[IMG:L]After five seasons as the ambitious mortician Federico Diaz on HBO’s mortality-minded series Six Feet Under, Freddy Rodriguez is back among the dead – or undead, in the case of the zombie-filled Planet Terror installment of the double feature Grindhouse, helmed by another Rodriguez, Robert (no relation).
Hollywood.com: Is the movie everything you thought it would be?
Freddy Rodriguez: It’s everything that I thought it was going to be and then some. I saw this movie on Monday and I thought that it was one of the most original things that I’ve seen in cinema in a long time.
HW: You’ve gotten a lot of attention for your supporting roles. How excited were you to be a lead in Robert Rodriguez‘s film? Did that effect how you prepared?
FR: I guess that effected the way that I prepared a little bit because I tried to go back and look at films that people like Kurt Russell or Bruce Willis, or people who had played action heroes in the past and see how they did it, how they carried the movie, how they executed it. When I found out that I was going to be an action hero in Robert Rodriguez‘s film I was floored, man. This is one of the biggest honors that’s ever been bestowed on me.
HW: Rodriguez is very conscious about placing Latin characters in prominent roles that could be cast as any ethnicity. Do you think that’s part of the fun of working with him – that he’s going to bust the stereotypes?
FR: I think that applies with Latin actors, but I also think that Robert just thinks outside of the box in every aspect of what he does. So for him to look at me and say, “You can be an action hero,” is thinking outside the box.
[IMG:R]HW: Do you find ensemble performances in films like this one and Bobby harder than being the star?
FR: Sure. When you’re acting with Laurence Fishburne you better be sharp. That’s like getting in the ring with Mike Tyson. You better get in there and hope that you survive it, but then the outcome of that is that you can say, ‘Wow, I went toe to toe with someone like Laurence and I held my own.’ That does wonders for your confidence.
HW: Were you into the Grindhouse genre at all before doing this film?
FR: I was familiar with it. When I was a kid my pop would take us to these movies. We’d go catch the double and triple feature…When Robert presented the idea to me I knew what he was going to do. I was interested because a lot of those movies in the past were just bad B-movies. So I was interested to see how he was going to incorporate what was good about those movies with the quality and innovation that Robert and Quentin [Tarantino] always bring to all of their films.
HW: What can you tell us about Rodriguez’s filmmaking style?
FR: Listen, Robert is the boss and I mean that in every way. The guy owns his own studio, his own soundstages, [and] his own editing bays. I mean, he’s completely self-sufficient. So that vibe is different. There are no studio heads there breathing down his neck, asking him to change stuff. He has full control over everything that he’s doing and that is a much different experience than anything else that I’ve ever worked on before … This guy has a guitar sitting next to his monitor and plays songs and jams in between scenes. What director do you know who does that and has the freedom to do that?
HW: You got to play with some of the coolest toys. Did you take home anything?
FR: I took home the knives … That jacket that I wore in the film is really my jacket. When I auditioned for the film Robert said, “That jacket is great, man. It makes the character. Bring the jacket. We’re going to use it.” I love that jacket and so we used it and we got it all bloodied up and everything, and I was thinking about taking it home and I called Robert a few weeks ago about it. I said, “Hey, you got the jacket? You going to keep it?” “Yeah. Is that okay?” “Yeah, that’s okay.”
HW: So you never got it back?
FR: Never got it back. He wanted to keep it because in his office over at Troublemaker Studios he has the suits that they wore in Spy Kids and stuff like that. He has the bike that they road in Desperado. He has all these great memoirs from his films. So that’s what made Ray, he had that cool jacket.
HW: Where did you get the jacket?
FR: I don’t remember. I think it was a gift that someone gave me. I remember reading the scene I was going to audition for and I thought, “This guy is cool. He’s cool and he’s hard. I’m going to wear a jacket and I’m going to make my hair that way, this crazy spiked up style. I’m going to go in there with this thing here.” Everything that you see onscreen is exactly how I came into the audition. He just said, “Keep all of it. That’s the guy right there.”
HW: A lot of actors’ careers blow up big after a Tarantino or Rodriguez film. Are you bracing yourself for that?
FR: I’m just enjoying the ride. I think that in all of our careers we’re always on this journey. We’re always trying to get to that next goal and we’re so focused on it and then we reach that next goal and want the next goal. I always find that sometimes I don’t sit back and enjoy it. So I’m just trying to enjoy it right now, all of this.
