Julio Torres’s Favorite Colors

Summary

Good One: A Podcast About Jokes – Episode Summary

Episode: Julio Torres’s Favorite Colors
Release Date: February 11, 2025
Host: Vulture (Jesse David Fox)
Guest: Julio Torres

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Introduction
Timestamp: 00:40 – 01:35

Jesse David Fox welcomes listeners to "Good One: A Podcast About Jokes," introducing this episode featuring the acclaimed comedian and filmmaker Julio Torres. This episode is derived from a panel at Vulture Festival 2024, moderated by Jason P. Frank. Julio Torres delves into his intricate relationship with color, exploring its significance in his various creative endeavors, including his show "Los Espookis," "Phantasmas," and his film "Problemista."

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Julio’s Early Relationship with Color
Timestamp: 02:08 – 06:01

Julio reminisces about his first vivid memories of color, highlighting a purple T-shirt adorned with a silver train painted by his mother and a Barbie doll with a translucent red dress he modified. These early experiences underscore his appreciation for deliberate and non-passive color choices. Julio explains, “They were very deliberate. They were very non-passive colors” ([04:40]). These colors not only made a lasting impression but also influenced his creative vision, particularly in his film "Problemista," where his mother’s architectural and design prowess inspired his meticulous approach to visual storytelling.

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Stand-Up Career and Aesthetic Choices
Timestamp: 09:12 – 12:46

Transitioning to his stand-up beginnings in New York, Julio discusses how he initially dressed in all black during his open mic days. He rationalized this choice by telling friends, “I haven’t earned color yet. If I start wearing color, I’ll just be coasting” ([10:30]). This monochromatic wardrobe was a reflection of his internal state—seeking solid ground amidst bureaucratic challenges as he navigated life in the U.S. His hair, naturally black, remained unaltered until later when he adopted a white palette upon securing a work visa, symbolizing his transition from absorption to reflection.

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SNL Sketch and Color Intentionality
Timestamp: 13:22 – 19:02

Julio shares insights into his tenure at "Saturday Night Live" (SNL), where he focused on the visual aspects of his sketches. Collaborating closely with director Dave McCary, Julio treated each sketch as a miniature film, emphasizing color’s role in storytelling. He recounts a particular sketch where his character, Emma, portrayed an emotionally raw actress cheated on in a gay porn production. The color palette was intentionally overexposed with sad undertones, enhancing the emotional depth. Julio notes, “We treated every sketch as if they were like a little short film. Everything was very intentional” ([13:30]).

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Exploring Projects: Problemista, Los Espookis, and Phantasmas

1. Problemista
   Timestamp: 35:30 – 40:47
   Julio discusses "Problemista," a project he directed, wrote, and starred in, describing it as a culmination of his visual storytelling. Influenced by anime, he aimed to create a "live-action anime" feel, utilizing color to evoke emotions like love and loneliness. Collaborating with cinematographer Frederick, Julio focused on making colors "more shiny" to reflect his character’s optimistic and resilient nature. He explains, “Problemista was shiny. Fantasma is glowy” ([39:38]).

2. Los Espookis
   Timestamp: 25:44 – 34:43
   In "Los Espookis," Julio and co-creator Anna explore gothic aesthetics with a campy twist. Julio details the character design, particularly the use of blue and green to define personalities and thematic elements. The show’s visual consistency stems from collaborative efforts to maintain a cohesive color scheme, ensuring that each element—from costumes to set design—contributed to the overall narrative. He remarks, “Every character is sort of like a little Halloween costume of themselves” ([26:00]).

3. Phantasmas
   Timestamp: 44:27 – 50:49
   "Phantasmas" represents Julio’s exploration of translucence and ghostliness in color. He contrasts it with "Problemista," describing Phantasmas as embodying loneliness and isolation through a more subdued and glowy palette. Julio emphasizes the experimental nature of the show, aiming to blend different worlds seamlessly through consistent color use. He states, “They’re all glowy, ghostly, and there’s a sort of melancholic quality to them” ([49:40]).

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Current Project: Color Theories
Timestamp: 50:49 – 53:18

Julio introduces his ongoing project, "Color Theories," a show dedicated to discussing the nuances of color. While the project remains a work in progress, Julio explains that it stems from his continuous contemplation of color’s impact on storytelling and personal expression. He expresses uncertainty about the show's final form but emphasizes its foundation in his deep-seated fascination with color dynamics. Julio humorously shares his wardrobe dilemma for the project, opting for all-black attire to remain neutral amidst his evolving color-focused narratives.

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Personal Reflections on Hair and Color
Timestamp: 52:30 – 53:59

Wrapping up the discussion, Julio touches on his current hairstyle, symbolizing a transitional phase in his creative journey. He mentions his intent to grow out his hair, signifying an “in-between” state of ideation and evolution. Julio jokes about potential future styles, indicating his playful yet thoughtful engagement with personal aesthetics as extensions of his artistic vision.

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Notable Quotes

• Julio Torres: “I haven’t earned color yet. If I start wearing color, I’ll just be coasting.” ([10:30])
• Julio Torres: “They were very deliberate. They were very non-passive colors.” ([04:40])
• Julio Torres: “We treated every sketch as if they were like a little short film. Everything was very intentional.” ([13:30])
• Julio Torres: “Problemista was shiny. Fantasma is glowy.” ([39:38])
• Julio Torres: “They’re all glowy, ghostly, and there’s a sort of melancholic quality to them.” ([49:40])

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Conclusion

In this insightful episode, Julio Torres unravels the profound influence of color on his comedic and creative works. From his early childhood experiences to his sophisticated projects in film and television, color serves as a pivotal element in his storytelling arsenal. Listeners gain a deep appreciation of how Julio intertwines visual aesthetics with narrative depth, making "Good One: A Podcast About Jokes" a compelling exploration of the art behind the humor.

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Further Listening
For those intrigued by Julio’s discussion on color dynamics in comedy and storytelling, subscribing to "Good One: A Podcast About Jokes" on Apple Podcasts is highly recommended. Don’t miss upcoming episodes that continue to explore the intricate relationship between humor and visual artistry.

Transcript

[Unknown Host]

Live from Radio City Music hall, it's the SNL50 homecoming concert, featuring performances by Arcade Fire, the B52, Backstreet Boys, Bad Bunny, Bonnie Raitt, Brittany Howard, Brandi Carlisle, Chris Martin, Dave Grohl, David Byrne, Devo, Eddie Vedder, Jack White, Jelly Roll, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Mumford and Sons, Post Malone, the Roots, and more. Celebrating 50 years of SNL music. February 14th at 8pm Eastern. Catch it live on P.E.

[Jesse David Fox]

Hello and welcome to Good One, a podcast about jokes. I am your host, Jesse David Fox. As we work on getting our new season in order, we have another offering this week from Vulture Festival 2024. This week we have the audio from a panel entitled Julio Torres, Favorite Colors. Julio actually was a guest on this podcast many years ago talking about the sketch he wrote for snl, Wells for Boys. But this is a conversation he had with my colleague Jason Frank, where he talks about his approach to color in shows like Los Espookis and Phantasmas and his movie Problemista. It's a really interesting look into how Julio both thinks and sees his comedy. So here is Julio Torres.

[Julio Torres]

Hello.

[Jason P. Frank]

Hi, everybody. My name is Jason P. Frank. I'll be moderating today. I am very, very excited. We're here today to talk about colors. Julio is working on touring a show right now called Color Theories in which colors are discussed. We're going to go through his life and career today in terms of colors.

[Julio Torres]

So I'm here promoting colors.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Julio Torres]

I'm here to plug the idea of colors.

[Jason P. Frank]

Yes.

[Julio Torres]

Yeah. Great.

[Jason P. Frank]

Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

Okay.

[Jason P. Frank]

We're all good on that. Amazing.

[Julio Torres]

What are. What are other events that, like, can you, like, like, what was right on before me?

[Jason P. Frank]

There was Abbott elementary, and they were plugging Abbott Elementary.

[Julio Torres]

Okay.

[Jason P. Frank]

The sex lives of college girls was plugging their show.

[Julio Torres]

Okay. But I'm plugging colors.

[Jason P. Frank]

You are plugging.

[Julio Torres]

I love that color test.

[Jason P. Frank]

Amazing. Favorite favorite color?

[Julio Torres]

Oh, I don't have a favorite. Okay, next question.

[Jason P. Frank]

So when you were a child. Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

Yeah.

[Jason P. Frank]

Do you. Do you remember your earliest, like, relationship to colors? When did you notice color as a thing that could be used, manipulated, Tangled with. When. When is your first. What is your first, like, color memory?

[Julio Torres]

Oh, wait, that's a beautiful question. What is the first, like, can I rephrase the question?

[Jason P. Frank]

However you want.

[Julio Torres]

Like, what is the first color that made an impression on me? Yeah, that's a beautiful question. I thank you for asking that question in that way. Okay. Two colors come to mind.

[Jason P. Frank]

Okay. I asked for one when I asked that question in that way.

[Julio Torres]

But no, I don't think you did. You said the two colors.

[Jason P. Frank]

Yeah, yeah. Right. Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

Well, one, I had a T shirt which was purple that my mother painted a little train on, and I believe the train was silver. And then another color that I remember was, I had a Barbie, and we took her to the hair salon so that she could get a bob, because I thought that, like, long hair was, like, tacky or something. And so I was just like, she shouldn't have a really severe bob. Anyway, we made her a sort of risque translucent red, little number red dress. Okay. And I think it had, like, like pasties that like. Yeah, she was, she was very empowered.

[Jason P. Frank]

And you kept the hair the same color.

[Julio Torres]

Yes, yes.

[Jason P. Frank]

That's important. What do you think, like, stood out to you about, about the purple with, with silver and the red versus the other, other colors that you were seeing in the world?

[Julio Torres]

I think they were very, like, deliberate. They were very, like, non. Passive. Non passive colors. My. Well, and. And. And also, like, they're both connected to something that I've explored in the movie Beta. In the movie. The movie. There's one movie in the world and I. Yeah. And the movie. Yeah. In a movie that I made, which was called Problemisa. Problem is my sort of lifelong visual collaborations with my mom.

[Jason P. Frank]

Can we cut to the first image?

[Julio Torres]

Oh, oh, right.

[Jason P. Frank]

Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

Yes.

[Jason P. Frank]

So this is how in Problemista, you represent your childhood. We'll get to Problemista more later. Yeah, but this is how. These are the colors that you brought in at the time. One thing I notice is that on this set, there's like a. There's a wornness to some of it. There's not. It's not just bright. There's like some wear and tear.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

So in the movie, the character based on my mom makes this giant, insane play set, which I didn't have, but would have been nice. But this set was designed actually by my real mother. She drew it and, and designed it. And I, I, Yeah, it just speaks to. Because she's a. She's an architect by trade, and she was. She's always been a designer. And she, like, makes the clothes that she wears. She used to make the clothes that I wear, the furniture in our house. And so there was always this exploration of affection through creation that I. It was very, very informative. And I. And I, I still see it that way. When I, When I meet someone that I really like, I want to make something with them, and sometimes my brain doesn't compute. When I meet someone that I really like, that is like a Lawyer or something.

[Jason P. Frank]

Totally.

[Julio Torres]

Because I'm like, okay, so I can't put you in a movie, but yeah. No. I don't know. I love collaborating, and that comes from her. And she was always very, obviously, very deliberate with color. Very intentional. Like, every. Every visual decision was very meticulous. And we had this actually, like, in my house growing up, which was a small apartment above her clothing store, because she had a clothing store like me. She's. She, like, she's always jumped from, like, medium to medium. Our bathroom was, like, really sexy. It was like. It was like black tile with pops of red.

[Jason P. Frank]

Whoa.

[Julio Torres]

And it had, like, a big window into the street because my parents were always very, like, they didn't like people that were, like, prudish, so they wanted.

[Jason P. Frank]

Everyone to be able to see them in the bathroom or kind of.

[Julio Torres]

Yeah, like, catch a glimpse.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Jason P. Frank]

Yeah. That's very sensual.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Jason P. Frank]

Okay. Like, my. My bathroom growing up was ocean themed, so.

[Julio Torres]

Well, this is. This is a very. This is a very American thing that. And ocean is bathroom, kitchen is. Is farm. Right. And which is fascinating, truly. But.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Jason P. Frank]

No, I mean, where.

[Julio Torres]

Where was this? Where in the world is this? Where in the US Is this.

[Jason P. Frank]

Yeah, where in the US Is this? Rural New Hampshire.

[Julio Torres]

Rural New Hampshire. So. So how far away? Give it up for rural New Hampshire.

[Jason P. Frank]

Give it up. Rural New Hampshire.

[Julio Torres]

Like, is it. Is this. Is it close to the ocean?

[Jason P. Frank]

They would say that you could drive there, but, like, you.

[Julio Torres]

Sounds like you could. Yeah.

[Jason P. Frank]

I mean, you can drive anywhere.

[Julio Torres]

Oh, that's beautiful.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Jason P. Frank]

Thank you.

[Julio Torres]

You're never far from the ocean.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Jason P. Frank]

In some places you're closer, though. We were not that close. Okay. I wanted to talk about your early standup when you first started doing stand up in New York. You're doing open mics. You don't have much control over the set. You don't have much control over. Over anything other than, like, what you're wearing.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yes.

[Jason P. Frank]

That's the only tone you can set visually with color.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Jason P. Frank]

How did you dress?

[Julio Torres]

You know, I started doing stand up at the time around the time that. That I based Problemista on. And I'm sorry, Like, there was homework. I don't know if you did it, but there were.

[Jason P. Frank]

We have a clip later of problem easily.

[Julio Torres]

We have the whole movie that you have to watch here. No. Meaning. Meaning it was a time where I'm, like, figuring myself out and, like, trying to find solid ground and trying to stay here in the US and going through, like, bureaucratic hurdles and. And at that time and this was, this is not in the movie. But at that time I decided that I should only wear black because. And the way I phrased it to my friends was, I am too. I haven't earned color yet. I haven't. I don't have a solid anything. If I start wearing color, I'll just be coasting. It's like, it felt like, you know what it felt like? It felt like using a credit card or something when I don't have enough money.

[Jason P. Frank]

Oh, if you use color, it would.

[Julio Torres]

Be like you, it's me, like pretending that I have things together where we're like, I don't, like I'm not there yet.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

So I would, I would only wear black.

[Jason P. Frank]

How do you think that affected audiences perception of you?

[Julio Torres]

I don't think it did, actually. I don't, I don't, I don't think that people thought much about it. It is New York, you know, it's.

[Jason P. Frank]

Like many people wear black.

[Julio Torres]

Many people wear black. Many. You know, if you're doing open mics, you, you might be like a server somewhere, in which case you're, you have to wear black. But.

[Jason P. Frank]

Yeah. What color was your hair at the time?

[Julio Torres]

My natural hair is black. And it was black.

[Jason P. Frank]

It was black at the time as well.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

And yeah. So I was very adamant about that. To me was like necessary to feel like I was just this like utilitarian little robot. That's when I became, I became, that's when I started being vegan, which I still am. And it wasn't till I got a work visa to stay and I had like the stand up thing was starting to go somewhere that I decided, okay, now I'm just going to do white.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

Because I'm done absorbing now I want to reflect was the, the, the, the idea. And then I bleached my hair to be like almost white.

[Jason P. Frank]

Yeah. Is that around the time? I mean, I think of like an early Julio line as being my favorite color is clear.

[Julio Torres]

And then white was the gateway to silvers and clears and shiny and. Yeah.

[Jason P. Frank]

Okay. I want to talk about SNL for a second. Can we get the pic? The next pic? Amazing.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Jason P. Frank]

This is from.

[Julio Torres]

That's me. That's me in the writer's room.

[Jason P. Frank]

This is from the actress.

[Julio Torres]

Yes.

[Jason P. Frank]

One of the, one of the great sketches that you did there. One of the great sketches of all time. One thing I notice about it, I mean, it's not just in black, but I've always noticed the, the way that this is colored. It's like a little overexposed yeah, there's brown. It's a little sad. I'm curious if that was intentional, given what we just heard about, like, where you were at.

[Unknown Guest]

It was.

[Julio Torres]

You know, I. SNL is where I learned to. I did. I never directed anything there. I only ever wrote there. But it's where I shadowed directors, basically. And I. And I learned what little I know of directing through observing. And I think that I worked almost exclusively with Dave McCary, who ended up producing Problemista along with Emma. But it. I think that the reason that he was very excited to work with me was because I was a very visual writer. So everything. So. So then that he was very gracious and always opening and always keeping me in the loop with everything and hair, wardrobe, all these things that maybe they're not your priority if you're a different kind of writer. But we treated every. Every sketch as if. As if they were like a little short film. That everything was very intentional. And I didn't go to directing school or anything like that, but that was sort of like. It felt like every week there was a little project. And that felt very fulfilling because I was always. I had always been very visual. I was a very visual kid. And then I got it in my head that I wanted to write film and tv, and I thought that that would mean abandoning the visual side of me. And then it was like, oh, wait, no, like, directing is a way of, like, marrying the two. So. So, yeah, like, color would always be a conversation with all departments and going to every sketch. And for this one, which is an anomaly in the. Dave did not direct it. This was Oz Rodriguez, but this might have been the last thing I did there. Actually, it was. The premise of this sketch is that Emma plays this actress in LA who takes. It's not that she takes it all very seriously, that she's a very emotionally raw actress who feels so deeply for all her characters, and every project matters so deeply to her. And the gig that she gets is she is the woman who gets cheated on in a gay porn.

[Jason P. Frank]

So you can see why she's a little teary in this picture.

[Julio Torres]

So it's like her role was supposed to be like. It's based on the not in Front of my Salad. So her role was to be like, what are you doing? I'm divorcing you. Or, like, something and walk away. And the men keep having sex.

[Jason P. Frank]

But instead, she says, instead, in this.

[Julio Torres]

Catch, she keeps trying to find her footing as her character. She gives her a name. She calls her Deidre. She keeps adding lines and here she gets teary eyed catching her.

[Jason P. Frank]

Husband and godson.

[Julio Torres]

Her husband and godson. Yes.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

And she says, I forgive you.

[Jason P. Frank]

Can we, can we show the next clip? We're moving along.

[Julio Torres]

In terms of the color. She. It's. It's very. It's very sad, right? It's very. Because it's. We're seeing it. We're seeing the world through her eyes. So it's very. It's very. There's. It's kind of like the colors are kind of pathetic in. In a way that there's. There's so much love in it. And when you work. And this is what I love about making film and tv is finding people who. Finding actors who are not mannequins. Right. And. And like, she is obviously so intentional. And it's like the conversations about water are going to be her little sweaters, her little jewelry. And just the wig has always really.

[Jason P. Frank]

Stood out to me. The wig, the brawn wig. There's something about.

[Julio Torres]

Because it's this mousy hair that you see that like a lot of people have, but film and TV is very allergic to it because it's not a definitive color. Yeah, right. It's like TV likes brunettes, blondes and redheads. Right. And it's because that's like a way of like, quickly defining a character.

[Jason P. Frank]

Sex and the City.

[Julio Torres]

Sex in the city, yeah. What about Sex in the City?

[Jason P. Frank]

Oh, it's just. It's blonde, Curly blonde, Brown, Redhead.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yes.

[Julio Torres]

Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. And it. Whereas this is so real and it's like you can imagine that she, like, did like, she, like, she did her hair. I don't know. There's something very sad about her. Anyway.

[Jason P. Frank]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I think we're going to move on to my favorite shapes, which is Julio's first special. Can we play the clip going back.

[Unknown Guest]

To the curtain that divides first class from coach? I was on this flight not long ago, and it was a very small airplane. You could tell that it had been remodeled so as to accommodate first class, that the original design of the airplane had only coach seats. But when they built in the first class, they left one flaw, which is that the first row of coach seats, the second seat on that first row didn't have a first class seat directly in front of it, but it actually had the hallway. I was sitting on that seat, and when the flight attendant came over and she drew the curtain dividing the people, the curtain fell right in front of my face like I was his little secret for first class. When I crossed My legs, my knee gently caressed the curtain, causing it to fall. So then the flight attendant came over and reattached the curtain very quickly. And then I said, the curtain's just gonna fall all over again the second I make the slightest movement. Can you please not put it up? And then she goes, no, we have to. And I'm like, well, okay, but I'm just going to make the slightest movement again, and the curtain's just going to fall all over again. Can we please not put it up? And she goes, no, we have to. And then I asked why. And in her eye, I saw flowers blooming, meteors falling, and animals decomposing. And suddenly she was free. She had been release.

[Jason P. Frank]

I hope everyone this time watching it, noticed the silveriness. The hair was a new color.

[Julio Torres]

I was reflecting.

[Jason P. Frank]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think of that as, like, the pinnacle of that era for you. I mean, like, my favorite shapes could not have been more iridescent in a lot of ways. What did you. What about my favorite shape? Like, what called to you about iridescence at the time?

[Julio Torres]

I think that it's all very childish answers because I think that I was getting used to this idea of being seen and being, quote, unquote, in the spotlight. So I was like, oh, that means I should be shiny, right?

[Jason P. Frank]

Because it's like, if you think that.

[Julio Torres]

Yeah, Like, I. It's like, oh. I think it's like, oh, people are seeing me and I need to command some kind of showmanship. So I suppose I have to be shiny, which is, you know, share. Look, so many people, so many performers are shiny.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah, yeah.

[Julio Torres]

Michael Jackson.

[Jason P. Frank]

Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

Who else is shiny? Elton John.

[Jason P. Frank]

I think that's all of them.

[Julio Torres]

Yeah. But, yeah, and I felt like. It felt like I had spent a lot of time wearing black and just taking in the world, and this was me being like, okay, now I radiate it. Mm.

[Jason P. Frank]

Did. Did that show feel like a culmination to you, or did it just feel. Or was it.

[Julio Torres]

Yeah, actually, yeah, it felt like. Like a. Like, it almost felt like the thesis of that first chapter.

[Jason P. Frank]

Mm.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Jason P. Frank]

Cause a lot of the shapes as well, which we didn't get to see any of the shapes in that clip, but a lot of the shapes are translucent in some way.

[Julio Torres]

Yeah.

[Jason P. Frank]

And that always stood out to me as, like, oh, it might be orange, it might be pink, but it's still like, got some essential quality to it of translucence.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah, yeah.

[Julio Torres]

I think that. I think that I was very into the idea of, again, like, this shininess, this Sort of like. And playing with, like, alien, like, robot like, qualities I'm curious about.

[Jason P. Frank]

I think this is the first time when you see the dyed hair that, to me is like, oh, you are not only interested in this, in your art, but you're also physically embodying your ideas of color at the time. Is there a distinction there for you? Like, oh, I am doing. I'm working on this, and I am this person. Or are they synonymous?

[Julio Torres]

Oh, no, I think they're pretty synonymous. Yeah. I think that I had a lot of clear furniture at the time and, like. Yeah, no, no, I think. I think that there's. There's sort of no off duty me.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Jesse David Fox]

We're right back with more Julio Torres live from Vulture Festival.

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[Jesse David Fox]

Now back to Julio Torres live from Vulture Festival.

[Jason P. Frank]

I want to get into Los espookies. That's next. Here we see, I think a real. Like, it's the first.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yes.

[Julio Torres]

I always pick one color. Yeah, yeah.

[Jason P. Frank]

You let yourself have one color at a time now.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Jason P. Frank]

Clearly you were, like, allowed to. I did want to talk about blue as a concept. It feels like in Los Espooky's, blues and greens come up a lot for at least your character. You want to start with the hair. Like, what was the decision making on the hair color?

[Julio Torres]

Well, I. So the seed of the idea were that all the characters were gonna be pretty gothy. But then I thought, like, what would that mean for the kind of character that I would like to create and play? So this idea of, like, the contrast between a sort of, like, punky blue and these sort of, like, vampire like, clothes felt like the flavor of goth I wanted to present. He's sort of, like, princely, but there's an edge to him. And a lot of the times what he wears is. So I had. I had a hard time sometimes wrapping my mind around what he wore because I felt it was kind of tacky. But then I was like, oh, it's fine if he's kind of tacky in a sort of, like, rich wehogay kind of Totally way. And it's sort of like, yeah, he's. What happens when someone is, like, very rich and no one says no to them.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

You buy Gucci loafers, right? It's like, yeah, sorry if anyone's wearing.

[Jason P. Frank]

Wearing goofy Gucci loafers, especially if you have bronze hair.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

But, yeah, and I think that in Los Espookies, every. I think of that show as like a live action cartoon and every character is sort of like a little Halloween costume of themselves. So this was a way of like, really, really defining what this character was going to. What his thing was going to be.

[Jason P. Frank]

When you were developing that show, what were the, like, visual ideas that you knew you wanted to enact throughout the whole thing? Not just with him within him, but you also, you interact with the moon, you interact with the swamp demon, it feels like. But they all feel visually tied together. It all feels like it's part of the same show. I'm curious what those signifiers were and where you got them.

[Julio Torres]

Yeah, the. So the seed of the idea for the show which Fred had sold to HBO was, or the original conceit was horror makeup artists in Mexico City. And he asked my friend Anna and I if we wanted to write it with him and be in it, which is like an insane gift to. To suddenly receive. And when we started talking, like, I, like, Anna and I aren't really drawn to gore. We're more drawn to this sort of like, campy mystery, sort of like death becomes her kind of aesthetic. And so that turned into like a little absurdist magical realism and stuff. So it's like. So then it became like, theatrical and campy in that way, and it sort of became like a sandbox for us to, like, play with different little ideas that we've had. And the. And it turned more into like a little Scooby Doo kind of show than. Than anything else. And it, and it. It was just so free where, like, we could, like, yeah, my character talks to the moon. Just, Just.

[Jason P. Frank]

Cuz who's played by Oscar nominee.

[Julio Torres]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's the thing about making work that is not that expensive is that the stakes are so much lower. So everyone just leaves you alone. Everyone's just like, what?

[Unknown Audience Member]

Okay, yeah.

[Julio Torres]

They're, like, breathing down the necks of, like, shows with higher stakes.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jason P. Frank]

Where did you feel like your relationship to iridescence was at that time?

[Julio Torres]

I think. I think that because I did not see Los Espookies as my show, I saw it as Anna, Fred, and nice little sandcastle that we were building together. So we brought in our interests and we plugged them into this world that we had created. But we were not. I didn't really see it as, like. Because it's not. It would have never in a million years had been the. The kind of show that I would, like, pitch or, like, like everything. Everything. Like, it was just so collaborative in that way that I didn't really bring in much of my, like, sort of, like, artistic agenda to it. I mean, obviously it's because it's like, these are clothes I would never wear, and that's like, a room that I would never be. Feel comfortable in because it's just so yucky, right? It's so, like, what.

[Jason P. Frank]

What makes it yucky?

[Julio Torres]

The wallpaper is so yucky. The. The, like, baroque, like, of it all is very, like, uncomfortable to me that his bed was so, like. It's like four post, like, very like Liberace but goth kind of. So it felt freeing to inhabit spaces that I would really not like to be in.

[Jason P. Frank]

What do you mean by, like, what was freeing about that?

[Julio Torres]

That. That this wasn't like, me presenting. This is what I think is beautiful, but more like, lol. Imagine if someone actually slept here.

[Jason P. Frank]

Right.

[Julio Torres]

And also, like. Which is what? Like, Anna does so beautifully with Tati, right? Who. It's. Her character wears the most pathetic little clothes.

[Jason P. Frank]

And hats.

[Julio Torres]

So many hats. And. Oh, my God. Muriel, our incredible wardrobe designer, had the hardest time at the beginning wrapping her mind around Tati because she was like, okay, so you want her to look shitty and was like, yes, but like, she wears capris. Like, Tahir. It's all so. And it's like, obviously things that Anna would never wear. But it's like, I mean, truly, los espuques is me discovering what acting is.

[Jason P. Frank]

Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

Being like, but I wouldn't wear this. And they're like, like, right.

[Jason P. Frank]

But he might.

[Julio Torres]

He might. It's like, oh, okay.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Julio Torres]

It's. It's sort of like Andres is sort of like. That's the name of the character. The. The joke. Calderon to my Lady Gaga, if you will.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Julio Torres]

Joe Calderon, Lady Gaga's male alter ego.

[Jason P. Frank]

We hope you did your homework.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Julio Torres]

Someone should cast him in something.

[Jason P. Frank]

Joe Calderon.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Jason P. Frank]

What would you cast him in?

[Julio Torres]

I don't know. I think Luca Guardino should scoop him up.

[Jason P. Frank]

Could be one of the twinks.

[Julio Torres]

Be in the twink farm.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jason P. Frank]

I think that would be a really.

[Julio Torres]

I think it would be incredible.

[Jason P. Frank]

Well, wait, what if you were. Okay, collaborate right now. With Luca Guadagnino on a movie starring Joe Calderon. Pitch it. Go.

[Julio Torres]

Oh, no, I have nothing to collaborate with him with because we. We are aspired to. I don't know, like, what am I to do with him? Okay, but if I. If I like. But I love suggesting casting options to other. Yeah, yeah, I love that. That's one of my favorite things. When someone's like, oh, I have this idea, and I'm like, oh, have you thought about this person? This. Also, like, when I meet a performer that I really like, I like, put them in contact with people that I think would be great. So, yeah, maybe we'll set up Joe. Joe Calderon on a general meeting with.

[Jason P. Frank]

Luca and see what comes out.

[Julio Torres]

And see what comes out. Maybe I'll have them over for a dinner.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jason P. Frank]

I'm the invitation to Lady Gaga now. Anyway, we can play the clip from Problemista now, I think.

[Unknown Character]

Sign a contract without reading it, like some teenager getting a phone at Metro PCs.

No, I know, I know you read the contract, which is why I limit to what?

A limit to the amount of times you're going to hike the prices? Or am I and my poor frozen husband going to be held to ransom indefinitely? Hello.

[Julio Torres]

Hi.

[Unknown Character]

This is Alejandro. He is the archivist assigned to Bobby.

[Julio Torres]

Oh, hi.

[Unknown Guest]

Hi, Elizabeth. It's so nice to meet you and.

[Julio Torres]

Put a face to the name.

[Unknown Character]

Oh, it's very nice to meet you too, Alejandro. You're doing a wonderful job.

[Julio Torres]

Yes.

[Unknown Character]

I would like to think that the astronomical hike in prices for the deluxe package might benefit you in some way, but I suppose your bosses are just gobbling up profits.

Nobody is gobbling up anything. It is simple inflation.

We're now getting a lecture on economics from the good doctor here. Pace University, was it?

Hmm. Yes, but it is in the contract, as per the sign. We can. How about. How about we chat in my office? Shall we?

[Jason P. Frank]

I guess to start with Problemista. So you directed it, you wrote it, you star in it. It's the most. I think it's the first project that I can say is like, so totally, completely your vision, start to finish. And I'm curious about what visual properties, what colors did you want to define the movie as you were writing it, as you were first conceptualizing it?

[Julio Torres]

I was really motivated by anime. I almost, like, in some ways, I think of Problemista as like a live action anime. And the way that I move and like the. She looks like an anime villain. Really?

[Jason P. Frank]

Totally.

[Julio Torres]

And just sort of the. One of the first things that I knew about the movie was that I wanted to move about the city and for the music to be. Which was the first voice note I sent our composer, Leah. But it was so. It was. It was the first thing that I. I've only directed two things, so that was one of two. But it was the first one, and I was meant to direct at least an episode of Lucy Spookies before figuring out if I wanted to direct Problemista. But then the pandemic hit, and time and things shuffled, and I ended up doing Problemista before finishing the season of Los Espookis that we had began. So two years went by between us pausing because of COVID in Los Espookis and us returning to do it. So in those two years, I made the movie. The DP of the movie, Frederick who. Wonderful, wonderful person. He's done the square and triangle of sadness. His lens is a little cold, which I liked because I got to play with. I kept telling him that we should see the world through the eyes of my character, who's almost like a little bird catching glimpses of things that are shiny. So I actually went to Gothenburg to work on the color correction of this movie there in person.

[Jason P. Frank]

What did you want to, like, amp up when you were doing that or.

[Julio Torres]

Or detract from the shiny quality? Like, you know, in anime, how, like, something shines and goes bling? Yeah, I wanted that effect.

[Jason P. Frank]

You wanted that to just, like you. You saw something.

[Julio Torres]

I wanted to evoke that.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

And a note that we kept seating together and we talk, and he'd go, like, all right. To Oscar. The color is going, like, more shiny. More shiny.

[Jason P. Frank]

What does more shiny mean? Like, how do you make something more shiny?

[Julio Torres]

Oh, it's beautiful. That means that they freeze frame. He takes his little tool, he hovers over a part of the image, and then he amps the shine.

[Jason P. Frank]

Great. Okay.

[Julio Torres]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And also, like, more shiny. We did that to my eyes in that scene.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jason P. Frank]

Like, when you see Tilda for the.

[Julio Torres]

First time, when I see her, I was like, I want to convey that this is sort of love at first sight.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

Can we make my eyes, like, sparkle when I see her? So we do. We, like, the sparkle goes up and then down when he sees her, and.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

So it was really beautiful learning about that process, doing that. And actually, one of the. The. The many, many, many, many titles that I thought about for this movie was purple because. Because she's in red and he's in blue. Oh, yeah. But no one would have gotten it.

[Jason P. Frank]

Yeah. But now I'm like, oh my God. And like the T shirt, you know, it's so beautiful.

[Unknown Guest]

What do you mean?

[Jason P. Frank]

Like the. The T shirt that you mentioned at the beginning.

[Julio Torres]

Oh, got it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jason P. Frank]

We just know that here today.

[Julio Torres]

Yeah, yeah. But I think, I think that he wears a lot of blue because he's desperately trying to project order. He's desperately trying to project that. I got my act together and she's wearing red because she's danger, right? She's the predator.

[Jason P. Frank]

Can we talk about the shade of red of her hair?

[Julio Torres]

Oh my God.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

So truly one of the biggest joys my work has been the long discussions with Tilda about this woman's hairstyle.

[Jason P. Frank]

Uh huh.

[Julio Torres]

Is wait.

[Jason P. Frank]

Okay to you in the movie, is she wearing a wig or is it hair that has dyed or does that hair grow out of her head?

[Julio Torres]

Are you talking about the character in the movie?

[Jason P. Frank]

The character? Yeah, the character.

[Julio Torres]

No, it's meant to be her hair.

[Jason P. Frank]

It's meant to be just her natural hair color.

[Julio Torres]

No, no, no. So the. So the backstory that we made for her.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

Was if you've seen the movie, you know that this woman is very high strung and she shakes things till she breaks them, basically. And she's walking chaos. She's a walking problem. And the conceit was the backstory that we gave her was that she went to the hair salon and she asked for a hairstyle that is in constant conflict with her hair texture. And that she was told this haircut is not good for your hair texture. And that she yelled and threw a tantrum and they gave her that cut and they gave her a bunch of products that she never once used again. And she has the shade of red that you see in the wild a lot, but no one intends to get. No one wants to be like a burgundy red.

[Jason P. Frank]

They want to be more of like a fire engine or something.

[Julio Torres]

Or like a, Like. Yeah, like a nice looking red. Oh yeah.

[Jason P. Frank]

Redhead.

[Julio Torres]

Yeah.

[Jason P. Frank]

Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

But. And then, and then she. She does this in the movie a lot where she's like, when she gets dressed, she's like adjusting her bangs and like in her mind where like she's saying like, fucking. Fucking hairdresser. Like, she fucked. She like fucked up the. And just it's so. It's like very manic. And also we talked about this idea that of. Because I told.

[Unknown Audience Member]

I.

[Julio Torres]

We talked about hair a lot. It was like one of the first, like really like collaborative conversations we had. And I. And I told her like, you know, when someone is aging and is self conscious about her face just naturally changing. And you see this a lot in, like, interviews and like morning shows and things like that. And then the hairdresser creates what we call the tunnel of hair, where it's like. It's an attempt to hide someone's face with more hair.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

And so she has that. She has the tunnel of hair, which to us was great because it evoked the themes of a monster in a cave, which we explore in the movie. But.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah, yeah.

[Julio Torres]

And these are like little stalagmites and. Yeah, just. And we were also like. For her clothes, the color of her clothes and the silhouettes of her clothes, we were very inspired by medieval dragons.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Jason P. Frank]

There's like scales on that coat that we saw.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

She's very reptilian.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Jason P. Frank]

Okay. I do want to talk about Phantasmas.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Jason P. Frank]

To me. Yes. You can see here. I think it's the first time that someone you've played has been like, totally unbound by color in many ways. Like, Ale is black hair blue, but you can be any color on phantasmas. And I was curious about what it was like to write for yourself in that way for the first time.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

I think that Problemista. And first of all, they were not supposed to come out so close together.

[Jason P. Frank]

Yeah. It was originally scheduled for Problemista. Was originally scheduled for 2023. But then the writers strike happened.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yes. Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

So we decided to push back and push the release back. Not to push back against the strike, but actually we're gonna go ahead and release it anyway. A lot of people did, but. But all that to say I'm sorry if you felt bombarded by my projects. You were supposed to get a break. But in Problemista, it's someone from the outside desperately trying to be on the inside and just trying to seem as like, as small as he can possibly make himself to squeeze into the sort of like narrow opening into the world that he wants to be in. Imagine if that were the synopsis, if it were up to me. And he's very optimistic. He's very wide eyed and very optimistic. And he has a very can do attitude.

[Jason P. Frank]

He literally has shiny eyes.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

There's a very deer in headlights. Resilient, which is definitely a part of me. And Fantasmas is sort of like the other side of the coin of someone who is in. It is in the world. The. And. But he wants out.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

And he feels suffocated and has access to all the colors, but realizes that that's. That that feels like suffocating. Somehow. And so, and also, like, something weird happened with, with what I was doing, which is like, I started evoking a lot of Tilda's character in mine. Like, I became this, the, the disheveled, bitter artist that, like, is like, fussy and is always carrying junk with them and has an assistant played by a robot in the show that isn't blue like ale and Yeah, I think that it's, it's, he's a very disordered, disorganized, cacophonous version of me.

[Jason P. Frank]

Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

Which I've been leaning into, honestly. I, I feel like I, I, I, I am very, like, giving in to my sort of like, like, I can't wait to be like a sort of like, senile curmudgeon artist. I feel like I will wear that very well by, like, tomorrow.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jason P. Frank]

I mean, even in this picture, I mean, it's a gorgeous shot, but there's, it's a little like, overwhelming in a way that is, I mean, obviously intentional and different from the rest of your work. It feel, it felt that we've seen thus far today. There's like, throughout the show, you're, you're overwhelmed by bureaucracy in a lot of ways.

[Julio Torres]

Yeah, there's a lot of, there's a lot of black in the show. There's a lot of voids and, and everything. And, and Problemista was shiny. Fantasma is glowy. I think Problemista is very crisp and you can very crisply see everything. It's very in focus. And then Phantasmas is just sort of like a little lost in terms of focus. And I think, because it's obviously like trying to evoke ideas of a ghostliness and loneliness and isolation and experiencing life in pockets and people being like, alone in their own islands was something that I was very interested in that show. Well, I don't even know if it's a show.

[Jason P. Frank]

What else would it be?

[Julio Torres]

A six episode experiment?

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Jason P. Frank]

Or like a phantasma.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Julio Torres]

Yes.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah, yeah.

[Julio Torres]

But.

[Jason P. Frank]

Yeah, there's a lot of, like, interest for people who haven't seen it. It's not just about Julio and Julio's character. There's a lot of, like, interstitials, I guess you could say, or, or sketches, something to that effect. There's a Real Housewives one. I'm curious about what you wanted. Is there a color? Is there an aesthetic principle that ties them together? Or did you want them to feel wildly different from each other?

[Julio Torres]

No, they're all glowy, ghostly, and there's a sort of like, melancholic quality to them. They feel like hazy, like, like they're like, like their dreams or something.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Julio Torres]

Like the trick was going into all these different worlds but not feeling like it was like cut and pasted together, but actually that actually like flowed and. Yeah, no, no, obviously, like color in the cinematography was, was a big part of that.

[Jason P. Frank]

Okay, I do want to get to color theories. You're currently touring it. How did you come to the idea of wanting to talk about color as your next project?

[Julio Torres]

You know, I never set out to be like, oh, my next thing should be about this. It's always like, oh, I've been thinking a lot about this and I guess the common denominator is this. So I guess it's about that made sense to me.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

So, I mean, I, I, I don't, I, I don't know. I hesitate to talk too much about it because I truly don't know what the show will be. So I'm not like, it's so it's such a work in progress. It's such a work in progress. So, like, it's, it's like seeds of ideas and thoughts on colors. And I'm seeing where, if anywhere that goes.

[Jason P. Frank]

What do you wear to talk about, like, it feels like, like, oh, if.

[Julio Torres]

You wear green, you're like, it's, that's, yeah, it's.

[Jason P. Frank]

Because I mean to hit a nerve.

[Julio Torres]

No, I know, it's, it's, I don't, I haven't reached the perfect answer to that question because I don't want to be biased.

[Jason P. Frank]

Right, right.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

I don't want to be like. Because it's like, if I'm like talking about. And red is it, and I'm wearing red and it's like, oh, that I'm telegraphing that you should read me as that. So I don't know.

[Jason P. Frank]

You don't know yet. What are you, what have you been? I mean, you're performing.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Jason P. Frank]

The show in L. A. In a few days.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

What am I going to wear? Yeah, I'm just going to find like all black clothes, which is a very imperfect answer to that question. Yeah, I don't know. There's a lot I don't know.

[Jason P. Frank]

And then before we go, I wanted to do one final check in on hair. You had black hair when you played Ale and phantasmas. I think you have basically your current hair. What are you saying to the world with your hair color right now?

[Julio Torres]

Right now? I am saying I am in between ideas.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

I'm Sort of in between. It's like we're not open for business currently.

[Jason P. Frank]

Like, don't put any of those ideas that you have onto me.

[Julio Torres]

No, it's sort of like the facing out of a phase. Right. Because it's like facing out of the reddish. This is like watched and sun and.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

It's sort of work in progress. I kind of want to grow out my hair, which I'd never done before.

[Jason P. Frank]

That's so exciting.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

I'm like, I'm so sorry for the people seeing it. Yeah.

[Jason P. Frank]

Sorry.

[Julio Torres]

I don't know.

[Jason P. Frank]

I'm like, it's a new hair. A new hair era.

[Unknown Audience Member]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Julio Torres]

But also, I want to get. Okay. I also want to get a long tinsel rat tail. Like a silver. Either silver or gold.

[Jason P. Frank]

Okay. Clap if you think that's a good idea.

[Julio Torres]

We have. I would say. I would say it's getting us 42% approval from the audience, and that's fine.

[Jason P. Frank]

I would have said 42 as well. Okay. I don't have any more questions. I think we're done for the day. Thank you so much to Julio Torres for coming out.

[Julio Torres]

Thank you for having me.

[Jason P. Frank]

And thank you all for coming.

[Jesse David Fox]

That's it for another episode of Good One. Good One is produced by myself and Jelani Carter. Gotham Shrieking Shit. Did our theme song. Write a review and rate the show on Apple Podcasts. Five stars, please. I'm Jesse David Fox, and you can follow me at Jesse David Fox. Buy my book, comedy book, wherever books are sold. Thanks for listening to Good One from New York magazine. You can subscribe to the [e-mail] pod we'll be back next week with a new episode. Have a good one.

[Julio Torres]

Welcome to Good One. Sure about talking them jokes.

[Unknown Host]

Hey, hey, hey, hey.

[Julio Torres]

Good one. It's a good one.