WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 1307 - Andy Garcia

Episode Date: February 21, 2022

Andy Garcia says it's surreal to look back on his early life as a shy Cuban exile who was idolizing famous actors and filmmakers, only to be reminiscing now about the work he's done with Sean Connery, Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro and so many others. Andy and Marc talk about his years in LA with no acting work, his improv group at The Comedy Store, and how he was supposed to play the henchman in The Untouchables. They also talk about Andy being part of The Godfather films, with the original being the movie that made Andy want to become an actor in the first place. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Be honest. When was the last time you thought about your current business insurance policy? If your existing business insurance policy is renewing on autopilot each year without checking out Zensurance, you're probably spending more than you need. That's why you need to switch to low-cost coverage from Zensurance before your policy renews this year. Zensurance does all the heavy lifting to find a policy, covering only what you need, and policies start at only $19 per month. So if your policy is renewing soon, go to Zensurance and fill out a quote. Zensurance, mind your business.

It's winter and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get snowballs on Uber Eats, but meatballs, mozzarella balls, and arancini balls. Yes, we deliver those. Moose? No, but moose head? Yes, because that's alcohol and we deliver that too. Along with your favorite restaurant food, groceries, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now.

For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Lock the gates! all right let's do this how are you what the fuckers what the fuck buddies what the fuck nicks what the fucksters how's it going what's happening are you all right how are you good morning how's

breakfast you all right you at lunch are you Good morning. How's breakfast? You all right? You at lunch? Are you jogging? Are you running? Well, you better get in pretty good shape to run from what you're going to have to run from. I don't think there's any getting away. Pow! I shit my pants. Just coffee.coop. Classic plug.

We're doing the classic plugs. Going to do an Adam and Eve plug in a minute. So, I'm a little tired, man. I'm old and my shoulders hurt. My shoulders hurt because I did the duffel bag thing. I went to San Francisco for two days. Me and Kevin Christie doing the shows. Bay Area.

I want to thank everybody who came out to the shows in Napa at the Uptown Theater. What a great show. Had a great time. A lot of excited people. A lot of people just getting out for the first time. San Francisco at the Palace of Fine Arts. Great people working at both venues. But I was happy everybody came out.

It was great. You can just definitely feel, obviously, we're still in the pandemic in a lot of ways. But people are kind of uh getting their legs back and i appreciate everyone coming to the shows all right i want you to know that i just wanted you to know that okay today andy garcia is here uh you know andy garcia you know him from the untouchables from godfather 3 the oceans movie he's got a very interesting background which includes time at the comedy store did you fucking know that i didn't know that he's always great whenever he shows up in movies isn't he he's in this new movie big gold brick and he's

the best thing in it he's just he acts the fuck out of things man and i don't know why i never talked to why i don't know does anyone talk to him that much publicly? I never see him around. I remember watching him in that movie, Internal Affairs with Richard Gere. That was a nasty movie, man. Nasty movie. But I got to watch this 8 Million Ways to Die. I didn't realize it was a Hal Ashby film until he got pulled off it. I learned that from Andy Garcia.

But yeah, so I've been in the bay area i went to uh sf moma talba talba talba our back there's a huge retrospective a full show a full what do you call it survey show of talba our back she works in all the mediums she paints she weaves she makes sculptures she made a giant like pipe organ instrument she does graphics she does uh writing calligraphy almost sign painting she does all kinds of surfaces it's a giant exhibition you just it's immersive it's fucking genius totally fucking new totally well referenced in the history of things and of art, but just mind blowing. What an amazing thing to go see new art. And don't say, so don't say I don't get it.

There's nothing for you to get. Shut up. Take it. You don't have to get it. Just take it. Open up the mind though bozo let those ghosts in yes the art workers but it was so great man so much stuff i bought a poster even i bought a book tauba auerbach i can't even explain it to you it's just she does all things a lot of colors

all abstract there's no time for for forms for people there's some letters there's definitely some letters but that's as a that's as identifiable as things get. There's a wood organ. There's a hanging thing. But just a lot of colors, textiles, things that look like computer things that aren't computer things. I can't even get my whole mind around it. Then there's a big photography show there. It was just great. Kevin knows his shit about art, so we were riffing.

Great. It was just a relief. But here's what happened. So I lived there a a long time and i've been back in a while saw my friend jack bulwer i haven't hung out with him in a while but he's like where do you want to eat and i'm like you know what man let's let's do a burrito let's do it let's go do it let's go to the burrito place we always went to when we were younger and we always go to when we hang out it's been years let's go to cancun down on mission street so we go i get the straight up burrito i don't get the super no avocado no sour cream no cheese just straight up you know rice beans the meat pretty much and i gotta be i gotta be honest

with you you know about halfway into my forearm sizedrito, I realized deep in my heart that that was going to be the last burrito I ever eat. That was it. It's over. No more burritos for me. It's not like I eat a lot of them, but I'm talking any kind. You got to get halfway into that last burrito that's the size of your arm, San Francisco style. If you're going to have that style if you're gonna have that moment where you're like this is it this is over it happened so that's pretty monumental moment

in napa i bought a few records at a thrift store kind of an antiquey kind of uh you know upscale thrift store run by three ladies it seems like middle-aged ladies that a bunch of records right so i bought i bought like five records bring them up to the counter one of them didn't have a price tag on it mike so what are we gonna do and they're like well uh and i'm like are these someone else's records? Yes. She's not here. Maybe her name was Jenny. I don't know. And I'm like, okay, so what do you want to do? I kind of want to buy this Mary McCaslin record.

And I looked it up on Discogs. It's a reissue of a 1969 record that came out in 1980 with a different title. I looked it up on Discogs. I knew what the price was. The highest price paid on Discogs was like 10 bucks. And this woman's like, well, maybe we should call Jenny. And I'm like, all right. So they try to call Jenny and they leave a message and I'm standing there. I don't have all day, but I have more time than I should because I'm there early. And then one of the other women says, I don't know if Jenny, we can get her that way. Did anyone text her?

Because I don't think, I think we have to text her from the iPads. And this is becoming a group effort. There's much technology involved to try to get hold of Jenny to figure out the price of a record I know tops out at 10 bucks. I could have just given them 20. But I don't know if she would have believed me. And then she checks a master list. One of the ladies said, I think it's $16. And I'm like,'m like there's no way there's $16 again could have just paid and got out they're like well we're going to track down Jenny and then some other woman from across the room

goes I just got hold of Tommy who's Tommy well Tommy is sometimes they're kind of boyfriend girlfriend but he's like he's sort of Jenny's boyfriend and maybe he can find her and I'm like this is really something this is going to take some time and the woman's like, he's sort of Jenny's boyfriend and maybe he can find her. And I'm like, this is really something, this is going to take some time. And the woman's like, are you going to be here tomorrow? And I'm like, no, I'm not going to be here tomorrow. I didn't, I wasn't being a dick, but it was this kind of pace that I was not used to where, you know, this could have gone on a while. And I realized this is why people live in Napa. This is exactly it. Not only is this happening, but it's going to be talked about later. We couldn't find Jenny anywhere to price this record.

We've got to maybe shift store policy around some of these records. We've got to double check that all these records. And then finally, Tommy, I guess, gets hold of Jenny, and the woman who was talking to me initially about $16 says, well, it's $8. I guess you're right. I guess I was.

I guess I was. What a day. I'm glad I didn't have to stay the extra day to wait on the price of the Mary McCaslin record. So Andy Garcia. I was a little intimidated, but he's not that intimidating. Maybe he is. He probably is, but I didn't feel it.

He was ready to talk. uh seemed to be into it i think his daughter this sometimes this happens that the the offspring the kids are a fan of the show and they talk the dads into it or the moms so i think my understanding is his daughter the actress one of them, likes this podcast. So she got the old man to make an exception to his basically not doing much press life to do my podcast. So it was an honor. The film he's in that he's out promoting is called Big Gold Brick. It's in theaters and on demand this Friday, February 25th. This is me talking to Andy Garcia. That's why you need insurance. Don't let the, I'm too small for this mindset, hold you back from protecting yourself. Zensurance provides customized business insurance policies starting at just $19 per month. Visit Zensurance today to get a free quote.

Zensurance, mind your business. Death is in our air. This year's most anticipated series, FX's Shogun, only on Disney+. We live and we die. We control nothing beyond that. An epic saga based on the global bestselling novel by James Clavel. To show your true heart is to risk your life. When I die here, you'll never leave Japan alive. FX's Shogun.

A new original series streaming February 27th exclusively on Disney Plus. 18 plus subscription required. T's and C's apply. Yeah. Thanks for coming out. I watched that movie, The Big Gold Brick. It made me feel like I haven't watched movies in a while.

It's, yeah. So when something like that comes along, though, like how do you make a decision? Because you're great. The whole thing's kind of interesting, but it's an odd movie. It's a very odd movie. So how does that happen, though? They're just sort of like, it's a script that comes to you and something. Yeah, well, Oscar Isaac is in the film playing this sort of Doctor Strangelove character.

Yeah, at the end. At the end, yeah. And he's very good friends with director Brian Petzos. They've done several shorts together that got a lot of attention. Okay. So he sent it over and he said, hey, I'm doing this thing that I'm also producing. And Brian and I would love for you to take a look at it to play he said, hey, I'm doing this thing that I'm also producing and Brian and I would love for you to take a look at it

to play this character, Floyd. So I read it and, because, you know, Oscar's a friend, I respect his taste and he's a great actor. Yeah. I read it and I called him,

I said, I have no idea what this is about. And I said, I don't know, I couldn't get a handle on the character as I was reading him.

Sometimes you get hooked in and then you're kind of in it and you, you have that first experience in the read. Yeah. You kind of see yourself or understand it somehow

or at least be touched. You know, something touches you that you go, you say, I don't know. But in this case, it was like,

I have no clue. So we talked a little bit. I'm going, I think it's like and i think it's this and actually so you could ask her go like yeah man that's it that's it and i go are you sure i go yeah anyway then i started talking to the director and it was the same thing i'm not sure and then finally i said well you know maybe the thing is that you have to do it in order to understand who he is and kind of throw yourself into it. And that's basically what I did.

Well, yeah, but what were the things that you think this is it? Like when you first got a handle on that guy who was sort of, you know, I don't know if you'd call him a con man or. Yeah, you can. Yeah. So what was it that, what was the handle to the guy that you just started to realize? Well, you know, it seems as I reflect back on it because it's been a while right since i did it you kind of you know as sanford meisner used to say you know live live truthfully within imaginary circumstances yeah yeah yeah so first of all you got to accept yourself

as the guy right and you got to step into the situation as the guys you have to accept i am i am this dude and i have to deal with yeah what's going down so everything that comes your way you're dealing with it you know yeah yeah and so that's an important thing in any character you have to really accept yourself but it's sort of funny the confidence of the guy but also that this strange sort of vulnerability to the guy and that he cares about this kid yeah that he hit with the car yeah and but there's uh but there's boundaries you know there's something it was uh it was kind of endearing the whole thing Yeah well

He you know at the end of the day I guess did the overall sort of metaphor or underlying current of the movie is that? This chance encounter by me hitting this kid. Yeah with a car and I take him into my home Happens to be a writer. So I figure as you know, my character says well, why did you write my biography? So I figure as my character says, well, why don't you write my biography that I'm going to make up. I'm going to make up my life and you're going to write about it. Maybe we'll make some money. Yeah, but the trappings of your life become very interesting. Like right out of the gate, it's like, what the hell is this guy?

So I thought it was good. Meisner, did you study with that guy? Not with, I wouldn't call Meisner that guy. No, no. I mean, I know, I got to talk to a lot of people that study with him directly, but it seems like- I never studied with him directly. Was it a generation older than you? Yeah. I studied with people who were students of his that then also taught afterwards. But that was your primary kind of thing? That was one of mine. I tried to expose tried to expose myself to, you know, the method. Yeah.

And I sat in some classes with Stella Adler, never actually, you know, put work up in front of her. Here? Here in Los Angeles, yeah. So, you know, I observed there a lot, a lot, a couple times. I studied with Jose Quintero. I studied with a lot of guys. When I first got here, one of the things I did was,

talking about Los Angeles in the late 70s, I got involved and became a member of a house improv group at the Comedy Store. What year was that? 78, 79 or whatever. So how did you come to the Comedy Store? You never did comedy, did you? Did you do stand-up?

No, just improv. No. So how does that happen because you had did you i started yeah i was just trying to you know find places where i can exercise my shit but but how does it happen there because it's a weird place you know i spent a lot of time there was a doorman there i think that someone told me about it you know the that they had these improv groups oh okay and we started studying with some of the guys that came from second city you know and workshops and over there that came from Second City, you know, in workshops.

Over there, huh? Over there in their houses, you know. Did you meet Mitzi and all those people? Sure. I worked for her for a while. You did? Yeah, I was on the phones. Me too.

Yeah, and she fired me right away. She said, who's that guy with the accent? Look at this. I got hold of her driver's license. That's from 1973. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. Because they did a documentary on her, and I'm kind of mildly obsessed with the place because I was a doorman there for a while, way back.

But I still worked there every night. Were you there during that time, 78, 79? No, no. I didn't get out here that first time until the 80ss and i was only here for about a year and got all you know screwed up on cocaine and left but it's a good place to get screwed up on cocaine the comedy store so it's the only place but uh i did the phones i did the door i did all that shit but that's interesting so you were there for a while yeah and you know in that time we were there uh in the main room yeah uh we performed in the main were there in the main room. Yeah.

We performed in the main room. Right. And in the original room, after we'd perform, we had a lot of guys like Marty Short and Robin who used to come by all the time. Was it the Comedy Store Players? We opened for them. Okay. We were called the invited guests. Oh, okay.

And then sometimes it would cross over and people wouldn't show up and then you would kind of join. It's crazy. But Marty Shore was there. Betty Thomas. A lot of cats would come through. But after we'd do our set, I would always go to the original room and sit in and watch the comics. And when I had nothing to do, you know, on another night, I would swing by because I always had friends already that were there and they were performing.

But, you know, you can, on any given night in those days, you had, and I'll leave a lot of people out, but Bob Saget, God rest his soul, just passed away. Jerry Seinfeld. Yeah. You know, David Letterman. Sure. Jay Leno. Yeah, yeah.

Larry David. Were they there? Michael Keaton. Michael Keaton was definitely there. Yeah, yeah. This guy named Barry Diamond that was very funny. Barry Diamond. Yeah, he sings at the end.

Charles Fleischer was there. Fleischer, sure, yeah.ff altman jeff altman yeah sam kennison sam yeah my my partner that i did a lot of sketch work and writing with his name was fred asparagus freddy asparagus yeah i knew freddy he was around oh really yeah he was around a bit you know yeah me and freddy talented guy yeah extremely talented passed away him, yeah, we sat up there in the Crest Hill. You know, the house Demizio owned, the comics with? I've been up there. Yeah, you know what you do up there. So me and Freddie were up there.

No, no, I used to walk by. Yeah, well, I mean, who was living there then? Dice? Dice was around there. That's crazy. So you have this old- Lou Deck was a guy that lived there for a long time. Argus Hamilton.

Argus was there. Argus is still there. Saw him last night. Oh my God. Yeah. Yeah, you should. Yeah, I never made the wall. I didn't stick around long enough to make the wall.

Oh, you gotta make the wall. It took a long time for me to get on that wall. Oh my God. It was very important at a different time. I can imagine. But you were there for a while then. A couple years, yeah. So is that the first thing you did?

Where'd you come from? What was the right before here? I was in Florida and college in Florida and Florida International. So you grew up all in Florida? Yeah. And your folks were from Cuba? Yes. We came in 61. So after the debacle? We were under Castro for two and a half years and we got lucky we got out. So how old were you there? Five and a half. So this must be like a story in your family of what happened. Like the history of you is involved with being pushed out of Cuba. I wouldn't be here talking to you today if I didn't get out. Yeah.

Well, what was your father's disposition around it? Around Cuba? Yeah. What we wanted to get out. You know, nobody wants to leave the country they love, you Cuba? Yeah. What we wanted to get out. Nobody wants to leave the country they love, but when the promise of the revolution was betrayed, it was like a three-card Monty kind of thing. We're going to give you a new democracy, respect the constitution and all this stuff, and then it turns in too quickly into a Marxist-Leninist indoctrination.

Religion goes away. They confiscate all your property. And then finally, around that time, they passed a law where the rights to your children went to the state. Wow. So once your children were of school age, like at five, the age I was, you would go into the state, run schools. There was no alternative. Did you have siblings? Yeah, older. So they wererun schools. There was no alternative. Did you have siblings? Yeah, older.

So they were in them? They began, yeah. And the state-run school is not really education. It's indoctrination. Right, yeah. There was no God, so you praise Fidel and you praise Che Guevara on the wall. Yeah, yeah.

That kind of stuff. So my father and mother said, we're out of here. Obviously, by then, since they had nationalized everything in the country you really had nothing you're there other than the house you lived in if you chose to stay wow and then so we got on a plane and went to miami where my uncle was already there we borrowed a dime my father my mother borrowed a dime after they got through customs yeah and uh called and said we're here you Wow. So does that mean they arrive as refugees? How does that work? Yeah, Cuban refugees, exiles, political exiles in this case.

Sometimes people come in for immigration, permanent immigration. I think the early wave of Cubans were considered that we're going back. Oh, they thought they would go back. Yeah, we're going back. We're going to wait until this gets resolved. America will not let this guy continue in this manner. It's going to resolve itself. And obviously, there were things like the Bay of Pigs and the missile crisis.

And then before you know it, he had this relationship with Russia, and it became a whole Cold War. Yeah. And was your father wanting to go back? Yeah, all Cubans always want to go back. It's like the Italians with the old country. Yeah, yeah. I want to be buried in Palermo. Yeah.

Have you been back to Cuba? I went once after the, about around 93. Yeah. They had changed the wet foot, dry foot, this new law where now the only way, if you came on a raft, you had to touch dry land or else they'd send you back. Right. You could be 20 feet offshore, it doesn't matter. Really?

So there was a lot of rafters to this day. People are still coming in rafts. Now they're coming even in through Mexico in the Rio Grande. Yeah. When I went, there was about 16,000 refugees that were caught at sea. And they couldn't send

them back to cuba because they would be you know in prison and god knows what would happen so they had them at guantanamo the naval base yeah trying to figure out where do we put these people and if you had relatives in the u.s some then you kind of got them through or you went to spain or yeah and we went to do a concert for them there with i went with uh glory and emilio stefan and a gentleman i worked with for many years, a hero of mine named Israel Lopez, known as Cachao. He's a Cuban bass player, composer,

you know, father of the mambo kind of guy. Yeah. Actually father of the mambo with his brother. Yeah. And so we went and did a concert. The only time I had been gone, but I was on the naval base. Obviously, I was on the island.

Yeah. And saw the island as we approached it from the south side and saw the island as we approached it from the south side and when you know went for a swim you know because it's there's there was a coast is there so yeah yeah that was the only time i've been back wow because i mean i mean in the last few years you can you know people go there was a period there was a window there where people were going yes but you know i've been very critical of that regime that they might they might let me in but they might not let me out.

And also what happens is, you know, you go and if you, and this happens all the time, any kind of person that some sort of has any kind of public profile or what you might call a celebrity profile, when they go to Cuba, they exploit that because they're going there just to get to know Cuba, even though it's a mess or, but the people are great or whatever. Yeah. And they get, they get, you Cuba, even though it's a mess, but the people are great and whatever. And they get you know, they use that as propaganda. You see how these people, they approve of us. They think we're great.

They think what we're doing is great. And they use you that way. So I would never Who is it? Fidel's brother still? He's still alive, but there's an appointee, a president that he's still the head of the party but he's not public, really. It's this guy, Diaz Canal.

And you don't have relatives? A loyalist, you know, another loyalist to the Castro regime. So you don't have relatives there anymore? No. Yeah. No. Although there's a lot of Cubans there that say they're my cousin. A lot of Garcias?

You know, it's a typical thing. You know, when you say, you know, Mark? Oh, yeah, yeah. He's my cousin. Yeah. So how did your family make do when they got here? How did they rebuild their lives? Well, my father was a lawyer.

Yeah. And a notary, which is different in Cuba. Notaries, you know, not everybody. Here, you can be a notary. I can be a notary. You had to be a lawyer. You had to, you know, have that degree. And also, it was a way of keeping track of what goes down in your region, you can be a notary. I can be a notary. You had to be a lawyer. You had to have that degree. And also, it was a way of keeping track of what goes down in your region.

I guess it was a selected or selective title. Right. And also a farmer. Okay. What did he farm? Potatoes, cucumbers. Really? A small dairy farm for the small town we lived outside of the valley.

So he had some property. He had properties, yeah, that were confiscated, obviously. Oh, my God. Those cucumbers. Really? A small dairy farm for the small town we lived outside of Nevada. So he had some property. He had properties, yeah, that were confiscated. Oh, my God. And so our house there at the entrance of the town of Bejucal is, once we left, they turned it into a preschool. It's still there as a preschool. So what did they do when they got here? How did they?

We hit the ground. Literally, I remember them borrowing a dime to make a phone call. We called my uncle and then my godfather who was here, who I'm named after, Andy. Yeah. And we said, we're here. And he said, okay, come. This is where we're living. And we went to 84th and Harding in Miami Beach.

Harding is a street that parallels Collins Avenue, which is, you know, on the beach. Yeah, yeah. And that area is filled with these weekend joints that people from the north would come down

and you have a, what you call an efficiency kind of thing. So you have, it's like a suite. You have a living room with a kitchenette and one bedroom

and one bath. And we got into, and you pay by the week, you know. Right. And we got by the week. Right. And we got into that. There was six of us. Six?

Yeah, including a grandmother. So grandma, two siblings. Were they brothers? My older brother, Rene, is older than me. And my older sister, Tessie, is also older. Okay. By six years and seven years. So I was younger.

Oh, accident? No. Okay. And my mother was an English teacher was younger. Oh, accident? No. Okay. And my mother was an English teacher in Cuba. Oh, okay. So she was able to also help my father who did not speak English at all. Neither did we. We had to learn.

So you had the whole family there. Were you grandma too? Yeah. My grandma slept on the couch and the kids slept on the floor and my parents slept in the bedroom. And was there a whole community of people there? Yeah. There was a small community of exiles

that had come already. Yeah. A lot of Cuban Jews that were there. Right. A lot of the Cuban Jewish community split for the same reasons. Not only liberty, but also they shut down the synagogues too. Yeah, yeah.

So I grew up in an extraordinarily beautiful environment with the embrace of the American, especially the Jewish American community because that's where I lived around me. Yeah. And I was blessed. To me, Miami Beach was a paradise. I was a block away from the beach, you know.

My brother and I used to go at that age, very young. You know, he was 11 and I was six, let's say. We used to go and collect empty empty coke bottles and pepsi bottles glass yeah the glass yeah on the beaches and we crawl and we and then we put it in on a food fair cart you know yeah yeah like a vans card we called the food fair yeah and then we'd roll it down filled with bottles yeah and we get money in exchange for them you know a nickel for the tall ones yeah and then we go get a burger at Royal Castle, you know. My brother to this day was a great entrepreneur, you know.

And to that, you know, he hit the ground running. That was the beginning. Yeah. And my father, like all exiles, he just got, he took the first job available, which was at the Fountain Blue Hotel in the janitorial. Fountain Blue, yeah. Did they redo that one?

Is it still there it's still there yeah yeah you know you you basically land and you have other exiles that are there and they go i need a job yeah and they go oh come with me tomorrow they need help at the fountain blue and that's the way it worked and he started there as a janitor lawyer with property goes to being a janitor that's the hit you know what i mean i mean and all the other a lot of the other janitors were also cubans that were already there there were doctors and sure and they had to get their degrees again and you know start all over because you can't you can't agree yeah and the guy who owned the building i

lived in in queens was a dominican dentist yeah and he couldn't do anything you know but it was funny because he if you had a problem with your stove you tell him to come fix it and you look at it and go if it was a mouth i could fix it i can't look at it and go, if it was a mouth, I could fix it. I can't fix a stove. Exactly. So what was the family business? What evolved? My father began to do many things that dealt with sort of distribution.

He went from working. He got a job at a caterer. Yeah. And it was a caterer that dedicated itself to the Cuban community. And you get these like army tins. You know, they're a stacked one on top of the other. Yeah. Little tins. And you have the soup at the bottom and then rice and then bananas.

Like a lunchbox thing. Yeah. They are stacked on a rail. Yeah. And it's called a cantina, basically. Yeah. And he went to work for a guy who had that business, and he managed it for him for a while. This is after several jobs.

Anyway, he ended up buying the business from him because the guy wanted to get out. Cantina, lunchbox business. Yeah. My father really couldn't fry an egg, but he could manage the business. Yeah. And he was not the cook of the family for sure. But we did that for a while. So, you know, and we ate well.

We weren't getting rich, but everybody ate well. Right. A lot of leftovers. Yeah. We bring home to Miami Beach and people who couldn't afford it would come and get it at the house. Oh, yeah. That's nice. Yeah, yeah.

And then from there he got a job putting very cheap sneakers from a company called Leeds. Very cheap sneakers. You could buy for a buck or two. On consignment in grocery stores in different places all around Miami. So he'd go around to the pitch. In a 40-foot truck full of sneakers. And he'd go into a grocery store in all neighborhoods. But Overtown, Little Havana, Liberty City, everywhere.

Yeah, yeah. So, culturally different neighborhoods. Yeah. And he'd pull up and he'd say, how many sneakers did you sell? You sold four. You owe me five bucks. Yeah. You keep the other three, you know, as a consignment thing.

Yeah, yeah. And then he'd fill it up, the sizes that were sold out, and then we'd move on to another. And I would go every Saturday with him to help him. To refill? To help him. So that was the sneaker racket. Yeah, that was the sneaker racket. And then because he had that down,

someone approached him and say, you can come, you want to be the distributor of these socks that were popular in Cuba. Yeah. Called Once Once 1111 in Casino. They're like, you've seen them. They're like nylon. They're kind of transparent.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, sure. You know, very decorative. Yeah, yeah. And she dumped the sneakers and used that same idea for this. The sock guy. Yeah, the sock guy. Yeah.

And the sock guy became socks and pantyhose, socks and undershirts, socks, and it became the business continued to grow and grow and grow. And then we got into the fragrance business, and that took off. Yeah. And that was it, huh? And then my brother became the fragrance tycoon. Because we all worked in the family business. So was it like an import business with the fragrance?

Like they bring them in from France and stuff like that? Yes, it was a gray market, yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. So that was it. That's how he built his business. Yeah, and then it grew into other parts of the, you know, he was the head of Halston and, you know, it became... The head of what? Halston? He was the main distributor for people like Halston. Sure, yeah. Not Gray Market, normal people came to him because he was, you know, doing very well. He knew the thing. Yeah. That's great. So how do you, like, so you end up an actor. Your brother's a business guy. Yeah. And what's your sister do?

She's an interior designer. She retired now, but she's an award-winning interior designer. See, I've got a new appreciation for that recently, interior design. I was just at a hotel in New York, and I thought, like, geez, I got to. This is beautiful. Yeah. It makes a big difference. Oh, sure.

To live in a place where you like looking at it, even if you don't go in the room. It's nice to just look in the room and go, like, it's a pretty room. Yeah. It makes a big difference. Oh, sure. To live in a place where you like looking at it. Even if you don't go in the room, it's nice to just look in the room and go like, it's a pretty room. Yeah. Right? Absolutely. I can't afford it, but it's beautiful. How much to sleep on the towels?

So how do you end up deciding to do acting? I was already acting in college. That was a bug I had. But in high school, you're working all the time. All through high school and stuff, you're working for your father. I was working for my dad and playing basketball. I played basketball in high school. Good. Point guard. Okay. Miami Beach.

Yeah. Senior high. Yeah. And then my senior year. Yeah. Which is kind of the year that you go, okay, this is my year. Make some decisions. Yeah. And also maybe I can play in a little small college. I'm going to say, hey. Oh, you mean high school. Yeah. And maybe I can keep playing in school. Yeah, and also, like, maybe I can play in a little small college. I'm going to say, hey. Oh, you mean high school. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And maybe I can keep playing, you know, in school. Yeah, yeah, sure. I got a very bad case of mononucleosis and hepatitis. Almost die? No, no. But I was out for a while. Yeah, yeah. And it was right at the beginning of the basketball season,

so I didn't play a lick of basketball at all. And then I took an acting class in high school during that time when you couldn't play right and you were tired it was uh it was uh yeah it was an elective or weak and tired yeah which is the best place to start as an actor because you're vulnerable you're open leave yourself alone yeah and so i took a class and i was i had a lot of fun with it and the teacher jay jensen encouraged me a lot he was very encouraging. No one in school had ever been encouraging before to me. About anything?

No, in basketball, I was good. But I'm talking about like studies. Oh, yeah, yeah. Sure, yeah. And he said, you know, you should take this more seriously. And obviously, it's like, you know how it is. It awakens this thing inside you like a virus. It taps into it.

And then it kind of, if you don't deal with it or, or the desire to learn was very intense for me to learn how to do this. And, and the dream of maybe, you know, trying to do this for a living, you know?

Right. Well, I mean, you have that drive cause you, you know, the way you came up was, you know, the way you came up with your,

your dad going through all that and, you know to make yourself but it's interesting with acting because it's a tricky thing to to learn i mean you got right it's hard yeah i mean you got you know you got to have an there's a lot of natural talent obviously but but when you want to apply yourself with the same ambition and focus that you would business it it's a little vague, right? Completely vague. Completely vague. And, you know, even though you have, you might have, you know, like if you're in sports,

it's like he's coordinated. Right, sure. You can make the shot. He's coordinated, but he's, you know. Yeah. In acting, you got to learn the craft, you know. Yeah. It's a very, you know, it's a thing you got to go through.

It's a personal choice too, like how you do it. Yes. Right? Yes. I mean, there's no one craft. With basketball, you know, it's a thing you got to go through. It's a personal choice, too, like how you do it. Yes. Right? Yes. I mean, there's no one craft. With basketball, you know, you run around, you do the drills, you take the shots. Yeah, but learning the craft of, you know, that sense of truth, you know,

and the sense of being able to be centered and grounded and comfortable and create a character. Yeah. You know where to go with it and all those things. It's like it is an art form. Well, yeah, but I mean, but my point is, is like after I talked to a lot of guys and women too, is that, you know, you take, you build your own craft from the stuff that you. Absolutely. Right.

There's no like, you know, here's the template. No, no, no. You expose yourself to all the templates and you start getting hopefully a deeper understanding of them and of yourself, you know. But I guess that's the truth of it. That's finding the truth, deeper understanding of them and of yourself. But I guess that's the truth of it. That's finding the truth, being honest with yourself. So in high school, you got the bug, and you were doing, like, I wouldn't imagine the big work.

No, no, I didn't. I just had one class. You know, when I went to college from there, I kept studying. How'd that go? Not good. But I was very enthusiastic. I wanted to learn. About acting.

Yeah. So you go to university, which college? Miami Dade South. Okay. Community college, and then a two-year university, FIU at that time was only a two-year school. Okay. Last two years. And they had an acting program? They had acting classes at the community college, and at the FIU, they had an acting program.

I bet you they don't even have those anymore at the community college. Yeah, I'm sure they do. You think so? Yeah, I think so, yeah. Oh, that's good. Yeah, it's electives, you know. Sure. But was the teacher any good?

Better than me. You had to take the advice then from them. I was trying to. And then, of course, you have things in your life that change your life. And films had done that for me since I was a kid. I didn't know how into it I was. And that was inside of me saying, that's what I want to do. And when I was awakened, then I realized, oh. It's possible. I don't know if it's possible, but that's what i want to do you know yeah and when i was awakened then i realized oh it's possible i don't know if it's possible but that's what's calling me you know yeah like what what film has had the most impact well it started early on you know obviously well i was even knowing you

know it started with you know sean connery and then james bond and the great escape and then you get to work with him all of them i got to work with him i got to work with him. All of them. I got to work with him. I got to work with James Coburn, who was a big hero of mine, too. You remember? Yeah. Our man Flint. Sure. The Magnificent Seven and all that. Yeah.

And, of course, later on, The Godfather was so influential in everybody's life. Sure. And I got a chance to work with Francis and with Al. But, like, so- I've got to work with Bobby Duvall and all these people. you know, Bobby Duvall and all these people. It's absolutely a ridiculous notion that I'm sitting here with you recalling this stuff because it was just a dream of a somewhat shy kid, I guess,

to say that's what I want to do. So when did you first do your first play? Unless I'm living some altered reality. You might be after that movie. You might have entered some altered reality. Yeah, I know. No, that I'm just imagining in my entire life. Well, some people think that's it,

but I'm pretty sure you're living it because I've witnessed some of it. Yes, but if you're also part of that reality, someone who verifies my own dementia. I'm part of your dream. I wrote a character. Catch, one of the things he says, he's kind of a noir character. And he says, your dreams are a way of escaping reality, unless your dreams are your reality.

Oh, yeah. Great. That's your guy? That's my yeah great that's your guy that's my guy that's the guy i wrote what so when did you do your first show like a play did you do a play in college yeah in college i was doing plays in college yeah yeah did you love it yeah it was incredible do you have you done much theater lately i did uh right before the pandemic hit we we closed the show at the Geffen based on an idea I had for a long time

on putting doing an adaptation of the movie Key Largo for the stage oh yeah and I was having lunch with the guys there the artistic directors

at the Geffen yeah and he said I said yeah I'd like to do something here and he goes well what do you want to do and I said

you know I always had this idea about you know Key Largo because it takes place in one place that's edward g robinson yeah yeah and humphrey bogart oh yeah yeah and it was based on a play yeah initially uh did you find it the play yeah and and so it's a play and then there was a screenplay and we use both those things and then also some new ideas that are are not in the screenplay and they're not in the play or the movie. You play the heavy? I play the Edward G. Robinson role.

So I mentioned to him, they said, that's a great idea. We'll get a dramaturg. You can work with him. What can you do? And I went, oh, shit. Me and my big mouth. Me and my big mouth. So we did it.

It was great. It was great to get back on stage. I hadn't been on stage for a while. It must have been amazing. It was so much fun, yeah. So immediate, right? It's the best. You forget. You forget. I hadn't been on stage for a while. It must have been amazing. It was so much fun, yeah. So immediate, right? It's the best. You forget. I bet.

A lot of guys don't do it at all anymore. Did it be, you know, back in the day in New York? And then it's done. It's done, yeah. So you were a noir guy, I guess. I love noir, yeah. Yeah. Raymond Chandler, yeah. Sure. Did you go see Del Toro's? Yes, of course. It's great, right? Yeah, sure. Did you go see Del Toro's?

Yes, of course. It's great, right? Yeah, yeah. He's amazing. You know, he's got a black and white print, too. Oh, really? Yeah, he's been taking it around. Oh, I'd like to see that.

Yeah, they added grain. Yeah, I'd like to see it, too, but I didn't get out there to see it. He's a genius, that guy. Yeah, lovely guy. I met him when he first came to L. long time ago Tom bloody who worked for Francis and and runs the Telluride Film Festival huh said I have a young director in from Mexico that yeah me he just came into town I said okay sure he came over to the to my little office which is my old house and he had a book book. Yeah. And first of all, he's

the sweetest guy in the world. Sweet guy. He had this big book and he started opening up and it was all his drawings and storyboards of all the movies he's made. Yeah. And I saw them there for the first time. The old boy and all these characters. Yeah. He already had imagined them, you know. Yeah. And he said,

I want to make, I said, I'm around. Call me. Let's do it. Yeah. I can't finance i said i'm around call me let's do it you know i can't finance it you have to call me now i can't call you and uh we still haven't worked together not yet it'll happen i mean i think i did a voice on one of his cartoons he does it like has cartoons yeah on netflix yeah so when was the first so did you get booked out of new york initially where'd you after college where'd you go? I came here. Right away? Yeah, right away. Yeah, just alone?

No, not right away. I started, yeah, alone. I started, my brother had just opened up a discotheque in Miami with a bunch of friends. Your brother, the entrepreneur? Yes, called Alexander's. Yeah. And it became the hottest thing in town. Really?

They had a dance floor that they built. They built it. It was in the bottom floor of the Omni Hotel, and they had a dance floor with hydraulics like in a gas station, like in a garage. Go up, yeah. You can get on the dance floor on the first floor. It was all plexiglass,

and it would take you up to the second floor as you're dancing. So this is the disco time, like 70s? This is the 75, 67. Oh, that's it? No, yes, 67. Yeah, disco time. Yeah.

Yeah. And I worked there the summer of 78. That must have been crazy. For like four months, you know. Was it crazy? Yeah, it was pretty crazy. And I made very good money, you know, tip-wise in those days. Sure. Yeah, it was pretty crazy. And I made very good money, you know, tip-wise in those days.

I had one client that would come in with an entourage every night, which was, and he was, at the time, the largest marijuana importer. Yeah, yeah. At least in the southern states, maybe in America. There must have been some real characters, man. Oh, yeah. And he took a liking to me right away because I tended to him. I was like a maitre d' sommelier, you know? Yeah, man. Oh, yeah. And he took a liking to me right away because I tended to him. I was like a maitre d' sommelier, you know? Yeah, yeah.

And he told my brother's partner, Alex Cachal D'Or, who had been in the restaurant business all their life since Cuba. Yeah. Very close friend of ours. And he said, I'm coming back tomorrow. When I come, I want Andy to take care of me. Yeah. So he gave me $100. I'd wait for him at the door, and he'd shake my hand. I come, I want Andy to take care of me. So he'd give me $100 when I'd wait for him at the door and he'd shake my hand.

I said, Andy, how are you? He said, how are you? Good to see you. He'd already have a $100 bill in my palm. And when he left, he'd give me another $100. And he was there basically every night. Oh, that's good. So with that money that I made in those three months before, I got on a plane and came

to Los Angeles. Did you have friends here? I knew Stephen Bauer, who's locally from Miami, and we were friends in Miami. The actor from Scarface? Yeah. Oh, he's great. He was there already. He had come out maybe like six months before. He's a Miami guy?

Yeah. Jewish guy? No. Cuban. Cuban guy. Huh. Echevarria is his father's real name. Bauer is his grandmother's name.

Oh, okay. So you knew him. I knew him, and he said, hey, man, come out here. There's a lot of work. As soon as he got here, he had a contact with a manager that knew him. He was on a show in Miami on PBS called Que Pasa, USA. It was a bilingual- He played Manolo in Scarface.

In Scarface, yeah. And he said, hey, man, come out here. There's a lot of work. I got a bilingual He played Manolo in Scarface. Yeah. And he said hey man come out here. There's a lot of work I got already. I got a contract. He landed. He got a contract with Columbia Pictures Television. They paid and I went. I said I'm out of here. I'm going. And I got here and I didn't work for seven years. Seven years. Well you know I got a little

taste here and there but it was really hard. Hanging out at the comedy store. It was hard. I got my first. One of my first gigs because of uh being you know showcasing there yeah in the part we did the pilot of hill street blues i was on that you're on the pilot yeah did you have like a big part no but that was your first did you have an agent what'd you do for seven years uh i you know i tried to get work and it was was very difficult. What jobs were you doing? Oh. I loaded trucks, and you know roadway? Those trucks that say roadway?

Uh-huh. At the City of Commerce over there on the other side, from 7 o'clock at night to 7 o'clock in the morning, either load or strip a truck. How the hell did you do that job and still go on auditions? I didn't have any auditions. Oh, no. Yeah. But Bryan Cranston worked with me on that. Really? Yeah. At the truck place? Yeah. do that job and still go on auditions uh i didn't have any auditions oh no yeah but brian cranston

worked with me on that really yeah at the truck place yeah and then i would i worked for starving students the movers i sure i i laid shingles i worked for a long time as a waiter at the beverly hilton hotel a banquet waiter yeah i would go away i wasn't like permanent i go in i call in you need someone they always needed somebody well Well, that's determination. Acting, I'm a comic. That's always what I've been. I always sort of like, I don't know how actors have the resilience to not only not get the job or get the opportunity, but even when you're in it, going out on those auditions.

Well, the opportunities weren't like today, certainly, because there was five studios. There was no HBO. There was no cable yeah and three networks and pbs and that was it right and for an actor with a spanish surname you know yeah garcia yeah they would bring you in only for parts first of all the you i didn't have a good agent you know so it was hard to even get you know what was your first agent like i know you're very sweet i had a couple of them yeah they were so boutique and so small that I had more than one. Yeah.

And they didn't care. They didn't care. They didn't even know. So you get an audition, and you know, those days, the only auditions for Hispanics were basically gang members. Right. So even if they, by mistake, did not look at my picture, but saw Garcia and they said, call the Garcia dude in. And they'd see me when I'd walk in. They go, what are you doing here?

Why? Because in the hallway, there was real gang members outside. You couldn't sell it? No, no, I couldn't sell it. And I go, I'm an actor. He goes, yes, yes, yes. We understand. You're an actor. Thank you. We'll Thank you. We'll call it maybe something else. There was never something else. So the first role was the Hill Street Blues?

That was a little bit at the beginning. I mean, getting in a fight with some kid, and the camera goes by, and I'm screaming. It's just a bit. Sure. But I think I ended up doing maybe one or two or three more of those over the hit. The TV pieces? The TV bits? Yeah, the bits, yeah.

And the ladies there, casting people, Molly LaPotta and those guys, they really, they liked me. They'd see me on stage. So, you know, they'd have me in for certain things. They saw you at the store? Mary Tyler Moore, yeah. At the comedy store? Yeah.

The Mary Tyler Moore group, all those guys. So, you know, I started getting little bits here and there and, you know, just kind of staying in the game as much. Until I got a real, an agent finally, a manager. How'd that happen? She was, her name was Phyllis Carlisle and she was Steven's manager. And I got to know her just through Steven, just casually. Sure. And she just said, you know, and Melanie Griffith, who was also with her, and John Malkovich.

Yeah. Willem Dafoe. Oh, yeah. she had a very strong group of people good stable yeah and Melanie and Stephen would always say to Phyllis

you gotta see because we were studying together at Meisner with David Provel and they would see my work on stage you know and Melanie was very supportive

and Stephen we're in her ear you gotta right you gotta you know Andy check out andy

yeah andy andy andy finally she said i want to help you and she was very helpful because she obviously had could get me in to have a general meeting with somebody yeah yeah very she had a lot of you know contacts she had a great staff and once we started working i was able to you know start getting the casting world started to get to know me right even if it's just casually like right general meeting or putting yourself in Their head yeah, yeah, yeah, and I was and I and it began to build off of that So you started you studied acting right when you got out here? It's just sort of started stuck with it went to a lot of different places. Yeah. Yeah for sure always

Okay, so now you got this good manager. You got all these peers being people know you went so and you start doing bigger parts No No, no what happened was unique it was kind of like, you know, you just stay in the game and people know you went. So, and you start doing bigger parts? No. No. No, what happened was unique. It was kind of like, you know, you just stay in the game. You know what I was doing a lot? I was doing, I was a member of a WALA group. WALA.

WALA is all the background voices you put on the movie. Oh, WALA, WALA, WALA, WALA. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All the groups and, you know, every scene, you got to fill in all the groups. So that kept, I had a baby girl, so my wife. Where did you meet your wife? In Miami. Oh, she's from there.

Yeah. She came out here. She came out after we got married. She came out. Okay. You know, so I was making, I was paying the rent and making some money doing wallet two or three times a week with another great lady who gave me that opportunity, Barbara Harris. So you're in a room full of people just going. No, you're actually saying, hey, how you blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

No, you're actually saying, hey, how you doing, man? Come over here. And that gets dialed down, but you have to fill all this stuff. The background, yeah. Yeah. But you get SAG, the after scale. Yeah. And then when it reruns, we were doing all the TV shows. Get a couple bucks.

You do get another full hit. Oh, yeah, right, right. So like $350 and $350 for an afternoon's work. And you got the insurance. Plus the insurance. So we did that for a while, and then what happened? Oh, my wife saw on TV it was Entertainment Tonight. Yeah.

First year of Entertainment Night. Yeah. And they were in the kitchen. She goes, hey, Andy, come over here. They're doing a movie in Miami. Kurt Russell and Mariel Hemingway

called The Mean Season. You should look into that because maybe there's a part in there for you. You know, there's no gang members in Miami, but there's Cubans,

you know? Yeah, yeah. So I said, I'll look into it. So I called Phyllis and she said, let me check into it. And he goes, you're right.

There's a part there for a young detective. The two detectives that are on this case. Yeah. There's a serial killer. There's a journalist that has a relationship with the serial killer. Uh-huh. And that was Kurt Russell. Yeah.

Marielle was the love interest of his. There was Richard Jordan played the serial killer. Me and Richard Bradford. I ended up going in to meet Jane Jenkins. And, you know, in this case, I was the guy that was right for it. Right. And that was it. That was it.

It was the simplest job to get in the world. Did you feel like you had a break? Yeah, that was a break. Yeah. That was the break. It was an actual part where people saw your work, you know. Yeah, yeah.

From there, I was able to get in to audition for a Jeff Bridges movie that Hal Ashby was doing. That was one of my hearings called Eight Million Ways to Die. And I got that part. And that was. That must have been like how long. Was that his last movie, Hal's?

Yeah, it was his last movie. Yeah. They took the movie away from him. It was a bit of a mess. But you got to meet him and spend time with him? I got to jam with him. He was amazing. Yeah.

Yeah. We improvised the whole. All our scenes are improvised. Yeah. You like doing that? Yeah, yeah. So what was Hal Bashby like? He just, he encouraged that?

Oh yeah, completely, yeah. God, he must have been great. He's made some great movies. Oh, amazing. And a lot of human, great human behavior, a lot of resonances. Yeah, yeah.

And it's because of that approach, you know? His thing was that you have an objective to the scene, and from take to take, you can go at it from different, as long as you have an objective to the scene and you get from take to take you can go at it from different as long as you achieve the objective and get the story continues to be told okay so you stare how you got there didn't care how you got there I never passed judgment on anything you did first of all you're flying by the seat of your pants he has there to judge

yeah so he would never say like that didn't that's not you know, no. Yeah, and he never he just go in and go like I was interesting We got that try something else and walk away and if he was really enthused if something happened you go like oh Okay, yeah, let's go again, you know, but he never he never put that the the judgment in your head Yeah, so you were always free and you felt like someone was going to catch you and protect you. That's great. I wonder if he always worked like that. I did a little research with other people who had worked with him and John Voight and

Richard Bradford. You see the performances all the way back from The Last Detail. The Last Detail is the best. And you see Jack so free in that movie. Right. Yeah. Being there. Yeah, being there is the greatest.

Those outtakes at the end of being there. He told me that, you know, he told me the story that, because I picked his brain, being there to me was one of, it's a masterpiece. Oh, for sure. One of my favorite films. Yeah, yeah. And Peter Sellers was, you know, another one of those guys I grew up with in the 60s all the way through.

Yeah. And he said, I said, that script felt like Shakespeare, you know, it was real precise. And he says, oh said, that script felt like Shakespeare, you know, it's real precise. He says, oh, no, no. When Peter would come up with stuff, you know, he says, you know, people, all the cast would just, you'd improvise something, just a thought or whatever. Yeah. And they just took whatever he said, they would take it as the profound truth. Right.

Just say, you know, don't never deny, right? In improvisation. Yeah. You can't, you yes and no. Yes and, yeah. Yes and. Oh, that's great to know. So he could say, you know,

I feel the walls are moist. And they go, that's so interesting, Chauncey. Yes. You know, moist, moist walls. That's all improvised. So yes,

but you know. Jack Gordon was so good. Oh my God. Jack Gordon was so good. Incredible film. I encourage everybody who's never seen that movie to go there. I watched it. And the ending was a new ending.

The thing about, you know, walking on the water. Yes. That's a tag he put on. Yeah. Based on that story he told me with Bobby Jones, the writer. He goes, he could do anything. He could have walked on water and they would have bought it. Right.

And he thought, hey, that's what I'm going to do. And they went back and shot that. Why not? Good tag. Oh my God, it's amazing. It's great. So then after that, The Untouchables happens

and that's like, I think that's when I first remember, like, who's that guy? Yeah. I got a lot of attention with his crazy character in that movie because he was like a drug.

In 8 Million Ways to Die. Yeah. I got to watch it now. He's a coke head, drug dealer, powerful young thug kind of guy and antagonist. And it got a watch it now. He's a cokehead, drug dealer, powerful, young thug kind of guy and antagonist. And it got a lot of attention. But what was he saying about Hal losing the movie?

He didn't get to finish the movie? No. They took it away from him because he wanted to finish later. He had delayed the movie. It was one of those split rights. Yeah. Like the foreign rights were sold and Columbia was... And they needed to deliver the movie.

And Hal said, I'm like, I can't deliver it. I'll date anymore because I started late. And they basically took the movie. Who finished it? They hired an editor to finish it. Oh, so it was already shot. It was already shot. Oh, okay.

But they pulled the plug. So we had to get like 10 days working and four days. Do you like the movie? I do. I got to watch it. I do. And I, you know, working with Jeff in those, all those scenes where, you know, me and Jeff. He's the best. And Roseanne Arquette, you know. Oh, Jeff watch it. I do. And working with Jeff in all those scenes, me and Jeff. He's the best.

And Roseanne Arquette. Oh, Jeff Bridges is so good. And improvising with Jeff. We'd improvise at night in his trailer. We would record it. Oh, yeah. And then we'd give it to Hal. And the next morning he said, I really like that thing you guys were talking about.

So that must have been a blast to have that freedom. Are you in touch with him? How's he doing? Jeff? Yeah. He's doing much better. He went through a physical, but he's coming out the other side of it. Oh, good, good, good,

good, good. So now you got to go to De Palma. That's a whole different trip, right? I got word that they're interested in me playing Frank Nitti, the killer in the movie. And I read the material and I said to my agent,

no, no, I want to play that other guy over there, you know. Yeah, the young Italian kid. You're the sharpshooter, right? Yeah, the young Italian kid. First of all, that's the part that attracted me. Yeah. To play the killer. But you don't want to play the killer?

I wanted to play that guy who was one of the untouchables. That was the James Coburn part. If you think about the original Magnificent Seven. Yeah. James Coburn is up against a fence and someone challenges him to a duel and he has a knife,

the other guy has a gun and he outdoes him with a knife, right? So that character of George Stone had that same scene in the thing, the sharpshooter scene.

It's the recruiting scene because that movie is like the Magnificent Seven or the Seven Samurai. One guy to right the thing, the sharpshooter scene. It's the recruiting scene. Yeah. Because that movie is like The Magnificent Seven or The Seven Samurai. Yeah. One guy to right the wrong, recruits a bunch of people to go fight. Right, yeah, yeah.

And so I went to meet Brian, and I told him my desires. I auditioned for the part, and I got the part. And the movie obviously was very successful, so that helps you out a lot. That scene where De Niro hits that guy with the bat, it's very memorable.

That's all those times when people get cracked open with a bat. But that whole, all of them sitting there. Yeah, with the mammoth dialogue. Yeah, you didn't have any scenes with him, though, with De Niro. Only his trial. Yeah.

Yeah, and his trial. He's a nice guy, right? Yes, yes, very much. But with De Palma, was that a whole different ball of wax in terms of how he worked? Yes, yes, yeah. He was, nice guy, right? Yes, yes, very much. But with De Palma, was that a whole different ball of wax in terms of how he worked? Yes, yes. Yeah, he was, you know, that movie was storyboarded when I got there.

Yeah, yeah. It was, he had storyboarded himself on little index cards like stick figures. He knew what it was. It's just like four round faces. Yeah. Here you're sitting in a pew. Here you're on horseback. I remember.

He says, here you're going to be on horseback. We're going to, before we attack the, and I said, oh, horseback. That he says here you're gonna be on horseback we're gonna before we attack the and i said i said oh horseback that wasn't in the script yeah and i said you know my character he's from the south side of chicago italian kid he's never been on a horse yeah and he looked at me said no he's an expert horseman and i said oh okay what are we doing this scene and he said oh I didn't buy four weeks so now I had to you know get on a horse in Chicago yeah and figure out how am I an expert horse you know it's actor stuff yeah so I went to the customer and she said can you find me a tie pin with a horse's head on it so I could put it right there yeah and then I figured out I realized

what can I get and that get equestrian lessons? You wore that through the whole movie? Yeah. So I said, where can I get equestrian lessons? And I found out that in the Chicago Central Park, there's horses there.

Yeah. So I said, perfect. My grandfather, when he came from Italy, he came from a rural background. He went to, took care of the horses at the park and he would take me there on the horses at the park and he would

take me there on the weekends yeah and i would help him and he got me on a horse and i became a expert horseman there you go so i had the backstory but now i needed to learn how to ride a horse and did you i started going there um and whenever i could and yeah you know ride around and you know you got it well i i stayed on the horse watch the movie i gotta watch it again was that the last time you went on the horse no no i've ridden a lot since then i love riding but the funny thing was that when we got to the top of the hill yeah there was four horses there and brian says all right sean pick your horse it's like a pecking order. Sean Connery, yeah. And then the wrangler said, excuse me, Mr. DePalma, I brought this largest horse for Sean

because Sean is like over six feet, six twos. I'm like six one. He's a tall guy. And then he said, okay, Sean, you take the black horse. And he said, all right, Kevin, you pick a horse. Kevin's a rider so he started looking at the horses like which is my horse yeah yeah yeah and he picks a horse yeah and then he says all right charlie charlie martin smith i was like the fourth pick i was gonna be

the leftover guy right right and then the wrangler says oh mr de palma if i may say i brought this pinto horse smaller kind of pony yeah for char Charlie because he's the smallest of the group, you know. Yeah. He's all right. So I guess, and I guess, and Andy will take this horse here. Yeah. This chestnut colored horse. Yeah.

And it turns out that the chestnut colored horse that I got was the Wrangler's horse. And that thing was like the Michael Jordan of horses. He can go sideways, backwards, stand up, do a flip. I mean, this horse was amazing. That's great. Yeah. And when we did our first run across the thing, Kevin very graciously came over to me and said, Hey, man, tie your reins so if you let go of them, they don't fall down.

They'll just hang on the neck and you can grab them again. Now, I had a uh tommy gun yeah like weighed like 20 pounds yeah a real tommy gun yeah i could not hold on to the to the neck of the saddle with my other hand i had a gun in my hand and the reins yeah and michael jordan between my you know between my legs yeah yeah and he's going. Yeah. And the guns went off and the horses went crazy and we started going across this grassy area that you couldn't see the ground

because the grass is like three feet high. Yeah. So you could be in a hole and you felt the horse negotiating the holes at full speed, full gallop. Yeah, yeah.

And I'm going, I'm going to die. I'm going to die here. Kevin also said, put a matchstick in the brim of your hat inside so it's tight on your head and it won't blow off. So I had all the tricks down. We get to the end. Of course, I got there before everybody.

Because of the horse. And then Kevin came up to me and goes, what's it like? And I'm like going, I made it across. And you have to try to look cool, like Richard Bryce used to say. I ran away all the time from the fights, but I ran cool, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so I got to the thing, and Kevin said, hey, man, hold your horse back. You know, we got to get there at the same time.

I said, hold my horse back? You think he even knows I'm sitting on top of him? So how many takes did you have to do uh i guess we did you know several it was it was a you know it was an ordeal to fast learning curve oh my god that horse was amazing that's that's exciting man like a ferrari that's so exciting i i remember you like there's another movie that i remember I brought it up to my producer, that Internal Affairs movie. Yeah, yeah. There's some dirty shit in that movie. That's crazy.

They developed that for me at Paramount. That's it, like you and Gear? Gear plays the bad guy? Yeah, Gear. The bad cop and you're the good cop? Yeah, Gear was incredible in the film. He really was. It was nasty, man.

He was nasty. Yeah. Narcissistic, like malignant narcissism. Yeah, yeah. They developed that for you. Yeah. Narcissistic, like malignant narcissism. Yeah, yeah. They developed that for you? Yeah. I had done, you know, The Untouchables with Mr. Frank Mancuso over at Paramount. Yeah.

And Gary Lucchese was the head of production at the time. Then I had done Black Rain with them. And Michael Douglas? Dead Again with Ken Branagh. Michael Douglas is a good actor. Right. He was a great joy. And Ridley Scott

was in that movie. So they had me, you know, I was kind of, they were grooming, you know, they wanted me to stay there.

So they developed this lead and this protagonist. In Internal Affair? Yeah. Yeah. And I turned him on to Mike Figgis,

the director, which I had met and liked his first movie and then they cast Richard after that and then we went off. Frank Mancuso Jr. My,

uh, produced the film. It was great. We became very close friends and we're like brothers, you know? So all this time you're building a family, career's going good. How many kids you got?

Four. That's a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I had one during the Untouchables and then slow internal affairs. I had two, two girls and then later the third girl. And then my son was 11 years younger than my youngest daughter.

So- She started again. Yeah. There were a couple of them in show business, right? My two oldest are actors. Yeah. And my youngest daughter, my two oldest girls are actors, and my youngest daughter is a model. Uh-huh.

And my son is a professional DJ. He's in New Orleans right now, yeah. Wow. All show business in a way. I guess, yeah. Yeah.

Did you ever, I guess you're in no position as an actor to say like, are you sure you want to go? Yeah. I've always, no, I never,

I wanted to follow their passions, you know. Yeah. I tell them to prepare for the career like if you're a doctor, you got to, you got to know your shit

or else, you know, you're not going to get hired. I can't help you. I mean, you got to, you know, you got to know your shit or else, you know, you're not going to get hired. I can't help you. I mean, I could, I could call and say, hey Mark, my daughter sent you a tape,

check it out. Yeah. That's all I can do. Right. I can open a door like I open doors for many actors that I,

that I admire. Yeah. That I can go, hey, you need to hire this guy, you know. Yeah. But you got,

once you walk inside the room, you're on your own. Yeah. Yeah. So you got to prepare for that. But did you also prepare him for, you know yeah but you got once you walk inside the room you're on your own yeah yeah so you got to prepare for that but did you also prepare them for you know like how show business comes out it seems like you they know very protective of your private life you know and and you know your public personality you know there doesn't seem to be any any uh like you know it just seems like you have a separation. I guess so, yeah. Some people notice, so it's probably true.

No, but I do. I don't really, you know, I have many friends in the industry. I've been doing it for over 30 years, I guess. And I love the industry and I respect it. And I have a lot of friends that you make along the way. But usually in movies, you know, you have this intense relationship and then you kind of go on your own way. And you got your family. They got the family. And they're along the way. But usually in movies, you know, you have this intense relationship and then you kind of go on your own way and you got your family,

they got the family, and they're in the world. And occasionally you might cross paths. If you're not living in the close vicinity of one another, it's hard to keep sort of connected physically, you know, emotionally always. Yeah, that's interesting, right?

Because like I always find that. The friendships are deep even though you don't see each other. Yeah, because you're on a movie for a year yeah and then you know what are you gonna do then you're in the foxhole yeah you know and you know if you've shared that that experience in the foxhole watching each other's back and giving to one another and looking out for one another within the work you know and in life at that time yeah that's that never goes away that experience and what about directing you did the one film you want to do more

yeah I did a movie The Lost City which I directed and started and that was a personal movie yeah about Cuba about a family you know

about the cusp of the revolution yeah because I hear you talking about the sort of the way people direct sounds like you want to do it more I do I've written

I enjoy directing I've done you know people sometimes have called in TV shows and say actors friend of mine will you do a show and I go yeah I don't really pursue it like I've written, I enjoy directing. I've done, you know, people sometimes have called in TV shows and say, an actor's friend of mine, will you do a show?

And I go, yeah. I don't really pursue it like so much in other people's materials. So the Lost City took me 16 years of my life to do it. So I have a couple of projects I've written, three actually, that I also want to direct and act in. Yeah. And I'm in process of that. So I try to concentrate on my own things to see if I can get them done.

Well, that's great. And the Ocean's movies were fun, right? Yeah, of course. Yeah. I talked to Clooney. He seems like the best guy in the world. Oh, he's a mensch, you know. Yeah, he really is.

We've become good friends over the years. Yeah. I don't see him often, but, you know, it's like that kind of thing where the mutual respect and warmth and love. Yeah. Actually, I play a lot of golf with Grant, his partner. Uh-huh. I see Grant a lot because we're having golfers.

You like the golf? Yeah. But before we wrap it up, though, let's talk about the Coppola thing. Because you were nominated for Oscar, and that was a like a big movie and was an it was an interesting movie and you know you're part of a franchise that was you know changed all of our lives yes so coming into my life yeah i mean you know the godfather movies you can still watch them i still watch incredible godfather 2 i think i watch more than anything they're having a celebration on tuesday of next week at paramount they're They're screening Godfather 1.

I guess maybe it's restored. And they're naming a street after Francis. So it's a party at Paramount? Yeah. So how did that role come about? I mean, that must have been like the thrill of a lifetime. It was amazing. Yeah.

Because the reason I decided to make the leap to become an actor was when I saw the culminating moment was Godfather, the first Godfather. Yeah. I had all this built up interest and angst in it. And then I saw the Godfather, I said, I want, you know, like many actors or many people. Yeah. But I privately said, I want to be, I want to do, that's what I want to do with my life.

Yeah. And that was the kind of the template. I want to try to aspire to be, to do that kind of work. Yeah. And to be in that kind of film. I don't know how I'm going to do it, but that's my aspiration.

So how did it come about? Well, I had been working with Paramount for a while, and I was doing internal affairs at the time. We were like halfway through shooting the movie, so I guess they were

watching dailies too, you know? Yeah. But Frank Mancuso Sr., who's like a second father to me, to this day he's coming over for dinner with his wife tonight. Oh, yeah? He is my second father.

He's not even like my second father. And what was he? He was the president of the studio. Yeah, yeah. So Frank Mancuso Jr., his son, who is like my brother, I think, and he produced Lost City. He says, hey, the chief wants to come have lunch with you today.

I said, great. Come over, because we already had a friendship. So we're sitting down at the catering table, like that, eating, and he said, what are you doing in September?

This was like May. I go, what are you doing this September? You got anything going on? Because he didn't stop, because I want to talk to Francis because I want you to play Vincent in the new Godfather trilogy. Now, there was already a rumor who that Vincent character was. Oh, you mean Sonny's son? Yeah.

Illegitimate son? Yeah. That takes over the family. They gave the family to him. So there was kind of like already a rumbling and he said I'd like you to play I'd like to talk to

Francis about you playing Vincent so I was like his choice you know yeah and I said let me check my schedule I'll call you back

yeah yeah I don't know yeah I don't know September let me check I'll see so then it became a process of you know

getting you know getting the part. It took, it took from May to Labor Day weekend. I got the part done Saturday. I was, I think I was the last person to screen test. I was trying to screen test. I met Francis once in that period of months. Yeah. What was that like? Great. He just, we talked and he says, oh, I saw you in the untouchables. And he would take, he had a little laptop yeah like one of the first ibm laptops yeah and he would talk to me for a little bit and then he kind of go to the laptop and he typed some stuff up and then he keep talking very sweet francis is like if you had your your ultimate uh mentor that's the you know yeah and uh teacher philosopher he would be the mold if you that person is created in your mind yeah mentor, you know, and teacher,

philosopher, he would be the mold. If that person is created in your mind, it becomes real. That's who that person is. No kidding. He's conceptual how he approaches the art form and the knowledge that he spills out of him.

Not in an arrogant way, just by, you know, he loves young people. He loves teaching. Yeah. You know, he's like a, he's like a he's

like a there's a lot of great directors in mount olympus some directors yeah but if i had to pick a zeus yeah that's that would be my zeus no kidding yeah so like in in that like that collaborative vibe is is what happens on set it just you know i was, I was, you know, first of all, I got a chance to, I finally got the screen test. I was the last guy in. Yeah. And I did the screen test with Madeline Stowe, who was great.

She tested for the young girl, for Sophie, Sophie Coppola's part. Well, it wasn't her part. It was Winona Ryder, but that bowed out later. And I had a great partner. We had a great screen test.

And Fred Roos, who knew my work, was also encouraging Francis. And he said, Francis would like you to stay for dinner. He was up in Napa, in his house. Yeah, at his house. And so I was taking my wardrobe off. By the time I got my clothes back on,

Fred opened the door and said, there's been a change of plans. You can go home. And because you got the part? No, he said, you can go home. That was it? Yeah, like in a four-minute span, I got invited to dinner, to stay for dinner, and disinvited.

Huh. What was that about? I don't know. Yeah. And then the next morning, I said, you know, I knew I felt good about the work. Yeah, sure. I said I gave it.

I couldn't have done the audition any better than I personally could. And the next morning I got a phone call saying, you got the part and you need to fly back up because they start rehearse Monday. They changed your mind again. They want to have dinner. Whatever it was but but the point being is that it took a long time from the point where the head of the studio said you're my pick for Francis to say to make that decision you know and people were screen testing yeah and you know everybody wanted that part who wouldn't want that part wouldn't want it for and and so

you're the guy and then like being on set with Francis it was great yeah and Yeah, and Al, all of a sudden, it's kind of a bizarre thing. That's why you have to give it up to a higher order. Yeah. That gives you the innocence of dreaming dreams that are not practical. Sure. And it gives you the stamina and the stubbornness, I guess. Yeah, to keep going. To keep going.

you the stamina and the stubbornness, I guess. Yeah. To keep going. To keep going. And for me also, my father always used to say, never take a step backward, not even to gain momentum. So that's been my philosophy in life. I've fallen down many times, but I always try to fall forward. Yeah.

I mean, I think that's true. And I don't know if I've ever really thought about that because I don't necessarily give it up to a higher order because I'm not really a spiritual guy. But I don't know. I don't know what drives me. And there's one thing that some part of me thinks like, well, there's no plan B once you get into it. You know, you're going. Yeah. But you had a family.

So I imagine that was. No, I definitely had a plan B. I had a business. I could have gone into business and done very well. Yeah, yeah. But it wasn't my calling, I guess. Who knows? It's like a virus.

It picks you. You don't pick it. I know. And hopefully it's a good virus. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And if you're going to wear a mask, let it be Zorro's mask. There you go.

Well, it was great talking to you, man. Likewise, Mark. Pleasure. That's it. That was nice. He's a focused guy, man. He does the work. The new movie, Big Gold Brick, is in theaters and on demand this Friday.

Here, guitar. Here. Here, guitar. Come here, guitar. Come here. Come here. guitar solo Thank you. Boomer lives. Monkey and La Fonda and Cat Angels are everywhere, man. You can get anything you need with Uber Eats.

Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get an ice rink on Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get an ice rink on Uber Eats. But iced tea and ice cream? Yes, we can deliver that. Uber Eats. Get almost, almost anything. Order now. Product availability may vary by region.

See app for details. It's a night for the whole family. Be a part of Kids Night when the Toronto Rock take on the Colorado Mammoth at a special 5 p.m. start time on Saturday, March 9th at First Ontario Centre in Hamilton. The first 5,000 fans in attendance will get a Dan Dawson bobblehead courtesy of Backley Construction. Punch your ticket to Kids Night on Saturday, March 9th at 5 p.m. in Rock City at torontorock.com.