Unpacking the Toolbox is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iheartradioshas Katie.
Oh my gosh, Sergio, you are such a handsome.
Thank you.
At the time of this recording, it's been a hot minute since I've seen Sergio Lopez Rivera in person.
Hello.
Same, Yeah, I mean, Betsy's known you the longest, and we can all go through where we first met you. I was guest starring on a show where I met you, and you look the same.
What.
It's so fucked up. I mean, it's so fucking It's like it's like the portrait of Dorian Gray or whatever that thing is. Where's your portrait?
There's a decaying portrait in my head? Yeah, yes, yes, you know what. I think. It's a sleep sleep.
I don't look like you when I sleep.
Yeah, neither do I. And also being in Hollywood with our hours that we have worked with you in our masts, I see you without sleep and you look the same. And what I'm just so upset about is that you were a person behind the cameras. Kiermu and I are supposed to be the greatest looking human beings of all time, because.
You are.
I always talked about how happy I was that I didn't have the pressures that like Tony Goldwin and Scott foleyhead where they had to look good take their shirts off every other episode. I was finding that Huck could look hungover like it's all good, you know.
What I mean, no juicing, no juicing for no juice or Huck. Well, the people listening, it is so exciting to see Sergio. We've all known each other for many, many years, and we're very excited to dig into the story and the history of one of our favorite human beings and one of the most talented people on Earth. Yes, he might have won big awards recently in the past couple of years, but that's just the tip of it.
Because it's an Oscar right it is. Sergio Lopezervera is one of the most awarded and respected makeup artists in Hollywood.
Not only is he a makeup artist, but Sergio has literally designed virtually every show which we won't name right now because there is a strike going on and we aren't supported. But since a show very very long time ago, we've always worked with Sergio to design the entire look of the hair and makeup and the cares from usually the pilot series on and the ability to actually not only do make up with the artistry that he doesn't
trust me. I've experienced it. It's terrifying. I think my husband just sort of is like, could he just come over every day for something because you look so good? But the idea that he actually is somebody who can design an entire look for a character in conjunction with a customer is mind boggling.
It is my favorite thing to do, and honestly, I will get deeper into this, but the opportunity that I was given by shandaland where it just worked for everyone if I were in charge of staffing the hair and makeup trailer, because you guys understood something that a lot of producers and production companies don't understand, which is, if you let me create an environment a family, I can control the amount.
Of toxicity or the lack of toxicity.
And I can sort of custom build this incredible department that yes they're talented, and yes they'll have an opportunity to showcase their talents, but mostly it's the fact that I like to work with beautiful human beings things like that, and so it was a dream for me, like actually
unimaginable because this had never happened before. It was almost like a branding for chandaland that I can tell you stories about guest stars that would come in one of our shows and they would already know that this makeup and herit team was special or extraordinary or whatever, and then they would leave these thank you cards at the end because they had not had experiences like that in television before. So it was pretty cool. And I owe it all to them, you know, because they trusted me.
It was huge, huge, And.
For everybody listening, like who doesn't know about the hair and makeup people. If you are lucky enough to be on a show that has longevity, which Shondaland shows fortunately do. They are the people with you at four o'clock in the morning, the proximity to your face. They know what you smell like after coffee. They know when you are nervous about doing a sex scene and your clothes are coming off and someone's coming to my trailer to paint my butt cover a ZiT I have on my butt.
I mean, that's how close you are.
Bets, no boundaries, old, don a second. Have you had your butt painted?
Yes, our mutual dearest dearest friend who we also worked with, Denise Hooper. She when I would have sex scenes, she would come into the trailer and I would be like, oh my god, like there's like weird. I mean, whatever it is, a mosquito, bite, a ZiT, a patch of cellulite, like, whatever it is, and you're just like you are my
person who can come in here, and I trust. And so I think that's also why Sergio, you've really it was so amazing what you did, because I think that it's forgotten almost about that, Like the hair and makeup departments on production are so close with the actors and with each other and are working such long hours in each other's personal space that if everyone can get along and it can be an environment of real collaboration and inspiration, it goes so much better.
Yeah, it goes so much better, so much further. When an actor goes into the hair makeup trailer, there is a hierarchy right in their mind, like the department head is obviously the better makeup artists or the better hairdresser, and then the key is the second best, and then the third is the worst makeup artist, when that in fact is not true. I have thirdy is that right, thirdy for department heads and.
They have thirdy for me.
That's how we do this because we would rather assist an incredible person than hire a complete douche that just comes with a great resume, but nobody can stand him, because even just one person, one energy, can throw it all off, you know, like literally my third have more credits than me, It just doesn't matter. I needed to get rid of that hierarchy because at the end of the day, I needed you as an actor to feel as comfortable with me as I did with my third.
I needed you to be as confident because as I grew within Shandland, it was and harder for me to be the person on set making sure that you feel okay. And it was very, very important that you trusted my team.
Delegation is such a huge part of a learning curve because I found that too is you know, you can't be everywhere all at once, and it's really important that you trust the points of view. And for me, one of the first things we had to delegate was having
somebody that we super super trusted in this department. First of all, to help design a look which is coherent with a character which is a whole other thing that a lot of people don't understand and what hair and makeup does when it comes to when you're part of the architect of how a character is articulated in the
way that they look. But also over the years with Sergio, I would know that if he felt as though there was trouble or somebody was upset or they seemed vulnerable in the trailer, he could always text me or the creator of the show and say I always say, like sunny with the chance of rain, Like Cou'd say, like, how's it going, what's the weather? Like can you go? You know they're thunderstorms. They haven't kind of arrived yet.
Wow, Yeah, light sprinkle.
Light sprinkle, and go like nine to one one hurricane and you kind of like running down.
So makeup trailers also where the drum, I mean not the drum, but it's like where people's secrets come out. It's like where people dish on a Monday after a long weekend. It's like where people feel for whatever reason. And I think it's been like this is the beginning of time and hollyweird. But like you come to your Hollywood makeup trailer, that's where you're like, oh, you know, this is what's going on in my personal life, my home. Like it's a really very odd the makeup, wouldn't you agree?
Gee?
Like the makeup trailers where we talk the most gossip.
Absolutely, it's where Carrie would feed her little dog bacon.
Remember every morning, That's right, she would feed her bacon.
But and then we would have our food, and there they'd be delivering our food. We'd be eating while you guys are trying to put makeup on our face.
Oh this is so good. Thank you for bringing that up.
Ladies say go on the record has to say listen, I understand your window for eating is short, so is mine. But if you're going to eat while I'm attempting to make you look really good, maybe not a double double cheeseburger. Maybe something more friendly like a carrot stick. Okay, then you can do something.
Straws are great. Straws are great. Just smoothie with the freaking straw smoothie.
Yeah, so many minerals and vitamins in there.
We'd be running lines constantly in the makeup trailer. Remember we have actors come in that weren't getting their makeup done to come run line while Katie and I were getting their makeup or carry so you were dealing with all of that, people yapping at each other.
The music's playing. The music is very important and making as well.
Yes, there is hugely music playing in a hair and makeup trailer. Yeah, and depending on the mood of the trailer, it's like, not only are you a genius visionary in terms of visual abilities, but you have to be a DJ.
Yeah, listen, you have to be a DJ. You have to be a brother therapist. You have to be a therapist. You have to be like an emotional support human for another human.
Yeah, we could get you one of those bibs that you were that's say emotionally.
Yes, this is the part that nobody trains you for. You know, like, you could go to the best school, you could graduate top of your class, you could work with the most amazing producers, and nobody teaches you how to listen to someone. Nobody teaches you that the goal is to let this person who is upset or happy or whatever it is, be as ready as possible to step on set and do their job right now they're here,
so that I can do my job. There's something you need that morning after lunch whatever, that you're going to need to feel free to speak, you're going to need to feel free to express yourself. And so there's a lot of trust and professionalism that go into staffing a trailer, because you're right, I'm not supposed to know like eighty percent of the things.
I know.
You know, you're just there holding the space for someone.
You're in a lock box, right, Oh yeah.
But I think what's interesting is you started to talking about something. I actually don't know the answer to this question, which is weird because I thought I knew so much. How did you get into this? Like, what was your path to this career?
I'm not sure if very many Spaniards come to Hollywood and become top awarded makeup artists, but maybe I'm wrong.
How the fuck did you get here?
I know, I know, you know, it's interesting, Okay. I was born and raised in Spain. I was raised in Northern Spain in Santander. Is a beautiful and it's a beautiful, absolutely gorgeous part of Europe is Northern Spain. If you haven't been, I highly recommend it, and if you like food, I highly highly recommend it.
It's my top top thing anyway.
But I was born in sixty seven, which means that I grew up in a dictatorship because Franco did not die until seventy five, I believe, and so seventy seven is the first time Spain is a democracy ever. So I'm saying this because I really cannot separate my journey as a makeup artist that you know, was born in Spain. I came to Hollywood from the fact that I was a gay boy in Spain in nineteen sixty seven, you know, because it forced me to understand that I wasn't safe.
I may have been safe in my own house, but I wasn't safe in the city. I was in sane in the country. There was no allies or no outlet for me to know what living an authentic life would
look like. I knew instantly that I needed to become two people, you know, in order to survive, to simply survive my family, and so I needed to be able to become the person that they needed me to be, which was mostly just a good boy and my real me, you know, which was a good boy who was also gay, who was also confused and needed a lot of support. And so what happened was I found a lot of support and outlet in watching movies.
I just loved movies, and so.
This one time I rented Oh, I was obsessed with The Exorcist, obsessed with.
You and Sergio Bear hanging too.
But I loved the movie so much that, under false pretenses whatever, I kind of convinced my parents to buy. You know, this was the age of the VCR, and Sony had come out with like this new VCR where you could like freees frame and then freees frame forward and freees frame. So in my version of the movie, Linda Blair was literally swallowing her vomit as opposed to you, because I just lovedys and forward and everything. And I just to torture my sisters because I wanted to replay
the anyway. I was obsessed with them. And I remember asking my dad, I said, Dad, where do they make these things? And he, you know, pleasant He's like, Hollywood. I'm like, where's Hollywood. It's like that's California, California and the United States. I'm like, well, that's where I'm going there. Suddenly it was like a seed, you know, I'm talking.
I mean I'm nine or ten years old, right, and I'm like the seed was planted that there was an outlet for me, There was a place for me to be where I most likely could be myself, could be authentic, could experience what it would be like to be myself, just myself. So even though I didn't come until I was nineteen, those ten years, I was just obsessed with putting one foot in front of the other to make.
It to Hollywood for a couple of reasons.
One of them was to leave my family, but not because I don't love my family out door, Dan, but simply because I have no one to be gay with.
Sure, did you have a group of friends at all in Spain? There like that were close friends that knew you were gay, that you were able to hang out with.
And I didn't come out to anyone until I moved to America.
Oh wow.
And so I mean I came at nineteen, but I think the first time I said the words I'm gay, I think I was twenty.
Oh wow.
And then I came to my mom at twenty one, and then you know, that didn't go so well, so I freaked out and I didn't come out to my dad until five years later. It was just a mess boy yeah, and so you know, you realize, gosh, all I want is to be able to experience what everyone else around me gets to experience. They're not thinking about their sexuality all the time. I'm thinking about my sexuality
all the time because it could be a problem. And so that is such a driving force, I think, because you're not thinking, oh, I'm going to become a makeup artist and go to Hollywood and win awards, but you thinking, oh, I want to live my life authentically.
What does that look like?
And when you take care of your authenticity when you're that young, I promise you have zero tolerance for the crap, the suffering, the everyday suffering. Like I could never be at a desk job, you know, I could never know anything other than what brings me pleasure. It's a hard way to learn that lesson because there's a lot of introspect that goes in, like to trying to figure out why do I feel empty and why do I feel like I'm an impostor and so yeah, I can't really
separate it. But I came when I was nineteen. My parents, of course wanted me to go to college, which I did for two years.
Nice where did you go, well, I went to.
Valanova University in Pennsylvania the first first year.
You kidding?
I didn't speak English.
I didn't speak English like nothing, I literally, I mean I came on a plane, but I might as well be a boat.
Okay, we will.
Be back with more after the break.
So, and you didn't speak the language, but you managed to get through two years of sitting there and just looking adorable, like, what the hell did you do that?
Hell?
Well, honestly, this is almost embarrassing.
Because awesome, go for it, right, No, it's just.
That I was renting a room from a Spanish professor who teaching at a university. My parents felt very comfortable having that arrangement, right, So okay, I'm renting a room down the street from the campus and he has to help me. He takes me to the registration office. He is like, okay, well you can't take this, because you can take that. And what I ended up with my first semester was pottery, photography, battery.
Photography, drawing, and our history. I was really good at our history in.
All terrific tools.
Right for being a creative makeup artist.
Yeah, but you know when you're nineteen and you have essentially escaped your situation. I think you don't experience fear. You just don't you experience acceleration. You are like, are you kidding me?
I'm out, I'm out of here. I'm got out.
I get to wipe the cafeteria tables as my job. I get to work at a dry cleaners. Are you kidding me?
Yes?
Yeah, hell yes, Are those some of the things you did?
Sure? Well.
I applied for a job in the cafeteria and I had.
To wear this polo that was really bad.
It was a terrible polo, Like I hate this polo anyway, But I started wiping tables and I did it for one afternoon and I was like, this is not I am better than this. I just I don't know what I'm going to do.
But I'm not doing this.
I'm not wearing that polo. It boiled down to fashion, I mean immediately.
And also it was a used polo, like it was washed, and I was like, oh no.
No, oh my god.
I went down the street on Lancaster Avenue and I applied for these drag cleaders that had to help wanted and thank god, this man, this Greek man that on the I think he saw himself in me.
So he gave me a.
Job and I worked at a dragtonners while I was going to school.
Wow.
Yeah, so you get through two years and then you decide to drop out.
Well, yeah, I did my first semester in Villanova and then I transferred to UCLA Extension in.
La I flew out here for the interview.
And you know, it was like may or something. It was beautiful California day. I'm like, oh, I found my home. This is where I want to be, and yeah, I dropped out. It was such a sense of an urgency inside of me. That is like anytime I sat in a classroom for like an hour an hour and a half, I'd be like, oh my god, this is not at all what I want to do. But dropping out of school comes with such stigma. You know, my family is no different. So I had to be really, really sure
of myself. And this is something that has helped me. In my family. I didn't do the things the way that the rest of my family did them, and I had to be very very sure of myself to not be dissuaded due to something I didn't want to do.
Well, look at you, now, you gotta Oscar Now, so all that that's right? Were you doing makeup stuff throughout Sergio, like when you were in the first college in Vilenova and then transfer to use in between. Were you doing all sorts of makeup stuff?
Yes, because I also I have a huge love of photography, and one of my classes in College of Lenova was photography. It was great because Leonova itself didn't have a dark room on campus, but brent Mar did the college for girls, and so I used to have to go to Brentmar for my class and that I would spent my weekends in that dark room because I didn't have any friends. I didn't know anybody, and I'm a little bit of an introvert. I loved my company, and I was just
in that dark room developing photographs. And the photographs were pictures of people from school or class or whatever that I would ask if they would be my model, and then I would take them. I loved in the eighties. I loved shooting in cemeteries. I thought it was so edgy and cool.
Everybody did come on, yeah, you know, like.
Put a long coat. Look.
I truly never did that, so I missed the boat. I didn't do that I bet Giermo did gearma to do.
Oh oh that.
I have so many photo shoots and cemeteries.
It's so cool, right, you were so edgy. Yeah, like, let's post here on someone's remain.
So you're doing photography and you're you have models that you're doing the makeup and sort of styling it. So you have such an aesthetic to what things look like.
Yeah, yeah, and I love doing that. And before I moved to America, I spent two years. I studied in Ireland and I studied in England for the two years before coming to America. So even though I studied in Ireland. In England, my English was really really terrible.
But who could understand anybody?
I mean, yeah, yeah, that's true. I mean it.
Spent somewhere you were in Ireland, it can be pretty fair.
Yeah that's true.
No, But when I was in Oxford, I my friends, the girls that I was in class with, I would take them to the cemetery or to like there was the beautiful train tracks that like went on forever in black and white, really.
Sort of like moody pictures. I mean, I love it.
So I would do the makeup, I would do the hair, I would do the styling, so I kind of always did that. When I moved to La I started photographing dance students, like students who needed headshots and didn't have the money, and because I didn't have a studio, I would take them to the beach because I figure that at sunset, that magic hour light is better than any makeup foundation you could possibly have, So in black and
white with that magic light, it's perfect. They yeah, yeah, they got the job, They got the job.
How did production happen for you? Like, how did photography and make up and studies turn into how did you get onto a set?
My first job gosh, I don't have to think about this in so long, but my first job in the industry actually was a driver.
I was I started transportation.
My god, I'm dead.
Did you know how to drive?
I did go to the DMV in still I don't remember, but I did.
I did.
I think I got my driver lessons that twenty one, So it was all good.
But I was working at a fitness studio, like at the reception, and then, you know, it was not a great situation.
I lost that job.
You know, I think the owner was a little shady and I wasn't responding to him, so I think anyway, he let me go. And so in the weekend that I was sort of like free, I went to this party and I met this person who happened to be a transportation coordinator, and he said, well, if you have a car and you need a job, come, you know, be on the corner of Willoughby and whatever on Monday morning at seven, And it was to drive for the movie.
Are you ready? House Party two? No, House Party two? Yes, Betsy, Oh my god, So I'm there.
This was actually one of the most informative observational experiences I've ever done. I was exactly what he told me to be at exactly the time he told me to be. But the setting up of the bit of the base camp was starting to happen right like that. Actually that early morning activity. This is my first time in a set. I've never been. I don't know who anybody or what
they do. But I stood there for about an hour watching it sort of come to life, and really quickly understood that the pas were getting bullied and abused every day.
Like I knew that right away.
I saw this young girl running this way with four cups of coffee running this way for seventeen binders, running that sweating, crying whatever.
I was like, oh my, for everyone listening who doesn't know, a PA is a production assistant, and they are.
They are the foundation of this business.
They really are.
But they are what some would are you the lowest on the totem pole.
It's like being a waitress, a waitress from hell.
Yeah that's right, yes, yes, yes, So just to make a little bit of a left turn.
By the way, I always say that the.
Most important job in a set that affects my job is the PA that runs based campaign.
Oh definitely, your day.
Is just not the same if that person and doesn't have it together.
I mean, they're in charge of getting you the actor in your chair at the right time.
And also getting you all the information of what's happening on stat of.
The information exactly.
If they're really good, they're going to tell you the order of the first three shots. Right, we're going to do and over the shoulder, we're going to turn around, we're going to close in, boom done. I know exactly what it isn't a priority when you tell me what the shot is, I don't have to waste my time touching up the wrong actor, right, you know what I mean. But if you tell me super wide, I'm not going to touch up anybody, there's no lass looks, go for it.
And so for people who don't necessarily know all the ins and outs of how a show or a set works, so base camp very often is where everybody's getting ready and all the trucks are parked and the whole nine yards and nine times out of ten, wherever you're filming isn't at base camp, right, So you have to figure out a way to get the actors and the peoples to the place you're filming, be at a stage or be at a location, which is why all that timing
is so important, right, Serge. I mean, it's like you've got this really hard job when you're on set because you only have a limited amount of time to fix any issue that's going on, or else everything stops. And when everything stops, then everybody starts to get pissy because it's costing money. So it's a whole delicate, crazy ass dance. So you have to do it.
Really is, it really really is.
And the thing is there are two forces here that work against each other. One of them is the training. We have received, which basically I think it's a little
bit outdated. This thing that we need to do a complete touch up every single time that the cameras stop rolling like that is crazy, unsustainable, unrealistic, crazy, And so it becomes a thing about very individual Like if I'm in charge of you for a scene, Katie, and I look at you and I'm like, you look great, even though I haven't touched you for twenty minutes.
I don't have the need to touch you.
But let's say that I'm working with an actor or actress that I know that if I just do a little powder or the motion of powder. How many times have I touched people up with nothing on my puff?
There's always that one actor who's like, you better touch me up.
No matter what.
Actors are so cuckoo about this stuff. It's so weird.
I love knowing everybody's idiot secrecies, you know, like because there are some actors that just need that last look or the even just making eye contact with you, and they know that.
Okay, then you check them and they're good.
Something becomes easier they can drop something off.
Yeah, I love that. I love I think it's because you know, I'm a codependent person. But I love.
I love facilitating that I can do something so that you can do your job.
Well.
It's amazing, right, And so that's why I appreciate the basic MPAs because them doing their jobs is making my job so much easier, you know, when they're good.
Yeah, so hold on, you're a driver, you see that PAS might not be for you. Is this how we get into makeup?
No?
You know.
What I realized though, is like you need to treat those people.
Well.
That was the thing for me always. If I have the privilege to have come all the way from Spain to do this and I am here and I am doing it, i am here, I feel so privileged that what I want to preserve is my joy. I want to preserve the joy that I have for my job, and that is threatened every single day, you know, by outside forces and outside.
Stresses, you know.
And so for me, it all became about how do I become just a happy human being that gets to do what they love to do for a living, you know, And so I've always taken care of that. My mental
health hugely important. I understood that this could be a monster that could eat your life if you were not careful and so from driving I learned so so much about life on set and base camp and what so many departments do because as transport I would have to run errands for makeup, and I would have to run errands for a wardrobe or for the director or get us movie from whatever, you know, like all of this stuff,
and it was incredible. It was incredibly valuable for me because it allows you to develop respect for all these other departments that are working around you, what a hard day looks like for them as opposed to what it looks like for you, and just have that kind of empathy. That's what makes you. I think it makes you a great leader. Eventually, from transportation, I would just get hired by this guy and Griffith was his name, and he would hire me different movies, so sometimes I would be
driving the director would just be the director's driver. So he put me in a movie with a director named Bill Duke, African American director lovely man, and I did like three movies with him, and one of the movies I did with him starred Jeff Goblum.
Oh my god, amazing.
Jeff Goblum was getting rid to do a movie in Spain and so my boss, the director, Bill, said to him, you know Surgious from Spain. You should take him with you as your driver, you know.
So he did, he did, Yes, he did.
Okay, So, by the way, that's a movie Sergio and Jeff Goldbloom Spain.
I have so many stories, you guys. You know.
We went to Spain, and something nobody knew is that I had actually never.
Driven in Spain. Never.
Oh my gosh.
I couldn't say that to anybody, because I mean, I wanted the job, so I said yes, yeah. And also I found out that we not only had to drive in Madrid, we had to also drive in Barcelona, and we had to drive to Barcelona.
So what I did, and listen for those of you out there.
Who are listening, who are beginning your careers, perhaps because this is how creative you have to be, I could not be found out that I did not know how to drive around Madrid way. And so what I did is I would get the location for each day the day before, and I would go by myself and run it from my house to his hotel to the thing I'm back, and I would do it a couple of times.
Wow smart.
And then so every morning, I just knew exactly where I was going. Blah blah blah blah bah. Nobody ever knew. In the process of filming that movie, Jeff Goldblum's co star in that movie was Mimi Rodgers, and so, as luck would have it, Mimi also had a driver and Jeff had a driver. But Jeff never wanted to do anything outside of work, never, so I would take him to his hotel and then I would just hang out with Mimi and his.
And her driver, and we became really really close friends. To this day, we're very close friends.
But when I came when when I came back from working on that movie, Mimi called me and said, you know, I just lost my assistant.
Do you have any intro on being my assistant? And so I said, of course, you know.
Wow, a different turn, a different job in the industry, yet another level of the industry.
The story is wild. Sergio.
So I worked for her for three years. She is absolutely amazing. I love her so so much. But it was her who gave me that final push. She said to me, Sergia, I love you. I would keep you here forever, but it is obvious to me that what you have to do is do makeups. You need to go out there and do makeup. And so I got this book that was like a guide to how to become a makeup artisan in Hollywood. I remember lots of resources, including schools, and so I found the best school, which
at the time was Joe Blasco. It was so expensive, so expensive. It was like seven thousand dollars back in nineteen ninety five or whatever.
Wow, that would have been so much now, wow, so much money.
And so I called my grandmother and I said, can I borrow this money?
She said yes. Wow.
After I graduated. Okay, wait, hold on you guys, I graduated. This is such a funny story. It was from eight to four every day, four months, three months or something like that.
Eight to four.
But then there was a lab from four to six every day that was voluntary. I was there every day until the very end of lab because I loved it.
I was devouring it. This was my dream as a child.
I used to hide myself with my sister's dolls in the bathroom and give the makeovers. I'm like, this was like, this was show in me that I finally was here with a teacher that was a makeup artist in Hollywood just for me four to six every day, two hours where I just got to take it all in. It was so amazing for me.
Wow, Sergio.
And so on the day of graduation, I've never come to like American school, so I really don't know how the order is or the process of graduate or whatever. But anyway, they were like selecting different people, saying their names, and they would come up and get the diploma. But then they started talking about this person in the class that had worked so hard, had done.
Such an amazing job.
Blah blah blah, and I started getting like a ball of pain in my stomach of jealousy. I was like, who the fuck is this person? I worked so hard too, but I was so threatened all of a sudden until they mentioned my name.
It was me. It was me, this person they were talking about.
Oh my god.
Oh so I.
Graduated number one of that class.
Wow, wow, which was great.
I just think it's so inspiring because I talked to so many young people trying to get in this business and they feel like there's supposed to study and it just happens and it doesn't Like I too, was working all my side hustle jobs until my late late twenties, you know, like it took ten years of that sort of hustle before I even really call myself a working actor.
You know. Yeah.
One of the things that I think it's a mistake that we keep making Hollywood is in reality, your career shouldn't look like anybody else's. You know, It's okay to get inspired by someone, you know, but I think one mistake that we make is that we're constantly comparing ourselves a trajectory with you know, whatever high point somebody else might have had in their career, when in reality, you get a much better gift if you've become curious about how you can have this career for yourself.
I guess that makes total sense. And actually it's true on the producing end when you pick projects, because I think what a lot of people do is they just try to do something which was successful in another realm exactly. And yes, it's the same sort of thing where it's like, the one thing we don't ever want to do. I don't want to do is what I did before. So it's not a determinant that it was successful for somebody else. It's just this is something that speaks to you. So
it's the same thing we all have. These were blueprints in our lives that you think, well, this is the way so and so did it, or this is the path. But this is a perfect example. There's no straight path.
There is no straight path. And by the way, your definition of success might be completely different from my.
Exactly, you know.
And that's one of the things that we were talking about during the Oscar campaign.
Because obviously it was such a big deal.
I mean such a big deal to get nominate it and too, I mean, the whole process was is so insane. But everybody was asking me, what does it feel like to have achieved a dream? And I'm like, I achieved my dream like thirty years ago. You know, when I achieved my dream thirty years ago. This is awesome and I'm so proud and I'm so happy to get here.
But this changes nothing, nothing for me. I mean, if I'm taking my cues from what's around me, I need, you know, of one hundred thousand followers I need, blah blah blah, I need more nominations I need And the truth is none of those things signify success for me. Success is for me that I do what I love to do. I love every I do every day what I would do for free.
I so feel like that.
You know, and how lucky and so. But I can't be paying attention to what this other makeup artist is doing without a makeup because it's impossible and it's also not fair.
Yeah, it's a waste of time.
Yeah, total waste of time.
And I continue to be successful every single time I choose my truth.
That's it.
We'll be right back, guys, Sergio.
Would your sisters ever wake up in the morning and go to their barbies and be like, my Barbie looks fierce.
And you were like did it?
It would be like who gave my Barbie a mohawk?
Because I used to think that the hair will grow back obviously, right, I mean like, oh.
And apparently you didn't have the Barbie with the little hole in the head where it.
Just what No, this was no, these were the early barbies I had those two, I mean, no, help y. One thing I have to say, this is a big part of my story as a child, is that do you guys remember in America, you guys had the Barbie heads that were like three dimensional, yes, right, just the head. Well, in Spain there was a version of that doll, but
it was bigger. It was actually kind of like life size, and the bus was like, you know, like shoulders right, And her name was Gwendolen and somebody had given that doll to one of my sisters.
I had three sisters, and at.
This point, at the point that I was, you know, waking up to the fact that I loved makeup and I needed to put makeup and draw and sketch and do be an artists or whatever, I found this abandoned doll on top of my sister's murphy bed and I had to devise a plan on how I was going to get that doll in the bathroom when I took a shower, because I share a bathroom with my sisters, two of them are teenagers, there's already all kinds of makeup crap in the bathroom and everything, and I need it.
I need it.
I needed to do it. I just needed to do it.
But the thing is, I am in a family back to early seventies Franco Catholicism.
Yeah, my family is super religious, like.
It's everything is an obstacle, everything is an impossibility. So I had to I had to figure out when is the moment or all of my family is in one room. So that was Saturday nights when we were all watching movies or TV together. So I would excuse myself, very responsible for me, and say I'm gonna take a shower.
And so what I would do first, I would go into my sister's bedroom, which was adjacent to the bathroom, sharing the wall or a facade of the building with the bathroom, and I would unlock their window and I would run out again, and I was like, okay, bye, I'm going to the bathroom. I locked myself in the bathroom, crawl out the window and they'll go like this on the side of the building.
Ye, I mean my sister's bedroom.
Crawl inside, God, take it out, put it under my arm. Now I was like eight years old, so like this doll was pretty big.
Definitely the size of you.
Yeah, wow, definitely.
And so I would go back to the bathroom window, crawl back inside and start my makeovers. And then I had to clean her all up and go back out and put her back.
Before the movie ended. And you know what I mean.
Yeah, and you guys, I did this for years whow years.
Gwendolen can talk the stories that she would have, Oh.
So talking about learning how to work with a time schedule.
Yeah, that's great for production. You're like, no kidding, this is nothing, this is so true. Wow, great for production.
I never even thought about it. I should have made my own call sheets. You should because you feel like, yes.
I don't have to resk my life and limb, I just have to apparently get her out every five minutes problem.
But the end of this story.
One day I decided, because I had seen it out in some music video or something, that I wanted to give her super glossy, super red lips. Right, that was my design for the evening, And so my sisters had a lip glass. I was red the same deal, go out, pick it up, come back in by this glass.
Obviously you put it on plastic.
And he doesn't have the same. It didn't tint it. It was like, oh, it's shiny, but it's not. It's not doing what I want to do. And then I spotted red male.
Polish, like, so I just put I.
Did the most beautiful red lips in this lacquer red right, oh shit, And I'm like, oh my gosh, so beautiful, blah blah blah blah. Of course, when I the time cleanup came, it didn't come off, and I'm like, oh shit, oh this requires nail polish remover. So I got the nail polish remover and I went like this, and then I just.
It came off.
And then I just went like that and I kind of like cleaning her whole face and I took.
Off all of her features. I took her everything.
Oh my god, she was just so faceless. She was just like faceless man.
Yeah.
And it was the saddest, most heartbreaking thing. And I had to put her back and never play with her.
A cat.
On her?
What the fuck happened to Gwendolen?
Like?
Who wiped off her face?
I put her back the way she was, which was kind of like on top of that murphy bed, sort of behind other clutter and facing the wall.
I couldn't even look at her anymore.
She wasn't an active plaything at that point.
Your sister didn't really care about her, Yeah, no, exactly.
She was just like, you know, wow.
And then you had to butcher up, like when you were done in the bathroom, come back out and butcher up with your face.
Family, right.
That little both of my chest hairs out, you know, Wow, scraped by Beard, my eight year old Beard All No, But I have to say that that kind of mindset where you understand your environment, you understand the unfairness of your environment, and you figure out how to not let
that environment trap you. I think that at such an early age serves me so well for the rest of my life and for the rest of my career, you know, because when a problem presents itself, now there's also a whole bunch of solutions that come together with the problem. In a way, it's just a matter of being creative and also being detached from the things you're attached because sometimes those things have to go. Yeah, there are tools that really helped.
I think for pretty much everybody in this business too. It is that sort of idea of problem solve. It's that idea of, yeah, there's a way to figure this out. But it's amazing that you were doing something at eight that you went an oscar for that you you want an oscar for, Gwendolyn. I mean you should have freaking thanked Gwendolyn.
Just for the record, I would have, and I swear, I mean, trust me. Because our oscars were during the pandemic, there were rules about how many people could speak, because after each speaker they had to change the ball of the mic and stuff like that. So it came down to us. Only one of us could speak. So it was obvious, for obvious reasons, that it was not going to be me.
We forgive you and go ahead blame COVID.
It's fine, but I do I think at My husband wrote he was obsessed with writing my speech, right, and I'm like, okay, write my speech. I'm not even sure that I can speak, but go ahead. And it had that in it, you know, it had the story of like no, it was connecting the dots of this little kid, which, by the way, had I fallen off of that thing, I would have broken my neck. Oh my god, from
the window sill to the street. But I have just to emphasize how dire a situation I was in, as a gay boy that was just discovering that he was gay, Falling off that ledge and breaking a leg and arm, splitting my head open was less scary than having my father running to me in the bathroom or find out in any way. Absolutely, by eight years old, dying was less scary than confronting my parents with the truth.
I mean essentially I.
Totally understand them. Wow, absolutely absolutely.
I just think what's also so amazing and that the relationships. I mean, I first came to know you when you were really on Kate Walsh, right, and you two are very good friends. And you know you work so closely with Viola Davis, and you did a bunch of us. I think you did Bellamy and Me and Darby and a bunch of people. But these women, You're like there, person like, how does this become this thing?
Like?
How do you collaborate on so many different projects with these incredible leading women who are such superstars in our industry.
Without them all killing each other to try to make sure that they don't lose you.
No, Sergio's mine, Sergio's my, Sergio's mine exactly.
Gwendolen's like he's mine.
Yeah, exactly. The booming boys from Beyond the Graves. I have no.
Features, noubt, but I.
Still have feeling I used to be pretty, you know, Katie.
The truth is, I go back to figuring out how you want to experience your life. You may not approach what's important to you the same way as another actor might, and for me, I much more important to me is to bring my authenticity and to just try to create authentic relationships with the people that I work with. And if I can't do that, I really have to seriously think about whether or not it's worth it for me to have this job.
That's how much I value.
My joy When I leave Hollywood, and I'm going to put a nice bow on that experience. I wanted to really be something I'm very proud of. I constantly want to honor my inner child because he had it really tough, and he had no one to talk to, there were no allies for him. The fact that I was able to do this, And so when I work with Viola, I think I work with Viola because she and I connect in a level that is outside of what I do for her.
You know.
And also I think it's important also for her. I think she could have a better makeup artist. Probably she went out there and found it, but I think she values what we have and so do I.
And I think the fact is that I mean obviously with Viola, which he's written about too.
And yeah, a deep, deep.
Well of pain, and there is something about people who understand what it means to survive and mean to figure out ways of transforming your life in the way that you want.
But never never sacrificing yourself, and never take it for granted.
Because I know, certainly we were joking about this the other day, but it's like, I know, still I still go to parties and there's free food. This is sad, but I still always go like, wow, the food's free. And then I wait, first, sure, like I'm so lucky, Like how did I get here? And I'm like, wait a second. You're five hundred years old, You've been earning a living for five million years? What's wrong with you? But it is that thing, and I think I feel really lucky. I mean, I think that's the key.
Isn't that amazing?
I mean, I think tupping into that gratitude is fuel. It doesn't end when you stop saying the thing you're grateful for. That thing you're grateful for. You say it out loud, and the first person to hear it is you. And I'm telling you that fuel for the next time. The next time you're in a situation, your awareness is going to lead you to the gratitude and over and over and over and over again until you string together this incredible life of having been present, having been authentic
and I don't know, just joyful. You know, my career in Hollywood fits my life and not the other way around.
Sergio, there is a book that we all need. I'm super excited about it. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure people listening, whatever your careers may be, I just feel like so many of the things you say can be so useful no matter what job you're trying.
Yeah, it is truly a privilege to work in this industry, even though it has changed so much it's almost unrecognizable. It's brutal. And the things that this industry has taught us to value is how to work when you have a one hundred for fever, how to sacrifice your sleep for work, sacrifice your family for work, sacrifice your diet for work, sacrifice your mobility for work, and praising everybody that was able to do that. I'm sure you guys know hundreds of stories of like can you imagine she
works with a fever? And the truth is that is not good. That is not good because what it does it removes our ability to be actual humans. You know, it's a double edged sword because yes, of course you want to be an ultimate professional, but you don't want to you don't want to tell the world that it's okay to treat you this way.
Yes, no, there's there's a thin line between sacrificing for art and killing yourself, you know exactly. Yeah, that's really well put. Well, this is what a joyous experience this is podcast.
Gosh, that's a pleasure for me.
Thank you so much for this.
Really, we love you.
We love you guys so much.
Scandal is executive produced by Sandy Bailey, alex Alcea, Lauren Homan, Tyler Klang, and Gabrielle Collins. Our producer and editor is Vince de Johnny, with music by Chad Fisher. Unpacking the Toolbox is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, visit the iHeartRadio app or anywhere you subscribe to your favorite shows.