Speaker 1: Welcome back to those amigos with Freda Rodriguez and yours
Speaker 1: truly with my mother.
Speaker 2: And in our last episode, we teased.
Speaker 1: You with a very very exciting journey, very exciting. For
Speaker 1: this episode, we we we wanted to focus on on Freddy,
Speaker 1: but not like the Freddy the actor when he got
Speaker 1: the break, like I want to bring it all the
Speaker 1: way back, man, I.
Speaker 2: Want to start with your grandparents. I want to start
Speaker 2: with your grandparents.
Speaker 3: Okay, you know, we you know.
Speaker 1: And and this is also I called to everybody out there,
Speaker 1: like you know we somebody when I when I was
Speaker 1: writing my memoir, my book, somebody said to me, go
Speaker 1: ask your parents they were before you? Oh interesting, we
Speaker 1: know so much about our parents after we had a
Speaker 1: sense of memory right that we rarely go back to
Speaker 1: ask the questions like who were you before mommy you
Speaker 1: got pregnant, or or Dad you knew you were going
Speaker 1: to have a son, like you, you never asked these
Speaker 1: questions because your life is what you're being introduced over
Speaker 1: and you're seeing new things all the time. So so
Speaker 1: that exercise really changed so much for me to appreciate
Speaker 1: what my mom was right from bringing a full circle,
Speaker 1: you know, understanding the trajectory or who you before you,
Speaker 1: or even a possibility like who was the Rodriguez family
Speaker 1: right right, you know, and and then and then walk
Speaker 1: us straight into you know, into into your adulthood. But
Speaker 1: I but I love to start with like what are
Speaker 1: your grandparents' names? And what did they what did they do?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I didn't really know my grandparents. They they uh, well,
Speaker 3: my grandparents. Both of my parents are from San Lorenzo,
Speaker 3: Puerto Rico, which is in the middle of the island.
Speaker 3: There were farmers that they grew crops and malangas and
Speaker 3: beluras and tavaco and had cows and chickens and all
Speaker 3: that stuff. And then around the fifties and sixth so
Speaker 3: my parents were both neighbors and they had fincas over
Speaker 3: there right as we know in Lalomne Campo Edambsino, and
Speaker 3: that's how they met. And so on my mom's side,
Speaker 3: I had thirteen uncles and aunts. On my father's side,
Speaker 3: I had eight, and surprisingly they were the only two
Speaker 3: that got together for them being neighbors. And this was
Speaker 3: around the time that there was a program in place
Speaker 3: called Operation Bootstrap, where the factories were alive and kicking
Speaker 3: in Chicago, in New York and Detroit, and this program
Speaker 3: was in place by the government to encourage Puerto Ricans
Speaker 3: to come to those cities to work the factories. Now,
Speaker 3: my parents weren't necessarily a part of that program, but
Speaker 3: it was definitely inspired by that program. And so they
Speaker 3: migrated from Puerto Rico to Chicago, and my dad came
Speaker 3: as a teenager and worked the factories in Chicago until
Speaker 3: he made enough money to go back and get my
Speaker 3: mom and marry her, and they both came to Chicago.
Speaker 3: We had an aunt and an uncle who lived in
Speaker 3: Chicago already, and they were in the Lincoln Park area
Speaker 3: in Chicago, which, for those who know Chicago, Lincoln Park
Speaker 3: now is a pretty affluent and prestigious area, but back
Speaker 3: then it was predominantly Latino and black. And for those
Speaker 3: who have seen the TV show Good Times, the Kabrini
Speaker 3: Green projects are in Lincoln Park. No one knows that
Speaker 3: because that area is like the Beverly Hills now. And
Speaker 3: so they migrated in the sixties and work the factories.
Speaker 3: And I have two older brothers and they were born
Speaker 3: and my brothers are a lot older than me. They're
Speaker 3: like eight and seven years older than me. I was
Speaker 3: kind of the mistake that came later. And so, you know,
Speaker 3: my parents had the American dream. Although Puerto Rico is
Speaker 3: technically a part of the United States, you know, they
Speaker 3: had the American dream like everybody, right.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, leaving your pueblo for something different is
Speaker 1: the American dream. I mean, you could be leaving you know,
Speaker 1: you can be living in Arizona and going to Texas
Speaker 1: and making it there, and that's the American dream too,
Speaker 1: So I see why. But for us culturally, it's a
Speaker 1: major leap, you know, because you leave what you are
Speaker 1: to acquire a new way of life, right, Like, it's
Speaker 1: an interesting departure from where you start and where you're
Speaker 1: gonna end up.
Speaker 3: To acquire a new way of life, a new urban landscape. Right,
Speaker 3: think about it, Right, You've been to Puerto Rico, Paradise
Speaker 3: where they were at, and then all of a sudden
Speaker 3: you come to the harsh winners of Chicago. Two seasons
Speaker 3: to see, two seasons, you get fall, you got winter.
Speaker 3: You gotta wear a coat, right, you know. I remember
Speaker 3: I would have cousins that would come from Puerto Rico
Speaker 3: and they'd be like, we can bring a coat you know, uh,
Speaker 3: you know, to have to take the bus to like
Speaker 3: a factory job where you're working like ten hours a day.
Speaker 3: I mean it was it was rough.
Speaker 1: But what was dad like at home for a young
Speaker 1: Freddy when you were a kid, right, you had your
Speaker 1: older siblings, but you seeing your dad doing what he
Speaker 1: was doing and all that.
Speaker 2: What was it? What was your house like?
Speaker 3: I remember one time and you asked me about my grandparents,
Speaker 3: and I'll get back to that because it'll inform that.
Speaker 3: I remember one time I was visiting. I was in
Speaker 3: Puerto Rico. I was doing a movie there actually, and
Speaker 3: I was visiting my grandfather before he passed away, and
Speaker 3: my other grandfather was on a horse going up a
Speaker 3: mountain and my grandfather goes, you see that over there,
Speaker 3: that's your grandfather. He said, that's the hardest working man
Speaker 3: in the village, and everybody knows that about him. And
Speaker 3: I remember it was with the one interaction I had
Speaker 3: my grandfather, I'm wrong. I was like ten years old,
Speaker 3: and he took me around the village and I saw
Speaker 3: the respect that was in place for my grandfather because
Speaker 3: everybody knew he was the hardest working guy in the
Speaker 3: entire village. And so that translated to my dad, you know,
Speaker 3: And you asked me how it was in my house
Speaker 3: in Chicago. My father was a direct reflection of his own.
Speaker 3: Father just was all about work, all about pride in
Speaker 3: your work, all about integrity and your work and who
Speaker 3: you were as a human being and your moral compass
Speaker 3: and your values as a person. And although we were
Speaker 3: a money poor, we were moral rich, you know. And
Speaker 3: that was really important to him, really important to everyone
Speaker 3: in my family. And so that's the way me and
Speaker 3: my brothers grew up. And I feel that's something that
Speaker 3: I've taken with me and as I approached our industry,
Speaker 3: whether I'm on a TV show or a movie, I
Speaker 3: bring that same hard work.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So seeing that statement that is the hardest working
Speaker 1: man in this village?
Speaker 2: Did that mark you?
Speaker 1: And you was like, what, you know, I should never
Speaker 1: have an excuse, So, like, how did that affected you
Speaker 1: as a young man?
Speaker 3: It just it all made sense. It made sense why
Speaker 3: my dad was so hard on us, It made sense
Speaker 3: why your work and the quality of your work was
Speaker 3: so important. It all just made sense because it was
Speaker 3: ingrained in him as a kid, you know. And then
Speaker 3: he ingrained that in us me and my brothers, and
Speaker 3: my cousin and my uncles. And he had a brother
Speaker 3: and a sister who lived in Chicago, and I had
Speaker 3: a bunch of cousins, And so you know, that's saying
Speaker 3: it takes a village to raise a child. It was
Speaker 3: very much a village of like, you know, the Rodriguez
Speaker 3: household in Chicago.
Speaker 1: How did your dad infuse that in you? Like, what
Speaker 1: were the words, what were the moments, what were the lessons?
Speaker 1: Were the things that he he made you experience so
Speaker 1: you could put it together that says, Yeah, that's the
Speaker 1: anthem of my life.
Speaker 3: You know, I don't know if there was ever any
Speaker 3: like words, but it was expected in anything that we did.
Speaker 3: It was like, oh, you're fifteen, sixteen, now you got
Speaker 3: to go get a job. You know, you got to
Speaker 3: contribute to the house man, You got to contribute to
Speaker 3: paying a bill, right, you know what I mean? Like
Speaker 3: it was just expected of you in everything.
Speaker 1: That Yeah, you inherited, right, you inherited the houses, you know,
Speaker 1: guardian and safekeeping and thriving you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah. When my dad would have like he'd be like,
Speaker 3: oh I have I have a week off of work vacation, right,
Speaker 3: Like the normal thing is like I have a vacation,
Speaker 3: Let's go somewhere, Let's fly somewhere. I'm like, Dad, what
Speaker 3: are you doing for your vacation? He goes, I'm gonna
Speaker 3: go help your uncle paint. That was his vacation. Go
Speaker 3: to what it'd be like, Oh, your cousin needs to move.
Speaker 3: We got to go help the move. I'm like, that's
Speaker 3: how you're spending your vacation is helping somebody move, helping
Speaker 3: somebody paint their house. Like they they didn't know anything
Speaker 3: else but like work, that's it right.
Speaker 2: What what was your first job?
Speaker 3: Oh? Man, my first job. I was fifteen years old
Speaker 3: and I was a busboy.
Speaker 1: At Dude that was buzzboy, go ahead, A bus boy
Speaker 1: at Bennigan's.
Speaker 3: I don't know, do you remember Bennigan's where Benigans was
Speaker 3: a chain restaurant kind of like I don't know how
Speaker 3: you would Chili's or whatever.
Speaker 2: I was a sisler guy.
Speaker 1: You weren't, no, but I but you talk about these
Speaker 1: restaurants For me and I it was a sizzler guy.
Speaker 3: Was it was? It was?
Speaker 2: It was that that change.
Speaker 3: Where were you a busboyad?
Speaker 2: Well? I was a busboy.
Speaker 1: Uh at this place called Cafe Beju and Sherman.
Speaker 2: Yeah it was still there, Yeah, yeah, still there. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And I was a bus boy.
Speaker 1: I was the guy, you know, leveling the butters and
Speaker 1: and and bringing the dis wash. But but this is
Speaker 1: not a conversation.
Speaker 2: Okay, So how did you get that job?
Speaker 3: I just applied. I needed a job, you know, and
Speaker 3: I applied for it and and it was, uh, it
Speaker 3: was crazy because I wasn't even old enough to work there.
Speaker 3: I had to go down. I was fifteen fifteen and
Speaker 3: I had to go down and get a work permit.
Speaker 2: I was fifteen two.
Speaker 3: Was that like that here in l A. You had
Speaker 3: to get a work you know? That was enough.
Speaker 2: They hired me from the back I was.
Speaker 1: I applied through the alleyway, I see, you know, I
Speaker 1: went through the alleyway.
Speaker 2: I applied and then I had a black T shirt.
Speaker 3: No. Man, Chicago was like, you got to get a
Speaker 3: work permit because we're going to keep you here a
Speaker 3: certain hour. And like, man, I remember working toil, like
Speaker 3: I don't even know if it was legal at that time,
Speaker 3: working till like ten o'clock and having to go to
Speaker 3: school the next day, and.
Speaker 1: Like well, there was no hours there, and there was
Speaker 1: no such thing as made him wage, and there was
Speaker 1: no such thing as you know, hours and extra hours
Speaker 1: and in late hours, there was such thing as that.
Speaker 3: No, especially back then. But but yeah, you know, work
Speaker 3: was really important. And I had two older brothers who
Speaker 3: you know how it is like in Latin families, like
Speaker 3: you know, although they were my brothers, there were more
Speaker 3: like father figures.
Speaker 2: You know, how much older were they?
Speaker 3: The oldest is like eight nine years older than me.
Speaker 3: My oldest brother, William, and my middle brother, Hector is
Speaker 3: about six seven years older than me.
Speaker 2: And what do they do.
Speaker 3: My oldest brother is doctor William Rodriguez and he's the
Speaker 3: uh he works, he's the assistant dean at Loyola University
Speaker 3: right now? Wow?
Speaker 2: Cool?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah. My middle brother, Hector, has been in the
Speaker 3: supermarket real estate business forever. So now what you expect.
Speaker 3: I'm like migrant Puerto Rican, you know, four three.
Speaker 1: Were guys took three very different paths and made it
Speaker 1: real life strengths.
Speaker 3: Right yeah, yeah, And you know, you know what's really
Speaker 3: interesting about that is like especially in our culture, right,
Speaker 3: Like I heard Benicio del Toro talking the other day
Speaker 3: and he was like, all my brothers were lawyers, lawyers
Speaker 3: and doctors, so they expected me to be a lawyer
Speaker 3: and doctor.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: Like My family was like all like that. They were
Speaker 3: all super studious. All my cousins are all accountants, you know,
Speaker 3: and I was the knucklehead who was like an artist.
Speaker 3: You know. But but but but then they don't understand,
Speaker 3: you know, when you're when you're trying to go down
Speaker 3: that path, you know, it just doesn't compute to them
Speaker 3: because it's very sort of one track mine, you know,
Speaker 3: you know one plus one equals too and you got
Speaker 3: to follow that.
Speaker 1: Paath, Well, you have a memory of working as a
Speaker 1: buzz boy that you were like, yeah, I gotta figure,
Speaker 1: I gotta figure you gotta figure it out.
Speaker 3: I remember was a busboy. Uh I had started acting
Speaker 3: by then. And I remember one of the waiters.
Speaker 2: Souse, that's why because you started so young.
Speaker 3: Ye started on thirteen.
Speaker 2: Yeah you started performing thirteen.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I remember one of the bus I remember one
Speaker 3: of the waiters brought a headshot to work and he
Speaker 3: was like, I'm an actor and I have a headshot.
Speaker 3: And I was like, whoa, he is a head shot.
Speaker 2: He's an actor.
Speaker 1: The black and white headshub where they're just looking off
Speaker 1: the commercial head show where you're like cheasing so hard,
Speaker 1: and then the drama sup where you're like obviously.
Speaker 2: Going into internal turmoil. In the picture, oh, would be like.
Speaker 3: The composite shot where it's like four different shots, like
Speaker 3: the studio did you stayble your your resume in.
Speaker 2: The back of the of course? Of course.
Speaker 3: I remember coming to work and being like, he was, like,
Speaker 3: I just came back from an audition. You get auditions, man,
Speaker 3: he's got an audition. Yeah. No, But I started I
Speaker 3: started really young, you know, I started really young in Chicago,
Speaker 3: and you know, I know I had said this in
Speaker 3: the previous episode, but a lot of it stemmed from
Speaker 3: like I wasn't and I'm this literally, man, I really
Speaker 3: wasn't good at anything. You know. We talk about my brothers,
Speaker 3: you know, they were so studious and my cousins. You know,
Speaker 3: they would come from school with like a straight A
Speaker 3: report card, and I was I was a terrible student.
Speaker 1: I think it was kind of like you were like,
Speaker 1: they're so good at that, and you kind of reveled
Speaker 1: against like wanting to be as good as them, or
Speaker 1: like do you feel pressured? And then therefore you kind
Speaker 1: of like forfeited to something else, Like what was that contrast? Like,
Speaker 1: you know, they were going after studies, And.
Speaker 3: I truly wanted to fit in, really, I mean, in
Speaker 3: all honesty, I wanted. I wanted to be a good student.
Speaker 3: I wanted to be a good mathematician or whatever it
Speaker 3: was that my family. I just did. My brain didn't
Speaker 3: work that way, and I couldn't figure out why I didn't,
Speaker 3: you know. And so it tends to happen when you're
Speaker 3: that age and you don't relate and you don't feel
Speaker 3: like you fit in, you start to figure out other
Speaker 3: ways to fit in, you know, in my neighborhood. You know,
Speaker 3: Chicago at at certain years is the murder capital of
Speaker 3: the United States, you know. And and I grew up
Speaker 3: in Bucktown on the northwest side of Chicago, which is heavy,
Speaker 3: heavy gangs, heavy drugs, heavy heavy graffiti, a lot of
Speaker 3: graffiti crews in in my neighborhood, and dance cruise and
Speaker 3: you know, and so it's very easy to see the
Speaker 3: allure of that when you have nothing else that you
Speaker 3: relate to, you know. And I certainly found myself gravitating
Speaker 3: towards that, you know, and It wasn't until this independent
Speaker 3: theater company came to my school that that I auditioned
Speaker 3: to get into as a fluke when I was like
Speaker 3: thirteen years old.
Speaker 1: So before that theater group came to your school, were
Speaker 1: you part of that community like where you're b boying,
Speaker 1: where you're tagging.
Speaker 3: Or yeah, man, I was, I was hard, hard bet boy,
Speaker 3: I'll tell you.
Speaker 2: So my this is in exclusive. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't think anyone can realize the friends that the
Speaker 1: great Freddie Rodriguez was actually a boy.
Speaker 2: I was. I was always a.
Speaker 3: Kind of a good dancer, right. And so my oldest brother,
Speaker 3: who is now doctor Rodriguez, was a pretty popular.
Speaker 2: DJ in Chicago, what kind of parties like.
Speaker 3: Like Chicago created house music, right, so he was he was,
Speaker 3: you know, transition from disco to house music. So as
Speaker 3: far back as I could remember, he's like eight years
Speaker 3: older than me. There was always turntables in the house everywhere,
Speaker 3: final everywhere, like every weekend, my brother coming home and
Speaker 3: bring like carrying speakers inside the house, you know, And
Speaker 3: and he would always recruit me to help him, like
Speaker 3: carry alcoas and all that. Yeah, and my middle brother, uh,
Speaker 3: you know that's when breakdancing was at its apex and
Speaker 3: he was in a breakdancing crew, and so I learned
Speaker 3: how to break dance really really early on. So with
Speaker 3: my brother djying and my brother breakdancing, they would sneak
Speaker 3: me into these clubs when I was like nine, ten
Speaker 3: years old, and the guy at the front, I never forget.
Speaker 3: The guy at the front was like, no, man, he's
Speaker 3: like nine years old. And my brother'd be like, no, no, no,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna have him behind the DJ booth. It's all good,
Speaker 3: you know, back then when you could do that right.
Speaker 3: And so I remember being in the back of the
Speaker 3: DJ booth and peeking out and seeing all these like
Speaker 3: teenagers dancing and all that. And then when my brother's
Speaker 3: crew was ready to battle another crew, they bring me
Speaker 3: out from like the DJ booth and some little nine
Speaker 3: year old kid would be there battling some other crew,
Speaker 3: you know, which, let me tell you something, Man, doing
Speaker 3: that at nine years old, with like two three hundred
Speaker 3: people watching you as you're there, it does something to you.
Speaker 3: I feel helped me later in life because I would
Speaker 3: go into auditions like that because I was so used
Speaker 3: to it. I was so used to like somebody watching
Speaker 3: somebody watching. I was so used to like getting ready
Speaker 3: to fight for it, yeah, stepping into the ring, and
Speaker 3: and and and I had that since I was like
Speaker 3: nine years old. You know, you.
Speaker 1: Have that when you walk into a room. I'm like, yo, man,
Speaker 1: we're not trying to fight. Relaxed man' remember me, it's
Speaker 1: t Wilmer man, It's Tilmer man. That's that's amazing. I
Speaker 1: didn't know that story that you were such a b boy.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know that you have love for the end,
Speaker 1: you know, for for the days, you know.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, there was a big.
Speaker 1: Question and somebody in the room out here where we're
Speaker 1: talking about, what is the story when you got your
Speaker 1: first uh uh, your.
Speaker 2: First Jordan my first?
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm gonna tell you. The first time I got
Speaker 3: my first Jordan's was probably like ten years ago. And
Speaker 3: here's why. I was too poor when I was growing up.
Speaker 3: And I grew up in Chicago, in the land of
Speaker 3: Jordan during the time that he was winning, and I
Speaker 3: was just too poor man. I couldn't afford freaking Jordan's
Speaker 3: back then, you know. And so when I got older
Speaker 3: and I started making money, I tried to get everything
Speaker 3: I couldn't get as a kid man. You and I
Speaker 3: have had a very and this is a whole other episode.
Speaker 3: We've had a very extensive G I. Joe conversation. And
Speaker 3: when I first started making money, I would go on
Speaker 3: eBay and buy G I Joe's I could find back then,
Speaker 3: you know transformers back then.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's increating. Did you have a B boy name?
Speaker 3: No? No, no, they just what do you think if
Speaker 3: you tap back into that Jan Frederdriguez, what do you
Speaker 3: think it would have been like Little Freddie probably or
Speaker 3: something Little Freddie.
Speaker 2: Well, they used to be like, and gentlemen, help me
Speaker 2: welcome Little Freddy.
Speaker 3: Well, they used to be like, yo, that that's like
Speaker 3: Hector's my brother. Actor, that's that's Hector's little brother, you know,
Speaker 3: because Hector used to dance and as Willie's little brother,
Speaker 3: you know, I was always referred to as like my
Speaker 3: big brothers.
Speaker 2: They were already in the scene. They were the scene. Yeah,
Speaker 2: some believab And then so then you were to school
Speaker 2: and then this theater group comes. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So by that time I was in the eighth
Speaker 3: grade and I just I just felt really lost, you know,
Speaker 3: at that age, and you know, the Chicago public school
Speaker 3: system at that time, unfortunately wasn't great. And so this
Speaker 3: independent theater company came to my school and offered the
Speaker 3: arts for a semester. And you know, at that age,
Speaker 3: at thirteen, you're just trying to be cool and you know,
Speaker 3: you know, want to like look dumb in front of
Speaker 3: the girls or whatever. And so they were like, we're auditioning.
Speaker 3: We want people to come down to audition, and no
Speaker 3: one wanted to stand up to audition, and my math teacher,
Speaker 3: missus Algani, said, Okay, whoever auditions and goes down to
Speaker 3: do it, you don't have to take the math test.
Speaker 3: And then me, being like the opportunist I was, I
Speaker 3: was like, yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was gonna fill it anyway.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I was already kind of dancing and I
Speaker 3: was already like you know, So I went down and
Speaker 3: I auditioned and I got in and the program completely
Speaker 3: transformed my life. So every Saturday, we had to take
Speaker 3: the train downtown Chicago to Roosevelt University. So it's the
Speaker 3: first time I was out of my neighborhood. Really, it
Speaker 3: was the first time that I was like downtown, that
Speaker 3: I had to take the train on my own. The
Speaker 3: first time I was at a university. The first time
Speaker 3: I was in some real, like a real program that
Speaker 3: was structured, that had real actors and real teachers. And
Speaker 3: so every Saturday we went and we did that and
Speaker 3: at the end of the program we wrote our own
Speaker 3: play and I ended up starring in the play at thirteen,
Speaker 3: fourteen years old. We performed it at the Blackstone Theater
Speaker 3: and it was called City of Neighborhoods. I remember it
Speaker 3: was just about like kids, like we were all like
Speaker 3: little kids, you know. I don't really recall the narrative
Speaker 3: of it, but it was like I remember starring in it,
Speaker 3: and then we performed it at the Blackstone Theater, which
Speaker 3: was kind of a big theater at the time, and
Speaker 3: I remember after that first performance it was like I
Speaker 3: had an epiphany. Man, it was clear as day to
Speaker 3: me what I was going to do for the rest
Speaker 3: of my life. Really, I mean that was like God
Speaker 3: was showing me, like it was that clear to me.
Speaker 3: And so that play led me to this other independent
Speaker 3: theater company, this wonderful director named Ray Moffatt. It was
Speaker 3: called MOI. I was about fourteen, and then it led
Speaker 3: me to a two year scholarship to the National College
Speaker 3: of Education. Theater program, which was another pivotal moment in
Speaker 3: my life because it took me out of my neighborhood
Speaker 3: and it took me to Winnetka, Illinois, which was this
Speaker 3: really rich suburb and a prestigious school. It was the
Speaker 3: first time I was ever around other ethnicities. It was
Speaker 3: the first time I was around people of other economic backgrounds,
Speaker 3: kids whose parents paid a lot of money for them
Speaker 3: to go there. And here I was was this kid,
Speaker 3: Puerto Rican kid from the hood who was going there
Speaker 3: for free. And it was kids who were like you
Speaker 3: know that that kid you see who's like ten years
Speaker 3: old and who's playing the piano flawlessly, and like, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3: And I was amongst these, like, you know, really well
Speaker 3: trained artists, you know, at fourteen years old. And then
Speaker 3: the following year it was my time to go to
Speaker 3: high school, and I auditioned and got into the only
Speaker 3: public theater program in Chicago, which was Lincoln Park High School,
Speaker 3: and I was a drama major there. I was a
Speaker 3: drama major chorus minor, and I kind of dabbled in
Speaker 3: dance at the time, and which was a wonderful program,
Speaker 3: a four year program where we learned how to build
Speaker 3: sets and we performed and I did I did a play.
Speaker 3: I did the Lottery, I did to Kill a Mockingbird.
Speaker 3: You know, so many plays that we got to do
Speaker 3: during that time. And so this was from like fifteen
Speaker 3: to like eighteen, and I was doing that. I was
Speaker 3: doing independenteater. I dabbled in music. You know, I thought
Speaker 3: I could rap back then, you know, I was. I
Speaker 3: was trying to. Yeah, yeah, we won't get into the listen.
Speaker 3: I'm going to tell you the story that I've never
Speaker 3: told before. So you know, back then, you know, I
Speaker 3: was a big, big hip hop b boy head, right,
Speaker 3: and back then, hip hop is not like now now
Speaker 3: you turn on the radio. Hip hop is everywhere. Back then,
Speaker 3: you had to find it. And so there would be
Speaker 3: a lot of these underground clubs in Chicago where you
Speaker 3: would go to get hip hop, you know. And I
Speaker 3: must have been around sixteen seventeen years old, and I
Speaker 3: used to see Kanye was there. And so if I
Speaker 3: was sixteen seventeen, Kanye was like fourteen. I see Common there.
Speaker 3: Common was like if I was seventeen, Common was nineteen. Wow.
Speaker 3: We're all kids, man, We're all kids in the underground
Speaker 3: hip hops in Chicago. Yeah, it was wild man. I remember.
Speaker 3: So Kanye used to be in this group called State
Speaker 3: of Mind. It was him and these other two guys,
Speaker 3: and he started producing, and a guy for my crew
Speaker 3: was producing, and I was the only guy with a car,
Speaker 3: and so it was my job to take my guy
Speaker 3: Marco to Kanye's house, who lived all the way on
Speaker 3: the South Side. And so I used to drop him
Speaker 3: off at Kanye's house on Friday and come pick him
Speaker 3: up on Sunday, and then we would have our beats,
Speaker 3: you know, and they'd be like, all right, man, we're
Speaker 3: gonna go perform this. And it used to be this
Speaker 3: club called Lower Lynx and the Elbow Room, and so
Speaker 3: the whole concept of the club was very much like
Speaker 3: that movie that eminem did. And you go, you spend
Speaker 3: all week making your beats. You sign up, give them
Speaker 3: your tape. When it's your turn, they call your name,
Speaker 3: you go up there, they play the thing, and you
Speaker 3: get up there and you perform. You know. So Kanye
Speaker 3: be doing it, I'll be doing it, you.
Speaker 2: Know, so you win in your battle this business.
Speaker 3: No, we would just performed them, you know. And man,
Speaker 3: I tell this other story.
Speaker 2: Do you have any of these songs.
Speaker 3: I think, so.
Speaker 2: It all happen somewhere breaking exclusive hear some of these kids.
Speaker 3: Man, I'll tell you something, you know, and I've never
Speaker 3: told the story. I remember it, and God bless him
Speaker 3: and his mother is Kanye's mother had passed away. Uh Man.
Speaker 3: I remember going to his house when I was like sixteen,
Speaker 3: seventeen years old, and it was the first time that
Speaker 3: I had ever gone to a friend's house where their
Speaker 3: parent was genuinely interested in who I was. You know,
Speaker 3: his mother was a professor and it was an education.
Speaker 3: But you know, you go to your friend's house and
Speaker 3: you know, the parents will say hi, and then you
Speaker 3: lock yourself in the bedroom with a friend and you know,
Speaker 3: you sit there and you mess around. But it was
Speaker 3: the first time I had went to anybody's house where
Speaker 3: his mother came down and like and like spoke to
Speaker 3: me and like wanted to know who I was and
Speaker 3: where I was from, and like where my parents were from,
Speaker 3: and what kind of music went why I was interested
Speaker 3: in that music. And it had such a profound effect
Speaker 3: on me as a parent, and.
Speaker 2: What you probably felt seen to your feel it.
Speaker 3: Was just a different style of parenting that I had
Speaker 3: never experienced before, and I learned that from his mother,
Speaker 3: and I took that with me when I became a parent,
Speaker 3: and I and I became that way with my friends,
Speaker 3: with my children's friends, and that all stemmed from her,
Speaker 3: my encounter with her.
Speaker 1: So then you have all these influences, the hip hop
Speaker 1: scene to be voice seen, yeah, Chicago and all that,
Speaker 1: and you started getting on stage and you were going
Speaker 1: to this place as well. He's like you said, a
Speaker 1: lot of people invested a lot of money for their
Speaker 1: kids to follow the world of artistry. Interesting to see
Speaker 1: where any of those classes or any of those studios
Speaker 1: went after, you know, after you being in the same
Speaker 1: kind of generation of students coming up and learning and
Speaker 1: shopping in their skills and you know eventually what it
Speaker 1: turned out for them.
Speaker 2: That to me is.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a great example of saying, I am
Speaker 1: going to equip myself with the tools I need, you know,
Speaker 1: some of us, like for example, for me, I, I
Speaker 1: you know, I went to a couple of classes, but
Speaker 1: you know, I had to really self teach myself, you know, confidence,
Speaker 1: because I never had the hours of flying, you know,
Speaker 1: so as soon as I got thrown into it, it
Speaker 1: was it was really it was like learned by you know, swimming,
Speaker 1: Like throw you in the in the pool and I'll
Speaker 1: swim to the shore, you know. But there's like there's
Speaker 1: the commonality. I think the connection between our stories is
Speaker 1: that we decided to swim into the unknown, and no
Speaker 1: one in our family has swimmed in that direction, right.
Speaker 1: And to think about, you know, from your grandparents to
Speaker 1: you know, to your parents, to the trajectory of your
Speaker 1: family heritage coming to Chicago, embracing a new way of life.
Speaker 1: You also stay in Puerto Rican while being in Chicago too.
Speaker 2: It's such a.
Speaker 1: Great example of what I think a lot of Latinos
Speaker 1: are experiencing today. You know, sometimes they're being asked to
Speaker 1: be one or the other and the two things like
Speaker 1: we don't have to pick right which we should be,
Speaker 1: you know, a topic later on like you know, you know,
Speaker 1: can you be a two hundred percenter?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 1: But but I think, you know, hearing your story is
Speaker 1: such a validator that it really it doesn't matter where
Speaker 1: you start, It matters where you believe you can go, right,
Speaker 1: because if you believe you can go in that direction,
Speaker 1: you're going to start walking it and eventually you find
Speaker 1: your way into an opportunity that you know. But look,
Speaker 1: being an artist is it's one of the most difficult professions.
Speaker 1: It's uncertain, it's not consistent. The mirage of success it's
Speaker 1: part of the allure, but the truth is, you know,
Speaker 1: to be a performer, you got to stay human. You know,
Speaker 1: you're not a celebrity, You're not a famous person. You're
Speaker 1: an artist who's telling stories that are very real, like
Speaker 1: the ones that you and your family you know, had
Speaker 1: to experience. Without you staying human, you can be effective
Speaker 1: or you can't invite people to watch your story on screen.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: That's why I feel like you going into those classes
Speaker 1: where all these young people who you know, have hadn't
Speaker 1: had the opportunity to experience what you did, probably was
Speaker 1: a secret weapon for you.
Speaker 2: Was the missing ingredient?
Speaker 1: Was the secret you know, sauce for saying like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is why I'm effective on screen because I am
Speaker 1: what I am. Yeah, you know, and being on stage
Speaker 1: with that energy just made you a performer that could
Speaker 1: really bring his characters to life.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I think it's a combination of that. And this
Speaker 3: is a lot of the advice I give to sort
Speaker 3: of the younger generation now, they always ask me like,
Speaker 3: what can I be doing? What could I be? You know?
Speaker 3: The advice I always give them is you got to
Speaker 3: just be doing it right. And here's what I mean
Speaker 3: by that. The perception of doing it, especially to the
Speaker 3: younger generation, is like being on a TV show like
Speaker 3: you and I, right, And that's not always the case,
Speaker 3: you know. And when I was at that age, although
Speaker 3: it was a different time a different era, the thing
Speaker 3: that was incredibly important to me was that I was
Speaker 3: always doing it in some capacity, whether that was in
Speaker 3: an independent theater company, whether that was doing music, whether
Speaker 3: that was I mean, I was a choreographer, I was
Speaker 3: backup dancer, I was, you know, whether it was in school,
Speaker 3: I was doing it in some capacity. Because when you're
Speaker 3: doing it in some capacity, either either someone's going to
Speaker 3: see you right, or you're going to continue to as
Speaker 3: you your analogy sharpen, sharpen the skills, sharpen the blades,
Speaker 3: you know, and so you know, as it equates to
Speaker 3: now in today's age, right, whether that's like making YouTube videos,
Speaker 3: whether that's in class, whether that's starting your own independent
Speaker 3: theater company where you and a bunch of actors just
Speaker 3: get together and and and put up scenes and run.
Speaker 3: You got to continually be be tuning the instrument though, right,
Speaker 3: and and I think that sometimes people get boggled down
Speaker 3: by this, by this perception that the only way to
Speaker 3: tune the instrument is to be doing it on CBS.
Speaker 2: Right on that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know that that whole uh teenage year was
Speaker 3: was My teenage years were very formative for me. And
Speaker 3: you know, all all of that stuff that I was
Speaker 3: doing ultimately led me to my first agent in Chicago.
Speaker 3: Which a fun fact, Jeff Garland's wife was my first
Speaker 3: agent when yeah, my first real agent when I was
Speaker 3: like fifteen, sixteen years old, okay, And it was at
Speaker 3: this agency called Suzanne's A Plus in Chicago. And here's
Speaker 3: another fun fact. The only other Latin person that was
Speaker 3: at that agency was Justina Machado, who played my wife
Speaker 3: on Six Feet Under. Yeah, and so I met Justina
Speaker 3: when we were kids. We were like seventeen eighteen years old.
Speaker 2: And how miraculous are they under in the same show? Crazy,
Speaker 2: This doesn't really happen, it's crazy.
Speaker 3: And I remember going to that agency and Marla saying,
Speaker 3: we have another Puerto Rican here for in that case
Speaker 3: where you two should meet, you two should beat and
Speaker 3: you know, so we had we known each other since
Speaker 3: we were like kids, you know, because because of that agency.
Speaker 3: But but you know, getting an agency pounding the pavement
Speaker 3: doing commercials all through my teenage years. I did a
Speaker 3: Kentucky Fry chicken commercial.
Speaker 2: I did a while you were doing this thing, what
Speaker 2: was your job? What were you working?
Speaker 3: I was making money on entertainment.
Speaker 2: Oh so you were booking stuff, dude. I was booking stuff.
Speaker 3: Man. You know, there would be productions that would come
Speaker 3: through Chicago, right Like John Wells did a TV show
Speaker 3: called Angels Street with Robin Gibbons and Pam Gidley. I
Speaker 3: did an episode in nineteen ninety two ninety three. Remember
Speaker 3: The Intouchables the movie, So they did a TV show
Speaker 3: The Intouchables. Well, yeah, where William forsythe played the de
Speaker 3: Niro character. I did an episode of that. You know, dude.
Speaker 3: By the time I was my senior year of high school,
Speaker 3: I was I was on a TV show as a regular.
Speaker 3: I did this Saturday morning for y'all enough to remember
Speaker 3: with Saturday morning TV shows were I did. I was
Speaker 3: doing a Saturday morning TV show called Energy Express on
Speaker 3: WGN in Chicago. I had a national Kentucky fry chicken commercial.
Speaker 2: Dude, dude, that's crazy.
Speaker 3: I was a superstar by the time it.
Speaker 2: We used to call it a ghetto superstar. I was
Speaker 2: a ghetto superstar, you know, by the time.
Speaker 1: To reflect, to reflect it when you're saying, is you
Speaker 1: think about when this audacity started for you started at thirteen.
Speaker 1: By the age of eighteen year were already really doing it, right,
Speaker 1: Think about like that, you know how how many years
Speaker 1: it really takes for you to like really feel not
Speaker 1: just the confidence, but half the hours of flying. So
Speaker 1: to your point to your advice to young people, like
Speaker 1: you got to do it any way you can, you know,
Speaker 1: and nowadays people have so many more ways to perform,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: They can shoot on full.
Speaker 1: Encircling you know, and shorts on an iPhone, I mean eatery.
Speaker 3: Like, think of how many people have done these these
Speaker 3: shows on like YouTube that have spawned into like some
Speaker 3: major television show. They were just doing it. You got
Speaker 3: to do it in some way, and I was just
Speaker 3: doing it. And because I was doing it in my
Speaker 3: small way, it led me to an age and it
Speaker 3: led me to a TV show, a local TV show
Speaker 3: in Chicago, which ultimately led me to my first movie
Speaker 3: and when I turned pro when I was when I
Speaker 3: was nineteen, Well, our lives are.
Speaker 1: I didn't know probably a third of that story, and
Speaker 1: specifically the beginning of your story, which I don't know.
Speaker 1: I reflect on the beginning of my you know, the
Speaker 1: beginning of my of my life, you know, specifically, I.
Speaker 3: Want to hear it, you know, I want to hear it. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I know there's a book out. I know there's a
Speaker 3: lot of info. I know, maybe you don't want to
Speaker 3: divulge as much so that people actually buy the book.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, but I want I want those egos
Speaker 1: deserves the story.
Speaker 2: No, I thank you.
Speaker 1: I'm excited to share with you because I think you're
Speaker 1: going to find so much commonality between the stuff that
Speaker 1: we had to endure, see become, you know, and evolved into,
Speaker 1: you know, in order to have you know, the shot
Speaker 1: that we had. But yeah, it was nice to hear
Speaker 1: how we connected on that level, because my story is
Speaker 1: is quite quite similar, you know, and I don't know
Speaker 1: how many people out there have the same similar story.
Speaker 1: I think I think about, you know, who my grandparents were,
Speaker 1: who my parents were, and you know, like what they
Speaker 1: had to do in order for me to come America
Speaker 1: so that I can learn and speaking is like all
Speaker 1: these things like really uh fascinated me.
Speaker 3: Wilmer, thank you so much for hearing my story. Now
Speaker 3: I am interested in hearing your story. I mean, your
Speaker 3: your book is wonderful again, and people know a lot
Speaker 3: about you, and I don't want to divulge too much
Speaker 3: so that everyone could go and buy Wimar bald Ramo's book,
Speaker 3: But I want to hear your story, my brother, and
Speaker 3: I know that there's a lot of similarities and commonality
Speaker 3: and I'm just so looking forward to hearing it. So
Speaker 3: maybe on the.
Speaker 2: Next episode, to the next episode.
Speaker 3: Those Amigos is a production from WV Sound and iHeart
Speaker 3: Media's Michael Thuda podcast network, hosted by Me, Freddie Rodriguez,
Speaker 3: and Wilmer Valdorama.
Speaker 1: Those Amigos is produced by Aaron Burlison and Sophie Spencers Zebos.
Speaker 3: Our executive producers are Wilmer Valderrama, Freddie Rodriguez, Aaron Burlason,
Speaker 3: and Leo Klem at WV Sound.
Speaker 1: This episode was edited by Ryan Posts and Aaron Burlison
Speaker 1: and features original music by Madison Devenport and Halo boy.
Speaker 3: Our cover art photography is by David Avalos and designed
Speaker 3: by Deny Holtzklaw and.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to every single interview for joining this journey
Speaker 1: and I hope you continue to enjoy us.
Speaker 3: For more podcasts from my Heart, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 3: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1: See you or hear us in a week or so.