Wiser With Age

Tag: acting

  • Danny Trejo busier than ever, but why helping others is most important

    Danny Trejo busier than ever, but why helping others is most important

    A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.
    Danny Trejo at Trejo’s Tacos (Courtesy @officialdannytrejo)

    When you think of Danny Trejo, probably his legendary “tough guy†image immediately comes to mind – with a fiery explosion taking place behind him – like in the “Machete Kills†movie poster.

    He is one of America’s most hard-working actors, averaging four films a year (usually of the action genre) since the 1990’s. Lately, however, he’s been picking up the pace and expanding his repertoire (which now includes more than 370 credits) with some “softer†roles. Most recently, he plays Eduardo, a former attorney and grandfather, who saves the day by using his legal expertise in the film,  â€œGrand-Daddy Daycare.â€

    “I am a worker, I’ll do whatever you got,†says the five foot five actor, with tattoos, and a very kind, deep, voice that makes you feel like he’s got your back no matter if you just met. “I am blessed.â€

    Trejo still lives near where he grew up in Pacoima, California, with his six dogs. He says he usually starts his day early, because his life has only gotten busier now that he’s 74.

    A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.
    Danny Trejo at home with his dogs. (Courtesy @officialdannytrejo)

    “I get up in the morning, say my prayers, and find out what I got to do,†says the man on various missions. “Seventy is the new 50. I started owning restaurants at 70. I am now 74 and have eight restaurants.â€

    In addition to appearing in more than a dozen films this year alone (including “The Prey,†and “Remnants of the Fallenâ€), Trejo is owner of various food establishments in the LA-area, including Trejo’s Tacos, Trejo’s Cantina and Trejo’s Coffee & Donuts. He also produces music through his DT Music label, volunteers as a drug rehab counselor, and is an overall good Samaritan whenever he can.

    A typical day for him when he’s not acting, he says, is waking up at 5am, visiting his donut shop, then going to auto mechanic shop to work on his cars, which is one of his favorite hobbies. At around 3:30, he might go check in at Trejo’s Cantina – which he tries to do often because food quality is important to him, and he makes sure all leftovers are given to the homeless. Perhaps, he also wants his mom to be proud.

    “My mom always wanted to open a restaurant, but my dad was like the Mexican Archie Bunker and he didn’t like the idea,†says Trejo, explaining that his dad wanted his wife to stay at home, because otherwise it made it look like the ‘man of the house†couldn’t provide.

    “Right now, she’s in heaven with my dad. She’s telling him, ‘You see! We should’ve opened a restaurant!,†Trejo says laughing.

    “I’m having so much fun right now. I have all my dream cars. I just started a record label. And we have a new album, Chicano Soul Shop Volume 1, will be dropping this month,†says Trejo, sounding like he’s just reached a peak in his life. “I am the narrator, like a radio DJ style.â€

    Trejo’s beginnings were far from glamorous, however.

    His role model was his uncle Gilbert – a drug addict and armed robber. Trejo started using drugs at 8-years-old and was addicted to heroin by 12. He spent many years in juvenile halls and prisons, when he was released for good at 25. The reason: he prayed while in solitary confinement (because of a fight in Soledad prison) that if God would let him die with dignity, he’d devote his life to doing God’s work and helping others.

    Much to his surprise, Trejo was released the following year, in 1969, and he’s been keeping his vow ever since.

    “Every friend I have carries extra underwear and socks in their car,†he says, explaining that in case they see a homeless person, they have something to give them. “God intended us to live by helping our fellow man.â€

    Trejo became a drug rehab counselor when he left prison and did that full-time for 17 years, before he got his first acting gig by chance. Today, he still helps heroin addicts at Western Pacific Med Corp. drug rehabilitation facilities.

    “Everything good that happened to me was a direct result of helping someone else,†he explains.

    That, and maybe one of the traits he seems to have inherited from his father also helped – being a hard worker.

    The most important piece of advice he says he gives his three adult children is, “The key to success is perseverance. You gotta keep going to be a hit.â€

  • Actor Ivonne Coll on playing the matriarch on ‘Jane the Virgin’ at 70


    A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.
    Ivonne Coll (Photo\Starla Fortunato)

    Ivonne Coll is not a mother, or a grandmother, in real life, but she plays the role of both on television.

    Coll, otherwise known as Alba, plays the matriarch of her alternate reality home on The CW’s “Jane the Virgin.† There, the Puerto Rican actor plays the Venezuelan grandmother of Jane (Gina Rodriguez), and the mother of Xiomara Villanueva (Andrea Navedo). Her main goal as head of that household is to try and steer Jane in the right direction. 

    “What I like about the show is how they portray Alba is that she is still sensual,†says Coll, adding that her character is also courageous and intelligent. “A lot of times abuelas are shown as always having an apron on and asking if you ate, but Alba is a dynamic woman who has a boyfriend and makes mistakes in life. The creators allow me to sing and dance – those are the opportunities that this show has allowed me to express.â€

    In a way, the now 70-year-old actor is going back to her roots. At 20, while studying psychology at the University of Puerto Rico, Coll won the Miss Puerto Rico title, and in the same year, 1967, she represented Puerto Rico in the Miss Universe pageant – both of which required her to display her talents of acting, singing and dancing. Upon seeing her performing skills, a producer in Puerto Rico gave Coll her own variety show. But at 26, Coll decided it was time to move to Hollywood.

    A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.
    Ivonne Coll in 1967 (Courtesy Ivonne Coll)

    “My mother couldn’t understand why I was leaving Puerto Rico, because I was so successful there, but I knew my calling was somewhere else,†says Coll. “I knew I had to study the craft of acting. I didn’t care about fame, or making it, or becoming a star, I wanted to become a working actor – that was my goal.â€

    Little did she know, she says, that according to the standards of Hollywood, she was already considered “too old.â€

    “But I didn’t know that, and when I was told about it, I didn’t care,†says the determined Coll. “I just thought, ‘Let me keep on growing and doing my craft.’â€

    It was around this time in her life that she often didn’t have money for food or to buy bottled water, but nothing, not even not having money, would be an obstacle to accomplishing her dream. When she needed diction classes to make her spoken English clearer, she instantly thought of a creative solution.

    “I would clean the room for free lessons,†says Coll, laughing at this memory. “It was joyful. I never thought that I was struggling. I never thought I was paying my dues. It was a joy to do that work to get that session.â€

    Shortly after, by a chance situation, she was hired to play the “redheaded singer, Yolanda†in Francis Ford Coppola’s, “The Godfather II,†which hit theaters in 1974.

    “It was around 2 or 3 in the morning, and Al Pacino came on the set to do the kissing scene, and that’s what it did it for me,†recounts Coll about the exact moment she confirmed she wanted to dedicate the rest of her life to acting. “As he walked to Fredo, watching the way he transformed. I thought, ‘How did he do that?!’â€

    It was then that she started to train even harder.

    “I studied acting techniques for seven years, with Lee Strasberg, David Alexander, and Lucille Ball – who gave an eight-week workshop in Hollywood,†says Coll, adding that Ball was very strict and committed as a teacher.

    Throughout her career, Coll has starred on Broadway in “Goodbye Fidel,†and played Lady Macbeth in “Lady Macbeth,†and acted in the films, “Lean on Me,†and “Walking the Dead,†and has countless television credits, including “Switched at Birth,†and “Glee.†Yet no matter how many years and projects pass, she still calls her mother her biggest inspiration, role model and hero.

    “It’s all for Puerto Rico and my mother,†says Coll about Rosita Mendoza who was a celebrated hairstylist in Puerto Rico. “I think I inherited all my talent from my mother…Later in her life, she would be training – her talent for teaching is my talent for coaching others. That’s my mother – I’m so lucky. The last thing she saw me in was in Puerto Rican Parade in New York City when I won the Lifetime Achievement Award [in 2015]. She saw it on TV, and a week later she died.â€

    Coll admits that as her recurring role as a mom in the television series,“Switched at Birth†was dwindling down, she started thinking about gracefully bowing out of show business and returning to her island home.

    “I didn’t think there would be more roles for me,†says Coll. “As I’m doing the paperwork needed to wrap up, I get the audition for this role at Jane the Virgin.â€

    Not taking it seriously, she first told her agency she’s busy doing jury duty.

    “I was so confused, because the role was in Spanish in English, and the audition was the next day!,†says Coll.

    Once there, she asked the producers what kind of Spanish dialect they wanted. They said Venezuelan, which was a very easy transition from her native Caribbean Spanish.  

    “God decided that role was for me no matter how much I didn’t take it seriously,†says Coll. “When they called me to go to network, I turned off my phone, and I didn’t hear they cancelled the audition. So I went. And at the moment the casting director came in, and she said, ‘Abuela, we’ll see your tape.’ They didn’t answer until the next day. We were in parking lot when I got it. I was screaming in the car. It’s been a great ride.â€

    She says working on “Jane the Virgin†has been one of her most special experiences, because her co-stars have become like true family.

    “It’s also the first time three Latinas are in a mainstream show, and now we have it in ‘One Day at a Time,’†says Coll about the Netflix series she will soon guest star on – reuniting her with Rita Moreno, 85, who played the “Glam-ma†on “Jane the Virgin.â€

    Looking back now to when she once heard she was “too old†at 27, Coll laughs.

    “I just produced and co-wrote a short and I’m acting in it,†she says. “It’s about two women – one is a principal, and one is a yoga teacher and married to a Harvard professor…I want to put [Latinas] in charge like we are in real life…Producers feel it won’t sell, but it will sell, because it represents the face of North America.â€

    What advice would she tell her 20-year-old self at her age now?

    “I wouldn’t change anything of what I did really…Go with your gut feeling. God lives in you. I was not aware that I was doing that. Be more aware of what moves you, because that will inform how your life will be.â€

    “Alba, to me, has been a gift of love from God that came at a time I was about to retire. Isn’t it incredible?,” says Coll. “You can plan, but God has other plans, and His plans are better than yours.â€

  • Actor Tony Plana says, “Show your kids how important education is”

    Actor Tony Plana says, “Show your kids how important education is”


    A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.
    Actor Tony Plana (Courtesy Twitter)

    Many might remember Tony Plana from his many acting roles from “Feo†in the film “Born in East L.A.â€Â to playing America Ferrera’s dad in the sitcom “Ugly Betty,†but many might not know his other passion is sharing his wisdom with youth.

    The 62-year-old Cuban-American actor attributes all of his success to his education, and he says he wants to pay it forward.

    For nearly two decades, Plana has been working hard to create educational programming for schools in underserved middle and high schools in the greater Los Angeles area. His East L.A. Classic Theatre program, which integrates acting within school curriculums have proven successful, because it engages students to become avid learners – it connects them emotionally to the school experience. He says young immigrant children, who have trouble speaking because of fear, to troubled runaways, have found a purpose and have learned to thrive because of being exposed to theater.

    “Theater teaches you to collaborate and identify with a group – to create and realize something together,†says Plana. “The wonderful feeling of creating something together and sharing it – it’s very powerful…I started East L.A. Classic Theatre in 1995, because I wanted to become part of the solution…I want to take East L.A. nationally, because [education] is a national problem.â€

    The experienced father of two and educator of many, says it’s all about connections when it comes to educating youth, and it starts in the home.

    “Latino children experience more regression than any other group, because it’s environmental – many are very poor and that’s not conducive to intellectual stimulation,†says Plana, who encourages role-playing with parents in school curriculums. “It’s important to educate the parents about this problem.â€

    He says he’s also created a program through East L.A. called “Creciendo Juntos†to empower parents with information.

    “You have to get involved in finding out who your kids are and what they need,†says Plana, who home-schooled his own children – whether biological, educational, whatever those needs are. “We teach them not to do things for their children, but to make them learn, and parents to become learners themselves. You teach by modeling. Become more educated so you can make more money and raise standard of living. Show your kids how important education is.â€

    Currently living with his wife in NYC, Plana also spends time advocating for other causes when he’s not acting. Most recently, he’s a spokesperson for a non-profit called TECHO, which brings volunteers and low-income families in Latin America together to combat poverty.