February 6, 2025 • 38 mins
Pour another drink and pull up a chair as Freddy and Wilmer dive into round two of Dos Amigos. In this episode, Freddy takes us back to his Chicago roots, where he was spinning on the floor before he was stealing scenes on screen. From battling in the B-boy scene to getting his start thanks to a well-timed school loophole (who knew skipping a test could lead to a career?). The guys swap stories of their early hustle, both grinding their way through auditions and setbacks. From dish pits to dream roles, one thing’s for sure: the grind never stops.
“Dos Amigos” is a comedic and insightful podcast hosted by two friends who’ve journeyed through Hollywood and life together. Wilmer Valderrama and Freddy Rodriguez push through the noise of everyday life and ruminate on a bevy of topics through fun and daring, and occasionally a third amigo joins the mix!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome back to those amigos with Freda Rodriguez and yours
truly with my mother.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
And in our last episode, we teased.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
You with a very very exciting journey, very exciting. For
this episode, we we we wanted to focus on on Freddy,
but not like the Freddy the actor when he got
the break, like I want to bring it all the
way back, man, I.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Want to start with your grandparents. I want to start
with your grandparents.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Okay, you know, we you know.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
And and this is also I called to everybody out there,
like you know we somebody when I when I was
writing my memoir, my book, somebody said to me, go
ask your parents they were before you? Oh interesting, we
know so much about our parents after we had a
(01:08):
sense of memory right that we rarely go back to
ask the questions like who were you before mommy you
got pregnant, or or Dad you knew you were going
to have a son, like you, you never asked these
questions because your life is what you're being introduced over
and you're seeing new things all the time. So so
that exercise really changed so much for me to appreciate
(01:31):
what my mom was right from bringing a full circle,
you know, understanding the trajectory or who you before you,
or even a possibility like who was the Rodriguez family
right right, you know, and and then and then walk
us straight into you know, into into your adulthood. But
I but I love to start with like what are
(01:53):
your grandparents' names? And what did they what did they do?
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Yeah, I didn't really know my grandparents. They they uh, well,
my grandparents. Both of my parents are from San Lorenzo,
Puerto Rico, which is in the middle of the island.
There were farmers that they grew crops and malangas and
beluras and tavaco and had cows and chickens and all
(02:19):
that stuff. And then around the fifties and sixth so
my parents were both neighbors and they had fincas over
there right as we know in Lalomne Campo Edambsino, and
that's how they met. And so on my mom's side,
I had thirteen uncles and aunts. On my father's side,
(02:39):
I had eight, and surprisingly they were the only two
that got together for them being neighbors. And this was
around the time that there was a program in place
called Operation Bootstrap, where the factories were alive and kicking
in Chicago, in New York and Detroit, and this program
(03:04):
was in place by the government to encourage Puerto Ricans
to come to those cities to work the factories. Now,
my parents weren't necessarily a part of that program, but
it was definitely inspired by that program. And so they
migrated from Puerto Rico to Chicago, and my dad came
as a teenager and worked the factories in Chicago until
(03:27):
he made enough money to go back and get my
mom and marry her, and they both came to Chicago.
We had an aunt and an uncle who lived in
Chicago already, and they were in the Lincoln Park area
in Chicago, which, for those who know Chicago, Lincoln Park
now is a pretty affluent and prestigious area, but back
then it was predominantly Latino and black. And for those
(03:51):
who have seen the TV show Good Times, the Kabrini
Green projects are in Lincoln Park. No one knows that
because that area is like the Beverly Hills now. And
so they migrated in the sixties and work the factories.
And I have two older brothers and they were born
and my brothers are a lot older than me. They're
(04:12):
like eight and seven years older than me. I was
kind of the mistake that came later. And so, you know,
my parents had the American dream. Although Puerto Rico is
technically a part of the United States, you know, they
had the American dream like everybody, right.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Well, you know, leaving your pueblo for something different is
the American dream. I mean, you could be leaving you know,
you can be living in Arizona and going to Texas
and making it there, and that's the American dream too,
So I see why. But for us culturally, it's a
major leap, you know, because you leave what you are
to acquire a new way of life, right, Like, it's
(04:48):
an interesting departure from where you start and where you're
gonna end up.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
To acquire a new way of life, a new urban landscape. Right,
think about it, Right, You've been to Puerto Rico, Paradise
where they were at, and then all of a sudden
you come to the harsh winners of Chicago. Two seasons
to see, two seasons, you get fall, you got winter.
You gotta wear a coat, right, you know. I remember
I would have cousins that would come from Puerto Rico
(05:14):
and they'd be like, we can bring a coat you know, uh,
you know, to have to take the bus to like
a factory job where you're working like ten hours a day.
I mean it was it was rough.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
But what was dad like at home for a young
Freddy when you were a kid, right, you had your
older siblings, but you seeing your dad doing what he
was doing and all that.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
What was it? What was your house like?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
I remember one time and you asked me about my grandparents,
and I'll get back to that because it'll inform that.
I remember one time I was visiting. I was in
Puerto Rico. I was doing a movie there actually, and
I was visiting my grandfather before he passed away, and
my other grandfather was on a horse going up a
(06:03):
mountain and my grandfather goes, you see that over there,
that's your grandfather. He said, that's the hardest working man
in the village, and everybody knows that about him. And
I remember it was with the one interaction I had
my grandfather, I'm wrong. I was like ten years old,
and he took me around the village and I saw
(06:24):
the respect that was in place for my grandfather because
everybody knew he was the hardest working guy in the
entire village. And so that translated to my dad, you know,
And you asked me how it was in my house
in Chicago. My father was a direct reflection of his own.
Father just was all about work, all about pride in
(06:47):
your work, all about integrity and your work and who
you were as a human being and your moral compass
and your values as a person. And although we were
a money poor, we were moral rich, you know. And
that was really important to him, really important to everyone
in my family. And so that's the way me and
(07:09):
my brothers grew up. And I feel that's something that
I've taken with me and as I approached our industry,
whether I'm on a TV show or a movie, I
bring that same hard work.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
I was gonna say.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Yeah, So seeing that statement that is the hardest working
man in this village?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Did that mark you?
Speaker 1 (07:29):
And you was like, what, you know, I should never
have an excuse, So, like, how did that affected you
as a young man?
Speaker 3 (07:38):
It just it all made sense. It made sense why
my dad was so hard on us, It made sense
why your work and the quality of your work was
so important. It all just made sense because it was
ingrained in him as a kid, you know. And then
he ingrained that in us me and my brothers, and
(07:59):
my cousin and my uncles. And he had a brother
and a sister who lived in Chicago, and I had
a bunch of cousins, And so you know, that's saying
it takes a village to raise a child. It was
very much a village of like, you know, the Rodriguez
household in Chicago.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
How did your dad infuse that in you? Like, what
were the words, what were the moments, what were the lessons?
Were the things that he he made you experience so
you could put it together that says, Yeah, that's the
anthem of my life.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
You know, I don't know if there was ever any
like words, but it was expected in anything that we did.
It was like, oh, you're fifteen, sixteen, now you got
to go get a job. You know, you got to
contribute to the house man, You got to contribute to
paying a bill, right, you know what I mean? Like
it was just expected of you in everything.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
That Yeah, you inherited, right, you inherited the houses, you know,
guardian and safekeeping and thriving you know.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Yeah. When my dad would have like he'd be like,
oh I have I have a week off of work vacation, right,
Like the normal thing is like I have a vacation,
Let's go somewhere, Let's fly somewhere. I'm like, Dad, what
are you doing for your vacation? He goes, I'm gonna
go help your uncle paint. That was his vacation. Go
to what it'd be like, Oh, your cousin needs to move.
(09:21):
We got to go help the move. I'm like, that's
how you're spending your vacation is helping somebody move, helping
somebody paint their house. Like they they didn't know anything
else but like work, that's it right.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
What what was your first job?
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Oh? Man, my first job. I was fifteen years old
and I was a busboy.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
At Dude that was buzzboy, go ahead, A bus boy
at Bennigan's.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
I don't know, do you remember Bennigan's where Benigans was
a chain restaurant kind of like I don't know how
you would Chili's or whatever.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
I was a sisler guy.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
You weren't, no, but I but you talk about these
restaurants For me and I it was a sizzler guy.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Was it was? It was?
Speaker 2 (10:02):
It was that that change.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Where were you a busboyad?
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Well? I was a busboy.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Uh at this place called Cafe Beju and Sherman.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Yeah it was still there, Yeah, yeah, still there. Yeah,
And I was a bus boy.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
I was the guy, you know, leveling the butters and
and and bringing the dis wash. But but this is
not a conversation.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Okay, So how did you get that job?
Speaker 3 (10:28):
I just applied. I needed a job, you know, and
I applied for it and and it was, uh, it
was crazy because I wasn't even old enough to work there.
I had to go down. I was fifteen fifteen and
I had to go down and get a work permit.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
I was fifteen two.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Was that like that here in l A. You had
to get a work you know? That was enough.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
They hired me from the back I was.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
I applied through the alleyway, I see, you know, I
went through the alleyway.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
I applied and then I had a black T shirt.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
No. Man, Chicago was like, you got to get a
work permit because we're going to keep you here a
certain hour. And like, man, I remember working toil, like
I don't even know if it was legal at that time,
working till like ten o'clock and having to go to
school the next day, and.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Like well, there was no hours there, and there was
no such thing as made him wage, and there was
no such thing as you know, hours and extra hours
and in late hours, there was such thing as that.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
No, especially back then. But but yeah, you know, work
was really important. And I had two older brothers who
you know how it is like in Latin families, like
you know, although they were my brothers, there were more
like father figures.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
You know, how much older were they?
Speaker 3 (11:32):
The oldest is like eight nine years older than me.
My oldest brother, William, and my middle brother, Hector is
about six seven years older than me.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
And what do they do.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
My oldest brother is doctor William Rodriguez and he's the
uh he works, he's the assistant dean at Loyola University
right now? Wow?
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Cool?
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Yeah? Yeah. My middle brother, Hector, has been in the
supermarket real estate business forever. So now what you expect.
I'm like migrant Puerto Rican, you know, four three.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Were guys took three very different paths and made it
real life strengths.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Right yeah, yeah, And you know, you know what's really
interesting about that is like especially in our culture, right,
Like I heard Benicio del Toro talking the other day
and he was like, all my brothers were lawyers, lawyers
and doctors, so they expected me to be a lawyer
and doctor.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Right.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Like My family was like all like that. They were
all super studious. All my cousins are all accountants, you know,
and I was the knucklehead who was like an artist.
You know. But but but but then they don't understand,
you know, when you're when you're trying to go down
that path, you know, it just doesn't compute to them
because it's very sort of one track mine, you know,
(12:49):
you know one plus one equals too and you got
to follow that.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Paath, Well, you have a memory of working as a
buzz boy that you were like, yeah, I gotta figure,
I gotta figure you gotta figure it out.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
I remember was a busboy. Uh I had started acting
by then. And I remember one of the waiters.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Souse, that's why because you started so young.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Ye started on thirteen.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Yeah you started performing thirteen.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Yeah. I remember one of the bus I remember one
of the waiters brought a headshot to work and he
was like, I'm an actor and I have a headshot.
And I was like, whoa, he is a head shot.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
He's an actor.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
The black and white headshub where they're just looking off
the commercial head show where you're like cheasing so hard,
and then the drama sup where you're like obviously.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Going into internal turmoil. In the picture, oh, would be like.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
The composite shot where it's like four different shots, like
the studio did you stayble your your resume in.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
The back of the of course? Of course.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
I remember coming to work and being like, he was, like,
I just came back from an audition. You get auditions, man,
he's got an audition. Yeah. No, But I started I
started really young, you know, I started really young in Chicago,
and you know, I know I had said this in
the previous episode, but a lot of it stemmed from
like I wasn't and I'm this literally, man, I really
(14:01):
wasn't good at anything. You know. We talk about my brothers,
you know, they were so studious and my cousins. You know,
they would come from school with like a straight A
report card, and I was I was a terrible student.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
I think it was kind of like you were like,
they're so good at that, and you kind of reveled
against like wanting to be as good as them, or
like do you feel pressured? And then therefore you kind
of like forfeited to something else, Like what was that contrast? Like,
you know, they were going after studies, And.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
I truly wanted to fit in, really, I mean, in
all honesty, I wanted. I wanted to be a good student.
I wanted to be a good mathematician or whatever it
was that my family. I just did. My brain didn't
work that way, and I couldn't figure out why I didn't,
you know. And so it tends to happen when you're
that age and you don't relate and you don't feel
(14:53):
like you fit in, you start to figure out other
ways to fit in, you know, in my neighborhood. You know,
Chicago at at certain years is the murder capital of
the United States, you know. And and I grew up
in Bucktown on the northwest side of Chicago, which is heavy,
heavy gangs, heavy drugs, heavy heavy graffiti, a lot of
(15:14):
graffiti crews in in my neighborhood, and dance cruise and
you know, and so it's very easy to see the
allure of that when you have nothing else that you
relate to, you know. And I certainly found myself gravitating
towards that, you know, and It wasn't until this independent
(15:37):
theater company came to my school that that I auditioned
to get into as a fluke when I was like
thirteen years old.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
So before that theater group came to your school, were
you part of that community like where you're b boying,
where you're tagging.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Or yeah, man, I was, I was hard, hard bet boy,
I'll tell you.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
So my this is in exclusive. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
I don't think anyone can realize the friends that the
great Freddie Rodriguez was actually a boy.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
I was. I was always a.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Kind of a good dancer, right. And so my oldest brother,
who is now doctor Rodriguez, was a pretty popular.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
DJ in Chicago, what kind of parties like.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Like Chicago created house music, right, so he was he was,
you know, transition from disco to house music. So as
far back as I could remember, he's like eight years
older than me. There was always turntables in the house everywhere,
final everywhere, like every weekend, my brother coming home and
bring like carrying speakers inside the house, you know, And
(16:52):
and he would always recruit me to help him, like
carry alcoas and all that. Yeah, and my middle brother, uh,
you know that's when breakdancing was at its apex and
he was in a breakdancing crew, and so I learned
how to break dance really really early on. So with
my brother djying and my brother breakdancing, they would sneak
me into these clubs when I was like nine, ten
(17:14):
years old, and the guy at the front, I never forget.
The guy at the front was like, no, man, he's
like nine years old. And my brother'd be like, no, no, no,
I'm gonna have him behind the DJ booth. It's all good,
you know, back then when you could do that right.
And so I remember being in the back of the
DJ booth and peeking out and seeing all these like
teenagers dancing and all that. And then when my brother's
(17:34):
crew was ready to battle another crew, they bring me
out from like the DJ booth and some little nine
year old kid would be there battling some other crew,
you know, which, let me tell you something, Man, doing
that at nine years old, with like two three hundred
people watching you as you're there, it does something to you.
(17:57):
I feel helped me later in life because I would
go into auditions like that because I was so used
to it. I was so used to like somebody watching
somebody watching. I was so used to like getting ready
to fight for it, yeah, stepping into the ring, and
and and and I had that since I was like
nine years old. You know, you.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Have that when you walk into a room. I'm like, yo, man,
we're not trying to fight. Relaxed man' remember me, it's
t Wilmer man, It's Tilmer man. That's that's amazing. I
didn't know that story that you were such a b boy.
I mean, I know that you have love for the end,
you know, for for the days, you know.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Oh yeah, there was a big.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Question and somebody in the room out here where we're
talking about, what is the story when you got your
first uh uh, your.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
First Jordan my first?
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Okay, I'm gonna tell you. The first time I got
my first Jordan's was probably like ten years ago. And
here's why. I was too poor when I was growing up.
And I grew up in Chicago, in the land of
Jordan during the time that he was winning, and I
was just too poor man. I couldn't afford freaking Jordan's
back then, you know. And so when I got older
(19:06):
and I started making money, I tried to get everything
I couldn't get as a kid man. You and I
have had a very and this is a whole other episode.
We've had a very extensive G I. Joe conversation. And
when I first started making money, I would go on
eBay and buy G I Joe's I could find back then,
you know transformers back then.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Yeah, that's increating. Did you have a B boy name?
Speaker 3 (19:29):
No? No, no, they just what do you think if
you tap back into that Jan Frederdriguez, what do you
think it would have been like Little Freddie probably or
something Little Freddie.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Well, they used to be like, and gentlemen, help me
welcome Little Freddy.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Well, they used to be like, yo, that that's like
Hector's my brother. Actor, that's that's Hector's little brother, you know,
because Hector used to dance and as Willie's little brother,
you know, I was always referred to as like my
big brothers.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
They were already in the scene. They were the scene. Yeah,
some believab And then so then you were to school
and then this theater group comes. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Yeah. So by that time I was in the eighth
grade and I just I just felt really lost, you know,
at that age, and you know, the Chicago public school
system at that time, unfortunately wasn't great. And so this
independent theater company came to my school and offered the
arts for a semester. And you know, at that age,
(20:25):
at thirteen, you're just trying to be cool and you know,
you know, want to like look dumb in front of
the girls or whatever. And so they were like, we're auditioning.
We want people to come down to audition, and no
one wanted to stand up to audition, and my math teacher,
missus Algani, said, Okay, whoever auditions and goes down to
do it, you don't have to take the math test.
(20:47):
And then me, being like the opportunist I was, I
was like, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Yeah, I was gonna fill it anyway.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Yeah, and I was already kind of dancing and I
was already like you know, So I went down and
I auditioned and I got in and the program completely
transformed my life. So every Saturday, we had to take
the train downtown Chicago to Roosevelt University. So it's the
first time I was out of my neighborhood. Really, it
(21:16):
was the first time that I was like downtown, that
I had to take the train on my own. The
first time I was at a university. The first time
I was in some real, like a real program that
was structured, that had real actors and real teachers. And
so every Saturday we went and we did that and
at the end of the program we wrote our own
play and I ended up starring in the play at thirteen,
(21:40):
fourteen years old. We performed it at the Blackstone Theater
and it was called City of Neighborhoods. I remember it
was just about like kids, like we were all like
little kids, you know. I don't really recall the narrative
of it, but it was like I remember starring in it,
and then we performed it at the Blackstone Theater, which
(22:00):
was kind of a big theater at the time, and
I remember after that first performance it was like I
had an epiphany. Man, it was clear as day to
me what I was going to do for the rest
of my life. Really, I mean that was like God
was showing me, like it was that clear to me.
And so that play led me to this other independent
(22:21):
theater company, this wonderful director named Ray Moffatt. It was
called MOI. I was about fourteen, and then it led
me to a two year scholarship to the National College
of Education. Theater program, which was another pivotal moment in
my life because it took me out of my neighborhood
and it took me to Winnetka, Illinois, which was this
really rich suburb and a prestigious school. It was the
(22:46):
first time I was ever around other ethnicities. It was
the first time I was around people of other economic backgrounds,
kids whose parents paid a lot of money for them
to go there. And here I was was this kid,
Puerto Rican kid from the hood who was going there
for free. And it was kids who were like you
know that that kid you see who's like ten years
(23:08):
old and who's playing the piano flawlessly, and like, yeah, exactly.
And I was amongst these, like, you know, really well
trained artists, you know, at fourteen years old. And then
the following year it was my time to go to
high school, and I auditioned and got into the only
public theater program in Chicago, which was Lincoln Park High School,
(23:31):
and I was a drama major there. I was a
drama major chorus minor, and I kind of dabbled in
dance at the time, and which was a wonderful program,
a four year program where we learned how to build
sets and we performed and I did I did a play.
I did the Lottery, I did to Kill a Mockingbird.
(23:52):
You know, so many plays that we got to do
during that time. And so this was from like fifteen
to like eighteen, and I was doing that. I was
doing independenteater. I dabbled in music. You know, I thought
I could rap back then, you know, I was. I
was trying to. Yeah, yeah, we won't get into the listen.
(24:15):
I'm going to tell you the story that I've never
told before. So you know, back then, you know, I
was a big, big hip hop b boy head, right,
and back then, hip hop is not like now now
you turn on the radio. Hip hop is everywhere. Back then,
you had to find it. And so there would be
a lot of these underground clubs in Chicago where you
would go to get hip hop, you know. And I
(24:37):
must have been around sixteen seventeen years old, and I
used to see Kanye was there. And so if I
was sixteen seventeen, Kanye was like fourteen. I see Common there.
Common was like if I was seventeen, Common was nineteen. Wow.
We're all kids, man, We're all kids in the underground
(24:59):
hip hops in Chicago. Yeah, it was wild man. I remember.
So Kanye used to be in this group called State
of Mind. It was him and these other two guys,
and he started producing, and a guy for my crew
was producing, and I was the only guy with a car,
and so it was my job to take my guy
(25:19):
Marco to Kanye's house, who lived all the way on
the South Side. And so I used to drop him
off at Kanye's house on Friday and come pick him
up on Sunday, and then we would have our beats,
you know, and they'd be like, all right, man, we're
gonna go perform this. And it used to be this
club called Lower Lynx and the Elbow Room, and so
the whole concept of the club was very much like
that movie that eminem did. And you go, you spend
(25:44):
all week making your beats. You sign up, give them
your tape. When it's your turn, they call your name,
you go up there, they play the thing, and you
get up there and you perform. You know. So Kanye
be doing it, I'll be doing it, you.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Know, so you win in your battle this business.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
No, we would just performed them, you know. And man,
I tell this other story.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Do you have any of these songs.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
I think, so.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
It all happen somewhere breaking exclusive hear some of these kids.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
Man, I'll tell you something, you know, and I've never
told the story. I remember it, and God bless him
and his mother is Kanye's mother had passed away. Uh Man.
I remember going to his house when I was like sixteen,
seventeen years old, and it was the first time that
I had ever gone to a friend's house where their
(26:39):
parent was genuinely interested in who I was. You know,
his mother was a professor and it was an education.
But you know, you go to your friend's house and
you know, the parents will say hi, and then you
lock yourself in the bedroom with a friend and you know,
you sit there and you mess around. But it was
the first time I had went to anybody's house where
his mother came down and like and like spoke to
(27:01):
me and like wanted to know who I was and
where I was from, and like where my parents were from,
and what kind of music went why I was interested
in that music. And it had such a profound effect
on me as a parent, and.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
What you probably felt seen to your feel it.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Was just a different style of parenting that I had
never experienced before, and I learned that from his mother,
and I took that with me when I became a parent,
and I and I became that way with my friends,
with my children's friends, and that all stemmed from her,
my encounter with her.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
So then you have all these influences, the hip hop
scene to be voice seen, yeah, Chicago and all that,
and you started getting on stage and you were going
to this place as well. He's like you said, a
lot of people invested a lot of money for their
kids to follow the world of artistry. Interesting to see
where any of those classes or any of those studios
went after, you know, after you being in the same
(28:07):
kind of generation of students coming up and learning and
shopping in their skills and you know eventually what it
turned out for them.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
That to me is.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
You know, it's a great example of saying, I am
going to equip myself with the tools I need, you know,
some of us, like for example, for me, I, I
you know, I went to a couple of classes, but
you know, I had to really self teach myself, you know, confidence,
because I never had the hours of flying, you know,
(28:38):
so as soon as I got thrown into it, it
was it was really it was like learned by you know, swimming,
Like throw you in the in the pool and I'll
swim to the shore, you know. But there's like there's
the commonality. I think the connection between our stories is
(28:59):
that we decided to swim into the unknown, and no
one in our family has swimmed in that direction, right.
And to think about, you know, from your grandparents to
you know, to your parents, to the trajectory of your
family heritage coming to Chicago, embracing a new way of life.
You also stay in Puerto Rican while being in Chicago too.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
It's such a.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Great example of what I think a lot of Latinos
are experiencing today. You know, sometimes they're being asked to
be one or the other and the two things like
we don't have to pick right which we should be,
you know, a topic later on like you know, you know,
can you be a two hundred percenter?
Speaker 3 (29:40):
You know?
Speaker 1 (29:43):
But but I think, you know, hearing your story is
such a validator that it really it doesn't matter where
you start, It matters where you believe you can go, right,
because if you believe you can go in that direction,
you're going to start walking it and eventually you find
your way into an opportunity that you know. But look,
(30:05):
being an artist is it's one of the most difficult professions.
It's uncertain, it's not consistent. The mirage of success it's
part of the allure, but the truth is, you know,
to be a performer, you got to stay human. You know,
(30:26):
you're not a celebrity, You're not a famous person. You're
an artist who's telling stories that are very real, like
the ones that you and your family you know, had
to experience. Without you staying human, you can be effective
or you can't invite people to watch your story on screen.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
You know.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
That's why I feel like you going into those classes
where all these young people who you know, have hadn't
had the opportunity to experience what you did, probably was
a secret weapon for you.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Was the missing ingredient?
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Was the secret you know, sauce for saying like, oh,
this is why I'm effective on screen because I am
what I am. Yeah, you know, and being on stage
with that energy just made you a performer that could
really bring his characters to life.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
Yeah. I think it's a combination of that. And this
is a lot of the advice I give to sort
of the younger generation now, they always ask me like,
what can I be doing? What could I be? You know?
The advice I always give them is you got to
just be doing it right. And here's what I mean
by that. The perception of doing it, especially to the
(31:34):
younger generation, is like being on a TV show like
you and I, right, And that's not always the case,
you know. And when I was at that age, although
it was a different time a different era, the thing
that was incredibly important to me was that I was
always doing it in some capacity, whether that was in
an independent theater company, whether that was doing music, whether
(31:57):
that was I mean, I was a choreographer, I was
backup dancer, I was, you know, whether it was in school,
I was doing it in some capacity. Because when you're
doing it in some capacity, either either someone's going to
see you right, or you're going to continue to as
you your analogy sharpen, sharpen the skills, sharpen the blades,
(32:18):
you know, and so you know, as it equates to
now in today's age, right, whether that's like making YouTube videos,
whether that's in class, whether that's starting your own independent
theater company where you and a bunch of actors just
get together and and and put up scenes and run.
You got to continually be be tuning the instrument though, right,
(32:39):
and and I think that sometimes people get boggled down
by this, by this perception that the only way to
tune the instrument is to be doing it on CBS.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Right on that.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
Yeah, you know that that whole uh teenage year was
was My teenage years were very formative for me. And
you know, all all of that stuff that I was
doing ultimately led me to my first agent in Chicago.
Which a fun fact, Jeff Garland's wife was my first
(33:11):
agent when yeah, my first real agent when I was
like fifteen, sixteen years old, okay, And it was at
this agency called Suzanne's A Plus in Chicago. And here's
another fun fact. The only other Latin person that was
at that agency was Justina Machado, who played my wife
on Six Feet Under. Yeah, and so I met Justina
(33:32):
when we were kids. We were like seventeen eighteen years old.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
And how miraculous are they under in the same show? Crazy,
This doesn't really happen, it's crazy.
Speaker 3 (33:43):
And I remember going to that agency and Marla saying,
we have another Puerto Rican here for in that case
where you two should meet, you two should beat and
you know, so we had we known each other since
we were like kids, you know, because because of that agency.
But but you know, getting an agency pounding the pavement
(34:04):
doing commercials all through my teenage years. I did a
Kentucky Fry chicken commercial.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
I did a while you were doing this thing, what
was your job? What were you working?
Speaker 3 (34:12):
I was making money on entertainment.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Oh so you were booking stuff, dude. I was booking stuff.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
Man. You know, there would be productions that would come
through Chicago, right Like John Wells did a TV show
called Angels Street with Robin Gibbons and Pam Gidley. I
did an episode in nineteen ninety two ninety three. Remember
The Intouchables the movie, So they did a TV show
The Intouchables. Well, yeah, where William forsythe played the de
(34:39):
Niro character. I did an episode of that. You know, dude.
By the time I was my senior year of high school,
I was I was on a TV show as a regular.
I did this Saturday morning for y'all enough to remember
with Saturday morning TV shows were I did. I was
doing a Saturday morning TV show called Energy Express on
WGN in Chicago. I had a national Kentucky fry chicken commercial.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Dude, dude, that's crazy.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
I was a superstar by the time it.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
We used to call it a ghetto superstar. I was
a ghetto superstar, you know, by the time.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
To reflect, to reflect it when you're saying, is you
think about when this audacity started for you started at thirteen.
By the age of eighteen year were already really doing it, right,
Think about like that, you know how how many years
it really takes for you to like really feel not
just the confidence, but half the hours of flying. So
to your point to your advice to young people, like
(35:36):
you got to do it any way you can, you know,
and nowadays people have so many more ways to perform,
you know.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
They can shoot on full.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
Encircling you know, and shorts on an iPhone, I mean eatery.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
Like, think of how many people have done these these
shows on like YouTube that have spawned into like some
major television show. They were just doing it. You got
to do it in some way, and I was just
doing it. And because I was doing it in my
small way, it led me to an age and it
led me to a TV show, a local TV show
(36:07):
in Chicago, which ultimately led me to my first movie
and when I turned pro when I was when I
was nineteen, Well, our lives are.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
I didn't know probably a third of that story, and
specifically the beginning of your story, which I don't know.
I reflect on the beginning of my you know, the
beginning of my of my life, you know, specifically, I.
Speaker 3 (36:31):
Want to hear it, you know, I want to hear it. Yeah,
I know there's a book out. I know there's a
lot of info. I know, maybe you don't want to
divulge as much so that people actually buy the book.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
No, no, no, but I want I want those egos
deserves the story.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
No, I thank you.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
I'm excited to share with you because I think you're
going to find so much commonality between the stuff that
we had to endure, see become, you know, and evolved into,
you know, in order to have you know, the shot
that we had. But yeah, it was nice to hear
how we connected on that level, because my story is
(37:07):
is quite quite similar, you know, and I don't know
how many people out there have the same similar story.
I think I think about, you know, who my grandparents were,
who my parents were, and you know, like what they
had to do in order for me to come America
so that I can learn and speaking is like all
these things like really uh fascinated me.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Wilmer, thank you so much for hearing my story. Now
I am interested in hearing your story. I mean, your
your book is wonderful again, and people know a lot
about you, and I don't want to divulge too much
so that everyone could go and buy Wimar bald Ramo's book,
But I want to hear your story, my brother, and
I know that there's a lot of similarities and commonality
(37:45):
and I'm just so looking forward to hearing it. So
maybe on the.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
Next episode, to the next episode.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
Those Amigos is a production from WV Sound and iHeart
Media's Michael Thuda podcast network, hosted by Me, Freddie Rodriguez,
and Wilmer Valdorama.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
Those Amigos is produced by Aaron Burlison and Sophie Spencers Zebos.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
Our executive producers are Wilmer Valderrama, Freddie Rodriguez, Aaron Burlason,
and Leo Klem at WV Sound.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
This episode was edited by Ryan Posts and Aaron Burlison
and features original music by Madison Devenport and Halo boy.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
Our cover art photography is by David Avalos and designed
by Deny Holtzklaw and.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
Special thanks to every single interview for joining this journey
and I hope you continue to enjoy us.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
For more podcasts from my Heart, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
See you or hear us in a week or so.
Welcome back to those amigos with Freda Rodriguez and yours
truly with my mother.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
And in our last episode, we teased.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
You with a very very exciting journey, very exciting. For
this episode, we we we wanted to focus on on Freddy,
but not like the Freddy the actor when he got
the break, like I want to bring it all the
way back, man, I.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Want to start with your grandparents. I want to start
with your grandparents.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Okay, you know, we you know.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
And and this is also I called to everybody out there,
like you know we somebody when I when I was
writing my memoir, my book, somebody said to me, go
ask your parents they were before you? Oh interesting, we
know so much about our parents after we had a
(01:08):
sense of memory right that we rarely go back to
ask the questions like who were you before mommy you
got pregnant, or or Dad you knew you were going
to have a son, like you, you never asked these
questions because your life is what you're being introduced over
and you're seeing new things all the time. So so
that exercise really changed so much for me to appreciate
(01:31):
what my mom was right from bringing a full circle,
you know, understanding the trajectory or who you before you,
or even a possibility like who was the Rodriguez family
right right, you know, and and then and then walk
us straight into you know, into into your adulthood. But
I but I love to start with like what are
(01:53):
your grandparents' names? And what did they what did they do?
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Yeah, I didn't really know my grandparents. They they uh, well,
my grandparents. Both of my parents are from San Lorenzo,
Puerto Rico, which is in the middle of the island.
There were farmers that they grew crops and malangas and
beluras and tavaco and had cows and chickens and all
(02:19):
that stuff. And then around the fifties and sixth so
my parents were both neighbors and they had fincas over
there right as we know in Lalomne Campo Edambsino, and
that's how they met. And so on my mom's side,
I had thirteen uncles and aunts. On my father's side,
(02:39):
I had eight, and surprisingly they were the only two
that got together for them being neighbors. And this was
around the time that there was a program in place
called Operation Bootstrap, where the factories were alive and kicking
in Chicago, in New York and Detroit, and this program
(03:04):
was in place by the government to encourage Puerto Ricans
to come to those cities to work the factories. Now,
my parents weren't necessarily a part of that program, but
it was definitely inspired by that program. And so they
migrated from Puerto Rico to Chicago, and my dad came
as a teenager and worked the factories in Chicago until
(03:27):
he made enough money to go back and get my
mom and marry her, and they both came to Chicago.
We had an aunt and an uncle who lived in
Chicago already, and they were in the Lincoln Park area
in Chicago, which, for those who know Chicago, Lincoln Park
now is a pretty affluent and prestigious area, but back
then it was predominantly Latino and black. And for those
(03:51):
who have seen the TV show Good Times, the Kabrini
Green projects are in Lincoln Park. No one knows that
because that area is like the Beverly Hills now. And
so they migrated in the sixties and work the factories.
And I have two older brothers and they were born
and my brothers are a lot older than me. They're
(04:12):
like eight and seven years older than me. I was
kind of the mistake that came later. And so, you know,
my parents had the American dream. Although Puerto Rico is
technically a part of the United States, you know, they
had the American dream like everybody, right.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Well, you know, leaving your pueblo for something different is
the American dream. I mean, you could be leaving you know,
you can be living in Arizona and going to Texas
and making it there, and that's the American dream too,
So I see why. But for us culturally, it's a
major leap, you know, because you leave what you are
to acquire a new way of life, right, Like, it's
(04:48):
an interesting departure from where you start and where you're
gonna end up.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
To acquire a new way of life, a new urban landscape. Right,
think about it, Right, You've been to Puerto Rico, Paradise
where they were at, and then all of a sudden
you come to the harsh winners of Chicago. Two seasons
to see, two seasons, you get fall, you got winter.
You gotta wear a coat, right, you know. I remember
I would have cousins that would come from Puerto Rico
(05:14):
and they'd be like, we can bring a coat you know, uh,
you know, to have to take the bus to like
a factory job where you're working like ten hours a day.
I mean it was it was rough.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
But what was dad like at home for a young
Freddy when you were a kid, right, you had your
older siblings, but you seeing your dad doing what he
was doing and all that.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
What was it? What was your house like?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
I remember one time and you asked me about my grandparents,
and I'll get back to that because it'll inform that.
I remember one time I was visiting. I was in
Puerto Rico. I was doing a movie there actually, and
I was visiting my grandfather before he passed away, and
my other grandfather was on a horse going up a
(06:03):
mountain and my grandfather goes, you see that over there,
that's your grandfather. He said, that's the hardest working man
in the village, and everybody knows that about him. And
I remember it was with the one interaction I had
my grandfather, I'm wrong. I was like ten years old,
and he took me around the village and I saw
(06:24):
the respect that was in place for my grandfather because
everybody knew he was the hardest working guy in the
entire village. And so that translated to my dad, you know,
And you asked me how it was in my house
in Chicago. My father was a direct reflection of his own.
Father just was all about work, all about pride in
(06:47):
your work, all about integrity and your work and who
you were as a human being and your moral compass
and your values as a person. And although we were
a money poor, we were moral rich, you know. And
that was really important to him, really important to everyone
in my family. And so that's the way me and
(07:09):
my brothers grew up. And I feel that's something that
I've taken with me and as I approached our industry,
whether I'm on a TV show or a movie, I
bring that same hard work.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
I was gonna say.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Yeah, So seeing that statement that is the hardest working
man in this village?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Did that mark you?
Speaker 1 (07:29):
And you was like, what, you know, I should never
have an excuse, So, like, how did that affected you
as a young man?
Speaker 3 (07:38):
It just it all made sense. It made sense why
my dad was so hard on us, It made sense
why your work and the quality of your work was
so important. It all just made sense because it was
ingrained in him as a kid, you know. And then
he ingrained that in us me and my brothers, and
(07:59):
my cousin and my uncles. And he had a brother
and a sister who lived in Chicago, and I had
a bunch of cousins, And so you know, that's saying
it takes a village to raise a child. It was
very much a village of like, you know, the Rodriguez
household in Chicago.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
How did your dad infuse that in you? Like, what
were the words, what were the moments, what were the lessons?
Were the things that he he made you experience so
you could put it together that says, Yeah, that's the
anthem of my life.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
You know, I don't know if there was ever any
like words, but it was expected in anything that we did.
It was like, oh, you're fifteen, sixteen, now you got
to go get a job. You know, you got to
contribute to the house man, You got to contribute to
paying a bill, right, you know what I mean? Like
it was just expected of you in everything.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
That Yeah, you inherited, right, you inherited the houses, you know,
guardian and safekeeping and thriving you know.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Yeah. When my dad would have like he'd be like,
oh I have I have a week off of work vacation, right,
Like the normal thing is like I have a vacation,
Let's go somewhere, Let's fly somewhere. I'm like, Dad, what
are you doing for your vacation? He goes, I'm gonna
go help your uncle paint. That was his vacation. Go
to what it'd be like, Oh, your cousin needs to move.
(09:21):
We got to go help the move. I'm like, that's
how you're spending your vacation is helping somebody move, helping
somebody paint their house. Like they they didn't know anything
else but like work, that's it right.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
What what was your first job?
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Oh? Man, my first job. I was fifteen years old
and I was a busboy.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
At Dude that was buzzboy, go ahead, A bus boy
at Bennigan's.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
I don't know, do you remember Bennigan's where Benigans was
a chain restaurant kind of like I don't know how
you would Chili's or whatever.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
I was a sisler guy.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
You weren't, no, but I but you talk about these
restaurants For me and I it was a sizzler guy.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Was it was? It was?
Speaker 2 (10:02):
It was that that change.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Where were you a busboyad?
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Well? I was a busboy.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Uh at this place called Cafe Beju and Sherman.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Yeah it was still there, Yeah, yeah, still there. Yeah,
And I was a bus boy.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
I was the guy, you know, leveling the butters and
and and bringing the dis wash. But but this is
not a conversation.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Okay, So how did you get that job?
Speaker 3 (10:28):
I just applied. I needed a job, you know, and
I applied for it and and it was, uh, it
was crazy because I wasn't even old enough to work there.
I had to go down. I was fifteen fifteen and
I had to go down and get a work permit.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
I was fifteen two.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Was that like that here in l A. You had
to get a work you know? That was enough.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
They hired me from the back I was.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
I applied through the alleyway, I see, you know, I
went through the alleyway.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
I applied and then I had a black T shirt.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
No. Man, Chicago was like, you got to get a
work permit because we're going to keep you here a
certain hour. And like, man, I remember working toil, like
I don't even know if it was legal at that time,
working till like ten o'clock and having to go to
school the next day, and.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Like well, there was no hours there, and there was
no such thing as made him wage, and there was
no such thing as you know, hours and extra hours
and in late hours, there was such thing as that.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
No, especially back then. But but yeah, you know, work
was really important. And I had two older brothers who
you know how it is like in Latin families, like
you know, although they were my brothers, there were more
like father figures.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
You know, how much older were they?
Speaker 3 (11:32):
The oldest is like eight nine years older than me.
My oldest brother, William, and my middle brother, Hector is
about six seven years older than me.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
And what do they do.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
My oldest brother is doctor William Rodriguez and he's the
uh he works, he's the assistant dean at Loyola University
right now? Wow?
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Cool?
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Yeah? Yeah. My middle brother, Hector, has been in the
supermarket real estate business forever. So now what you expect.
I'm like migrant Puerto Rican, you know, four three.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Were guys took three very different paths and made it
real life strengths.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Right yeah, yeah, And you know, you know what's really
interesting about that is like especially in our culture, right,
Like I heard Benicio del Toro talking the other day
and he was like, all my brothers were lawyers, lawyers
and doctors, so they expected me to be a lawyer
and doctor.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Right.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Like My family was like all like that. They were
all super studious. All my cousins are all accountants, you know,
and I was the knucklehead who was like an artist.
You know. But but but but then they don't understand,
you know, when you're when you're trying to go down
that path, you know, it just doesn't compute to them
because it's very sort of one track mine, you know,
(12:49):
you know one plus one equals too and you got
to follow that.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Paath, Well, you have a memory of working as a
buzz boy that you were like, yeah, I gotta figure,
I gotta figure you gotta figure it out.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
I remember was a busboy. Uh I had started acting
by then. And I remember one of the waiters.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Souse, that's why because you started so young.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Ye started on thirteen.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Yeah you started performing thirteen.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Yeah. I remember one of the bus I remember one
of the waiters brought a headshot to work and he
was like, I'm an actor and I have a headshot.
And I was like, whoa, he is a head shot.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
He's an actor.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
The black and white headshub where they're just looking off
the commercial head show where you're like cheasing so hard,
and then the drama sup where you're like obviously.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Going into internal turmoil. In the picture, oh, would be like.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
The composite shot where it's like four different shots, like
the studio did you stayble your your resume in.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
The back of the of course? Of course.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
I remember coming to work and being like, he was, like,
I just came back from an audition. You get auditions, man,
he's got an audition. Yeah. No, But I started I
started really young, you know, I started really young in Chicago,
and you know, I know I had said this in
the previous episode, but a lot of it stemmed from
like I wasn't and I'm this literally, man, I really
(14:01):
wasn't good at anything. You know. We talk about my brothers,
you know, they were so studious and my cousins. You know,
they would come from school with like a straight A
report card, and I was I was a terrible student.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
I think it was kind of like you were like,
they're so good at that, and you kind of reveled
against like wanting to be as good as them, or
like do you feel pressured? And then therefore you kind
of like forfeited to something else, Like what was that contrast? Like,
you know, they were going after studies, And.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
I truly wanted to fit in, really, I mean, in
all honesty, I wanted. I wanted to be a good student.
I wanted to be a good mathematician or whatever it
was that my family. I just did. My brain didn't
work that way, and I couldn't figure out why I didn't,
you know. And so it tends to happen when you're
that age and you don't relate and you don't feel
(14:53):
like you fit in, you start to figure out other
ways to fit in, you know, in my neighborhood. You know,
Chicago at at certain years is the murder capital of
the United States, you know. And and I grew up
in Bucktown on the northwest side of Chicago, which is heavy,
heavy gangs, heavy drugs, heavy heavy graffiti, a lot of
(15:14):
graffiti crews in in my neighborhood, and dance cruise and
you know, and so it's very easy to see the
allure of that when you have nothing else that you
relate to, you know. And I certainly found myself gravitating
towards that, you know, and It wasn't until this independent
(15:37):
theater company came to my school that that I auditioned
to get into as a fluke when I was like
thirteen years old.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
So before that theater group came to your school, were
you part of that community like where you're b boying,
where you're tagging.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Or yeah, man, I was, I was hard, hard bet boy,
I'll tell you.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
So my this is in exclusive. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
I don't think anyone can realize the friends that the
great Freddie Rodriguez was actually a boy.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
I was. I was always a.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Kind of a good dancer, right. And so my oldest brother,
who is now doctor Rodriguez, was a pretty popular.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
DJ in Chicago, what kind of parties like.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Like Chicago created house music, right, so he was he was,
you know, transition from disco to house music. So as
far back as I could remember, he's like eight years
older than me. There was always turntables in the house everywhere,
final everywhere, like every weekend, my brother coming home and
bring like carrying speakers inside the house, you know, And
(16:52):
and he would always recruit me to help him, like
carry alcoas and all that. Yeah, and my middle brother, uh,
you know that's when breakdancing was at its apex and
he was in a breakdancing crew, and so I learned
how to break dance really really early on. So with
my brother djying and my brother breakdancing, they would sneak
me into these clubs when I was like nine, ten
(17:14):
years old, and the guy at the front, I never forget.
The guy at the front was like, no, man, he's
like nine years old. And my brother'd be like, no, no, no,
I'm gonna have him behind the DJ booth. It's all good,
you know, back then when you could do that right.
And so I remember being in the back of the
DJ booth and peeking out and seeing all these like
teenagers dancing and all that. And then when my brother's
(17:34):
crew was ready to battle another crew, they bring me
out from like the DJ booth and some little nine
year old kid would be there battling some other crew,
you know, which, let me tell you something, Man, doing
that at nine years old, with like two three hundred
people watching you as you're there, it does something to you.
(17:57):
I feel helped me later in life because I would
go into auditions like that because I was so used
to it. I was so used to like somebody watching
somebody watching. I was so used to like getting ready
to fight for it, yeah, stepping into the ring, and
and and and I had that since I was like
nine years old. You know, you.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Have that when you walk into a room. I'm like, yo, man,
we're not trying to fight. Relaxed man' remember me, it's
t Wilmer man, It's Tilmer man. That's that's amazing. I
didn't know that story that you were such a b boy.
I mean, I know that you have love for the end,
you know, for for the days, you know.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Oh yeah, there was a big.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Question and somebody in the room out here where we're
talking about, what is the story when you got your
first uh uh, your.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
First Jordan my first?
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Okay, I'm gonna tell you. The first time I got
my first Jordan's was probably like ten years ago. And
here's why. I was too poor when I was growing up.
And I grew up in Chicago, in the land of
Jordan during the time that he was winning, and I
was just too poor man. I couldn't afford freaking Jordan's
back then, you know. And so when I got older
(19:06):
and I started making money, I tried to get everything
I couldn't get as a kid man. You and I
have had a very and this is a whole other episode.
We've had a very extensive G I. Joe conversation. And
when I first started making money, I would go on
eBay and buy G I Joe's I could find back then,
you know transformers back then.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Yeah, that's increating. Did you have a B boy name?
Speaker 3 (19:29):
No? No, no, they just what do you think if
you tap back into that Jan Frederdriguez, what do you
think it would have been like Little Freddie probably or
something Little Freddie.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Well, they used to be like, and gentlemen, help me
welcome Little Freddy.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Well, they used to be like, yo, that that's like
Hector's my brother. Actor, that's that's Hector's little brother, you know,
because Hector used to dance and as Willie's little brother,
you know, I was always referred to as like my
big brothers.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
They were already in the scene. They were the scene. Yeah,
some believab And then so then you were to school
and then this theater group comes. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Yeah. So by that time I was in the eighth
grade and I just I just felt really lost, you know,
at that age, and you know, the Chicago public school
system at that time, unfortunately wasn't great. And so this
independent theater company came to my school and offered the
arts for a semester. And you know, at that age,
(20:25):
at thirteen, you're just trying to be cool and you know,
you know, want to like look dumb in front of
the girls or whatever. And so they were like, we're auditioning.
We want people to come down to audition, and no
one wanted to stand up to audition, and my math teacher,
missus Algani, said, Okay, whoever auditions and goes down to
do it, you don't have to take the math test.
(20:47):
And then me, being like the opportunist I was, I
was like, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Yeah, I was gonna fill it anyway.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Yeah, and I was already kind of dancing and I
was already like you know, So I went down and
I auditioned and I got in and the program completely
transformed my life. So every Saturday, we had to take
the train downtown Chicago to Roosevelt University. So it's the
first time I was out of my neighborhood. Really, it
(21:16):
was the first time that I was like downtown, that
I had to take the train on my own. The
first time I was at a university. The first time
I was in some real, like a real program that
was structured, that had real actors and real teachers. And
so every Saturday we went and we did that and
at the end of the program we wrote our own
play and I ended up starring in the play at thirteen,
(21:40):
fourteen years old. We performed it at the Blackstone Theater
and it was called City of Neighborhoods. I remember it
was just about like kids, like we were all like
little kids, you know. I don't really recall the narrative
of it, but it was like I remember starring in it,
and then we performed it at the Blackstone Theater, which
(22:00):
was kind of a big theater at the time, and
I remember after that first performance it was like I
had an epiphany. Man, it was clear as day to
me what I was going to do for the rest
of my life. Really, I mean that was like God
was showing me, like it was that clear to me.
And so that play led me to this other independent
(22:21):
theater company, this wonderful director named Ray Moffatt. It was
called MOI. I was about fourteen, and then it led
me to a two year scholarship to the National College
of Education. Theater program, which was another pivotal moment in
my life because it took me out of my neighborhood
and it took me to Winnetka, Illinois, which was this
really rich suburb and a prestigious school. It was the
(22:46):
first time I was ever around other ethnicities. It was
the first time I was around people of other economic backgrounds,
kids whose parents paid a lot of money for them
to go there. And here I was was this kid,
Puerto Rican kid from the hood who was going there
for free. And it was kids who were like you
know that that kid you see who's like ten years
(23:08):
old and who's playing the piano flawlessly, and like, yeah, exactly.
And I was amongst these, like, you know, really well
trained artists, you know, at fourteen years old. And then
the following year it was my time to go to
high school, and I auditioned and got into the only
public theater program in Chicago, which was Lincoln Park High School,
(23:31):
and I was a drama major there. I was a
drama major chorus minor, and I kind of dabbled in
dance at the time, and which was a wonderful program,
a four year program where we learned how to build
sets and we performed and I did I did a play.
I did the Lottery, I did to Kill a Mockingbird.
(23:52):
You know, so many plays that we got to do
during that time. And so this was from like fifteen
to like eighteen, and I was doing that. I was
doing independenteater. I dabbled in music. You know, I thought
I could rap back then, you know, I was. I
was trying to. Yeah, yeah, we won't get into the listen.
(24:15):
I'm going to tell you the story that I've never
told before. So you know, back then, you know, I
was a big, big hip hop b boy head, right,
and back then, hip hop is not like now now
you turn on the radio. Hip hop is everywhere. Back then,
you had to find it. And so there would be
a lot of these underground clubs in Chicago where you
would go to get hip hop, you know. And I
(24:37):
must have been around sixteen seventeen years old, and I
used to see Kanye was there. And so if I
was sixteen seventeen, Kanye was like fourteen. I see Common there.
Common was like if I was seventeen, Common was nineteen. Wow.
We're all kids, man, We're all kids in the underground
(24:59):
hip hops in Chicago. Yeah, it was wild man. I remember.
So Kanye used to be in this group called State
of Mind. It was him and these other two guys,
and he started producing, and a guy for my crew
was producing, and I was the only guy with a car,
and so it was my job to take my guy
(25:19):
Marco to Kanye's house, who lived all the way on
the South Side. And so I used to drop him
off at Kanye's house on Friday and come pick him
up on Sunday, and then we would have our beats,
you know, and they'd be like, all right, man, we're
gonna go perform this. And it used to be this
club called Lower Lynx and the Elbow Room, and so
the whole concept of the club was very much like
that movie that eminem did. And you go, you spend
(25:44):
all week making your beats. You sign up, give them
your tape. When it's your turn, they call your name,
you go up there, they play the thing, and you
get up there and you perform. You know. So Kanye
be doing it, I'll be doing it, you.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Know, so you win in your battle this business.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
No, we would just performed them, you know. And man,
I tell this other story.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Do you have any of these songs.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
I think, so.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
It all happen somewhere breaking exclusive hear some of these kids.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
Man, I'll tell you something, you know, and I've never
told the story. I remember it, and God bless him
and his mother is Kanye's mother had passed away. Uh Man.
I remember going to his house when I was like sixteen,
seventeen years old, and it was the first time that
I had ever gone to a friend's house where their
(26:39):
parent was genuinely interested in who I was. You know,
his mother was a professor and it was an education.
But you know, you go to your friend's house and
you know, the parents will say hi, and then you
lock yourself in the bedroom with a friend and you know,
you sit there and you mess around. But it was
the first time I had went to anybody's house where
his mother came down and like and like spoke to
(27:01):
me and like wanted to know who I was and
where I was from, and like where my parents were from,
and what kind of music went why I was interested
in that music. And it had such a profound effect
on me as a parent, and.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
What you probably felt seen to your feel it.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Was just a different style of parenting that I had
never experienced before, and I learned that from his mother,
and I took that with me when I became a parent,
and I and I became that way with my friends,
with my children's friends, and that all stemmed from her,
my encounter with her.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
So then you have all these influences, the hip hop
scene to be voice seen, yeah, Chicago and all that,
and you started getting on stage and you were going
to this place as well. He's like you said, a
lot of people invested a lot of money for their
kids to follow the world of artistry. Interesting to see
where any of those classes or any of those studios
went after, you know, after you being in the same
(28:07):
kind of generation of students coming up and learning and
shopping in their skills and you know eventually what it
turned out for them.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
That to me is.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
You know, it's a great example of saying, I am
going to equip myself with the tools I need, you know,
some of us, like for example, for me, I, I
you know, I went to a couple of classes, but
you know, I had to really self teach myself, you know, confidence,
because I never had the hours of flying, you know,
(28:38):
so as soon as I got thrown into it, it
was it was really it was like learned by you know, swimming,
Like throw you in the in the pool and I'll
swim to the shore, you know. But there's like there's
the commonality. I think the connection between our stories is
(28:59):
that we decided to swim into the unknown, and no
one in our family has swimmed in that direction, right.
And to think about, you know, from your grandparents to
you know, to your parents, to the trajectory of your
family heritage coming to Chicago, embracing a new way of life.
You also stay in Puerto Rican while being in Chicago too.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
It's such a.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Great example of what I think a lot of Latinos
are experiencing today. You know, sometimes they're being asked to
be one or the other and the two things like
we don't have to pick right which we should be,
you know, a topic later on like you know, you know,
can you be a two hundred percenter?
Speaker 3 (29:40):
You know?
Speaker 1 (29:43):
But but I think, you know, hearing your story is
such a validator that it really it doesn't matter where
you start, It matters where you believe you can go, right,
because if you believe you can go in that direction,
you're going to start walking it and eventually you find
your way into an opportunity that you know. But look,
(30:05):
being an artist is it's one of the most difficult professions.
It's uncertain, it's not consistent. The mirage of success it's
part of the allure, but the truth is, you know,
to be a performer, you got to stay human. You know,
(30:26):
you're not a celebrity, You're not a famous person. You're
an artist who's telling stories that are very real, like
the ones that you and your family you know, had
to experience. Without you staying human, you can be effective
or you can't invite people to watch your story on screen.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
You know.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
That's why I feel like you going into those classes
where all these young people who you know, have hadn't
had the opportunity to experience what you did, probably was
a secret weapon for you.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Was the missing ingredient?
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Was the secret you know, sauce for saying like, oh,
this is why I'm effective on screen because I am
what I am. Yeah, you know, and being on stage
with that energy just made you a performer that could
really bring his characters to life.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
Yeah. I think it's a combination of that. And this
is a lot of the advice I give to sort
of the younger generation now, they always ask me like,
what can I be doing? What could I be? You know?
The advice I always give them is you got to
just be doing it right. And here's what I mean
by that. The perception of doing it, especially to the
(31:34):
younger generation, is like being on a TV show like
you and I, right, And that's not always the case,
you know. And when I was at that age, although
it was a different time a different era, the thing
that was incredibly important to me was that I was
always doing it in some capacity, whether that was in
an independent theater company, whether that was doing music, whether
(31:57):
that was I mean, I was a choreographer, I was
backup dancer, I was, you know, whether it was in school,
I was doing it in some capacity. Because when you're
doing it in some capacity, either either someone's going to
see you right, or you're going to continue to as
you your analogy sharpen, sharpen the skills, sharpen the blades,
(32:18):
you know, and so you know, as it equates to
now in today's age, right, whether that's like making YouTube videos,
whether that's in class, whether that's starting your own independent
theater company where you and a bunch of actors just
get together and and and put up scenes and run.
You got to continually be be tuning the instrument though, right,
(32:39):
and and I think that sometimes people get boggled down
by this, by this perception that the only way to
tune the instrument is to be doing it on CBS.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Right on that.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
Yeah, you know that that whole uh teenage year was
was My teenage years were very formative for me. And
you know, all all of that stuff that I was
doing ultimately led me to my first agent in Chicago.
Which a fun fact, Jeff Garland's wife was my first
(33:11):
agent when yeah, my first real agent when I was
like fifteen, sixteen years old, okay, And it was at
this agency called Suzanne's A Plus in Chicago. And here's
another fun fact. The only other Latin person that was
at that agency was Justina Machado, who played my wife
on Six Feet Under. Yeah, and so I met Justina
(33:32):
when we were kids. We were like seventeen eighteen years old.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
And how miraculous are they under in the same show? Crazy,
This doesn't really happen, it's crazy.
Speaker 3 (33:43):
And I remember going to that agency and Marla saying,
we have another Puerto Rican here for in that case
where you two should meet, you two should beat and
you know, so we had we known each other since
we were like kids, you know, because because of that agency.
But but you know, getting an agency pounding the pavement
(34:04):
doing commercials all through my teenage years. I did a
Kentucky Fry chicken commercial.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
I did a while you were doing this thing, what
was your job? What were you working?
Speaker 3 (34:12):
I was making money on entertainment.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Oh so you were booking stuff, dude. I was booking stuff.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
Man. You know, there would be productions that would come
through Chicago, right Like John Wells did a TV show
called Angels Street with Robin Gibbons and Pam Gidley. I
did an episode in nineteen ninety two ninety three. Remember
The Intouchables the movie, So they did a TV show
The Intouchables. Well, yeah, where William forsythe played the de
(34:39):
Niro character. I did an episode of that. You know, dude.
By the time I was my senior year of high school,
I was I was on a TV show as a regular.
I did this Saturday morning for y'all enough to remember
with Saturday morning TV shows were I did. I was
doing a Saturday morning TV show called Energy Express on
WGN in Chicago. I had a national Kentucky fry chicken commercial.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Dude, dude, that's crazy.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
I was a superstar by the time it.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
We used to call it a ghetto superstar. I was
a ghetto superstar, you know, by the time.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
To reflect, to reflect it when you're saying, is you
think about when this audacity started for you started at thirteen.
By the age of eighteen year were already really doing it, right,
Think about like that, you know how how many years
it really takes for you to like really feel not
just the confidence, but half the hours of flying. So
to your point to your advice to young people, like
(35:36):
you got to do it any way you can, you know,
and nowadays people have so many more ways to perform,
you know.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
They can shoot on full.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
Encircling you know, and shorts on an iPhone, I mean eatery.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
Like, think of how many people have done these these
shows on like YouTube that have spawned into like some
major television show. They were just doing it. You got
to do it in some way, and I was just
doing it. And because I was doing it in my
small way, it led me to an age and it
led me to a TV show, a local TV show
(36:07):
in Chicago, which ultimately led me to my first movie
and when I turned pro when I was when I
was nineteen, Well, our lives are.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
I didn't know probably a third of that story, and
specifically the beginning of your story, which I don't know.
I reflect on the beginning of my you know, the
beginning of my of my life, you know, specifically, I.
Speaker 3 (36:31):
Want to hear it, you know, I want to hear it. Yeah,
I know there's a book out. I know there's a
lot of info. I know, maybe you don't want to
divulge as much so that people actually buy the book.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
No, no, no, but I want I want those egos
deserves the story.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
No, I thank you.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
I'm excited to share with you because I think you're
going to find so much commonality between the stuff that
we had to endure, see become, you know, and evolved into,
you know, in order to have you know, the shot
that we had. But yeah, it was nice to hear
how we connected on that level, because my story is
(37:07):
is quite quite similar, you know, and I don't know
how many people out there have the same similar story.
I think I think about, you know, who my grandparents were,
who my parents were, and you know, like what they
had to do in order for me to come America
so that I can learn and speaking is like all
these things like really uh fascinated me.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Wilmer, thank you so much for hearing my story. Now
I am interested in hearing your story. I mean, your
your book is wonderful again, and people know a lot
about you, and I don't want to divulge too much
so that everyone could go and buy Wimar bald Ramo's book,
But I want to hear your story, my brother, and
I know that there's a lot of similarities and commonality
(37:45):
and I'm just so looking forward to hearing it. So
maybe on the.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
Next episode, to the next episode.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
Those Amigos is a production from WV Sound and iHeart
Media's Michael Thuda podcast network, hosted by Me, Freddie Rodriguez,
and Wilmer Valdorama.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
Those Amigos is produced by Aaron Burlison and Sophie Spencers Zebos.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
Our executive producers are Wilmer Valderrama, Freddie Rodriguez, Aaron Burlason,
and Leo Klem at WV Sound.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
This episode was edited by Ryan Posts and Aaron Burlison
and features original music by Madison Devenport and Halo boy.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
Our cover art photography is by David Avalos and designed
by Deny Holtzklaw and.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
Special thanks to every single interview for joining this journey
and I hope you continue to enjoy us.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
For more podcasts from my Heart, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
See you or hear us in a week or so.
Hosts And Creators
Wilmer Valderrama
Freddy Rodriguez
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