Robert Rodriguez
speaker
1,180 appearances
3 recordings
3 series
first heard Apr 2025
last heard 16 Nov
Robert Rodriguez’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Nov 2025 with 1.
Appearances
So they said, we're going to take this movie to some film festivals. And I was like, no, not this movie. This is my practice movie. No one's supposed to see this movie. And they go, no, no, you got something. No, no, dude, if I knew anyone was going to see this, I would have shot it completely different. Give me $2,000. I'll go reshoot half of it. Just knowing people are going to see it.
I want something. And the head of the studio was really smart. He said, you don't know what you have here. It's something really special. Let's take it to Telluride and see what happens. Telluride, Toronto did great. And like I said, and it won Sundance. So now we had to put it out. But I was like, I would have said, don't show that movie.
but they also questioned the ending and didn't come into play because we ended up making Desperado. And the girl in Desperado doesn't die. You know, we didn't do that. We didn't kill Salma, but that's what needed to happen to Mariachi. Quentin called me one time. People were always saying like, oh, Reservoir Dogs, he borrowed from this movie, Hong Kong action film called City on Fire.
It's about these guys, they're all criminals and they kill each other or whatever. And he said, hey, they're showing a double feature called East Looks West and West Looks East. They're showing Reservoir Dogs with City on Fire, the one they say I borrowed from. And they're showing Mariachi with a Hong Kong film called Run, where they ripped off Mariachi. Like they just took the whole story.
It had two Chinese actors in Mexico with guitar cases. They just followed it beat by beat. So we were watching it and it was like scene by scene. They just rebate it without even getting the rights or anything. It was so fun to watch. So we saw Mariachi first, then we watched that one. And I'm like, what's this big brothel scene though? This isn't my movie. Oh, the bad guy.
Oh, there's a scene in my movie where the bad guy has two girls in bed with him and they figured that was a whorehouse, but it was just his apartment. So they got this whorehouse built up. And they have helicopter shots and all kinds of big thing. And the action was awesome. But then the girl's really good. And then midway through the movie, I'm like, oh shit, she's going to die.
Because I killed her in mine. I don't want her to die. I like this actress. It's really great. And they have a really great love story. I go, well, I hope they change that part. No, they kill her. So I felt bad twice. Because I sealed her fate. I sealed her fate because I have a line in Spike Kids 2. When you create stuff, you start thinking... I wonder if that's how our creator is.
He's like, oh shit, I just kind of threw that in a memo and now that whole town's going to get wiped out. You know, I didn't even think about the implications of that. Because there's a line, I was making a character that Steve Buscemi plays in Spy Kids 2 and he's a creator. He just wanted to make a little miniature zoo for kids.
And then he thought, well, what if I put them together like a lizard with a snake and it's a slizzard or you have a spider monkey, which is like literally spider legs and a monkey top. So he makes that. And then he thought, hey, why don't I make them a little bit bigger for kids that have big hands?
And it got out of control and they turn into these huge creatures and now they're trying to eat them. So he's hiding, the kids find him hiding. And he says this one line that people keep coming, it's on the internet a lot, this meme about this, why is this line in this movie? It's so wild. I thought, I wanted Steve to come up to the camera and like, he's just, he's lost in his own creative world.
And he says, I can't even go outside because my own creations are going to eat me. Then he comes up to the camera and he goes, do you think God hides in heaven because he too lives in fear of what he created here on earth? It's like really, just for a moment, this thing.
And it's like, cause you feel like that way when you're, when you're creating stuff, like you're creating something and then now it's taking on a life on its own. And it's like, oh no, now this character has to die. Oh, I didn't want that. You know, this, this domino effect of creation.
And you start thinking, well, that must be what creation... Maybe he is hiding up there because, lookit, he didn't expect all this shit to happen, giving us free will and all that.
Yeah, absolutely. Because, like, if I'm writing it, but if it's not coming from me, I'm as surprised as... And Quentin would say that, you know, he'd say, you just get two characters talking when I'm writing my script, and then suddenly they're just talking to each other. And I was like, what does that mean? And now I know what that means.
It's like, he just gave them life, and now the dialogue's coming through them.
Since I met him, he was just like this...
brilliant uh ball of energy and uh you know like if you see him i walk around his house and i'll see like a few sheets of paper all handwritten out like what's that he goes oh that was something i was starting to write and i you know not gonna finish i'm like can i take these and go turn it into like a whole trilogy of films you know like what he throws away all this mortal men would kill for you meet people like that i tell people
You know, your parents say, watch out who your peers are. You know, when you're younger, that means one thing. But once you get older, surround yourself around people who swing much farther than you. You know, that's just like, but that's really true. I mean, just by being around him and working with him, you get, by osmosis, you learn stuff.
And it just ups your game because they're just swing way beyond you. Jim Cameron was like that. So like when I first met him, I was trying to impress the hell out of him, you know, because I was such a big fan. I was about to go do Desperado. And I went, hey, I just took a three-day Steadicam course because I can't afford a Steadicam operator. So I'm going to operate Steadicam myself on Desperado.
Now, if he was just my peer, he'd say, oh, I did the same thing. I'm going to do the same thing. That would be like hanging out with somebody if you're ill. But you want somebody who's above that. Do you know what he said? He goes... I bought a steadicam, but not to operate it. I'm going to take it apart and design a better one. Us mere mortals trying to learn how to operate the camera.
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