Rosemary and Nesta on film collaboration

Come on people, it's time to live it up! That's right! Live it up! Live it up! Come on people now! Live it up! Go together now! Live it up! Let's together! Come on people now! Live it up! Live it up! Live it up! Live it up! No restrictions, no politics, just honest talk about what it's like to be a part of the film industry and television industry. No politics? No politics. How's that? No, we can, well, you know, we don't name names. Everything in life involves politics. I know. So our focus will always be about collaboration, when it works, when it doesn't. So my guest tonight is, again, my number one collaborator, my favorite person in the whole planet, Nesta Rodriguez. Captain Marvel himself. Captain Marvel, I don't know, maybe in the future. Yeah. So Nesta has, Nesta's one of the most talented artists that I've ever met. Nesta is a painter. Okay, this is going to go well. Nesta's a painter. He DJs sometimes. He's a stand-up comedian. He's a photographer. And he does all of these things amazingly well, by the way. And in addition to that, he produces a podcast that he has here. Called Nestorius Public Radio, which was a big influence on why I wanted to do my own podcast. Here. He's been doing it here at WePlayRadio.com. Hey. And so he has all kinds of like, his is more like a ghetto Bill Maher type of thing. So Nesta, I'm really happy. I've been trying to get you on my show because we have collaborated. It's not easy being married and collaborating, but you have your collaborations with other people too. So I just want to talk a lot about that. Mm-hmm. So, you know, I think one of, out of all those disciplines that you have, what is the favorite, what is your favorite artistic endeavor that you've done? That's interesting when you say you call those things disciplines. Because you're not very disciplined. I'm not disciplined at all. I'm very unfocused. And so I'm kind of like all over the place. And thank you so much for the eloquent introduction. Although I have done. All of the things that you mentioned. I am not any one of those things. So in other words, I'm not a photographer. I'm not a standup comedian. I'm not any of those individually. I mean, I have done all those things. I'm just, I'm just clarifying it, you know, because I'm an artist. Let's just, let's just put it that way. And to answer your question, the short question, short answer would be, what's all those things, what's my favorite discipline? It's very, that's a weird, I mean, that's a hard question to ask. Because at times being a photographer was my favorite thing. Because every one of those things that you mentioned requires a perspective, a way of looking at things in order to express them. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think, I think, you know, like, I think that requires a certain amount of focus. And I think you're the kind of person that has so many different things that he likes to do that, you know, it's easier for me as a director, because as a director, I get to deal with music. I get to deal with costume. I get to deal with, you know, makeup, hair, camera, you know, shots. Um, I get to deal with actors. I get to deal with actors, performance. Like, there's so many elements. I get to deal with the editing. Um, there's so many elements to creating something that I get to wear different hats. Right. Almost like, you know, and collaborate with different people all the time. Right. So, are you having problems with your chapstick over there? No. Are you good? No, I'm distracting you. My favorite. A little bit. Let me ask you my question. Let me ask you a question. My favorite of all the disciplines that you mentioned is distractibility. That's my favorite thing. You're a really good distractor. I'm a very good distractibiliter. So, the thing that I didn't say about you, which I thought maybe it was a little bit. I would say you were trying to, like, feed me. It was a little bit of a hook. You were hooking me. Well, I wanted, because the thing that I left out was that you're producer of Acts of Worship, my first feature, and executive producer. You stepped up a notch. You got a little promotion. Mm-hmm. Which means what? I mean, a lot of people. Of Silver Skies. A lot of people. Silver Skies, which I wanted to show people, because I never do this. No. Silver Skies, the movie. You're just. But explain that to people. What if. What the fuck is a producer? What the fuck is an executive producer? You know what I mean? I mean, seriously, from your perspective as an experienced television and film director, right? What does it entail to get a fucking project off the ground? Well, you have to. Okay. Well, we have to talk about movies, because that's what we're talking about. Let's talk about movies. We're talking about movies. I've never produced or executive produced a TV show, but let's talk about. Right. We're talking about movies. Yeah. Because that's what we collaborated on together. Mm-hmm. So that's what I'd like to focus on. Mm-hmm. So to produce a movie, executive produce a movie, basically your functions. I mean, why don't you tell people what your functions are? No. I want to know what, from your experience, what those. Because I always end up producing my own projects. Right. And I'm always looking for producers to collaborate with. Mm-hmm. I definitely am looking for a producer right now. Mm-hmm. To collaborate on my next feature, This Girl. Mm-hmm. But you and I have a production company together. Right. And so part of what we do is produce movies. Mm-hmm. And so what that means is, from your perspective, I mean, what I see of what you do. Mm-hmm. Is that's different than the first time. With Silver Skies, you really helped manage the money. Mm-hmm. To oversee the spending of the money. Mm-hmm. Not necessarily the line producer, but you were sort of watching over him. Mm-hmm. And you were also a husband, right? Right. And so part of your role as a husband executive. Right. As a producer was to look out for the director and the wife. Right. So, you know, there's certain things, for example, you know, I said, okay, we don't have, you know, we're not spending much money, but we've got to feed everybody well. Mm-hmm. Because you're asking people to work for long hours. Mm-hmm. Without a lot of money. Mm-hmm. And most of them aren't doing it because they're, A, they're bumping up or they're trying to get their hours or whatever. Right. Or bumping up in position. Right. So they're willing to do it. And it's a short-term commitment. It was 17 days. Mm-hmm. And so one of the things that, you know, you want to do when people are doing that is you want to feed them really well. Mm-hmm. And so I remember mentioning that, you know, that was, I was a stickler for that. Mm-hmm. You know, it's like, we made acts of worship. By the end of the shoot, it was 24 days. By the end of that shoot, we literally, I remember getting so pissed off because there was no, not even any milk for the coffee. Mm-hmm. And I was just like- I remember bringing milk on set. I have fucking money. I'm going to go to the bodega and I'll get a quart of milk. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. At the bodega, I say suave. Exactly. You weren't there that day. So I went and I got the milk. So I'll be fucking other bitches in itching every way. Yeah. So, and then I found, you know, then we had a lot of things. We had a lot of product placement and a lot of donated stuff. On acts of worship. On acts of worship. And so we had, you know, cases of food that it was discovered later on like a next independent movie that somebody was involved in. Oh, shit. Here's our fucking pistachios on the next movie. Oh, shit. Meanwhile, we ran out of pistachios. Shit. So, all right. All right. So, so what I'm asking you. So hold on. So what I'm saying is that movie. So I come into this movie, even though it's years later, I'm still like traumatized from having this experience of like running out of food and milk for the coffee at the end of the shoot. And so I'm like, all right, we're coming into this one. That was something. And I think as a producer and a husband, you really heard that and you were like, okay, she's concerned about feeding everybody. I'm going to, that's something I can do. You like to cook. And, and we don't do it very often because we go out to eat all the time. So you really dove in. And as executive producer, you did more, I think, than most executive producers do, which is you're down on the ground fighting the fight with me. Well, I think, I think, I think let's just clarify. And if that meant making the breakfast burritos, then that's what you were doing. Executive producers usually find the money to get the shit made. Right. So I had procured. The funds. Yes. To get the, uh, the brownie mix going. Yes. Is basically the start. Okay. And once, once the, that said amount of money is in place, we have a budget, let's say $500,000 for argument's sake. So now with $500,000, you have, you know, this, this brownie that you want to make and you have to make sure that whatever goes into that brownie, however many cuts or whatever, who's going to be involved in making it, yada, yada, it's all going to fit and it's all going to fall under that $500,000 and all that stuff has to be put in place before you start shooting, before you start, you know, baking, so to speak. And I'm going to move away from that analogy. Yeah. And, and, and come to the, come, come to the, to the present. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. the money, but what they do bring is the equivalent of, let's say, $500,000, for instance. So in Silver Skies, you know, I procured the initial investment for, to get the ball rolling, right? And I brought forth to the table, look, this is what we can, this is what we have. What can we do with this? Okay. Then you have a guy like Fred Roos, who, Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola, this guy knows every fucking actor on the planet. Okay. And so your first actor that would have catapulted this movie to another, you know, in another a trajectory died, right? Dennis Farina. He was attached to this. How much? The movie's work is like, like anything, you know, you have a script. So fucking what? 50 million motherfuckers have a script, right? You have a script and Dennis Farina's attached to it, let's say, right? People are like, really? Oh, okay. Let me see. Casting directors willing to get on board. Costume designers will, people will move out of the way and say, hey, let's go. Let's sit down and eat. That's how fucking fickle the entertainment business is, right? But, but. I don't think that's fickle. I think that's just guaranteeing that something was seen and made. Yeah. But there's no, there's no guarantees. But when I, when I say fickle, it's like, let me, let me just say, it's like, it's like, we're all people, right? And so, but if you, but if I'm hanging out, let's say if I'm hanging out with Kristen Ritter, for instance, all of a sudden, whoa, what the fuck? You know what I mean? Meanwhile, when Kristen Ritter wasn't on any TV show, she's just a fucking regular person. By that, that's what I mean by that. Let me, let me move to the point of what I was trying to say. That'd be nice. Yeah. I wish I had my computer. Big up, big, big, big up. This is not Nestori's Public Radio. I know, I know, I know. This is called the director's chair. No, no, no, you're right. So, so, so Fred Roos comes on board and he brings you George Hamilton. He brings you Valerie Perrine. He brings you Barbara Bain. He brings you Alex Rocco. He brings you all these fucking people that my initial, you know, procurement of that money is not going to buy. I, there's no way we, we don't have that, right? How do you approach those people? First of all, we don't even have a contact to them. So boom, this guy comes in and he's worth his weight in gold. Well, he gives us the casting director also. Right, right. And he, so he brings his, his, his weight in gold, right? And so then you have this guy, Arthur Sarkeesian, who is another fucking, you know, heavyweight. Major rush hour. Rush hour. While we were sleeping. You know, I mean, I mean, he did, he executive produced Vegas, a TV show with Michael Chiklis and Dennis Quaid. Amazing fucking show. This guy's like heavy hitter. He comes on board. All this stuff brings clout to the project. Boom. Now we have all the elements and now we have to get a location. Boom. How much is that going to cost? But at the end of the day, I think as an executive producer on Silver Skies, what I did more than anything is that I, with what we had, I made sure that things got, that things happened, that things moved forward. Because there were a lot of things that, for instance, the, the location. The location of the movie, which is an integral part of Silver Skies. It's, it's a character onto itself was, it took forever to fucking, to get a contract. And I'm like, come on, just tell those motherfuckers we're going to be there for five days. Don't worry about it. Once we're there, believe me, it's butter. It's all, it's all, it's all how you make it happen. You know, and when, when you're making a film, it's, you know, the ball is rolling. How are you going to make this happen? We need this happen. The last day of shooting, we still don't have the fucking location. We still don't have the location for the last, you know, for, for, for a major scene. You know what I mean? And we still don't have a hospital room scene. We, a location. So you stepped in and you took care of that. How are we going to make it happen? You're paying some fucking person to take care of this. So, you know, five days before the end of the fucking shoot, we still don't have it. But that's independent films. Everyone's got to put their heads together and make it happen. And make it happen. So you definitely took care of certain things. But at the end of the day, when it's. Don't want to back up. Okay. Okay. Big up. Getting crazy. Getting crazy. This is a much calmer deal. Oh, it is? But I want to back up. Oh, shit. Sorry. Hold on. No, no. You're all good. You're all good. I'm just saying. Let me calm down. I want to back up. Back up. So I'm going to tell like the whole story. Okay. Of like when I met you. Oh. Which. When you met me. It was a long time ago. Wow. Right? Yeah, I think so. But don't say how long. Why not? It makes us feel old, right? No, don't make me feel old. It makes me realize how fucking fast time flies. I feel like I'm 20. All right. All right. So. You act like I'm 20. I've been married a long time. We'll just say like, you know, double decades. It's been a long time. All right. So when I met you, I was living in Florida. I was just getting my shit together. Anyone that's seen Acts of Worship will know what my life was like. Acts of Worship is Rosemary Rodriguez's first film. She wrote, directed, we produced it together. And you can go to actsofworshipthemovie.com and find out how you can fucking see it. Okay. So what I'm going to say with that is that when I met you, I told you that I wanted to make a movie. I didn't, I probably said that within the first, you know, couple meetings that we had. Like I lived in Florida. You came down on vacation. We met through a couple of friends. Kind of like on a first date when a guy, when a girl tells a guy, listen, I don't do oral. It was like right off the bat. You just fucking came out and said. I kind of did. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Within five days, five minutes of us talking, you were like, yeah. No, was it that soon? You told me, you told me early on. It was pretty early on. It was early on, yeah. Because that was, that was my dream. And I knew, I knew that I had, was having a second chance at life in order to meet my, have my dreams happen. I knew that. And I obviously felt strong enough about you that I knew that somehow we'd be in each other's lives and that I was going to share that with you. You know what I mean? Like, this is what I want to do. Now you had, your sister was an actress, Elizabeth Rodriguez. She was acting from a teenager. You had taken like an acting class here and there. We acted all the time. We acted like we lived in a high rise when we were living in a fucking welfare section eight apartment building. We acted many times as if we were on a Leave It To Beaver show when no one was home. But she acted for real. Like she got paid to act. Yeah. She didn't. Yeah. She acted when she was a teenager professionally. She started acting right around, maybe, well, maybe they, she was doing video shit. Yeah. My point is you had a sister who was an actress. You maybe took a couple of acting classes, but that wasn't what you were, you weren't really, you weren't going to become an actor. No. You didn't really have, like when, you know, you say to somebody who doesn't, look, people don't even understand what a director does. Right. People that I know don't even understand. People that I work with don't even really understand what our job is. So when, meaning. When you're making someone cold and then being like, hey, I want to make a movie. You don't have a clue what really isn't, what, what, what, what details and what. No, I'm thinking is there craft services? Are we going to get free juice and jujubes? Do you even know about craft service at that point? Back then? No. No, but here's the deal. I was a worker. I've always been a worker, right? Since I was like 10 years old, I worked in a factory. Then I worked delivering pizzas, you know, on and on and on. I was an electrician. I was an apprentice when we met. Right. So, you know, I was meant for, for a fucking little spick. I was doing pretty well. No, no. I'm, that is, that is beside the point. That's besides the point. You're totally a hard worker and I'm a hard worker. Yeah. That's, we're both workers. We're both worker bees. That's no question. But what I'm saying to you is I, I told you, okay, I want to make a movie. You don't know what that means. No. You have no idea what that means. No, but like anything else in my life, I'm like, okay, I'm down. Right. Exactly. Yeah. The thing about our collaboration. Mm-hmm. Has really been. A question of who's moving forward, how we're moving forward and like pulling the other one there or like, what are we collaborating with? Whether it's like buying a house, whether it's like making our life bigger, whether it's move, making a movie, whether it's about, you know, somebody's part of their dream falling apart or not, or starting a podcast or getting it stand up class and then getting on stage and showing up at the shows or whatever. That's what we're like cheerleaders. Which by the way, the first time I always, I mean, I've always made people laugh. I mean, that's just, you know, my personality, but I've always, I had always talked about, man, I would, I would like to do stand up, whatever, whatever. And then one, one birthday, I get this, uh, you know, five week intensive Steve, Steve, whatever the fuck is it? Steve Meisner or some shit. Meisner is acting. I know, I know, I know. I don't remember his name. But it was, let's say Steve Meisner stand up experience. And I'm like, we got into a big fight. I'm like, yo, yeah. Oh yeah. I gave you that? Oh yeah. You gave me a fucking, a five week fucking standup course so that, so that at the end of the five weeks, it would culminate into a five minute performance at Caroline's comedy club in New York. I got it. We got into a fucking fight. I was like, how dare you try to improve my fucking life? And I was having that same fight, but I was nervous. I was scared. And, and, and, and, and, you know, I did that course and I fucking, you know, I, I shined. You did. I shined. Yeah. And. Oh my God. Your, your show at Caroline's, I still remember. Yeah. I was like trying to record it. Yeah. With the video camera. And you were laughing. And I was laughing so loud and I was afraid the camera was shaking because I was laughing. But you fucking knocked it out. Yeah. Yeah. It was five minutes. I'll tell you a quick story about that. So, so of course, once you do stand up and you make people laugh, that's it. It's like fucking cocaine. Right? So you're like, where's Paco? When, where can I get a half a gram? You know what I mean? It's, it's, it's, that's why there's so many comedians out in LA and everywhere because everyone wants to be a comedian and then they do it. They get up on stage, they get their fucking vaginal fucking waxed. You know, they're, they're, they're, you know, they get their, what do you call it? Their, their, they get de-virginized is what I'm trying to say. And then it feels good. You get a rush and you keep doing it. And so I, I remember I went to this, there was a learning annex, which used to be a magazine, a free magazine with courses. And one of them was to meet this guy who was the producer of Deaf, Deaf Comedy Jam. God, I forget the guy's name. And his name just came into my life about a year ago. He's producing a show at one of the clubs here in North Hollywood. I told you his name. Yeah, I can't remember. I can't remember his name either. It'll probably come to me at the end of the show. But anyway, I go to this thing and I do like two of my jokes, three, maybe a minute and a half. And he's like, man, you got skills. man he's like yo why don't you come to uh uh east aries new jersey man and check us out man so i went with you know my boy ruperto vanderpool and i go there and that was rough and it's a fucking audition for deaf comedy jam this motherfucker never told me that it was going to be an audition for deaf comedy jam now mind you i haven't performed that long i did a five minute fucking set from steve steve rosenberg i think was his name steve steve rosen steve steve rosen's fucking stand-up comedy experience that's what it was that was the guy who did the course that culminated with my show at caroline's so um um this dude i go there and i'm thinking oh i'm just gonna check out a show maybe do two minutes maybe do three minutes it's an all black crowd and when i say an all black crowd think of you know the apollo except in the fucking ghetto and you were shitting your pants i'm sure my man goes all right where are the auditionees i'm like oh auditionees did he just i mean did he just say auditionees i'm not here to audition anyway i couldn't fucking go anywhere i had to get up and so the guy who went before me um god man i forget his name he used to be an mc at one of the comedy clubs that i used to hang out the new york comedy club and fucking guy was bombing and he's black and he's bombing in the city The more he talks, he's bombing. And none of us are experienced enough. And he goes, y'all, y'all want me to get off the stage? Clap. And it was just like, dude, oh, my God. He's like fucking jabbing his jugular vein. And coming up next to the stage is Nestor Rodriguez. I'm like, gulp. And I do like one joke, and I'm shitting my pants. I feel the diarrhea running down my fucking leg. And it was just one of those experiences where, you know, in life, I'll tell you one thing. In life, I think it's about opportunity meets preparation. I think you were talking about that with Kristen Ritter. It's like you have to know what you want to do in your life, and you've got to prepare yourself for it and keep working at it and keep working at it. And then the time will come when somebody says, hey, you want to smoke, you know, this real shit? And you're either in or you're not. Right. You know? And sometimes experiences like that, like, break you, man, in a way that you're afraid and you don't want to do it anymore and stuff like that. Well, I think, you know, getting back to. Collaboration. Well, no. I mean, I just, I think that getting back to saying no to things or, like, diving in and taking risks. Right. Right? It's like, you know, you kept doing stand-up comedy after that. That didn't break you. And I think, you know, getting to meeting somebody like we met and then I knew when I met you in Florida, I knew because you were on vacation from New York, I knew right away that I met you so that I could be a director and follow my dream. I knew that. I knew that the universe brought somebody from New York because everybody I knew in the film industry at that time was in New York. I didn't know anybody anywhere else. I didn't know where to start. So you smelled producer. No, I didn't. But maybe I did. But I don't know. I just knew that I wanted to be honest. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I said, hey, I'm Puerto Rican. I'm from the East Harlem. She heard, hey, I'm producer. I got, like, three studios and a knot in East Harlem. If I was looking for producer, I would have gone for, like, you know, looking for somebody with money. Jewish guy with, like, fucking Maserati and a big nose and big bank account. Yeah, not another worker bee like me. You know what I'm saying? But, like, money. So anyway, you know, I feel like part of the trick of, like, being married, and, like, trying to create things together is what you said. Like, okay, I got you this thing. Which I didn't remember, by the way, until just now. Oh, yeah. I got you that. Oh, yeah. You got me a certificate for Steve Rosen's. Rosen. Yeah. Caroline's. Got it. But getting past, like, the point of fear where you're not sure what you're going to do and having somebody there to say, like, yeah, you can do it. And that's also the role of a producer is, like, to help, like, I'll take care of this. You go do what you need to do. But I got this. Yeah. And it's like, you know, it was a very different experience on Acts of Worship collaborating with you than it has been on Silver Skies. Well, let's go back to Acts of Worship again. It came down to you had a script and you shopped it around. God knows you went to everyone and their fucking mother. And it came down to this. We got to do it ourselves. Hello. And then it was like, well, I got X amount of dollars. I got X amount of dollars saved. You had X amount of dollars. And, you know, we got more X amount of dollars from a couple other people. And bam, we came forward with, you know, that number that we talked about. Right. But back then we had producers that were specifically helping us manage the money. Right. And spend that money. Right. And they were helping us with all of the money. Right. So that wasn't specifically your role. What your role was with that particular production, because at that point you had no knowledge, no experience. I hadn't even directed anything. So my experience was very limited. I had worked in production for a long time. I had no knowledge. Yo, let's look at it like this. It was like there's some knowledge and you can call that no knowledge. Well, you had watched movies. And then below that is like no knowledge below no knowledge. I had like no knowledge. Yeah. You had watched movies, but not even the same movies I was watching. I know how to spell movie. Yeah. Maybe not. M-O-V-Y. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I'm just saying that. So you couldn't step into the same role. So what it was about then was about here's a part. You know, I wrote this part and I adjusted the part and made him a standup comedian as well as. You gave me a part. Yeah. As well as a working class guy. The initial part was written for a Wall Street guy. Right. So I adjusted the part. But we couldn't afford a white guy with a suit and tie. So. No. Not true. Dun, dun, dun. Not true. The part was tailored. Mate. But then I. I wrote. Rewrote it for you. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So I could say, okay, here. Here's my dream. I want you to be a part of the dream. Mm-hmm. The best way for us to collaborate on this dream is you're doing comedy. You want to be an actor. Mm-hmm. At that point you had taken acting classes. Oh, yeah. Intensive Meisner. I did two and a half years of intensive Meisner training. Exactly. At the William Esper School of Acting. With Maggie Flanagan. With Maggie Flanagan. And just for you. Just so that all you dickheads out there that think that, you know, I just, you know, my wife. I just. My wife is a director. And if I ever get a job as an actor here and there, it's just whatever. I actually studied two and a half years of intensive Meisner. Look it up, motherfuckers. And understand. Let's just say there are no dickheads that listen to the director's chair. No, no. Just saying. I'm just saying. If you are a dickhead, this applies to you. But the rest of you guys, I'm not talking to you guys. I'm talking to some dickheads that just have. No, because people have illusions, right? I've had people say to me. I've had people say to me. And this is the truth. They'll say to me, your wife's a big director, right? Why don't she just give you a part? I'm like, first of all, let me. I have to school people on it, right? Right, right. There's no one giving anybody anything, right? You're a television director. Well, I give you parts in my movie, so that's true. Right. Because we're a part. We're creating that, right? Right. But you can't just go into CBS and you're directing an episode. First of all. I try all the time. Right. But there aren't parts necessarily written. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. I'm not going to rewrite a part for my personality type or whatever. I mean, people have. I'll give you an example. You directed a show called Castle, right? And there was a part, a throwaway part of a host. Throwaway. All right. I'm a director. There are no throwaway parts. But when I say as an actor, as an actor, any kumquat could have fucking said the line. Any kumquat could have said, hi, Mr. Smith. Sure. Right this way. Right this way. Any motherfucker. Any motherfucker could do that line. I mean, basically, it was a part of a host. A restaurant host. Right. So basically, they walk in and you just kind of like walk in the table and seat them. And it's just a couple of lines. It's a kumquat line. Exactly. And it's like, really? Like. And even then. I can't like hire my husband. No, because the guy's got to have an Australian accent and he's got to be tall, lanky, and white. No, he wasn't white. What was he? He wasn't white. Oh, he was Australian and black? No, he was. I believe they cast a Latino guy. No. No, they didn't. Like a Spanish guy. No. Somebody with an accent. Did they? Yeah, they did. Yeah, they did. They did. Fucking spics. They did. Always trying to fucking undercut us Puerto Ricans. It was some. It was some. But in any case. All right. Where are we going with that? I can't hand you jobs. Let's go back to the movie. Well, I was going to say, does it work that way? All right. Hold on. Let's go back. To the movie. I'm trying to stick to. I'm trying to have a dream here. Okay. I know it's hard. This is what I go through in real life. Back to the grill again. Welcome to my world. To the grill again. Back to the grill again. To my world. To the grill again. Back to the grill again. Okay. All right. So what I was trying to say was, we do this movie together. We have an experience where I hand you a part. Movies are my heart. They're my heart and soul. Okay. I don't have children. I knew from the first movie that the movies were my babies. They live out in the world. I have to let them go. It's very hard. So I knew that handing this part to you for me was precious. Like, I can't give you anything better than that ever in my life. Right. Because that's my dream. Here's a piece of my dream. Right. So what happens is, you never had made a movie before. Right. Independent film, all movies are chaos. Independent movies are completely insane and chaotic. Because, again, it's inexperienced people. We're all fucking. It's chaos, man. It's total. It is a mirage. Even with experienced people, it's chaos. It's a miracle anything happens. It's a fucking miracle. Okay. Whether you have a $500,000 budget or a $50 million budget. So then I have you showing up on set. I'm like, look, focus on your part. As the actor. Forget about the money. Forget about this. You get co-producer credit because, you know, we chipped in some money and that's all good. You get producer credit. But really, this is an opportunity for you to start living your dream. To be an actor. To be an actor. Own a piece of your dream and see and just do the best with it. It was a large male part. It was one of the leads, yes, in a movie. It was one of the leads. So, anyway, it was very challenging for us. It was a nightmare, yeah. It was a nightmare. It's not an understatement. No, no. It was a nightmare because I was incapable of going to that job because it was a job as an actor. Right. I wasn't able to separate myself as an actor. I was unable to separate myself as an actor from a producer. I'd go in there. We're in Harlem shooting and you have a fucking PA leaving the back of a truck open with camera equipment and all sorts of shit. And I'm like, what the fuck is going on? And all you're telling me is like, never mind that. Just focus on your part as an actor. I'm like, I'm going to focus on my fucking foot up his ass when I see him and I'm going to lock his ass up in there. But it's very difficult to navigate. But there's also certain personalities. And there's certain people that production for me, for example, you know, production. I love the chaos of production. I feel really grounded and it's a place I can let go. It's completely insane. But that's like the grace that comes. I can be in the middle of like trying to get a shot and the light is coming down. We're losing it. There's like a huge stunt involved. There's like 50 million motherfuckers, this thing, that thing. This is left over here. Like all these moving parts. And I can just like sit there. And be calm. And watch everyone. I know. And watch it all happen. I know. And I'm like, this is fucking awesome. But that's why you're a great director. Because you don't, no, I'm serious. I've seen you work many, many times. And again, I'm not going to blow smoke up your ass. No, but you can. No, no, I'm not. I know for a fact I've been to many, many, many different productions. And what makes you a really good director and really good at what you do is that none of that shit phases you. Chaos does not phase you. You're focused. You're focused. And you know exactly the right crack that's in that chaos to go in and get what you need to get with actors. But see, but chaos in the house drives me fucking insane. We're talking about collaborating in film. I'm not at my best in the house, though. We're not talking about the house. Well, let's just say our collaboration is at home, too, because we work all the time. Hold it, hold it, hold it. Let's bring this back to filmmaking. Let's back up. Back to the grill again. So we make this movie. To the grill again. Back to the grill again. So what happens is it's tricky. Again, because. You see certain things. I see certain things. And I'm able, with my personality, whatever it is, I know I'm supposed to be a director because I'm able to let the universe come in and do what it needs to do. And I'm focused on what my job is. And I'm a storyteller there. And I know what to do. And I know that it's all going to be okay. Right? And so what happens is as soon as we shoot the movie, because there was a lot of conflict between us. Oh, yeah. We had so much conflict. Oh, yeah. We could have shot a behind the scenes. And it could have been fucking Star Wars, Darth Maul. Well, let's just say that after that movie, we got separated. Well, forget that. You want to get into like craziness. Can I just say this? One of the most. So with all the chaos that's going on, there were two moments in Acts of Worship that I prefer to focus on. Okay. You have your experiences. And I know where you're going to go to. And you can. But for me, the first day of shooting. You think you know. You don't know. The first day of shooting. Yeah. We were shooting on the Lower East Side. And back then, for you dickheads, the Lower East Side, if you were white. Oh, it was a different world. You were not allowed down there. It was a different world. Okay. It was fucking cracked out, heroin out. And basically, you know, you had to have a passport to go down there. There were no fucking hipsters. There were none of that. No beards. None of that bullshit. Okay. Okay. Switch blades, coke, and heroin. That's all that was there. Okay. And so anyway, we go in there. You have a bodega scene. I got to fight with the fucking Dominican guy because he doesn't want to give us. He wants to charge us more money. It was hilarious. Perfect. He's out. Let me tell you the story. So you guys go in there. You speak to some dude that doesn't have the right to offer you the fucking time in the bodega. No, he did. He did. But then he changed. He backed out when we got there. I thought it was another guy. No, he backed out. Okay. So when we got there and we got the big fucking cameras, he thinks, oh, Hollywood. So no, no, no, no. Papi, papi, no. It's going to be $500,000, papi. No. And I got to go in there and fucking flex my boricua muscles and be like, yo, dick, head. Check this fucking thing out. You're really a great locations guy, by the way. Just put that together. I'm a great everything guy there. I say, yo, yo, yo, papi, let me tell you something. You see all those fucking cakes you have on the wall? You fuck around, I will smash every fucking cake in this place. That's not what you said. You don't know what I said. It was in Spanish. It came close. I wasn't there. I was on a shooting another scene. It came close to that. Trust me when I tell you that. We almost got into it. Fist of cuffs. Trust me. So that morning, it was. It was a four o'clock in the morning shoot. And when we got to set, it was brick. It must have been like 20 degrees. It was freezing. And you're shooting a movie about drug addiction. And it's loosely based on your life. I know your story. I know the script. And there's this fucking guy on some garbage cans, okay, in underwear. It's 20 fucking degrees in underwear. This guy must have been high on angel dust, bugging the fuck out. And I thought, wow. Oh, he gave me so much gratitude, that guy. But I thought, wow. Something told me we're on the right track. I know this was a feeling I had. And the second time I had a feeling like that was when you. I don't know what day it was, meaning in terms of shoot day. But you had shot the last scene of Acts of Worship very early on in the movie. And we were watching dailies. You guys remember that shit? On a video? On a video playback? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. On a video playback. No, I know. I'm fucking around. On a video playback. And I saw the scene on a reader. And I was just fucking blown away. Like when I say blown away, cinematically, artistically, acting, dramatic. I mean, I was just blown away. Right. And this was like raw footage. Raw footage. Of course, it's film, so it still looked nice because it was film. I was blown away. But it was untimed dailies. I was blown away. And I remember sitting upstairs in the production office. And we were in Harlem. And looking at the dailies with you. And I remember turning around. And you were crying. I was moved. I was so happy. And I was just so relieved. She likes when I cry. That's what it is. I just really liked that you were moved by something. When you can be moved by dailies, which is raw footage, then you know you have something. No, I was moved. When you're shooting a scene. Yeah. And a whole crew and people are moved by the scene. And you have crew people and camera people that will cry. Yeah. Trust me. That shit is real. Yeah. That's why at that point I was like, okay. You know. Well, I remember that moment. I remember the guy that you're talking about, the underwear now, too. But just to say that, you know, we went through it. Going through that, we got separated. Going through that, we got separated. But it turned out to be, you know, just what we needed. I mean, it was good. Because we changed the dynamics of our relationship somewhat. We fall into it again. Somewhat, yeah. Somewhat. But, you know. Well, relationships are constantly evolving. We were separated for nine months. And then we went to, well, then I went and met my birth parents while I was cutting the movie. It was agony. And then we ended up getting into Sundance. And then we miraculously got back together. Sundance is a good reason to come back together. We've not been separated since. The Sundance Film Festival was very, very good to us. But now we made another movie. And this experience was so different. Because that movie, after Sundance, we went to festivals around the world together. Again, there was conflict between us. It was difficult. It was 9-11 came. That was 2001. It was a pressure-filled year all around. All these production companies were closing in New York. We were trying to sell a movie. We didn't know what the fuck end was up. I was looking for a career. I was at, like, you know. Career? What career? That's a line. That's a line in Tree's Lounge. One of my favorite fucking lines. What's the guy's name? Seymour Cassell. Is that him? He's in a fucking bar. Yeah, he's in the bar. The guy. And Steve goes, hey, hey, tell him about Korea. Like, he was a war veteran. He goes, Korea? What Korea? What Korea? Fucking hilarious line. No, but so I'm thinking I'm going to end up at the multiplex near you. And instead, I'm back at my day job. Right. Angry, bitter. I'm like, I went to Sundance, Independent Spirit Awards. I have this great movie. Yeah. Movie kicks ass. What the fuck do I have to do to get a career? Yeah. And then, you know, I'm angry. And then, you know what? It's just about trying to put it together. And then I end up directing television. And thank God for that. That worked out well. Dude, you were not. Our film was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. A couple of them. Yeah, a couple of them. And then I'm going towards the fast forward because we're going to run out of time. Yeah, of course. I can't believe it went so fast. Because I'm talking Jabba the Goobooski. No, it's fine. It's just because I love talking to you. Oh, you do? Yeah, I do. Thank you. But you're not yelling at me. Thank you. Yeah, no worries. It's a conversation. You mean when I'm not talking. At me. No, when I'm not talking very loud and, you know. At me. In any case. So then, where was I going? Shit, I just lost my train of thought. So then we're. Then we made this movie. Then it's like, okay, I'm frustrated television director. I want to create my own things. And I love every time I'm on set and every episode I do, whether it's problematic or not, I'm very proud of the episode. I own it. I love it. I love my job. But ultimately, I want to make another movie. So then, you know, there comes a point where it's like, all right, we can get a house. Or we can make a movie. We can figure it out. Because we're like, you're managing money now. Let's just say also that when we first got married, okay, that I would come home. That you would come home. You worked at Local 3, IBEW. I was a construction electrician. You were miserable. You were raging all the time. You would come home, right? This heat rock dust would irritate my inner nostrils. You would come home. And you would open. I would walk in. You would have come home, opened the file drawer with the bills. You would have the bills. You would have the bills out. And you'd be like, what the fuck is this? And I'd be like, oh, my God, he had a bad day at work, right? Because I paid all the bills. I managed the money. I took care of everything for at least the first 14 years we were married. Okay. So I. I worked and I brought the money home. Yeah. Well, and then I bought money home, too. But I still kept paying the bills and doing all the taxes. So I would, like, get the drawer closed, get you away from the bills and be like, don't worry. I'll take care of it. I'll take care of it. I'll take care of it. Right. So let's just say that you have gone from that person to somebody who making acts of worship, blowing up about money, fucking freaking out over every penny spent and trying to, like, and freaking out about bills every time, some hair across your ass. You just grab the bills and start raging. You've gone from that person to the person who is managing money calmly, who is managing different movies, managing our company, taking care of all our finances, taking money. And managing it to make a movie and still get along with his wife and show up and still get a part that you knock out of the movie. The part is a little smaller because the movie is about all seniors. But you knock the shit out of that part. You knock the shit out of, like, whether it's, you know, making, you know, chicken quesadillas or. Oh, really? Now I'm a chicken quesadilla cook. Or writing checks or, like, whatever it is, you're hooking it up and you're doing it. Or getting the location. Whatever it is. Whatever it is. We've gone from that person back there to that movie to this movie where we have been going to festivals together. We have been really doing it as a true collaboration. We had bumps in the production here and there, but we managed to overcome them. With a few broken dishes. Well, I think it's a testament that we can. Here, I'm going to show people something. Well, I think while you're doing that, let me just say this. Okay. What you were. What you were. I'm going to show them right now. Okay. Okay. So I want to get this up. People can see that. Yeah, talk over there. Okay. Yeah, talk over there. Okay, here. You're going to get this up. I'm going to show this. I don't know if I can hold it. Hit the button. So this is where we're at now. We go to festivals together and we do silly things like this together for the movie. Yo, buzz it. We're in Sedona at the 2016 Sedona International Film Festival. We're waiting for the audience to come. We're waiting for the audience to come out of our first screening here at Sedona International Film Festival. So anyway, that one, I have too many of these. But in any case, I probably have 20 of them. You're looking for the other one. I'm looking for them. But the point is. We have fun. We're going. We're having fun. We're making little movies together. We had fun at all the film festivals. Here's the difference. Here's the difference. When we did Acts of Worship, I think that our expectations, like you alluded to earlier on, our expectations of being on the. multiplex were very high. Right. And so after going to Sundance, Montreal, Rotterdam and all these big film festivals, and we came back home and it was like, where are the cash and prizes? And we have to go back to our day jobs and keep, you know, trudging and keep and keep moving along. Fast forward to this. We have a lot more experience. Right. We also know that Silver Skies is a really, really good film and there's a really, really big market for it. And the. The climate of films and films being distributed and sold is a completely different arena. But it's much harder. Very. Way much harder. It's much riskier what we're doing now. Way much harder. Except, except that we have had some serious focus groups because that's how I look at film festivals now. Whereas back then, to me, there were opportunities to get distribution and stuff like that. And I'm not saying that you can't get distributions in film festivals. Right. Like, whatever. Like whatever. Like whatever. Like whatever. Like whatever. Like whatever. Like whatever. Like whatever. Like whatever. Like whatever. Like whatever. Like whatever. Like whatever. Like whatever. Like whatever. Like whatever. Like whatever. Like whatever. Like whatever. Like whatever. Like whatever. Like whatever. Like whatever. Like whatever. Like whatever. Like whatever. Like whatever. Like whatever. Like whatever. Like whatever. Like whatever. I was just blown away. I was just blown away by the amount of random people that would go see the film in different cities and just have this enormous response to it. And so what that tells me as an investor, as a producer, as an executive producer, that I could safely say that if I put X amount of dollars into this additional, X amount of dollars into this to distribute the movie theatrically, I have a good feeling that we'll get that back. That's how I feel about it. So I'm not disillusioned by anything. But that's huge. And I think that sometimes we can all bear down to the things not going right in life. But part of the reason I wanted to have you on this podcast was because, look, it's not easy being married. It's difficult to navigate the day-to-day emotions and all the shit. There's a lot of shit that goes wrong and not see. But meanwhile, shit is going really right. And what I feel like is that our collaboration is such being married and as producers that we're able to enjoy the process a little bit more than we were able to before. And I think, for example, we went to film festivals years ago where we met people. It took us years before we realized, wait a minute, those people are like our surrogate parents now. Right? We didn't even appreciate that when it was happening. Now we're going and we're actually having fun together and we're like seeing that like, well, good, the audience loved it, but also we're like hanging out and having fun with people. I remember being in Portugal and we met some amazing people. People in Portugal are some of the sweetest people. And just to give you an idea of how amazing Rosemary is as a wife, now I'm just going to say this because you're not going to bring out the bus. Stop. Stop. Collaborate and listen. You listen up because you've got to be missing. Oh, my God. Let me tell you something. We got on this fucking bus. Oh, you are bringing up the bus. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. We got on this bus and we're with this Portuguese woman and we're just taking a tour and we wanted to go, let's say you wanted to go uptown, but we got on the bus and it was going downtown and you would think that the bus is going to turn around and now go uptown. The motherfucker starts yelling at us in Portuguese telling us to get off the bus. And get off the bus, literally step off the bus and get back on and pay again. And I fucking lost it. I just blew the fuck up. And the reason I did, and I'm just saying this because Don't justify it on his history. No, no, no, I'm not justifying. I'm telling you why I did, why I reacted. The guy was such an asshole and I fucking said, fuck you, we're not getting the fuck off the bus. We're staying on the fucking bus and you're going to turn the fucking bus off. You're going to turn the bus around and you're going to go uptown. Otherwise, you can... It was just, anyway, here you go. Everyone's like all upset. The bus is like... It was horrible. But I wasn't going to fucking get off the bus and pay again. That's it. It wasn't going to happen. I would deal with that differently. Today, I probably would deal with it differently. I don't know. No, today I would probably just get off the bus and pay. Why are you bringing up such a hideous experience? Because it was a fucked up experience and, you know, I was... I'm trying to go to like a nice positive place. No, because what I'm saying is that's something that happened and... Well, here we are now. Don't bring up the bus. This is us now. This is the point. This is us now. So what this is, is if you see that Nestor has this thing now where he's posing, you know, for paparazzi and different people. Don't bring up the bus. And he's got his hands up to his eyes and he's holding his glasses like this, right? And I'm doing this because what it is, is looking into the bright future. And so this is the pose from now on. It's looking into the bright future. Projecting into like... And having something to look forward to. That's right. And so this is full circle. This is how we've come. First movie we got separated. Now we're looking into the future. We see a bright future. Did I fuck up the podcast by bringing you up the bus? No, not at all. I tried to keep it, you know. No, it's fine. But you brought up the guy in the underwear, the drug addict that we were shooting and I totally forgot about him. No, no, no. The thing about the bus, the reason I... I have only a couple minutes left, by the way. But the thing about the bus I brought up, because there was just like so many experiences and as someone who was, you know, immature and just not knowing how to handle certain situations, just flying off the handle all the time. You're just an angry guy. Well, I can still fly off the handle. I know. And I'm still angry. I know. I can still be, you know, a fighter. I know. Don't fuck with me. I know. The difference is I'm a little bit more, you know, circumspect. In terms of how I react to things and how I act, you know, what kind of actions I take towards certain things. Yeah, and I think, you know, yeah, I guess as a collaborator, I try to let you be and not get so affected by it. But it's very challenging. In any case, I was trying to leave on a really positive, bright look at the picture. Trying to know. Hold on, we'll just cut the bus part out of the podcast. One of us is like going ahead and the other one dragging the other one into the positive. Positive-ness. All good. That would be my job in this relationship. Okay, so you got a couple minutes. Bring us to the fucking light. Bring it up. Well, before we go, because we're down to a minute. Bring it up. Why don't you tell me where listeners can find you, follow you, and all that shit. You can find me at the local bus stop, ready to fucking punch somebody in the head for like not paying their fare. No, you can find me on Facebook, Nestorius. And I think it's Nestorius. I don't fucking know what my Facebook is. Look, you can find me on WePlay Radio. I have a podcast called Nestorius Public Radio where I just, you know, you can hear a little bit more of this craziness and sometimes we deal with current affairs, sometimes we don't. Sometimes I interview people. Our Facebook page is Silver Skies the Movie. Yep. You can get on the page and follow what we're doing and find out when we're released. And don't forget to subscribe to Nestorius Public Radio and at WePlay Radio. Yeah, go to WePlayRadio.com and check it out. WePlay Radio. Check out Rosemary Rodriguez's show. And the director's chair. Subscribe. Go to WePlay Radio and hit the subscribe button. It's really easy. And on Facebook, you can find me at Rosemary Rodriguez. And you can also find me at Rosemary Directs on Twitter and Instagram. So look for Silver Skies the Movie and look for more collaboration from Nestor and I because we're already working on getting another movie made. So all you producers out there, let's go. Hurry up. We got a bus to catch. That's it. We're going to live it up. That's right. Live it up. Come on, people. Now. Go together. Now. This together. Come on, people. Live it up. Live it up.