The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia

Episode Date: January 16, 2025

An icon of the screen, the craft, and a shining example of the American Dream.  Andy Garcia has been in all your favorite movies - and he’s also probably your Mom’s celebrity crush. This week on a long-awaited South Beach Sessions, Dan and Andy connect on their shared Miami roots as the children of Cuban exiles and Andy's legacy of creating work that is a loving tribute to their culture and history. Andy paints the story of how his father came to America with next to nothing, unable to return home to Cuba, and built a million-dollar business… and why Andy turned away from all that to pursue his passion in the arts. Together, they reflect on how they've honored their families in their careers, and the surprising lessons and relationships they've experienced. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Music Welcome to South Beach Sessions. We are again very far from South Beach. This man grew up around South Beach. I grew up around South Beach, and I will say that this is not merely my mother's favorite actor, perhaps her favorite son as well. I'm not even kidding you when I tell you, you are a remarkable inspiration to the entirety of my family because, because Andy Garcia, you were Cuban representation at a time that there was precious little permission anywhere on television for a Cuban kid to dream about the idea of, oh, we are on television and in the movies too. So I am thrilled to have

you here. Thank you. But not as thrilled as my mother will be that you are here. That's my fan base. The grandmothers are my fan base. Oh my God, you are so good with the Cuban woman, old Cuban woman demographic. But what you summoned from them is a little disconcerting because you have a bit of sex symbol to you as well, and I don't like to see that part of my mother.

That brings up a real quick thing. I was doing a movie with the Sydney Le Lumet director called Night Falls in Manhattan and Richard Dreyfuss was, we were co-stars in the film and he came up one day and he said, what is it with you and grandmothers? And I go, what are you talking about? He goes, I mentioned I was doing a movie with, to my grandmother and she almost fainted. Yeah, but it's Abuelas. Abuelas, yeah.

It's the- I'm serious. I said, you know, I said, well, my fan base is gonna disappear pretty soon. You have had a career that- I'm an Abuelo now, by the way. Oh, congratulations. An Abuelo with Americanized kids. I want to ask you something about where it is some heritage gets lost with the kids growing up in this

country because you are so proudly Cuban in a way that I identify with and I understand and you have made artistic projects, one of them took you 16 years to make because of how important it was for you to represent Cubans on screen that way. Is it because you know what it is that I'm saying that you are such an inspiration to carrying on a time that is literally dying with the old people as the young kids get Americanized? Well, yeah, people assimilate to the culture. But I must say say I think there is a sense of pride in the that's passed down through generations because the extraordinary journey that our parents went through you know and bringing us you know exile is a very intense thing it's not like immigration by

choice is one thing exile is you know it is a choice you make but it's fleeing the country that for political reasons you know repression indoctrination fear of your own life so it's a the fact that they brought us here it's a testament to there there are greatest generation in terms of us Cubans you know and they'll always will be and if it wasn't for that journey and that courage, I wouldn't be talking to you right now. Well, you're a bit like me in that you can say, I'm assuming of your parents,

they made all the sacrifices so that you wouldn't have to make much of any sacrifices comparatively. That's my case, I don't know. Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. There is, but there's an example in a work ethic that they bestowed upon us. Just by observation, it wasn't like,

this is what you have to do, just watch them. Watch them get up and work seven days a week, and build a life for your family, and slowly progress in what they're doing. A lot of people that came over, they even had to abandon their professions. Like my father never practiced law again. My mother was an English teacher.

She never taught English again. She worked as a secretary and then worked with my father once he started a business. But he worked, like many exiles and young immigrants to the country, you start a janitorial service. That's the first job that's always available. Doctors, lawyers, they become plumbers.

They can make a boat out of tires and wood. Whatever the job, what's available tomorrow. And usually you run into someone that you know. He said, I'm looking for work, I need work. And they go, well, I got work at the Fountain Blue. Come over and then you're in you know Bob and floors or whatever and then you begin but at least you pay the rent at 84th and Harding at the motel so you can keep your family under one roof, you know, I

Want to ask you something about Your parents and I will ask you plenty about this part of your life that you're will ask you plenty about this part of your life that you're so so proud of in shaping you but when you talk about work ethic in in my life that was the only way to freedom so I want to talk to you about that as well but the distinction you're making between exiles and immigrants can you explain it to people who might not understand my mother's always proudly saying to people I'm not an immigrant I'm an exile. I went- Well, we were political exiles. We were fleeing a repressive, you know, dictatorial regime that's

was taking not only all everything that you've worked for in your life and all your freedoms, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, but also they took possessions of the rights to your children. So, you know, there was no longer public schooling. It was state indoctrination of your children. That's why a lot of people early on said, you know, we're out of here. You're not going to take the rights to our children. Because indoctrination was the way, you know. Viva Fidel. Papa Fidel gives you everything. Pray to Fidel. Don't pray to your God. The churches were closed down

You know, like the synagogues were closed down So that's when most people if they could get out at that time said you can take our house You can take our business you can nationalize everything you can take our money because you change the monetary standards But you're not gonna take our children's minds and that was mostly the early exiles left for that reason. I tell people all the time, right, when you have to flee for freedom or fight for freedom, you have a certain appreciation for freedom that perhaps others don't have. My mother and my father leave Cuba at 15 or 16 thinking they're going to see their parents again soon And then it takes 10 years before they see their parents right that ocean between Cuba and South

Florida is the biggest graveyard in the world because of people literally throwing their lives to the wind Yeah, no one's going on a raft back to Cuba Right, it's so nice as people say oh Cuba a paradise, or Cuba, why is nobody going over that way? You know? Yeah. And you know, and then that time there was the Pedro Pan Exodus where 14,000 unaccompanied children were sent because the parents, they couldn't get the parents out, but they would

forge passports through the Archdiocese and Monsignor Walsh and people in Cuba and they would send their children maybe never to see them again. That's how desperate they were, you know. It pisses you off still. Oh yeah, you know, they've stolen the freedom of the Cuban people, you know, for now 64 years. I think it's like 64 years. I've heard two different versions. You tell me what's accurate here on what your parents got here with. I've heard you say my parents, my father got with a dime to the airport.

Oh, he borrowed a dime. Well, hold on. I wanna know which one of these is true. I've heard two stories, a dime at the airport or $300 and a box of cigars. No, no. No $300 and a box of cigars. In fact, my mother and the kids became first

with my father's mother. So it was my mother, my brother, my mother and the kids became first with my father's mother. So it was my mother, my brother, my sister, and my grandmother on my father's side. My father came about a month and a half later. But we got to the airport and my mother barred a dime to call her brother that was always over here and my godfather who was also here. He called one or the other, I think it was the brother

who had come a little earlier. And they were living right there in that area in 84th and Harding, they have a little apartment. And we got there and went into a little motel and you pay by the week. Sometimes she was scrounged, so she was able to scrounge that week's payment. And then my father came and he was gonna go back again

trying to do the best he can to get some things out of Cuba and we got a call from my mother's grandparents who were not out yet saying don't come back, they've come to look for you. So we began. We began, I know his first job, it was at the Fountain Blue for a while, and janitorial, and he just began. We just began to build our life. We stayed in that area, North Beach.

From there, after a little bit, we gathered a little money. We got into a little bit bigger place as opposed to just this little motel efficiency. Then we moved to an area called Biscayne, just outside of Biscayne Point, around Crespi Park, Crespi Boulevard. It's a little park. of Biscayne Point around Crespi Park, Crespi Boulevard, so Little Park, and we started going to school, Biscayne Elementary, then Nautilus Junior High, and then Miami Beach Senior High. And then by then I moved to Norman-D-Isle,

from Norman-D-Isle I went to college at Miami Dade South for two years and then I went to FIU for the final. FIU, the most famous FIU grad that there is? I'm not sure about that. I mean, it's pretty close. I don't know. In those days, all they had too was a two-year school. And I went into the theater department there.

And then from there, I came to La La Land. Well, I want to ask you about how supportive your parents were of the arts, because it's probably not something usually exiles imagine. It's usually doctor, lawyer, lawyer Architect something safer than the arts, but what do you remember about the first apartment? How many people were living there? What do you remember about the childhood struggle? Well, we lived in in Like I said in 84th and Harding The the motel is still there. It's called the Duchess. It's a little pink kind of pinkish

The motel is still there. It's called the Duchess. It's a little pink, kind of pinkish, little U-shaped, and it had these little efficiency. You walk into a little living room, had a little bedroom and a little, like what they call it, what they call it, a kitchenette kind of thing. A hot plate and whatever it was.

For people who'd come from the north to spend a week down there. How many people are under one roof though? Six. And so not meant for six, right? Too small for six. Meant for two. Right, right.

Yeah. No, but it was alright. We slept in the living room. My grandmother was on the couch and if I remember it, three kids on the floor. We were kids. The oldest was 12, my brother was 11, I was five and a half. I can only see in retrospect that I grew up amid some fear.

Could you feel it as a child? I couldn't feel it as a child. No, no. No, not really. I mean, we were, to me, I thought I was on vacation. I didn't, you know, my parents never, they hit the ground running, you know, they never, I never saw them depressed.

Of course they were nostalgic and, but they came, you know, we're free, you know, we begin to build. It was like, my father would always say, the only slogan he ever agreed from the revolution was, never take a step backward, not even to gain momentum. And he says, that's the only thing I ever agreed to and it's one of those slogans and it's and that's basically the way they live their life it was just like steady steps forward

but also you're translating it yeah the way that you remember it sounds more poetic and Spanish as most things do I actually have it in the film I did you mentioned earlier about the lost city that that I made it's there's a there's a moment before the character leaves the country my character he he's on he's walking alone on the street and he looks up and he sees the slogan on the wall you know big you know because they're they love their slogans yes and so anyway but so then we just you know, I remember my brother and I used to go to the beach across the way because Harding is the Harding then Collins Avenue and there was a big public beach there That's about maybe three or four blocks long still there and we used to go and collect coke bottles and Pepsi bottles

Glass and put them in one of those carts, you know, grocery carts. Five cents, two cents? Yeah, and we'd wheel them to the food fair down on 71st Street around there. How much per bottle? Or 73rd. Yeah, it was like five cents, ten cents for maybe the big one and five or five and two, it was a long time ago. And then we'd go to the Royal Castle and get some burgers, you know.

Yeah, and you remember it fondly because what you're saying there you guys were living amid freedom so it wasn't actually feeling persecuted it was feeling liberated. No no but you know you grow up there was a small Cuban community on the beach a lot of Cuban Jews and you know we all bounded together on the weekends after you basically everybody had one day off usually Sunday everyone. Everyone would go to the beach, and everyone would meet there and bring some beer and talk. You grow up and then talking about what's going on in Cuba. Of course, they're longing to go back and expecting to go back, because this is, you know, 61 and a half and the Bay of Pigs came and the missile crisis.

It was still a hotbed of situation there but here we are we're still here. How does it come to be because I don't understand it that you go from a dime in the airport to running a multi-million dollar fragrance company like what are the steps I'm missing there? So one step at a time man it's just one business leads to another. He started my dad's, eventually goes from working for people on consignment. I remember we used to go to, it's one thing he instilled in my brother and I and my sister, we always worked with him.

Even if we went to school, after school we'd have to go to do a little work and help out. Or on Saturdays we had to go, my brother and I would go, Dad, it's Saturday, we're going out Friday night. Go out as late as you want. Saturday morning. So we always had that, that was instilled in us. And you know, one business led to another. He started a little, we used to go,

and he used to have, I remember one of his early jobs, he had a, he started working for a catering company. It was a right across the street from the Orange Bowl on the 17th Avenue It was called be added eats and it had a picture of a guy chef with a hat You know and he worked there for a gentleman I don't know I got that job running the place because my father was not really a cook. He didn't really not my mother yes, my father was not really a cook, he didn't really not. My mother, yes, my father, no. But he ran the place and after a while the guy wanted to retire and my dad basically made a deal with him saying, you know, I'll buy it from you but I can't buy it all in but I'll give you x amount of money a month and I'll continue to run this cantina they call it, or catering which was all

those kind of military tins that you stack on top of each other. And most of the clients were Cubans, you know, Cuban families that weren't home to cook. And you would get a menu and you would say, on Monday I want rice, black beans and rice and fried bananas and picadillo. The good stuff. Yeah. And then they would layer it.

If there was soup, it was always on the bottom, the hotter stuff, and it would layer like that, and you'd get a tin, or two, depending on how big your family was, and you had a menu every week, and they would get delivered to your house. So when you came home from work, you had your meal. Amazon before Amazon for food.

Exactly, he did that for a while, then he sold that company, then he went to work. I remember I used to go with him on Saturdays. He had like a 40 foot truck. And from inside the truck, he would put sneakers on consignment, very cheap sneakers. And he'd go to grocery stores all over, Little Havana, all over Miami, Liberty City,

I mean, all neighborhoods. Always hustling. Yeah, and he would go in there and he'd put a rack with sneakers that were like a dollar 50 for a sneaker very cheap sneakers the company was called Leeds effect and I would go with him on the weekends and with the promise that he'd take me to McDonald's afterwards you know and and then he'd go there and they need to put your rack and then he'd come back two

weeks later you sold four sneakers you owe me five dollars and I'll reload that those sizes. It was like a consignment business. And based on that, he started his own consignment business with socks. So it was his first business he started on his own. He got a distribution from a gentleman out of Puerto Rico who was making these socks that were traditional in Cuba called Casino and Once Once 11 11, which are those kind of nylon socks that are kind of see-through with patterns, very popular in those days and within our culture. And he started putting those on his own in consignment and he started building a business and he had t-shirts and this and that and all that stuff eventually grew to a multi-million dollar fragrance business. And he's realizing that Miami's

built by Cubans and he's got a built-in demo where those sneakers and those socks are going to sell. Yeah, exactly. And his sons are free labor. Free labor. You guys don't cost, you guys think you're gonna deal with McDonald's, he's paying you nine cents an hour to buy you a happy meal. We were never on salary. We needed to go out one night or whatever. My mother had the bank envelope with a zipper, and she would go, come over here. She'd go like this.

Thanks, mom. Yeah, right. But there was no, like, you're on salary, here's your pay. All the money went to that zippered envelope in the business and they ran the family out of that envelope. Did your dad, my dad did not understand, did your dad understand a pursuit of the arts instead of staying in the business? No, no, no. He had trained me, I was ready, both him and my brother and I were very involved

in the business and the business already was taking off. The fragrance business when I decided to, I was in college so to go the other direction. Of course he had seen me on stage and stuff but it was difficult for him. Not that he would say don't do it but it was like. Well my father was not supportive. He wanted me to be an engineer.

He came, he made all, all the sacrifices he made were so that I would go to the private school I went to in high school, and so when I told him sports writer, it was worse than just this. It was like, no, don't talk to me. What are you talking about? I've made all of these sacrifices. You're not gonna choose that, thank God, for my mother,

otherwise I'd be a really unhappy engineer right there. Yeah, right, right. But he's pretty similar, he wasn't as, it was more like a private struggle for him, I think. You know, it's like, I always joke that I think my father would probably say like, I love my son, but he's not Humphrey Bogart. You know what I mean?

They have no concept of that you can maybe make a living, maybe, in the arts, you know, because that's not what they come for. But, I mean, like the idea of making money with freedom, how would they have access to the idea that you could be like free? Like, a painter or an actor in Cuba what what concept would they have of that none whatsoever I mean they knew they existed but they you know what is that trajectory to their eye you know my mother on the other hand she would say to him let him go let him go if he breaks a wing he knows where to come

back but let him go she He's got to go. Could you have done it otherwise? Because I don't know that I could have done it with, I don't know that I would have. I was too much, I don't know how this works for you. The Cuban family can be sort of like, just. No, yeah, I had to go. I had to go. I left the business.

I was prospering. My brother was my partner, my father was my partner, we had it was taken off like we it was at the moment where it was taken off the fragrance side of it and in my you know they were supportive my brother was supportive but you know they it's hard to it's hard to reason with with with a straight bullet you know something it's it's something that calls to you it is you don't pick it It kind of picks you, you know, so it's hard to it's hard to There was this anecdote that I came about just flashed on I was doing a commercial that I was directing and acting in

In Miami and I was on Lincoln Road It's about five years ago, maybe six years and a young priest came up to me. He was muscle been 30 years old 30, you know young seminarian but priest And he said can I speak to you for a moment? And I said sure we're Lincoln Road in between shots and He says he says my grandfather was Forget his name, but he was the owner of Navarro Pharmacy.

You know, pharmaceutical chain in Florida. We used to sell to. A giant one. Yeah, they had many stores at the time, maybe five or so. And I was the delivery boy. I would deliver to Navarro family and I knew his grandfather because he would receive the stuff and sign and, how you doing? Tell your dad I need him to talk to him they were very good friends because my dad was you know very a very loved much

loved individual and he says your my grandfather told me a story that when you left this priest telling me this story who's 30 years old when you left for when you were leaving for California and you were on your way or you had just left, before you left, your father went to see him because he was very distraught with what was going to happen. And he was asking, consoling him, asking like a priest to his grandfather, saying, you know, my son's leaving town, and you know, what do I do?

He's going to Hollywood, I don't even know where Hollywood is. You know, to me, Hollywood is like a fictitious place. And the young priest said that the grandfather looked at my dad and he said, you gotta let him go. You gotta let go. So, it was interesting that this story was out there and eventually found its way back to me. So I figured like, oh, my dad was struggling so much.

You know, quietly, what an act of love to never show you, to never show you that that would look like a lack of support to allow you to dream. No, no, no, no, it was all private angst, you know. But he had to have been heartbroken. I mean, to go from a dime to a fragrance business to I can provide safety for my kids forever, what do you mean? He's going... Plus he also saw the potential that my brother and I had in the business world, because we have been trained and my brother is extremely successful in many things, but he's still in the fragrance

business. But, and I have great admiration for him. You're the failure in the family, your brother's the extremely successful one? Yeah, yeah. So you know, for him it was a big struggle, you know, it was a big struggle. My mother was more, you know, and my mother just had, you know, a sense about her,

you know, I guess, you know, it's like mother knows best, you know? Well, my mother as well knew that you have to follow your heart on things that make you happy. I believe the grand majority of people listening to this and everywhere in the world who have unhappiness in their life, much of it can trace back to most of them are doing something they don't love every day with all of their hours because they have to make money and there's, you know, there's a slowly corrosive soullessness that...

I think so. And even if you have, if you're chasing a dream and it's not immediately there for you, there is a struggle to all dreams. There are obstacles to all dreams. But I really believe, and I recently saw Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis. And I know he's been dreaming about this movie for many years and I saw him and I said I personally thought the movie was extraordinary as all these movies are they they there's an old Robert Browning quote saying a man's reach should be greater than his grasp or what's the heaven for and all these movies have this kind of you know know, expansive reach. Paid for it himself, he's in his eighties now, insisted on making it. It's the life work that is all about this great director's dreams.

And he's done many movies like that where he's paid for himself, you know. And but I said, I wrote him when I said Francis and I said, one of the things I took away from the movie was that there's no, there's no great obstacle that can't be overcome by a dream. And that's basically it. The only thing that'll keep you in the game and falling forward, always fall forward. Like you said, don't lean back

because then you're just keep falling forward and get up then you'll be over there, then you'll be over there. Doesn't have to be big leaps, just steady. And my dad always said that to me before I left. He said, hey, steady and wear a tie. Present yourself well. And now look at you, now look at you, no tie. You've arrived at real freedom, Andy.

You don't have to, well, you should tell dad, la guayabera, in Cuba, they don't wear ties. They don't wear ties in Cuba. But he was always about the discipline of, present yourself well, correctly, and be responsible, you know, those things that you learn through watching, you know, through example, their example, really. This is a message from sponsor Intuit Turbo Tax.

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See guarantee details at Turbo tax comm Guarantees when you say though that the arch chose you I've heard you quoted as saying it's like a virus It just as you you don't choose it. How did it choose you? I was always a fan of films all my life as a kid, you know. I just had a fascination like we all do with the movies and I would get lost in them. I remember we used to live in the beach and I used to take a couple buses, the K and the L to Lincoln Road and on the weekends and always in the summers because they

had the double bills, you know, of, you know, Great Escape or the Bond movies or Captain Blood, you know, Earl Flynn, all these movies and I would just go and get there for the first showing and leave at eight o'clock at night, you know, watch them two times over. So it's two movies twice, four showings, you know. And I would do that all the time and I would get lost in these movies. And so I always had a love for films, you know, Peter Sellers and all this, whatever,

the heroes of the time. And I did a couple plays when I was a kid. One at the North Beach Band Show was my first one, but there were, you know, reviews at the 10th Street Auditorium. The band shows, so that's 10 blocks from where you're growing up and it's still there. It's still there. And it hasn't changed much, unlike Lincoln Road.

Lincoln Road is no longer whatever it is you were experiencing at Lincoln Road. But it's still there, the road is still there, right? Just the stories are different. But the band show's still there, it's an amazing place, and they still is still there. It's an amazing place and they do they still play music there. And and then the 10th Street Auditorium there and Ocean Drive did a thing there. And

many you know, when I was I don't know, it was probably But you're dreaming there of that's what I want to do. I want to live. No, I was an athlete. I was an athlete, you know, a baseball player, right? Baseball and basketball. When I got to high school, I only played basketball. But I got to high school, I only played basketball. But I played baseball and basketball all my life.

I played football, but flag football. I got too small. I was really too small to really continue. But we won the city championship from representing Norman D'Oreal Park. Played quarterback for the flag, you know, and we played all the parks and we won. So it was fun, you know. I love sports. A good athlete and then

you got mono, right? I got mono my senior year in high school so I never played my senior year. And then I took an acting class there with a professor they had, Jay Jensen, and I was very stimulated by it and he was very encouraging and that kind of awoke this thing inside of me that I was always interested in. And of course I was inspired by being enamored with film and television. Of course Desi Arnaz was a big inspiration to all of us. You realize you're sort of him, right? Like I know that you probably might recoil from the size of that, but he's the he's the first Cuban

Representation that there was on American television. It's a Romero. Okay, so it's Cuban Rita Hayworth, but no she was Mexican I believe but says at Romero and and this year and asked for specifically of the Cuban culture, I might be missing someone else but An American television, you know, you do realize you are those people for some yes or no. Yes. I do realize that yeah I was I've been blessed You get here and you start How like what does that look like? What do you have? What year year is that what kind of money do you have or don't have a friend of mine

Stephen Bauer from Manolo from Scarface yeah and we rode together we friends in Miami we both were acting he was studying at UM he had that show que pasa USA which I did an episode of. And he- Great show, great show. It was a great show. And he came, you know, because of his exposure on Que Pasa,

he had a contact here and got an agent, and came, got immediately a contract at Columbia Pictures Television, they put him on the contract. And I was still at FIU my last year, and he said, hey, you gotta come out here, man. There's work, you know. I said, yeah, I'm gonna come out.

And I came here, I stayed with him for about a couple weeks on his couch, and he got a little apartment here on Fountain in Sycamore, like a storefront apartment, you know, so I was on street level with a big plate glass window that you see people walking by all night long it was a bad choice let's not get into that in this thing let's not go there but it was you know crazy times you know and I remember one night there was a knock on the door of three in the morning and

going on here and the front door was next to the big floor-to-ceiling window, solid window with a curtain. So you can close the curtain, but the streetlights would put everybody in silhouette, you know. It was terrible. So you know, the traditional thing, you have a bed on the floor, just a cushion, and a black and white TV that my dad sent me because he used to sell them

overseas by by the container loads black and white 13 inch on a crate It was for a lot of fun and I used to eat on top of my conga drums That was my dining room table. Anyway, it's an interesting Look, I want the details though. So that was that was a thing so so they knock on the door and I go to think of who else knocking, you know, and I want the details though. So that was the thing. So they knock on the door and I go to think of who the hell is knocking, you know, and I move the curtain to see who's outside, you know, becausepsy lives around here.

I go, excuse me, is a gypsy lives around here. He said, no, no, there's no gypsy lives in here. I said, is a gypsy lives here. He said, no, sorry, there's no gypsy lives here. And they left. I'm going like, what the hell's going on? Then I realized, I'm the gypsy. Some gypsy walking around said oh there's a gypsy lives in there.

I'm the gypsy. Yeah because it so it doesn't sound like a place anyone should be living. Anyway but you know and you just begin you know just begin finding your way around town you know I had to go get a job you know I worked as a waiter I became a member of the waiters union worked as a banquet waiter for many other hotels mostly the Beverly Hilton hotel I'd laid you know shingles I worked at this company called roadway you know those trucks that say roadway I used to go a friend of mine say hey I got a good gig you go at seven o'clock at night your temporary help so you don't have to, a friend of mine said, hey, I got a good gig. You go at seven o'clock at night, your temporary help, so you don't have to be a member of the union,

and you work from seven to seven or seven to five, and you either unload a truck by yourself, or you strip it, or you load it on your own. We got there, there was a bunch of actors there, Bryan Cranston was there. So, you know, it was just trying to pay the rent while you find your way in the business.

So that was it. Is this 1978 to 1985? Like how long are you? Well, I started, you know, I started immediately taking classes, you know, going backstage. I was working at the Comedy Store nearby here. You were doing improv, right? Improv. You were taking improvisational classes nearby.

And performing in the house group there. And that got me some attention and a little job here and there. No money. No, for free. But I got a gig on the pilot of the Hill Street Blues. And little sprinkle things. Didn't really have an agent. And the ones I had were like a guy who'd say,

okay, meet him and they'd go like, bring me some resumes and you bring them and he would stamp, you know, take a stamp and put his name on your resume. And every so often they would send you out, but not really. While also telling you to change things about yourself, correct?

Yeah, a lot of them would say, change your name, you know, lose your accent, change your name, fix your teeth, whatever, you know, and come back to me once you've done all that. And who is that person gonna be when I come back? I don't know who that guy is. So, you know, it was hard because in those days if you had a Hispanic last name, the opportunities were very limited. Uh, now it's more diverse, there's more opportunity. Uh, maybe not as much as- Still underrepresented. Yes, but still there's, there is opportunities, you know, when, when I was there, there were

very little parts for anybody because they would stereotype you because of your name. It's not like said, oh, he can play Italian. He can play this. he can play that. No, you're Garcia. And so the parts that were mostly available were like gang members, Mexican gang members and maids on the female side. So I couldn't get those parts. They wouldn't see me as those characters.

The rare audition that I would even have. So it was hard. It was hard, but I would even have. So it was hard. It was hard but I just hung tough. I got married in 82 and my wife was crazier than I was because she says I'm I said I got to go back. This is what I want to do. I know I have nothing to show for it but because she had been coming out to visit me she was living in Miami and she you know she was here she had seen me on stage she would see me on stage here but you know she would come to that apartment you know this is what I had to offer that you know but she says I'm coming with you you

know so she was you know mother's no best you know I want to talk to you about love in a second and how you keep something alive for as long as you've kept that alive, but are we talking about seven years? When you say hard, explain the details of hard to me. You have some, 78 to 85, because I feel like you might be underselling hard. It sounds like you chose to leave in pursuit of your dream what could have been a family that was taking care of you in the family business, to basically take on the life

that your parents took on when they got to Miami. It was a second exile, yep. It was a second exile. You chose that. Or it chose me, you know. But yeah, I chose to go on that journey. Yeah, I never been here before, you know. Like most people, you just arrive,

I arrive on my plane and luckily I had one place to go, which was Steven's house, you know, to kind of go like that and for a couple weeks. I didn't want to hang there too long. I didn't want to impose. So immediately I started looking for a place, paid $200 a month for that little place. Imagine the quality of the joint. And you don't have the $200? No, I came with like $2,000 in my pocket.

I had to work the summer in a discotheque as a maître d sommelier kind of guy making money. So you've got 10 months worth of rent to figure it out. If you don't eat. No, yeah, but we were young, you know, and then the adventure began, and then it was just kind of hanging tough, you know, for a while,

and eventually you start little by little making your way, and I used to work, one of the things that, and then we had a child right away, so we got married in 82, and a year and a half later, the daughter was there, Dominique, my oldest. And we were here living in the Valley. Luckily, a friend of mine, an actor, was in what we call a walla group, like a voiceover group,

where you do all the replacement, all the background vocals in movies and television. So it's a union gig, and you do an episode of Cagney and Lacey or whatever, and then when it airs the second time, you get paid again. Not much though. Well, but it was like every time you went, it was like 300 bucks.

I worked two or three times a week on that different show. So, I was, you know, I had a place, I was buying Pampers, I had a roof over our head of a house we rented, and we were, I was able to provide for my family, you know I had a place I was buying Pampers and the roof over our head of a house we rented and we were I was able to provide for my family you know and uh and just little by little you know and you got a better agent actually a manager who got me started getting me a little bit more interview you know kind of began like that and uh but during that time there was I remember specifically there was a moment where when it had to do with like an audition I did something remember the exact moment where I saw the light at the end of the tunnel I saw

it all the years prior to that it was like where's the light, where's the light? I know it's out there and I'm here to I want to see it. I mean I have it in my head in my craft that You had confidence that I that I saw you know, I had it in here. I said, oh That's it. There it is There it is peaceful powerful That's cool. And so you see okay. So now it's oh there it is peaceful powerful that's cool and so you see okay so now it's oh there it is

now it's just got a you're willing to stay in follow it stay in the game to get to the light and of course the light continues to travel away but eventually you reach that light and you go but at least you have this kind of the focus gets narrowed where you're not just going like what can I you know? How can I break through there's a breakthrough that happens it has to do with Opportunities representation that gets you in front of people where you can now actually have an opportunity to get a job And and that's what slowly that's what happened. I got a job and a movie oddly enough in Miami Called the mean season which was written from a book from John Katzenbach who was a criminal writer

from the Miami Herald. Kurt Russell and Marielle Hemingway, Richard Bradford, dear friend of mine. We played cops and there was a young Cuban cop written. The fact that it took place in Miami, there was a part that was in, let's's say a Mexican gang member or something that and I was actually my wife again You know the intuition it was I remember we were at the house She said I got home from from one of those sessions. She said I just saw an entertainment tonight

It was like the first year. It's like the first entertainment show that was on television I think they're doing a movie in Miami called the mean season with Kurt Russell of Mario Hemingway you should ask Phyllis she was my manager at the time very good manager very helpful Phyllis Carlisle and See if there's something there might be something there so I called her she goes Well look at that but just because, she goes, honey, it's just because it's in Miami, you know, there might not be a part. I said, just check it out, there might be,

well of course there was a supporting part that was part of the story, playing a young cop. And I went to meet the casting director, we had a nice time, I didn't read her anything for her. She says, I want you to meet the director, Philip Borso's wonderful Canadian director who did a great movie called The Grey't read or anything for her. She said, I want you to meet the director, Philip Borsos, a wonderful Canadian director who did a great movie called The Gray Fox, which I had seen.

And sadly enough, he passed away after our movie, very young, for cancer. And I went to meet the director and got the part like that. It was like buying a hamburger. It was so simple to get that part, but it took seven years to get that part And from then on I never had to work in any other profession in my life You are answering the question about how hard it was though with both emotion and

Structure you're talking about the emotional parts and the structural parts What about the day-to-day parts of just being able to earn enough to survive for seven years in shitty jobs, dreaming, because you think some things might be available, but there's no light, there's no light yet, and you're covered in doubt, and have I made the wrong, like, have I made the wrong decision?

This woman, this woman believes in me should she? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I guess it goes back to the exile experience. You know, subconsciously I think you're like trained to continue forward, you know. To continue one step at a time and you know crack it just crack it keep keep at it keep at it keep at it that comes from you know our parents basically keep at it keep at it I know I don't have anything to show for right now but keep at it. Seven years if I don't have anything to show for it. Well you

know it got a little bit you know I was year you know four or five I was bit, you know, I was year, you know, four or five I was providing for my family, but I wasn't, I was working doing voiceover work. I wasn't really working as an actor. I was working, you know, so. How much doubt was there for you or were you not doing doubt because it's survive, survive, survive and so you're not even thinking. You're young still, youngish, but now you got, but now you also have a child which changes all of the math creates fear. What's interesting when you have a child for me anyway what's interesting is it empowers you the stakes are higher therefore you got to sink or swim you know and you you know it's like you now you're representing not only yourself as

an artist, you're representing your wife and your family and that little girl. So it's sort of like you're gonna have to shoot me between the eyes to take me out. No time for doubt? There's no time for doubt. And like I said, I think there was a power, the thing. And about that time also, you know, in that moment the light started to appear, you know. A spiritual light as well? Because I know you're a man of faith. I guess so, yeah, I guess so. It's just, I mean, it wasn't like a religious thing. It

was a... Clarity. Yes, there was a certain clarity and I think it also has to do with, you know, really all this time is always focusing on the craft and studying and exploring the craft and getting to know your instrument and where you are as a person and grounded, you know. So that you understand who you are and what you have to say and why you want to say it. Craft is such an interesting word because viewed from that angle you've been all your life a bit of a sculptor. You're making of your soul a work of art that you are now displaying to people and it makes you a craftsman.

No doubt. And when the craft is mixed with inspiration, spontaneous inspiration, then it's like an art, then the art form comes about. But the craft roots you in the ability to, for that magic to happen. Without it, you're acting. You know what I mean? Yes. Early teachers always say, then I get caught acting. You know what I mean? Yes. Early teachers always say they might get caught acting, you know. Instead, yeah, that makes sense. So how soon after that

is The Untouchables? Because I thought that was sort of your big break. Well, yeah, because that was a commercial success, that movie. The whole world saw that film and that helps you a lot, you know, because become not just you know just an actor looking for work you somehow become recognizable or marketable in another film or get that guy and you know but that came by a series of things that happened starting with the movie in Miami and me season and I remember they had offered me a reoccurring part in the show Cagney and Lacey, which is a show I would do voiceovers for.

But in those days it was so odd because television, if you were in a television series, it was sort of like taboo. Then you wouldn't be considered for films. Really it was like. No, either or, you gotta choose one or the other and everybody was in television. Yeah, it was like why? We either or. You got to choose one or the other and everybody was intelligent. Dreams of being in movies. Yeah, and that was not anymore but in those days.

And I made a choice to not take the gig and just roll the dice, you know. Stay in the voiceover and look for my next film. And this movie came about with Hal Ashby, Jeff Bridges called 8 Million Ways to Die. And they were looking for the antagonist in the movie which was a character that they say was patterned, you know, like they were looking for someone like Hector Macho Camacho, the fighter. Street, urban, tough, slick, aggressive, you know. Not really things you are, no offense. You're a thespian and an artist. You being a gangster and a boxer, you're really getting typecast there by some Hollywood bullshit. Yeah, and so I read the script. It was written by Oliver Stone, the initial script, because it was changed by the time the movie got made. And

I said to the agent, I said, I know who this guy is. I grew up in Miami, I know who this guy is. Get me in, get me in, get me in. But God bless him, Lin Stahlmaster was the most powerful, most important casting director probably at the time and legendary. I remember he said to the agent, I know Andy, I saw him in that movie,

he's a wonderful young actor, but he's more like the diplomat's son. You know? than Hector Camacho. Yeah. And I said to my agent, get me in, get me in. And she kept insisting, insisting, God bless her, Jerry Scott.

And insisting, insisting, and I went in there and I got an audition. And I knew when I went in there that I had to be, you know, I had to be that guy. It wasn't like I'm showing up as Andy and then I'm gonna show you who the guy is. I just went to be that guy. It wasn't like I'm showing up as Andy and then I'm gonna show you who the guy is. I just went in as the guy. I didn't want any doubt that that was somebody else. And I did a series, I read for him, I just rolled the dice, I just went in as the guy. I remember

I used to smoke at the time and I lit a cigarette in the room like this and he said I'm sorry we don't smoke here and he says I don't give a fuck. You're deep in the character. I was in, I went all in and actually I talked to a third person he's the guy I said Angel's got his name because Angel doesn't give a fuck what you think man and poor Lin was going like oh oh, actors, fucking actors. And so he said, can we go? I remember this to this day. And I've told this story before, but I remember to this day, he said, can we go to another room to do this?

And I said, wherever we're going, I've already been. And wherever you've been, I don't need to go. So you were just full of soaked arrogance. Oh, completely. Like you were deep in. This guy killed people in the movie. He was a coke dealer, young kingpin in LA who killed women. What does he know about?

And so anyway, I read and he said, Hal is coming in a couple hours. Can you hang around to read for him? Now, Hal Ashby is like a hero of mine, you know, the last detail Harold DeMauw, you know, being there, coming home, I mean he's just a great inspiration to me. And of course Jeff Bridges, a wonderful Jeff Bridges. And I read for Hal and he gave me a part right there that day. Playoffs? We're talking about playoffs? You bet we are. Get in on the action at DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NFL. Scoring touchdowns is key to winning in the playoffs and you

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Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.co slash audio. Do you know how many movies you've been in? Do you have a number? No. I don't know either, but I thought I heard you in an interview, the interviewer said it's over 100.

Maybe, I don't know, I really don't know. I don't know which one of those is the one that resonates with others the most. Well, I was saying that because of the 8 million ways to die, the character was so crazy, it got a lot of attention. And that's when they were putting together the Untouchables after that.

And I got a call that they were interested in me playing Frank Nitti, who was the killer in the Untouchable, the play beautifully by Billy Drago. Remember, dressed in white and very lean, you know, almost like feline kind of quality he had. And I read the script and I said to my agent, no, no, I wanna play this young Italian kid, one of the Untouchables.

And he says, yeah, honey, but they're interested in you playing. I said, tell them no. Say I want that, I wanna go after that part. So they gave me, and I met Brian De Palma and I read for him and they gave me the part. So that movie, that's how that movie came about. And that movie was very successful,

so of course gave other, immediately, other opportunities, that Paramount, Mr. Frank Mancuso, who was the head of the studio, who was like a second father to me. And I started working at Paramount a lot, you know. And it was a wonderful time. In fact, they wanted to give me like a three picture deal. Mr. Macuse is the most honorable person

you ever wanna meet in your life. He is a godsend to me, to my family, to this industry. I mean, I'm like, he's really like a second father. And his son is like my brother, he's my brother, and I'm godfather to his daughter. I mean, we're very close. But at the time they said, they said, they want to give you a three picture deal.

And I said, let me talk to Mr. Mancuso. And he told me, we want to keep you here, we want to give you a deal. And I just shook his hand. I said, Mr. Mancuso, I don't need a deal with you. As long as you want me here, I'm here with you Michael I don't need a deal with you as long as you want me here I'm here with you I don't need a I don't need a piece of paper you know I'm here for you and that was it and we did a bunch of movies together there and and including the Godfather and what was

curious about the Godfather and was that when in those early years early 80s or whatever it was, when we were kind of looking, I wasn't even married yet, it was like 79 I guess or something like that. They announced that there was gonna be a Godfather 3 and there was this young part in the movie. And they were thinking about Stallone or Travolta,

people who had been prominent at the time. And I remember thinking to myself, that's my part. Because that's the movie that made me in high school, when I was in my senior year in high school, is when that time I saw The Godfather and that's what changed my life. I said, I wanna be, that's what I wanna do with my life. That was the quintessential moment,

we were talking about the virus or whatever, it was watching Godfather Part One. And I said, I wanna do that with my life. What was it about it? Well, I think you identify with the people in it, with Al and the style and Brando and Bobby Duvall and Jimmy Khan. You saw people that were like you,

they were like, oh, I could see myself in that family, in that world. And also the quality of it. That's what I wanted to be. That's what I wanted to do and be careful what you wish for. But I remember thinking that's my part and of course the movie I had nothing to show. I would have never probably even got a chance to audition for it because it was, but because the movie never got happened, never happened at that time and it was delayed almost a decade By the time it came around I was on my fourth movie with Paramount doing internal affairs

And mr. Mancuso came to have lunch with me on the set and said what are you doing in September? I want to talk to Francis. I want you to be You know this young fellow Vincent and the godfather I said I'll check my schedule schedule I'll get back to you. But it was ultimately it was Francis's choice. I screen tested, I was the last person to screen test actually after after a whole summer of people screen testing and I kept saying can I just go in and read for him? Don't worry don't worry. I'm worried every actor in town is screen testing for this show. But Mr. McCusick, you know, obviously he was very supportive of me and I read for Francis and he gave me a part, you know.

Internal Affairs, criminally underrated movie. Yeah, it's a good film. Things to do in Denver when you're dead, criminally underrated movie. Both criminal movies, yeah. Do you regard any of your movies as a criminally underrated movie. Both criminal movies, yeah. Do you regard any of your movies as a criminally underrated movie? Well, I think those movies are on, they're only underrated if you want to look

at them from like a box office standpoint, but as a quality of a film that has resonance and has staying power, they're not underrated. You know, they're almost like, I don't know, you call them cult films, but things that movies that to this day, people, I walk down the streets and someone driving by go, hey, bulk drinks. Well, what's the one of those you get the most? Like, I don't know whether you answer or feel like. Well, Zaza, you know, Zaza, the Godfather. When I killed Joey Zaza, I go Zaza.

People go like, hey, Zaza, people go like hey Zaza. People who enjoy those movies will have catchphrases from and in, well I mean maybe internal affairs. Everybody got a kick when I started screaming at my wife in Spanish, which obviously wasn't scripted, it was just something. me and my wife in Spanish, which obviously wasn't scripted, it was just something. I don't do these podcasts often by the way,

but I did one for Sebastian Maniscalco. And he was just fascinated about, what was it that thing you said to your wife? In Spanish. In Spanish, and I said to him it was something like to me was he meant it on me I mean which he said what does that mean I said you're gonna lie to me me oh my god oh yeah well I mean you you channeled jealous Hispanic rage-filled husband very well in yeah like that it's well that guy you

know Richard Gere who's incredible in the film had you know in the storyline he messes with my head You know, I had to I had to lose myself in his manipulation That was part of the story and somehow come out the other end by the end of the film but you know, we had to I had to he had to get under my skin, you know, and as he did in the movie and the movie is like, you know, you still, you watch that film and it's like, if you have like an open sore and you keep scratching it, you know, it's like, oh, it's terrible. It's a terrible movie that way.

I love music. I love movies and music that make me feel anything, even if it's a bad, even if it's a shitty thing. I know I know I know But you know Michael Figgis who is the director actually recommended for the film I had met him for a movie. He was doing Stormy Monday, which I didn't participate in but he was I Remembered talking to him. I remember seeing his movie. I said maybe this guy I recommended him to Paramount they met him and they gave him the job. And then after, because the movie was written for me,

it was developed for me. And I was doing Black Rain at the time with Michael Douglas. And when I got back, they showed me the script and said, we wanna go with this. And I said, yeah, it's very powerful. And you were saying about boxing, because I also boxed for internal affairs. For 8 Million Ways to Die, the characters written that he was an ex-Golden Glove boxer, also

this drug dealer guy. So I boxed for 14 weeks, trained. The movie kept pushing back, so two weeks of training turned into three, to four, to six, and of course you get into great shape. You box for 14 weeks and I remember by the towards the end I was sparring with you know young professionals they were bringing guys we put on the head gear and they beat you know they just beat me to the punch a lot I get my shots in but they make it look very easy. I go, fuck it out. And I go, okay, I'm coming in.

And there was this one guy that was more heavier. The lightweight guys that just pepper you all day long. And there's one guy, we were boxing, and I stepped to the right there to like, to simulate and land on my right foot and throw a right hand. Too slow. No, we did the same move at the same time

and we both hit each other, bang. And he hit me right here and I caught him somewhere. And I remember this feeling that went from the back of my head, like a concussive thing, you know, it was right down your spine all the way down. It was like, oh, and I didn't go down, but I went like this, I went, time. Because you feel, and that sense of the knockout thing,

but because it was here and not here, it was a very interesting sensation, which talking about concussions, a lot of talk about concussions these days, especially in our home team. That's a crazy way to make a living, fighting another man for money. That's an insane way No, no, but great way to get in shape. I tell you that much so when you look at

When fans come up to you and want to talk about one character or one movie most is there? One above all others because it's such a broad Body of work probably the Godfather, you know. I think to this day people still are going like, hey, Godfather IV, what's going on man? What are we doing Godfather IV? And I said, it's out of my hands, man. Do you have one that you're prouder of than any of the others? Because I would imagine the lost. No, not really. I mean, of course, for me, the experience of working with Francis on a movie

and a director that inspired me to do what I do. And the fact that I was able to somehow manifest that, because when you're 18 years old, you don't go around saying, I wanna be an actor and I'm gonna be in Godfather 3. What are you talking about? I'm gonna be in the Godfather. What are you talking about?

This is like a private delusional state of mind that I lived in a way. But in life, you do manifest your own destiny because all that is is is is you chasing a dream that is particular to your dream and you just somehow won't accept no for an answer and yes of course sometimes it's very unique that it happened to be that that movie in that story but the dream of being an actor and just I just wanted to be able to be a professional actor and provide for my family and explore my craft I wasn't

thinking about I wanted to be some famous dude or something I just wanted to be a professional actor you know and but you do you can't manifest your things if you're dedicated and you're passionate and you have single-mindedness about it I mean that this movie I did, The Lost City of Cuba, took me 16 years of my life. That's what I thought your answer was going to be. Yeah, well I would say number two. And you did the score.

Yeah, that would be number two. Because you know, Francis to me was, Lost City is I think, in a way, you know, personally probably the most important work I've done from a cultural standpoint and personal. And, but again, it was just dog with a bone and eventually someone came, Sam Gores, who was my, you know, the times that my brother, he really respects you. And he knows you're trying to do this movie.

And I talked to him about it and he wrote a check. Nobody was outside the business. Nobody in the business ever supported the film. Once we made it, we sold it back into the system, but it just took someone who believed in me and it was Tommy Gores and Johnny Lopez, his partner, and Sam, his brother, who orchestrated it, you know. And it was produced by Frank Mancuso Jr., my brother. For those who don't know the story of The Lost City and why it was important to you obviously it's about Cuba and you know yeah my mother's

favorite musician is Arturo Sandoval right why I have an idea but for the people who may not a 16 year project that you were insistent on making the music for yourself, why did this mean what it means to you beyond it being your life story? Well, what happened with the music was, I got the script in 1990 while I was doing The Godfather. Frank had given me, Mr. Mancuso had given me money

to develop the material, the idea, and I went to Guillermo Calderin Fonte, an extraordinary Cuban novelist and writer in London, one of the most important writers who also had written some screenplays, had started the Cuban Cinematheque, Precastro, and he loved the idea and he delivered a 340 page document. A screenplay for those who most don't know is at the very, no more than 120. That's already a long screenplay.

105, 100, you know, depending on the story is better. And so I had this 304 page document that I had to, you know, with him, you know, he was hard for him to cut it down because he was so attached to it. So eventually I kept shaping it down to it. I got it down to like 126 pages and that was the movie we made and but in the script it said that my character played piano not perfect like solitary on his own you know privately and I always wanted to play piano I had studied percussion all my life and I always wanted to play piano. I had studied percussion all my life and I was a percussionist and Afro-Cuban percussion.

And so I rented a piano while I was doing the Godfather in my house there in Quattromiglio, which is just near the Cinecittà studios outside of Rome. We had a little upright piano there and I'd come home from work and we'd have dinner. My wife and I'd sit at the piano and start you with two fingers. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding,

like that, you know, just kept fiddling with it for years and just basically self-taught, you know. My aunt showed me a chord, she'd see me go, oh, instead of doing that, do this, and she'd show me a chord, and then I started applying my percussive training to the piano, and that opened up a whole other rhythmic thing for me.

I just kept with it, with it and with it. And then as we were cutting the film, I started playing with themes as we were cutting the movie. I had a piano hooked into the Avid. It wasn't an Avid, it was a steam bank which was still, it was like the old, but it was digital, but it was, and we just had it plugged in there and I would, once we had sequences cut together, I would lay down themes on the piano and then I had been recording music with Cachal for years for the movie and the albums that we

had done. So those were pre-produced songs and then we had needle drops from the era and then I had the original score that I just wrote, the percussive side or and then I worked with an orchestrator if I wanted the theme to be like say bring in a chamber orchestra and here's the theme and I would work with him on the I said let's feature the violin here whatever and that's how it came about so it was very organic I always joked that that when the movie gods said when you can play the piano well enough, we'll give you the money. You know, I was just trying to do it so I can fake it in the movie, you know?

Kind of look like I know what I'm doing. But it took so long, eventually, you know, taught myself how to play. But it was important to you to stay with all of it for 16 years, that story was important to you because? Because that story's never been told. And it's our story. I mean, the family is not my family, it's our family.

Everybody went through that on different levels. I mean, my father was not a club owner. There's not a movie like that. There's not a movie like that about the Cuban people that I've seen. No, I mean, they made the Robert Redford Havana movie from the point of view of Robert Redford Havana movie from the point of view of an American in Havana.

But no, there hasn't really been one. There's a new movie out called Los Friquez, which is about the punk rockers in Cuba. Leonichazo has made movies, a great Cuban director. Also about that subject matter, that Cuba's in exile, like a super incredible film. Oh, you can make the story. I'm talking about what you put on the story.

I'm not talking about the Cuban people haven't had their story told. I'm talking about told that way with somebody who cares enough about the story to spend 16 years learning the piano so that he can hit the right note. I'm talking about that kind of care. It shows in the film. I appreciate it.

I'm very proud of it in the movie. I know it holds up very well and people talk to me a lot. You know, and I always show it. You know, I get opportunities to screen it like in a festival they'll go, we wanna honor you at such a festival. And I said, thank you so much. What movies do you wanna show?

And I said, well, you can show whatever you want, but I wanna show The Lost City. Because it's, you know, it's everyone's seen The Untouchable. I don't need to go there and show the untouchables, you know Sometimes I'll say well, we'd like to show that okay, but please show this movie because some people have not seen it You know, they've been seen all over the world, but not everybody has seen it so it's always a good opportunity to continue to to tell the story then I forget the story and It was an uphill battle, you battle for that film for sure. And it had a lot of support and it also had a lot of people

who tried to discredit it in the press and stuff because obviously they had sensibilities that aligned themselves with the Castro regime. I was just telling a historical story. Yes. I wasn't trying to, it wasn't a propaganda movie, it was things that really happened using their words. Oh, but I like your sort of, I'm not going to say immunity to criticism, but the way that you've arrived at a confidence that you can say Godfather 3 because all the things it represents, you chasing

the light, Francis Ford Coppola, and you do not care what the critical acclaim of that was because you made a work of art that represents your dreams and the starting point on you wanting to do all of this. So you can choose that as something that doesn't care at all what others think of it because you make the work of art, you release it into the world, and whatever anyone thinks about it you do not have to care. It doesn't it doesn't matter because everybody has an opinion on anything everybody has an opinion one's you know one person could say and get

the other person to say oh my god of that movie moved me so much so it's there's no right or wrong there's just opinions as they say everyone has one you know so the great writer William Saroy, and I learned years ago, I read something where they asked him, and it was very helpful to me as a young man, they asked him, do you care if your plays are successful? And he says, the fact that my plays exist

is success enough already. Getting to do it, I like to tell people that, that success is that you get to do it. You have it, you do the exploration with your fellow contributors and you make the movie and it's curious he said I'm curious to see how it fares. Right. Curious. Curious to see how it fares because I'm curious how anything fares in human nature you know how things are received you know something that's received in a weird way or not completely supportive initially like apocalypse now or something

Becomes one of the greatest movies ever made so movies have a test of time You know a Francis always said you have to look at a movie like 25 years after it's made and that'll tell you What kind of movie it was, you know, I? kind of movie it was, you know. I promised you a chance to talk about your wife and love and what it means to have somebody by your side for the ride, 35 years a movie star, but someone who was there when, is this gonna work? Are we sure this is gonna work?

Believing in you and then getting to share it with that person. Yeah, she, there was never ever an ounce of doubt in her mind that this is where she needed she wanted to be and this is where she she was like ready let's go I'm coming I'm coming with you okay but you know okay what let's go. It was as simple as that and she's held the fort from day one like that you know it's never been an issue with what we need what we don't need to pay the rent we keep moving forward keep moving forward we've been blessed to have four beautiful children that we've been able

to provide for we got two granddaughters and a little grandson on the way. And knock on wood, everybody's been healthy. Everybody pursues their dreams. I have two actresses. I have a professional model and a professional DJ. So, you know, it's like, it's like, you know, it's like the, you, you find yourself in the same position as your dad. your kids go, I wanna pursue, listen, they were acting since they were like five. So they knew the pitfalls, they grew up in it. It was a totally different thing.

And they knew what they're getting into and the struggles it'll be. But I said, this is a life's work. This is not about, if I don't make it in two years, if this is something you love, it's with you for your life, you know? Some people get their break when they're 45 years old, but you're still in it all that time,

and then all of a sudden, something comes your way all of a sudden. I mean, one of the famous people, I think, and he'll be the first to tell you, is Morgan Freeman, how his breaks came very late, well, late, not six years old, but you know, he was around for a long time before things cracked for him on a popular level, you know?

But it doesn't mean people didn't recognize him as a great actor, he was doing stage here and there, and then boom, a movie, nominated for an Oscar, bang, bang, bang, and he got into another level in his life. And he's one of the most extraordinary actors out there you know so it's a weird thing there's never enough work for actors in this business it's just very low percentage of people

work but what you can do is dedicate yourself to your art even when you're not getting paid and have an understanding of it, stay in tune with it, explore, write, create your own opportunities if you can, but stay in tune with the same connected with you, with it, you know. And also live life because life feeds your your art form, you know. It's like the whole thing as well. I'm not getting married because until my career, I forget about that, you know. You don't get married because until my career, I forget about that. You don't get married because you don't want to get married because you don't know that's not,

you know, there's no such thing as that. It's what John Lennon said, right? Life is what happens while you're busy making plans, right? You have had, and I'll let you go on this note, I appreciate you spending so much time with us. You have sung with Cher on screen. You are friends with Gloria Estefan and the Estefans for life. So you represent the only man to have kissed Gloria Estefan other than Emilio Estefan. When you look at one thing you would put in front of the audience and say, I found myself even in that moment saying,

holy shit, how did this happen? How did I get to here where I am nervous or awed by finding myself in a position that even exceeds my dreams in terms of just absurdity of where it is that I get to? You go home and tell your wife or the kids, can you believe that this happened to your dad today? Is there anything that... Well, it's been many. I would imagine. It's been many. I'm asking you to...

Well, I mean... You can give me more than one if you want. Well, I mean, the first job is always like the first job that you're in a real movie or you're part of a movie like the meat season was like, okay, we step in it. The light is here now. We're in the light now. But then from there is Jeff Bridges and Hal Ashby and then it's Sean Connery and Brian DePalma and then Ridley Scott and then eventually I'm sitting in front across the table the first read-through with Al and Francis and Diane and there I am there it is in the light right there that was the movie this is the movie it's right in front of me you know I'm cracking garlic with Francis in the kitchen

helping him cook you know that's you know but yeah it's kind of like it's a situation in life where a lot of things, I guess you would say that a lot of things give you, you have to credit for. I cannot take credit for it. I'm a recipient of the blessing of all the examples around me. Parents work ethic, artistic inspiration, everything that one receives that fill you with the momentum or the confidence or the insanity of saying I'm gonna step in that direction I'm gonna steep step and door is shut in your face and you leave the audition going, that was absolutely fucking terrible.

I was like, what was I doing? I'm not gonna do that again. But then at some point down the line, you're still knocking your head and you're still studying and then you have that breakthrough. There's always a breakthrough in the work. When you're concentrating on the work, there's always a breakthrough. And have that breakthrough. There's always a breakthrough in the work. When you're concentrating on the work, there's always a breakthrough.

And when that breakthrough happens, and you go like, and you see everyone in a class, for me it happened early on in a play, but then it happened to me a lot in class here in LA. But a play in FIU, where I played a simpleton, sort of like a half-wit, mentally challenged character. And I got lost in him because I grew up, my, my, we lived in Normandy Isle before we bought our first house on 1581 Normandy Drive right next to the park in the corner where the pool is. We had a rental house

at 1325 Normandy Drive and we lived our house and another Cuban family lived in a little guest house. When I say this is not a big property, it's a small house and an even smaller house, something like a garage in the back and a family with three boys and the youngest boy was mentally challenged. Severely. Physically, mentally. And he was a little bit older than me. He probably was... 12, 13, 12 years old, 13 years old maybe.

12, 11. 10, 11, around that time. And I would play with this young man in the backyard, Toy Soldiers. Every afternoon he'd come out, he didn't go to school, he was very severely challenged. And we would play, Toy Soldiers, and I would make him laugh. And he would laugh uncontrollably. And you know it's a very difficult situation because you know you're looking someone who can't even control his physical state because it's all over the place and you know drooling

and but we were connected for months and months at least probably there for a couple years. And this was my playmate. And later on I channeled, you know, I paid tribute to him or I, you know, channeled him in this play. And that's when I realized that that's what, that was the art, that was the craft, that was the art form. So I took that That was the craft. That was the art form. So I took that and continue to say, okay, that was one of the breakthroughs, you know? And then later on, you know, here I continued to work

and you know it when you make it have a breakthrough, you know, when you, and it always has to do with a sense of truth in the work. You were saying earlier about, you know, people say, oh, you oh, you're very private. I don't do a lot of these podcasts. Probably won't do any more because I've told my entire story. It's just listen to Dan Lebertard.

I don't need to tell this story again. Thank you for doing that, by the way. Thank you. Well, only because you're a Dolphin fan. But we say, well, you're known as being very private. And I said, no, I'm really a being very private as an earlier private person I have Many friends and a very gregarious. I'm very old but I

Just don't live in the limelight. I don't go to put you know I'm not I don't have publicist and I don't and but I said but the thing is what you don't understand is actors We actually are very public because you know, I've shared with you some stuff that you might not know where it's coming from or what it how it's manifesting itself in the character and the story but it's very personal and that's part of the that's part of the that's part of the craft. Andy it was a genuine delight to spend this time with you I will tell you and I think you know this already that my mother will be insane with Jealousy that I got to spend this time with you

But she will be asking me a lot of questions about what this was and we'll listen to it several times because you are Inspired an inspiration to our people. So thank you. Finally, we get a chance to talk with another we didn't even talk about the dolphins No, we did not you're desperate to I don't want to talk about the Dolphins you want to talk about the Dolphins? I don't want to talk. They're broken for 25 years They're they're busted up if you want to though if you want to I'll give you the floor To say whatever it is. They've done to you over the last 25 years Well, I was missing your heart take a couple minutes because this is a you know, we're yes for dolphin fans That's right. You are a dolphin fan

I am yes it might my my earliest memories of loving sports are my father taking me to the Orange Bowl Across the street from where your father was doing we used to we used to I meant to say that time we used to Sell the parking spaces. It was like five or eight of them in at the little warehouse there Yes, and we take that money and go to the UM games So we'll not be no parking no parking no blocky and And we take that money and go to the UM games. There was no doffins. No blocky, no parky, no parky, no blocky. And we take that money and we go to the UM game. I remember we went to that famous UM Notre Dame game

in the rain with George Myra and Notre Dame were undefeated and they came down and I think we tied them, right? There was no zero zero. You're doing, you're doing early, Like 60s. Yeah, late 60s. I was at that game with that in the rain.

Yeah, it was amazing. But anyway, I Was at the opening game with it, you know, I saw Joe our The opening kickoff. Yeah, I was there. Okay, so you're you're lifelong dolphin lifelong. Yeah, I've been to all them I've been I went to all the all the you know, the feed it season and you still love them all the time They haven't broken they haven't broken your heart so much that you. No, of course they break my heart. That's the nature of sports. What are you gonna, you know,

you're not gonna be undefeated every year. You're not gonna, and I always start off with great hope. I say, you know, I think this year, if the O-line can protect, open some holes, I think we can do some damage. And then people get hurt and they're like oh god what are we doing and so it's you know that's just the nature of it you know but yeah I always have hope I really do I never they haven't won a playoff game in more than 20 years the league is based

on a quality they reward you when you don't win playoff games. There's a salary cap There are very few kids. The Lions are good now. Yeah, the lie the Lions are good with our ex-coach That's right with Dan Camp. We made fun of him for two years man Can't I did it win like that? I did. Oh, you're just so you're positive sports fan You're like you're about your team and you don't have anything in the way of criticism You're just dolphin fan and you are you know, I mean my criticism is like You know, we need a guy we need a better, you know, we need to fortify our offensive line We need that it's not like you suck right?

You love them. I love them. I love them. My son babe. My son is fanatical, but he bails early. You're an abuse You're an abusive relationship. He's smarter than you are. He's learned that his dad's a fool. He does, basically. You know, after the first quarter, he goes, I'm out. I said, take it easy. It's the first quarter. And then we've had games where they've come back,

you know, and you go, you see? Yeah, but only last year against the Ravens, and against the Patriots with the kickoff. It's been a bad 20 years, Andy. Your faith and your support have been misspent. Yeah, well I guess I have more faith in the Dolphins than I do about our political system. Thank you, Andy. You're welcome.

I really did enjoy this time with you. Likewise. Thank you Andy, I really did enjoy this time with you. Likewise, finally I got a chance to hook up, thank you.