Andy Garcia
Appearances
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Yeah, and he would go in there and he'd put a rack with sneakers that were like $1.50 for a sneaker, very cheap sneakers. The company was called Leeds, in fact. And I would go with him on the weekends with the promise that he'd take me to McDonald's afterwards, you know. And then he'd go there, and then he'd put your rack, and then he'd come back two weeks later. You sold four sneakers.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
You owe me $5, and I'll reload those sizes. It was like a consignment business. And based on that, he started his own consignment business with socks. So it was his first business he started on his own. He got a...
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
a distribution from a gentleman out of Puerto Rico who was making these socks that were traditional in Cuba called Casino and Once Once 1111, which are those kind of nylon socks that are kind of see-through with patterns, very popular in those days and within our culture. And he started putting those on his own in consignment, and he started building a business.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And he had T-shirts and this and that. And all that stuff eventually grew to a multimillion-dollar fragrance business.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
We were never on salary. Like, you know, when we needed to go out one night or whatever, my mother had the, you know, the bank envelope with a zipper. And she would go, come over here. And she'd go like this. Thanks, Mom. But there was no, like, your own salary. Here's your payment. All the money went to that zippered envelope in the business.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
That brings up a real quick thing. I was doing a movie with the Sidney Lumetri director called Night Falls on Manhattan. And Richard Dreyfuss was in the film. We were co-stars in the film. And he came up one day and he said, what is it with you and grandmothers? And I go, what are you talking about? He goes, I mentioned I was doing a movie to my grandmother and she almost fainted.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And they ran the family out of that envelope, you know.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
No, no, no, no, no. He had trained me. I was ready. Both him and my brother and I were very involved in the business and the business already was taking off. You know, the fragrance business. When I decided to, you know, I was in college, so to go the other direction, of course, he had seen me on stage and stuff and but I was difficult for him.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Not that he was saying, you know, don't do it, but it was like, you know.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Yeah, right, right. Probably pretty similar. He wasn't as, it was more like a private struggle for him, I think. You know, it's like, I always joke that I think my father would probably say like, I love my son, but he's not Humphrey Bogart. You know what I mean?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
They can't, they have no concept of that you can maybe make a living maybe in this, in the arts, you know, because that's not what they come from.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
None whatsoever. I mean, they knew they existed, but. What is that trajectory to their eye? My mother, on the other hand, she would say to them, let them go. Let him go. If he breaks a wing, he knows where to come back. But let him go. He's got to go.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
I had to go. I left a business. I was prospering. My brother was my partner. My father was my partner. My partner, it was taken off. It was at the moment where it was taken off, the fragrance side of it. They were supportive. My brother was supportive. It's hard to reason with... with a straight bullet. It's something that calls to you. You don't pick it, it kind of picks you.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
So it's hard to... There was this anecdote that I came about, just flashed on. I was doing a commercial that I was directing and acting in, in Miami, and I was on Lincoln Road. It was about five years ago, maybe six years. And a young priest came up to me. He must have been 30 years old. 30, you know, young seminarian, but priest. And he said, can I speak to you for a moment? And I said, sure.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And we're Lincoln Road in between shots. And he says, my grandfather was, I forget his name, but he was the owner of Navarro Pharmacy. pharmaceutical chain in Florida. We used to sell to.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Yeah, they had many stores at the time, maybe five or so. And I was the delivery boy. I would deliver to Navarro family, and I knew his grandfather, because he would receive the stuff and sign it. How you doing? Tell your dad I need him to talk to him. They were very good friends, because my dad was a very loved, much-loved individual. And...
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
He says, my grandfather told me a story that when you left, this is a priest telling me this story who's 30 years old. When you left for, when you were leaving for California and you were on your way or you had just left, or before you left, your father went to see him because he was very distraught, you know, with what was going to happen.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
I'm serious. And I said, wow, my fan base is going to disappear pretty soon.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And he was asking, you know, consoling him, asking, you know, like a priest to his grandfather, saying, you know, my son's leaving town, and, you know, what do I do? He's going to Hollywood. I don't even know where Hollywood is. You know, to me, Hollywood is like a fictitious place, and... And the young priest said that the grandfather looked at my dad and he said, you got to let him go.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
You got to let go. So it was interesting that this story was out there and eventually found its way back So I figured like, oh, my dad was struggling so much.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
No, no, no, no. It was all private angst.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Plus, he also saw the potential that my brother and I had in the business world. Because we had been trained, and my brother is extremely successful in many things. But he's still in the fragrance business. And I have great admiration for him.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Yeah. Yeah. So... so you know he for him it was a big struggle you know it was a big struggle my mother was more you know and my mother just had you know a sense about her you know i guess you know it's like uh mother knows best you know well you my mother as well knew that you have to follow your heart uh on things that make you happy i believe
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And I recently saw Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis. And I know he's been dreaming about this movie for many years. And I saw him and I said, I personally thought the movie was extraordinary, as all these movies are. There's an old Robert Browning quote saying, a man's reach should be greater than his grasp.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
or what's a heaven for and all his movies have this kind of you know expansive paid for it himself he's in his 80s now insisted on making it it's the life work uh that is all about this great director's dream and he's done many movies like that where he's paid for himself you know and uh but i said i wrote him when i said francis and i said one of the things i took away from the movie was there's no there's no great obstacle that can't be overcome by a dream
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And that's basically it. You know, the only thing that'll keep you in the game and falling forward, always fall forward. Like you said, don't lean back because then you're just keep falling forward and get up. Then you'll be over there. Then you'll be over there. Doesn't have to be big leaps, just steady. And my dad always said that to me before I left. He said, hey, steady and wear a tie.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
They don't wear ties in Cuba. But he was always about, you know, the discipline of, you know, present yourself well and correctly and be responsible. You know, those things that you learn through watching, you know, through example. Their example, really.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
I was always a fan of films all my life as a kid. You know, I just had a fascination like we all do with the movies and I would get lost in them. I remember we used to live in the beach and I used to take a couple of buses, the K and the L to Lincoln Road and on the weekends and always in the summers because they had the double bills.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
you know of you know great escape or the bond movies or captain blood you know earl flynn and all these movies and i would just go and get there for the first showing and leave at eight o'clock at night you know watch them two times over so it's two movies twice for four showings you know And I would do that all the time and I would get lost in these movies.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And so I always had a love for films, you know, Peter Sellers and all this, whatever the heroes of the time. And I was I did a couple of plays when I was a kid. One at the North Beach Man Show was my first one. But there were, you know, reviews. 10th Street Auditorium.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
But it's still there. The road is still there, right? Just the stores are different. But the bandshell is still there. It's an amazing place and they still play music there. And then the 10th Street Auditorium there on Ocean Drive, I did a thing there. Many, you know, when I was, I don't know, it was probably... But you're dreaming there of that's what I want to do.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
I was an athlete, you know. A baseball player, right? Baseball and basketball. When I got to high school, I only played basketball. But I played baseball and basketball all my life. I played football, but flag football. I got too small. I was really too small to really continue playing. But we won the city championship from representing Normandy Isle Park. Played quarterback for the flag.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
We played all the parks and we won. So it was fun. I love sports. A good athlete. And then you got mono, right? I got mono my senior year in high school, so I never played my senior year. And then I took an acting class there with a professor. They had Jay Jensen. And I was very stimulated by it, and he was very encouraging.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And that kind of awoke this thing inside of me that I was always interested in. And of course, I was inspired by being enamored with film and television. Of course, Desi Arnaz was a big inspiration to all of us.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
He was Cuban. Rita Hayworth. No, she was Mexican, I believe. But Cesar Romero and Desi Arnaz were specifically of the Cuban culture. I might be missing someone else, but on American television, you know. You do realize you are those people for some, yes or no? Yes, I do realize that, yeah.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Well, yeah, people assimilate to the culture. But I must say, I think there is a sense of pride that's passed down through generations because
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Yeah. Uh, and, uh, We rode together. We were friends in Miami. We both were acting. He was studying at UM. He had that show, Que Pasa, USA, which I did an episode of.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Great show. It was a great show. And he came, you know, because of his exposure on Que Pasa. He had a contact here and got an agent and came, got immediately a contract at Columbia Pictures Television. They put him on the contract. And I was still at FIU my last year. And he said, hey, you got to come out here, man. There's work, you know? And I said, yeah, I'm going to come out. And I came here.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
I stayed with him for about a couple of weeks on his couch. And he got a little apartment here on Fountain in Sycamore, like a storefront apartment. You know, I was on street level with a big plate glass window that you see people walking by all night long. It was a bad choice. Let's not get into that in this thing. Let's not go there.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
but uh it was you know crazy times you know right and uh i remember one night there was a knock on the door at three in the morning and i went what the hell what's going on here and the front door was next to the big floor to ceiling wind window solid window with a curtain so you can close the curtain but the street lights would put everybody in silhouette you know it was terrible so you know you had a the traditional thing you have a you have a you know a bed on the floor just a cushion
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And a black and white TV that my dad sent me because he used to sell them overseas by the container loads. Black and white, 13-inch on an egg crate. It was for a lot of fun. And I used to eat on top of my conga drums. That was my dining room table. Anyway, it's an interesting look.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
extraordinary uh journey that our parents went through you know and bringing us you know exile is a very intense thing it's not like immigration by choice is one thing uh exile is you know it is a choice you make but it's fleeing the country that for political reasons you know repression indoctrination
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
So that was the thing. So they knock on the door and I... Who the hell's knocking? And I move the curtain to see who's outside, because the door's here. And it's like the Marx Brothers. Four heads came in like, and the guy at the bottom, he says, gypsy lives around here. I go, excuse me?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
I said, no, no, there's no gypsy lives in here.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
I said, no. Sorry, there's no gypsy who lives here. And they left. I'm going like, what the hell is going on? Then I realized, I'm the gypsy. Some gypsy walking around said, oh, there's a gypsy who lives in there.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Anyway, but, you know, and you just begin, you know, you just begin finding your way around town. You know, I had to go get a get a job. You know, I worked as a waiter. I became a member of the Waiters Union, worked as a banquet waiter for many of the hotels, mostly the Beverly Hilton Hotel. I'd laid, you know, shingles. I worked at this company called Roadway.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
You know, those trucks that say Roadway. I used to go, a friend of mine said, hey, I got a good gig. You go at seven o'clock at night. You're temporary help, so you don't have to be a member of the union. And you work from 7 to 7 or 7 to 5. And you either unload a truck by yourself or you strip it or you load it on your own. And we got there. There's a bunch of actors there.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Bryan Cranston was there. So, you know, it was, you know, just trying to pay the rent while you find your way in the business. So that was it.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Well, I started, you know, I started immediately taking classes, you know, going backstage. I was working at the comedy store. You were doing improv, right? You were taking improvisational classes nearby. And performing in the house group there. And that got me some attention and a little job here and there. No money. No, for free. But I got a gig on the pilot of Hill Street Blues.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
You know, the little sprinkle things. Didn't really have an agent. The ones I had were like... were like a guy who say, okay, you meet him and they go like, bring me some resumes and you bring them and he would stamp, you know, he'd take a stamp and put his name on your resume and every so often they would send you out, but not really.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
While also telling you to change things about yourself, correct? Yeah, a lot of them would say, change your name, you know, lose your accent, change your name, fix your teeth or whatever, you know, and come back to me once you've done all that. And who is that person going to be when I come back? I don't know who that guy is.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
So, you know, it was hard because in those days, if you had a Hispanic last name, the opportunities were very limited. Now it's more diverse, there's more opportunity.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
maybe not as much as still underrepresented yes but still there's there is opportunities you know when when i was there there were very little parts for anybody because they would stereotype you because of your name it's not like said oh he can play italian he can play this he can play that no you're garcia and some of the parts that were mostly available were like gang members mexican gang members and
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Fear of your own life So it's a the fact that they brought us here It's a testament to their their our greatest generation in terms of us Cubans, you know and they'll always will be and if it wasn't for that journey and that that courage and I wouldn't be talking to you right now.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
and maids on the female side. So I couldn't get those parts. They wouldn't see me as those characters. The rare audition that I would even have. So it was hard. It was hard, but I just hung tough. I got married in 82 and my wife was crazier than I was because she says, I said, I got to go back. This is what I want to do. I know I have nothing to show for it.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
But because she had been coming out to visit me, she was living in Miami and she, you know, she was here and she had seen me on stage. She would see me on stage here. But, you know, she would come to that apartment, you know, this is what I had to offer that, you know, But she says, I'm coming with you, you know? So she was, you know, mother's no best, you know?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Yeah, I'd never been here before, you know, like most people. You just arrive by plane. And luckily, I had one place to go, which was Steven's house, you know, to kind of go like that. And for a couple of weeks, I didn't want to hang there too long. I didn't want to impose. So immediately, I started looking for a place. I paid $200 a month for that little place. Imagine the quality of the joint.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And you don't have the $200. No. I came with like $2,000 in my pocket that I had worked the summer in a discotheque as a maitre d' sommelier kind of guy making money.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
No, yeah, it's you know, but we were young, you know, and the adventure began and and then it was just kind of hanging tough, you know, for a while. And eventually, you know, you start little by little making your way. And I used to work one of the things that and then we had a child right away.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
So we got married in 82 and a year and a half later, the daughter was there, you know, Dominique, my oldest. And we were here living in the valley. Luckily, a friend of mine, an actor, was in what we call a wallah group, like a voiceover group, where you do all the replacement, all the background vocals in movies and television.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
It's a union gig, and you do an episode of Cagney and Lacey or whatever, and then when it airs the second time, you get paid again. Not much, though. Well, but every time you went, it was like 300 bucks. I worked two or three times a week on that, different shows. I had a place, I was buying pampers, had a roof over our head, a house we rented, and I was able to provide for my family.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And just little by little, I got a better agent, actually a manager who started getting me a little bit more interview. It kind of began like that. But during that time, there was, I remember specifically, there was a moment where it had to do with like an audition. I did something, I remember the exact moment where I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. I saw it.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
All the years prior to that, it was like, where's the light? Where's the light? I know it's out there and I'm here to, I want to see it. I mean, I have it in my head, in my dreams, but I haven't seen it, you know? What was the light? The light was, I guess it was like, got to a point in my craft that... You had confidence? I had it in here. I said, oh, that's it. There it is. There it is.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Peaceful. Powerful. That's cool. And so you see, okay, so now it's, oh, there it is. Now it's just got to, are you willing to stay in the game to get to the light? And of course, the light continues to travel away. But eventually you reach that light and you go, but at least you have this kind of, the focus gets narrowed where you're not just going like, how can I break through?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
There's a breakthrough that happens. It has to do with opportunities, representation that gets you in front of people where you can now actually have an opportunity to get a job. And slowly that's what happened. I got a job in a movie, oddly enough, in Miami called The Mean Season, which was written from a book from John Katzenbach, who was a criminal writer from the Miami Herald.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
No, no doubt. But there's an example and a work ethic that they bestowed upon us, you know. Just by observation. It wasn't like, this is what you have to do. Just watch them. Watch them get up and work seven days a week and build a life for your family and slowly progress in what they're doing. A lot of people that came over
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Kurt Russell and Mariel Hemingway, Richard Bradford, dear friend of mine. We played cops and there was a young Cuban cop written, you know. The fact that it took place in Miami, there was a part that wasn't, let's say, a Mexican gang member or something then. And it was actually my wife again, you know.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
the intuition it was i remember we were at the house she said i got home from from one of those sessions she said uh i just saw an entertainment tonight it was like the first year it's like the first entertainment show that was on television i think they're doing a movie in miami called the mean season with kurt russell and mariel hemingway you should ask phyllis she was my manager at the time very good manager very helpful phyllis carlisle and uh
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
see if there might be something there. So I called her. She goes, look it up, but just because, she goes, honey, just because it's in Miami, you know, there might not be a part. I said, just check it out. There might be Well, of course, there was a supporting part that was part of the story, playing a young cop. And I went to meet the casting director. We had a nice time.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
I didn't read or anything for her. She says, I want you to meet the director, Philip Bourchaud, a wonderful Canadian director who did a great movie called The Gray Fox, which I had seen. And sadly enough, he passed away after our movie, very young, for cancer. And I went to meet the director and got the part like that. It was like buying a hamburger. It was so simple to get that part.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
But it took seven years to get that part. And from then on, I never had to work in any other profession in my life.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
this woman believes in me should she yeah yeah yeah yeah i guess it goes back to to the exile experience you know subconsciously i think you're like trained to to continue forward you know
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
continue one step at a time and you know crack it just crack it keep keep at it keep at it keep at it that comes from you know our our parents basically keep at it keep at it i know i don't have anything to show for it right now but Keep at it. Seven years of I don't have anything to show. Well, you know, it got a little bit, you know, I was year four or five.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
I was providing for my family, but I wasn't I was working doing voiceover work. I wasn't really working as an actor. I was working, you know.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
creates fear what's interesting what's interesting when you have a child for me anyway what's interesting is it empowers you the stakes are higher therefore you gotta either sink or swim you know and uh you you know it's like you now you're representing not only yourself as an artist you're representing your wife and your family and that little girl.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
So it's sort of like you're going to have to shoot me between the eyes to take me out. No time for doubt? There's no time for doubt. And like I said, I think there was a power, the thing. And about that time also, you know, in that moment, the light started to appear, you know. A spiritual light as well?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
they even had to abandon their professions like my father never practiced law again my mother was an english teacher she never taught english again she worked as a secretary and then worked with my father once he started a business but you know he worked like many exiles and young immigrants to the country you start a you know janitorial service that's the first job that's always available doctors lawyers they become plumbers they become they can make a boat out of tires and wood whatever the job what's available tomorrow
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
I guess so. I mean, it wasn't like a religious thing. It was... Clarity. Yeah, sort of certain clarity. And I think it also has to do with, you know, really all this time is always focusing on the craft. and studying and exploring the craft and getting to know your instrument and where you are as a person is grounded, you know. So so, you know, you understand what who you are.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
and what you have to say and why you want to say it, you know.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
No doubt. And when the craft is mixed with inspiration, spontaneous inspiration, then the art form comes about. But the craft roots you in the ability for that magic to happen. You know, without it, you, you know, you kind of you're you're acting. You know what I mean? Yes. Early teachers always said they might get caught acting, you know, instead.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
is the untouchables because i thought that was sort of your big break well yeah because that was a uh commercial success that movie and the whole world saw that film and that helps you a lot you know because now you become not just you know just an actor looking for work you somehow become recognizable or marketable in another film or get that guy and you know
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
But that came by a series of things that happened, starting with the movie in Miami, A Mean Season, and... I remember they had offered me a reoccurring part in the show Cagney and Lacey, which is a show I would do voiceovers for. But in those days, it was so odd because television, if you were in a television series, it was sort of like taboo. Then you wouldn't be considered for films.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Really, it was like... No, either or.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And everybody who was in television had dreams of being in movies. Yeah. And that was not anymore. But in those days, and I made a choice to not take the gig. and just roll the dice, you know, stay in the voiceover and look for my next film. And this movie came about with Hal Ashby, Jeff Bridges, called A Million Ways to Die.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And they were looking for the antagonist in the movie, which was a character that they say was patterned, you know, like they were looking for someone like Hector Macho Camacho, the fighter. Street, urban, tough, slick, aggressive, you know, yeah.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Yeah, and so I read the script. It was written by Oliver Stone, the initial script, because it was changed by the time the movie got made. And I said to the agent, I said, I know who this guy is. I grew up in Miami. I know who this guy is. Get me in, get me in, get me in. But God bless him, Lin Stallmaster was the most powerful, most important casting director probably at the time and legendary.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
I remember he said to the agent, I know Andy, I saw him in that movie. He's a wonderful young actor, but he's more like the diplomat's son.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And I said to my agent, get me in, get me in. And she kept insisting, insisting. God bless her, Jerry Scott. And insisting, insisting. And I went in there and I got an audition. And I knew when I went in there that I had to be that guy. It wasn't like I'm showing up as Andy and then I'm going to show you who the guy is. I just went in as the guy.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
I didn't want any doubt that that was somebody else. And I did a series I read for him. You know, I just rolled the dice. I just went in as the guy. I remember I used to smoke at the time, and I lit a cigarette in the room like this. And he said, I'm sorry we don't smoke here. And I said, I don't give a fuck. I don't give a fuck. You were deep in the character. I was in. I went all in.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And actually, I talked to a third person. It was a guy. I said, Angel's guy's name. He goes, Angel doesn't give a fuck what you think, man. And poor Lin was going like, oh, actors. Fucking actors, you know? And so he said, can we go? I remember this to this day. And I've told this story before, but... I remember to this day, he said, can we go to another room to do this?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And I said, wherever we're going, I've already been. And wherever you've been, I don't need to go.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And usually you run into someone that you know and say, I'm looking for work, I need work. And they go, well, I got work at the Fountain Blue. Come over and then you're in, you know, mobbing floors or whatever. And then you begin, but at least you pay the rent at 84th and Harding at the motel so you can keep your family under one roof, you know.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Oh, completely. This guy killed people in the movie. He was a Coke dealer, young kingpin in L.A. who killed women. What does he know about, you know? And so anyway, I read and he said, can you...
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
hal is coming in a couple hours can you hang around to read for him now hal ashby is like a hero of mine you know the last detail harold and maude you know being there coming home i mean he's just a great inspiration to me and of course jeff bridges the wonderful jeff bridges and i read for hal and uh he gave me a part right there that day
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Well, I was saying that because of the 8 Million Ways to Die, the character was so crazy, it got a lot of attention. And that's when they were putting together The Untouchables after that. And I got a call that they were interested in me playing Frank Nitti, who was the killer in The Untouchable, the play beautifully by Billy Drago. Remember, dressed in white and very lean, you know.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
almost like feline kind of quality he had. And I read the script, and I said to my agent, no, no, I want to play this young Italian kid, one of the Untouchables. And he says, yeah, honey, but they're interested in you playing. I said, tell them no. I said, I won't go after that part. So they gave me, and I met Brian De Palma, and I read for him, and they gave me the part.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
So that movie, that's how that movie came about. And that movie was very successful, of course, gave immediately other opportunities at Paramount. Mr. Frank Mancuso was the head of the studio, who was like a second father to me. And I started working at Paramount a lot, you know. And it was a wonderful time. In fact, they wanted to give me like a three-picture deal.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Mr. Mancuso is the most honorable person you ever want to meet in your life. He is a godsend. To me, to my family, to this industry, I mean, he's really like a second father. And his son is my brother, and I'm a godfather to his daughter. I mean, we're very close. But at the time, they said, they want to give you a three-picture deal. And I said, let me talk to Mr. Mancuso.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And he told me, we want to keep you here. We want to give you a deal. And I just shook his hand. I said, Mr. Mancuso, I don't need a deal with you. As long as you want me here, I'm here with you. I don't need a piece of paper. I'm here for you. And that was it. And we did a bunch of movies together there, including The Godfather.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And what was curious about The Godfather was that in those early years, early 80s or whatever it was, when we were kind of looking, I wasn't even married yet. I was like 79, I guess, or something like that. They announced that there was going to be a Godfather 3, and there was this young part in the movie.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And they were thinking about Stallone or Travolta, people who had been prominent at the time. And I remember thinking to myself, that's my part. Because that's the movie that made me, in high school, when I was my senior year in high school, that time I saw The Godfather and that's what changed my life. I said, I want to be, that's what I want to do with my life.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
That was the quintessential moment. We're talking about the virus or whatever. It was watching Godfather Part One. And I said, I want to do that with my life. What was it about it? Well, I think you identify with the people in it, with Al and, you know, the style and Brando and, you know, Bobby Duvall and Jimmy Conn.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And you saw people that were like you, you know, they were like, oh, I see I could see myself in that family, in that world. And also the quality of it. That's what I wanted to be. That's what I wanted to do. And be careful what you wish for. But I remember thinking, that's my part. And of course, the movie, I had nothing to show.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
I would have never probably even got a chance to audition for it because it was... But because the movie never happened at that time, and it was delayed almost a decade, by the time it came around, I was on my fourth movie with Paramount doing internal affairs, and Mr. Mancuso came to have lunch with me on the set and said, what are you doing in September? I want to talk to Francis.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
I want you to be... this young fellow, Vincent in The Godfather. I said, I'll check my schedule and get back to you. But ultimately, it was Francis' choice. I screen tested. I was the last person to screen test, actually, after a whole summer of people screen testing. And I kept saying, can I just go in and read for him? Don't worry, don't worry. I'm worried.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Every actor in town is screen testing for this show. But Mr. McCusack, you know, obviously he was very supportive of me, and I read for Francis, and he gave me a part, you know. Internal Affairs, criminally underrated movie.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Well, I think those movies are underrated. They're only underrated if you want to look at them from like a box office standpoint. But as a quality of a film that have resonance and has staying power, they're not underrated. You know, they're almost like
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
I don't know, you call them cult films, but things that movies that to this day, people, I walk by on the streets and someone driving by, I go, hey, both drinks. You know, I go, oh yeah, okay. Well, what's the one of those you get the most? Like, I don't know whether you answer or feel like- Well, Zaza, you know, Zaza, the Godfather. When I kill Joey Zaza, I go, Zaza.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
People go like, hey, Zaza, you know. you know the people who who enjoy those movies will have catch phrases from and and uh in well i mean maybe internal affairs they owe everybody i got a kick on when when i started screaming at my wife in spanish which you know obviously wasn't scripted it was just something and i and they all i did a uh I don't do these podcasts often, by the way.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
But I did one for Sebastian Maniscalco. And he was just fascinated about, what was it, that thing you said to your wife?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
In Spanish. And I said to him, it was something like, ¿Tú me vas a decir mentira a mí? ¿A mí? Which he said, What does that mean? I said, You're going to lie to me and me.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Well, that guy, you know, Richard Gere, who is incredible in the film, had, you know, in the storyline, he messes with my head. You know, I had to I had to lose myself in his manipulation. That was part of the story and somehow come out the other end by the end of the film. But, you know, we had to, I had to, he had to get under my skin, you know, and as he did in the movie.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Well, we were political exiles. We were fleeing a repressive, you know, dictatorial regime that was taking not only all everything that you've worked for in your life and all your freedoms, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, but also they took possessions of the rights to your children. So, you know, there was no longer public schooling. It was in state indoctrination of your children.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And the movie is like, you know, you still, you watch that film and it's like, if you have like an open sore and you keep scratching it, you know, it's like, it's terrible. It's a terrible movie that way, you know.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
I know, I know, I know. But, you know, Michael Figgis, who was the director I actually recommended for the film, I had met him for a movie he was doing, Stormy Monday, which I didn't participate in, but he was, I remember talking to him, I remember seeing his movie, and I said, maybe this guy, I recommended him to Paramount, and they met him, and they gave him the job.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And then after, because the movie was written for me, it was developed for me. And I was doing Black Rain at the time with Michael Douglas. And when I got back, they showed me the script and said, we want to go with this. And I said, yeah, it's very powerful.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
were saying about boxing because i also boxed for uh for internal affairs in for eight million ways to die the character's written that he was an ex-golden glove boxer also this drug dealer guy so i boxed for 14 weeks trained the movie kept pushing back so two weeks of training turned into three to four to six and of course you get into great shape you know your box of 14 weeks and i remember by the towards the end i was sparring with you know young
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
professionals they were bringing guys we put on the headgear and they beat you know they just beat me to the punch a lot i get my shots in but they go pop pop pop they make it look very easy and i go okay i'm coming in and there was one guy uh that was more heavier they said they get the lightweight guys that just pepper you all day long and uh
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
There's one guy, we were boxing, and I stepped to the right there to simulate and land on my right foot and throw a right hand.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
No, we did the same move at the same time. And we both hit each other. Bang! And he hit me right here. And I caught him somewhere. And I remember this feeling that went from the back of my head, like a concussive thing, you know. It was right down your spine, all the way down. It was like, oh! And I didn't go down, but I went like this. I went, time!
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Because you feel that sense of the knockout thing, but because it was here and not here, It was a very interesting sensation, which talking about concussions, a lot of talk about concussions these days, especially in our home team.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
That's an insane way to make a living. But great way to get in shape, I'll tell you that much.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Body of work. Probably The Godfather. I think to this day, people still go like, hey, Godfather 4, what's going on, man? What are we doing Godfather 4? And I said, it's out of my hands, man.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
I mean, of course, for me, the experience of working with Francis on a movie and a director that inspired me to do what I do. and the fact that I was able to somehow manifest that. Because when you're 18 years old, you don't go around saying, I want to be an actor and I'm going to be in Godfather III. What are you talking about? I'm going to be in The Godfather. What are you talking about?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And that's why a lot of people early on said, you know, We're out of here. You're not going to take, you know, the rights to our children because indoctrination was the way, you know, you know, Viva Fidel, Papa Fidel gives you everything. Pray to Fidel. Don't pray to your God. The churches were closed down, you know, like the synagogues were closed down.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
this is like a private delusional state of mind that I lived in a way but in life you do manifest your own destiny because all that is is you chasing a dream that is particular to your dream and you just somehow won't accept no for an answer
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
yes of course sometimes it's very unique that it happened to be that that movie in that story but the dream of being an actor and just i just wanted to be able to be a professional actor and provide for my family and explore my craft i wasn't thinking about i wanted to be some famous dude or something i just wanted to be a professional actor you know
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
But you do, you can manifest your things if you're dedicated and you're passionate and you have single-mindedness about it. I mean, this movie I did, The Lost City, about Cuba, took me 16 years of my life.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And you did the score. Yeah, that would be number two. Because, you know, Francis to me was, Lost City is, I think, In a way, you know, personally, probably the most important work I've done from a cultural standpoint and personal. But again, it was just dog with a bone.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And eventually someone came, Sam Gores, who was my agent at the time, said, my brother, he really respects you and he knows you're trying to do this movie. And I talked to him about it and he wrote a check. It was outside the business. Nobody in the business ever supported the film. Once we made it, we sold it back into the system.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
But it just took someone who believed in me, and it was Tommy Gores and Johnny Lopez's partner, and Sam, his brother, who orchestrated it. And it was produced by Frank Mancuso Jr., my brother.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Well, what happened with the music was I got the script in 1990 while I was doing The Godfather. Frank had given me, Mr. Mancuso had given me money to develop the material, the idea. And I went to Guillermo Cabrera Infante, an extraordinary Cuban novelist and writer in London, one of the most important writers who also had written some screenplays, had started the Cuban Cinematheque pre-Castro and
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
He loved the idea, and he delivered a 340-page document. The screenplay, for those who most don't know, is at the very, no more than 120. That's already a long screenplay. 105, 100, you know, depending on the story is better. And so I had this 340 page, 304 page document that I had to, you know, with him, you know, he was hard for him to cut it down because he was so attached to it.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
So that's when most people, if they could get out at that time, said, you can take our house, you can take our business, you can nationalize everything, you can take our money because you changed the monetary standards, but you're not going to take our children's minds. And that was mostly the early exiles left for that reason.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
So eventually I kept shaping it down to it. I got it down to like 126 pages and that was the movie we made. But in the script, it said that my character played piano, solitary, on his own, privately. And I always wanted to play piano. I had studied percussion all my life, and I was a percussionist, and Afro-Cuban percussion.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
So I rented a piano while I was doing The Godfather in my house there in Quattro Miglio, which is just near the Cinecittà studios outside of Rome. I had a little upright piano there, and I'd come home from work, and we'd have dinner, and my wife and I'd sit at the piano and start with two fingers.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
ding ding ding ding ding ding like that you know just kept fiddling with it for years and just basically self-taught you know my aunt showed me a chord she see me go instead of doing that do this and she showed me a chord and then i started applying my percussive training to the piano and that opened up a whole other rhythmic thing for me i just kept with it with it and with it and then as we were cutting the film i started playing with themes as we were cutting the movie i had a piano
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
hooked into the Avid. It wasn't an Avid, it was a Steambank, which was still, it was like the old, but it was digital, but it was, and we just had it plugged in there. And I would, once we had sequences cut together, I would lay down themes on the piano. And then I had been recording music with Cachao for years for the movie and the albums that we had done. So those were pre-produced songs.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And then we had needle drops from the era. And then I had the original score that I just wrote, the percussive side. And then I worked with an orchestrator if I wanted the theme to be, like you say, bring in a chamber orchestra and here's the theme. And I would work with him on, you know, I said, let's feature the violin here, whatever. And And that's how it came about. So it was very organic.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
I always joke that when the movie gods said, when you can play the piano well enough, we'll give you the money. You know, I was just trying to do it so I can fake it in the movie. You know, it kind of looked like I know what I'm doing. But it took so long, I eventually, you know, taught myself how to play.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
That story was important to you because... Because that story has never been told. And it's our story. I mean, the family is not my family. It's our family. Everybody went through that on different levels. I mean, my father was not a club owner. There's not a movie like that. There's not a movie like that about the Cuban people that I've seen.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
No, I mean, they made the Robert Redford Havana movie from the point of view of an American in Havana. But no, there hasn't really been one. There's a new movie out called Los Friques, which is about, you know, the punk rockers in Cuba. Leonie Chasso has made movies, a great Cuban director. Also about that subject matter, that Cubans in exile, like a super incredible film.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
I appreciate it. I'm very proud of it. And the movie I know holds up very well. And people talk to me a lot, you know, and I always show it, you know, I get opportunities to screen it like in a festival. They'll go, we want to honor you. It's a festival. And I said, thank you so much. Well, what movies do you want to show?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And I said, well, you can show whatever you want, but I want to show the lost city. Because, you know, everyone's seen the Untouchables. I don't need to go there and show the Untouchables, you know. Sometimes they'll say, well, we'd like to show that. Okay, but please show this movie because some people have not seen it, you know.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
They've been seen all over the world, but not everybody has seen it. So it's always a good opportunity to continue to tell the story, to not forget the story. It was an uphill battle, you know, for that film for sure.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And it had a lot of support and it also had a lot of people who tried to discredit it in the press and stuff because obviously they had sensibilities that aligned themselves with the Castro regime. I was just telling a historical story. It wasn't a propaganda movie. It was things that really happened using their words.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Everybody has an opinion. One person could say, eh, I didn't get it. The other person could say, oh my God, that movie moved me so much. So there's no right or wrong. There's just opinions, as they say. Everyone has one. The great writer William Soroyan, I learned... Years ago, I read something where they asked him, and it was very helpful to me as a young man.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
They asked him, do you care if your plays are successful? And he says, the fact that my plays exist is success enough already.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
You have it. You do the exploration with your fellow contributors, and you make the movie. And he said, I'm curious to see how it fares. Right. Because I'm curious to see how it fares, because I'm curious how anything fares in human nature, you know, how things are received.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
You know, something that's received in a weird way or not completely supportive initially, like Apocalypse Now or something, becomes one of the greatest movies ever made. So movies have a test of time. You know, Francis always said, you have to look at a movie like 25 years after it's made, and that'll tell you what kind of movie it was, you know.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Yeah, there was never, ever an ounce of doubt in her mind that this is where she wanted to be and this is where she was like, ready, let's go. I'm coming. I'm coming with you. Okay, but you know, okay what? Let's go. It was as simple as that. And she's held the fort from day one like that. It's never been an issue with what we need, what we don't need.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
We pay the rent and we keep moving forward, keep moving forward. We've been blessed to have four beautiful children that we've been able to provide for. We got two granddaughters and a little grandson on the way. And knock on wood, everybody's been healthy. Everybody pursues their dreams. I have two actresses, a professional model and a professional DJ.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
So, you know, it's like, it's like, you know, it's like you find yourself in the same position as your dad when your kids go, I want to pursue. Listen, they were acting since they were like five. So they knew the pitfalls they grew up in. It was a totally different thing, you know. and they know what they're getting into and the struggles it'll be. But I said, this is a life's work.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
This is not about if I don't make it in two years. If this is something you love, it's with you for your life, you know. You know, some people get their break when they're 45 years old. But you're still in it all that time. And then all of a sudden, something comes your way all of a sudden. I mean, one of the famous people, I think, and he'll be the first to tell you, is Morgan Freeman.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
You know, right. It's so nice that people say, oh, Cuba is a paradise or Cuba. Why is nobody going over that way? You know? Yeah. And, you know, and then that time there was the Pedro Pan Exodus where 14,000 unaccompanied children were sent because the parents, they couldn't get the parents out, but they would forge passports through the archdiocese and Monsignor Walsh and people in Cuba.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
How his breaks came very late. Well, late, not 60 years old. But, you know, he was a... He was around for a long time before things cracked for him. And, you know, on a popular level, you know, but it doesn't mean people didn't recognize him as a great actor. He was doing stage here and there and then, boom, a movie nominated for an Oscar. Bang, bang, bang.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And and he got into another level in his life. And and he's one of the extraordinary, one of the most extraordinary actors out there, you know. So it's a weird thing. There's never enough work for actors in this business. It's just very low percentage of people work. But what you can do is dedicate yourself to your art, even when you're not getting paid. Have an understanding of it.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Stay in tune with it. Explore. Write. Create your own opportunities if you can. But stay in tune with it. Stay connected with it. And also live life because life feeds your art for them. It's like the whole thing is, well, I'm not getting married because until my career, forget about that, you know. You don't get married because you don't want to get married because you don't know.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
That's not, you know, there's no such thing as that. It's what John Lennon said, right? Life is what happens while you're busy making plans, right?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
I mean, the first job is always like the first job that you're in a real movie where you're part of a movie like The Meat Season. It was like, okay, we step in it. The light is here now. We're in the light now. But then from there is Jeff Bridges and Hal Ashby. And then it's Sean Connery.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
and brian the palmer and then the ridley scott and then eventually i'm sitting in front across the table at the first read-through with al and francis and diane and uh there i am there it is in the light right there that was the movie this is the movie it's right in front of me I'm cracking garlic with Francis in the kitchen, helping him cook.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
But yeah, it's kind of like, it's a situation in life where... A lot of things, I guess you would say that a lot of things give you, you have to credit for. I cannot take credit for it. I am a recipient of the blessing of all the examples around me. Parents, work ethic, artistic inspiration, everything that one receives.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And they would send their children maybe never to see them again. That's how desperate they were. You know, it pisses you off still. Oh, yeah. You know, they've stolen the freedom of the Cuban people, you know, for now 64 years. I think it's like 64 years.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
that fill you with the momentum or the confidence or the insanity of saying i'm going to step in that direction i'm going to steep sand and doors shut in your face and you leave the audition go that was absolutely terrible i was what was i doing i'm not gonna do that again But then at some point down the line, you're still knocking your head and you're still studying.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And then you have that breakthrough. There's always a breakthrough in the work. When you're concentrating on the work, there's always a breakthrough. And when that breakthrough happens and you go like, and you see everyone in a class. For me, it happened early on in a play, but then it happened to me a lot in class here in LA. But a play in FIU.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
where I played a simpleton, sort of like a half-wit, mentally challenged character. And I got lost in him because I grew up We lived in Normandy Isle before we bought our first house on 1581 Normandy Drive, right next to the park in the corner where the pool is. We had a rental house at 1325 Normandy Drive, and we lived our house, and another Cuban family lived in a little guest house.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
When I say this is not a big property, it's a small house and an even smaller house, something like a garage in the back, and a family with three boys, and the youngest boy was mentally challenged. Severely. Physically, mentally. And he was a little bit older than me. I probably was 12, 13, 12 years old, 13 years old maybe. 12, 11, 10, 11, around that time.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And I would play with this young man in the backyard, toy soldiers. Every afternoon, he'd come out. He didn't go to school. He was very severely challenged. And we would play. toy soldiers, and I would make him laugh. And he would laugh uncontrollably.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And, you know, it's a very difficult situation because, you know, you're looking at someone who can't even control his physical state because it's all over the place and, you know, drooling. But we were connected for months and months, at least probably there for a couple years. And this was my playmate. And later on, you know, paid tribute to him or I channeled him in this play.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And that's when I realized that that's what, that was the art, that was the craft. That was the art form. So I took that and continue to say, okay, that was one of the breakthroughs. And then later on, here I continued to work. And you know it when you make it have a breakthrough. And it always has to do with a sense of truth in the work.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
He was saying earlier about, you know, people say, oh, you know, you're very private. I don't do a lot of these podcasts. Probably won't do any more because I've told my entire story. I said, just listen to Dan Leverton. I don't need to tell this story again. Thank you for doing that, by the way. Thank you. Well, only because you're a Dolphin fan.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
So, but we said, well, you know, you're known as being very private. And I said, no, I'm not really a private person. I have many friends that are very gregarious. I'm very old. But. I just don't live in the limelight. I don't have publicists.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
But the thing is, what you don't understand as actors, we actually are very public because I've shared with you some stuff that you might not know where it's coming from or how it's manifesting itself in the character or in the story, but it's very personal. And that's part of the craft.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Let's finally get a chance. to talk with one another. We didn't even talk about the Dolphins.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Let's take a couple minutes because this is a... We're Dolphin fans. That's right. You are a Dolphin fan.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
We used to, I meant to say that time, we used to sell the parking spaces. There was like five or eight of them at the little warehouse there. Yes. And we'd take that money and go to the UM games.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And we'd take that money, and we'd go to the UM game. I remember we went to that famous UM-Notre Dame game in the rain with George Myra. And Notre Dame were undefeated, and they came down, and I think we tied them, right? There was no 0-0.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
I was at that game with that in the rain. Yeah, it was amazing. But anyway, I was at the opening game. I saw Joe Auer.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Okay, so you're a lifelong Dolphin fan. Lifelong, yeah. I've been to all of them. I went to all the undefeated season. And you still love them.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
No, of course they break my heart. That's the nature of sports. You're not going to be undefeated every year. And I always start off with great hope. I say, you know, I think this year, if the O-line can, you know, protect, open some holes, I think we can do some damage. And then people get hurt, and they're like, oh, God, what are we doing?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
My mother and the kids, we came first with my with my father's mother. So with my mother, my brother, my sister and my grandmother on my father's side. My father came about a month and a half later, but we got to the airport and my mother bought a dime to call her brother that was always over here, and my godfather who was also here. He called one or the other.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And so it's, you know, that's just the nature of it, you know. But, yeah, I always have hope. I really do.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
We need a better, we need to fortify our offensive line. It's not like, you suck.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
You love them. I love them. My son is fanatical, but he bails early.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
He does, basically. After the first quarter, he goes, I'm out of here. I said, take it easy. It's the first quarter. And then we've had games where they've come back, you know, and you go, you see?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Yeah, well, I guess... I have more faith in the Dolphins than I do about our political system.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
I think it was their brother who had come a little earlier. And they were living right there in that area, on 84th and Harding, their little apartment. And we got there and went into a little motel, and you pay by the week. Sometimes she was able to scrounge that week's payment. And then my father came, and he was going to go back again trying to...
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
and do the best he can to get some things out of Cuba. And we got a call from my mother's grandparents, who were not out yet, saying, don't come back. They've come to look for you, you know. So we began. We began. I know his first job, it was at Defount Blue for a while and janitorial. And he just began. We just began to build our life, you know. And we stayed in that area, North Beach.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
From there, you know, after a little bit, we gathered a little money. We got into a little bit bigger place. as opposed to just a little motel efficiency. Then we moved to an area called Biscayne, just outside of Biscayne Point, around Crespi Park, Crespi Boulevard. It's a little park. And we started going to school, Biscayne Elementary, then Nautilus Junior High, and then Miami Beach Senior High.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And then by then, I moved to Norman the Isle, And from Normandy Isle, I went to college at Miami Dade South for two years, and then I went to FIU for the final.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
In those days, it was a two-year school. And I went into the theater department there, and then from there I came to La La Land.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Well, we lived in, like I said, in 84th and Harding. The motel is still there. It's called the Duchess. It's a little pink, kind of pinkish, little U-shaped. And they have this little efficiency. You walk into a little living room, a little bedroom, and a little, like, what do they call it? What do they call it? A kitchenette kind of thing. A hot plate and whatever it was.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
For people who would come from the north and spend a week down there.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
But it was all right. We slept in the living room. My grandmother was on the couch. I remember it. Three kids on the floor. We were kids. The oldest was 12. My brother was 11. I was 5 1⁄2.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
No, no. No, not really. I mean, we were, to me, I thought I was on vacation. I didn't, you know, my parents never, they hit the ground running, you know. They never, I never saw them depressed. Of course, they were nostalgic, but they came, you know, we're free. We began to build.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
It was like my father would always say, the only slogan he ever agreed from the revolution was, never take a step backward, not even to gain momentum. And he says, that's the only thing I ever agreed to. And it's one of those slogans. And that's basically the way they lived their life. It was just like steady steps forward.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
I actually have it in the film I did. You mentioned earlier about the lost city that I made. There's a moment before the... character leaves the country, my character, he he's he's walking alone on the street and he looks up and he sees the slogan on the wall, you know, big, you know, because they love their slogans.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And so anyway, but so then we just began, you know, I remember my brother and I used to go to the beach across the way because Harding is Harding and Collins Avenue. And there was a big public beach there that's about maybe three or four blocks long, still there. And we used to go and collect Coke bottles and Pepsi bottles, glass, and put them in one of those carts, you know, grocery carts.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Five cents, two cents? Yeah, and wheel them to the food fair down on 71st Street around there. How much per bottle?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Yeah, it was like five cents, ten cents for maybe the big one and five or five and two. It was a long time ago. And then we'd go to the Royal Castle and get some burgers, you know.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
yeah and and you remember it fondly because because what you're saying there you guys were living amid freedom so it wasn't actually feeling persecuted it was feeling liberated no no but you know you grow up there was a small cuban community on the beach a lot of cuban jews and uh and you know we all bounded together on the weekends after you basically everybody had one day off usually sunday everyone would go to the beach
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And everyone would meet there and bring some beer and talk. And you grow up and them talking about what's going on in Cuba. And, of course, they're longing to go back and expecting to go back because this is, you know, 61 1⁄2 and the Bay of Pigs came, you know, and the missile crisis. And it was still a hotbed of situation there.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
It's one step at a time, man. One business leads to another. He started my dad's swatches. Eventually goes from working for people on consignment. I remember we used to go to... It's one thing he instilled in my brother and I and my sister. We always worked with him. Even if we went to school, after school we'd have to go to do a little work and help out. Or on Saturdays we had to go.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
My brother and I would go, Dad, it's Saturday. We're going out Friday night. Go out as late as you want. Saturday morning. So we always had that. That was instilled in us. And, you know, one business led to another. He started a little, we used to go and he used to have a, I remember one of his early jobs, he started working for a catering company.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
It was right across the street from the Orange Bowl. on the 17th Avenue. It was called Biarritz. And it had a picture of a guy, a chef with a hat, you know? And he worked there for a gentleman, I don't know how he got that job, running the place. Because my father was not really a cook. He didn't really not. My mother, yes. My father, no. And...
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
But he ran the place, and after a while, the guy wanted to retire, and my dad basically made a deal with him saying, you know, I'll buy it from you, but I can't buy it all in, but I'll give you X amount of money a month, and I'll continue to run this cantina, they call it, or catering, which was those kind of military tins that you stack on top of each other, and you would, and most of the clients were Cubans, you know, Cuban families that weren't home to cook, and you would get a menu,
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
And you would say on Monday, I want rice, black beans and rice and fried bananas. And picadillo.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Yeah. And then they would layer it. If there was soup, it was always on the bottom, the hotter stuff. And it would layer like that. And you'd get a tin or two, depending on how big your family was. And you had a menu every week. And they would get delivered to your house. So when you came home from work, you had your meal. Amazon before Amazon for food. He did that for a while.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
Then he sold that company. Then he went to work. I remember I used to go with him on Saturdays. He had like a 40-foot truck. And from inside the truck, he would put sneakers on consignment, very cheap sneakers. And he'd go to grocery stores all over Little Havana, all over Miami, Liberty City, I mean, all neighborhoods. Always hustling.