Hey, how you doing. This is Freddy Rodriguez.
And this is you're listening to those of egos. Oh some of you may be watching us now, so that's right, So all love to you guys who have been enjoying the show. Interesting episode for us.
Today, Yes, yes, indeed, it's kind the first of it's kind. You've got a bunch of crazy questions from the fans that we are going to tackle today.
Absolutely, and I want to check in. How are you today?
I'm I'm good.
I'm good, right, yeah, man, you I'm good. Yeah, I'm good as well. We're both carrying things, you know. Yeah, So it's I just wanted to check in with you. But thank you either either way, this is uh not about us.
It's not about us. It's about the fans.
Baby, about the fans. It's about those of you who have been supporting Freddy and Wilmer for all this years. Yeah, this is about those true fans have been there from the beginning. And this is also about our new fans who have discovered those amigos as a place for laughs, certainty, maybe some information and some useless useless life, useless life that some insight, some insight, Yeah, Leo you're you're here with us too. Leo clam Uh, Leo klam in the house had a podcast for WB Sound and also our
lead executive producer here on those amigos. You're gonna ask and we're gonna.
Answerr Yeah, I mean we just left an open forum for our listeners, and I think people want to get to know y'all, but also just want to show some love and support.
Yeah.
So I grabbed a handful of them and we can get into it.
All right, list wrong, Yeah, let's get us.
Started, So we'll start. This one's coming in from Sharon. Sharon, good morning. My question is for both of you, what is your favorite Western? Have a great day? Be someone special? Sharon, short and sweet, very.
Short and sweet, and she's demanding that we become someone special.
Yeah, she demanded she said, be someone special.
Okay, that's very sweet. We're always trying to be our best favorite Western. I gotta say I just saw American Primeval on Netflix. Who wow, Wow. It absolutely blew me away.
I think Peter Berg directed it. Am I right to say that? Taylor Kitch Wow, I mean I just feel like he injected it was like the matrix. John Wick choreography meets like a Western. It was such a It's probably the freshest newest take I've seen on a Western in a long time.
That's cool, It's cool. What is it about? It's about this.
Taylor Kitch's character is tasked to escort a mother and her son across across.
Is it Utah? I think it was?
Uh is at it during the Utah War? Yeah, yeah, but just his execution was so unique and different and Uh, as I said, it just incorporated all of this wonderful fight choreography in it.
Yeah. He's always so great that. Yeah, Peter has an amazing team. It does. Yeah. Yeah. And Taylor, by the way, it's awesome, big, big big ups to Uh. He's he's phenomenal, really great guy. Yeah, really really sweet man. Yeah, he really deserves that. That's awesome. I'm going to hear that kid to watch that for me. I'm gonna go back a little bit. Obviously, the world is split on this one. It may not be the greatest Western of all time,
but it has my heart. Tombstone, tombstone, Okay, you know, Kurt Russell, Sam Elliot, Val Kilmer, shout out to Shout out to Kurt Yeah, he's the great Val Kilmer as well, one of the best performances of his entire career. You know, Dark Holliday. Yeah, that that movie. If you haven't watched it. It was a really interesting time. It was at a crossroads of cinema where like it was, some stuff was bubble gum and popcorn and some actually were still really
cool eighties, late eighties, early nineties, you know, filmmaking. But this is you know, it's it's it's a great story about a group of guys who you know, want to go clean and they want to just you know, stop the huzzle, you know, and they're kind of like a traveling you know, I guess casino, right, They were bringing like cars, they were playing cars. They were like dealers and stuff, and they didn't find out they also had a skill to be badass cowboys, you know. And what
why did you like it so much? Just like the story I think I think the I think the coming into a town who needs you there you you you somehow relenting decide that you're going to take the role of they want you to be the sheriff or the ranger or whatever they want you to take care of the town. You're the only ones to stand up against tyranny, and the tirony comes and hits back hard, and it's just about, well, we're here to clean this town, right. You know, I
don't know, very traditional Western wester. I think it's kind of kind of you ever dot a Western?
No, I don't think so, No, you.
I directed a Western music video, but that was a different life life Yeah what what what video? It was a song called Salute for sky Blue, one of the LFL guys, and uh and uh yeah, I did a whole full Western and I went and shot with the sho uh you know, django and all that, and and he was crazy. I had horses. Yeah, it was very cool, cool, but the song is very silly, so it didn't match the cinematic Scholl But but it was beautiful. It's a really really fun salude. I got to check it out. Ryan,
did you you worked on Salute? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, that was That was one of my first things where I was like, I need a crane shot inside this bar. Like it was like shit, Yeah, it was pretty pretty fun. We have a Ryan Posts who's our DP here on the show, so he worked on it. Yeah, yeah, he was. He was working with us on that music video. It was a really unique music video and I hope it's on your real but I really like that and obviously anything cleaning is with ny. That's why watching that with
my dad that was cool. Awesome. Next question, very.
Cool from Monica. Monica, Dear Freddie, Dear Wilmer, many thanks to the great podcast. I enjoy listening to and watching it. Also a big thank you to the whole team. Uh, and then she goes, sorry for my English, but it's not my mother tongue. Best regards from Germany, Monica.
Cool.
So let's start with which movie slash series would you like to be in?
Yeah? I guess if there was a series in our history and trajectory, which one would you we would have uh loved to be a part of.
I really you know, my my favorite series is Breaking Bad. I just remember watching that series and being so blown away by it.
So at different, how for freshing, how unique, what a tone for TV.
Yeah, the voice was so strong on that show. Vince Gilligan's voice on that show, his sense of silence, his use of silence without saying words and conveying emotion. Uh, it just spoke to me and my instrument as an actor, and like man, I would have I would have been an extra on that show if I could have.
I always wanted to. Uh, I always wanted to be punch for Chips. That sounded very cool with me, you know, I see it. I wanted to be punching the Chips movie. It's a long story about that in my book, American Story. Everyone's invited everywhere you get your book and your audiobooks, you know. So I set it up over there, and uh, you know, the studio just like randomly decided we got
to hold on old titles, you know. You know, they had just done three hundred, they had just done you know, Batman yea, and they've done a lot of success with that, you know, and and they also had lots to do so Hazards. So I was like, oh, this is an opportunity, right, duke.
So hazard they're pretty decent, So why not I just go and pitch that, And you know, they went for it, and uh, for reasons that are always mysterious to us, you know, producers and actors, they decided they needed to hold the beat on it, right, But we had already
developed the script. We had to develop everything whatever and and he just didn't move forward, you know, and then later they you know, they still made it anyways, but you know, I kind of found out way later when you know, they were already kind of the train had already left. But anyways, my point is Punch, you know, and the Punch felt like it was like at that time Latino Spider Man, like he was that superhero there
like we didn't have on TV. So Erica Strotta was like that guy who's like, you know, so charming, so lively, so so you know, so intoxicated, and you know, like the dude was like just a big deal on TV. So I felt like that was kind of a fun thing to look up to. So Punch would have been playing Punch on a TV series. But I'm talking about then, right, not like a remake or I Want to Lunch or whatever like the in the seventies. Yeah, if I was in the Live in the seventies, that would have been
a cool show for me to do. Yeah.
Oh, so so you got specific with a character.
I mean, yeah, another one.
I mean yeah, in my neighborhood, Miami, Vice like that used to come on and all the kids used to go inside the house. It used to be that, And it was this other show called crime Story that I think Michael Mann also produced a Dennis Farina starring and Crime Story.
I don't know if you remember that one. They were back to back, but yeah, yeah yeah, man, wow.
I remember it was a kid?
You ever watch what was that?
What was that?
What was that show?
With Ricky Schroeder? He played like like Richie rich, like a like a rich kid silver spoons.
Yeah.
I remember watching what My brothers like, whoa what he has? He has like a train in his house, you know, like all those toys. You know, we'd be imagining like living that's luxury.
If you can have a train track inside your house, that felt like luxury somehow. Yeah. Yeah. But you know there's just shows out there like you just you look at those shows and you're like, oh many like to be alive at a moment with the show hasn't even hit the air, and you don't know what's kind of do?
Is it good?
Is it bad?
Is it? Like?
To him it becomes this thing.
You know.
I mean you must have felt interestingly similar when you did Six Feet Under, right, because six Feet Under was like the first of its kind, Like who would have thought of a pitch, like, how do you pitch that show?
Yeah, that show happened. You know, Alan Ball had just won an oscar, which was crazy because he was coming off of a lot of people don't know that he was a sitcom writer all through the nineties. He did like Grace, Underfire and you know shows like that the
nineties and so, which is how I met him. Actually, I was I was doing a sitcom called Oh Grow Up, and Bob green Blatt and David John Larry were producing it, and we're shooting it at CBS Rafford, and I remember coming to work every day and it'd be a poster up for American Beauty, the movie he did, And I remember sitting like the in the makeup chair, and then makeup people would be like, Oh, see that poster up there, that's Alan's movie. You know, I'm thinking like, wow, cool,
you're doing a TV show on a movie. And and so, you know, the movie came out and the TV show came out around the same time, and it was just like a thirteen episode sitcom on ABC, and unfortunately it
didn't do well. But the movie came out and started to slowly become a phenomenon and so it was just it was a dynamic I've never seen before, you know, as the show was failing, the movie was ascending, and eventually the show got canceled, and then he won an Oscar, and so he was in a really unique position after winning that Oscar to do whatever he wanted to. And back then there was a big difference between TV and film, right where now the lines of blurred, but back then
it wasn't blurred. And so people thought he was crazy that he wanted to go back to doing TV after he won the Oscar. You know, everyone thought he was going to go do a film and so and so he was in this unique position and took meetings everywhere. And I believe the story goes that he met with Carolyn Strauss over at HBO and and it was after the first season of Sopranos and after the second season of of Sex and the City, and they were just like, well,
what do you want to do? And and he loved he always loved TV, but he really loved the creative freedom over at HBO. And and I think that I think Carolyn might have had the idea of doing something about a family that ran a funeral home and and and they just kind of built off of that, and then he came back and pitched the idea and uh and the.
Rest was history. So it's sort of like, you know, you know right place, right time, and you and you can trust the leadership and and then you're beyond set and you're like, god, this is so unique, so different.
It clicks right like you just never really know, you don't know. We we we certainly didn't know. We knew we did something special. We knew that, but I mean, you know, there's a graveyard for shows that were a special that that never hit you know that you can go back and watch right then you go, wow, that that was special. But it just didn't click, and so we we certainly ran the danger of becoming one of
those shows. But uh so you know, we we we shot the pilot and they saw the pilot and then we shot the entire first season in a vacuum, and we just didn't know what we had, you know, and then it came out and it became a phenomenon.
No you guys, I mean that was the standard. People were like, you can go that, I mean, you can dream that way and going that direction. Yeah, I mean, it was it was unbelievable.
Yeah, I think with US coupled with sopranos, coupled with Sex and the City, it was the first time that you really saw film like quality on television in that way,
executed that way. And I think a lot of that just came from a lot of our directors came from film, and and Alan just won an oscar in film and HBO gave us film freedom, and so it was it was all of that that was happening, and they were taking chances where where you know, how it is at a network, right, it's it's all about, uh, the regime that's there and and and what their motives are and
what their objectives are. And but that that regime there with Carolyn Strauss and uh Chris Albrech I think was running the studio at the time, and some other really great executives were there. They're their objective was just to just to be pioneers and to and to do something different than to give the artists, the artist meaning meaning the Alan Balls, the showrunners of the world, complete creative
autonomy to go forward. And and I feel like that's the reason why it became the real you know, the hit that it became you know, Alan. Alan was always like, you know, you hired me for a reason, like like, let me do what you hired me to do. And
and sometimes I feel that that's the mistake. And this is not shipping on like executives or anything like that, but sometimes I feel that there needs to be a healthy balance between executives and and you know, them giving their notes and putting their fingerprints.
And some of these notes are also fear right, like, yeah, the biggest problem with executive notes, it's like fear to get it wrong. Yeah, And so eventually they start molding you into something they've sold before or that's working right now, and that's not sometimes the right mutation for whatever you're creating. Like you know that that type of experiment of like two for you, three for me, it doesn't work.
You know. Yeah, But that's why I worked there because the foundation of their whole network was completely different.
You know. They said at HBO one time I went to pitch something at HBO and they said the show has to be something that it could only be made at HBO. That was that was the that was the guy that you're going to pitch something over here, it cannot be something that can live anywhere else. But of course that all went out of the window when streaming platforms and everybody started doing thing like House of Cards and Stranger Things, Breaking Bad, Breaking Bad, you know, all
of this stuff. Walking Dead, They're like, whoa, whoa. Like now the world's like, oh, we can also do that too, and right, so that was interesting in the world. But they created that business model.
You know, no one, I mean there was like, you know, Showtime was doing a couple of shows at that time. I think FX had Nip Talk, you know, I think Ryan Murphy was doing Nip Tuck there. So there was a couple of instances elsewhere that people were taking chances like that. But for the most part, you know, network TV ruled, and the way that they did TV ruled.
You know.
I remember Alan one time said to me, he goes, you know, after I did after I wrote the pilot, I think he said, or after he did the pilot, he goes. The only note he got from the network was make it more fucked up, and that completely shocked him because he goes, Dude, I spent an entire decade of life right on network TV shows where you would get dreams and reams of pages of notes, and he was so used to that that it shocked him to get one note off of this part.
I mean when they just tell you, hey, by the way, they get more fucked up. Yeah, we'll run, yeah, run faster, keep running.
Where it's usually the opposite, right, it's like make it less fucked up.
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, more modern family.
I heard, yeah where they were they were running in the opposite direction, and he he just so wasn't used to that. So, you know, it was it was, it was certainly the it was the perfect storm. Man. It was like it was as close to a perfect experience as I've ever had on anything. I mean, where at
the Sunset and Gower Studios. Okay, it was in l A, Yeah, in La Yeah, and we had you know, I remember our producer Alan Pool, you know, he'd come back from somewhere and I was like, well, where were you And he's like, oh's that Sundance And I was like, what are you doing there? He goes, I wanted to go see who all the new independent directors were, and he was and he was hand like picking the hot independent directors coming out of Sundance and and you know, Toronto Film.
Festival and stuff to come and direct our episodes.
You know. So it was this it was this creative whirlwind that was happening there of all the best writers and directors and actors and and people coming from the theater to come and work on the show. Uh, I mean it was it was a near near I mean, you know, you know they use that that saying like the stars were aligned. Yeah, the stars were certainly aligned. Man, it was.
It was a perfect storm for TV. Yeah, yeah, you could. And again, you couldn't have made that show anywhere else.
Yeah, yeah, And so you know, it makes me proud when I see shows like Breaking Bad. You know, I watched that show, and it makes me a little nostalgia because I go, oh, I see what you're doing. Like, you know, because we use silence a lot, you know on our show, a sense of silence, and there were certain tones that were similar. And use the network, you have to be talking all the time. Yeah you can't just said still Yeah. I try to do that on Nancy Is.
I try to like have beats from I internalized something and my closters are like, are they going like this today? Hello today? Yeah, dude, let me process you know, Leo, What what are the questions you have?
Let's gonna be a quick one. You're whisked away to a karaoke bar by friends. Which song do you sing?
Oh? Easy, go ahead.
Karaoke bar. I just saw the Billy Joe documentary the other day and like I went, I went to Scotland when my son was going to school there, and we passed this like I don't know what it was, was a bar, piano bar or whatever, and Piano Man came on and I was blown away by by the camaraderie that that song caused.
Yeah, how I wakes up in the bar?
I mean, everybody was so in sync on this one, so I've never seen that before. And then after seeing the documentary, I'm gonna have to say, piano Man, what about you?
It's like Jesse's Girl and Jesse's Girl Girl in Jersey that plays in Jersey game game or oh yeah, you know. For me, it would be I go with like with stuff that like I only I grew up with, right, Yeah, yeah, yeah. There was a point where I would do Ricky Martin songs because it would make people laugh. What do you mean, like Villa Loka, living up Vida look and then I just hit the hips I like, and people were like, whoa am I seeing double.
You? Would you wear the the leather pants?
Well I always yeah, yeah, that was leather pants for two thousands. Didn't you have leather pants? I think I think there was one time you came to the club to meet me and you were wearing leather club bets. Was either you or Adam Rodriguez. Shout out to Adam Driguez and his leather pants from the early two thousands. Yes, he's gonna listen to this and be like, why do you tell people we got wear.
Pants that I don't wear and question about his leather pants.
We should have Adam here, We should we should talk about talk about a silly fun time that would be. That would be so good, such a good guy, and I can confront him on his leathers like he never wore. You can confront him. We're like, hey, we had an episode when he talked about your leather pants. Yeah, and he's like, what leather pants? You know he's just gonna argue.
We're like, bro, the leather pants. Remember we went to like that you know, that rooftop bar, and you showed up wearing black leather pants and just like keep going over and see how far he Eventually he'll be like, I guess I wore leather bay Convince who well remember, so I would do something like Matchbox twenty, you know, back to good Yeah, shout out to Rob Thomas, one of my favorite people on the planet. Beautiful man, beautiful person,
and he's beautiful wife Maddy big shut out. I wasn't actually in a Rob Thomas singles music video ever the same I was in the music video for them, and I was like, for me at the time, it was like a drink control. I still have match Pox twenty. Well, I actually still love match Past twenty. They perform I'm going, you know, uh so I do that, and then I will do like one of some of the songs from Carlos Santana's Supernatural Maria Maria, I got everybody singing at that time.
You're in a very sort of early two thousands, late nineties. That's kind of that's why. Yeah, that's who you are, you living, you live in that time frame, That's who I am.
All right, next next question.
All right, this question is from James. This one's for you. Freddie yep, hi, Freddie can you please talk about working with a great Italian star, gian Carlo Giannini, you know, Walk in the Clouds. What do you learn from him, stories you shared, et cetera. Love that film and you're working it.
Oh so where does he live?
Thank you Jesus.
Question is crazy?
Yeah, yeah, wow, what a unique question. Working with gian Carlo Janini was an insight into what it must have been like to make movies in the sixties and seventies. Oh so, so it's a it's a feeling, it's it's something that I can't really put my finger on, like watching him and Anthony Quinn together and Anthony spoke Italian and they would be there telling stories about their escapade aid in the seventies and sixties, and like he just carried himself like a like a seventies movie star. In fact,
I loved his name so much. I named my oldest son my oldest son's name is young Carlo and it was the first time I had heard that name. And uh, and we named my son that And when my son was born, I called him and told him that I named my son after him. I mean, I don't know it was after him exactly, but he gave me an excuse to call him again.
Yeah, that's it.
And so I remember doing that that film, and uh, I loved just watching him, you know, I was. I was nineteen years old when I did that movie. I was, I was right out of high school, and I would I was so blown away by seeing him and Anthony
in their process and doing what they were doing. I just loved watching those guys because I had no clue, you know, and those guys would be in there and they'd be like and they're and you know, getting to that emotion place and you know where I was like shy and and still trying to like find my footing in film. And then you had like Keanu Reeves and that equation also. So it was just a bunch of heavyweights in there. But he was. He was an absolute gentleman and a and a pleasure to work with him
and his family. I remember his son was there and some of his kids were there, and they were they were just wonderful. It's a great, great experience. Shout out to Gean Carlo Jeanini.
Awesome. What else you got?
This one's from Lorena, Lorena, Hi Wilmer, and Freddie. Thanks for making you laugh every week. I'm wondering when it was a time in your life when you took a big risk and how did it change you. I'm making a big career pivot and I'm starting to freak out a little about whether it'll payoff. I would love to hear of those moments when you took a risk with admiration, Lorena.
Would you take a risk? Was was starting your company taking a risk?
Yeah? And it's it's the risk, right, It is still a risk. I mean, you're you continue to input your You're investing and investing and investing, and you're waiting for that moment where like it's a stains itself, you know. And thankfully now most of my companies are you know, at least sustaining themselves, right, But in a world where people are buying less and making less, you know, it's
it's still a risk to help production company. But you know, your ability to weather the storm is what gives you the best shot, you know at actually eventually finding yourself on stead making something now. But you know, i'd say when you talk about big risk, I mean I would say doing something no one in my family had the technology, the knowledge, the resources, the most fathom idea that that would that would be possible, which is this thing, Oh, I want to be an actor. That's crazy.
You know.
The trajectory I was having at the time is either I was going to be a psychologist or you know, I was going to join the Air Force or something, you know, because I want to fly planes. So like it could have gone either way. We've had these conversations before in the podcast, but these are really big leaps
of faith, you know. Also the same thing with like, you know, switching gears in life is never simple, But if you're switching tracks, there's something about you that's telling you that you know, you got what it takes to do it right. Otherwise you wouldn't take that chance, right, So I think there's something about that that you have to kind of trust yourself, right, You've got to trust that you've earned that change of gear, you know, somehow. But you know, I'm kind of still thinking a little
bit about that. I'm still thinking a little bit about what are some of these stories. But everything that we do in our career is Freddie is a leap of faith. Everything come up with an idea, I'm going to write it down, I'm going to try to sell it. Right, or I'm going to take this part on this TV show.
I hope it goes a second. Like everything's a little bit of a risk, but I will say that a song, as you are continuing to perform within your strength and you're focusing on your personal contribution to what you're hoping to get out of you know you, you're the odds are for you and with you on that, I don't know, what do you think? Yeah, yeah, and you're right.
We've talked about this before. What a risk it was to just to become an actor right starting there, coming from the type of families that we came from and what was expected of us, So that was a risk. Or I started producing about a decade ago, twelve years ago, and I started writing, and these were these were avenues that I felt in my gut that I could be good at. You know, there are other things that I'm interested in, but like my gut was telling me that
I could potentially be pretty good at this stuff. And I tried producing and and I thought I did a pretty good job. I've been writing more lately and I thought I did a pretty good job. And so like, if I could impart any advice to you, Lodana is to just follow your gut. Like and that's one thing I think that I was born with.
I think I have.
I have really good instincts, really really deep, deep good instincts about about tone, about projects, about putting people together, or being able to read something and recognizing whether it's good or not, or watching something and being able to recognize if it's good or not. And a lot of times my instincts drives my choices, you know, you know, I just I just did a I just did a
horror movie. And and you know, sometimes what happens is like, you know, if the budget is not thirty forty million dollars for example, you know, people kind of go ah, you know, it's kind of lower. It's kind of this, it's kind of that, you know. I never look at projects like what's is it? Is it a million dollar, five million dollars ten million dollar budget or what have you?
You know, like I'm able to read something and my gut will tell me if something is good or not, you know, or I could I could meet with a director and a writer and know, like my gut will tell me if they're if they're good or not. And so I've just followed my gut. I haven't followed what people tell me I should or I shouldn't be doing. You know, so anyway to answer the question within all that takes a lot of risk because you're putting yourself on the line. You're going to people that you trust,
who who You're putting your brand on the line. You're telling people I wrote the script. They're looking at you like you're crazy because you're an actor, and then they read it and they go, oh shit, no, this is this is really good. Or you say hey, I'm producing this movie and they look at you like you're crazy because you're an actor, and then you execute the production of the movie and they're like, oh wow, I didn't
I never knew you could do it right. But if I were to listen to the people who look at me like I'm crazy every time I tell them I'm gonna produce something new or write something new, that I would never get anywhere. I'd just be the actor at home waiting for the phone to ring.
Yeah. I wanted to add something to what you were saying, because you trigger a different I take trigger another perspective that kind of it's in line with what you're saying. The times that I've been the most scared to take a leap of faith, I realized I wasn't prepared to make the leap you weren't prepared to take. I gotcha. I knew that was the right chance. I knew that that that was the right bed, it was the right gamble, right, But I wasn't ready for it, you know, And I
think you're timing on. Once you switch gears in your life and when you take this leap of faith, it's absolutely part of the ingredients of the perfect storm, whether
is going to work or not. For me. The times that I've been the most concerned, nervous, or or or you know, or fearful of this is when I haven't done enough homework about it, when I'm having had you know, the proper you know research to say, Okay, I know enough about this, and now I can try, you know, because imposter syndrome is always going to happen when you're
doing something new. But if you put in the hours to understand where you're going, you're not you're possibly not going to take a wrong turn right, You're probably not going to get off early. You're going to just keep driving because you kind of know what to expect a little bit. And I think that's I think that's probably the thing the trigger to me the most when you started talking about that stuff, is that, you know, those are the times where I feel like, oh, let me
take pause, Like am I doing the right thing? It's when I haven't really prepared. I mean, my research enough, you know and all that, and now I don't have time to not do the research, right, You got to know what you're doing, right. It's like yestakes are very high now, but and a lot of that is following your gut, right, right, this is likely where it is.
Don't you feel like you've developed your instinct over the last two three decades?
Totally, totally. I think that that that got feeling that you have to do this and it has to happen because you can breathe without it. And that's very important, right, because if you're not happy with where you are in the moment, if you're not happy where where things are at in your life in this moment, maybe this is time to.
Do a little bit of a nodded yeah, yeah, I mean, but that's that's ambition, right. But I also think that there's an instinctual part to it as well that you possess, right, Like that's your ambition, going like I got I, this has to happen.
I have to do it.
But but you're also good at at like your gut telling you whether something is good or not. Like I remember a couple of months ago we were at your office and you showed me like a like a trailer for a new documentary that you were you were producing with the photographer, and I remember watching the trailer and going like, holy cow, man, this trailer is like it's
so good, Like I can just see it. I can feel it all in just that trailer, the tone of the documentary and even that other documentary you produced, the The TikTok Dancer, The Devil's for the Devil. Yeah.
Yeah.
So so what you're showing me and the stuff that you're producing in the documentary world is that you have a really strong instinct for choosing the right stuff that you want to do.
Right.
Even when when we embarked on this journey of this podcast, right, like I didn't really know anything about podcasts, right, but my gut was telling me through our conversations and what you wanted it to be. My gut was telling me, Oh, this feels right, This feels like it could be good and it could be executed well. And and I think that my gut was right, you know, and I can tell you right now circle to the why this podcast.
We've been man of our word. What we said we were going to do and how we were going to do it, and what it was going to about, what was going about esthetically, what it was going to look like, and how it was going to land and what it could really mean to our community. I think we kind of you know, I think we got there. How many episodes so far we've done this is this is thirty two. This is about thirty two episodes that we've done so far.
So we've had thirty two conversations. Some of them have gone over an hour, an hour and a half, two hours, right, So think about how many how much time you and I have spent together kind of breaking down and missed it, you know, the mysticism of our existence and turn it into like just relatable life, life paths. You know, I'm very proud of that. And this is exactly you know, thirty two conversations ago, what we said, what we're going to do and for better or worse, right, like whether
it works or it doesn't, right. I think that's the And what you want to do is you want to be able to go to sleep knowing that what we said we were going to do it exactly, we're going to do it. We did it the way that we wanted it. It's when you allowed other drift is of like maybe include this, maybe become that, maybe you know, the topical stuff like we're not going to talk about
topical things like this, this is irrelevant to us. It happens right now, and then another thirty minutes something new happens, and like, I'm not jumping you know, I don't think you and I will ever jump in the wagon of like what's hot in the news right now, you know, but the ever green of what's important to our cultures.
I think it's why this is, this is important and I and you know, I always encourage everybody who has a platform to just create destinations where it's safe to speak and carry yourself the way that you and I have for thirty two conversations. Yeah, but it was it was for me.
This is my own you know, experience with this podcast is my gut, my instinct when you presented the idea. My gut told me to do it. My gut told me to do it for a plethora of different reasons. You know, I just in in in the conversations that we've had that that the execution was going to be satisfactory. It was going to be good, you know, because because how many times have you been in meetings or you've been in conversations with with people who are like, oh,
women were come and jump on this project. It's going to be this, It's going to be that, right, they promise you it's gonna be X, Y and Z, and then you you go and you knock it out, and then you see it in the theater and.
You're like, wow, this is really terrible.
And my instinct was telling me it's going to be terrible.
But I didn't listen to my instinct because that fall all of a sudden, you see, like the matrix now, right, when somebody come ask you with a similar situation, you're like, yeah, I know that's going to turn out.
Yeah.
You know, it's you start navigating life based on the ripples of you know, how it all kind of works out right, and how it all builds out.
Yeah, but haven't you ever been like where your instinct tells you you probably shouldn't do this, but then whatever external forces like convince you to be a part of it, and you're just like okay, like like you put that gut voice to the side, and you're like, well, but this director said it's going to be listen to that, and so I should listen to them. And then you see it on screen.
And it's like, oh, well, the deach looks so pretty, you know what the deck looks over, the deck is going to be with us, you know. Yeah, there's so many there's so many ways I you know.
You know.
The other thing the counter to that is, even if you jump into an idea like that or you're like your God is telling you maybe not, you got created real creative partnership in there and making sure that there's an accountability to the openness they sold you on that they were going to bring you in. You know, you're a producer a director, so when you jump onto a project, you're not just gonna show up and say your lines.
So I also trust that instinct in me that if I'm seeing something irregular, I just I can't just like but you know, at the beginning we had no choice, you know, like we're like, all right, you hire me as an actor. Here's my acteam You know, it's like it's kind of how it works.
But but you've developed that muscle right in the last like twenty years or so as a spider sense, right as a as a producer, you know, to go, although this feels right or this doesn't feel right, Like for me, it's like I remember we were first doing the podcast. I was like we were all kind of evaluating the process, and I remember you all turned to me and I was just like, it just feels right, Like something feels right about it, you know, so I'm anyway, it's a
super long answer to your question. Trust your gut, and you know, like like trust the way that it feels to you.
You know, it's so fun to hear from all of you. It's really cool to hear where you know, where they're curiosity. You know, it takes them when it comes to our conversations and what those amigos has brought to listeners. So all of you are either watching it listening. Thank you so much, and all of you who have questions and like, oh I want to ask a question. I want to hear a little bit about a different topic where I want to do deep to and other things. Send us
your questions, you know, your conversations, your topics. You can d m us at Those Amigos talk on Instagram. Uh, and you can also email us talk at gmail dot com. Yeah that's that's good memory.
Wow.
Yeah, I guess it's because it's the same name as the Instagram account.
Yeah yeah. Or writer us right, or you could sell like a like a voice the message or send.
Us a voice memo on Instagram. And thank you everyone for the questions today. I was really sparked a lolly good stuff. Thank you guys so much for listening to those Amigos. This is a podcast where you can get anywhere. Did you get your podcast? I'm wilmri Valdorama.
I'm Freddie Rodriguez.
I'll see you guys on the next Talks.
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 Aaron Burlson and Sophie Spencer's Abows.
Our executive producers are Wilmer Valdorama, Freddie Rodriguez, Aaron Burr, and Leo Clem 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 art photography is by David Avalos and designed by Deny Holtz.
Clau and thank you for being here third Amigo today. I appreciate you guys always listening to those amos.
For more podcasts from My Heart, visit the R Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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