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.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Nov 2025 with 1.
Appearances
He's using a better paint. This stuff just is clogging up and it's crap. I'm sure when I get there. So I get there and he's doing a Mick Jagger and he starts with a mid tone. He starts blocking in the face with a little tiny drawing of where the face goes. He starts doing that. He starts adding some highlights. There's the photo, his reference.
And I'm like, why are you concentrating so much on the cheek first? And he's like, it's different every time. And I go, what paints are you using? And he's like, it was regular acrylic paint. What brushes do you have? Regular brushes. I'm like, how come mine doesn't look like yours? Let me try what he's doing. You start with a mid-tone. I'm going to do that Danny again. Start with a mid-tone.
I'll start adding some highlights. And I did that and everybody kept coming over going like, did you just do that? And I was like, yeah, I don't know how, but it's very cartoony still. He's doing a very realistic Mick Jagger. Look how real that is. And you're just watching and he doesn't teach you anything. So he just starts painting.
So this is the photo he had as a reference, but then this is his painting. Right. And because I'm there, he's not teaching you how to paint.
You're seeing that there isn't a trick.
I thought he had a trick and that's why I couldn't get any further. He's using the same brush and the same paint. Well, how come I can't do that? And you go, you do it. I go, I'm going to try and do something realistic. I've never done realistic before because I'm a cartoonist and everything was cartoony. And that was just easier for me because I thought I would need too much training.
I did another Trejo. I started doing a realistic. I finished out just one section of his face. and put the pen down because I did that. The same day. I got out of my way because seeing him get out of his own way, I think that's why sometimes people need to go to school for stuff like that. Because then now, well, I just did four years of school. So now I must know.
Now you're giving yourself permission. But you could give yourself permission right away and it's going to come through.
He's so expressive.
What was exciting about Desperados, I went to go make it, and there were no Latin actors working in Hollywood because no one was creating roles for them. I thought, wow, I got to go create my own stars. We'll bring Antonio from Europe because they know his name from the Almodovar movies.
And I saw him in Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down when I was in the hospital writing mariachi or watching TV while I was a patient. And there's a scene where he like headbutts Victoria Ablil, you know, he just gives her a headbutt. He goes like that. And I was like, whoa, I bet that guy would want to be in an action movie. He's got something inside.
So I called him when we were doing Desperado and I said, would you ever consider doing an action? Oh man, I'd love to do action. So I said, I got a movie for you. I got a movie for you. It was a sequel to mariachi. And so, Salma, I found in Mexico television, she couldn't get work in the US because of How did you find her?
It was one of the best stories. I was really determined to hire a real Latin, especially Hispanic, and then she's Mexican, actress to be the Mexican character. That's like as authentic as you can get. And there was no one who was getting any jobs because no one was creating any. So there was no one that had any movies under their name because there was no one.
It was a whole systemic problem, right? This was 94, 93. So I was watching a Paul Rodriguez show on Univision because I was trying to practice my Spanish because I was having to do all these Spanish interviews because Mariachi was in Spanish. That was the other part I didn't tell you. I didn't speak Spanish when I made that movie. We didn't grow up with it.
So I left that part out of the Mariachi story because I thought people already didn't believe I made the movie by myself. They knew I made it in a language I didn't speak. should have said it because it'd be even more inspiring like now you have no excuse yeah i would wrote the english subtitles basically yeah i wrote the titles what became the subtitles
And then we'd take it to the actors, and the actors would translate it for me. And I was like... That is so inspiring. I'd be like, holy shit. I would try to speak Spanish and say, vamos a recordar. Like, let's record. And they'd be looking at me like, that means let's remember. Recordar doesn't mean record. That means grabar. Now I know. Back then, I didn't know.
So I'm watching Univision, and then there's Salma. as a guest, and she's a big soap star down there in Mexico. And she comes out, she's beautiful, she's funny, everyone's laughing. She's Sama, everyone that we know now. And she starts talking about what I gather from what she's saying, that she's having trouble finding any work in the US because of her accent.
Paul Rodriguez said, well, say something in English. And then she says, and she sounds just like she does now. And he goes, that's great. She goes, I know, I know. And I went, I think this is the girl. So I called her in my office and I videotaped our first meeting together. So I have that somewhere. Oh, that's awesome. And it's Salma, it's Salma.
It's her with her energy, with her passion and funny. She became instant friends with my wife, you know, before they walked over, your wife and I are best friends. She already was like part of the family. She's a godmother to my kids. And I thought, I'm going to help you. You're going to help me. I need to have a Mexican actress in this and you're going to be phenomenal. The studio didn't see it.
They were like, what? She hasn't done anything. Why don't you just hire somebody else who already has a name? So if we just give her one movie, then she'll be someone who's in a movie and then you can keep casting. So I made a whole other movie with her in English called Road Racers. It was my second film for Showtime. Really cool little rebel without a cause type movie.
Showing 861–880 of 1,180 · page 44 of 59
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