Speaker 1: So then you fly out.
Speaker 2: So sure enough, they're flying me out. What's funny is
Speaker 2: that for the next two or three days they're using
Speaker 2: me as the reader because they're continuing to read Bob's
Speaker 2: and Richie's and Donna's.
Speaker 1: So you're reading, you're reading with other Bobs and other Richies.
Speaker 2: Uh huh, and all the Donnas. You know, they flew
Speaker 2: me out. I guess they wanted to get, you know,
Speaker 2: the best bag for their buck.
Speaker 1: Do you remember who any of those people were, where
Speaker 1: any did any of them pan out to have careers?
Speaker 2: Yes? Helen Hunt read four? No really get it?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Wow? Yeah, wow?
Speaker 2: Yeah. She was great. I will say, and this is
Speaker 2: one of a few times I've ever said this. When
Speaker 2: I walked in, I didn't think I had a shot
Speaker 2: at Richie.
Speaker 1: Huh. Why is that?
Speaker 2: Because John Stamuss's picture was already up on the wall.
Speaker 1: Welcome to More Than a Movie, a podcast that gives
Speaker 1: you a behind the scenes look at your favorite movies.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Alex blumt. Last season, we did a
Speaker 1: deep dive on American met This season, I'll focus on
Speaker 1: a different movie. Each episode feature interviews with the biggest actors, directors, writers,
Speaker 1: and producers behind them and tap into the history of
Speaker 1: Latinos in film. In my house growing up, there were
Speaker 1: two types of music playing, Cuban music and rock and roll.
Speaker 1: The playlist was not uncommonly the Rolling Stones or Rare Earth,
Speaker 1: followed by Cacao and Celia Cruz. But there wasn't a
Speaker 1: lot of music out there that bridged the gap between
Speaker 1: these two worlds for me, my American side and my
Speaker 1: Latino one. Until I heard LaBamba. Little Alex would pull
Speaker 1: out the bongo drums. Yes we really had bongo drums,
Speaker 1: and I'd bang away at them, singing La bamba offbeat
Speaker 1: at the top of my lungs, or dancing around yelling
Speaker 1: over and over again. While LaBamba is originally Mexican, not Cuban,
Speaker 1: it comes from Vera Cruz, where many of the songs
Speaker 1: had the same African influence his Cuban music had, so
Speaker 1: it sounded familiar, except the version I was singing was
Speaker 1: not the Verakrusian folk song. It was the version I'd
Speaker 1: seen in the nineteen eighty seven film by the same
Speaker 1: name about this rock and roll legend named Richie Vallens,
Speaker 1: who also felt caught between his American life and his
Speaker 1: Latino one, and the film starred this Latino kid whose
Speaker 1: name was weirdly Lou Diamond Phillips. As it turns out,
Speaker 1: Lou wasn't technically Latino. He's Filipino, Native American and a
Speaker 1: couple other things mixed in. But as anybody who lives
Speaker 1: in La knows, Filipinos are just the Latinos of Asia.
Speaker 1: In fact, I learned to make my lazoonskin extra crispy
Speaker 1: watching a Filipino dude on YouTube. So I was psyched
Speaker 1: when Lou said he'd joined us on more than a
Speaker 1: movie to talk about how that iconic role changed his life.
Speaker 1: This whole episode is about how the coming together of
Speaker 1: cultures and of people can often produce the greatest work. Well,
Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen, I am here with the most notable,
Speaker 1: honorary Latino in the history of cinema. In fact, I
Speaker 1: think there's still probably a fair share of the audience
Speaker 1: that believes he's Latino. He is a legendary actor. You've
Speaker 1: seen him in everything from LaBamba to Stand and Delivered
Speaker 1: Young Guns to I mean, his IMDb goes on and on.
Speaker 1: Mister Lou Diamond Phillips, thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 2: It is absolutely my you know, my honor and my pleasure.
Speaker 2: It has always been my privilege to represent Laarasa and
Speaker 2: you know, to be Latino adjacent.
Speaker 1: I know, technically you're on team Asian, and I understand
Speaker 1: geographically why, but we share so much in common, right DNA.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's you know, we are the Latinos of
Speaker 2: the Pacific, and I think that's been one of the
Speaker 2: most interesting conundrums of categorizing Filipinos. And in this day
Speaker 2: and age when people are hyper focused on DNA and
Speaker 2: categorization and labels and whatnot, you know, the Philippines has
Speaker 2: always been a crossroads. And yes, you know, we are
Speaker 2: Asian influenced, we are Pacific Islander influenced, we are Indonesian influenced.
Speaker 2: But there's also a long centuries long tradition of Spanish influence,
Speaker 2: you know. So it's it's an interesting, you know, place
Speaker 2: to be. But it's also been you know, one of
Speaker 2: one of the things that I taken a heart in
Speaker 2: representing the Latino culture and doing it with pride and
Speaker 2: with respect. You know the fact that I am at
Speaker 2: least physically, for lack of a better word, approvable in
Speaker 2: those roles, you know, and that the Latino directors and
Speaker 2: writers were the ones who chose me. You know, I've
Speaker 2: always feel justified in playing those roles.
Speaker 1: So was the acting bug always there from a really
Speaker 1: young age? Or when was the moment that you were like, hey,
Speaker 1: I might actually I want to do this.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, in sixth grade. I was still in
Speaker 2: the Philippines at the time, on the Naval Air station.
Speaker 2: I was born there, left, traveled around quite a bit,
Speaker 2: and then went back from seventeen to seventy four, and
Speaker 2: I had a bunch of rambunctious, you know, young friends,
Speaker 2: and we were, you know, all a little precocious, and
Speaker 2: the teachers, I remember to the Statemus Greenberg and Ms
Speaker 2: McGain made us ride our own play. So we ripped
Speaker 2: off Charlie Brown. You know, I think the statute of
Speaker 2: limitations is you know, used up by this point. But
Speaker 2: you know I wrote, I wrote myself all the best
Speaker 2: lines as Linus and I got laughs, and you know
Speaker 2: that was when the bug bit. But then when I
Speaker 2: got down to Corpus Christie discovered something called the University
Speaker 2: Interscholastical League, which you know in Texas we actually compete
Speaker 2: in drama very much like you know, you would compete,
Speaker 2: you know, compete in track or you know, basketball or
Speaker 2: something like that. And so through junior high and high school,
Speaker 2: I was winning awards and you know, nothing like positive
Speaker 2: reinforcement to go okay, you're good at something. And I
Speaker 2: fell in love with it and decided this is what
Speaker 2: I was going to do for the rest of my life,
Speaker 2: much to the chagrin of my you know, high school
Speaker 2: counselor my drama teacher tried to talk me out of it.
Speaker 2: Really certainly parents. Yeah, no, they're like, what are you kidding.
Speaker 2: You're a kid from a small town in Texas and
Speaker 2: you think you're going to be in the movies. And
Speaker 2: I was like, well, yeah, you know, and so I
Speaker 2: would not be interred. And I majored in theater at
Speaker 2: the University of Texas at Arlington, and you know, one
Speaker 2: thing led to another, and yeah, it all worked out. Okay.
Speaker 1: I'm curious, like, you know, before LaBamba hits and we'll
Speaker 1: get to talking about Labama obviously, but like you know,
Speaker 1: I know, you did a film called Trespasses right before LaBamba.
Speaker 1: You were behind the camera as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah it was okay, So the little tiny Christian film
Speaker 2: is called Angel Alley. For the next few years, I
Speaker 2: supported myself as an actor, not only with theater, but
Speaker 2: with a comedy troupe called The Zero Hour, which would
Speaker 2: do midnight shows on Fridays and Saturdays. I hooked up
Speaker 2: with a man named Adam Rourke who became my film mentor,
Speaker 2: and so he opened up something called the Film Actors
Speaker 2: Lab in Dallas, and I was one of his first students,
Speaker 2: trained specifically for film. The whole philosophy of of the
Speaker 2: Film Actor's Lab was take what you've learned in college
Speaker 2: or in other acting classes, whether it's your Meisner, your Stella, Adler,
Speaker 2: or you know, any of this stuff, and applied to
Speaker 2: how do you hitch marks, how do you match how
Speaker 2: do you play it close up versus a master? How
Speaker 2: do you tell a story out of order? You know,
Speaker 2: because an employe you get to go from beginning to end.
Speaker 2: So it was all of the the brass tacks of
Speaker 2: being an actor on film.
Speaker 1: And you were doing this in college.
Speaker 2: I was, Yes, I was. I was doing concurrently while
Speaker 2: I was in college, still doing Paul's play, still doing
Speaker 2: professional plays, and you know, landing things, you know, like
Speaker 2: on the Dallas Show at the time, Texas was a
Speaker 2: right to work state, so they were doing. My second
Speaker 2: job was literally a really really bad TV movie called
Speaker 2: time Bomb that we called stink Bomb. But I've been
Speaker 2: friends with Billy D Williams and Morgan Fairchild ever since. Wow,
Speaker 2: And yeah, I mean it was It was an incredibly
Speaker 2: formative period, you know, in my life. And that the
Speaker 2: Trespasses credit actually came about because right after Tender Mercies
Speaker 2: there was a rancher who, like many people you know,
Speaker 2: saw devalse performances, said well he's not doing anything, you know,
Speaker 2: and then they go, well I can do that. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he mortgaged his ranch. He made this really really bad
Speaker 2: film and couldn't sell it. You know, he was out
Speaker 2: a million bucks. And you know I had heard about me,
Speaker 2: you know, I had heard about Adam in the film
Speaker 2: actor's lab in Dallas. Came to us, showed us the movie,
Speaker 2: said I have a distributor who will actually give me
Speaker 2: the money back for this and distribute it. Get this
Speaker 2: if I can put in two fight scenes in a raight?
Speaker 2: Was I Wow? And I was writing all of the.
Speaker 1: Is that just like treading on old Western tropes? Like
Speaker 1: what was that about?
Speaker 2: You know? And so literally, it was my first and greatest,
Speaker 2: one of my greatest exercises in a post mortim and
Speaker 2: how to make a movie work. Because I saw the
Speaker 2: original film. I got to see all the outtakes obviously
Speaker 2: the script, and this is two years later, and you know,
Speaker 2: things like, oh my goodness, the girl who was nine
Speaker 2: then is now eleven and has sprouted six inches. We
Speaker 2: have to put her in a car accident and a
Speaker 2: full body chat. You know, so literally coming up with
Speaker 2: really really practical ways to make the movie work. And
Speaker 2: it's still not a good movie, but you know, it
Speaker 2: got sold, and you know, I appeared in it, Adam
Speaker 2: appeared in it. I'm credited as a you know, as
Speaker 2: a screenwriter in it's.
Speaker 1: And it sounds like it was it was a little
Speaker 1: bit of your film school. I mean, I've heard people say,
Speaker 1: like the best film school is making a bad movie.
Speaker 1: You know, yeah, making a movie, but they just usually
Speaker 1: turn out bad when it's when it's your first exactly.
Speaker 1: And so with Labama, I've heard you say, you know,
Speaker 1: it sort of shot you out of a cannon. But
Speaker 1: what I'm hearing is there was, you know, as there
Speaker 1: usually is, like all these years of sort of invisible
Speaker 1: preparation that gets you ready for that moment when LaBamba.
Speaker 2: Calls one hundred percent. And I have said this to
Speaker 2: young acting students. A matter of fact, I just went
Speaker 2: back to my alma mater, the University of Texas at Arlington,
Speaker 2: and I taught a week long residency there, not only
Speaker 2: to the theater students, but the musical theater students and
Speaker 2: the film students. And once again, it's like you can't
Speaker 2: sort of look at what happened to me out of
Speaker 2: context and go, oh, my gosh, he's an overnight success,
Speaker 2: because as you said, I was working in the film
Speaker 2: business and teaching for four years and writing prior to
Speaker 2: you know, Levamba coming along, and there is an inordinate
Speaker 2: amount of luck that has to happen to you in
Speaker 2: your career. You have to be in the right place
Speaker 2: at the right time. But as you said, when that
Speaker 2: moment comes, you have to be prepared because if you're
Speaker 2: with that opportunity, it's going to be a while before
Speaker 2: it comes back around.
Speaker 1: We'll be back after the break, Welcome back more than
Speaker 1: a movie. I'm your host, Alex Fumado, and we are
Speaker 1: talking to lou Diamond Phillips about how exactly. He landed
Speaker 1: the role that would change his life forever. So I'm curious,
Speaker 1: you know, leading into La Bamba, you initially auditioned for
Speaker 1: the part of Bob, which eventually goes to Issim Morales.
Speaker 1: Do you remember getting that call those sides? What is like?
Speaker 1: You know, what's the kind of earliest moment that you remember, Like, hey,
Speaker 1: they're doing a movie about this guy, Richie Vallens is
Speaker 1: not quite as famous as Buddy Holly, He's not quite Elvis, right, Like,
Speaker 1: you know what was that first like huh moment?
Speaker 2: Well, it was totally It's a mistake. It wasn't It
Speaker 2: did not happen that kind of way. I mean back
Speaker 2: in the day, man, you know, you used to not
Speaker 2: get the sides until you got to the audition is
Speaker 2: cold reading. It was a cold reading, you know, if
Speaker 2: you were smart and you got there half an early
Speaker 2: hour early and you would sit and review them before
Speaker 2: you had to go in, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: So I'm teaching at the Film Actors Lab. I get
Speaker 2: a call from my agency. Ah, they know I also
Speaker 2: do Legit Theater, which was.
Speaker 1: An agency based in Dallas at that time. So we're
Speaker 1: talking about a regional talent agency.
Speaker 2: A regional talent agency, a regional casting director Rody Kent,
Speaker 2: who was wonderful who put me in the Dallas series
Speaker 2: and also a couple of other television movies and whatnot.
Speaker 2: You know, there weren't a whole lot of guys that
Speaker 2: looked like me, right, you know. So, yeah, so I'm
Speaker 2: an ethnic guy in a sea of you know, good looking,
Speaker 2: young white guys who you know, end up on the
Speaker 2: Dallas series. You know, I used to joke that I'd
Speaker 2: keep a red Dan Danna and a switchblade in my
Speaker 2: car for auditions, because that's usually what I got called for.
Speaker 2: You know, hey, want to cut you, you know.
Speaker 1: The unfortunate story of almost every brown actor.
Speaker 2: I feel like exactly, you know, but I got a
Speaker 2: lot of work, and once again, that's a training route.
Speaker 2: So now I get this call from my agency and
Speaker 2: it's the agency assistant. She goes, yeah, it's a musical
Speaker 2: about Frankie Valley, right, and you know, and now, now,
Speaker 2: of course there's Jersey Boys, which makes all the sense
Speaker 2: in the world, but at the time there wasn't.
Speaker 1: You're like, how do I fit into how does my
Speaker 1: ex filipino looking in this film? Yeah right, yeah.
Speaker 2: So you know, screw it. You know, I'm auditioned for
Speaker 2: and so to make matters worse what sort of I
Speaker 2: don't know. It seemed to justify that was that the
Speaker 2: actual audition was in a legit theater in downtown Dallas.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: So I get there.
Speaker 1: Which is lucky because you're very comfortable on the stage
Speaker 1: at this point because you've been doing local theater productions
Speaker 1: exactly tons.
Speaker 2: So it's all good. So I go to this audition
Speaker 2: and I walk in the door and there are these
Speaker 2: people I've never seen before. Phylisparza, the associate producer, Judy Lowry,
Speaker 2: l a casting director, and a couple of other people.
Speaker 2: Was Taylor Hackford there, No, neither Taylor was there. Louis
Speaker 2: val was not there, nor Danny Valdez. But coming to
Speaker 2: Texas with Standy Valdez's idea because they'd already done La, Chicago,
Speaker 2: New York.
Speaker 1: And Miamis I understand it.
Speaker 2: I believe. So when all was said and done, they
Speaker 2: saw six hundred people. So they hand me the sides
Speaker 2: and immediately I'm going, this is a movie, and I'm
Speaker 2: looking at this, and then Phil and JUNI explain that
Speaker 2: this is a biopic about Richie Vallens, And I'm like, oh.
Speaker 1: You know you did you you knew who Richie Allens
Speaker 1: was at the very.
Speaker 2: Least, yes, yes, in broad Strucks.
Speaker 1: Right, like the guy who did Labomba probably like.
Speaker 2: Right exactly and died in the plane crash with Buddy Holly.
Speaker 2: So now they start filling in the blanks. So I
Speaker 2: actually go on tape. Well, here's the thing. You come
Speaker 2: in and you read first. Okay, they had me read
Speaker 2: for both roles. There's about a dozen guys there from
Speaker 2: you know, swore the Caucasians to you know, real Latino
Speaker 2: you know dudes, and maybe light skinned African American or two.
Speaker 2: All right, right, so you know, I mean it's dolls.
Speaker 2: So they read me for Bob first, you know, maybe
Speaker 2: because of my resume, I don't know. Then they read
Speaker 2: me for Richie, and Junie came out she goes, I'm
Speaker 2: not supposed to do this, but can you wait until
Speaker 2: the end of the rest of the auditions. And I'm like, oh, okay,
Speaker 2: sure of course, you know. So I'm hanging out, you know,
Speaker 2: for like four hours looking at all these things, and
Speaker 2: you know, I actually get a chance to memorize the stuff,
Speaker 2: and the reason they asked me to wait is to
Speaker 2: put me on tape at the end of the day.
Speaker 2: So they put I think me and one other guy
Speaker 2: on videotape at the end of that day after seeing
Speaker 2: like a dozen people for both roles, and Junie at
Speaker 2: the end of the day says, I'm not supposed to
Speaker 2: do this either. Here's the full script. Who you're probably
Speaker 2: going to be hearing from us, you know. So she
Speaker 2: gives me the full script. I go home that night
Speaker 2: and now there are very few opportunity in life where
Speaker 2: you go, this is the big one.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I read that, and I went, this is the big one.
Speaker 2: This is the big one.
Speaker 1: When you said that to yourself, are you thinking I'm
Speaker 1: auditioning for Richie or are you thinking I'm auditioning for me?
Speaker 2: Either one?
Speaker 1: Either one. So you don't you don't know the part.
Speaker 1: You're just looking at the movie and going, this is
Speaker 1: the break.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is the break.
Speaker 1: And that casting director must have loved you to say that,
Speaker 1: because she hadn't even really you know, the other the
Speaker 1: main producers hadn't even seen you. So she's saying, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go to bat is what she's saying.
Speaker 2: That's exactly so at any rate, I get the call,
Speaker 2: and the funny thing is Rody Kent calls me. She goes, Okay,
Speaker 2: you got a problem. I said, what's that? I had
Speaker 2: landed a TV movie with Dabney Coleman, like three or
Speaker 2: four scenes, really good scenes, right, that would cover my rent? Yeah,
Speaker 2: all right, she goes, but they want you to go
Speaker 2: to la to continue to audition for La Amba during
Speaker 2: the same time. So to go to La you can,
Speaker 2: I have to turn down the sure thing. What do
Speaker 2: you want to do? Wow? Yeah, so obviously I rolled
Speaker 2: the dice. Now. My mentor, Adam Roorke, he was a
Speaker 2: realist man. He was such a practical dude. He's from Brooklyn.
Speaker 2: He goes, Louke, you go out there, you kick their ass.
Speaker 2: There's not a snowballs chance in hell you get neither
Speaker 2: one of these roles, but go out there and impress
Speaker 2: them and maybe you play the drummer.
Speaker 1: That's great, you know. I mean he's not wrong, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, this is so wrong. That's that's why I
Speaker 1: said wow when you said that, because it's like, it's
Speaker 1: so rare that you get three or four medi scenes
Speaker 1: that will pay your bills. You know. I mean that's like,
Speaker 1: you know, you're teaching acting classes, like trying to make
Speaker 1: ends meet, and here comes a paycheck and and an opportunity,
Speaker 1: and you you know, you had the bass to say no,
Speaker 1: but you had an intuition. It sounds like about it.
Speaker 1: You felt you could feel something was different about this,
Speaker 1: or you were just a gambler because I know you
Speaker 1: like to play poke.
Speaker 2: Yeah there is that, but.
Speaker 1: And I am a pretty good poker player, you know, so.
Speaker 2: To do you know, the the gambler parlance. I was
Speaker 2: betting on myself, you know, just like everybody trying to
Speaker 2: talk me out of majoring in theater in college. I
Speaker 2: knew that I could do this. I knew I was
Speaker 2: destined to do this. I knew this was an opportunity
Speaker 2: to prove that I could go to the big leagues,
Speaker 2: you know. And I obviously had done so well in
Speaker 2: my audition that JUNI was willing to, you know, stick
Speaker 2: her neck out and say we'll be in touch, which
Speaker 2: they never they never do. You know. I knew I
Speaker 2: had nailed the initial audition and could only, you know,
Speaker 2: either improve upon it or screw it up, which you
Speaker 2: know wasn't really in my playbook.
Speaker 1: Pata by l La Bamba. The advertising money, the advertising money,
Speaker 1: com commercialeza ostead. We'll be back after the break, bim
Speaker 1: benitos d nuevo. I mean he goes to more than
Speaker 1: a movie. We're here talking about La Bomba with our guest,
Speaker 1: Blue Diamond Phillips. So then you fly out, But do
Speaker 1: you remember landing? Had you ever been to La before?
Speaker 2: Strangely enough, I had gone the year before because I
Speaker 2: heard of a couple of other auditions, one of which
Speaker 2: was Platoon, and I couldn't even get in the door
Speaker 2: because I didn't have an LA agent, right, couldn't even
Speaker 2: get in the door.
Speaker 1: So I but this time you're showing up. They're flying
Speaker 1: you out to La so exactly.
Speaker 2: You know, which is the same thing? You know, I mean,
Speaker 2: too many kids get off the bus storry. I think
Speaker 2: that you know they're going to walk in and knock
Speaker 2: people's socks off. You can't even get in a building sometimes, man,
Speaker 2: you know, So sure enough they're flying me out. What's
Speaker 2: funny is that for the next two or three days
Speaker 2: they're using me as the reader because they're continuing to
Speaker 2: Bob's and Richie's and Donna's.
Speaker 1: So you're reading, you're reading with other bobs and other richies.
Speaker 2: Uh huh, and all the donnas. You know, they flew
Speaker 2: me out. I guess they wanted to get, you know,
Speaker 2: the best bang for their buck.
Speaker 1: Do you remember who any of those people were? Were
Speaker 1: any did any of them pan out to have careers?
Speaker 2: Yes? Helen Hunt read for no really? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Wow yeah, wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah. She was great. Maybe a little too mature, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, I mean it was just she just she
Speaker 2: just was so grounded, so grounded, gave a great audition.
Speaker 2: Just you know, you know, h have the kind of
Speaker 2: night you can pay. I think that Luis was looking
Speaker 2: for most of the richies. No, I will say, and
Speaker 2: this is one a few times I've ever said this.
Speaker 2: When I walked in, I didn't think I had a
Speaker 2: shot at Richie.
Speaker 1: Huh. Why is that?
Speaker 2: Because John Stamuss's picture was already up on the wall.
Speaker 1: No, stop it? Yeah, are you being for Richie? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I guess it was just stuff on the wall. I
Speaker 2: you know, I don't know. I never asked about it.
Speaker 1: And you were you looked at it and you said,
Speaker 1: he said, that's a very handsome man. That's an undeniably
Speaker 1: handsome man. On that wall.
Speaker 2: I did, I did, and I could see him in
Speaker 2: a pompadour, you.
Speaker 1: Know, with that hair. I mean, you have great hair,
Speaker 1: but you know there's there's great hair in their Stamos hair.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. That's a museum mullets.
Speaker 1: That's a museum mullet. That's correct. Yeah, substitute beach boy
Speaker 1: hair exactly. So you are sitting in this room, yeah,
Speaker 1: like an unofficial employee of the production reading with all
Speaker 1: these people. Yes, but that must have also been an
Speaker 1: advantage because you're just going over it right.
Speaker 2: That is exactly right, my friend. I heard every single
Speaker 2: direction that Luis gave to people for Bob and for Richie,
Speaker 2: and I'm taking mental notes right yep. So so then
Speaker 2: they read me for Bob with somebody else who's coming
Speaker 2: in for reading Richie. And then I remember that night,
Speaker 2: this was a Tuesday. I think they tolew me out
Speaker 2: over the weekend previous like Sunday, and Louis Veldez passing
Speaker 2: me in the hall where I'm sitting on a chair
Speaker 2: in the hallway and he goes, lou Tomorrow, you read
Speaker 2: for you read for Richie, and I'm like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: now I put all my thought and energy into Bob
Speaker 2: because I thought that Richie was unavailable. So I thought, okay,
Speaker 2: well maybe there's still a shot. And I remember walking
Speaker 2: down Lassiana a boulevard and passing a fruit stand and
Speaker 2: I bought a thing of blueberries because i'd read once
Speaker 2: that Tim Hutton, you know, used to keep blueberries with
Speaker 2: him because he had an ulcer. And so I thought, okay, fine,
Speaker 2: you know, you know, if possible on Tim Hutton and
Speaker 2: likes blueberries, I'm gonna have some blueberries. Yeah. And I
Speaker 2: had an epiphany. I had an ephany walking down Lassiana
Speaker 2: a boulevard. It's like, I don't have to prepare to
Speaker 2: be Richie. I am Richie. I'm a kid with big
Speaker 2: dreams with you know, a mountain of things against you know,
Speaker 2: against him, an unknown ethnic kid, you know, a middle
Speaker 2: class family. You know, I don't have to act those teams.
Speaker 2: I have those streams just going and be me.
Speaker 1: So you got you had that epiphany. Now you walk
Speaker 1: in for your Richie addition. Now you know they're really
Speaker 1: looking at you for this and and what does that
Speaker 1: consist of?
Speaker 2: Once again, I just I just read and that night,
Speaker 2: you know, Luis Veldez tells me on a Wednesday night, Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna screen test you tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: It was like and the screen tested me, and yet again,
Speaker 2: there was one other person left. You know, I had
Speaker 2: already done a read with east Side, and it was
Speaker 2: it was very obvious to me that he was going
Speaker 2: to be the guy.
Speaker 1: Huh.
Speaker 2: So I show up there's yet another guy. Uh, a
Speaker 2: soap opera guy that I hadn't heard of. I guess,
Speaker 2: you know, I don't know. I don't know why politically
Speaker 2: he was there. But east Side, Danielle von Zernik, was
Speaker 2: Vitena and Rassinna Psota. We're all screen testing without competition. Wow.
Speaker 2: So I felt like they were just getting approved. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So what's interesting is that the very next morning, Friday,
Speaker 2: I go back in, I get called back in to
Speaker 2: read some more Donnas because they weren't totally sold, you know,
Speaker 2: And so I go back in. I'd read with another
Speaker 2: you know, eight Donnas in the morning. And what's weird
Speaker 2: is throughout that week I become very very friendly with
Speaker 2: the office staff, Right, they were all so nice to me.
Speaker 2: I go in that morning and nobody talks to me.
Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, I can see them consciously
Speaker 2: not making eye contact, and I'm thinking, ah, shit, I
Speaker 2: didn't get it. I didn't get it, and they feel bad. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So around eleven thirty, Louis Valdez goes out maybe the
Speaker 2: bathroom comes back, and he goes, Loop, come into my office,
Speaker 2: you know. So I go into the office and there's Junie,
Speaker 2: there's Danny Valdez, Luis Taylor Hackford, and they sit me
Speaker 2: down and I think, Okay, here it is, you know,
Speaker 2: and Louise pulls up a chair like right in front
Speaker 2: of me, and he says, Louke, how would you like
Speaker 2: to play Richie Bellens?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: I burst into tears.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 2: They were just waiting for Columbia to approve the screen test.
Speaker 2: And that's why nobody wanted to talk to me, because
Speaker 2: they all knew I was first choice. They just needed
Speaker 2: to wait until Columbia said yes. And literally, Juny and
Speaker 2: Luis took me to lunch. They had already booked me
Speaker 2: a flight back to Dallas because I packed for four
Speaker 2: days or whatever. I had to pack a full suitcase,
Speaker 2: be back that next Sunday night, and you know, and
Speaker 2: start rehearsal for a week and then filming the week
Speaker 2: after so yeah, So.
Speaker 1: I mean, man, what a life changing experience. Now we've
Speaker 1: mentioned Louise fel Does a few times, we spoke with Louise.
Speaker 1: We also got the opportunity to interview Taylor as well.
Speaker 1: What did you know about Louis Veldez going into this
Speaker 1: because you're from Texas, not from California, where you know,
Speaker 1: Louise is known as the author of suit Suit, the
Speaker 1: co founder of Datro Campecino, the guy who broke Edward
Speaker 1: James almost his career, right, Like, what did you know
Speaker 1: going into this about him? By the way, this is
Speaker 1: pre internet guy, so there's not a Google search that
Speaker 1: can be done, you.
Speaker 2: Know, no, no, one hundred percent. So yeah, that week,
Speaker 2: that week alone where I had, you know, a three
Speaker 2: foot tall stack of material on Ritchie and videos and
Speaker 2: a little bit of a video, and I had to
Speaker 2: learn guitar in a week, and I had learned sixteen
Speaker 2: songs because I don't play. I still don't play.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, no, it was. It was a very very
Speaker 2: intense week. But in that week I also got a
Speaker 2: massive education in Luis Valbez. Now I was already familiar
Speaker 2: with zoot Suits.
Speaker 1: Because it had been performed in Texas. Well.
Speaker 2: No, it was on Broadway.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 2: It was, you know, fairly famous. At that point, I
Speaker 2: had not seen it was I was aware of it.
Speaker 2: I was also obviously aware of Edward James, almost a
Speaker 2: big fan of his on Miami Vice. Yeah right, massive,
Speaker 2: you know, there's a guy who looks like me on TV.
Speaker 2: So I became incredibly grateful because in the first couple
Speaker 2: of years of being in Hollywood, being with Louis Lades,
Speaker 2: being with Danny Beldes, being with people from the Theatro Campasino,
Speaker 2: being with people who were activists, Edward James, almost a
Speaker 2: number of these people who believed in advancing opportunities for people.
Speaker 2: These were my comrades. Through Luis and Danny, I fastened
Speaker 2: for and marched with Caeser Javis Wow, you know, hung
Speaker 2: out with the Kennedys and with Reverend Jesse Jackson, and
Speaker 2: you know, just just just a number of people. I mean,
Speaker 2: it used to be, you know, in the late eighties
Speaker 2: early nineties been called the usual suspects because whether it
Speaker 2: was for Rescatte or Amnesty International or ox Fam or
Speaker 2: any of these they're you know, the same people that
Speaker 2: always showed up, you know, Petty Almost, Jackson Brown and
Speaker 2: Ed Harris and you know a number of those people
Speaker 2: who were really amazing and committed to social change, you know.
Speaker 2: And so because both those films had at its heart
Speaker 2: equality and the American dream and you know, working for
Speaker 2: it and opening doors, it naturally led itself to reflecting
Speaker 2: that in life. I did that in college. I did
Speaker 2: that in high school. You know, I was president of
Speaker 2: the student council. I was you know, in the Quantus Club.
Speaker 2: I went to boy State, the Leadership Forum in Austin,
Speaker 2: you know, I mean I was involved in an activist
Speaker 2: long before this came along. This gave me an opportunity
Speaker 2: to do it on a very very large scale.
Speaker 1: And you shot in those worlds right in La Bamba.
Speaker 1: Like it wasn't a film that where they where there
Speaker 1: was sort of things were recreated on set, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean there was, but I mean there were scenes
Speaker 1: that happened in very natural settings. Can you talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about Yeah, tell me.
Speaker 2: First week, very first week we went to Watsonville. They
Speaker 2: had reserved an area of the Apricot orchard for us
Speaker 2: to be able to film in and pick you know,
Speaker 2: the thing that I left out about the screen test
Speaker 2: is when I was standing out so that I used
Speaker 2: to smoke. I don't any more, but I was having
Speaker 2: a cigarette, you know, while the other guy was in there.
Speaker 2: But as I'm standing outside the sound stage, this red
Speaker 2: tea bird pulls up a dude with a leather jacket
Speaker 2: and you know, guinea t and wrap around balaama sunglasses
Speaker 2: and you know, he gets out of the car, looks
Speaker 2: at me and gives me one of those. And I went, oh,
Speaker 2: my god, that's the real Bob Morales.
Speaker 1: Oh it was.
Speaker 2: And it was. And when I got back from Texas
Speaker 2: on that Sunday night after packing, Bob Morales picked me
Speaker 2: up at the airport and took me to the house.
Speaker 2: Then Richie bought his mom, Connie, and I met Mama Connie,
Speaker 2: Connie Junior, Irma Mario, I met the whole family, Rosie.
Speaker 2: I met everybody that night. I stayed in that house.
Speaker 1: You stayed in the house. Wow.
Speaker 2: I stayed in that house that night, you know. And
Speaker 2: they were a part of every day of rehearsal. They
Speaker 2: were part of every day of filming. We got very
Speaker 2: very close and on the very very first day of
Speaker 2: filming in Watsonville, my pickup time for the van is
Speaker 2: six thirty, But at like five point forty five, there's
Speaker 2: this banging on my door and it's Connie, Richie's mom going, Richie,
Speaker 2: it's time to go to work. And that's the way
Speaker 2: it was for the entire shoot.
Speaker 1: Wow, I've heard you talk about this a little bit
Speaker 1: about how unlike playing someone like Buddy, Holly or Elvis
Speaker 1: right where they all were already household names. Yes, there
Speaker 1: wasn't that kind of weight on you. It was a
Speaker 1: different kind of pressure that was related to this very
Speaker 1: real young man's family being around you all the time,
Speaker 1: sort of watching you. I mean the mom you know,
Speaker 1: Connie called you Richie that morning, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the whole family did every day of the shooting.
Speaker 1: Was that ever? I mean respectfully like to them, but like,
Speaker 1: was that ever weird? I mean, you know, we're talking
Speaker 1: about someone who's whose son passed away tragically.
Speaker 2: No, for me, it was validating.
Speaker 1: It was okay.
Speaker 2: For me, it was validation. You know, it was like, okay,
Speaker 2: I'm on the right track. But one time I was
Speaker 2: not called Richie was the night we were filming him
Speaker 2: getting on the plane and we shot it at Burbank Airport.
Speaker 2: Fake snow, huge wind machines blowing plastic snow everywhere, hot
Speaker 2: as hell. But I'm in a fricking fur coat, man,
Speaker 2: And Richie's supposed to be sick, and Taylor and Louise
Speaker 2: had cautioned the family to not come that night, but
Speaker 2: Connie came. Oh yeah, Connie came, and they're they're touching
Speaker 2: my makeup up, literally on the runway. And Connie walks
Speaker 2: up and I could see that she's already this you know,
Speaker 2: something wrong. And I know immediately there is something wrong
Speaker 2: because she says, lou, can I ask you something? And
Speaker 2: I went, oh, my goodness, what have I done? She's
Speaker 2: calling me, lou What's what's going on? I said, Connie,
Speaker 2: of course, And I stood up and she collapses into
Speaker 2: my arms and she starts pounding on my chess, going
Speaker 2: why did you go? Why did you have to go?
Speaker 2: And thirty years, man, thirty years of her holding onto
Speaker 2: that and in that moment, to be able to have
Speaker 2: that the tharsis because she was twelve when Richie passed,
Speaker 2: so she had very, very vivid memories of it, and
Speaker 2: you know, we were able to give her that moment.
Speaker 1: Wow, yeah, incredible. I think that's a good segue into
Speaker 1: the legacy, right for you to step into that role
Speaker 1: and revive that legacy in that way. You can't prove
Speaker 1: the statistically, but my gut is that he became a
Speaker 1: household name because of that movie. You know again, right,
Speaker 1: like he was a whole new generation. So I wonder, like,
Speaker 1: what's crazy is like right after that movie, I feel
Speaker 1: like you did two other huge movies, so then it
Speaker 1: was like you did that, and then it was like
Speaker 1: it wasn't like there was a lull. It was like
Speaker 1: Stand and Deliver and Young Guns, right.
Speaker 2: Like my first three films in Hollywood.
Speaker 1: Nuts. That's insane, I mean.
Speaker 2: To be honest. You know, even to this day, I
Speaker 2: don't know if they it gets celebrated the way it
Speaker 2: should be. You know, both of those films, both of
Speaker 2: those films. Yeah, you know, we now have you know, awareness,
Speaker 2: We now have you know, a desire to be inclusive.
Speaker 2: There's a grassroots movement to support films you know, with
Speaker 2: performers and directors and writers of color. Yeah, didn't exist
Speaker 2: back then, right, we were pioneers. Not to pat myself
Speaker 2: on the back too much, but you know, both of
Speaker 2: those films are in the national Registry of Films for
Speaker 2: their contribution to the culture of America, and yet Standley
Speaker 2: Deliver gets one OSCAR nomination. We swept the Independent Spirit Awards.
Speaker 2: The Lavamba doesn't get one. Okay, it'd be a different
Speaker 2: story today. But then again, I probably wouldn't be cast
Speaker 2: in those films today. So what's interesting is it takes
Speaker 2: a full year for Levama to come out. I got
Speaker 2: paid scale about six thousand dollars, and I give half
Speaker 2: of that to my mother, just which you would. Yeah,
Speaker 2: we filmed it in June and July of eighty six.
Speaker 2: Come December of that year, I'm almost out of money.
Speaker 2: I got to go back to text. Nobody is casting
Speaker 2: me in movies because I'm an unknown kid from Texas playing,
Speaker 2: as you said, an obscure Mexican American rock and roller.
Speaker 2: You know who's a footnote and Buddy Holly story in
Speaker 2: a six million dollar negative pickup film through Columbia. It
Speaker 2: does not have blockbuster written on it, okay.
Speaker 1: And there aren't a ton of roles being written for
Speaker 1: guys who look like you. No in the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 2: No, no, So I'm not getting in the door on
Speaker 2: any of them. Okay. So in December of that year,
Speaker 2: I land an episode of Miami Vice which is going
Speaker 2: to pay me as much as love and did. Okay.
Speaker 2: In that episode called Red Tape, Vigo Mortensen is my partner,
Speaker 2: and Annette Benning is the girlfriend of the bad guy. Okay,
Speaker 2: and I have one scene with Edward James almost now.
Speaker 2: Eddie was supposed to do a cameo in Laamba as
Speaker 2: East Size father, you know, because Richie and Bob had
Speaker 2: different fathers. Yeah, okay, but it didn't work out. So
Speaker 2: he's he's very very aware of the film, and he's
Speaker 2: very aware that I'm the kid that got the role.
Speaker 2: So we have one scene together. At the end of
Speaker 2: the scene, Eddie says to me, what are you doing
Speaker 2: next month? And I went, this is January. I went,
Speaker 2: I think you want to have lunch. I'll be in
Speaker 2: la you know. He goes, all right, here, when you
Speaker 2: get back to La call this number. I'm doing a film.
Speaker 2: You need to be in it. And that's how I
Speaker 2: got to understand and delivery.
Speaker 1: Well, I think that's a great place to end, because
Speaker 1: that's like a whole other movie. We would need to
Speaker 1: do a whole episode on.
Speaker 2: I appreciate it, man, Thank you so much, Alex. What
Speaker 2: a wonderful conversation.
Speaker 1: Same here man. Really appreciate your time, you bet take care.
Speaker 1: That's our show next week. Before Ludamond Phillips was ever
Speaker 1: even aware of a Richie Allens movie, somebody had to
Speaker 1: convince Richie's family to trust them with the story and
Speaker 1: attach a director and get the money to tell it.
Speaker 1: And who better than the guy who would go on
Speaker 1: to direct the Academy Award winning film Ray To bring
Speaker 1: this young rock icon to life. I'll speak to producer
Speaker 1: Taylor Hackford about what it takes to get a movie
Speaker 1: made that doesn't star white people and how to be
Speaker 1: a good ally next time on More Than a Movie.
Speaker 1: More Than a Movie Season two was produced by Chloe
Speaker 1: Taglia Gmbe with the help of Reynolds Kutierras and Bveronica
Speaker 1: Hernandez in partnership with Iheart's Michael Dura podcast network, hosted
Speaker 1: by me Alex Fumetto, edited by Rose Red and Chloe
Speaker 1: Taglia Ganbe with the help of Saide Cavedro. Executive producers
Speaker 1: are Carmen Gratto, Rose Red, Isaac Lee, and me Alex Fumetto.
Speaker 1: Sound designed by Gonzalo Messi original music by Golden Mines,
Speaker 1: Darko and Ieme recorded at JTB Studios and Vaudeville Sound Our.
Speaker 1: Executive producers at iHeart are Gazelle Bansis and Arlene Santana.
Speaker 1: For more Michael Duda podcasts, listen to the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows