 6: go dancing with the girl from high school.
Speaker 5: I guess it does. Maybe on set too, I was like,
Speaker 5: I know, like, what was I going to talk to
Speaker 5: you guys about. You know, I mean, first of all,
Speaker 5: I was gay and out and like going to clubs
Speaker 5: as a game man, So like, I'm going to talk
Speaker 5: to the kids about that. Let me talk about nothing.
Speaker 5: I have nothing in common. That's I mean, my girl,
Speaker 5: you know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's so funny. I love that. Even then for yourself,
Speaker 4: you're like, I think this is the last time I'm
Speaker 4: going to audition for.
Speaker 5: Nature and then it didn't work for like forever. You guys,
Speaker 5: baby faces probably know what I'm talking about. That weird
Speaker 5: twilight zone of like you look like a kid, but
Speaker 5: you're really a man.
Speaker 4: And we right in your intro we mentioned that your
Speaker 4: first big TV job was on Miami Vice, And I'm
Speaker 4: not sure there's a cooler show to debut or cool
Speaker 4: Which episode?
Speaker 2: Which episode?
Speaker 5: What did you do?
Speaker 2: Which episode was Paul.
Speaker 5: I remember my first gig. It was called God's Work.
Speaker 5: It was it was the first episode I think on
Speaker 5: television that dealt with AIDS, which was like major taboo
Speaker 5: at the time. And Issie Morales played a character whose
Speaker 5: I think his lover was sick and like some church
Speaker 5: like hospice place. I was this punk kid who was
Speaker 5: like graffeiting the church. I don't know. I was like
Speaker 5: not a good guy. I was like a brady kid.
Speaker 5: That was my first gid. I was crazy.
Speaker 4: And how old were you then?
Speaker 5: So I must have been twenty two, twenty two, okay, yeah, anyway,
Speaker 5: and you got to work with you, you know.
Speaker 6: And you got to work with Isi Morales and with
Speaker 6: Don Johnson and with the whole I mean everybody.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so cool.
Speaker 5: Yeah. I gotated by Tubbs, you know. So I was,
Speaker 5: I know, crazy, It's best And I got that because
Speaker 5: the director of that had come to see me in
Speaker 5: a play and thought I was interesting and took me
Speaker 5: out to lunch. And it was a female director. Janelized
Speaker 5: she still works a ton brilliant director. She took me
Speaker 5: out to lunch. She's like, I think you're a really
Speaker 5: interesting actor. Blah blah blah. You should audition for this,
Speaker 5: this and that next thing. I know, I'm getting an offer.
Speaker 5: I mean, I'm a kid, I'm a young actor getting
Speaker 5: an offer to go do Miami Vice. And I arrived
Speaker 5: at wardrobe and she's there and I'm like, oh my god,
Speaker 5: what are you doing here? She's like, how do you
Speaker 5: think you got the job?
Speaker 4: That's so cool, that's amazing. So that's how you find yourself.
Speaker 4: Then moving to LA in your early twenties and you
Speaker 4: get to appear on some great shows Wonder Years, Blossom,
Speaker 4: but it's Star Trek as Borg Drone Hugh. That's just
Speaker 4: such a big breakout for you. Did you know anything
Speaker 4: about Star Trek when you auditioned.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I did, because well, I watched. One of the
Speaker 5: shows I watched and learn English from was the original series. Yes,
Speaker 5: I would stay up late at night and I was
Speaker 5: on at the time in reruns, so I was a
Speaker 5: fan of the original series. And then I tested for
Speaker 5: the role that Will Wheaton got on Next Gens Okay Rusher,
Speaker 5: So while I was in New York, I tested from
Speaker 5: New York for that role. So I was really familiar
Speaker 5: with the world, but I had not watched it and
Speaker 5: I didn't know, I didn't know I had a fandom,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean. I wasn't aware of that
Speaker 5: part of it. And also you remember like back then
Speaker 5: it was like if you weren't a syndicated show, it
Speaker 5: wasn't like cool. Yeah, it was led to the thing
Speaker 5: like you guys like syndicate. So I was like, it's
Speaker 5: a syndicated show, Like who cares? I mean I didn't
Speaker 5: he cares, but I didn't think he was going to
Speaker 5: have No.
Speaker 2: It's so crazy to think about, you know.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was like filmmaking. It was like grant, you know,
Speaker 5: you had a patina not as fancy as.
Speaker 2: So you were. You were a board.
Speaker 3: Did you have to do a bunch of makeup and
Speaker 3: all that kind of stuff?
Speaker 5: Oh? Oh yeah, I was in heavy, heavy duty makeup.
Speaker 6: And was it still Mike Was it Mike west Moore
Speaker 6: that was doing the makeup there at the time?
Speaker 5: Yeah? Yeah. Did you do the Startork two?
Speaker 2: No? I know, I wish no.
Speaker 6: I did what I did a pilot for National Geographic
Speaker 6: when I was fifteen, and one of the things I'd do.
Speaker 6: They flew me out to Hollywood and I interviewed everyone
Speaker 6: on Star Trek and then they Mike Westmore brought me
Speaker 6: into the chair and made me up like a Romulin
Speaker 6: and then I just got to hang out and interview
Speaker 6: everybody like as I'm dressed like a Romulin. I Also,
Speaker 6: I've been friends with Wheaton since we were like thirteen,
Speaker 6: so I kind of knew that whole world.
Speaker 2: But you go there, I mean, it's exactly what you're saying.
Speaker 6: You go to boy Mets World, and yes, we were network,
Speaker 6: but you go to stage two and there's boy Mets World.
Speaker 6: You went to see Star Trek. It was like seven
Speaker 6: stages worth of stuff. Yeah, and they were took over
Speaker 6: the Paramount lot. It was everywhere.
Speaker 5: Yeah, they had they had they seemed like seven I
Speaker 5: think they got they had three permanent ones.
Speaker 2: Was it three?
Speaker 5: That?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 5: You know there were more because there were other If
Speaker 5: you went there when they were doing uh, deep Space nine,
Speaker 5: they had an entire Yeah, they pretty much owned Paramount.
Speaker 4: You have an action figure.
Speaker 5: You know, it's so stupid.
Speaker 2: It's it's the best. It's stupid, it's the best.
Speaker 5: It's really weird. But conventions, you guys know this because
Speaker 5: like your ship is right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but you know, listen, no matter how large our
Speaker 4: cult audience has become nothing is touching Star Trek. So, like,
Speaker 4: what is your favorite fan story of someone recognizing their
Speaker 4: favorite drone?
Speaker 5: Oh my god, I had weird ones. I had like
Speaker 5: a weird Japanese stalker that made all of me. Yeah,
Speaker 5: but she like got the hint that I wasn't interested.
Speaker 5: She definitely some intimate time with the board.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 5: But most of them have been really sweet. I love
Speaker 5: like going to a convention now and having like little kids.
Speaker 5: That was in England maybe last year, and this like
Speaker 5: cute little eight year old seven year old kid came
Speaker 5: up and told them told me I was his favorite character,
Speaker 5: and just like I don't give you your grandfather. I mean,
Speaker 5: it's so weird that they just yeah, you know, and
Speaker 5: it's a weird per set like that. That's so weird
Speaker 5: what we do, isn't it That it just kind of
Speaker 5: lives on and people Yeah, same, you know, it's amazing.
Speaker 6: Well, Jean Luke Picard wasn't even happy that Doctor Crusher
Speaker 6: brought you onto this onto the Enterprise in the first place,
Speaker 6: so I mean it is what it is.
Speaker 5: At this point, I got to actually work with him
Speaker 5: again on Picard.
Speaker 2: So nice. Yeah, that's so cool, brilliant actor.
Speaker 4: Well, I have one more question for you before we
Speaker 4: jump into El Coyote from Boy Meets World. During our research,
Speaker 4: we learned that you and the Strong family actually go
Speaker 4: way back. Is it true that you played the role
Speaker 4: of Adam Larson on a little show called The Mommies
Speaker 4: the pilot?
Speaker 5: What and it trade sent me? What they did to
Speaker 5: me sent me straight to therapy.
Speaker 4: We talk about this so much of how this happened.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was messed up. I got the Mommies. It
Speaker 5: was do you remember do you remember? I don't You
Speaker 5: guys probably don't remember that they were these women that
Speaker 5: had NBC had given them this great platform. They were
Speaker 5: on TV. They gave every opportunity to launch the series
Speaker 5: and it was like a buzz buzz buzz and I
Speaker 5: got cat kid. I was old. I mean I was
Speaker 5: like not a kid, and you know, director would be like,
Speaker 5: could you make that sound younger? And I was like, means,
Speaker 5: so I get cast. They filmed the pilot. It was
Speaker 5: all exciting before the obviously the Internet and that summer
Speaker 5: it gets picked up. But I don't but I don't
Speaker 5: know what that means as a kid, right, you don't
Speaker 5: as a young person. You're like, I don't know what
Speaker 5: it means. I didn't get picked up yet. And then
Speaker 5: they air all the ads with me in it. All
Speaker 5: the ads are like aired. I'm like in every clip,
Speaker 5: all my friends are calling me from New York. Dude,
Speaker 5: I saw your ad for your TV show. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 5: I don't doing it anymore. And it was because I
Speaker 5: think your brother had a deal something they were I
Speaker 5: think they cast me waiting to see if your brother's
Speaker 5: deal had fallen through or whatever. Oh and then I
Speaker 5: worked with you and that was a funny, like sort
Speaker 5: of full circle. But yeah, no, that was that was rough.
Speaker 5: I was like, I'm doing it because this was like
Speaker 5: the first, the first thing I ever and I think
Speaker 5: the only thing I've ever were gotten fired from. Or
Speaker 5: it's super crushing. I mean, it's it makes you like
Speaker 5: doubt everything you're doing. Yeah, yeah, why am I bad?
Speaker 5: And all that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's so hard with acting.
Speaker 1: You just you can't help it, take it personally right,
Speaker 1: because it feels it's you. It's your voice, it's your body,
Speaker 1: it's your face, and it's just you can't help but
Speaker 1: be like, well I could have done it right. But
Speaker 1: it's like the reality is, of course it's it's not you, right, Like,
Speaker 1: the reality is it's not personal and it's not about you,
Speaker 1: and you're just too old or they're not right for
Speaker 1: the part.
Speaker 3: But you can't help it. I mean, especially at that age,
Speaker 3: it's just so crushing.
Speaker 5: Ow and you know you guys know, like you get
Speaker 5: like the dangling of they show you, like what the
Speaker 5: contract is, change, I'm gonna travel, I'm gonna have a
Speaker 5: great life, and then it's like nuts so fast. So
Speaker 5: I gave up on pilots at that point. I decided
Speaker 5: pilots were just just like not the best way in
Speaker 5: the door. Well, like just getting a guest spot that
Speaker 5: becomes something else is usually a much better trajectory.
Speaker 6: I mean, it's bad enough to be replaced, which I
Speaker 6: think ninety nine percent of actors have had happened.
Speaker 2: But when they then go and use the clips that
Speaker 2: you're really messed up. That's not cool at all. It's
Speaker 2: like that's just taking it.
Speaker 5: To another union, got them taken down. I think, yeah
Speaker 5: for it, but it was just humiliating, yeah right, I
Speaker 5: mean it's excited that you were. It'd be like showing
Speaker 5: the gallery shoot with you in it on a billboard
Speaker 5: in it, right, Yeah, I never met your brother. I
Speaker 5: never I never hung out with that circle after that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well showed in last didn't didn't you?
Speaker 5: It wasn't my good show.
Speaker 2: But no, he was. He was pretty unhappy.
Speaker 1: It was, you know, because all the part ended up
Speaker 1: just being him making out with a girl like that
Speaker 1: was the recurring joke is that he's always just hanging
Speaker 1: around and it was just a nothing, thankless part.
Speaker 2: He was. He was not happy, but whatever.
Speaker 4: I want to talk Boy Meets World with you. Yes,
Speaker 4: do you remember auditioning for Boy Meets World?
Speaker 5: I don't, you know, you have to remember. For you guys,
Speaker 5: the show is like a big chunk of your life.
Speaker 5: For me, it was a yeah, I feel like I
Speaker 5: remember so the really handsome guy that got like said
Speaker 5: the other role. I remember him coming in the Sergia
Speaker 5: Sergia so we both auditioned and I remember and he
Speaker 5: was I'm short, he was really tall and handsome, and
Speaker 5: I was like, well, that guy's gonna get it, like
Speaker 5: that's like a noe brainer. And he goes and you
Speaker 5: hear through the door laughs, and then I just remember,
Speaker 5: you know, so many of these sitcoms are like you
Speaker 5: know tropes, right of the stereotypical he was like the
Speaker 5: stereotypical lover, but kind of a sweet guy Nunzio, right,
Speaker 5: that he helps the boys and all that. Yeah, So
Speaker 5: I just like so totally leaned into that sort of
Speaker 5: self love, right, And I remember they just died. They
Speaker 5: just thought it was so funny. So it felt good
Speaker 5: because you were in the room and they were just
Speaker 5: cracking up, right, So that's all I remember about it.
Speaker 5: It's definitely in the room. It was not self tape.
Speaker 4: Right exactly before you audition, did you know anything about
Speaker 4: Boy Meets World? Had you ever seen the show? I
Speaker 4: know you mentioned you were twenty nine and we were
Speaker 4: obviously on Friday nights and probably not watching the show.
Speaker 2: That creepy watching, look right, you were not aware of it?
Speaker 5: Well, I was in acting school and I was I
Speaker 5: was taking acting classes and we were all doing Shakespeare
Speaker 5: and you know whatever, Chuck Off and what. I think.
Speaker 5: We watched Friends and like they were the more adult
Speaker 5: shows that we were into. So, I mean, I knew
Speaker 5: it was out there because it was a hit, you know,
Speaker 5: we I knew the hits, right, and getting job like
Speaker 5: that was always great. But I didn't watch it wasn't Yeah,
Speaker 5: so what do.
Speaker 4: You remember from filming that week? And we promise you
Speaker 4: no story is too small or too detailed, just whatever
Speaker 4: you remember about the way.
Speaker 5: I remember. So, I remember being like these kids number one.
Speaker 5: I was like, they're all kids number one. The girls
Speaker 5: were great, like I had like I was, I navigate
Speaker 5: the girls great. The boys were like completely out of control.
Speaker 5: I remember the boys were just like crazy, like teenagery,
Speaker 5: you know, like I don't know what was happening that week.
Speaker 5: It was like a hormonal I don't know what was
Speaker 5: I think there were a couple of girls in the
Speaker 5: show too that were like eights or something.
Speaker 4: I don't know if it was Sonia and Cookie.
Speaker 5: It was like a sort of like a boy thing
Speaker 5: to like sort of show off with the girls. I
Speaker 5: don't remember. But there was an older the director was
Speaker 5: this older dude.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you guys.
Speaker 5: Were like relent, like you tease him and whatever. The
Speaker 5: boys would be like funny with him. Hey. I remember
Speaker 5: him turning to me and going, I'm sorry, he's like
Speaker 5: kids like, no, I I get it.
Speaker 2: I got it.
Speaker 5: Always really out of control that week, and the kids.
Speaker 2: Is always on. We were always on.
Speaker 1: We had so much energy and I think back I
Speaker 1: must have been just exhausting.
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so yeah, no connectivity there For me, it was like.
Speaker 4: Can you get me the second you need me, and
Speaker 4: not a moment before.
Speaker 5: Also at that age, and you're playing like a peer
Speaker 5: of like celeric kids that are stars, right, that have
Speaker 5: been a show forever, And all my friends are like
Speaker 5: starving actors. You know, there's a very different aesthetic, like
Speaker 5: it's a young actor than to like the working kids
Speaker 5: are a different world. You guys lived in your yeah
Speaker 5: in a way, right, Yeah, sure, But I was reading
Speaker 5: some stuff about like the challenges too. I mean I
Speaker 5: can't imagine being a kid actor on a sitcomb in
Speaker 5: those days. It must have been so weird to have.
Speaker 5: I don't know that all the expectations they you must
Speaker 5: have had thrust upon you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: It was an easy job in some ways, right, Like
Speaker 1: compared to shooting single camera or shooting film. It was
Speaker 1: a great schedule and we were always laughing, We were
Speaker 1: always having fun. But yeah, certainly like the fame and
Speaker 1: the pressure and you know, we just didn't know what
Speaker 1: we were doing, just were clueless.
Speaker 5: You know and all like the thing to remember too. Like,
Speaker 5: I bet a lot of people that are watching now
Speaker 5: don't realize that all those shows were run by straight
Speaker 5: man men very specific ideas about what was funny, Yes,
Speaker 5: I wasn't offensive, or was you know, very very interesting.
Speaker 5: I mean definitely, Like I was saying, like the tropes
Speaker 5: of being Latino. I mean, I get into it to
Speaker 5: be able to get the gigs, but there was a
Speaker 5: ton of I mean not your show, but other com
Speaker 5: I did were like the racism was sort of inherent
Speaker 5: in the writing. You know, yeah, teryotypical you know, Latino thing,
Speaker 5: or the stereototypical woman thing, or want to young what
Speaker 5: are young boys like? You know, it's funny when you
Speaker 5: watch stuff and even like Friends, Oh yeah, Friends, and
Speaker 5: you're like, they just make a homophobic joke, and you're like, right,
Speaker 5: they totally did.
Speaker 2: They did a whole homophobic episodes of Friends.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and you're like, wow, there was a game writer
Speaker 5: around the show too, and you're like that's really interesting. Yeah.
Speaker 4: We've talked about it a lot for Boy Meets World too,
Speaker 4: because there were actually, surprisingly, we've been pleasantly surprised that
Speaker 4: there were quite a few very progressive episodes and progressive
Speaker 4: scenes and progressive thinking, and then every now and then
Speaker 4: you get one in there and you're like, this whole
Speaker 4: episode is tinged with toxic masculinity or homophobia, like and
Speaker 4: it's hard to parse through which one it is. You know, Yeah,
Speaker 4: it's you know, the time it was brought UCTs up
Speaker 4: their time, and we can't go back and change them.
Speaker 4: But it is interesting to notice, and it's and it's
Speaker 4: important to recognize and be able to acknowledge it and say,
Speaker 4: we don't do that anymore, and we're you know, it's
Speaker 4: nice to to see that.
Speaker 5: Change and jump. I guess too. You guys don't forget.
Speaker 5: But the audience listening, they had a crank, like what
Speaker 5: twenty five episodes a year. Yeah, at some point you're
Speaker 5: just going, is this funny or not? Right?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Exactly?
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So yeah, Well the dance that's in this episode has
Speaker 4: gone viral a few times over the Oh yeah, it
Speaker 4: goes viral every every couple of years. It's so funny.
Speaker 4: What do you remember from the hot stuff dance routine
Speaker 4: in the nightclub?
Speaker 5: I remember getting into like that little tight thing with
Speaker 5: like a change. Yeah, all my hair was ridiculously long.
Speaker 2: I mean I still have long hair, but that it
Speaker 2: looked great.
Speaker 5: That was ridiculously long. But I remember then not playing
Speaker 5: any music for us to dance. Do you remember that?
Speaker 2: They were, oh, of course, And I was.
Speaker 5: Like, I'm sorry, I've never you know. That was like
Speaker 5: a live tape situation, like we're supposed to dance to nothing.
Speaker 4: No music.
Speaker 5: I was like, so what will it be be? They're like,
Speaker 5: we don't know yet we have the music. That's what
Speaker 5: I remember thinking this, this feels super awkward.
Speaker 4: That's another thing we've talked about the amount of episodes
Speaker 4: where we have music playing and somebody's supposed to be dancing,
Speaker 4: and we've talked about do you remember how awful those
Speaker 4: always were because you have nothing to dance too, and
Speaker 4: yet you're either supposed to look like you're a good
Speaker 4: dancer or a bad dancer, but you don't know what
Speaker 4: the sound is going to be, and it's just so uncomfortable, especially.
Speaker 3: When it's a whole room with people because they have
Speaker 3: all these background actors.
Speaker 1: Yes, they're happy to do Yeah, everybody's doing their own rhythm,
Speaker 1: like what are we doing?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Situation.
Speaker 4: Do people in your life know that you were on
Speaker 4: Boy Meets World? Have you ever been recognized for Boy
Speaker 4: Meets World?
Speaker 5: So it's something super weird happened. Maybe like fifteen years ago.
Speaker 5: I was doing a play that was like an education play.
Speaker 5: It was called Books to Life. You can bring a
Speaker 5: book to life essentially for the school system. And I
Speaker 5: was performing this gang, this play about La Gangs of
Speaker 5: all things. It was like a one man show. And
Speaker 5: the kids, the Latino kids from like the barrio in
Speaker 5: downtown La totally call me out Edmundzio. They're like, what
Speaker 5: is happening? Like, yo, that's news too. I was like, what, yo,
Speaker 5: you got old? You know what I mean?
Speaker 4: Oh my god.
Speaker 5: Like watched it thinking it was like a.
Speaker 2: Year now of course, well.
Speaker 5: Aged twenty years at the time. Yeah, I'm much older now.
Speaker 4: Thank you, thank you for the commment.
Speaker 5: So, but it's weird recause your show. It's kids new kids,
Speaker 5: watch it right, yes.
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, And it always is shocking to me when
Speaker 4: it's you know, an eleven year old who's like, oh
Speaker 4: my gosh y, yeah, so funny.
Speaker 5: It's interesting, right, all our sort of paths.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yep.
Speaker 4: It's so great now that there are so many different
Speaker 4: opportunities and avenues for actors to make a living in
Speaker 4: other ways because it was so it was so much
Speaker 4: harder back then. It was like the you know, even
Speaker 4: now talking about being able to do conventions, how great
Speaker 4: have conventions been for people to help make it make us,
Speaker 4: you know, make us a living in between the times
Speaker 4: when you're booking jobs. It's like we didn't used to
Speaker 4: have those options.
Speaker 5: Yeah, no, I agree. I mean I I because of
Speaker 5: Star Trek. I was doing conventions even when I did
Speaker 5: your show, because it exists in the seventies. But conventions
Speaker 5: now like every show has their own yep, yeah, their
Speaker 5: own sort of thing. So yeah, it's fun too. I
Speaker 5: mean I always wonder, like when you it must be
Speaker 5: weird for you guys to have had like this huge
Speaker 5: success so young. One of you said in some quote
Speaker 5: I read, it's weird like you the first line of
Speaker 5: your obituaries already written. That really kind of made me think,
Speaker 5: like that's kind of wild. Because with Star Trek, I'm
Speaker 5: also like, god, I hope that's not the first line.
Speaker 5: They Yeah, like I big, so that I can you know,
Speaker 5: like not that I hate it, but it's like you
Speaker 5: don't want to be identified as something did so long ago, right.
Speaker 2: Right, Well, I mean you're on the Sopranos, for God's sakes.
Speaker 2: I mean that was the huge show which we didn't
Speaker 2: get to talk about, which I would love to have
Speaker 2: talked about.
Speaker 4: What we will talk about it Moranos a little bit. Okay,
Speaker 4: let's talk Sopranos.
Speaker 2: Go for it. Well, what was it like to be
Speaker 2: on Sopranos?
Speaker 5: Was like going into the mob? Was it really the
Speaker 5: priests and the Sopranos? And I actually self taped that
Speaker 5: out of la So I never auditioned for it, and
Speaker 5: that was self tape. Wasn't even a thing then. But
Speaker 5: I got to New York, they got me, They drove
Speaker 5: me to Jersey. I got through hair and makeup and
Speaker 5: into my priests got and we were in an Italian
Speaker 5: neighborhood shooting on location. Well, they all acted like I
Speaker 5: was a priest. They were all like your father thought.
Speaker 5: I mean, they were so reverential.
Speaker 4: Let me tell, let me tell our dear listeners, so
Speaker 4: they know what we're talking about. You played Father Jose
Speaker 4: of Saint Eliza's Church, the Keeper of the Saints hat,
Speaker 4: and you had a very intense scene with Polly Walnuts.
Speaker 5: Yeah, who showed up hair already done. You didn't touch
Speaker 5: Oh I love that. Shut up camera ready. You didn't
Speaker 5: touch his hair on his face? I did. It Definitely
Speaker 5: felt like it felt very real, is all I'm going
Speaker 5: to say. Like everyone very legitimately like you were walking
Speaker 5: into the show. It didn't feel like a bunch of
Speaker 5: actors sitting around to you know, be asking about whatever
Speaker 5: it was.
Speaker 4: It was just like your time on Boy Meets World.
Speaker 6: Yes, very similar, very similar, very.
Speaker 5: It was superb subversion. Let Yeah, apparently priests very popular
Speaker 5: in the mob, so all one messed with me. They
Speaker 5: were a little scared that I would put some kind
Speaker 5: of hecks on them or sometimes the power of the collar.
Speaker 4: Yes, I also want to talk to you after you
Speaker 4: totally killed it on our show. You ended up in
Speaker 4: two thousand and three on Ryan Murphy's Nip Tuck, and
Speaker 4: you played a trans woman, Sophia Lopez, in an emotional
Speaker 4: three episode arc where you visit the doctor to have
Speaker 4: your Adams apple shaved down. It was incredibly early to
Speaker 4: play a transgender character on television and it is such
Speaker 4: a memorable role. What was that experience like for you?
Speaker 5: So that show was so I didn't work since I
Speaker 5: finished when I I think your show was the last
Speaker 5: thing I did until I did. No, I did your show,
Speaker 5: and then I didn't work for several years. I had
Speaker 5: and then I did. My manager, who's also my husband,
Speaker 5: got me. He's like, do something like, please work tiny
Speaker 5: role in a pighilt of a transgender character. The pilot
Speaker 5: was called First Monday. It's like, you do this part.
Speaker 5: You should just try And I'm like, oh, I don't
Speaker 5: know what, what even is that? So I did this
Speaker 5: little role as a transgender character. It's like, oh, I
Speaker 5: could totally play that. Because back then they weren't that
Speaker 5: that's not a topic that was explored. Gender actors existed
Speaker 5: in the theater world, but they were not in the industry.
Speaker 5: It wasn't like there was a ton of people that
Speaker 5: were being considered for these roles. And if you could,
Speaker 5: I'm a character actor, so if you could become something
Speaker 5: physically different, why not. And then the nip Talk role
Speaker 5: came along and it was like nip Talk was just
Speaker 5: it broke the mole on everything. They just did whatever
Speaker 5: they wanted to. Ryan did whatever he wanted to, and
Speaker 5: so yeah, it was definitely, I mean, it's a role
Speaker 5: I couldn't play now, obviously because there are transgender actors
Speaker 5: playing there, but back then there really weren't that many.
Speaker 5: So I feel really lucky I got to play her.
Speaker 5: She was an amazing character.
Speaker 4: I was wondering if you could talk to us a
Speaker 4: little bit about the differences and opportunities for gay actors
Speaker 4: comparing the nineties and now.
Speaker 5: I mean, I was totally in the closet in the
Speaker 5: nineties as an actor. I wasn't out, Like I wouldn't
Speaker 5: come to set and talk to you about my husband
Speaker 5: or my life would yeah, matter of fact, the comics
Speaker 5: and I was also kind of like young heart throbby
Speaker 5: type of vibe and so like the comics of the
Speaker 5: warm up would be like there's a girl here who
Speaker 5: wants to know if you've got a girlfriend. That kind
Speaker 5: of thing happened to be at Mommies and completely was
Speaker 5: like why what do I do? I don't want to
Speaker 5: lie about who I am. It was very complicated. It
Speaker 5: was like about who I am, but I don't want
Speaker 5: to come out and I don't want it to be
Speaker 5: this thing. And there were normal people, you know. Definitely
Speaker 5: I couldn't have played any of the parts I played
Speaker 5: in the sitcoms, right right? That really changed, you know that.
Speaker 5: I mean it definitely since Wooling Grace kind of opened
Speaker 5: the door. Now I just audition for whatever. There's no
Speaker 5: I don't they There's a lot less pigeonholing of gay
Speaker 5: actors now. I think we have a much bigger spectrum
Speaker 5: of what we can play, and there's more gay characters
Speaker 5: that are written in fun I got for a lot
Speaker 5: of gay characters because there's a lot of women. There's
Speaker 5: a lot of Latino characters now that are way more
Speaker 5: complex than they used to be. Back in our day
Speaker 5: of the nineties, you had you either like the Latin
Speaker 5: lover as Latin lover or like a gang kid in
Speaker 5: a drama, right right. That was like the two options.
Speaker 5: And then it's changed, you know. I mean, I played
Speaker 5: a gay Latino doctor who was a foreigner for like
Speaker 5: ten years on a show. Just go like, oh the
Speaker 5: moles thrown out. It's much more.
Speaker 4: Free, you know. So that's great.
Speaker 6: I'm sorry, from a business standpoint, when you're married to
Speaker 6: your manager, do you still have to give him fifteen percent?
Speaker 5: It's worse than that because when we have bites, he goes.
Speaker 5: You know, if we get divorced, I get six and
Speaker 5: the ten. So it's actually like a deal because I
Speaker 5: one hundred percent make and work for it. Where's my
Speaker 5: appointment to such and such and I need this done
Speaker 5: and yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 4: How long have you guys been married?
Speaker 5: Thirty well married legally since two thousand and eight, but
Speaker 5: we've been up together over thirty years.
Speaker 4: Wow, do you.
Speaker 2: Have any kid?
Speaker 4: He were you guys together when you did Boy Meets World?
Speaker 5: Yeah, one hundred Yeah, that's amazing. We don't have kids.
Speaker 5: I'm not a fan of children. I like dogs. Okay,
Speaker 5: there you go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well too well to do parents.
Speaker 5: So yeah, no kid.
Speaker 4: I at least appreciate that you know you don't like
Speaker 4: kids and then didn't have them and decided after thank you.
Speaker 5: Kids. Unlike the Pied Piper, kids like love.
Speaker 2: Me, will same with me.
Speaker 5: They says that, I'm like, get away from your kids.
Speaker 5: You're bothering me that same way, but they love me.
Speaker 5: I love kids, and like, I love kids if they're cool,
Speaker 5: like they're just little people to me. They're either little
Speaker 5: people or they're little all jerks.
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, so sometimes they're sometimes they're both.
Speaker 5: Sometimes they're both. I just don't need that in my life.
Speaker 5: You know, Yeah, I don't have that gene. So, but
Speaker 5: I have lots of friends with kids, lots of gay
Speaker 5: friends with kids. That's a whole other topic, the whole
Speaker 5: subversion of gay people the kids anywhere.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they yeah, they really halt your life for a
Speaker 4: little bit. Yep, it's true. So on top of being
Speaker 4: on the Closer and Major Crimes and Picard and Station
Speaker 4: nineteen last year, you also somehow find time to be
Speaker 4: a vital voice for so many important causes, most notably
Speaker 4: for the LGBTQ plus community. And you've worked on three
Speaker 4: presidential campaigns, spoken for anti bullying initiatives, You've taken up
Speaker 4: environmental issues, and you were a celebrity surrogate for Obama's
Speaker 4: twenty twelve campaigns. First, how do you have the time
Speaker 4: to be so great?
Speaker 2: He doesn't have kids? He does have kids.
Speaker 4: You're right, You've already answered that one. And then secondly,
Speaker 4: what is it that makes you want to speak up
Speaker 4: for things that are so important to you?
Speaker 5: Well, we could add fourth campaign because I'm a surrogate
Speaker 5: for a comma.
Speaker 4: Like Kamala Harris.
Speaker 5: Okay, great, So I think something happens for human beings.
Speaker 5: I read this somewhere like the stages of being a human.
Speaker 5: A good human is you get to a stage where
Speaker 5: like you need to give back. Yeah, usually people have
Speaker 5: a kid, like in their thirties or whatever. I think
Speaker 5: at that stage, my giving back was like community, you know,
Speaker 5: and yeah, make some sort of causes. That's how I like.
Speaker 5: I actually love it just as much as being an actor.
Speaker 5: It's really campaigning and working on like something that's bigger
Speaker 5: than you. And yeah, money for kids that are getting
Speaker 5: bullied or you know, just things that are seemingly unfair
Speaker 5: in the world. Try to educate people. So for me,
Speaker 5: like it's I love finding time for that because that's
Speaker 5: really really a fun fulfilling aspect that sometimes acting doesn't
Speaker 5: give me. Right, I think that the industry doesn't really
Speaker 5: have an opportunity. I mean, you know everyone in a
Speaker 5: while you do work as an actor that feels significant,
Speaker 5: but that's kind of rare. But with with sort of
Speaker 5: all the social stuff and politics, I understand it and
Speaker 5: I speak it, you know what I mean, I get it.
Speaker 5: So I feel like it's a talent I have that
Speaker 5: I want to like use, for want of a better word,
Speaker 5: for the good of all right, So it's exciting. It's
Speaker 5: an exciting world, the world of politics. It has the
Speaker 5: potential to change so many lives. I think that I
Speaker 5: don't really understand me. A lot of people are so
Speaker 5: turned off by politics, and yeah, we have a flawed
Speaker 5: system and there's just a lot wrong with it, but
Speaker 5: there's a lot that without it wouldn't get done right.
Speaker 5: So yeah, I'm a real big believer in voting and
Speaker 5: getting people to be engaged and not give up. You know,
Speaker 5: because at the end of the day, we kind of
Speaker 5: hold the keys to the car, so if we all
Speaker 5: exercise that power, we would have a much I think
Speaker 5: we think. I believe most people are pretty great. You know,
Speaker 5: we all like got together and really decided what was important.
Speaker 5: We would actually agree more than we think. You know.
Speaker 1: Wow, I'm so impressed by your optimism that you that
Speaker 1: you've been able to maintain it, because I feel like
Speaker 1: when people go into politics or activism, you can so
Speaker 1: quickly turn bitter, you know, or just feel like you're
Speaker 1: always fighting and against something.
Speaker 2: But it sounds like you're really.
Speaker 5: There's a lot of disappointment and a lot of you
Speaker 5: want to hit your head against the wall and you're
Speaker 5: not understand this. Well, it just takes time, and you know,
Speaker 5: it just it's we're really big country guys, you know,
Speaker 5: I mean every state it's its own little country. And
Speaker 5: I think it's hard to find common ground. But I've
Speaker 5: seen good enough. I've seen there's more of us that
Speaker 5: are on the same page than we think. It was.
Speaker 6: It Churchill who said that democracy is the worst form
Speaker 6: of government except for all the others.
Speaker 2: Exactly, and I think that's absolutely true.
Speaker 6: So it's you know, it's you've got a lot of
Speaker 6: people with a lot of opinions.
Speaker 5: You know, it's completely what they want for themselves or
Speaker 5: for their family or their tribe. I mean think were
Speaker 5: super tribal and we're like oriented like gold, blue, red.
Speaker 5: And at the end of the day, I mean, you know,
Speaker 5: I lived through nine nine to eleven, right we all did.
Speaker 5: Do you remember what that felt like? That was weird
Speaker 5: couple feeling like, oh, that's what it feels like to
Speaker 5: be a united country. Yeah, align for anyone, even if
Speaker 5: I don't agree on my particular issues. Anyone that that
Speaker 5: truly is striving to bring people together as opposed to
Speaker 5: politics of ripping people apart. Is an that now it's
Speaker 5: an actual like strategy, right.
Speaker 2: Sure, well 'or easier to control if we're in little groups.
Speaker 5: One hundred percent.
Speaker 6: So it's you know, it's it's unfortunate, but it's true.
Speaker 6: So it's you know, anything that brings us all together
Speaker 6: scares a lot of people, scares a lot of very
Speaker 6: important people.
Speaker 2: So yeah, but.
Speaker 5: For me, it's actually like being an actor and being
Speaker 5: involved in these things, they all kind of work hand
Speaker 5: in hand, you know, because no matter how famous you
Speaker 5: are not, even if you're on TV a little you
Speaker 5: have really some kind of platform, even if it's a
Speaker 5: small one. So why not like use it for something
Speaker 5: that matters to you? You know?
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's great. Well, I love that. Thank you for
Speaker 4: sharing that with us. We ask this question to a
Speaker 4: lot of our guests that we have forced to watch
Speaker 4: episodes of something they did from the nineties. Looking back,
Speaker 4: if you could tell young Jonathan anything now, what would
Speaker 4: it be?
Speaker 5: Well, that's good. I never thought I was attractive. I
Speaker 5: always felt really awkward and like not attractive. I'd be like,
Speaker 5: you look good, guy, you know you don't not You're
Speaker 5: not the elephant man. You grow up as a as
Speaker 5: an immigrant and as gay, and like hiding so much
Speaker 5: of what you are, you do not. You have a
Speaker 5: weird sense of how you present to the world. And
Speaker 5: even though you get affirmed as a young person, Oh
Speaker 5: you're you're gonna be the handsome whatever, you're this, you're that,
Speaker 5: you still go like, I am still not you know,
Speaker 5: what's your brother's name?
Speaker 4: Strong?
Speaker 5: You know you carried. I mean, I'm sure you all
Speaker 5: have had that experience as actors. Sure, yeah, like I'm
Speaker 5: not as pretty as this one, or I'm not as
Speaker 5: as tall as that guy. Yeah.
Speaker 6: Well it's because we're all actors are just by nature,
Speaker 6: we're horribly insecure people.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, But I.
Speaker 1: Also think it plays into the thing you were talking about,
Speaker 1: you know, right from the beginning, about the trope of
Speaker 1: like the Latin lover. You know, I know my wife
Speaker 1: she's a Latin actress, and the entire first ten years
Speaker 1: of her career, there were only three roles. She would
Speaker 1: play the maid, the prostitute, or the drug addict, and
Speaker 1: it was like that's it, you know, And then then
Speaker 1: everything changed in like ninety eight, when like j lo
Speaker 1: Is suddenly like, oh we could have Latin actresses be leads.
Speaker 1: But also she's always felt this pressure, like constantly the
Speaker 1: roles would be the like vivacious, buxome, Latin, you know,
Speaker 1: goddess sort of thing.
Speaker 3: And she's like, that's not me.
Speaker 2: I'm not physically that person.
Speaker 1: But she'd have to go out for these roles and
Speaker 1: she so she has this like crazy insecurity about her
Speaker 1: looks and it's like, no, you're beautiful, You're just not
Speaker 1: that trope, you know, but it was it was like
Speaker 1: it would actually hurt her career to not be that.
Speaker 1: So I'm impressed like the way that you when you
Speaker 1: talk about this audition for Boymans or the way that
Speaker 1: you kind of turned to that and made it more
Speaker 1: of about like his him owning him, like his his
Speaker 1: confidence being less about like being this sexy guy, more
Speaker 1: just as confident, like self loving. I think you said,
Speaker 1: like I love that that's like, and that spoke to me.
Speaker 5: You remember, he doesn't make the moves on any of
Speaker 5: the girls.
Speaker 2: No, No, he's.
Speaker 4: Actually he's like, you're not feeling Nunzio like I'm feeling.
Speaker 5: Very sweet in that way, datory right in any way.
Speaker 1: And I think they didn't write it that way originally.
Speaker 1: I think that's because you brought.
Speaker 3: That and they were so much better. It's so much better.
Speaker 5: Well it disarms people, right someone. Yeah, and I think
Speaker 5: he needed to be that to get the guys on this,
Speaker 5: you know, yes, like I'm going to help these poor
Speaker 5: American boys.
Speaker 2: Can you hate that guy?
Speaker 5: Great?
Speaker 4: Well, As your former dance partner, I would like to
Speaker 4: say that we are all so proud of you and
Speaker 4: your career and your activism and the impressive roles that
Speaker 4: you have gotten to play. And we thank you so
Speaker 4: much for your time. Thank thank you so much for
Speaker 4: being here with us.
Speaker 5: We're talking to you guys you as well.
Speaker 4: You thank you.
Speaker 5: Take care, take care, bye bye.
Speaker 4: Another perfect drive by guest star actor, A perfect guest
Speaker 4: to have on this podcast. He's so interesting, such a
Speaker 4: great conversation.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and we've talked about this a couple of times,
Speaker 6: but it is so difficult to be a guest star
Speaker 6: on it I now, especially an established show, and to
Speaker 6: come in and you've got.
Speaker 2: What three days maybe total, to.
Speaker 6: Come in and kill it and be you know, you're
Speaker 6: still remembered for a role you played for one week
Speaker 6: twenty five or thirty years ago.
Speaker 2: That's just impressive, it really is. It blows my mind
Speaker 2: that he was with his husband back then. I know,
Speaker 2: I don't think about that. Just think about how much
Speaker 2: our lives have changed.
Speaker 1: Exactly the last year, and he's had the same partner
Speaker 1: since that moment when he was playing amazing character.
Speaker 2: That is like, that's just for me. Such a head
Speaker 2: trip to think about it. So cool, cool, cool.
Speaker 4: Well, thank you all for joining us for this episode
Speaker 4: of Podmeets World. As always, you can follow us on
Speaker 4: Instagram meets World Show. You can send us your emails
Speaker 4: podmeets Worldshow at gmail dot com and we have.
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Speaker 2: We love you all, pod dismissed.
Speaker 6: Podmeets World is nheart podcast producer and hosted by Danielle Fischel,
Speaker 6: Wilfordell and Ryder Strong. Executive producers Jensen Carp and Amy Sugarman,
Speaker 6: Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor,
Speaker 6: Tara sudbachsch producer, Maddie Moore, engineer and Boy Meets World
Speaker 6: superfan Easton Allen. Our theme song is by Kyle Morton
Speaker 6: of Typhoon, and you can follow us on Instagram at
Speaker 6: podmeets World Show or email us at Podmetsworldshow at gmail
Speaker 6: dot com.