Everybody. This is Freddie Rodriguez and I'm Wilmer about d rama. Welcome back to those amigos.
This is season two, season two, as we say around this woods, those but welcome back. We're excited that you are allowing us back into your either headphones, speakers, car speakers, maybe your long flights, your road trips. Very grateful that you've stuck with us on this journey as we continue to explore what those amigos means to us.
And in the same vein you know, we we.
Have a season full of amazing friends and and exciting conversations, and you know you're not only.
Invited, you're going to be our third amigo.
Amigo baby, here we go. How are you woomer?
You good? Got you asked?
That's a great jacket.
Yeah, by the way, thank you man.
How I complimented you when I saw you today?
Thank you? Yes, you like this jacket. That's a great jacket. You thought it was Ralph Lauren.
Because I remember when we were in Texas that time we went to that store you took me to in Austin and it had all that great gear and you were explaining to me how Ralph Lauren does their own sort of line. What's that line called double RL?
That's it. I think double RL is very cool.
It's a it's inspired by so many vintage pieces they're no longer on rotation, so it's like almost like vintage new. Yeah, you know, like you can put on some pair of pants knowing that somebody else's stuff was not in it.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, it's kind of like your your your speakeasy is is that style?
Yeah, a little bit.
It's a little it's like vintage new. But you know, the only thing that's like really really vintage is this motorcycle, which somebody's stuff has definitely been on that seat, you know, A big shout out to Luke barn you know who let us have this motorcycle. Yeah, you know, as as our backdrop. But are you a motorcycle guy?
Not really.
I've been married a long time and my wife's not crazy about me being on a motorcycle and having kids.
What about you your motorcycle?
Well, like every uh, young Latino in the nineties, I wanted a ninja.
Yeah yeah, I wanted like.
Like a real colorful neon.
Yeah maybe not maybe red black, you know, and I you know, I just wanted to wear that outfit.
You know, yeah, what do you mean? Like the whole motorcycle jack.
The jacket, the leather pants. It's like speaking of leather pants. Not to bring back a social subject, but you know, uh, Freddie has all experience with other pants.
Yeah, so have I To be fair.
It's gonna say I have a feeling you did too.
I just got to do my fortune. Uh it was. It's never been historical recorded, So.
Yeah, I think I'm gonna have to talk to Manda about that.
But I have more embarrassing stuff in my career that's definitely historically recorded anymore, Like could you could you give an example?
Ah? Man, did you watch that seventy show? Do you have two hundred half hours to talk about?
This is brilliant comedic acting is what I show?
You had television once before?
A little bit before in there embarrassing moment.
What's the longest running show?
You're you've done the longest running Let's see a bowl?
The show was just on ran five seasons. Six Feet Under ran five seasons. Five has been the magic number?
How many episodes do you do in those?
The cable?
Six Feet Under was it started off as like thirteen episodes.
That was going to take that time.
Yeah, yeah, but Bowl it was like twenty two to twenty three episodes, which man, it's right. You hit like that January point after the holidays and.
You're just like wow.
So six Feet Under was nominated for tons of what words?
Now? It was yeah, yeah, we were actually at a certain point. We're in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most Emmy nominations of.
All time no way. Yeah, this was like two thousand and one or something like that.
Who had the other record? Would the for us? I'm not the lesser show? Who was the lesser show?
I don't know, maybe mash Or, I don't know.
But but Game of Thrones dethroned us, I believe.
But they had VFX and all the categories that didn't compete that you didn't compete in, you know.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but we held that record for a while, but they I heard that they dethroned us, So I don't know.
Speaking of thrown, shout out to Brian Cogman, Yeah, buy a great executive producer and writer. Throw four Emmys as a writer for that show. Crazy, Just an amazing, brilliant man and a good guy.
So with that show.
The actors got nominated on that too.
Yeah, yeah, I was nominated. Oh yeah, that's what I was learning.
You finished my.
Yeah, I was perfect, seguay to talk about award season because you had an experience. I only campaign for a teen Choice award I wanted, but with the means I don't have much experience, but you have, which I'm excited to talk about because I know, yeah, award season is about now.
The is uh you know, is a big deal in this town.
And you know, also a lot is defined, you know, a lot is is dictated by you know, some of some of these academies, right.
I mean they're yeah.
I mean when you when you did your show Six Feet Under, what was that like?
You get a phone call?
Like, how do you how do first you find out that you're nominated, You watch the nominated the announcement of the nominations, or you just wake up the next morning you got a call from the producer.
How does that work?
I gotta well, for.
Me, person, I got to call it like five in the morning to tell me that I was nominated, which is insane. You know, I was like half asleep, you know, we were all nervous. It was it was like our second season, I believe, and.
We sort of a second season.
Yes, it was like first season going into like second season.
Uh.
And this was before social media, before any of that, you know, I mean, it was it was like being shot out of a cannon. You know, all of a sudden, you're you're part of the biggest show on the planet, you know, and you get nominated. But it's uh, but it was such a humbling experience. And then you you go through these different like luncheons, and you get to
meet the other people who were nominated. Uh, you get to go to different parties, you get to I mean, I described because I've also gone through an Oscar campaign.
You didn't even let me you let me go there. No, no, no.
What I was gonna say is is the the what's similar is is that it's it's very It's what I would imagine is is like a like a political campaign, like if you're running for office, who who who.
Are the people you kind of have to you know, kind of be in community with during that campaign, the voters.
The academy voters, and so you know, in sixteen hundred's case, it was the sixteen unders case, it was different because it was such a it was such a phenomenon from like from from the.
It was a very obvious choice for the Yeah.
Yeah, So there wasn't much campaigning beforehand.
But but I did a movie called Bobby and for that there was a lot of campaigning. And I describe it.
I mean, I've never ran for office before, but from what I've seen in documentaries and on TV, it was very similar to that. You you literally launch a campaign, and if you're running for office, right, the campaign is vote for me, right, I should be in this position in office.
Right.
If you're doing it for an oscar, it's the same thing you're saying, vote for me, you know, for best supporting act or best actor whatever it was.
That's such an interesting campaign because I wonder what gets the vote? Is this lobby and actually, you know, you know, influential is the proximity at the artist or the filmmaker,
you know, a favorable moment for a voter. Like I think that's the biggest question for me when you think about this campaign, like what is effective you know, in campaigning in your opinion, you feel like meeting the voters, is it about them liking you or is it about them, like just being exposed to your process and understanding that it was deeper than just the nomination that you didn't work.
For the part. I don't know.
I'm trying to figure out exactly what gets it done, what gets that vote it's it.
In my opinion, I think it differs every time, right, Like, like I was saying, like with six Feet Under, it was an obvious thing because it was such a phenomenon, right, And sometimes even for film as it pertains to the Academy, right, sometimes there are particular films there are just such obvious choices, right, because they've become phenomenons. And then there's there's sort of the smaller movies, right that have really good performances in it, And like the film that I was in, Bobby, and
that we were sort of vying for that position. And then sometimes I kind of feel like, you know, there are some pretty big name actors in some other films, and they want those actors to show up, right, so so you know, they kind of try to make a place for those guys to be nominated. It's a At the end, what I got out of it was that it was just this huge balancing act of all of it you know, of of popularity of merit of and painting, which, by the way, costs so much money.
Man, Like, yeah, I know, how do those little movies do it? Right?
Like if you probably get a distributor on the Yeah, I mean, look, I think a distributor that gets one of those independent films that you know were made by two million dollars and top investors another nine million dollars in a campaign or five million dollars in a campaign to just ultimately get that second wave of awareness for
the movie. Because really, the way I look at nominations and I look at award shows is that for a lot of these movies that are breaking even because they only had four hundred screens, so they have maybe just six hundred screens across the United States, they didn't make their money back. I mean, I feel like this is
such a crazy gamble. You're trying to get nominated because you know that it'll put you on a world stage and people could find your movie and also eventually be distributed on a wider air because then the secondary window and third window of distribution happens after you get nominated.
But that's a good.
Question, you know, you know, it's funny you mentioned that the Golden Globes just happened, right, And like, I think his name is Joe Egerton, the actor, right, And he was in a movie called Train Dreams and it was on Netflix, and.
I thought the movie was fantastic. It was such a beautiful film.
But it was a small film, as you were just saying, right, And it didn't seem like the budget was that high. Didn't seem like they had much of a budget for the p and a for the publicity and advertisement. However, he got nominated for a Golden Globe, and he won the Golden Globe, right, so it's like, oh, okay, they really didn't put that much money behind the campaign. But nevertheless his performance got found within the plethora of other performances.
But he didn't get nominated for an Oscar. Right, He won the Golden Globe but didn't get nominated for the Oscar.
And I was always such an eccentric thing, right, just like, if you win the Golden Globe, it doesn't nesscessarily means you're even going to get nominated for the Oscars.
In his case is a perfect example.
You know, did that have to do with maybe they didn't have the financing to for the campaign to you know, you look in variety, right, you know, for your consideration.
You know, like that stuff costs.
Money, man, you know, or the billboards that you see and on Sunset Boulevard or you know, all that stuff costs so much money. The same way would you know for like someone running for office, right you know, you see someone like Kamala Harris or Joe Biden whatever, You're like, they have one hundred million dollar war chest.
For there they spend up a billion dollars on this campaign.
It's the same thing, man, You know, to a smaller degree, brings me full circle to reflecting on some of our communities and some of our cultures, as you.
Know, some of them have had the privilege, you know, we've had the privilege of having people like you and others who hit that stage and actually brings quite a great deal of pride to see, you know, some of these images being considered at the same caliber as some of those that iconically will be known for these nominations and these wins. Do you feel and I think this is a question I guess for both of us, do we feel that that it has gotten better and representation now?
And I and and that's a question with also a secondary statement, which is there's tons of studies that says we're only six percent of the roles of entertainment period, right. Uh, that doesn't reflect on the majority of the consumer's demand, which happens to be a lot of Latino communities for the opening weekend, you know, for the same day viewership and extremely subscription also advertising buyers and things like that.
So when you see the power of the spending power and the buying power of this community and when you look at what gets made, it doesn't really reflect on that. But but based on how long we've been doing this, you know, roughly between thirty and forty years each one of us combined with almost one hundred years of damn. But the idea is that that do you feel that it has gotten better since when we started? And then for have you seen us on that stage, you know, of the award shows as well?
What do you what do you feel?
That's a really tricky question. You know, I feel like it fluctuates every year, right, right. You know, you brought up a really interesting point to say that our demographics buying power is high, right, and it continually is high every single year, and so perhaps the awards season should reflect that.
Right. It's basically what you're you're kind of.
Saying to a degree, right, uh, and it doesn't, right, and and and and so their lives the dilemma, you know you.
Or even the the the the quantity of opportunity, yeah, right, that will get us a presimity to be noticed on one of these you know, world stages.
Yeah, the quantity, right, which is which is a whole other conversation about you know, us getting projects out there and and and them being greenlit, some of them being convertially viable enough to do well so that the powers that be go, hey, it made some money. Let me give you some money to do another one and then
another one after that. You know, you know you you you You brought up an interesting point in one of our conversations before about it all being sort of an ecosystem, right that that.
That perhaps needs to be.
Fine tuned maybe a little more, and perfected a little more in order for that ecosystem to continue to to.
And let me follow that rabbit hole there, because I think the eco system is an interesting conversation.
We're yet to really be a part of that ecosystem.
The ecosystem has now been balanced, right, I mean they can you can put odd bets in Vegas about whether the movie is going to be number one or not. Now you can predict, based on level of awareness a week before whether the release is going to get to X amount of dollars, right, Like, they can predict that number.
But what they cannot figure out is how they can trust that it will do good merely by saying the ecosystem has a healthy amount of not only representation, but a real thorough look at like how we consume content, how are we invited to the content? You know, I dare to say universal, that's a really great job with the community. You know, a lot of their movies, you know,
which are genre, whether it's adventure, horord or action. They speak a language and marketing that actually says, hey, this is a movie.
We're inviting you to this movie too.
You know Most, I think Most and Furious.
Furious Jurassic Park.
You know, like when you look at the numbers of latinos that show up to those movies, you're like, WHOA, is it the genre or is it the marketing? When you think about it, you go to the neighborhoods that are probably you know, prominent in the Latino culture. In Latino culture, you you you realize there's like there's posters, there, there's flyers, there's like you know, a Jurassic Park, you know, you know, candy at just seventy eleven.
Like, you know, they're they're really.
Infiltrating pop culture for the individuals who really trust that genre.
I don't know that most studios.
Have really given a kind of scientific look at like how do we balance or marketing strategies and then you know, and then they think that it's really about just like putting up are casting in front of it, right, It's really about hitting the notes. It's not just the brown face and uh in a beautiful character that takes you to an extraordinary circumstance. I think it's to me about it's about you know what, you know, what notes? What boxes?
Does it check in values right in spirit and trajectory and story that actually are relatable to to our specific experience. And I'm not saying like it has to have Sasa music and Marakis, right, that's now, that's not how we relate to content, right, But it is about uniting us all in the tones and in the boxes.
Is it the genres right?
Like people are blown away when they saw Jenna Ortega, you know, doing incredible with Wednesday.
You're like, whoa Wednesday? And you know Luis Gou's Mond.
Place, you know, the character Like it's a lot of this stuff is like really interestingly, you know, subliminately successful and they can't explain it why, but it's like it's the same thing. It's like, we want to be going along with an extraordinary circumstance and we want to be able to be part of the part of the character lineup that actually contributes to win in the day. And look, it gets very, very complicated, but we bring a full
circuit to the awards and the awards season. Do you feel like you've seen an improvement on you know, on on latinos and minorities as a whole being invited to the word shows.
Improvement is a really tricky word. I don't know if I would say improvement, I would say that it fluctuates.
I would say that there are.
Certain years where where you do see representation that has earned their position in those categories, and there's certain years that it doesn't that that sometimes there are projects out that you point to those projects, and you go, well, why was in this person?
Do you think you have something to do with the inconsistency of the quantity of opportunities for certain actors to be showcased?
I mean, I think I think the quantity has something to do with it, right beca.
Some years, like Pedro Pascal does three movies and the next year he's only.
One, right, right, Well, I think I think, you know, you talk about quantity, which is an interesting conversation. You know, I feel like if if we had more quantity, then we would have more opportunities to be allowed to fail, right.
I think sometimes you have to be allowed fail in order to in order to learn from that failure. You know. It's just like in any sort of business.
Right, Like, like the more you have, the more uh could be sacrificed in order for the others to do well.
Everybody gets more strikes than we do.
Yeah, yeah, and then so then when we do get that opportunity at batman, we we have to hit a home run every single time, and sometimes that's not not humanly possible to do, right, you know, but that's what's required of us.
And you know, I think that's maybe a little unfair. Yeah, what do you think.
I think you're right. I think that's it.
I mean, I think that we have to continue to work on the all the different connecting tissues that make Latina entertainment.
And I'm only saying, and let me really really.
Deep down on this, double down on this is that the Latina entertainment is mainstream entertainment. But I only say Latino because it finally comes from us for the world, right, Like, if we're creating and developing things and putting things out there, we've never been the entertainers of the artists that are just like, oh, I'm the brown character, right like, we never think ourselves of that specifically the two people sitting in this chair, right.
What I can say is that I think that to.
Your point, there hasn't been an opportunity to continue to cultivate the talent we already have because there's a lot of like that bottlenecking and and when when somebody wants to make something, there's a usual suspect shortlist that is trusted with that stuff, and I don't think necessarily they you know, they get it to the next level. Right, So, so I think it's about investing in community.
So by investing in the trust in the audience.
And in order to do that is you got to put more, you know, you got to put more on that screen that that test is you know what you've already tested for decades and decades of content and with other you know configurations.
Yeah, you're right.
There is a short list, you know, and and and that.
Short list is always expected to to to hit a home run, and and and and many many times they do. But sometimes there's another list of people who may not always hit a home run, but they be if they were given more opportunities at bat, that they would hit a home run.
But you brought up an interesting point about Wednesday.
You know, first of all, she was terrific, as she always is on that show. But what I really loved about what she was doing, what Louis was doing, and just the whole construct of that show was that here was the show about this family, these people, and she just happened to be Latina, right, and like Louis Guzman just happened.
To be Latino.
And I don't even think, I don't even know or think if that's mentioned at all during the series, whether that's important or not, right, which is a whole other conversation. Right, Why every time like we're on screen, it's always you know, they feel that we have to sort of emphasize ethnicity.
I just feel like they were just people.
There were people who were playing these characters who did a great job at it, and they were seen as America kids, right. And I think that if we had more of that sort of business model on screen, I think that I think that we would have more opportunities to be more commercially.
Viable exactly to tell to tell the stories that that connect with the masses and general audiences.
Yeah, absolutely right.
I think piggybacking off of what we just said, I think that's why it's so important with what you're doing, for example, you know, with with with your company and the stuff that you're producing, because I feel like I feel like the stuff that you're producing is very much on track with with what we're talking about.
I feel I feel, I feel that you and I have been in this thing long enough to kind of understand how to how to really help you know, in the kitchen, you know, and I think I think, uh, to be invited to the kitchen is to kind of start, you know, cooking up some of that solution, right, Yeah, you know, but but I think we've both been you know, kind of part of that, you know, kind of early forefront, you know, to do that. If I were to ask myself the same question, is it getting better?
Is it?
Yeah?
I said improving. I will tell you that.
You know, I remember that we both always were the only Latino on the whole.
Network sometimes, right, it's no longer the case.
Right, So when you look at a network like CBS, there's multiple Latinos and different shows. You know, there's African Americans, there's Asian community, the Asian communities represented, you know, so there's like it feels that there's more organic and you know, in a more fruitful, you know, kind of interpretation of that.
That being said, there's not enough shows. There's not enough things.
We're still like a very small percentage of the storytellers and lead characters and shows, which I think has to still continue to improve and evolve. I will dare to say that I think the students trying to figure it out. I think there's smart enough to know they really have to get to the audiences. And I think we're looking at a very interesting moment of shifting of paradigm you know, look coming full circle to like, you know, most importantly the.
You know, the marketing and how we show up for each other.
We've seen more of us show up for each other's premieres and each other's right, you know, as social media campaigns for each other's projects than before. Like you post something about a movie, immediately I'm reposting it. Like right back in the day, we didn't have those tools to be able to show up for each other.
We have to like go to a we have to go to a red carpet and be like, I'm here supportant ready. So now we can do that.
But then also there's all the ways in which we can support another and I think one another, and I think that we're seeing this very uplifting moment where a lot of the Latinos I think are showing up for each other, at least in the you know, you got a thing, let's all tweet it. You know, we're getting behind it.
And yeah, there's definitely that system in place now where where that didn't exist before.
And look at looking with you know, bad money just diding this in the in the halftime, you know, and at the Super Bowl a while ago, they you know, they you know that the Latino world was like, yes, we're all in this thing together. We're all waving our flags, but one together.
Yeah, you know, and I think that's what we got to do in entertainment to kind of keep it pushing.
Yeah. Yeah, there was definitely of that.
Although he is Puerto Rican and a lot and a lot of the show focused on very specific intricacies that revolve around Puerto Rico, it was it felt very unifying, you know, and it was wonderful to see people of other ethnicities supporting him and supporting.
And we have to translate that energy into all the different parts of the thing. And uh but you know, but I listen, this whole episode was about making sure that people knew you were nominated for yeah, and that you were absolutely a part of That's what literally what this episode was about, especially because.
You didn't Oscar campaign. So I'm just a nice guy. I appreciate you're one of our greates.
And thank you, my brother, thank you.
But either way, everyone, thank you so much for joining us on our first episode of Those Amigos Season Dose, Season Dose, and uh, you know, remember it tell a friend that we're.
Here to be Uh, we're here Amigos too.
That's right, the ear third Amigo. This is Freddie Rodriguez.
And wilmri Valderama. I'll see you next time.
Dose Amigos is a production from WV Sound and iHeartMedia's Michael through That podcast Network, hosted by Me, Freddie Rodriguez, and Wilmer Valdorama.
Those Amigos is produced by Cooper Mole and Sophie Spencer Novels.
Our executive producers are Wilmer Valdorama, Freddie Rodriguez, and Leo Clem at WV Sound.
This show is mixed and mastered by Sean Tracy and original music by Madison, Devinport and Halo Boy.
Or more podcasts from my heart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
See you next week.