Actor Danny Trejo looks back on his life in new memoir

danny trejo is one of hollywood's most recognizable bad guys playing roles in movies and tv like machete breaking bad from dusk till dawn and desperado but don't let his mastery of tough and deadly roles fool you they are nothing like the man himself now he's looking back in his new memoir trejo my life of crime redemption and hollywood we visited the 77 year old at his los angeles home to talk about his journey from the infamous san quentin state prison to a life helping others find sobriety with blockbusters all along the way if looks could kill danny trejo just might be the most menacing actor in hollywood channeling his real life rage he created the ultimate badass on screen director loved me the way i was portraying these guys and then he said danny how do you do that i watch you this killer and then you immediately go play with your kids because i've been that guy that guy makes me sick being that guy is at the heart of his cathartic confessional born in 1944 to mexican immigrants danny grew up in an abusive home in los angeles i can't remember my dad threatening to kill me you know seven years old i remember my grandfather i'll break every bone in your body that's when i learned to love my uncle gilbert my grandfather would be like this this tyrant frothing at the mouth at us i'd be scared to death and killer would be going nodding you know he was on heroin i didn't know it i wanted to be like that he idolized his uncle who got him high when danny was just eight gilbert put a gun in his hands and taught him how to act tough they put me in front of a mirror and these practices like give me the money give me the money gilbert gave me a sawed-off shotgun and the minute you hold the start-off shotgun you don't have to say anything that was my first acting lesson at 13 14 years old a violent young adult trejo spent 11 years in and out of california's most notorious prisons for crimes including selling drugs and armed robberies 1968 i made a promise lord if you let me die with dignity i'll say your name every day and i'll do whatever i can for my fellow inmate and i said inmates i never thought i was getting out of prison while behind bars he began attending aaa meetings and when released in 1969 he became a drug counselor some 15 years later danny stopped by the set of runaway train trying to help a struggling addict stay clean the director took notice of his cold sullen stare when he learned trejo had been a boxing champ in prison he put him in the ring with the film star eric roberts launching a career that now boasts some 400 on screen appearances the county jail the floors are always waxed because they have free labor in his garage full of classic cars trejo recreated a prison floor like the ones he was forced to sleep on i remember where if i screw up i can go back real quick you know how often do you come out here and put a roll of toilet paper behind your head yeah once a week once a week really you got to stay grounded murals of his movies are also a connection to his past i put michelle there because she's just absolutely go to hell gorgeous and i put her in front of bob's big boy because we robbed bob's big boy in 1962. and inside his home just 13 miles from where he grew up he showed us his pride and joy you wear sparkle shoes of course these are actually penitentiary boots why do you keep these because i never want to wear them again it's like people ask me a lot of times well don't you ever get a yen to use drugs i never want to go back i remember showering with 50 men and try not to look i can remember being shook down and being stripped down and that's what drugs mean to me you know so the shame the shame that shame motivates his charity work going to prisons to speak to inmates about getting clean everything good that has happened to me has happened as a direct result of helping someone else everything the tough guy who's really a softy is taking readers on a frightening journey from trauma to triumph what do you hope people take away from reading this redemption you know i want people to say that it doesn't matter where you start matters where you end up you look super tough right now he is quite the softy you know one of his most prized moments in life is that he got to meet president obama and what happened in that meeting is that president obama sees him steps out of line and says i know you machete yes and trejo goes that's the most terrified i was in my life that someone was yelling at me you know she showed me what a life listen i'm embarrassed to say i never knew his name but once i see his face i certainly knew exactly who he was but i did not know that backstory no and you know it's funny he's he's been in 400 films he has credits to 400 films he's had the most killings on camera of anyone that's how much of a bad guy he is in these films right and he says sometimes it reminds him that you know he his life could have gone the other way my producer robin singer said to him it's shocking to me you've survived this long and he said yeah it's sometimes shocking to me too but it's so remarkable that he's turned out the way that he has after being in an abusive home being given drugs being given a sawed-off shotgun that he has turned his life around wow that's that was a great story i loved when he said it doesn't matter where you started that's where you end

Channel: CBS Mornings

Views: 86,951

Keywords: video, cbs, news, danny trejo, actor, memoir, new book, san quentin state prison, sobriety, hollywood, movie, film, blockbuster, journey

Id: dUzpg350Do0

Length: 6min 5sec (365 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 07 2021