And welcome back to those amigos. This is part two of our big break conversation. Break and get ready because we're about to get very colorful here. So of course I had done all the little things right, Like, you know, I played like, you know this flashback young kid and four corners. I'd done a little thing on Disney Channel called Amba Makamba, where like I pop up in a little box on the bottom left. I'm like, hey, Amba,
how told is a giraffe? You know? And so I've done little things like that, you know that you but like there's some region of Sony commercial for a camera that was only releasing in Japan, you know, like I never saw these things, you know. And then finally, you know, he's like, I'm going to send you this pilot edition. We don't have the script, right you. All you get is these three little pages. And I was like, this
is it. I just got to do this scene and he's like yeah, he goes okay, e's he money.
Yeah.
So I asked my dad if you you know, if you know, if he can take me to the to this audition. Well, you know, and some of you who have read an American story, everyone's invited which is my memoir You were you know, you will remember this this story. My my dad had to borrow money from the neighbor because we didn't have gas money for him to drive me to this audition. So he took me to this
audition in Studio City. I crossed the street from CBS Rafford, where Davey Gross was the casting director at the time, and I went in an audition, and you know, she she's like, okay, cool, We're going to bring you back to more and I want you to have a little more fun with with your character, you know, just have a little more more and more fun with that. I was like, okay. So I went back that night and you know, I said, Dad, they want me to come
back tomorrow. I was, okay, cool, And I'm playing around with my little sister, you know, and I you know, and I make this voice and she starts laughing, and I'm.
Like, you make a noise.
I make a voice. I got a little high pitched, kind of innocent voice, and she's like she starts laughing. And then I was like, okay, well, let me combine accents from different countries and make it an accent that you know that you can't even dephrase where he's from, you know. And as soon as I said the word yes, I knew, oh, wait a minute, I think this might just wait, you know. And so I think to me, I was like, all right, let me see it is.
So I went the next day and I combined actions with different countries and I played with this, and I came in audition for the producers. At the time, I had no idea who they were, so they were later, yeah, They're like. There was like a moment of silence while they register, and then there was an explosion of laughter, and so I thought, oh, man, I really messed up. I really missed Oh you thought they were laughing at you?
And I missed up. I messed up Freddie because I said this thing, I auditioned with something very different than I had done it before. I took this like hell Mary, and she said, have fun with it. I went too far. I had too much fun with it. And then immediately they're like, they're like, and then they're like and then they started laughing. So I was like, I couldn't translate that. I was like, I messed up. So I went home and finally I get a phone call from the studio again.
They're like, hey, they want you to go to twenty century Fox. I was like, oh, I'm getting another edition, all right? So I told my dad my dad had to borrow money again from the neighbor to drive me to twenty century Fox, this time the same studio. Yeah, then I would Yes, man, that's mind blowing. Wow, bro, that's what I'm telling you. That's why I said, like, you walking to that gate and there's this magnetic thing where anything can happen.
For you, you know, And I never put that together.
Yes, we were at that wow. So you know, I entered, you know, my dad gets a little money, drives me over there. And you know, when you are auditioning for a TV show, they make you sign a contract before you get the part, and you read the contract and you don't understand what those letters are, you know, and like ultimately it says that I was going to make fifteen thousand dollars for the pilot yeah, and ten thousand dollars per episode.
Yeah.
Like I am like right, yeah, And so I told my dad, I say, Dad, but it was such a ridiculous paragraph in that contract that I looked at my that we're obviously not getting this because it makes no sense, like we don't get this kind of stuff right, Like, it's just that's like more money. Even if I just get the pilot, that's more money that we made in the year.
Did the contract say how many episodes you would do?
No, just it was said all produced. So I was supposed to be a regular because.
I'm wondering if you did the math in your head, were you like ten episodes times?
Like I didn't know. I once they got to pick up, that's when I was like, But so basically I go with my dad and my dad, could you imagine if I get this show right now? My dad looks at me, he's thinking, we're not getting this part, but he's just like he's like, may if you'll get it, I dined a very good If you don't get it, I dine very good. And you know, I always say this, My dad always sounded like he was drunk, and you know, but he you know, he wasn't drinking at the time.
And so I auditioned and I entered the room and it's Peter Roth, president of a Fox all the time, Bonnie and Terry Turner, I mean, legendary writers and head writers of SNL at the time center in my life. You know, they created Cone's Heads, Cone Heads, you know, Wayne's World, the Brady Bunch movie, and on and on and on. I mean, the guys were like legendary comedy.
And then also I created The Rock from the Sun at the time, and then it was like Mark Brazil and then there was you know, the old executives a Fox, you know, and and I just had no idea who they were. And I come in there and I do my my scene, you know, and then I go with with the with the voice with these and I just go, I go, what did I say? What was the one line that brought the house on? Oh? It's like I was like, uh, oh, so it did a boat whore and bro there was an explosional left in that room.
And again I thought I messed it up. It couldn't translate to me that they were laughing that hard something I did. Then I was like, oh, and you know, they were laughing so hard in the room that I couldn't hear the casting director. So I because I had to memorize, and I would just wait for her lips to be done, and then I would say my line and then they would be laughing through her line, and then I will say my line, and then we'll be
laughing through her line. So I was just reading her lips and I was like so attentively looking at her lips, and so I talked to myself, I'm like, wow, this is crazy. I'm definitely messed it up, you know, because I couldn't even hear her. But it added to the the chaos of my character when he was trying to comprehend, and I was like so wide eyed that it almost
created character traits. And you know, I went home and my you know, my agent calls me at the time, and he said, uh, oh, they want you to come back tomorrow. And I looked at my dad and to my family, and you know, there's a time where you can pick up a line in the other room and and everybody's listening from different phones in the rooms in the house, you know, in our little tiny little house in Vanies, California, and they're on the phone and they're
like and they're like, once you come back tomorrow. And I was like, oh my god, I got a call back. And then he says, and they want you to come back the day after that, and the day after that, the day after that, and the day after that, and we're all crying and screaming, and we're like Jesus Christ, like what just happened, dude, And honestly cue it like a movie. I look outside the window, dude, and our neighbor's American flag is waving.
Oh man, wow.
And that was the moment where I said, this is why, that's what this country affords all of us, you know. And I was relentlessly knowing that I needed to pay it back in that moment. As soon as I saw that flagwave, I said that that's that's what everybody talks about. That's what where everybody writes movies about. It's this called American dream thing, that it's American dream that that could happen for those who are willing to die, who want to get in the dance floor and when to get
out there and try, you know. And dude, I made a promise to myself that moment. I was like, you know, if I'm going to do this, I have to be the best. Everything that comes out of my mouth has to be the funniest thing that anybody has ever heard.
And I just relentlessly would look at every line and think about it, like talking about Keanu Reeves, like Neil and the Matrix, I'm like, I'll move this comma here and bring this period there that would make it super awkward and offbeat, and I will play with the comedic cadence of the actual lines. And so every time I deliver a line, people wouldn't know why you make that choice, how you come do that choice. And I just I was really thinking, like a different type of creature on TV.
You were creating a character for you. You kind of really knew what creating a character was.
And it was based on the promise that like I was not going to mess it up, that I was going to just appreciate this opportunity and I was going to bring all of myself into that and as the audacity of thinking, like whatever I have in me is what this character needs, It's like I got it, you know. And I don't even think my coasters at the time even understood, you know, like what this character was. At the time. They thought I was like, well, it's like
the foreign kid with the accident. I guess I don't know if it's like a They didn't know if I was a serious regular or if I was like something like a power.
They when you like, when they first heard it, were they like they were like, this is ridiculous.
Right, especially Telfer. Telford thought I was brilliant. Telford gave me so much love and so much like they looked at me and they were like, yeah, Tolfer's like, you're either weird, yeah, like a really like a weirdo, or you might just be a I mean, a brilliant.
It's one or the other.
It's one of the between.
I was bet the weird, you know.
Yeah, but I let him believe it was brilliant, you know. And I and I think I think at the time that part became this anthem for me, you know, and starting my career, you know. And I was I was asking you, what did you feel like on set? Because but for me, I had a live audience. Oh yeah, so imagine they go okay, action and you say your first line.
Yeah, was that scary?
I was to do it? Yeah, it was so scary because you know, I had done theaters, so I was like, oh, I'm not afraid of that. But then I was like, oh, there's two hundred and thirty people on that on the outstand. The trick was not to play for the audience in the sound stage. The trick was not to perform it for the people in the audience. The trick was to
perform it for the people at home, right. So whatever I did on that screen, I was I needed to tell it to the people at home, right, which prevented me from going too far to try to make the people in the audience laugh, which is a trap for sitcoms. You think you're playing for the people that are laughing there in front of you.
Did you learn that through trial and error or like, how did you how did you learn how to calibrate how far you go?
I think I was. I think I was bringing my fear from not listening, not hearing the casting director in the audition, and I was hanging by every word that the other actor was saying, which allowed me to stay here and like really engage here, and so I didn't have to play for them because I was just like I got to get my lines right, I got to say them like this, and I got to listen to you,
and so it allowed me to be here. So it was like this contain madness, you know that it didn't have to play that colorful out loud and so so you know my first line I remember, you know, the scene was, you know, it was uh to for Grace a lower pripant and me like, and we were at the hob and we're having like you know, hobb it's like the little hangout, little diner, and we're playing you know, we're playing like pinball and whatever, and I think me laid.
Jackie's character gets up and goes up to Donna lower Prepan's character and says, uh, Donna, I have to go to the bathroom. He goes, okay. He goes, well you have to come with me or something like. She's like, I'm not gonna go alone because girls go to the bathroom together, right, And she goes okay, he goes and I look at that, and then I go all the way up to Eric Foreman Toll for Grace and I say, Edic, I'm I'm what is it? Let me start again? So
so like I really know it? Eric, Oh, yes. So I go up to to for Grace, who is playing for Men, and I go, I do much go to the bathroom dy And he's like, that's not how it works with guys fast or something.
You know.
As soon as I said that, the audience was like the same thing like the casting Like the casting room, there was like this pause to them like, oh, that's how he's gonna play it. Oh, they've never seen it because it shows a pilot. Yeah, and it's never air, so they're like, oh oh oh right. They kind of it kind of clicked that I was going to play this for inning Sten student that was going to say I'm off the walls time. So as soon as every scene came up and all of a sudden, like it working.
It was like this magic thing.
But I think it worked because it was grounded, you know, like you know how like sometimes you see people do characters and they're acting the character, you know, where yours was more grounded. So even if it was big, even if it was external, it was it was grounded.
He believed it.
Yeah, he believed it. And so so if you believe in the audience believes it and you were you weren't performing it, you know, you were, you were doing it, you're living it, you know. And so I find that sometimes when when actors perform it, you know, then then.
Then you know it could be a trap, right, Like sometimes you read the characters description and you're like I got to play the grumpy guy. So to your point, it's like for me, it was like the more I focus on my my scene partners, that the more grounded it became, you know, And that the funnier it was for the audiences because they were looking at it from a screen as well, you know, so I knew that. I was like, oh, they're looking at it from a screen if they're not looking at it live, so I'm
kind of playing it to the screen too. So that's when I figured out the tone between you know, theater, TV and like film, you know, and that that dial it would really helped me understand more. And that was I mean, that was it. Man. That moment was just magical and all of a sudden, you know, instead of going to the nine nine cents stores when my mom, I was taking her to Ralphs. Yeah oh, instead of getting a little cola, we were getting Coca CoA.
Yeah. You know, what was it? What was it like when when you guys premiered? So, okay, so you shot the pilot obviously, right, they see the pilot. You guys didn't shoot the entire season before it premiered, right.
No, we shot probably close to like maybe five or six episodes before it premiered. We premiered August twenty eight of nineteen ninety eight. It was on I believe it was a Wednesday night. Yeah you no, sorry, it was Sunday night at eight thirty between The Simpsons and the X Files.
That's a damn good slot, man.
Yeah it was. It was massive, Yeah, some massive times. But we were in a hit right away, you know. It was like took a while to build. And the Simpsons and the X Files were really mad at us because you know, they thought that we were leading them well, and you know, most of those shows have been on for multiple seasons, you know, so they really were trying to blame us. In fact, like you know, I think
even the Simpsons were so mean to us. They did an episode where they did a montage of like the behind the alleyway of these stores, ninety nine cent stores. They were like tossing, you know, you know, stuff that didn't sell through the trash, and then they go to like fifty nine cent stores, and then they go to like twenty cents or or like ten cent stores, and the ten sy store was throwing seventy show mugs in the trash, so like they were just like so bitter,
you know, and we outlive all those. We did eight seasons within two hundred episodes, and you know, we were averaging nineteen twenty million people a week, you know, and and you know they were averaging twenty one twenty two. So they looked at us as like, well, we're dropping millions because of these guys. So as soon as they moved us to Tuesday, they moved us to Wednesday, Then they moved us to Mondays. Then they moved us back
to Wednesdays. And that could have killed us. But all we did is we gather fans from every night and all of a sudden, we by season three, we were the number one.
Season three, So is that is that when it really started to like like when did you finally notice that it was cooking right or that people were being receptive to it.
It was hard because I was still living such a like I was still going to high school. Yeah, and you know kids in high school have a way to make you feel like you were still physically going to high school.
Yeah, oh wow.
So you know we would shoot, we would be on two off, one on three off one two three, two three, and so during those off weeks, I would go back to regular high school.
Wow.
And I was finishing up my senior year high school at that point, and you know, kids are kids could be so mean. Yeah, So they would look at me and they would come up to me like why is her hair like that? And why do you sound like that? What do you sound so stupid? Because whyn't you the cute one. You're like not even the cute one on the show, like like forget that you got a TV show four years ago. Wo, forget that you you know, like you're making some money. Like it was literally like
like you're not even the cool one, you know. And so high school didn't make me feel special about And that was.
Season one, yeah, and and so did it start to cook season?
When? When was it like just just season three? That's whatever Season three was when we were a household characters and people I will walk down the street and be like fast. You know, it took a while for my character because in real life I look so different, so right because you had your like your hair, Yeah, I was wearing beanies and hats because my hair was like Eric Strata alone, and that was your real hair, that was my real hair. Yeah, I was very gifted right eye.
But yeah, so so, but my coasters were like, I'll be standing next to my coasters and they're like, hey, you guys are awesome here. You make sure you tell fans and say what's up, and I'll be standing next to them. Really just because your hair looked that different. Yeah, Also I carried myself very different. I didn't stand the way I stand. I didn't do my mouth the way
I did when I talked. I mean, I d all these things that made them a different human and you didn't speak like that, and I didn't speak like that character, right, So so people couldn't recognize me, which was funny. You actually worked to my advantage because I was fine. But I wasn't looking for to recognize me, you know anything. I was just happy to be working.
Yeah, I'll bet you all those kids you went to high school with by season three.
Oh, they all knew it. They were like, damn it, no one, they all knew it now, you know. They were like they're like, I always knew. I always knew. That's correct, I always knew.
But I hope you realize what I mean. Your your your character is going to go down, and like television history you know, is one of the most iconic comedic characters of all time. And isn't that why that that was like your first pilot, your first big television show, and right from the jump you create this like iconic television character.
I mean, it's wild, man, it's wild. And to your point, the only thing that I hoped, I hoped that every day of my career that I never would forget you know, that that ingredient that that was in me back then, that would allow me to be that free to create something that bold at a time where bold was not rewarded right to there to be such a different like
you know, sometimes I look at auditioning. It's like, Okay, if you brek it down on one hundred percent of actors, right, you have an audition for a part, fifty of the actors are going to make the same choice, right, right. Of actors gonna they're gonna think they're clever, they're gonna
be like, I'm gonna do the opposite, right. And then there's ten percent and you break it into like seven percent of them are gonna do something that's not that or this, and it's going to be an alternative, right, And then three percent of those actors do or make a choice that is so that it's so drastically innovative that elevates that character against you know, the perception of the writer and director and contributes on a level that
makes that character sore, you know. And so the difference between a working actor and the guys that you know that three percent, you know, you see them sitting in the oscars. You know, there's just something. There's just this thing, you know, and I and I attribute it to you know, that wondrous thing you know? You know, can you stay it wondrous? You know as long as you possibly can? Can you can? You look at every character and be like, instead of asking yourself what they want, can you ask
yourself a question? If I had to play this character for eight years and two hundred episodes, why would be the take that I would have the most fun playing everything? That's the one that wins. That's the one that wins. It's not like what your perception is or what they want. It's what you know. It's in your strength to deliver. And sometimes you are against your strength because you're too concerned about wanting them to approve you. You know, what
do you how do you feel about that. What do you think about that?
I'm all for taking chances, you know, Like I feel like I come from I think we come from a generation of actors, right. We come out of like the seventies and eighties actors, right where people were creating characters. You know, we came up watching al Pacino and de Niro and Dustin Hoffman and all these people who are Gary Oldman, you know, all these people who are like really creating characters and creating voices and the way they stood and you know, all of the stuff that encompassed
your character. Right. So I just think that that's a a you know, because we come from that generation, we feel freer and we feel bolder to do that. I don't know if this generation is necessarily you know that, or maybe the mindset is different now, but I felt like a lot of the stuff that.
The training is different because I look, because I talk about I would say, you know, to reframe the three percent, the three what they do really well is they turn it all off. They they turn it all off, the choices, right, and they just like allow them selves to just flow through the words, you know, and almost some of them make it look so easy, right, what do you think.
I think I think that that if you if you look at the landscape of TV and film now right, it's it's you know, man like like the character actor per se is not as prevalent as it used to be, you know. Ah, and so because it's not, it's just the newer generation just doesn't. They don't relate to it, you know, because that's not necessarily what our industry is looking for, you know.
And you think it has something to do with your inspirations or like who inspire you from the beginning to actually say like, oh, we're you know, oh that's possible, like that that is something like what is that Mount Everest? What is the example of Mount Evers that you see first? So you go, I want to climb higher than that. You think it has something to do with tipe, with like the inspirations of today, like where do you draw inspiration today?
You know?
I think you know, I'm gonna hold you there because I think this is a great question to answer for the next episode.
For the next episode.
Characters and yeah, and individuals and people in moments that inspire us to kind of strite a little higher. And how did that translate in the universal way too. But by the way, thank you so much for offering all that you know, personal stuff with that with you know your your you're walking into twenty century fact. I didn't know we had that in common, crazy man.
Yeah, we got fincas in common. We have.
Geez it it. But I want to thank everybody, uh for listening to those Amigos. Uh and uh you know we'll see you in the next episode, all right. Wilmer Balderama, Freddie.
Rodriguez Peace, Those Amigos is a production from WV Sound and iHeartMedia's Michael through That Podcast Network, hosted by Me, Freddie Rodriguez and Wilder Valdorama.
Those Amigos is produced by Aaron Burleson and Sophie Spencer Zabos.
Our executive producers are Wilder val Drama, Freddie Rodriguez, Aaron Burlson, and Leo Klem at WV Sound.
This episode was shot and edited it by Ryan Posts and mixed by Sean Tracy and features original music by Madison Devenport and Halo Boy.
Our cover. Our photography is by David Avalos and design by Deny Holtzklau.
And thank you for being at Third Amigo today. I appreciate you guys, always listening to those amigos.
For more podcasts from my Heart, visit the ir heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
See you next week.