Danny Trejo Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters | GQ

[Music] it took about two and a half hours all the makeup they gave me these huge traps right and it was funny because they used to work out in Venice Beach everybody said before you taking roids no it was makeup food you know [Music] our problem is take the bank or split right now do not go home do not pack nothing 30 seconds flat from now we are gone on our separate ways that's it Michael Mann did a film in Folsom Prison it's called the Jericho Mile and he made friends with my uncle Michael Gilbert he won't admit it but he paid my uncle Gilbert sag wages for the three weeks that they were in Folsom and Gilbert kept everybody in line and so when I showed up on the set of heat and it was funny because he saw me hey Gilbert no not me Danny and but he kept mistaking me for Gilbert and he changed the script three times he gave me three different names and every time he changed the names change the whole script so a lot of trees went down you know and uh finally he came up to me and said Danny you know what every time I look at you I think of your uncle Gilbert is it okay if I just call you Gilbert Trejo in the movie yeah my whole family right because Gilbert had died you know he said oh deed and died since before then and uh so if you know my my name in the movies Gilbert Trail I can try to dump them again how are we going to know if you did it didn't you drum toss that's a Ventura pull them out of here all right hey I'm sorry man last thing I want to do is let you down that day first day D call me and said Danny you know what you have to come down to the set blah blah I said hey homie it's my day off I said would you please tell Michael Mann that he owes me big time so I showed up in a sweat suit and and a sweatshirt because I was and he says okay that's good that's good to leave there and that ring that you see in the movie my kid wears that now please don't leave me like this and it was funny because when we were gonna do that scene Robert veneers is a how do you want to play this I don't know Bob what do you think and he just gets you know I think you're almost dead Trejo I think they almost beat you to death and you're just got enough to beg me to kill you for a split second I was ah Bob I don't know I I got a little different but it's Bob De Niro you know what hey just what I thought he had great you know and so we did it like that and it it was iconic death scene but my daughter still can't watch that scene and I said I want you through how come you you seen me dying from Dusk to Dawn my eyes went in the pool pocket she said because that's the way you were supposed to die dad you know that's the way you lived and I thought wow yeah I guess you're right you know so Conair with muscle criminal I mean is funny because they put all the wannabe tough guys in a plane in Hollywood and because lunch turned into a big who's got the biggest huevos you know I mean just because they were like somebody spent somebody else with them pretty soon everybody it was a spinning contest if you did a push-up everybody tried to do more push it became a big contest right and uh and they tried to bait you into things this ain't happening out here not loud what's happening hey relax he's right not here not now do you fly Johnny they had Benny yukitis who was you know five-time world champion kickboxer John Cusack you know people don't know because he looks like oh wait what John Cusack would kick ass and uh Benny's is Sensei so they had a dojo setup I grew up with Benny's older brother who taught him karate you know what I mean and he said you know what Danny you're like my brother first of all you're not not a good sport and you don't get along well with others so you don't want to you know you're gonna end up you know sucking somebody so [Music] bloody and blood out [Music] I love that movie and I love what it did for the Latino Community showing that because Blood In Blood Out showed three main characters and you know one ended up a police officer one ended up an artist wanted up in prison I read Taylor hackford's script and I knew that it was a movie not kind of like a documentary it was funny because the cast they were all like trained thespians every time I'd come around they start talking about like like Juan Strasburg or somebody you know a player that they'd done or something and I never did any of that you know I just showed up and started working and so uh my friend George Perry uh said that when we get to San Quentin we got to San Quentin it like it changed there's nothing scarier than when you walk into San Quentin upper yard and you got 3 000 convicts on this side screaming about how pretty you are most of that cast was pretty you know and I looked around and they were all like just kind of like close behind me because they seen that I knew what was happening here and then uh some of the the actors learned that it's all about respect everything it's all about respect I love it when you walk on a set of a movie and they're portraying convicts and everybody's like yeah pushing everybody out of the way and being tough and being me it's not like that I had to pull a couple of people aside and tell them hey look who's I'm not Hollywood you know because people like actors like try to stay in character you know what I mean and and if we're playing prisoners bad guys and we're dinner or we're at lunch hey Pastor saw man you know what get your mother to pass us off fool who do you think you're talking it's like I don't talk to people that way would you please pass a song you know if you're a killer and I'm a killer it's best to say hey excuse me and and you know if it if it comes to something well then we kill each other but we don't want to get there you know so really prison is probably the most polite place in the world but you know step out of line he'll kill you Desperado [Music] when I went to cast for that I I walked into Robert Rodriguez's office in Venice and his words were wow you remind me of the bad guys in my high school and yeah what he says I am the bad guys in your high school and so he just handed me a knife he said here twirl that I just started twirling it and I got back to my house and I asked my agent calls me what happened I said I don't know he gave me a knife I got so good with that knife just rolling I walked on a plane with it keep this up it's going to be over and believe me it's going to be over real quick [Music] Robert Rodriguez gave me a compliment one time and he said you can say more with your face than most actors can say with a page of dialogue that's a hell of a compliment you know and it's funny but that takes practice because like in San Quentin sometimes I think you got to be able to say hey I'll kill you without saying a word and so once you master that people seem to stay away from you because they're just not quite sure Antonio Banderas was Spanish and Spanish has a very elegant dialect and we're in Mexico you know we're in in Acuna Mexico which is a a little Border Town and so a lot of people didn't gravitate toward him there there everybody gravitated towards me and I was assigning autographs and taking pictures and and everybody should take off your shirt because of my big tattoo and Robert says hey they think you're the star of this movie I said you mean I'm not my uncle who stopped to visit you know they came to visit me and and my uncle kind of said hey who's that that guy you know I said Robert Rodriguez he's the director and I remember he goes to Robert hey and he goes like this and that's the director looking but Robert being amazing you know when an older person calls you you just he just showed he came and showed up you know respect him and he started talking and then all of a sudden Robert says hey I mean my uncle said hey say hello to your cousin you know I found out that Robert Rodriguez was my second cousin so I immediately said okay let's make my part bigger because you know we've done like 13 movies together right there you know what this movie that I want to do and he ran down machete to me and yeah we can do that'd be cool From Dusk to Dawn is for bikers and truckers only the dust the dawn I stole the movie Man the movie was so real it's like you couldn't help it being real and then George Clooney was unbelievable he was that was his first movie God man five six years later he did a film called uh up in the air and I just went to the premiere I just and he started screaming you know Trey oh hey come here and he starts he starts giving them my report hey he was in my first movie and I'd be like oh this is George Clooney Spy Kids machete he will turn around you will leave my shot if I never want to hear my brother's name mentioned again sure our uncle a real Uncle cause swear I got fake Coco five six year old kids are still watching that it's Timeless I mean I had six and seven-year-old kids in the airport wanting autographs signing Uncle machete you know so he's like it's still gone they needed trailers for Grindhouse and they needed a fake trailers so we put a we put machete in the trailer if you're gonna hire a machete to kill the bad guy you better make damn sure the bad guy isn't you when we walked out of the theater everybody said we have to do that movie so and if you notice everything that was in the trailer we just put it in the movie so it [Applause] [Music] the first Halloween after a machete I'd opened the door to give kids candy and a lot of Mexican kids were dressed as machete mustache and they see me it ain't much yet it was like it was just kind of kind of cool you know it's like we had little Mexican kids that didn't have to meet Batman or or or Superman you know they were like machete you know so it was kind of cool King of the Hill Hank my marriage is falling apart I'm so unhappy I don't know what to do you're the only one in the world like a dirt do okay then I'll see it work the guy that did it might judge judge right judge yeah well he made the Native American guy right but he put a tattoo on him like this and the tattoo was exactly like the hat that I've got okay I'm gonna need twenty dollars now and twenty dollars when it is done and another twenty dollars for expenses so I said all right judge because he came on the set of Machete and I said okay hey Judd check this out you got my tattoo done is that give me like residuals or something you know and he goes no no no I got you a character so the next week is like all of a sudden the character was this guy name of Enrique right but I played on that for a while Hank Hill is my best friend and I work for Strickland propane Pig it's salmon they put salmon in the fish tacos hey what are you talking about look at it it's Solomon they're ruining everything so it was cool and I met uh Brittany Murphy and she's the one it's like what's good about voiceover you can show up in pajamas yeah it doesn't matter she's never coming with fluffy slippers and he was like you did you know makeup you just do it [Music] Rick and Morty there is no Freedom while your leader breathes our country is a prison and Katarina is a prisoner perhaps I could arrange her Escape as well she lives Jaguar where is this pickle you know like I really don't watch Rick and Morty you know and uh my son got me to do that and they were asking me to do it and dad you got to do everybody I do that and it went viral my son he just got into the DGA for directing and uh he's been directing music videos he directed me in a film called from a son that hasn't come out yet but it's the only movie I've ever cried in badass [Music] this Deuces the back take them but leave him alone badass I did as a favorite remember I told you everything good that's happened to me happened as a direct result of helping someone else they had me up for this film that was paying big dough okay and then badass came along well you know they say one in the hand is worth two in the bush anyway but my Asian Gloria kept saying Danny this is going to turn into something turned into a Trilogy I did badass badasses badass on the by you made four times the money I was gonna make on that one but on the first one I met a director named Ash Shaw who had been in the restaurant business and he saw that I I like eating good food I won't eat you know the Jack or the Mac I'd always bring a little salad or I'd bring something to eat that and he said why don't you open a restaurant Danny jokingly I said Trejo's tacos you know I just thought TT would look great in diamonds he brought me a business plan I gave it to Glory area and she kind of said it's a no-brainer Danny this is the first time somebody wants you to do something they're not asking for 100 grand up front so we've got four restaurants right now we're opening up one right now in Detroit with a venue like House of Blues Restaurant and Stadium next to it it's a wonderful binge hey ah come with me if you want a binge at first I didn't understand it and that's wait a minute because I didn't see binge right so I said this is like the reverse of It's a Wonderful Life that was a lot of fun just it was freezing cold we're under a bridge and it was already freezing gold who are you man hey I'm angel angel like I think you're my angel if that's what you want to hear kids now what's your problem we kept on each other you start saying something and I go wow you know what you'd be really pretty in the pan and he wouldn't know what to say so so he kind of stopped challenging me [Music] Breaking Bad [Music] [Music] I love it and you know what Tortuga it was received so well that read another one and called me back and did the first part when I was in London these guys came up with this tortoise about this big it took three guys to carry his huge and they said we'll give you 500 if you sign it you got it so I signed it Tortuga and then your hola DEA you know and made myself hey white boy my name is Tortuga you know what that means turtle that's me I take my time yeah I remember that scene was awesome when I was sitting in the bed talking to the feds yeah I'm slow but I always win I'm dead

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Id: 8FzdY2WEmYk

Length: 17min 11sec (1031 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 23 2022