Wilmer Badma.
It's Freddie Rodriguez.
Welcome to this podcast.
This is part two, Part two conversation with Adam Road that it was too good.
It had to be too You're still awake.
But going back to uh so then that that gave you the confidence to go, I'm gonna pack my stuff up and move to La No.
So I did. I did extra work. I was trying to you know, get an agent and hustle for auditions and crash auditions, mostly commercials. At the time, I was doing some theater work. I was, you know, still working as a bellman and uh and doing all these things. And there's a whole side story about you know, getting my stockbroker license and a bunch of other stuff as
a whole you know, during that course of time. But I I did background, like I said, between New York Undercover and you know, more movies than I can remember, you know, during that period of time. I guess we call that like two two and a half three years whatever it was. Circle it back now to where I caught it and sort of like you know, digressed for a moment, and back to my pops. Right. So, my pops was in the army, with this guy named Bill Clark.
And I'm walking into the house one night and my father is watching TV, which is the norm, and he's like, yeah, you remember this guy. And as I'm walking in the door, he's freaking out. He's like jumping up and I can't believe this. I can't believe it. You remember him? And I'm looking at the Emmy Awards on TV and he's pointing to this guy on stage and he's like, that's Bill Clark. You don't remember him. And I'm like, I don't remember him. He goes the man, I haven't seen
him in years. And my father knew this guy from the Army reserves and when he knew him, they were friends, and Bill was a New York detective. And my father cannot put together how in whatever it is ten years that he hadn't seen him, twelve years he hadn't seen him. This guy was now standing on stage at the Emmy Awards winning an Emmy, winning an Emmy with the people from New York from NYPD Blue and so the whole Botch Go crew there. Yeah, and my dad is bugging out, man,
and I'm like, I don't remember. So my Dad's like, wow, this is crazy. Couldn't believe it. So every Sunday I mentioned Sonny Volpie to you guys, the teamster my dad used to have. They go to this little diner and my father this guy, Sonny, and another guy, the old timers. You know, they were older than my dad. But he used to hang out with these guys and they sit and bullshit, read the paper, talk smack about whatever, and you know, spend a couple hours on a Sunday morning.
So he's reading the paper and there's an article about Bill Clark and my father says to Sonny, He's like, you know this guy. You ever come across him, you know, driving or whatever. And son He's like, yeah, no, I know Bill. Yeah, a nice guy, you know. So my father said, can you can you get me in touch with him? I want to reach out to him, you know, it's been so long. So Sonny gets HI the number of the production office. My father calls, gets a hold
of Bill. Bill can't believe it, but ray, oh man, Ray, it's good to hear from me. They're talking, they catch up. Bill's asking about his family, how you know, how the kids or whatever. My father says, yeah, you know, Adam, Adam has been acting the last few years. He's doing that, and you know what my sister's doing, and you know, so they catch up on life, right. Bill says to my father, Look, I'm leaving tomorrow. I'll be back to New York in a couple of months. We've got to
come back to Shoot. I'll call you. We'll get dinner when I get back. And if, for whatever reason, you get to LA between now and then, you call me, here's my numbers, let me know. And it turned out that year, this is ninety six. That year we were supposed to come out here to visit my parents' best friends. Their sons were living in LA and so we were coming out to visit them for Thanksgiving. The two families
we're going to get together. So we come out to see Ralph and Xavier, and you know ral you know my boy Ralph. So come out to see Ralph and we have Thanksgiving. My father calls Bill and he says, hey, man, I'm in town for Thanksgiving and you know, would love to see you. We're here until whenever, and Bill says, tomorrow tomorrow, we'll get together. Day after Thanksgiving. We'll go
to dinner. And my father says, great, So the day after Thanksgiving nineteen ninety six is really the day like my life changed because we go out to dinner and we go to Giorgio Baldi's on Intrada. It's real fancy Italian restaurant that was very Hollywood. It still is, you know. It's It was at the bottom of the Pacific Palisades, right where the pch meets in Trada and we walk in, you know, and and right away I'm like, oh shit, man, this is Hollywood, like for real, Like Kurt Russell and
Goldie Hawn are sitting there having dinner. Was it. I'm getting confused now because the only murders in the building, I can't remember it was Steve Martin or Martin Short was sitting there in the rest one of those guys. Was there somebody else? But you walked in and you knew it's a small restaurant, so you walked in and you were like, oh shit, like wow, this is like this is the real deal, man, you know. And it was.
It was a trip. I'm in there with my family with Bill and his wife at the time, and h and we meet his best friend was meeting us for dinner there. Bill's best friend So Bill's best friend is there with his wife and three kids, and we all sit down at this big table, got the biggest table in the place, and we're all sitting there and uh, his best friend comes and sits next to me and we start talking. And two and a half three hours goes by for dinner and me and this guy been
talking the whole time, and his name's David. And at the end of the dinner, I'm just like, you know, he's asked me about my life and we're talking. I'm sharing stuff with him, and we just really hit it off. And at the end of the dinner, I'm like, yes, you know, David, I know you work on the show,
but what do you do at NYPD Blue. And it turns out it's David Milch, who is, you know, just a legendary writer in television and tremendous talent, and so he says, yeah, you know, I helped create the show and this is what I did. And he's like, look, I'm writing a pilot for something that Bill and I are doing, and there's a character in the show that I think you would be right for if you wanted
to come out in audition. Have you ever thought about moving to LA And I had been thinking about it for almost a year at that point, as Ralphie had moved out here and I was already thinking about I just knew, like that's where you had to go at the time you're going to pursue it. La was where you had to go do it. You know, New York was one thing, and you could stay and go that track in New York. But you know, for some reason,
even as a kid, man La just kind of called me. Yeah, you know, I was on the sun, the palm trees, whatever it was. I was like, I know, one day I gotta go. I gotta go that way, you know, whatever it was. And so uh he said, man, David was so kind and generous.
Man, so let you audition for it.
So not only that, he says, look, you have a place to stay. And I'm like, look, hey, I have a place to stay because I know I could stay with Ralph and his brother. He's like, oh, okay, I would have offered you my guest house. You could stay there. And right then he says, stay in town a little longer if you can. This is Thanksgiving. Let me find I want to just get you on camera. I want to see if we find something on blue on NYPD Blue and just see you on camera. So I hang
out for about two weeks and waiting around. I'm just enjoying LA and finally get a call, Hey, we've got something on an episode. I come in and it's a character that like has one line three words and it's a It's in an episode of NYPD Blue called Upstairs.
Downstairs with the detectives and the uniform cops are beefing with each other, and I'm a uniform cop that comes up and I'm carrying some boxes and shit and I and I all I say is uh is there's like the sergeant and two detectives Jimmy Smith's and it might have been Dennis Fans talking to the sergeant and there's
like a heated exchange. And I come up with these boxes and I'm just like in the corner and then and then one of them says, yeah, in the corner or whatever, and I go, you know, delivery boy again, right, But then I have a stare down with Jimmy Smith's, Like we have a stare down right, Yeah, that's it, in and out right done, Like you know, by the time you recognize me, when you saw it, it was over. Yeah, but I got my minute and I never forget. Man.
I'm sitting in the trailer. I'm writing in this little journal, like I got a line and I'm here on the thing and it's like like this is like really happening, man, you know. And so I do this thing. Great, it's done. I pack my ship. I go back to New York and I'm like, I'm moving to LA. I know I'm moving now, like now, I got to go out because this is the possibility of this audition for this show is going to happen. And I'm like, that's that's all
I needed. Like that's enough for me. I'm packing up. I'm moving out. So pack up, I move out. I moved to LA end of January. I get out here and I have a place to stay for a little while. That doesn't work out, things get complicated. I'm trying to and at the lowest point, man, I get a call that the show that that character is not going to be in the pilot.
Ah.
So I'm like, shit, man, I'm out here. I'm freaking figuring out exists but not yet but not yet. So and I don't have an agent. I don't. I'm trying to get all of this right. So I come out here with that same hustle, and instead of mailing envelopes out, I'm literally driving around in my car handing out headshots at agencies with a Thomas Guide straight up Thomas. Okay, there's an agency here as part of the valley learning
my way around LA. And I go to this agency and I think they were no more for repping dancers at the time, but KM something I can't remember what it was, man, but I give my this woman she says she wants to rep me. She asked me for my address, so they like, look, I don't have an address right now. The only address I could give you is where I was selling real estate for first time home buyers out in Riverside, right And I'm like, I can give you that. She's like, oh, you don't have
an address. I'm like, no, let me give you this beeper number in this and she was like, okay, you're looking for a place to live. I'm like yeah, and so she's like, okay, call this number later tonight. I call the number. She picks up. Her name was Jennifer. She's like, look, me and my roommate are looking for a third roommate because we're we just want to save some money before we move on to our next place.
So I ended up living sleeping on the floor in the living room of this apartment in Burbank for like months and a half.
What's an agent?
And she became my agent for a while, right wow. And then as I as I'm thinking like damn, when is this pilot gonna happen whatever, Bill calls me and he's like, Hey, the characters back in the pilot and they're gonna they're gonna bring you in for an audition. And my saving grace and I'm going back to this this moment was an acting class that I was in. That Milch again was like an angel and was like,
go see this woman. She has an acting class. And I go and I show up and it turns out there's like four or five people in the class that he's paying for Oh wow, to go study. And he paid for me to go study with this woman, you know, And it was what was so great about it in that moment was that it was somewhere to be like and you know, I was lonely as hell out here. I really Ralph was my boy, and that was the
only person I knew out there. My boy Ralph was grinding trying to make his career happen, and so all of a sudden it was like, oh, there was community, you know, and and somewhere to be every week and doing something and you know, and it was cool man.
And but now but now you're in the pilot and now well, first of all, you're still so you go to not in the pilot yet, so practice is the audition, right.
So the audition comes up finally, like the characters back in the pilot, audition for it is coming up. So I'm like, okay, this is my moment. I go, I prep, go do my audition, and I walk out, you know, feeling good. But it's really only the second time that I had, like an audition for television. I had audition for something on New York Undercover and get it. And this was really my first audition for something big. And I walk out and I'm an agent, so I don't
get feedback. I don't want to bother Bill because just getting to know him at the time. So like ten days goes by and I don't hear anything, and I think, like, I mean each day that I didn't hear anything, I was silence. Was like I was crushed, and at that time my life like to be crushed. The feeling I felt was anger, so like I would express it as I mean, I would literally like bust out in a rage at a red light, just because like you so missed at myself, man, And.
Because all the all the boxes were checked.
The dude, you know, you take a shot in the class, the whole thing. And I'm like, oh man, you know, because I didn't think I was bad in the audition, but I didn't know, like I didn't have enough you know, I haven't had enough experience, no barometer yet, you know. And I had no agent to call and go like,
well what they say, what's the feedback? Like, you know, tell me something so and like I said, I didn't want to bother Bill because I'm like, man, the dude did more than I could ever ask somebody to do for me. And you know, anyway, those ten days goes by, and at that time I had They used to be a restaurant on Melrose called Georgia's. Oh yeah yeah, and it was a beautiful spot man, and it was owned by Denzel and Wesley Snipes and Norm Nixon and the
owner operator partner was a guy named Brad Johnson. Uh, and I love Brad. Brad was really good to me. An ex girlfriend of mine at the time was still a dear friend of mine. Her dad was friends with Brad and he reached out to Brad before I came to LA and was like, Hey, look, this kid's good kid. He's gonna come by, you know, just look out for him. And so I would go to this spot and it was the spot man like it was. It was dope spots,
so like you had to get dressed up. So I put on you know, uh, sports coat and slacks and no leather pants. I couldn't afford the leather pants at that time. Man pants. I wish I had some leather pants. But I would go there jazzed up and once a week I would go and sit down and Brad would hook me up with a meal and you know, a drink or two. But what was the best thing about it was like it was a place to post up
and I would meet people, you know. So I met some girls and went on my first hikes that I ever went on with That's go on a hike you know, California ship like the hike. I'm like, yeah, all right, uh, And I met some guys that I'm still you know. I mean, I haven't seen it in a while, but like, you know, it was friends with for years, and you know, it was a place again to like feel like okay,
like I'm belonging, belonging, right. So one night Bad calls me, like, hey, come back for dinner tonight in the middle of the week. It was like a Wednesday, and and I had not told anybody about this audition, right. I was like, I'm not gonna say anything about this audition till I know what the end result is. And I hadn't gotten the end.
And that's the rule of thumb, by the way, just to yourself.
And like, so I get a call come in for dinner. So I sit down with Brad and I'm there at a big table with him in about I don't know eight other people and they're all adults, successful people, you know. I mean, this was like one of the hottest restaurants in town. And Brad's friends were all doing it or they're all you know, they were probably in their forties at the time, and they were like experienced and you know,
but I'm being invited to the table. We're having conversation and they're talking about their careers, business things, things that are going on for them. And it comes to my turn. Somebody turns like at them, so, you know, what's up? What's going on? You know, what are you up to? And I'm like, shit, man, I didn't have shit else to talk about. I'm like, we talk about this this house that I showed somebody in Riverside, like earlier that day. I'm like, uh, I said, well, I'm like, I'm gonna
let the cat out the bag. Fuck it, right, I'm like, yeah, I had this audition for a Stephen Boschko pilot about ten days ago, and you know, I was like, I went in there, I did my best. I was like, but I think I blew it. And I have no point of reference to get any feed. But I'm just telling them what's on my mind. Right. They're like, oh, man, well you got to stick with it. It's you know, it's all good for the process. About five minutes after I talk about this, man, my pager goes off. This
is how old. There's a long cage. My pager goes off, and I look at the number, and I thought I was fly because I had an eight hundred number for my pager, right, so anybody could die that page, right, and they didn't need any quarters up for your call, right balling. So I look at the number and it's and I was waiting to see this number. It was three one oh uh you know, uh six six there was the Fox exchange right, and I'm like, oh, this was the number. I was three six nine three one oh three six
nine something some something. And I was like, I knew it was from Boshko's office. So I get on there. I'm like, oh shit. I get up from the table. I go to the payphone. I call casting as system picks up. His name was Scott Jenkinsjer and he's like, Adam, are you available to come in to read for Steven tomorrow? And I'm like, yeah, of course I'll be there.
Now, you have a fax machine because we're going to send your Yeah, yeah, no.
I had the scenes. It was the same It was the same scenes, same scene right. Luckily because for the ten days, bro I was going over that scene every single day, one hundred times a day. I was reliving my chance, you know what I mean. It was like I was reliving it because I thought I blew it. So I was like, man, I would have done this anyway. Your chance is actually now coming tomorrow. So I got to go the next day, man, And it was the
first time I auditioned. There were a lot of people at this time there were less and maybe like it was down to like fifteen twenty people. Maybe when I got there.
You recognize anyone that was in the room.
I feel like nobody that I knew well at the time, but I feel like Yancey Arias was there. Yancey is the one that comes to mind when I think if there were any familiar faces, but Yancey and I would run into each other. I'd see him a commercial auditions and stuff in New York. Yeah, yeah, I don't. Yancey comes up. Yancey comes to mind. I don't remember who else maybe, but I go in. It's my turn, and I just felt so prepared, like I already felt like
I had lost. So I was like, fuck it, man, like I just let go and.
You quite literally lost it once. So this is just like gravy yep.
Scene, And I mean I got applause at the end. People in the room were like, wow, that was great, and I just felt I was beaming inside because all I wanted to do was make a good impression, you know what I mean? So I walked out. What was the scene?
Like, what was the scene that you had to perform?
Oh? Man, I don't even remember, now, okay for the cop. You were playing a cop? I was playing a cop. There was an exchange with somebody, you know it. I don't remember. I don't. I wish I could. Actually, I would have walked out feeling like I walked out on a high.
Even if I don't get it, I left it there.
I left an impression. I left an impression in that room, Like I know, I didn't let build down because that was my main thing. Like I didn't want to leave these people that gave me a chance, that opened the door. I didn't want to. I didn't want to let them down on it, you know. So I felt like Bill and David at least like I got my respect, you know,
like they didn't look foolish for bringing me in. So I walked out, and I'm like, man, I remember going to the bathroom, splashing some water on my face, smiling like you feel good? I feel good now, I'm like walking out and I'm leaving the building and the casting system comes outside and say hey, Adam, Adam come back and calls me back in.
I'm like, don't ever come back again.
They weren't clapping because you were done, so like, okay, well good luck. First of all, this is what you call us.
You're describing like the best standing to a romantic movie ever, right, like them guns and direct him. So hey Adam, wait, come wait.
Wait I stopped my checks. I'm like, oh, right, because I got paused the pushing with the guy behind it. You have that moment then turn around like yeah, you know, brings me back in the office. He's like, just wait here.
You ever come here again?
Yo? You left your water whatever, you left your water again. Yes, we're going to do you a favorite. We're not going to tell any other time about this audition. So only because you're a friend.
Yeah, you didn't clean up after yourself.
You don't ever leave an audition without taking yourself. Clearly you're a rookie. She comes out, She goes, Adam, it was a guy because Scott the same guy that he comes out. He comes out, he brings me back in the office of a woman named Junie Lowry Johnson, who was the casting director. A minute or two goes by. She walks in and she looks at him. They look at each other and they're like, you got the job. And I'm like, oh my god.
I say he told you there that day.
Oh my god. I mean, I'm like, I don't know what to do. Man. I'm like, oh my god, this is crazy. You know, I can feel it now. And I'm like, wow, thank you, thank you, you know, and I leave and I run to the first pay phone. I call my mom. She's at work, you asking what my father did for lifing. My mother worked for the United Airlines for like thirty plus years, and she was the
ticket agent at like an off site ticket office. So if you wanted to buy a ticket for United, you would go to these offices and purchase the ticket there. And she did that. I called her up and I was like, hey, Ma. She's like, hey, what's up, Mama. My work. I'm like, all right, you got a long line. She was like yeah, it's crowded and a lot of
people here. I'm like great, perfect, because I was like, you know, I want to see what her reaction was going to be in front of all these people, and it was on the other line, and I was like, I got it. I got my first show, Mom, I got I got on this show, you know. And she was like, oh my god. You know she was happy. Of course in the moment. I don't think she understood. I always think we're doing you know so, But man,
I'll never forget being on that love that lot. Every time I go to that lot, like it's just special to me for that reason. Fox. Yeah, and so I Man, I hang up the phone and I was like, man, this is it, Like, you know, I got a job on, like a series regular on a show.
And this show had been already Greenland show had already been green because it was Stephen Botschko at that time, it was twenty two on the air.
He was dumb, man, you know, he was remember remember when you Taylor Sheridan. Yeah, I remember when I got paid. Man. I remember doing the pilot, and I remember riding because this is funny too. We shot in New York. Uh and I am on the plane with uh. What was that conversation. I had a conversation with somebody and they were telling me like, oh, you're gonna make like twenty five grand an episode or whatever at that time, you're
kidding me. I was like, usually I made ten thousand for No No, and so I was thinking twenty five. It turned out when it came down to the negotiation, I made six grand an episode.
Wait wait, wait, that's that's before agent.
Fees and all I had no agent. I got this with no agent.
But I'm saying, like, you mean like six take home or like six was the number?
Six was the number? Six was the neighbor? Yeah, but I had no agent, so all I had to do was pay tax, you know, which, look at that time, no shit, twenty two episodes making over six figures at that time was like yeah, crazy, you were like six g I was like what I mean? You know, I mean it was a slightly disappointing just because Bill called me the contract. The whole negotiation with Bill basically said, look, they're going to call you. The number is going to
be low. But I didn't know. He was like, but you just take what it is, yes, because again it was like getting on a Stephen Botchko pilot at that time was also a big deal because it was like it was like, you know, being on an Alan Ball Show. Later on. You know what I mean, they had prestige, there was there was like something to it.
So so questions. So you haven't said the name of the show.
Oh, it's called Brooklyn South.
Brooklyn South.
It was called Brooklyn South.
Yeah, you're na by night it was it on.
It was on Monday nights at ten o'clock. It was the first primetime show to ever get a TV m A rating. Wow. Yeah, because the guy's head gets blown off. Pieces fall show. It was a fall show. No, no, it was a fall show. It was like the crown jewel of CBS's lineup that year, that Monday night Slide at ten o'clock was there. That was their premos.
How long you've been working with CBS?
Yeah? What wait? What year was that? What year? Nineteen ninety seven?
So you've been at CBS since ninety seven?
That was nineteen ninety seven.
They've been good to you, man.
Yeah, yeah, man, all of it. You know, you realize like, yeah, you know they you learn a lot.
Man, you know, how many seasons do you do there?
So we only did one season and then the show got canceled.
And then and then you and then Wendy you snatch up is at Miami. So that would that be your next big break?
I would, I mean big break. Yeah. But the next thing that really kept me going was then iron Spelling show in Between, and then I did and then I did as it was called All Souls. It was it was actually also All Souls. It was very cool shows. It was it's kind of ahead of its time. Actually it was a guy named Mark Frost that was one of David Lynch's partners on Twin Peaks, had broken off and created this show called All Souls and then it aired on UPN and it just wasn't It wasn't right
for the network. And the show was kind of even ahead of its time. It was about a haunted hospital and it was really cool and it was really show. But what did makes sense? It didn't exist yet. So I lived in Montreal and I shot that, you know, over the course of a year on and off or ten months whatever it was. But then the next break really was a show called Roswell, and I did the third season of Roswell.
I remember when you had.
Catherine Heigel was my uh played my wife.
Yeah, And I remember rosswell super well. I remember when he started because I was friends for half of that cast.
Yeah, they were good.
Be Brandon were redon.
Fair was on it, Jason Bear, Nick Weschler. Mahandra is still a friend love Mahandra Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, Mahandra's great. I actually the her and Brandan have a podcast that I did at some time in the last day.
Very hits me up occasionally.
Yeah, great, we do we got man, sweet guy.
But yeah, it was like it was like the rise of w B Yes, right, Dawson's Creek and then they started this this thing and then Roswell was that first.
Like can we do a show up by Aliens?
Yeah, around the X Files years and all that stuff. And then I think it was what year was that that show?
I joined that show two two thousand and one, so then that show started ninety nine would have been the first year I think for that show in ninety nine. So those guys.
Excuse so I just that seventy show in ninety eight.
That's what I was going to ask you did is that ninety eight that you started the Yeah that's Fall of ninety eight premiere Fall of ninety eight.
Okay, yeah, damn yeah, So I remember bab Yeah, it was so crazy, But that's insane.
So Roswell was big games kept the ball moving, thank god, because because I had I had bought my my my first place, and I was like, man, I bought my first place, had like two months of mortgage left in the bank and counting on that Aaron Spelling Show and then it got canceled, paying six grand though, and then freaking, and then Roswell hit and kept me going, man. And then when Roswell ended CSI, Miami came along and then that was you know, that was really that took things to another day.
How many how many seasons did you do?
We did ten seasons of cs and you were doing twenty We did, I mean, depending most seasons, I would say we did twenty two, twenty three. Couple one season we did like twenty five or twenty six one year, but I would say, yeah, average, we did twenty two.
And it was one of those shows that really pop culturally, elevated what procedure was What's gonna be?
And the location was so sexy and the cast.
Was so bad, really set it apart. There was nothing on TV. Yeah, we kind of you know, the original the original CSI, I would say, you know, added something to procedurals that hadn't existed, which is you know, shooting those those those micro shots where they're like, you know, get inside someensics. Part of it really like giving people a visual.
Which was which just turns out the proof.
Which was amazing, right, But then Miami ratcheted it up another level because it was such a beautiful backdrop for the show. So now you had the you know, the the intricate technical shots that were interesting visually, but then set on top of this beautiful canvas that was Miami with the with the beautiful orange and that the pink.
Over to breako the Fancis Hearts.
It actually didn't shoot in Miami, shooted in Los Angeles.
We would go to Miami. The first five seasons, you would go to Miami for some exterior Yeah, probably like three times a year we would go to MIAMIB four. We'd go down there for like some anywhere between eight to twelve days, fourteen days, get exterior shots and shoot some stuff right there and then come back to LA And then I mean that was that was like.
Such an iconic role for you, you know, and yeah, so cuside Miami was a moment and he started like it put you in in household.
Numbers, Yeah, for sure.
What was your average ratings on that?
Oh man, those days.
You were probably averaging what seventeen.
MILLI easy, I want to say, in the early days, we were probably up to twenty two, twenty three, twenty ten million. Yes, and like those pre pre DVR, Yeah, those numbers, we were still posting those kind of how rad is.
There for us to have a Latino on primetime hitting twenty two million people a week and then saying like, oh man, he's not only the he's not only the young guy in there, but he's also like a badass bro like you were killing it and making us all little what.
I wish man? And you know, you grow older and you look back on things with different perspectives, and I wish that I would have understood the gravity of that at the time. You know, you know, you're on a big show and that feels good, but it's really only with with time and distance, maturity, perspective, whatever you want
to say. It is like that you look back on and go like, oh man, the magnitude I understand maybe more now what that must have represented, you know, in that moment, and what a great opportunity.
We were all trying to keep the light on at that point, you know, and I think the most in that time, we don't understand the gravity when we do the math of what pop culturally and culturally how it kind of elevated the values of who we were on screen.
Yes, and what it's led to, Adam, And and you've continued to be a Latino leading man, and you've done wonderful work since, whether it's magic mic, whether it is criminal minds, whether whether it is all the stuff that critical.
Minds are available in paramount plus. Right now, that's.
Right, man, And I mean you're you're you're the guy that Latino actors are looking at going like I grew up watching that.
They're also time like we need like an Adam Rodriguez type.
Yeah, hopefully that's a I always feel like that's a dangerous thing because I'm like, well, is available, probably have a thing that's what you want. But right, yeah, but that's what you know.
But that's one of the reasons why we wanted to have you here, man, give you your flowers, and for you to understand how important you've been for Latino culture, for our industry. And and we're just so thrilled that you're here to call you a friend, and and they're very proud of the of the career that you've crafted.
And what a beautiful thing right for us to have grown up together in business, right, and and to have you know, been fortunate enough to pave the paths that we've paved, and and to still be here and still be able to do something we love and to have success at it, and and to be able to sit around and talk about that journey is you know, uh man, in a way, it's like it's a dream come true or a dream you could never adam that you could have, that you could have, you know.
And so but look, we got to have you back again because obviously, you know, we got to start doing four parts there.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we got We didn't even discratch the surface, and I'm talking about it in all the amount of stories we could sit around and yeah, crazy, crazy, we.
Didn't we have the leather pants conversation.
We didn't. We didn't talk about adult shape.
We didn't talk about meeting each other at that audition yeah party by yeah, yeah, you.
All can attest by this episode, you're going to see more about the Rodriguez next season for sure, But but I don't thank you so much for being podcasts.
No.
Hell, yeah, man, it's you know, we we waited for. You know, this is hopefully a big season final, We'll hopefully, but but yeah, but dude, thank you, thank you so much for being part of this thing for us. It's a very special podcast for us because we only want to to people that kind of have changes and you know, contributed and not only pop culture, but for for you know, for us, for for for all of our brown brothers and sisters. You know, so so thank you for being Sahiro.
I'm Wilmer Valdorama' Freddie Rodriguez and this is Amigos.
Dose Amigos is a production from w V Sound and iHeartMedia's Michael through That Podcast Network, hosted by Me, Freddie Rodriguez and Wilmer Valdorama.
Those Amigos is produced by Aaron Burlson and Sophie Spencer Zabos.
Our executive producers are Wilmer Valdorama, Freddie Rodriguez, Aaron Burlson, and Leo Klem at w V Sound.
This episode was shot and eded it by Ryan Posts and mixed by Sean Tracy and features original music by Madison Devenport and Helo boy Our.
Cover art photography is by David Avalos and designed by Deny Holtz Clau.
And thank you for being at Third Amigo today.
I appreciate you guys always listening to those amigos.
More podcasts from my Heart, visit the our Heart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
See you next week.