From Warzone To Gotham Con J.W. Cortes

Gracias Come Again a podcast by Honey German.

We get right into it. J W. Cortees, Yes, how are you feeling today?

I feel great. Thank you for having me. I'm looking forward to this one.

Ah where do we start? It was like marine first responder actor father. I'm like, you were's marathon runner. I'm like, wait, wait, where do I even start with?

J W.

Born and raised in New York.

Born and raised in Brooklyn to two amazing parents who who indoctrinated me in all things of Puerto Rico and being Latino.

Was Mammy Pappy Mammy born and raised on the island. So and then they migrated to Brooklyn.

They did their bodies there, but not their hearts in their minds, you know, to them, they're still in Puerto Rico mode, which I love.

Are they still with us?

They are God blessed, bless is right?

Are they still in Brooklyn?

No? No, so they're my They're my neighbors. We lived together in the sixth Borough of New York City, Jersey City, so beautiful.

I love that. I love that for you. Now, when you do your acting, is that the West Coast?

No, you know, it's It's interesting. When I first started out, you know, many moons ago. Yeah, that was always like the kind of like the urban myth, right, like, if you want to make it in this business, you got to move to la that's where all the action is. But that's just not true. I mean, I starting theater, I started singing in this business. I wanted to be the Boutiqua Luther v Andros.

I could see it.

Thank you. I think that's good, right, yeah, yeah, fat Luther, fat Looth.

No no no no no no no no no no, I'm thinking just an artist.

I'm not thinking yes, yes, yes, yes, So that's kind of how it started for me. But you know, staying here in New York, you know you just mentioned right, theater, theater, this is the mecca for that. So what what came from that is is that here you also have the best acting schools. In my opinion, we do London, you know.

So yeah, so you started singing, started out singing.

It didn't really work out for me. I couldn't find the right users. But I also had this acting bug in me that I got from doing high school musicals.

So this started early for you, super early. Yes, what was your musical that you did?

Like the first one that kind of got me in. I did The Wiz, and I'll tell you that. So I went to school in Coney Island, benson Hurst, really Lafayette, and I went out for this new thing called The Whiz. I had only seen the movie, but there was a part for the Tin Man and he had a song called if I Could Feel.

And I saw The Wiz on Broadway.

Reason I saw on your I g yes.

So I know exactly you know you no, But that's that's that's that was like the first taste of like, Okay, I gotta go out there and I gotta win this part.

I wanted up being casted as the Wiz, but I just said, man, if I could ever get to play the tin Man, I'll be complete here right. But I was kind of the precipice of that.

That's amazing. I love it because I was talking your social media also, and I saw that your son is on Broadway.

He is doing off Broadway. He's in now. Shout out to marry me. Shout out to my son Jaden, who's now done about ten musicals in his eight nineteen years of life. This kid is phenomenal. Yeah, no's he's he's on his way.

You had a lot to do with that or was he born with that?

I think it's interesting my son is so he's so assured of who he is, right, and I didn't have that at that age. I was still trying to figure myself out. Sometimes I still am right. But he at nineteen, he knows who he is. He knows what he wants, what he wants to do, but he also knows what he doesn't want to do. And theater, I think gave him a lot more of that, that comfortable space to kind of explore that. So he knows who he is, he knows the kind of artist he wants to be.

What are the biggest differences you see between your son and yourself? Like when you started in this business, fear you were fearful, oh god it and he's fearless.

He's fearless. Yeah, and it's ironic because I'm the marine, I'm the combat veteran. I'm the guy that would strap on the gum belt, go out there, work midnights in Harlem, and do all these other things that people would say, Wow, you must have no fear. But the one thing I learned in my acting training is the one person that you have to deal with the most can be sometimes the scariest, and that's yourself.

That's very, very, very true. Now I want to go back because I feel like we skipped over a lot of things because I was wondering. I said, how did he end up a marine and an actor simultaneously? When did you enlist?

Yeah, so I knew. So. I grew up in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, on the block that the NYPD had nicknamed Little Vietnam. Right, So the block was hot, right, I'm talking about the early eighties, right, mid eighties, so the height of the crack and Aids epidemic. My older brothers one of the leaders of one of the worst street gangs out there. He had a huge influence on me. But in Gosa, Mommy and Poppy were like, you're game more than I play any game. So you got to figure something out.

That was and maybe still is, you know, for a lot of black and brown young men who don't have another outlet or absolutely don't want to go to college.

Yes, yeah, so it isn't for everyone, But for me, it kind of gave me the structure of discipline. It just got me out of a really bad situation. So I wound up serving, and I wound up staying in a lot longer than I thought. I saw fast forward. In two thousand and three, America was first starting out in this new war called Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and my unit was tagged with being part of the invading force of Iraq. And out of all places in

I feel like that's a lot of us.

That's a lot of us, you know. So for me, of all places, I had that awakening and I just prayed hard and I saip up my the oh please not here, not like this.

I'm not ready. You know.

It's interesting, you know, when you so close to death, whether it be an accident or an illness of some sort, you're forced to kind of come to that realization like you did this. You had a hand in this moment somehow, some way, you know, And so that's what that's what ignited that thing in me, and it's been burning ever

So while you were in the service, were you doing anything acting related or you were just focused on serving?

You know what I was doing. I was protecting American embassies and I loved it. I got to live and thank you.

Listen. I was, I was stalking your career and I was like, wow, he's put in some serious work.

Thank you.

I was like, I gotta thank him. I said, you know, all of our veterans and you know, shout out to me. The second man that has sat here, you know and told me, you know, he's risked his life and gone to war for our country, and then he also ended up an actor. And I'm like, what am I doing my life? These men go to war a country, then they come home and then become actors, and you.

Know, but that's not it's interesting you say that. So you know, I'm giving you like the ways version, right listen.

I already don't I got your whole life. Yeah, I know, wait, hold on, hold on. I was already acting. What's happening there? What happened to the thirteen years? What's going on here? But acting? What was your first once you left the service? Yes, what was the first moment that you booked a role or you auditioned for a role.

So this is a true story. I come home and I had this burning desire to explore it. I need no actors. I had heard that a long time ago Rosie Perez was also from Sunset Park, but that's like an urban legend to me. I don't even know this chick, right, And so I didn't know where to begin. So I started my new career. I was a beat cop and

What did you audition for? I want to know it some really.

Bad short film that hopefully no one will ever see. But that's not the point. The point is is that I show up at this office somewhere in midtime Manhattan. I put my name on a piece of paper. I'm sitting in a room and I'm just like I'm I am now mimicking what everyone else is doing. Everybody's very short, so I'm like, fuck, I gotta be serious too. I got to like fun because I got just some acting stuff, right. So I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm just

This sounds like a movie.

She's like J W. Cortez and I'm like, right here, how you doing? What's going on? Right? And so I'm all old cheery and she goes, okay, headshot And for a moment I looked at her and I'm like, does she know that I'm a marine combat veteran and that a headshot for a marine means that I get down in the prone position? And like, does she want me to simulate what that would look like? And she looked at me and she says, you don't know what I'm talking about. I said, this is my first time.

Man, you didn't have a headshot.

I didn't have a headshot. I didn't know what a headshot was. I didn't know where to get one. But you know, ignorance is bliss. And because I was so ignorant, I was unaware of how hard this thing would be. And so I went and that was my first time ever auditioning. And I went from that and then finally many bumps and bruises, and I found myself what was probably the biggest blessing of my career. I met a

Take it off and take it off.

And I'm like, what that is such a dichotic statement. Body armor is supposed to protect you. How is mind hurting me? He's like, you'll never get to the true self that you need as an actor because everything that you do is always being protected by this armor that the Marine Corps gave you, that Sunset Park gave you, that being a Latino male figure and your family has given you. And it gets in the way, it's blocking you. And so that was a journey for me to learn

How does one even take off all that armor, you know, being inner City, being black and brown, being Latino, and then on top of that fighting for our country for so many years? How did you even peel back those layers?

I wish I could give you, like a a a sick short answer. I will tell you that it is through the grace of God. It is through family support. It is you really seeing and and and just having letting go of the parachute sometimes and go, I notice it's going to be bad and I have to get through the bat to get to the good. It's like he would always say, You're trying to go from New York to LA and along the way it starts to rain. Do you stop driving?

No?

What do you do? You put on your windshield wipers? The sun goes down? Do you stop driving? No, you put on your headlights, you stop for gas. I'm full of them. This is all lived my life.

You give me all the gems. I really really really love that. Now, did you stop down and say I need to start a family or how did your two boys?

My two sons? So I met a young lady when I had come came back from from the war, and we, uh, you know, I'll credit my ex wife with saying to me and and and these exact words, what kind of asshole wants to go back to war?

She's a Latina, she uses latina.

Yes, she says, straight up, straight up, because I was volunteering to go back. Why, because I was suffering from some severe PTSD I was unaware of. And I just knew I don't really belong here. I'm not ready to be back here. I think I want to go back.

Did you feel like out in the field is where you belong.

Anywhere with the Marines is where I felt I belonged. I was good at what I did.

To the point that being with your family no longer felt normal.

It didn't feel normal because I think they didn't have the tools and the vocabulary to understand how to communicate with me. Without triggering something in me. So, for example, one of my buddies who his book became a film called American Sniper. He has since been he was murdered. But Chris Kyle the American Snipers said to me, we went to war in America, went to the mall, and that could have a negative connotation for guys who went multiple times over there, but he flipped it on me.

So she said, what kind of asshole goes back to.

War volunteers, you know volunteers, And you know, I was like, you know what, I think I'll stick around, but only for a few more months. And then after I got to go back right and I wound up, you know, we wound up getting pregnant, and I wound up sticking around, and and then I started to pursue these these careers simultaneously as at the same time as trying to be a dad and just trying to be a better person and a better version of myself for her. For me, it was a lot. It was a lot.

It was It sounds like a lot, you know what I'm saying. But you got your two boys, and that is an amazing blessing.

Yes, the best, the best, the best role I ever played.

Now, let's talk about Gotham. That is where I know you from through and through. How did you land this role? Like I remember when Gotham was it was just such a big deal, like we were all so hype. How did you end up getting up in there? Talk to me?

So like every other actor, you know, I'm I'm literally working, I'm working a graveyard shift and literally go in midtime Manhattan.

Okay, because now you're a police officer.

I'm active, I'm working every night. But I knew that I had to get to acting school during the day. I had to figure out when I was going to eat, when I was going to sleep, like you name it. But everything was focused on I need to get off this thing, and I want to do this because you.

Were like, I don't want to, I don't want to want to do that more.

I want to do this.

You had a dream.

I had a dream, right, and I wanted to honor that. So the one thing the Marine Corps taught me is if you slept, then you had time right sleep, my man, right, like yeah, like let's get let's go, like you know, like I can push past most of people's ring, you know, at least my own comfort level.

Can I stop down for one second? Yes, I hate when people sleep. I just do it because I feel like that's time wasted and you can be if you have a dream and you have a passion and you can take a two to three hour nap. To me, that equates to those are two three hours that you didn't pursue your dream.

That's correct.

Is that what the Marines was talking about?

Absolutely? Absolutely. We don't stop when you're tired. You stop when you're done. The job wasn't done. So I'm I'm literally running up and down New York City, going from casting office to casting office, getting lucky every so often, getting a lot of callbacks, so close a lot of times. This is a career of many false starts, is what I see, and the biggest lessons that I'm learning in those like three four years that I'm grinding it out doing really bad short films, really bad stage work, like

That's when you know, that's when you don't get any callback.

Is that what.

Happens is you go out and you know you killed the audition, and so you're just gonna wait now because at any moment that email is gonna come through, and so let me just check my wife I just in case it's not strong enough.

Let me reboot the phone, just in case the signific yeah right, And so you know the second day and now a week goes by and you're just checking the junk box because you never know. Maybeam maybe you want to spam. That's probably what happened, don't maybe my number maybe, And so you start thinking about it, and then what happens is two weeks go by, and that's the silent no, and that is your career and you must contend with that because what you want is a verbal no. At

True, all not true, because we tend to kind of like put the blame on ourselves and project it.

You know, as you were looking for answers, what tell me what I can do to improve it? No one's going to tell you that. This is where you have to be so self assured. You have to know what I do, what Honey German does, no one else can do it. If you're looking for that, no one could do that better than me. And that's how I had to feel about j W. I had to learn that, right. So long story is, I'm auditioning. I go out for this thing, and I just felt really good about that particular addition.

Do you know what it was?

It was for this character named Alvarez? And what I did was I took a chance. And I always tell young actors.

Did you know it was Godam? Did you know something Gotham?

But I didn't know like the full spectrum of it. I'm like, oh, that is maybe batman ish, but I don't really know. And I don't know about Alvarez either. But I remember taking my sides and I had it in my hand and I do my lines, and I had a moment where I'm getting into a fight and I just I threw my sides at the the reader and they bugged out. They're like, this guy's into the role. And I just I went with it, you know, and I took a chance because it wasn't written that way.

I'm in Culebra Island, hold.

And my phone is working. Look at this, And that's when I learned that I had I had booked this role. And I didn't even know this until like a couple of months into the production, that I would be a recurring, heavily recurring because you had a lot of that I did, and then I found out that I was the first human to play this comic book character. I didn't know that, so I go, better, hold on, let me look at this comic book you know, I look like this, dude, I'm like.

Are you kidding me?

Now?

I got to.

Google it like this. So that was how that kind of like that was the that that was like the first like, ah, we're onto something. We can do this and we can hold our own and he's a Latino and I'm a Latino and that doesn't happen all the time. We're character never And that was like my first taste of like, oh, okay, now I get it. When you get to come in and play and do what you love, all right, that's the feeling that we get addicted to.

So you feel like all those nose or all those roles that didn't work out or that you didn't feel like, you know, we're up to. Part was leading up to Gotham, because honestly, Gotham was big.

Yeah.

I think I remember the rollout. We were so hype. It was like everybody was yeah that trailer. I was, yeah, yeah, trailer has like eleven million views, Like I watched it again today.

Yeah, yeah, I think I think that the show did a lot for a lot of different things, for a lot of different people. For me, I can tell you that I was just not aware. To me, it was just another joke.

You were not aware of what it was doing.

No, not at first, you know, I just I just saw the hype and stuff. And then once I got into the DC comic book universe, because now you belonged to this universe, and I started, for the first time in my career getting an actual like fan mail, all parts of that was dope, And I go, I'm a kid from Sunset who took a chance, and now this is happening the way I'm now right. So you know, so anyone that's listening, I would say, you know, it's.

Oh there's people listening. Don't do that, j W. Don't I know they're listening.

Just you know, you've got to trust sometimes and just really take a chance, take a chance.

Getting head on. When they saw Young Goth, I'm like, how happy were there?

You know? It's funny. Our parents always want the best for us, so I know why they were. They were like, you know you sure, you sure you want to you know it's hard you know, I think there's a Latino community. I think that over bearing love is it comes from a good place.

Oh, it always does.

And I think now, like I just recently booked probably what's going to be the biggest movie in my career. It will be on twenty five congratulation, Thank you so much. It's like got them on steroids all over again for me. And you know, I think now after so many years of being successful, that now they're like, yeah, yeah, how.

Many times have you made them proud? Though with the service, we're becoming a police officer, we're becoming an actor. I don't know if you throw the boxes already listened, because some of us don't even make them proud one time.

Yeah yeah, you know, I don't know. It was never like Okay, I'm going to do this to make them proud. I think what has made them proud is that I've been true to what it is that I've always wanted to do and I just haven't quit. And I think when you see someone go after something and they don't quit, it's hard not to be proud, like, you know what, whatever it is, you know, look at you, You're still at it. You know, good for you. You know, because I think most of us do quit somewhere along the way.

It is tempting to quit when things get hard, you know, for us to keep pushing forward and be like, now I'm gonna try again, and I'm gonna keep going no matter what, no matter how many nos I get, no matter how many rejections. It is definitely hard. Now, speaking of hard, the New York City Marathon, there's nothing up there. I'm just thinking right, right, right right, the New York City Marathon. Was that your first time running it?

So it's yeah, that was my first time running the marathon, and I did something that I don't recommend. I gave myself ten weeks. How are your niece maneuhel?

And they never never the same, They're never going back to normal.

No, no, no, no no.

But that's what That's why I gave myself ten weeks.

I gave myself ten weeks. You woke up one day and you're like, you know what, Yeah, well, no, right. What happened was I was I do a lot of fundraising for the families of our fallen children. I do.

We do have to speak about Raphile around the station.

Absolutely. So I was at some event and there was this dude there, you know, who was a Medal of Honor recipient, and he's like, you know, I'm all banked up and I'm going to run this thing, and how about you, j W. And I was like, yeah, of course I'm running it right Yeah. And then it was like I got off the air and I'm like, what

Big Shadow Angie Martinez, she ran the marathon one time too. But I know people that ran the marathon and they were like, my body was never the same after it.

Yeah, yeah, No, it's it's traumatic. I don't mean traumatic like in the mental's capacity. I think physically it is. It is an extreme trauma that you're putting on your body. It's just not a natural thing to do.

What were you thinking about while you were running? They got you through that finish line. How many miles is it?

Twenty six point two? I was good, believe it or not. Running through my old neighborhood.

What were you thinking?

I was. I was amped, like so I had two pieces of advice that was given to me. One was put your name on your shirt. I'm like, that's a little like self like, you know, But it turned out to be one of the best things, because when you're hurting in the crowd, especially New York is you know, yo bye bye, you know, you know, it does give you that extra thing. And then the second thing was they were like, don't listen to music. Instead download your

So and that finish line when you crossed it would What were your thoughts like, what did you tell yourself when you crossed that finish line.

I don't know if I had any like thoughts. I thought I would be a lot hungry than I was. I didn't want to eat for the next four or five hours, which I found that weird. I felt that I could have kept going even though I thought I couldn't.

You want to do it again?

Yeah, I said, I'm gonna do this again for sure. Absolutely, I'm gonna be a marathon runner, right, I'm going to go back to my Kenyan roots when I lived in Kenya and I ran with the Kenyans. I got this. It's in me, did I did? I did? Yeah? Two years? Are you?

Yeah?

My God speaks for Heli as well? Really yes, yes, yes, don't ask me anymore. Ok.

I was gonna say, okay, now.

I said, I speak some Swahili, not too much. Yes, yes, the service, I was in the service. Yeah. Yeah, So the marathon it was you know, it's a test, right, But the test isn't the marathon. That's the reward running through New York City where people are just going buck while and the DJs of pumping the hip hop through Brooklyn and your I mean, that's the community.

It's community. It's us just you know, we were here, it was we were working that day and we went outside and it was just everybody was outside, people eating, people were drinking and just congratulating, you know, the runners. It just felt good. It's a sense of community.

It is, it is, it is.

And you know, speaking of community, one of the things that I really really liked when researching you is how much you give back and how involved you still are with our first responders and with our community. Now, I wanted to talk to you about the foundation. You're the president of the foundation. Yes, what is your connection? You know, we all we all know what happened, you know, very tragic, and as a city, we mourned together. But how do you get connected to this story?

Yeah, that's a great question. I was I was starting to experience and enjoy the fruits of my new found fame through Gotham. The NFL had very I was very humble. I was blown away. They had presented me the Hispanic Leadership Award for all of the work I had done

Very small, I was very very small and as a country, and we were just mourning, and we were just witnessing so much trauma, so.

Much so you know, this kind of eliminated, you know, And as I looked at the screen when breaking news, I remember sitting there looking at Raphael's face and I just I got fixated, and I go, I know this man, I don't know I from where. And it turns out that I went to middle school with Rafael back in Sunset.

It was like, what are you doing here?

What's the fuck's going on? And so the NFL said, hey, we want to do this. So I said, that's the foundation. I don't know them, but if you give me a couple of days, I'm going to reach out to them. So I did. I sent an anonymous email to the foundation's website. Within an hour, I'm on the phone with the vice president and I'm on the phone with the founder of Maritza. And I said, Maritza, I know you

And I said, is that his wife?

That's his wife, first widow. So Maritza Ramos, I said, Maritza, you're stuck with me, girl. I'll do whatever I can because I know that could have been me, and that could have been my son standing next to you at that at that funeral. And so that's that was the beginning of that relationship, and it came from me using my platform to give back to this man and his family in the community. And let me just say this to all the listeners. The Rafael Ramas Foundation is not

Thank you, we need the work that you're doing is so important, not just serving our country, not just entertaining us, but also, you know, just giving back to the community, because sometimes you get to a level where you're so successful and you're so busy that you forget about the community, you forget about where you came from, and you're still very much in it. And that says a lot about you as a man, because you used to be commendable, respectable, admirable all.

There's a scene right if you find yourself on that elevator to the top, right, you got to send it back down. That's me.

I say it all the time. I leave the back door open.

I love it.

I work in radio, and anybody that I can teach every single thing I do, I will. And I've had about thirty different interns, and I'm like, what do you want to learn? And you know, working with interns is tricky because you lose half your day teaching. And I would not change all my thirty kids that I've had, because that's what it's all about, you know, teaching, enabling and helping, you know, the next generation. So thank you so much for what you're doing. Absolutely, I'm sure you know.

I'm grateful for them for the opportunity. I always say, you want to do something selfish, help someone, you get so much more out of it.

Look at you, look at you. You're like, because I'm getting something back.

I love that.

Now, twenty two twenty five, what's the plan for twenty twenty five?

So twenty twenty five, So this year will mark the tenth year since Rafael Ramos and wen Ji and Lu were both assassinated. I always say, you know, leave it better than you found it. Eight years ago when I came on board, you know, four years, I've been the president of those eight years. For four of them i've been the president. This will be my last year with the foundation. I'm going to turn it over to our vice president, he's very capable and they're going to do

After thank you for principle. She said, I got an agenda here, We're gonna make this.

Amen. I mean, and it took a lot of work. It took a lot of work.

But I'm pretty sure you can't just change the name of a school.

No, especially in some neighborhoods. Some neighbors are like, what what you want to do? What you know? But yeah, it took us showing up time and time again for years and saying, look, we're telling you what we're about, but we're showing you it's even more important. We keep showing up, giving out exactly so then you know. So twenty twenty five, I'm gonna I'm gonna separate myself. But against all that mean, what does that mean? It just means that I'm going to let them run with it and I'm going.

To Okay, I tell you meant from from the public.

Oh no, no, no, I'm always going to be around. No, but I do want to get back to do my love right, which is entertaining people working on music. You know, I still have that burning desires.

What kind of music do you want to do?

You're gonna laugh, But no, Soul, I saw that you was with Brown. Yeah, I want to talk to you about that country girl right who knew?

Why not? Look at your boozy black man running country right now?

Love it? Love it? I sang with Pink Floyd's Roger Waters. In twenty thirteen, I did a Sam Cook number called The Change Is Gonna Come That that performs in Madison Square Garden. Changed the trajectory of my career. It also showed people that this dude may look a certain way, but he actually has a lot of soul in him.

Do you want to do country?

I don't know. I mean I'm open, you know, soul, right, soul I look at like Teddy Swims, I look at I mean, let's go back my favorite Donnie Hathaway, Teddy Panagrass Ltd. All that soul. You know, that's the music that I'm inspired by, you know, the al Greens and just all of that real bluesy, heavy soul. Not forget Luthor, Luthor, yes, Luthor. So that's twenty twenty five. You know one of my music, there's a movie coming out that's really I'm excited about

We could do that. Listen, listen this We have nothing but subways. Okay, right right right, just.

Because I think if New York is stopped and listen, then you're onto something.

We to get your little band or something in the background, and you know, we'll tape it, we'll put it on YouTube, we'll put it on TikTok and that's it. You out of here.

Today is the day we mentioned it.

We're going to you know, manifest this. We're going to make this happen for you. Yes, I can see it. Yes, thank you so much for sitting down with me today. Man, this was a great inn Andy. Big shout out, I'm Pretty Lou.

Shout out to pretty Lou who said, my girl, honey, German is going to be calling you please.

You know, we were talking about you know who I want to interview and I was like, I want to interview Fat Joe and he was like, you know who you need to cortious. I was like, yeah, that's my guy, that's my guy. And I was like, you know what, let's make it happen. And you know, here we are, and it's it's all about connecting the dots. It's all

Now, this is a beautiful thing that you're your work, that you've created. The space is very comfortable, it's very welcoming. I feel like I'm with my prima for sure.

There you got no.

But yeah, let's let's keep it going.

I appreciate you sitting down with me today. Absolutely, thank you for having me come again.

I'll be back five.

Don't play with me.

Grassiers Come Again is a production of Honey German Productions in partnership with Iheart's Macutura podcast network.