WEBVTT - Adam Rodriguez: From the Bronx to the Big Screen 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:07.640 All right, hey, this is Freddie Rodriguez and I'm Wilmer 0:00:07.680 --> 0:00:11.600 brother Rama. Welcome to the Those Amigos podcast. You know 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:15.440 you can see we're already laughing Roman. Well if you're not, 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:18.040 you can hear our smile also, but you can see 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:20.920 it as well. So all of you who have been 0:00:20.960 --> 0:00:23.440 watching and listening to our podcast for so long, thank 0:00:23.480 --> 0:00:26.160 you so much. He is a very special episode for 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:30.520 us because our third amigo today is someone not only 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:33.319 very dear, but he's really blood brother with us. 0:00:33.479 --> 0:00:33.720 Yeah. 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:37.440 Absolutely, he is my family. His mother is my mother, 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:40.720 his father is my father. I know his family dearly, 0:00:40.960 --> 0:00:44.600 and I love him like he's my brother. Ladies and gentlemen, 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:48.880 please help woman, and I welcome Adam Rodriguez. 0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:52.240 For this interview. 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:53.400 You can keep your shirt on. 0:00:54.800 --> 0:01:00.480 Please you. I'm like, where are my hat? I'm like, 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:01.080 how am I looking? 0:01:01.080 --> 0:01:06.160 Because the crowd speaking of shirt on, I remember and 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:08.360 I'm going to just start here. Adam came to my 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:10.880 house one time and we were playing poker and my 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:14.039 wife cooked. You know, she's Puerto Rican, she could Puerto 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:17.200 Rican rice. And Adam came with his own tupp aware 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:18.520 of like salmon. 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:19.880 When was this? 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:22.480 This is like a decade and you're in production probably 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:25.840 like imagine, Mike, Yeah, I went to every restaurant in 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:28.080 LA with that, because I didn't stop my social life. 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:31.120 I would literally go to restaurants. Luckily, I go to 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:32.760 the same places all the time, so nobody gave me 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:35.640 any ship. But like I would bring my little prepared 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:37.680 meal and sit and have socialized. 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:39.679 But I was just gonna eat whatever was in that. 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:41.640 Elsie was like, aren't you going to eat? 0:01:41.680 --> 0:01:44.120 I made rice and I was like, no, man, I 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:45.559 got my little salmon here. 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:48.480 We're like, come on, man, we were drinking back then. 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:50.360 We're like, come have a drink with us. No, man, 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:51.680 I'm having my little salmon. 0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:54.720 But I got it to explain to our listeners and 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:58.680 our yours. So what happens is when you're entering a 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:00.560 role and you're preparing for a role, you have to 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:03.800 be incredibly strict because not only you have to be 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:05.560 in some type of shape, but you also have to 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:08.120 maintain it for a certain amount of time. 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:10.040 I can't even imagine for Magic Minke, because you know 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:10.520 that was. 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:11.400 That changed my life. 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:11.560 Man. 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:14.359 Those movies are that first one especially, but then the 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:17.680 second one as well, Like you know, taught me about 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:21.000 diet and how critical diet is to getting in shape 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:22.320 because when that call came in. 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:25.520 So I've been training with a guy named. 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:29.919 Tito Raymondo and now it's become a dear, dear friend 0:02:29.919 --> 0:02:31.680 of mine over the years. We probably know each other 0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:34.840 twenty years now. And you know, remember when I got 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:38.040 that job, man, I was like, listen, man, I wasn't 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:40.080 like I got to be a male stripper. 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:40.240 Man. 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:43.000 We only had six weeks to prepare, and I. 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:45.119 Was, you know, six weeks, only had six weeks. 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:47.480 I always keep my body moving, but I'm never like, 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:49.000 I don't walk around with a six pack. 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:52.400 That's just not me. I enjoyed, I enjoy eating. I 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:53.120 love food. 0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:55.079 I'm not like, you know, oh my god, I don't 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:56.399 see a six pack, Like what's up? 0:02:57.080 --> 0:02:59.959 So I was like, is this going to be possible? 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:00.280 Man? 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:03.000 You know, because I don't have six weeks to do this? Like, 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:04.679 am I going to have to take steroids? 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:05.840 I don't want to. 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:06.960 I don't want to do that. 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:10.960 Yeah, but this is a massive opportunity in my life 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:12.680 to like, you know, and I got to show up 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:15.600 prepared and a challenge for you to big time challenge 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:19.880 you know, Steven Soderberg and McConnaughey and Channing and you know, 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:24.080 and just an opportunity to be in a in a 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:25.880 film that I knew was going to be seen on 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:27.960 a scale that nothing I'd ever done before was going 0:03:28.040 --> 0:03:29.640 to be seen. And so, I mean, I don't think 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:32.040 anybody could predict how big it was was going to 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:34.640 be and spawn a whole other business. But you know, 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:36.280 I just didn't want to show up and be the 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:38.760 weak link, you know, and and you know. 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:40.400 They shoot around you. 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:45.520 Like yeah, like. 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:49.240 Forward. 0:03:50.440 --> 0:03:52.640 So I was on a mission, man, to just like 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:55.480 make sure I was my very best. And he was like, no, no, 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:58.000 we don't need to do that, like you're not gonna 0:03:58.000 --> 0:03:59.800 And I was relieved because it was the first time 0:03:59.840 --> 0:04:03.240 i life, I had ever even considered, you know, maybe 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:03.640 doing well. 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:08.240 Nowadays nowadays, that's like the first thing, you know, a 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:09.880 trainer is going to be. It's like all right, cool, 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:11.960 we're gonna get you on this and this, and there's 0:04:11.960 --> 0:04:14.080 no like negotiations like can I do it with food? 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:17.640 Can just Fortunately Tito was you know, he had a 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:20.680 bodybuilding career and he was natural. He stopped the bodybuilding 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:23.840 actually because the next level for him would have had 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:28.159 to be you know, to get on you know, steroids, 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:31.800 a whole program of that kind of thing. And he 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:33.200 was like, no, you don't need to do it, man, 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:34.880 but you're gonna have to work your ass off in it. 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:37.720 And I never worked so hard man, between the diet 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:40.200 and you know, two three hours a day of cardios. 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:41.960 How many how many days were you working out with. 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:44.159 I worked out six days a week. Yeah, I was 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:48.280 working out six days a week. Sunday was like, uh, 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:50.520 you know you could have one cheat meal on a Sunday. 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:51.719 What did that cheat meal look like? 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:54.720 Usually, like I love breakfast, It was probably like pancakes. 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:56.520 You know that's early. 0:04:56.560 --> 0:05:00.360 And and then I would hit cardio and because I yeah, 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:02.440 I was doing cardio seven days a week. I mean 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:06.279 I remember seeing you seven time, man, So I was 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:08.360 on set. You know, I was getting up, you know, 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:12.240 before my call time, getting cardio in, then getting my 0:05:12.320 --> 0:05:15.200 workout in. You know it's not usually before work or 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:16.680 if I got an early call time. 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:18.440 Whatever it was. I was navigating all of that. And 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:21.160 then my meals were just programmed for for the day. 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:22.920 So I had six weeks man, and and and what 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:24.400 I saw what my body could do. 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:25.799 I was like, wow, this is incredible. 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:28.640 Who prepared your meals? 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:30.480 So I had my shout out to Rohan. 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:31.840 My boy wrote Rohan. 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:39.479 Yeah, Rohan is a chef, Rohan and he he yeah, 0:05:39.520 --> 0:05:42.360 he just he was up for some sidework at the time. 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:44.200 So him and I would meet at like a parking 0:05:44.240 --> 0:05:48.719 lot of a smart and final deal beach. 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:54.680 Here's the chicken breast, two big bags with food like 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:56.960 fourteen meals in them for a few days, and we 0:05:57.000 --> 0:05:58.400 would exchange. 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:00.960 And like I'd give him the old bags with old container. 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:05.160 I mean, I got exactly what it looked like a 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:07.480 drug deal and look like it up to Miami vice man. 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:09.160 But yeah, we got it done. 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:11.120 And then when I learned that, when the second movie 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:12.880 came up, I was more confident bout knowing that I 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:13.600 could be able to do it. 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:15.200 Yeah I'm sand at this point. 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:18.760 Yeah yeah, but yeah, I just learned a tremendous amount 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:19.560 about that man. 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:21.720 So so just kind of recapping a little bit. 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:24.360 Everyone loves you for many things, but I want to 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:26.080 make sure we gave you flowers a couple of things. 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:28.240 So so you are iconically we're one. 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:32.880 Of the first, you know, batch wearing a good guys 0:06:33.320 --> 0:06:36.320 Latinos on TV, you know, see Outside Miami, which was yea, 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:41.000 and you know, for us to have like a dude 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:43.080 that was catching the bad guys and that wasn't the 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:45.680 bad guy on the cop show, it is absolutely beautiful. 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:47.080 You were one of those first ones to be on 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:48.120 prime time to do that. 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:50.440 So I want to make sure people understand and realize 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:53.080 how how much space we got to make for that, 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:57.760 because because of characters like yours, you know that cast 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:00.480 could be colorful after that, right, So that that's that's 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:02.880 something you should know that we all know it isn't 0:07:02.920 --> 0:07:04.920 we all know that? Then you go from there. 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:05.960 It's funny real quick. 0:07:06.000 --> 0:07:08.200 Just a footnote on that that I got my SAG 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:11.720 card as a standing in photo double for a guy 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:14.040 that was Latino wearing the badge even before that on 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:16.400 New York Undercover Michael de Lorenzo. 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:20.320 Yes, well, well look we got to start from the beginning, yes, yes, 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:22.200 right back, because I was kind of what were you 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:22.960 where were you born? 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:25.280 I was born in New York. I was born in Yonkers, 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:25.760 all right. 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:31.600 Really got a flat so hard look that New York cat. 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:37.360 He came here repid, so so okay, so you're born 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:39.280 in Yonkers, right, what did your what did your pop 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:39.840 and your mom do? 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:44.920 My father, he was figuring it out. 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:47.640 My dad was always a hard worker, hard working guy, 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:51.680 just trying to figure out to ray shout out pop 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:55.320 uh to where to direct that energy really, you know. 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:59.120 And so he was a military guy for years and 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:00.680 then he sold insurance. 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:01.920 He drove limos. 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:04.320 He was a lawyer too, right, Well, he was trying 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:05.640 to figure it out, and my mother, I think, was 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:07.920 getting a little fed up, and he's like, listen, you 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:08.600 need to pick. 0:08:08.520 --> 0:08:08.920 Up the pack. 0:08:09.920 --> 0:08:12.800 You know, we got to move on because you know, 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:16.119 you need to get get life figured out or whatever. 0:08:16.160 --> 0:08:18.520 And so when I was I. 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:22.560 Guess I was about five, he moved up to Boston 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:26.480 to go to law school. He started going to college 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:29.960 end of the seventies. He went to Fordham University in 0:08:30.000 --> 0:08:32.360 the Bronx and then he moved up to Boston and 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:37.120 went to Northeastern Law School. And so he gi bill, Yeah, 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:39.280 he took advantage of the gi bill and then he 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:41.079 went up there and he was he lived there. He 0:08:41.080 --> 0:08:44.280 would come home, you know, probably once a weekend for sure, 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:46.840 sometimes more, I mean once a month for sure. 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:49.520 Sometimes twice because he had to come home to do 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:50.640 army reserves. 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:53.520 So he would come home, do his reserves, see us, 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:56.120 and then go back. He probably came home maybe more 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:58.640 than once a month. But yeah, so that was the 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:00.480 deal for like four years. And then he got out 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:03.040 of that, and then it turns out he he instead 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:05.920 of practicing law, he ended up working, you know, for 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:09.120 New York government, just like working in an office for 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:12.000 small business. I'm trying to remember what it was. It 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:14.440 was something to do with women in small business. He 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:16.400 worked at an office there, and then he worked for 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:18.320 Mario Cuomo, the Governor's office. 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:19.880 You know, my dad. 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:22.280 He just bounced around wherever there was a good opportunity 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:27.959 bouncing around. He's very charismatic guy is you know, yeah, yeah, you. 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:30.280 Know, he's a sweetheart, he really is. 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:34.280 And that personality actually, I mean, as the story goes on, 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:38.679 you'll see really where that had such a big impact 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:41.360 on my life later on down the road because I 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:44.080 got my first break, you know, not to fast forward 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:48.360 too quickly, but really got my first big break from 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:51.679 a guy that my dad was in the army reserves with. 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:54.319 How did that come up? 0:09:55.960 --> 0:09:56.240 Man? 0:09:56.360 --> 0:10:02.160 So I started doing I started doing background on New 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:04.040 York Undercover and. 0:10:05.559 --> 0:10:07.200 Doing that for a couple of years. 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:10.480 And through that process was you know, I knew I 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:11.960 wanted to act, but I just wanted to be on 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:14.760 a set somewhere, and so the opportunity to do background 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:18.120 work came up. There. I became a regular sort of 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:21.320 uh you know, part of the background crew on that 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:24.760 on that show, and then became a photo double and 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:26.920 a stand in, and that's where I got my SAG card. 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:34.640 Made lifelong friends there, you know, Malik Yoba and his 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:37.680 his sister Rahima and you know, just a crew of 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:39.480 people there that took me under their wing. And it 0:10:39.520 --> 0:10:42.320 was that was actually the first place that I loved 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:44.080 that I could do a whole episode just talking about 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:45.680 my experience on that show. It was the first group 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:48.440 of people I met that they believed in me. You know, 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:52.280 there was a crew there, riche Owings. It was Dick 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:54.679 Wolf Show, Yeah, Dick Wolf Show. And it was huge, man, 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:57.160 I mean that time it was huge because it was 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:00.240 very you know, it was the first time you saw, uh, 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:03.000 you know, an urban cast like. 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:05.040 That, black and brown together, black and brown. 0:11:05.280 --> 0:11:07.760 You know, you've seen black and white a million times. 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:11.040 Bill Cosby and you know the guy that he used 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:12.760 to do I spy with him, blanking out on his 0:11:12.840 --> 0:11:15.520 name Robert something maybe. But anyway, you know you I 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:18.480 mean countless you've seen Black and White. Nick noted the 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:20.880 Eddie Murphy you know, the black and brown together on 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:22.080 that show you had never seen. 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:23.839 And the soundtrack. 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:25.760 Was hip hop was all over. 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:27.600 That show, and it was current and in the moment, 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:30.400 and you know, people our age were like, oh, that 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:33.600 feels like us. You know, it was really ahead of 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:34.600 its time in that way. 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:36.440 And shout out to Michael too. 0:11:36.520 --> 0:11:37.600 I mean, yeah, Mike. 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:43.480 He was a dancer and he was in Fame. Man, 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:46.760 he was in Fame, the television show Fame. You know, uh, 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:48.080 super talented guy. 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:53.840 Man. So those people on that show, they they just 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:54.880 were so good to me. Man. 0:11:55.040 --> 0:11:59.080 Richie Owings was a costume designer and uh you know 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:02.080 they had some people in other departments. Anyway, they helped 0:12:02.120 --> 0:12:04.640 me get head shots. Shout out to Stephen McBride man. 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:07.959 He was a photographer and basically my first photo shoot 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:09.559 I ever did. Like the people, they were like, look, 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:11.680 we want to put it, put together. Photo shoot will 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:13.840 make you the subject of it. They just helped me 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:17.360 out in ways that you know that I'm so grateful for. 0:12:26.760 --> 0:12:28.760 So anyway, I'm doing this for a couple of years, 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:30.440 doing extra work. 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:32.840 But how did you even get into it? Into extra work? 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:36.280 Well in his past, Like Wendy, You're like, you know what, acting. 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:37.480 How did that? Okay, you know what? 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:40.880 Taking it back to that, yeah, you know, leading up 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:43.560 to all that, it was always sports, baseball in particular, 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:45.320 I thought like, Okay, that was going to be my path. 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:47.319 I'll go to college and play baseball. Maybe I'll be 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:49.880 lucky enough to take it, you know. Somewhere from there, 0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:53.200 about eighteen, you know, I had a couple of injuries 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:55.199 that I realized, like, this just isn't going any further. 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:57.480 I didn't have the discipline to get back on the 0:12:57.520 --> 0:12:59.680 horse and go after it in the way that that. 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:04.800 I realize now as a baseball was my spouse. Yeah, yeah, and. 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:06.880 I look back on it now and I'm like, yeah, 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:08.760 you see, the guys that make it, they just either 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:11.120 you got to be uber, uber talented on a level 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:13.240 that's like, you know, hard to believe. But even with that, 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:16.400 even with the talent, if you don't have the discipline 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:19.200 and the drive to work hard, the talent's only going 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:19.600 to take. 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:20.160 The perfect star. 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:21.880 Yeah it is. You got to have it all man, 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:24.199 especially to make it to that level. And so. 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:29.000 I didn't have that, and I was trying to figure 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:31.720 out what the next move was. And so I knew 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:35.520 it wasn't college for me because I wasn't this, wasn't 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:38.200 interested in learning in a structured environment in that way. 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:40.960 That just that just wasn't for me. I love learning, 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:44.240 but I'm more of an autodid act. I like to 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:46.360 learn on my own and read on my own and 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:49.920 process the information myself and not, you know, not have 0:13:50.000 --> 0:13:52.240 it be about getting a grade or having you know, 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:56.120 somebody else's opinion about how I'm learning it and being 0:13:56.200 --> 0:14:01.040 judged in that way. So, but my mother was like, listen, 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:05.640 you either staying out to Janet shout out mom, uh yeah, 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:07.439 stay in school, go get a full time job, or 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:10.520 join the military. Those were those were my options. So 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:12.880 she was you're not going to sit around while you 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:13.719 try and figure it out. 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:17.200 To my mother with your dad, she was pissed that 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:19.280 I wasn't going to I can see her doing this 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:21.160 pissed for years. 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:22.800 She was pissed that I wasn't going to college. I 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:25.160 mean even after I started working as an actor. I 0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:26.800 think it really was a thorn in her side. 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:29.800 So you're eighteen, you said, you're like, I'm not going 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:30.320 to college. 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:31.680 Janet cracks the whip. 0:14:31.480 --> 0:14:33.120 Cracks the whip. So I'm like, cool. I had a 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:34.520 job as a bellman at a hotel. 0:14:34.840 --> 0:14:37.560 Oh well what hotel I was? 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:40.680 Uh, I was contracted by Marriott. Marriott was the contractor, 0:14:40.720 --> 0:14:43.280 so technically I was an employee of Marriott, but it 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:46.480 was an IBM owned property. It was this beautiful campus 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:50.920 across the water from Manhattan, uh, in an area called Palisades, 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:53.600 New York. And it was basically a facility where they 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:59.120 educated and hosted all of like Fortune five hundred. 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:00.840 Events. 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:03.800 Basically, so like you know, let's say, like the c 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:06.320 suite staff of a Fortune five hundred company might be 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:07.360 sent there for a week. 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:10.480 It's like a corporate stay for the for the think 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:12.480 tanking and exactly. 0:15:12.800 --> 0:15:16.000 So we were serving those folks and I was a 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:18.400 bellman and I did that for a couple of years. 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:19.560 Man out of high school. 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:22.160 I mean, people make careers out of that. 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:25.880 Yeah, yeah, no, I never thought about it. Never, Never 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:27.280 for a moment that I think I was going to 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:27.960 stay there in. 0:15:28.160 --> 0:15:31.760 The hotel you man, Like, yeah. 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:35.440 You're making I'm sure I wasn't making, like not the 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:37.640 kind of like I always had big aspirations, man, I 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:39.880 always yeah, but dreams for me, it was like yeah, 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:43.680 never that's for better or for worse, you know. 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:49.360 Yeah, So what was there an image or something that 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:51.800 made you go like I can do that? 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:57.440 So I'm you know, I always believed growing up. I 0:15:57.440 --> 0:15:59.120 I was a latchy kid. There was you know, my 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:01.520 mom was always at work, my father was always at work, 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:05.520 and so you know, I was home probably eight hours 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:07.800 a day by myself, me and my sister, eight to 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:10.000 ten hours a day between the morning and the evening. 0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:13.120 And so I watched a crazy amount of television and movies, 0:16:13.200 --> 0:16:14.880 Like the TV was on twenty four seconds? 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:16.240 What like what was what was man? 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:20.360 Like every single thing like you know, oh Man, yeah, Ships, 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:26.160 Charlie Different Charlie's Angels, Bionic Man, Bionic Woman, yeah, or 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:30.920 six million Dollar Man, Bionic Woman, wonder Woman, Uh, credible. 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:34.040 Spider Man used to come on like the old old 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:37.440 Spider Man would come on on like Saturday mornings, and 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:38.240 I mean it was bad. 0:16:38.800 --> 0:16:40.320 It wasn't even like the incredible. 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:44.440 Hope was good with with with with lou fregnant bhil 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:47.200 uh bixby, thank you nice pull. 0:16:47.280 --> 0:16:48.880 I was trying to and. 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:51.720 Uh, you know so I mean just all the time, 0:16:51.760 --> 0:16:54.320 love Bold. I mean everything that was on in that era. 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:56.520 Like I mean, I knew the TV schedule top to bottom. 0:16:56.600 --> 0:16:58.280 You could ask me what was on TV at what time? 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:00.960 I knew exactly, Yeah, what was on at what time? 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:04.679 And I just you know, I loved all that. And 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:06.520 then movies. You know, as a matter of fact, I 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:09.000 ran into east Side not that long ago, and I 0:17:09.040 --> 0:17:10.960 was telling him. I was like, man, I hadn't watched 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:13.160 Bad Boys in a long time, the original Bad Boys, 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:15.800 Sean Penn and the Eastside, and I was just telling 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:17.960 east I'm like, man, you know, it's so interesting now 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:21.240 as a grown man to watch his you know, watching 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:23.400 his work in that movie. 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:25.840 And I'm like, it was fantastic. He was such and 0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:26.919 still is. I mean, but he. 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:33.360 Yes, how many people can face off with Tom Critiz. 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:35.800 Come on, man, you know, but you even see him 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:38.159 back then with Sean Penn, and he was, I mean, 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:40.439 he held the screen strong and anybody in that movie 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:43.119 and Bad Boys he was you know, he was on 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:45.359 fire Man, and then I put Leabamba on for the 0:17:45.400 --> 0:17:49.240 kids not that long ago. And brilliant man, just brilliant 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:51.840 the guy, you know. 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:55.119