00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey, there are folks quick, can you name the highest grossing Spanish language movie of all time? It's okay, I couldn't either, But then I found out who wrote, directed, and starred in it, and I said, oh, that guy.
00:00:22
Speaker 2: We love that guy, and that guy just happens to be our guest right here today on this episode of Amy and TJ.
00:00:29
Speaker 1: Welcome everybody to the show.
00:00:31
Speaker 3: Rose.
00:00:31
Speaker 1: This is like, you're giddy. You know him, you know him so well, you love him and everything you've seen, and now we got him in here with us.
00:00:39
Speaker 4: A you Henneo Derbez and that smiles, even his face, like as soon as you see it, it makes what doesn't matter what kind of day you're having, all of a sudden you feel lighter, brighter, better. He is that light and certainly everything he's been touching as a blade has been turning to gold. I mean, it's an incredible story. A Hano, thank you for being with us, and congratulations on all of your remarkable success.
00:01:06
Speaker 3: Oh, thank you guys. First of all, thanks for so beautiful introduction. I had chills. Thank you very much, thank you, thank you, thank you. Well. Yeah, I am, I'm a very familiar face to all Latinos. Let's say they've been watching my shows for decades, but I'm a kind of a new phase for the for the Americans. It's it's a great story because I had a career my entire life. I worked in Mexico, from Mexico for all Latin America, and and eleven years ago after my I did a movie called Instructions Not Included. That was the one who had the title of the highest crossing Spanish language film ever worldwide. And that movie changed my and so eleven years ago I moved to the US and I started from scratch in my career here in the US. So it's been it's been a trip.
00:02:14
Speaker 4: You started from scratch. You have a you know, a star on the Hollywood Walk of FG, which is always like that big You've made it moment, and that is that was nine years ago. Even so all you've done since then. When I see you, I think of how to be a Latin lover. I think about the Overboard remake because that is literally my favorite movie, the original of all time. And you all just did Anna Faris. It was such a cute flip on a script that I loved. But Dora, the Lost City of gold. I mean, you just name it. And so all of you have been on the big screen for some many of us. But now you're wrapping up a highly successful four seasons on Apple plus Acapulco and we've been watching it all morning long. It just puts you on a good mood. It's such a great fun just like it's It's something that you don't have out there and a lot of the streaming services, something that's wholesome even and fun.
00:03:07
Speaker 3: To watch absolutely well. I always wanted to. I remember that I grew up watching a series with my parents, The Beverly Hill Billies, the Monsters, the Adams Family, the Love Boats, you name it, many many many, and I was like, why they don't do family stuff right now? Everything is about kidnapping, murders, blood, sex, violence, And I wanted to do something that could you could watch with your family. And also I wanted to portray Mexico in a different way because every time you would turn on the news and you hear about Mexico, it's always about narcos killing all the bad stuff that I know it's there, but Mexico is more, much more than that, and I really wanted to show Mexico the others side of Mexico that sometimes the news doesn't show. So that's why we came up with this idea of a Capulco that it's it's based slightly based in in How to Be a Latin Lover. It's like the prequel of How to Be a Latin Lover that if you if you haven't watched the movie, it's a very very very funny movie with Sana Hayek, Robbulo, Kristen Bell, Michael Sarah. It's a great cast and it was hilarious and Raquel Welch also it was her last movie. So anyway, we decided to do this prequel called Akapulco, and thank god we've been on the air for the last four seasons.
00:04:53
Speaker 1: You talked about how successful a lot fat might I know you were wildly successful in Mexico. Everybody knows you, of course in Latin America. But to compare for me, if you will, compare might be the wrong word, but success in Mexico as a television or movie star and success in Hollywood as a television or movie star, and some of that. You could talk about the practical rewards and what life looks like. But for you personally, How did those two accomplishments even compare or feel different to conquering Mexico or and then conquering a certain degree Hollywood.
00:05:30
Speaker 3: It's completely different. I remember that I tried to do the crossover for many many years. I remember that I was, let me tell you really quickly story I was in. I fell in love with Hollywood. Since I was a kid. I used to go to the movie theaters to watch Hollywood movies with my mom and we watched like three movies on Friday, four movies on Saturday, three movies. It was insane. I really loved with movies. And every year I was watching the Oscars, and one day I told my mom while we were watching the Oscars, that's what I want to do when I grow up. I want to tell stories. I want to be a storyteller. And since then I fell in love with Hollywood. But then I started working in Mexico. Thank god, I had a very successful career. And it was until my mom died when I was forty two. And when I somebody called me, I always think that it was my mom from heaven reminding me that I had a dream. But anyway, she passed after she passed. Like two weeks later, I received the call from an agent from Hollywood, and that's when I remember, of course I had a dream. So first thing I did, I said, yeah, let's have a meeting in la And I immediately called Berlitz and I started taking English lessons because my English was really, really really it is still I'm still a working progress, but it was really bad back then. And I started learning English, real English at forty two, and well, yeah, and here I am. I started. I had a meeting then I long story, I'm not gonna bore you, but I ended up three years after that meeting. I ended up doing a play in Broadway on Broadway at the Helen Hayes Theater called Latino Loagues. And then I did a movie with Adam Sandler Blah blah blah blah blah, Jack and Jill. And then I did a TV series with Rob Schnyder called Rob and I was ten years later, after trying to do the crossover, finally I did Broadway. I did my movie with Adam Sandler, I did a series and many other things in the middle and then I said, Okay, I I had it. I'm going to go back to my country because this it was taking a lot of energy from me. Because I had my career in Mexico. I was like shooting all the week long my my TV shows, and then during the weekends I was coming to the US to do my stuff. It was insane. So I said, not anymore, and I went back to Mexico and to do my movie called Instruction Not Included. And when I quit the American Dream and I came back, it came back when it is the theaters. So it's a it's a it's a great story. You know.
00:08:45
Speaker 1: I'm curious about the We were just talking about this with Bad Money the other night. Well, he did Saturday Night Live. He did, He hosted Saturday Night Live. English is not his first language either, and I was thinking about how terrifying that is if I had to go to fans and get in front of a live television audience, no matter how good my French might be. When you started learning English at forty two, how long before you got the first gig in which you had to perform in English? And what did that feel like? Having to like this is it? You got to try out the English you've been learning and do it on camera.
00:09:20
Speaker 3: That's a great question. I this is a story I went to I came to La as a tourist one not a tourists. I had to learn English after that meeting. I remember that I took my meeting and I said, I need urgently to take English lessnse. So I went to Berlin's. I took like a week intense week course and then the teacher sent me to see a play called Latino Loogux that was in a at the current theater, this small theater in La and I saw this monologues and I said I I cannot do this. I have to be honest with me. I can't do this. But but the director.
00:10:08
Speaker 4: Uh.
00:10:08
Speaker 3: There was a Latin actor who knew me. He saw me in the in the audience and he presented me with the director. The director invited me, if you ever want to do a monologue, just call me and come to La and do it. And I was like, I didn't tell him, but I was like, I cannot do this. I know my ligit. I cannot do this. Well. It was in my head for three months and after three months I said I'm gonna do it. So I called the director. They sent me three monologues. I learned the monologues by I mean literally by the book. I didn't know what I was saying. I was trying to do some research, but it was a lot of slang and things that were related with the culture, and I was afraid of asking because I didn't want to lose the opportunity. So I just learned everything just by the book memory memorized. I didn't I saw I was not understanding what I was saying. And I finally showed up like six months later. So I was still learning English when I stood up in front of this audience in La and I delivered my first monologue like nine months after I started studying and studying English. And that night, after that monologue, I went to a hotel, to my hotel to sleep, and I had an internal bleeding because of the stress I had, and I ended up. I ended up in the hospital. I had to call nine one one because I was fainting. I called the reception. I was like, I feel really bad. So anyway, story short story, I went to the hospital because I was because the amount of stress that I had that night, it was insane.
00:12:04
Speaker 1: Jesus.
00:12:05
Speaker 4: I mean that just speaks to what you put yourself through there was a physical manifestation of the stress and the worry, all the hard work. I'm for the pressure you put on yourself to be the best, but my goodness, yeah, and then what did you change?
00:12:22
Speaker 3: Did you?
00:12:22
Speaker 4: How did you evolve from that where Okay, I can now get up and perform and not feel this terrible and this scared. How long did it take?
00:12:32
Speaker 3: Well? I after that night, I continued every every single weekend without any payment. They just let me perform. I had to pay my own hotels, flights, everything. So every weekend I was like going back to LA to perform until three years later. Three years later, every single weekend performing we ended up on Broadway with that play. That was a play that we presented on Broadway. So but before that, it was insane, I know, and I was I wasn't Broadway and I was telling my my, my, my friends. The actors that were performing with me. I was like, why you never told me that I was mispronouncing a lot of words And they were like, well, we thought you were like playing with the with the language, making fun of the language. I was like, no, no, no, it was me mispronouncing. But let me tell you story, uh I? I mean after I decided to do this. I mean I I went to the hospital that day. I'm sorry because I'm like, I don't want you to confuse you. I decided to to finally perform in English every weekend. Then I went back to Mexico. I I did Broadway in La, no Broadway in New York, and then I went back to La to do the Adam Sander movie, then the Rob Schneider and then I quit the American Dream. But I was still working in Mexico with my show on my TV shows that were airing every single week at the same time. So it was really really tired, tired for me. And then I had to make a decision. When the movie opens in two thoy thirteen and it became the highest grossing splanis Langlas film in the US and worldwide, my agents told me, you need to come to the US, and it's now or never. So I closed my office, my production company, every my entire life. I shut down my entire life in Mexico to move to the US. And I was fifty two by then, So it's been it's been an insane adventure.
00:15:04
Speaker 4: And you know, a you hennyway, I think it is so cool for people to hear and to listen because people think I'm too old. I can't do this, I can't learn that. I can't be that vulnerable. I can't push myself that hard. I'm this age to hear you tell your story and to see your level of success. It wasn't luck, it wasn't right place, right time. It was courage, and it was hard work. And that was and of course you're talented, you have to have that foundation. But that is so inspirational and I appreciate. I know people listening appreciate hearing your story because we give up too quickly. But to hear what you did and to see your success, it's awesome.
00:15:55
Speaker 1: Even I appreciate hearing it.
00:15:56
Speaker 3: Oh, thank you. It was. It was hard because I remember that I was fifty two when I took a lip of faith and I left everything behind. Everyone. Everyone in Mexico was telling me, are you crazy? I mean, you have a family, You had the highest My show was number one on ratings in Mexico. Imagine like, I don't know if all of a sudden, Jimmy fallon quitting his job and going to China to start all over in another language.
00:16:32
Speaker 4: Yeah, that would be saying.
00:16:34
Speaker 3: It was insane in the room. Are you crazy? Your show is number one on the Are you going to quit your show? Your production company? Everything? But I felt inside of me that it was my dreams. Inside was a kid that I and I fought for it like it left ten years before and it didn't really happen. So it was now or never. So I moved to LA and it was this is a true story. When I took them, I make the decision to move to the US. June nineteenth, I was flying with my wife finally with all my luggage to start a new life in the US. And that day we woke up at four am. We say we said goodbye to my house for many many years, friends, family, and I was on the airplane with my wife and I was like, I asked her, do you think we're making the right decision? And she was like, my love, it's too late. Let's just go for it. We were flying and when we landed in LA we had hundreds of messages. While we were flying from Mexico to LA. They gave me the start in the Hollywood Book of Fame. While we were flying. I mean, if I put this in a movie, They will say, come on the day you were moving from Mexico, that day you received it. Well, that really happened in real life.
00:18:07
Speaker 2: And when we come on sign oh come on it no way, this is the universe asking your question that you asked me when we were about to take off.
00:18:20
Speaker 3: So it's crazy that that same day, when we were flying, I received the news that I got the starting the Hollywood Block of Fame.
00:18:29
Speaker 4: It's called validation from the universe.
00:18:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, are you one of those folks who again, I've been on board with this more of the past few years because of my dear Amy Robot here. But don't ignore the signs from the universe. Are you one that now pays attention to signs? Are you one that follows or you one that kind of has ignored them a lot of times in your life? Because this one was a clear sign.
00:18:53
Speaker 3: Absolutely. I I I'm always looking for those signs that life is given you. And the first time I really understood the value of flowing. Actually I'm right right now, I'm writing a movie about about that. But the first time I pay attention was when I in two thousand and one, I was doing my shows were like number one. For the first time I was the peak of my career in television in Mexico and I wanted to transition to movies and nobody wanted to hire me. And I was like, but why, I mean, I have the highest ratings. All the companies wanted to work with me, but not the the movie directors, the director from the movies. They didn't want to hire me, and they said, you are too commercial, too commercial for us, you are the TV comedian. So they never gave me the opportunity. And that's when I and back then, I said this is not fair. Life is not fair. I was blaming on everyone and and but because of that, I had the courage to start writing my first movie, because I said, if nobody's gonna is giving me the opportunity, I have to build my own opportunity. And that day I sat down to start writing my own movie. Twelve years later, that movie was instructions not included. When I I was finishing the movie, I told my produce, my co producer, I was like, I want to put at the very end in the credits something like I want to thank all the people who rejected me, because thanks to them, I could make this movie. I didn't do it but that was a lesson. Sometimes life is you you feel that this is unfair. Why is this happening to me? It's the universe telling you it's this way, not this way.
00:21:14
Speaker 1: You didn't have to put that at the end of your movie at all, because when you were on the Oscar stage with your cast from Coda getting a freaking Oscar, I assure you that was a bigger message than anything you could have put at the credits.
00:21:29
Speaker 3: Now I got Chelsea, yeah.
00:21:32
Speaker 4: Oh yes, we didn't even talk about Soda that movie. My god, what I've seen it twice now, but your performance, along with everyone else in that cast, that had to be What was that moment like you've just described how you have, you know, just paved your way like a bulldozer, just finding a way, forging your own path to be standing on that stage for that incredible piece of art. What was that moment? Like?
00:22:02
Speaker 3: It was surreal. As I told you before, I used to watch the Oscars every year since I was eight years old. I was watching every year the Oscars with my mom by my side. So if you see the video when we are receiving the Oscar at the very end, you will see me back looking at the sky and I was talking with my mom. It's it's there. I don't have the picture right now, but I was like Mom. Inside of me, I was like telling Mom, I'm here. I mean, I know, many many years ago, I was on the other side of the TV in my house in Mexico watching the Oscars. Now I'm here. Finally. I couldn't believe it. And I swear that year there were there were many, many, many movies with it was Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, will Smith, Al Pacino, Lady Gaga, your Red Letto. The casts of the other movies was insane, and we were small independent movie with no big names. So I was absolutely sure that we were not gonna win. It was like so I enjoyed the Oscars so bad because I was like, I'm sure this, It's just I we're not gonna win. I don't have to speak anything. So I was just watching the Oscars. I was a little bit shocked by the slap because that year was well remember but all of the time when they said and the winner is coda, I just couldn't believe. I'm I don't have I don't remember what happened when between they said coda, and I went to the stage. I was like, it was like all the memories coming into my head and the shock that I don't even remember what happened between they said code and I went to the stage. It was insane.
00:24:07
Speaker 1: But how did your life change from the moment you got off that stage. We've seen the projects you've been doing and what now, But really what how did you feel life got different from you? Almost literally from the moment you walked off that stage.
00:24:20
Speaker 3: Everything changes in your life. I remember that in just I was shooting a movie called Radical and I had to. I stopped shooting for just twenty four hours to go to the Oscars, and then I went back to Mexico and just the airport was insane, insane. I couldn't walk when I came back to my country because the press was there and they didn't let me even walk outside the airport and a lot of offers, and I remember that I had to. It's very dangerous when you you get to that point, because you have to make a lot of big decisions. And I think I was not ready for that, because you have a lot of voices like don't take any job, wait for something more important, and on the other side, it's like, no, no, no, this is a great opportunity. It's really really, really life changing. It's complicated. And then on the other hand, I'm well known for being a comedian, so constantly everyone wanted me to do comedy, and I want to do more drama. So it was like also a struggle, a big struggle in what kind of offers take and what to do with my career from now on. So it's been a challenge, I.
00:25:46
Speaker 4: Mean, and I think it's so cool to see your work and to see you building your career across two cultures, and to be able to be bilingual and to have some Spanish and some English in your projects, to ring and unite two neighboring countries together in the midst of a lot of political upheaval. How do you balance making the art you make with the realities that you see all around you? I mean, that has to be tough, you know. Do you speak out? Do you say what you think? Do you feel like you would be ostracized in a way if you actually spoke how you truly feel? I mean, I'm just curious, as an artist and as a Mexican, how you balance that.
00:26:26
Speaker 3: It's really hard to balance because, as I just mentioned, I want to do something more significant, something deeper, especially after Coda. When I was shooting Coda, I remember that we had the project and I beg you to watch a movie called Radical, because Radical was one of the projects that I wanted to do for many, many years. But the studios were like, no, no, no, you are the funny guy. You did a one hundred million dollars with instruction not included overboarded also one hundred million dollars at the box office, so you need to continue doing comedies. And I wanted to do something deeper, something different. I wanted to explore drama, et cetera. And Coda, thank God, was the project that opened a small door to start changing that that vision that all the producers have of me. So it's helped me a lot because after Code, I did Radical that won the Sundance Film Festival and it's based on a true story. It's incredible. You have to watch it. And but still until this day is for me a very very complicated because the studios, the producers, they were always asking me to commercial stuff and I don't really want to. I want to do something different, and that's been the struggle to balance my entire life between I know that I can make a lot of money and at the box office, at least in Latin America. I've been always thank god I have a very faithful fan base, but at the same time, I want to do something different, and it's been it's been very complicated to find the balance I.
00:28:30
Speaker 1: Have there and trying to find the balance. You're talking about some somebody's offering you something and then somebody saying, hey, you need to hold on for something bigger. Has there been something or projects that have come along that you did say no to and then you see how they came out later and you go, damn, I could have done that better, or man, I would have Do you have those roles and movies that you have given up and just something that still sticks with you, like, damn, I shouldn't have given that one up.
00:28:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, since the beginning of my career, Okay, let me I said no. I said no to Alphonso when he was in his first movie. He was he was a student, he was not well known. I was I was already working on TV. And he called me for his first movie project, and and I said no to him, and and I think that's why I've never worked with him again, because.
00:29:28
Speaker 1: Why do you say no?
00:29:30
Speaker 3: Because I was I just had my first TV show. After many many years of uh you know, uh struggling of asking for jobs in Mexico, I was starting my career and this is I got finally my first TV show in Mexico when Alphonso called me and he was still a student at UH and in the in Mexico, in in a place in a school called well whatever, c CEC. I think it's CCC and UH, and he was doing his how do you call his final exam with a movie called solo only with your I know how it translates to do English like only with your partner or only with your something. So uh. The thing is that I was doing the skilly show and I was like, I'm too busy right now. This guy is a very nice students, but I don't have time to do things. So thank you allphone, so thank you very much. And I didn't do that, so I of course I regretted a lot. And now we're friends. He's a friend of mine, but he's never hired me again.
00:30:56
Speaker 4: And do you have a lot of I can only imagine how many young men and women, especially from Mexico, look up to you and say, I want to do what Aohinio did, I want to be like him? What advice do you give, especially those young folks, but anyone truly who looks at someone's improbable story like yours and think, how could I do that? Or I could never do that?
00:31:29
Speaker 3: I would say, And it's something I always mentioned to especially to students. Never say I cannot do this. Ever, it's complicated, but the only way that I've at least in my experience. Don't put your life or your opportunities in somebody else's hands. Create your own opportunities. So I'm always telling if you want to make a movie, or you want to make it TV show, whatever you want to do, write it yourself. But I'm not a writer, okay, So go and work as a waiter, or go wash cars or do whatever you want, make some money, and then hire a writer and sit down with him with him. Not just please write something, No, sit down with him. Develop your own script. And that's the only way you're going to achieve your dreams. Don't wait until someone calls you. Create your own opportunities. Don't ask for a job, Come and knock at the door with the proposal. That's what it changed my life.
00:32:45
Speaker 1: How do you the folks you do tell that to the maybe young students are up and coming actors, writers, directors, How do they receive that news? I asked that because sometimes a younger generation gets no, no, sometimes criticized for wanting it all too quickly, or I'll I'll use a YouTube channel and I just want to go viral kind of a thing. And they look at you and they see your success. They don't know the grind and the every weekend for three years in la flights you're making right, So how do they receive that news when you tell them put your head down and get to work.
00:33:20
Speaker 3: I feel that nowadays generation they don't understand that anymore. It's like they, as you just said, they want everything quick, easy and and and unfortunately this device, it's it's danger because anyone from your house, from your home, you can just put it in front and do this. For the reason that I don't understand why you have ten million US and now you're famous. And of course how can why I would listen to Ans or TG or Amy or or Robert de Niro or whever you want. When I know that by doing I'm going to have ten million reviews and companies are gonna pay me a lot of money for doing so. It's that's another world.
00:34:17
Speaker 4: How old are your kids are you, Haniel?
00:34:19
Speaker 3: I have three grown ups thirty well, yeah, thirty seven, thirty three, and thirty one, and a little one eleven. The little one, Yeah, the little one is like that. I didn't we were not expecting to have another kid, but we finally decided to and she changed my entire life. So and now I'm struggling with having her off screen as much as possible.
00:34:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's eleven. You said we had a twelve year old.
00:34:55
Speaker 3: Here you are eleven. So we have to make them understand that this is not good for anyone.
00:35:06
Speaker 4: But I think it's pretty cool to hear about the fact that you and your adult children and your wife all forming a company together. I mean, that is the dream, isn't it for so many people? Just to do what you love and then to do it with the people you love. How has that been navigating that?
00:35:23
Speaker 3: Well, let me tell you all my kids, for some reason, they decided to be to get to be in the show business. So all of them are independent and all of them are successful. They are starring each one of them. They're starting already their own movies, serious TV shows. And my three kids and my wife is a very popular pop singer right now, she's in Mexico, she's touring. She's always like performing in front of twenty five thousand people. So we decided one day to do a show called Traveling with Lost Their Best Traveling with their Best family, and you can watch it and on Amazon worldwide, and I think in the US unfortunately it's in a small platform called vix but it's one of the most and I think it's number one series for Amazon in Latin America. So every single year we do a trip. We just launched Japan season. We went to Japan with the entire family and it's really really successful. I don't know why it was for me, it was an experiment, but it worked really well. I was like, people are not going to be interested in me traveling with my family. It's gonna be it's not gonna happen. People are not gonna watch this. Well, it was a huge success. So after five seasons, we decided to launch a studio with my entire family and we are going to start We're going to start working in our own stuff. We're not going to wait for companies, studios or platforms to hire us. We're going to start producing our own stuff with our own ideas. And that's the idea of this to you.
00:37:18
Speaker 1: And you wonder why they want you to keep doing comedy. You've gone through everything you touched. This was number one, this was the highest person in this, this was number one here, and this was number one. So yeah, they see your number one resume and it's hard. Why would we have him step out of that lane where he's successful. But to your point, it's a good one. I think a lot of actors that already struggle with that, even musicians right trying to try something new. So I applaud you for doing so and sticking with it. My last question for you has to do with you know you mentioned it at the top right. It's difficult to see and you're trying to give a different impression in our view of Mexico. And I know we've turned the TV here every single day and the debates are going on in politics. I'm not going to get into a political debate, but it has gotten nasty with immigration talk and the ice raids. If you had a chance to, I know, you can't sit down with every single American who's maybe you applaud in the ice raids and maybe don't maybe have a colder heart when it comes to the compassion for people who are maybe here illegally for whatever reason. If you had a chance, though, to just make a plead to them to soften their hearts a little bit about what they're seeing. Nobody here wants anyone to break the law and get away with it. We all can agree on that, but there's a little compassion sometimes that's missing from the conversation. For you, if you could just take a moment for those Americans, what would you say to them to try to possibly just soften the heart or give a little different perspective.
00:38:45
Speaker 3: Thank you for this opportunity and for this question. I would say, I know that we just see or feel that all these people coming to this country are stealing jobs. First of all, they're not stealing anything. They are the ones that start America at four am by cooking cleaning. When you arrive to your office, a Latino already cooked your breakfast, or clean your floor or whatever in any area. We are hard working people, but we're in this country not because we want to make more money or steal a job. Most of the people that are all these immigrants that come to the US are clean, are running away from violence. It's not their fault. I swear. I've seen these people that are constantly threatened. They rape their woman's their child, they're steal their houses. The narcos sometimes many of them, they're constantly making. All these people flee from their countries because they're again they're raping, stealing, There's no job opportunities, so these people are starving, so they come to the US just to find some peace, to find a decent way to make a living, and to feed their families and their kids. So I just want to put this on the table, because they're not criminals, or they're not just looking well, let's go to the US to make more money. Why not. No, they're literally fleeing from being killed or being raped or starving, and all they want is to work decently and try to feed their families.
00:40:57
Speaker 4: You know, and we appreciate that. I can't imagine just the pull that must but you must feel, and so many other just Latino Americans and Latinos around the world just feeling torn because people don't understand unless you've walked in their shoes. And I think that's what we're all hoping for.
00:41:17
Speaker 3: I mean, so.
00:41:17
Speaker 4: Many of us just want there to be just more perspective and bigger hearts and just a willingness to try and understand and to ask questions instead of to throw accusations.
00:41:29
Speaker 3: So yeah, we appreciate that, no think. And of course in one and I don't know in between, in ten thousand people probably are two that are not good people, but they're like pointing them like they're like they they're like gang members, like you kill assistance or rapers. They're not. They're good people and they're they have families, and it breaks my heart to see how they are like reporting them and tearing them away from their kids and making I don't know, it's a mess. It's a very complicated subject.
00:42:11
Speaker 4: Well, the art that you make, uh and certainly just even programs like Alcopolco, which I love that you're part of your mission is to show people your culture, your people, not in the way they've been depicted on the news, but in the way you live, breathe see experience them. And anyone who travels to your beautiful country knows the same. We're huge fans.
00:42:33
Speaker 1: We're there.
00:42:33
Speaker 4: We try to be there at least once a year. We love the West and the East coast. They are and we I still want to go to Mexico City.
00:42:41
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start going on the weekend. Get my Spanish better.
00:42:47
Speaker 3: Yes, Mexico City. It's a great, great city. It's it's it's it's so completely different from anything else you'll see. And great food, by the way, it is in there.
00:42:57
Speaker 4: It's on my list. But yes, we are just huge fans of yours and your work and just continued success. I don't think that you need any like adda boys from us, because certainly you are self motivated in a way most people are not, and you have read benefits and just your warm heart, your beautiful smile.
00:43:17
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you about you being okay. We know whatever happens, you're gonna be fine. You'll work your way out of it. It'll be fine.
00:43:24
Speaker 2: Man.
00:43:25
Speaker 1: It is an absolute pleasure and it's an inspiration. Look, we didn't know how this was going to go and how much stuff to promote, but once you started talking, we just wanted to talk to you back. So if you know no notes. We just wanted to have a conversation with you man, and this is absolutely been beautiful for it. Thank you so much, this man.
00:43:42
Speaker 3: Thank you for this opportunity. I was really nervous because i know your podcast is listening by many many people, and I'm always worried about my English because I'm still working on my English every single day, I swear. But now that I happened in eleven year old, she constantly request me, like, Dad, it's not this, it's that. And I'm always speaking in Spanish at home because I want her not to lose the Spanish, but I'm losing my English because of that.
00:44:16
Speaker 1: Thank you.
00:44:18
Speaker 4: Please give love to your beautiful family, and thanks for being on the podcast.
00:44:22
Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you for inviting me. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: Hey, there are folks quick, can you name the highest grossing Spanish language movie of all time? It's okay, I couldn't either, But then I found out who wrote, directed, and starred in it, and I said, oh, that guy.
00:00:22
Speaker 2: We love that guy, and that guy just happens to be our guest right here today on this episode of Amy and TJ.
00:00:29
Speaker 1: Welcome everybody to the show.
00:00:31
Speaker 3: Rose.
00:00:31
Speaker 1: This is like, you're giddy. You know him, you know him so well, you love him and everything you've seen, and now we got him in here with us.
00:00:39
Speaker 4: A you Henneo Derbez and that smiles, even his face, like as soon as you see it, it makes what doesn't matter what kind of day you're having, all of a sudden you feel lighter, brighter, better. He is that light and certainly everything he's been touching as a blade has been turning to gold. I mean, it's an incredible story. A Hano, thank you for being with us, and congratulations on all of your remarkable success.
00:01:06
Speaker 3: Oh, thank you guys. First of all, thanks for so beautiful introduction. I had chills. Thank you very much, thank you, thank you, thank you. Well. Yeah, I am, I'm a very familiar face to all Latinos. Let's say they've been watching my shows for decades, but I'm a kind of a new phase for the for the Americans. It's it's a great story because I had a career my entire life. I worked in Mexico, from Mexico for all Latin America, and and eleven years ago after my I did a movie called Instructions Not Included. That was the one who had the title of the highest crossing Spanish language film ever worldwide. And that movie changed my and so eleven years ago I moved to the US and I started from scratch in my career here in the US. So it's been it's been a trip.
00:02:14
Speaker 4: You started from scratch. You have a you know, a star on the Hollywood Walk of FG, which is always like that big You've made it moment, and that is that was nine years ago. Even so all you've done since then. When I see you, I think of how to be a Latin lover. I think about the Overboard remake because that is literally my favorite movie, the original of all time. And you all just did Anna Faris. It was such a cute flip on a script that I loved. But Dora, the Lost City of gold. I mean, you just name it. And so all of you have been on the big screen for some many of us. But now you're wrapping up a highly successful four seasons on Apple plus Acapulco and we've been watching it all morning long. It just puts you on a good mood. It's such a great fun just like it's It's something that you don't have out there and a lot of the streaming services, something that's wholesome even and fun.
00:03:07
Speaker 3: To watch absolutely well. I always wanted to. I remember that I grew up watching a series with my parents, The Beverly Hill Billies, the Monsters, the Adams Family, the Love Boats, you name it, many many many, and I was like, why they don't do family stuff right now? Everything is about kidnapping, murders, blood, sex, violence, And I wanted to do something that could you could watch with your family. And also I wanted to portray Mexico in a different way because every time you would turn on the news and you hear about Mexico, it's always about narcos killing all the bad stuff that I know it's there, but Mexico is more, much more than that, and I really wanted to show Mexico the others side of Mexico that sometimes the news doesn't show. So that's why we came up with this idea of a Capulco that it's it's based slightly based in in How to Be a Latin Lover. It's like the prequel of How to Be a Latin Lover that if you if you haven't watched the movie, it's a very very very funny movie with Sana Hayek, Robbulo, Kristen Bell, Michael Sarah. It's a great cast and it was hilarious and Raquel Welch also it was her last movie. So anyway, we decided to do this prequel called Akapulco, and thank god we've been on the air for the last four seasons.
00:04:53
Speaker 1: You talked about how successful a lot fat might I know you were wildly successful in Mexico. Everybody knows you, of course in Latin America. But to compare for me, if you will, compare might be the wrong word, but success in Mexico as a television or movie star and success in Hollywood as a television or movie star, and some of that. You could talk about the practical rewards and what life looks like. But for you personally, How did those two accomplishments even compare or feel different to conquering Mexico or and then conquering a certain degree Hollywood.
00:05:30
Speaker 3: It's completely different. I remember that I tried to do the crossover for many many years. I remember that I was, let me tell you really quickly story I was in. I fell in love with Hollywood. Since I was a kid. I used to go to the movie theaters to watch Hollywood movies with my mom and we watched like three movies on Friday, four movies on Saturday, three movies. It was insane. I really loved with movies. And every year I was watching the Oscars, and one day I told my mom while we were watching the Oscars, that's what I want to do when I grow up. I want to tell stories. I want to be a storyteller. And since then I fell in love with Hollywood. But then I started working in Mexico. Thank god, I had a very successful career. And it was until my mom died when I was forty two. And when I somebody called me, I always think that it was my mom from heaven reminding me that I had a dream. But anyway, she passed after she passed. Like two weeks later, I received the call from an agent from Hollywood, and that's when I remember, of course I had a dream. So first thing I did, I said, yeah, let's have a meeting in la And I immediately called Berlitz and I started taking English lessons because my English was really, really really it is still I'm still a working progress, but it was really bad back then. And I started learning English, real English at forty two, and well, yeah, and here I am. I started. I had a meeting then I long story, I'm not gonna bore you, but I ended up three years after that meeting. I ended up doing a play in Broadway on Broadway at the Helen Hayes Theater called Latino Loagues. And then I did a movie with Adam Sandler Blah blah blah blah blah, Jack and Jill. And then I did a TV series with Rob Schnyder called Rob and I was ten years later, after trying to do the crossover, finally I did Broadway. I did my movie with Adam Sandler, I did a series and many other things in the middle and then I said, Okay, I I had it. I'm going to go back to my country because this it was taking a lot of energy from me. Because I had my career in Mexico. I was like shooting all the week long my my TV shows, and then during the weekends I was coming to the US to do my stuff. It was insane. So I said, not anymore, and I went back to Mexico and to do my movie called Instruction Not Included. And when I quit the American Dream and I came back, it came back when it is the theaters. So it's a it's a it's a great story. You know.
00:08:45
Speaker 1: I'm curious about the We were just talking about this with Bad Money the other night. Well, he did Saturday Night Live. He did, He hosted Saturday Night Live. English is not his first language either, and I was thinking about how terrifying that is if I had to go to fans and get in front of a live television audience, no matter how good my French might be. When you started learning English at forty two, how long before you got the first gig in which you had to perform in English? And what did that feel like? Having to like this is it? You got to try out the English you've been learning and do it on camera.
00:09:20
Speaker 3: That's a great question. I this is a story I went to I came to La as a tourist one not a tourists. I had to learn English after that meeting. I remember that I took my meeting and I said, I need urgently to take English lessnse. So I went to Berlin's. I took like a week intense week course and then the teacher sent me to see a play called Latino Loogux that was in a at the current theater, this small theater in La and I saw this monologues and I said I I cannot do this. I have to be honest with me. I can't do this. But but the director.
00:10:08
Speaker 4: Uh.
00:10:08
Speaker 3: There was a Latin actor who knew me. He saw me in the in the audience and he presented me with the director. The director invited me, if you ever want to do a monologue, just call me and come to La and do it. And I was like, I didn't tell him, but I was like, I cannot do this. I know my ligit. I cannot do this. Well. It was in my head for three months and after three months I said I'm gonna do it. So I called the director. They sent me three monologues. I learned the monologues by I mean literally by the book. I didn't know what I was saying. I was trying to do some research, but it was a lot of slang and things that were related with the culture, and I was afraid of asking because I didn't want to lose the opportunity. So I just learned everything just by the book memory memorized. I didn't I saw I was not understanding what I was saying. And I finally showed up like six months later. So I was still learning English when I stood up in front of this audience in La and I delivered my first monologue like nine months after I started studying and studying English. And that night, after that monologue, I went to a hotel, to my hotel to sleep, and I had an internal bleeding because of the stress I had, and I ended up. I ended up in the hospital. I had to call nine one one because I was fainting. I called the reception. I was like, I feel really bad. So anyway, story short story, I went to the hospital because I was because the amount of stress that I had that night, it was insane.
00:12:04
Speaker 1: Jesus.
00:12:05
Speaker 4: I mean that just speaks to what you put yourself through there was a physical manifestation of the stress and the worry, all the hard work. I'm for the pressure you put on yourself to be the best, but my goodness, yeah, and then what did you change?
00:12:22
Speaker 3: Did you?
00:12:22
Speaker 4: How did you evolve from that where Okay, I can now get up and perform and not feel this terrible and this scared. How long did it take?
00:12:32
Speaker 3: Well? I after that night, I continued every every single weekend without any payment. They just let me perform. I had to pay my own hotels, flights, everything. So every weekend I was like going back to LA to perform until three years later. Three years later, every single weekend performing we ended up on Broadway with that play. That was a play that we presented on Broadway. So but before that, it was insane, I know, and I was I wasn't Broadway and I was telling my my, my, my friends. The actors that were performing with me. I was like, why you never told me that I was mispronouncing a lot of words And they were like, well, we thought you were like playing with the with the language, making fun of the language. I was like, no, no, no, it was me mispronouncing. But let me tell you story, uh I? I mean after I decided to do this. I mean I I went to the hospital that day. I'm sorry because I'm like, I don't want you to confuse you. I decided to to finally perform in English every weekend. Then I went back to Mexico. I I did Broadway in La, no Broadway in New York, and then I went back to La to do the Adam Sander movie, then the Rob Schneider and then I quit the American Dream. But I was still working in Mexico with my show on my TV shows that were airing every single week at the same time. So it was really really tired, tired for me. And then I had to make a decision. When the movie opens in two thoy thirteen and it became the highest grossing splanis Langlas film in the US and worldwide, my agents told me, you need to come to the US, and it's now or never. So I closed my office, my production company, every my entire life. I shut down my entire life in Mexico to move to the US. And I was fifty two by then, So it's been it's been an insane adventure.
00:15:04
Speaker 4: And you know, a you hennyway, I think it is so cool for people to hear and to listen because people think I'm too old. I can't do this, I can't learn that. I can't be that vulnerable. I can't push myself that hard. I'm this age to hear you tell your story and to see your level of success. It wasn't luck, it wasn't right place, right time. It was courage, and it was hard work. And that was and of course you're talented, you have to have that foundation. But that is so inspirational and I appreciate. I know people listening appreciate hearing your story because we give up too quickly. But to hear what you did and to see your success, it's awesome.
00:15:55
Speaker 1: Even I appreciate hearing it.
00:15:56
Speaker 3: Oh, thank you. It was. It was hard because I remember that I was fifty two when I took a lip of faith and I left everything behind. Everyone. Everyone in Mexico was telling me, are you crazy? I mean, you have a family, You had the highest My show was number one on ratings in Mexico. Imagine like, I don't know if all of a sudden, Jimmy fallon quitting his job and going to China to start all over in another language.
00:16:32
Speaker 4: Yeah, that would be saying.
00:16:34
Speaker 3: It was insane in the room. Are you crazy? Your show is number one on the Are you going to quit your show? Your production company? Everything? But I felt inside of me that it was my dreams. Inside was a kid that I and I fought for it like it left ten years before and it didn't really happen. So it was now or never. So I moved to LA and it was this is a true story. When I took them, I make the decision to move to the US. June nineteenth, I was flying with my wife finally with all my luggage to start a new life in the US. And that day we woke up at four am. We say we said goodbye to my house for many many years, friends, family, and I was on the airplane with my wife and I was like, I asked her, do you think we're making the right decision? And she was like, my love, it's too late. Let's just go for it. We were flying and when we landed in LA we had hundreds of messages. While we were flying from Mexico to LA. They gave me the start in the Hollywood Book of Fame. While we were flying. I mean, if I put this in a movie, They will say, come on the day you were moving from Mexico, that day you received it. Well, that really happened in real life.
00:18:07
Speaker 2: And when we come on sign oh come on it no way, this is the universe asking your question that you asked me when we were about to take off.
00:18:20
Speaker 3: So it's crazy that that same day, when we were flying, I received the news that I got the starting the Hollywood Block of Fame.
00:18:29
Speaker 4: It's called validation from the universe.
00:18:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, are you one of those folks who again, I've been on board with this more of the past few years because of my dear Amy Robot here. But don't ignore the signs from the universe. Are you one that now pays attention to signs? Are you one that follows or you one that kind of has ignored them a lot of times in your life? Because this one was a clear sign.
00:18:53
Speaker 3: Absolutely. I I I'm always looking for those signs that life is given you. And the first time I really understood the value of flowing. Actually I'm right right now, I'm writing a movie about about that. But the first time I pay attention was when I in two thousand and one, I was doing my shows were like number one. For the first time I was the peak of my career in television in Mexico and I wanted to transition to movies and nobody wanted to hire me. And I was like, but why, I mean, I have the highest ratings. All the companies wanted to work with me, but not the the movie directors, the director from the movies. They didn't want to hire me, and they said, you are too commercial, too commercial for us, you are the TV comedian. So they never gave me the opportunity. And that's when I and back then, I said this is not fair. Life is not fair. I was blaming on everyone and and but because of that, I had the courage to start writing my first movie, because I said, if nobody's gonna is giving me the opportunity, I have to build my own opportunity. And that day I sat down to start writing my own movie. Twelve years later, that movie was instructions not included. When I I was finishing the movie, I told my produce, my co producer, I was like, I want to put at the very end in the credits something like I want to thank all the people who rejected me, because thanks to them, I could make this movie. I didn't do it but that was a lesson. Sometimes life is you you feel that this is unfair. Why is this happening to me? It's the universe telling you it's this way, not this way.
00:21:14
Speaker 1: You didn't have to put that at the end of your movie at all, because when you were on the Oscar stage with your cast from Coda getting a freaking Oscar, I assure you that was a bigger message than anything you could have put at the credits.
00:21:29
Speaker 3: Now I got Chelsea, yeah.
00:21:32
Speaker 4: Oh yes, we didn't even talk about Soda that movie. My god, what I've seen it twice now, but your performance, along with everyone else in that cast, that had to be What was that moment like you've just described how you have, you know, just paved your way like a bulldozer, just finding a way, forging your own path to be standing on that stage for that incredible piece of art. What was that moment? Like?
00:22:02
Speaker 3: It was surreal. As I told you before, I used to watch the Oscars every year since I was eight years old. I was watching every year the Oscars with my mom by my side. So if you see the video when we are receiving the Oscar at the very end, you will see me back looking at the sky and I was talking with my mom. It's it's there. I don't have the picture right now, but I was like Mom. Inside of me, I was like telling Mom, I'm here. I mean, I know, many many years ago, I was on the other side of the TV in my house in Mexico watching the Oscars. Now I'm here. Finally. I couldn't believe it. And I swear that year there were there were many, many, many movies with it was Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, will Smith, Al Pacino, Lady Gaga, your Red Letto. The casts of the other movies was insane, and we were small independent movie with no big names. So I was absolutely sure that we were not gonna win. It was like so I enjoyed the Oscars so bad because I was like, I'm sure this, It's just I we're not gonna win. I don't have to speak anything. So I was just watching the Oscars. I was a little bit shocked by the slap because that year was well remember but all of the time when they said and the winner is coda, I just couldn't believe. I'm I don't have I don't remember what happened when between they said coda, and I went to the stage. I was like, it was like all the memories coming into my head and the shock that I don't even remember what happened between they said code and I went to the stage. It was insane.
00:24:07
Speaker 1: But how did your life change from the moment you got off that stage. We've seen the projects you've been doing and what now, But really what how did you feel life got different from you? Almost literally from the moment you walked off that stage.
00:24:20
Speaker 3: Everything changes in your life. I remember that in just I was shooting a movie called Radical and I had to. I stopped shooting for just twenty four hours to go to the Oscars, and then I went back to Mexico and just the airport was insane, insane. I couldn't walk when I came back to my country because the press was there and they didn't let me even walk outside the airport and a lot of offers, and I remember that I had to. It's very dangerous when you you get to that point, because you have to make a lot of big decisions. And I think I was not ready for that, because you have a lot of voices like don't take any job, wait for something more important, and on the other side, it's like, no, no, no, this is a great opportunity. It's really really, really life changing. It's complicated. And then on the other hand, I'm well known for being a comedian, so constantly everyone wanted me to do comedy, and I want to do more drama. So it was like also a struggle, a big struggle in what kind of offers take and what to do with my career from now on. So it's been a challenge, I.
00:25:46
Speaker 4: Mean, and I think it's so cool to see your work and to see you building your career across two cultures, and to be able to be bilingual and to have some Spanish and some English in your projects, to ring and unite two neighboring countries together in the midst of a lot of political upheaval. How do you balance making the art you make with the realities that you see all around you? I mean, that has to be tough, you know. Do you speak out? Do you say what you think? Do you feel like you would be ostracized in a way if you actually spoke how you truly feel? I mean, I'm just curious, as an artist and as a Mexican, how you balance that.
00:26:26
Speaker 3: It's really hard to balance because, as I just mentioned, I want to do something more significant, something deeper, especially after Coda. When I was shooting Coda, I remember that we had the project and I beg you to watch a movie called Radical, because Radical was one of the projects that I wanted to do for many, many years. But the studios were like, no, no, no, you are the funny guy. You did a one hundred million dollars with instruction not included overboarded also one hundred million dollars at the box office, so you need to continue doing comedies. And I wanted to do something deeper, something different. I wanted to explore drama, et cetera. And Coda, thank God, was the project that opened a small door to start changing that that vision that all the producers have of me. So it's helped me a lot because after Code, I did Radical that won the Sundance Film Festival and it's based on a true story. It's incredible. You have to watch it. And but still until this day is for me a very very complicated because the studios, the producers, they were always asking me to commercial stuff and I don't really want to. I want to do something different, and that's been the struggle to balance my entire life between I know that I can make a lot of money and at the box office, at least in Latin America. I've been always thank god I have a very faithful fan base, but at the same time, I want to do something different, and it's been it's been very complicated to find the balance I.
00:28:30
Speaker 1: Have there and trying to find the balance. You're talking about some somebody's offering you something and then somebody saying, hey, you need to hold on for something bigger. Has there been something or projects that have come along that you did say no to and then you see how they came out later and you go, damn, I could have done that better, or man, I would have Do you have those roles and movies that you have given up and just something that still sticks with you, like, damn, I shouldn't have given that one up.
00:28:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, since the beginning of my career, Okay, let me I said no. I said no to Alphonso when he was in his first movie. He was he was a student, he was not well known. I was I was already working on TV. And he called me for his first movie project, and and I said no to him, and and I think that's why I've never worked with him again, because.
00:29:28
Speaker 1: Why do you say no?
00:29:30
Speaker 3: Because I was I just had my first TV show. After many many years of uh you know, uh struggling of asking for jobs in Mexico, I was starting my career and this is I got finally my first TV show in Mexico when Alphonso called me and he was still a student at UH and in the in Mexico, in in a place in a school called well whatever, c CEC. I think it's CCC and UH, and he was doing his how do you call his final exam with a movie called solo only with your I know how it translates to do English like only with your partner or only with your something. So uh. The thing is that I was doing the skilly show and I was like, I'm too busy right now. This guy is a very nice students, but I don't have time to do things. So thank you allphone, so thank you very much. And I didn't do that, so I of course I regretted a lot. And now we're friends. He's a friend of mine, but he's never hired me again.
00:30:56
Speaker 4: And do you have a lot of I can only imagine how many young men and women, especially from Mexico, look up to you and say, I want to do what Aohinio did, I want to be like him? What advice do you give, especially those young folks, but anyone truly who looks at someone's improbable story like yours and think, how could I do that? Or I could never do that?
00:31:29
Speaker 3: I would say, And it's something I always mentioned to especially to students. Never say I cannot do this. Ever, it's complicated, but the only way that I've at least in my experience. Don't put your life or your opportunities in somebody else's hands. Create your own opportunities. So I'm always telling if you want to make a movie, or you want to make it TV show, whatever you want to do, write it yourself. But I'm not a writer, okay, So go and work as a waiter, or go wash cars or do whatever you want, make some money, and then hire a writer and sit down with him with him. Not just please write something, No, sit down with him. Develop your own script. And that's the only way you're going to achieve your dreams. Don't wait until someone calls you. Create your own opportunities. Don't ask for a job, Come and knock at the door with the proposal. That's what it changed my life.
00:32:45
Speaker 1: How do you the folks you do tell that to the maybe young students are up and coming actors, writers, directors, How do they receive that news? I asked that because sometimes a younger generation gets no, no, sometimes criticized for wanting it all too quickly, or I'll I'll use a YouTube channel and I just want to go viral kind of a thing. And they look at you and they see your success. They don't know the grind and the every weekend for three years in la flights you're making right, So how do they receive that news when you tell them put your head down and get to work.
00:33:20
Speaker 3: I feel that nowadays generation they don't understand that anymore. It's like they, as you just said, they want everything quick, easy and and and unfortunately this device, it's it's danger because anyone from your house, from your home, you can just put it in front and do this. For the reason that I don't understand why you have ten million US and now you're famous. And of course how can why I would listen to Ans or TG or Amy or or Robert de Niro or whever you want. When I know that by doing I'm going to have ten million reviews and companies are gonna pay me a lot of money for doing so. It's that's another world.
00:34:17
Speaker 4: How old are your kids are you, Haniel?
00:34:19
Speaker 3: I have three grown ups thirty well, yeah, thirty seven, thirty three, and thirty one, and a little one eleven. The little one, Yeah, the little one is like that. I didn't we were not expecting to have another kid, but we finally decided to and she changed my entire life. So and now I'm struggling with having her off screen as much as possible.
00:34:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's eleven. You said we had a twelve year old.
00:34:55
Speaker 3: Here you are eleven. So we have to make them understand that this is not good for anyone.
00:35:06
Speaker 4: But I think it's pretty cool to hear about the fact that you and your adult children and your wife all forming a company together. I mean, that is the dream, isn't it for so many people? Just to do what you love and then to do it with the people you love. How has that been navigating that?
00:35:23
Speaker 3: Well, let me tell you all my kids, for some reason, they decided to be to get to be in the show business. So all of them are independent and all of them are successful. They are starring each one of them. They're starting already their own movies, serious TV shows. And my three kids and my wife is a very popular pop singer right now, she's in Mexico, she's touring. She's always like performing in front of twenty five thousand people. So we decided one day to do a show called Traveling with Lost Their Best Traveling with their Best family, and you can watch it and on Amazon worldwide, and I think in the US unfortunately it's in a small platform called vix but it's one of the most and I think it's number one series for Amazon in Latin America. So every single year we do a trip. We just launched Japan season. We went to Japan with the entire family and it's really really successful. I don't know why it was for me, it was an experiment, but it worked really well. I was like, people are not going to be interested in me traveling with my family. It's gonna be it's not gonna happen. People are not gonna watch this. Well, it was a huge success. So after five seasons, we decided to launch a studio with my entire family and we are going to start We're going to start working in our own stuff. We're not going to wait for companies, studios or platforms to hire us. We're going to start producing our own stuff with our own ideas. And that's the idea of this to you.
00:37:18
Speaker 1: And you wonder why they want you to keep doing comedy. You've gone through everything you touched. This was number one, this was the highest person in this, this was number one here, and this was number one. So yeah, they see your number one resume and it's hard. Why would we have him step out of that lane where he's successful. But to your point, it's a good one. I think a lot of actors that already struggle with that, even musicians right trying to try something new. So I applaud you for doing so and sticking with it. My last question for you has to do with you know you mentioned it at the top right. It's difficult to see and you're trying to give a different impression in our view of Mexico. And I know we've turned the TV here every single day and the debates are going on in politics. I'm not going to get into a political debate, but it has gotten nasty with immigration talk and the ice raids. If you had a chance to, I know, you can't sit down with every single American who's maybe you applaud in the ice raids and maybe don't maybe have a colder heart when it comes to the compassion for people who are maybe here illegally for whatever reason. If you had a chance, though, to just make a plead to them to soften their hearts a little bit about what they're seeing. Nobody here wants anyone to break the law and get away with it. We all can agree on that, but there's a little compassion sometimes that's missing from the conversation. For you, if you could just take a moment for those Americans, what would you say to them to try to possibly just soften the heart or give a little different perspective.
00:38:45
Speaker 3: Thank you for this opportunity and for this question. I would say, I know that we just see or feel that all these people coming to this country are stealing jobs. First of all, they're not stealing anything. They are the ones that start America at four am by cooking cleaning. When you arrive to your office, a Latino already cooked your breakfast, or clean your floor or whatever in any area. We are hard working people, but we're in this country not because we want to make more money or steal a job. Most of the people that are all these immigrants that come to the US are clean, are running away from violence. It's not their fault. I swear. I've seen these people that are constantly threatened. They rape their woman's their child, they're steal their houses. The narcos sometimes many of them, they're constantly making. All these people flee from their countries because they're again they're raping, stealing, There's no job opportunities, so these people are starving, so they come to the US just to find some peace, to find a decent way to make a living, and to feed their families and their kids. So I just want to put this on the table, because they're not criminals, or they're not just looking well, let's go to the US to make more money. Why not. No, they're literally fleeing from being killed or being raped or starving, and all they want is to work decently and try to feed their families.
00:40:57
Speaker 4: You know, and we appreciate that. I can't imagine just the pull that must but you must feel, and so many other just Latino Americans and Latinos around the world just feeling torn because people don't understand unless you've walked in their shoes. And I think that's what we're all hoping for.
00:41:17
Speaker 3: I mean, so.
00:41:17
Speaker 4: Many of us just want there to be just more perspective and bigger hearts and just a willingness to try and understand and to ask questions instead of to throw accusations.
00:41:29
Speaker 3: So yeah, we appreciate that, no think. And of course in one and I don't know in between, in ten thousand people probably are two that are not good people, but they're like pointing them like they're like they they're like gang members, like you kill assistance or rapers. They're not. They're good people and they're they have families, and it breaks my heart to see how they are like reporting them and tearing them away from their kids and making I don't know, it's a mess. It's a very complicated subject.
00:42:11
Speaker 4: Well, the art that you make, uh and certainly just even programs like Alcopolco, which I love that you're part of your mission is to show people your culture, your people, not in the way they've been depicted on the news, but in the way you live, breathe see experience them. And anyone who travels to your beautiful country knows the same. We're huge fans.
00:42:33
Speaker 1: We're there.
00:42:33
Speaker 4: We try to be there at least once a year. We love the West and the East coast. They are and we I still want to go to Mexico City.
00:42:41
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start going on the weekend. Get my Spanish better.
00:42:47
Speaker 3: Yes, Mexico City. It's a great, great city. It's it's it's it's so completely different from anything else you'll see. And great food, by the way, it is in there.
00:42:57
Speaker 4: It's on my list. But yes, we are just huge fans of yours and your work and just continued success. I don't think that you need any like adda boys from us, because certainly you are self motivated in a way most people are not, and you have read benefits and just your warm heart, your beautiful smile.
00:43:17
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you about you being okay. We know whatever happens, you're gonna be fine. You'll work your way out of it. It'll be fine.
00:43:24
Speaker 2: Man.
00:43:25
Speaker 1: It is an absolute pleasure and it's an inspiration. Look, we didn't know how this was going to go and how much stuff to promote, but once you started talking, we just wanted to talk to you back. So if you know no notes. We just wanted to have a conversation with you man, and this is absolutely been beautiful for it. Thank you so much, this man.
00:43:42
Speaker 3: Thank you for this opportunity. I was really nervous because i know your podcast is listening by many many people, and I'm always worried about my English because I'm still working on my English every single day, I swear. But now that I happened in eleven year old, she constantly request me, like, Dad, it's not this, it's that. And I'm always speaking in Spanish at home because I want her not to lose the Spanish, but I'm losing my English because of that.
00:44:16
Speaker 1: Thank you.
00:44:18
Speaker 4: Please give love to your beautiful family, and thanks for being on the podcast.
00:44:22
Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you for inviting me. Thank you very much.
