← The Dan Le Batard Show
The Dan Le Batard Show
South Beach Sessions - Andy Garcia
01:27:33
Dan Le Batard meets legendary actor and fellow Cuban-Miamian Andy Garcia in Los Angeles for a long-awaited look at his craft and loving representation of their shared culture and history.
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- [00:02]
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- [01:24]
Dan Le Batard
Welcome to South Beach Sessions. We are again, very far from South Beach. This man grew up around South Beach. I grew up around South Beach. And I will say that this is not merely my mother's favorite actor, perhaps her favorite son as well. I'm not. I'm not even kidding you when I tell you you are a remarkable inspiration to the entirety of my family because. Because Andy Garcia, you were Cuban representation at a time that there was precious little permission anywhere on television for. For a Cuban kid to dream about the idea of, oh, we are on television and in the movies too. So I am thrilled to have you here, but not as thrilled as my mother will be that you are here.
- [02:11]
Andy Garcia
As my fan base.
- [02:13]
Dan Le Batard
Oh my God, you are so good with the Cuban woman, old Cuban woman demographic. But what you summon from them is a little disconcerting because you have a bit of sex symbol to you as well. And I don't like to see that part of my mother.
- [02:29]
Andy Garcia
That brings up a real quick thing. I was doing a movie with the Sydney Lamet director called Night Falls on Manhattan and Richard Dreyfus was. 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 with to my grandmother, and she almost fainted.
- [02:50]
Dan Le Batard
Yeah, yeah, but it's Abuela.
- [02:54]
Andy Garcia
I'm serious. And I said, you know, I said, wow, that my fan base is going to disappear pretty soon.
- [03:00]
Dan Le Batard
You have had a career that.
- [03:02]
Andy Garcia
I'm an abuelo now, by the way.
- [03:04]
Dan Le Batard
Oh, congratulations. And abuelo with Americanized kids. I want to ask you something about where it is some heritage gets lost with the kids growing up in this country because you are so proudly Cuban in a way that I identify with and I understand. And you have made artistic projects. One of them took you 16 years to make because of how important it was for you to represent Cuban. Cubans on screen that way. Is it because you know what it is that I'm saying that you are such an inspiration to carrying on a time that is literally dying with the old people as the young kids get Americanized?
- [03:46]
Andy Garcia
Well, yeah, people assimilate to the culture and. But I must say, I think there is. There is a sense of pride in the. That's passed down through generations because the extraordinary 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. Exile is, you know, it is a choice you make. But it's fleeing the country that for political reasons, you know, repression, indoctrination, fear of your own life. So it's. The fact that they brought us here is a testament to. They're our greatest generation in terms of us Cubans, you know, and there always will be. And if it wasn't for that journey and that courage, I wouldn't be talking to you right now.
- [04:37]
Dan Le Batard
Well, you're a bit like me in that, you can say, I'm assuming of your parents. They made all the sacrifices so that you wouldn't have to make much of any sacrifices, comparatively. That's my case.
- [04:48]
Andy Garcia
I don't know. 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, you know, and build a life for your family and slowly progress in what they're doing. A lot of people that came over, 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.
- [05:35]
Dan Le Batard
Doctors, lawyers, they become plumbers, they become. They can make a boat out of.
- [05:40]
Andy Garcia
Tires and wood, whatever the job, what's available tomorrow. 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.
- [06:02]
Dan Le Batard
You know, I want to ask you something about your parents, and I will ask you plenty about this part of your life that you're so, so proud of in shaping you. But when you talk about work ethic, in my life, that was the only way to freedom. So I want to talk to you about that as well. But the distinction you're making between exiles and immigrants, can you explain it to people who might not understand? My mother is always proudly saying to people, I'm not an immigrant, I'm an exile. I went.
- [06:34]
Andy Garcia
We were political exiles. We were fleeing up 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. 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, that kind of. The synagogues were closed down. 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 change 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.
- [07:36]
Dan Le Batard
I tell people all the time, right, when you have to flee for freedom or fight for freedom, you have a certain appreciation for freedom that perhaps others don't have. But my mother and my father leave Cuba at 15 or 16, thinking they're going to see their parents again soon. And then it takes 10 years before they see their parents.
- [07:57]
Andy Garcia
Right.
- [07:57]
Dan Le Batard
That ocean between Cuba and South Florida is the biggest graveyard in the world because of people literally throwing their lives to the wind.
- [08:06]
Andy Garcia
No one's going on a raft back to Cuba, you know.
- [08:10]
Dan Le Batard
Right.
- [08:10]
Andy Garcia
It's so nice. As people say, oh, Cuba is a paradise. Or Cuba with. Why is nobody going over that way? You know?
- [08:16]
Dan Le Batard
Yeah.
- [08:17]
Andy Garcia
And, you know, and then that time there was the Pedro pond 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, and they would send their children maybe never to see them again. That's how desperate they were, you know.
- [08:35]
Dan Le Batard
It pisses you off still.
- [08:37]
Andy Garcia
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.
- [08:46]
Dan Le Batard
I've heard two different versions. You tell me what's accurate here on what your parents got here with. I've heard you say my parents. My father got with a dime to the airport.
- [08:57]
Andy Garcia
A dime.
- [08:57]
Dan Le Batard
Well, hold on. I want to know which one of these is true. I've heard two stories. A dime at the airport or $300 and a box of cigars.
- [09:05]
Andy Garcia
No, no, no.
- [09:06]
Dan Le Batard
$300 and a box of cigars.
- [09:07]
Andy Garcia
In fact, my mother and the kids, we came first with my. With my father's mother. So it was 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 borrowed a dime to call her brother that was always over here. And my godfather, who was also here, he called one or the other. I think it was their brother who had come a little earlier. And they were living right there in that area in 84th and Harding. They had a little apartment, and we got there and went into a little motel. And you pay by the week. Sometimes she's. You know, we've scrounged, however, she was able to scrounge that week's payment, you know, and then my father came, and he was going to go back again, trying to, you know, do the best he can to get some things out of Cuba. And we got a call from our. 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 the fountain Blue for a while and janitorial. And he just began. We Just began to build our life. You know, we stayed in that area, north beach. From there, you know, after a little bit and we gathered a little money, we got into a little bit bigger place as opposed to just like little motel efficiency. Then we moved to an area called Biscayne, just outside of Biscayne Point, called 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. And then by then I moved to Normandy Isle. And from Normandy Isle I went to college in Miami Dade south for two years. And then I went to FIU for the fiu.
- [10:49]
Dan Le Batard
One of the most famous FIU grad that there is. I mean, it's pretty close. I don't know.
- [10:54]
Andy Garcia
In those days only was a two year school and I went into the theater department there. And then from there I came to La La Land.
- [11:01]
Dan Le Batard
Well, I want to ask you about how supportive your parents were of the arts because it's probably not something usually exiles. Imagine, it's usually doctor, lawyer, architect, something safer than the arts. But what do you remember about the first apartment? How many people were living there? What do you remember about the childhood struggle?
- [11:21]
Andy Garcia
We lived in, in, like I said, in 84th and Harding. The, the motel is still there. It's called the Duchess. It's a little pink, kind of pinkish, little U shaped and had these little efficiency. You walk into a little living room, a little bedroom and a little like what they call it, they call it a kitchenette kind of thing, a hot plate and whatever it was for people who'd come from the north and spend, you know, a week down there.
- [11:49]
Dan Le Batard
How many people are under one roof though?
- [11:51]
Andy Garcia
Six.
- [11:52]
Dan Le Batard
And so not meant for six. Right.
- [11:53]
Andy Garcia
Too small for six men for two.
- [11:56]
Dan Le Batard
Right, Right.
- [11:56]
Andy Garcia
Yeah. No, but it was all right. We would sleep, you know, we slept in the living room. My grandmother was on the couch. And if I remember it, you know, my three kids on the floor, you know, we were kids. The oldest was 12, my brother was 11, I was five and a half.
- [12:10]
Dan Le Batard
I can only see in retrospect that I grew up amid some fear. Could you feel it as a child? I couldn't feel it as a child.
- [12:17]
Andy Garcia
No, no, no, not really. I mean, we were. To me, I thought I was on vacation. I didn't, you know, that 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, you know, we began to build. There was, like my father would always say, the only slogan he ever agreed was 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. It was one of those slogans, and it's. And that's basically the way they lived their life. It was just like steady steps forward.
- [13:00]
Dan Le Batard
It's not. You're translating.
- [13:02]
Andy Garcia
I'm translating it. Yeah.
- [13:03]
Dan Le Batard
The way that you remember it sounds more poetic in Spanish, as most things do.
- [13:07]
Andy Garcia
I actually have it in the film. I did. You mentioned earlier about the lost city that. That I made. It's. There's a. There's a moment before the character leaves the country. My character, he. He's on. 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're. They love their slogans.
- [13:27]
Dan Le Batard
Yes.
- [13:28]
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 the. Harding. Then 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.
- [13:52]
Dan Le Batard
Five cents, two cents.
- [13:53]
Andy Garcia
Yeah. To the food fair down on 71st street around there.
- [13:58]
Dan Le Batard
How much?
- [13:58]
Andy Garcia
73Rd. Yeah. It's like five cents, ten cents for maybe the big one and five or. Or five and two. It's a long time ago. And then we go to the Royal Castle and get some burgers, you know.
- [14:08]
Dan Le Batard
Yeah. And. And you remember it fondly because you're. Because what you're saying there. You guys were living amid freedom. So it wasn't actually feeling persecuted, it was feeling liberated.
- [14:18]
Andy Garcia
No, no. But, you know, you grow up. There was a small Cuban community on the beach, a lot of Cuban Jews. And. 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 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 and a half. And the bay of Pigs came, you know, and the missile crisis, and it was still a hotbed of situation there, but here we are. We're still here.
- [14:55]
Dan Le Batard
How does it come to be? Because I don't understand it that you go From a dime in the airport to running a multimillion dollar fragrance company. Like, what are the steps I'm missing there?
- [15:09]
Andy Garcia
So one step at a time and it's just one business leads to another. He starts. My dad eventually goes from working for people on consignment. He would. 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 had. We went to school, after school, we'd have to go to work and help out. Or on Saturdays we had to go. My brother and I would go, dad, it's Saturday. We want. You know, we're going out Friday night, you know, go out as late as you want, Saturday morning, you know. 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 had a. He started working for a catering company. It was right across the street from the orange bowl on 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 really not. My mother, yes, my father no. And. But he ran the place. And after a while the guy wanted to retire. And my dad basically made a deal with them 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'd get a menu and you would say, on Monday, I want rice, black beans and rice and fried bananas and. And. And picadillo, the good stuff. Yeah. And then you would. 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 get a tin or two, depending 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.
- [17:03]
Dan Le Batard
You had your meal, Amazon, before Amazon, for food.
- [17:06]
Andy Garcia
He did that for a while. 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.
- [17:28]
Dan Le Batard
Always hustling.
- [17:29]
Andy Garcia
Yeah. And he would go in there and he'd put a rack with sneakers that were like a dollar fifty for a sneaker. Very cheap sneakers. The company was called Leeds, in fact. And I would go with him on the weekends and with the promise that he'd take me to McDonald's afterwards, you know, and. 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. 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 he went. It was his first business. He started on his own. He got a distribution from a gentleman out of Puerto Rico who's making these socks that were traditional in Cuba called casino and onseh. Onse 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. And he had T shirts and this and that and all that stuff eventually grew to a multimillion dollar fragrance business.
- [18:30]
Dan Le Batard
And he's realizing that Miami is built by Cubans and he. He's got a built in demo where those sneakers and those socks are.
- [18:40]
Andy Garcia
Yeah, exactly.
- [18:41]
Dan Le Batard
And his sons are. Free labor.
- [18:43]
Andy Garcia
Free labor.
- [18:44]
Dan Le Batard
You guys don't. Cause you guys think you're getting a deal with McDonald's. He's paying you 9 cents an hour to buy.
- [18:49]
Andy Garcia
You were never on salary. But, you know, 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, she'd go like this. Thanks, mom.
- [19:04]
Dan Le Batard
Yeah, right.
- [19:05]
Andy Garcia
And there was no, like, you're on salary. Here's your paying. All the money went to that zippered envelope in the business. And we. And they ran the family out of that envelope.
- [19:16]
Dan Le Batard
You know, did your dad. My dad did not understand. Did your dad understand a pursuit of the arts instead of staying in the business?
- [19:27]
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. I was difficult for him. Not that he would say, you, you know, don't do it, but it was like, you know.
- [19:51]
Dan Le Batard
Well, my father was not supportive. He didn't. He wanted me to be an engineer. He came, he made all. All the sacrifices he made were so that I would go to the private school I went to in high school. And so when I told him, sportswriter.
- [20:02]
Andy Garcia
Yeah.
- [20:05]
Dan Le Batard
It was worse than just this. It was like, no, don't talk to me like, what are you talking about? I've made all of these sacrifices that you. You're not going to choose that. Thank God for my mother. Otherwise I'd be a really unhappy engineer. Right.
- [20:17]
Andy Garcia
Yeah, right, right. He's pretty similar. He wasn't as it was. 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, they can't. They have no concept of that. You could maybe make a living maybe in this. In the arts, you know, because that's not what they come from.
- [20:41]
Dan Le Batard
Like, the idea of making money with freedom. Why? What. How would they have access to the idea that you could be, like, free, like you, a painter or an actor in Cuba? What. What concept would they have of that?
- [20:53]
Andy Garcia
None whatsoever. I mean, they knew they existed, but they, you know, what. What is that trajectory to their eye, you know? My mother, on the other hand, she would say to him, let him go. Let him go. If he breaks a wing, he knows where to come back, but let him go. He's got to go.
- [21:13]
Dan Le Batard
Could you have done it otherwise? Because I don't know that I could have done it with. I don't know that I would have. I was too much. I don't know how this works for you. The Cuban family can be sort of like, no.
- [21:24]
Andy Garcia
Yeah, I had to go. I had to go. I left the business. I was prospering. My brother was my partner. My father was my partner. We had. It was taken off. Like, it was at the moment where it was taken off the fragrance side of it. And, you know, they were. Support. My brother was supportive. But, you know, it's hard to reason with. With. With a stray bullet, you know, something. It's a. It's something that calls to you. You don't pick it. It kind of picks you, you know, so it's hard to. It's hard to. I 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's about five years ago, maybe six years. And a young priest came up to me. He was. Must have been 30 years old. Thirty, you know, young seminarian, but priest. And he said, can I speak to you for a moment? And I said, sure. We're in 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 a giant one. Yeah, they had many stores at the time, maybe five. 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 and how you doing? Tell your dad I need him to talk to him. They were very good friends because my dad was, you know, very. A very loved, much loved individual. And he says, your. My grandfather told me the story that when you left. This is 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 before you left, your father went to see him because he was very distraught, you know, with what was going to happen. And he was asking, you know, consoling him, asking, you know, like a. Like a priest to his grandfather, saying, you know, my son's leaving town and you know what 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 gotta let him go. You gotta let go. So it was interesting that this story was out there and eventually found its way back to me. So I figured, like, oh, my dad was struggling so much, you know, quietly, what an act.
- [24:02]
Dan Le Batard
Quietly, what an act of love. To never show you. To never show you. That. That would look like an. A lack of support to allow you.
- [24:11]
Andy Garcia
To Dr. No, no, no, no, it wasn't. It was all privates, private angst, you.
- [24:16]
Dan Le Batard
Know, but he had to have been heartbroken. I mean, to go from a dime to a fragrance business to I can provide safety for my kids forever. What do you mean he's going.
- [24:26]
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. But. And I have great admiration for him.
- [24:42]
Dan Le Batard
You're the failure in the family. Your brother's the extremely successful one.
- [24:45]
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 mother knows best, you know.
- [25:06]
Dan Le Batard
Well, you. My mother as well, knew that you have to follow your heart on things that make you happy. I believe the grand majority of people listening to this and everywhere in the world who have unhappiness in their life, much of it can trace back to. Most of them are doing something they don't love every day with all of their hours because they have to make money. And there's, you know, there's a slowly corrosive soullessness that I think so.
- [25:32]
Andy Garcia
And even. And if you. Even if you have, you know, if you're chasing a dream and it's not immediately there for you, there is a struggle to all dreams. There are obstacles to all dreams. But I really believe. 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 his movies are. There's an old Robert Browning quote saying a man's reach should be greater than his grasp, or what's a heaven for? And all his movies have this kind of, you know, expansive.
- [26:10]
Dan Le Batard
Paid for it himself. He's in his 80s now. Insisted on making it. It's the life work that is all about this great director's dream.
- [26:18]
Andy Garcia
And he's done many movies like that where he's paid for himself, you know, and. But I said. I wrote him. When I said Francis. And I said, one of the things I took away from the movie was that there's no. There's no great obstacle that can't be overcome by a dream. 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. 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 too. To me before I left, he said, hey, steady. And wear a tie. Present yourself.
- [26:58]
Dan Le Batard
Well, now look at you. And now look at you. No tie. You've arrived at real freedom and you don't have to. Well, you should tell dad Guayabera, in Cuba they don't wear ties. They don't wear ties in Cuba.
- [27:09]
Andy Garcia
But he was always about, you know, the discipline of, you know, present yourself well, correctly and be responsible. You know, those things that, that you learn through watching, you know, through example. Their example really stagger.
- [27:23]
DraftKings Representative
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- [28:30]
Dan Le Batard
The arts chose you, I've heard you quoted as saying it's like a virus, it chooses you. You don't choose it. How did it choose you?
- [28:37]
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 buses, the K and the L to Lincoln Road and on the weekends and always in the summers because they had the double bills, 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 8 o'clock at night, watch them two times over. So it's two movies twice, four, four showings, you know, and I would do that all the time. And I would get lost in these movies. 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 Bandshell was my first one. But there were, you know, reviews at.
- [29:37]
Dan Le Batard
The 10th Street Auditorium, the band shows. So that's 10 blocks from where you're growing up. And it's still there.
- [29:42]
Andy Garcia
Still there.
- [29:43]
Dan Le Batard
And it hasn't changed much. Unlike Lincoln Road. Lincoln Road is no longer whatever it is you were experiencing at Lincoln.
- [29:48]
Andy Garcia
Still there. The road is still there. Right? Just a story. Stories are different. But the band show's still there. It's amazing place. And they do. They still play music there. And. And. And then the 10th Street Auditorium there and Ocean Drive. I did a. A thing there many, you know, when I was. I don't know, it was probably.
- [30:06]
Dan Le Batard
But you're dreaming there of. That's what I want to do. I want to live.
- [30:09]
Andy Garcia
I was an athlete. 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. It was really too small to really continue. But we won the city championship from representing Norman Dial park, like quarterback for the flag, you know, and we played all the parks and we won. So it was fun. You know, I was.
- [30:33]
Dan Le Batard
I love sports, a good athlete. And then you got mono, right? You got.
- [30:37]
Andy Garcia
I got mono my senior year in high school, so I never played my senior year. And then I took an acting class there, but with a professor. They had Jay Jensen. And I was very stimulated by it, and he was very encouraging. 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.
- [31:08]
Dan Le Batard
You realize you're sort of him, right? Like, I know that probably. You probably might recoil from the size of that, but he's the. He's the first Cuban representation that there was on American television.
- [31:21]
Andy Garcia
Romero. Okay, so it's Cuban. Peter 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.
- [31:41]
Dan Le Batard
Realize you are those people for some. Yes or no?
- [31:44]
Andy Garcia
Yes, I do realize that. Yeah, I was. I've been blessed.
- [31:49]
Dan Le Batard
You get here and you Start how? Like, what does that look like? What do you have? What year is that? What kind of money do you have or don't have?
- [31:59]
Andy Garcia
A friend of mine, Stephen Bauer, had.
- [32:01]
Dan Le Batard
Called me from Manolo. From Scarface.
- [32:03]
Andy Garcia
Yeah. And we rode together. We're friends in Miami. We both were acting. He was studying at, um. He had that show Capasa usa, which I did an episode of. Great show, great show. It was a great show. And he, he moved, he came, you know, because of his exposure on Que Pasa? He had a contact here and got an agent and came, got a. 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 gotta come out here, man. There's work, you know. And I said, yeah, I'm gonna come out. And I came here. I stayed with him for about a couple 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. I could 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. But it was, you know, crazy times, you know. I remember one night there was a knock on the door, three in the morning. And I went, 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. 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.
- [33:51]
Dan Le Batard
I want the details though.
- [33:53]
Andy Garcia
So that was the thing. So the knock on the door. And I go to thinking, who the hell's knocking? And I move the. I moved the curtain to see who's outside, you know, because the door is here. And like the. It's like the March brothers. Four heads came in, like. And the guy, the bottom head says, you are gypsy lives around here. Excuse me, as a gypsy, let's run here. I said, no, no, there's no gypsy lives in here. He says, that gypsy lives here. I said, no, sorry, there's no gypsy lives here. And they left. I'm going like, what the hell is going on? Then I realized I'm the. I'm the gypsy. Someone gypsy walking around said, oh, there's a gypsy lives in there.
- [34:38]
Dan Le Batard
Right?
- [34:38]
Andy Garcia
I'm the gypsy.
- [34:39]
Dan Le Batard
Yeah, because it. So it doesn't sound like a place anyone should be living.
- [34:44]
Andy Garcia
No. Anyway, but you know, then you just begin, you know, 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 other hotels, mostly the Beverly Hill Motel. I'd laid, you know, shingles. I worked at this company called Roadway. 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 7:00 at night, your temporary hub, so you don't have to be a member of the union. And you work from 7 to 7 or 7 to 5 or. And you either unload a truck by yourself or you, you strip it or you load it on your own. And we got there, there's a bunch of actors there. 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.
- [35:37]
Dan Le Batard
Is this 1978? Yeah, to 1985. Like, how long are you?
- [35:44]
Andy Garcia
Well, I started, you know, I started immediately taking classes, you know, going backstage. I was working at the Comedy Store nearby here.
- [35:52]
Dan Le Batard
You were doing improv, right? You were taking improvisational classes nearby and.
- [35:56]
Andy Garcia
And performing in the house group there. And that got me some attention and, you know, a little job here and there. I was in the no Money, no for Free. But I got like a. I got a gig and the pilot of Hill Street Blues and, you know, the little sprinkle things didn't really have an agent. And the ones I had were like. I 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, take a stamp and put his name on your resume. And every so often they would send you out, but not really, while also.
- [36:29]
Dan Le Batard
Telling you to change things about yourself, correct?
- [36:31]
Andy Garcia
Yeah. A lot of them 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. So 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. Maybe not as much as still underrepresented. Yes, but still there is opportunities. 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 so the parts that were mostly available were like, gang members, Mexican gang members, and, you know, 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, you know, I just hung tough. You know, I got married in 82, and my wife was crazier than I was because she says, I'm. I said, you know, I gotta go back. This is what I want to do. I know I had. I have nothing to show for it, but because she had been coming out to visit me, she was living in Miami, and she, you know, she was here. 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, mothers know best. You know, I want to talk to.
- [38:13]
Dan Le Batard
You about love in a second and how you keep something alive for as long as you've kept that alive. But are we talking about seven years? When you say hard, Explain the details of hard to me. You have some 78 to 85, because I feel like you might be underselling hard. It sounds like you chose to leave in pursuit of your dream. What could have a family that was taking care of you in the family business to basically take on the life that your parents took on when they got to Miami.
- [38:41]
Andy Garcia
It was a second exile. Yeah, it was a second exile. You chose that, or it chose me, you know, but, yeah, I chose to go on that journey. Yeah, I never been here before. You know, like most people, you just arrive, 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 weeks, I didn't want to hang there too long. I didn't want to impose. So immediately I started looking for a place. Paid 200amonth for that little place. Imagine the quality of. Of the. Of the joint.
- [39:13]
Dan Le Batard
And you don't have the 200.
- [39:15]
Andy Garcia
No, you know, I came with like 2,000 bucks in my pocket that I had worked this summer, you know, in a discotheque as a maitre d sommelier kind of guy, making money, you know.
- [39:26]
Dan Le Batard
So you've got 10 months to figure. 10 months worth of money. 10 months worth of rent to figure.
- [39:31]
Andy Garcia
It out if you don't eat. No, yeah, it's, you know, but we were young, you know, the venture 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 I had. We had a child right away, 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. And luckily I had a friend of mine, an actor was in there, what we call a walla group, like a voiceover group, where you do all the replacement, all the background vocals in movies and television. So. And it was. It's a union gig. And, you know, you. You do an episode of Cagney and Lacey or whatever, and then when it airs the second time, you get paid again.
- [40:21]
Dan Le Batard
Not much, though, like.
- [40:23]
Andy Garcia
Well, but it was like every. Every time you went, it was like 300 bucks. I worked two or three times a week on that different show. So I was, you know, I had a place. I was buying Pampers, the roof over our head of a house we rented. And we were. I was able to provide for my family, you know, and. And just little by little, you know, you got a. A better agent, actually, a manager who got me. Started getting me a little bit more interview, you know, kind of began like that. And. But during that time, there was. I remember specifically there was a moment where. And it had to do with like an audition. I did something remember the exact moment where I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. I saw it 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.
- [41:42]
Dan Le Batard
Had confidence that I.
- [41:43]
Andy Garcia
That I saw, you know, I had it in here. I said, oh, that's it. There it is. There it is.
- [41:50]
Dan Le Batard
Peaceful, powerful. That's cool.
- [41:55]
Andy Garcia
And so you see. Okay, so now it's. Oh, there it is now. I just gotta. Are you willing to stay in. 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, what can I. You know, how can I break through? There's a breakthrough that happens, and 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 that's what. 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, 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 was in, let's say, a Mexican gang member or something there. And I was actually my wife again, you know, the intuition. It was. I remember we were at the house. She said, I got home from. From one of those sessions. She said, 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 of Marielle Hemingway. You should ask Phyllis. She was my manager at the time. Very good manager, very helpful, Phyllis Carlisle, and see if there's something. There might be something there. So I called her. She goes, well, look it up. But just because. He goes, honey, just because it's a Miami, you know, that might not be a part. I said, can you 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. I didn't even read her anything for her. She says, I want you to meet the director. Philip Borso is 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 the. It was like buying a hamburger. It was so simple to get that part. 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.
- [44:22]
Dan Le Batard
You are answering the question about how hard it was, though, with both emotion and structure. You're talking about the Emotional parts and the structural parts. What about the day to day parts of just being able to earn enough to survive for seven years in shitty jobs dreaming because you think some things might be available but there's no light. There's no light yet and you're covered in doubt and have I made the wrong, like, have I made the wrong decision? This woman. This woman believes in me.
- [44:54]
Andy Garcia
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, to 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.
- [45:28]
Dan Le Batard
Seven years if I don't have anything to show.
- [45:30]
Andy Garcia
Well, you know, it got a little bit, you know, I was year, you know, four or five. 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, how much.
- [45:42]
Dan Le Batard
Doubt was there for you or were you not doing doubt because it survived, Survive, survive. And so you're not even think you're young, still youngish, but. But now you got. But now you also have a child, which changes all of the math. Creates fear.
- [45:55]
Andy Garcia
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 you, you know, it's like now you're representing not only yourself as an artist, you're representing your wife and your family and that little girl. So it's sort of like you're gonna have to shoot me between the eyes to take me out.
- [46:31]
Dan Le Batard
No time for doubt.
- [46:34]
Andy Garcia
There's no time for doubt. And like I said, I think there was a power, the thing. And, and about that time also, you know, in that moment, the light started to appear, you know, a spiritual light.
- [46:51]
Dan Le Batard
As well, because I know you're a man of faith.
- [46:54]
Andy Garcia
I guess so. Yeah, I guess so. It was just, I mean, it wasn't like a religious thing.
- [46:58]
Dan Le Batard
It was clarity.
- [47:00]
Andy Garcia
Yeah, sort of certain clarity. And, and. And I think it also, it 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, as grounded, you know, so, so that, you know, you understand what. Who you are and what you have to say and why you want to say it.
- [47:29]
Dan Le Batard
You know, craft is such an interesting word because viewed from that angle, you've been all your life a bit of a sculptor. You are making of your soul a work of art that you are now displaying to people. And it. It makes you a craftsman, no doubt.
- [47:47]
Andy Garcia
And. And when the craft is. Has. Is mixed with inspiration, you know, spontaneous inspiration, then it's. It's like an art. Then the art form comes about, you know, but the craft roots you in the ability to. 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?
- [48:14]
Dan Le Batard
Yes.
- [48:14]
Andy Garcia
Early teachers always said, never get caught.
- [48:16]
Dan Le Batard
Acting, you know, instead. Yeah, that makes sense. So how soon after that is the Untouchables? Because I thought that was sort of your big break.
- [48:26]
Andy Garcia
Well, yeah, because that was a commercial success, that movie. 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, 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. Really. It was like, no.
- [49:12]
Dan Le Batard
Either or. You got to choose one or the other. And everybody who was in television dreams of being in movies.
- [49:18]
Andy Garcia
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 a voiceover and look for my next film. And this movie came about with Hal Ashby, Jeff Bridges called A Million Ways to Die. And they were looking for the antagonist in the movie, which was a character that they said was patterned, you know, like they were looking for someone like Hector Macho Camacho, the fighter. Street, urban, tough, slick, aggressive, you know.
- [49:52]
Dan Le Batard
Not really things you are. No, no offense. You're a thespian and an artist. You. You being a gangster and a boxer, you're really getting typecast there by some Hollywood bullshit.
- [50:03]
Andy Garcia
Yeah. And so I read the script. It was written by Oliver Stone, the initial script, because it was. It was changed by the time the movie got made. And I said to my. The agent, I said, I know who this guy is. I grew up in Miami. I know who this guy is. Get me and get me and get me in. But God bless him, Lynn Stallmaster was the most powerful, most important casting director probably at the time, and legendary. 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 than Hector Camacho. Yeah. And I said to my. So 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, you know, 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. 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 you. And he says, I don't give a fuck.
- [51:19]
Dan Le Batard
You're deep in the character.
- [51:21]
Andy Garcia
I went all in. And actually I talked in third person. He's the guy. I said, hey, just got his name goes angel, doesn't give a. What you think, man. And poor Lynn was going like, oh, actors, 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. Will we go to another room to do this? And I said, wherever we're going, I've already been. And wherever you've been, I don't need to go.
- [51:51]
Dan Le Batard
So you were just full of soaked arrogance.
- [51:55]
Andy Garcia
Guy killed people in the movie. He was a coke dealer, young kingpin in LA who killed women, you know, what does he know about. You know? And so anyway, I read and he said, can you. 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 Demard, 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 he gave me a part right there that day.
- [52:32]
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- [53:34]
Dan Le Batard
Do you know how many movies you've been in? Do you have a number? No, I. I don't know either, but I thought I heard you in an interview. The interviewer said, it's over 100.
- [53:44]
Andy Garcia
Maybe. I don't know. I really don't know.
- [53:47]
Dan Le Batard
I don't know which one of those is the one that resonates with others the most.
- [53:53]
Andy Garcia
Well, I was saying that because of the eight 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 Nitty, who was the killer in the Untouchable, the play beautifully by Billy Drago, remember, dressed in white and very lean, you know, 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. Said, I want that. I want to go after that part. So they gave me. And I met Brian De Palma and they had read for him and they gave me the part. So that. That movie, that's. That's how that movie came about. And that movie was very successful. So, of course, gave other immediately other opportunities at Paramount with Mr. Frank Mancuso, who was the head of the studio, who's 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. Not. Mr. Macus 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, I'm like, he's really like a second father, and his son is like, my brother is my brother, and I'm the 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. And he, 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. Marcus, I don't need to deal with you. As long as you want me here, I'm here with you. I don't need a piece of paper, you know, I'm here for you. And that was it. And we did a bunch of movies together there, including the Godfather. And what was curious about the Godfather was that when in those early years, early 80s or whatever it was when we were here, you know, kind of looking, I was my. I wasn't even married yet. It 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, 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, in high school, when I was. My senior year in high school is when. That time I, 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. That was the quintessential moment. We're talking about the virus or whatever it was watching Godfather Part 1. And I said, I want to do that with my life.
- [56:37]
Dan Le Batard
What was it about it?
- [56:38]
Andy Garcia
Well, I think how you identify with the people in it, with Al and, you know, the, the, the Style and Brando and, you know, Bobby Duval and Jimmy Khan and you. So 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. I wanted to. That's what I wanted to be. That's what I wanted to do. And be careful what you wish for, you know, But I remember thinking, that's my part. And of course, the movie, I had nothing to show. I would have never probably even got a chance to audition for it because it was. But because the movie never got happened. 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. I want you to be, you know, this young fellow, Vincent and the Godfather. I said, I'll check my schedule, I'll get back to you. But, but it was ultimately, it was Francis's choice. I, I, you know, I screen tested. I was the last person to screen test, actually, after, after a whole summer of people screen testing. And I, and I kept saying, can I just go in and read for him? Don't worry, don't worry. I'm worried. Every actor in town is screen testing for this show. But Mr. Macusa, you know, obviously was very supportive of me and, and I read for Francis and he gave me.
- [57:59]
Dan Le Batard
A part, you know, Internal Affairs. Criminally underrated movie.
- [58:04]
Andy Garcia
Yeah, it's a good film.
- [58:06]
Dan Le Batard
Things to do in Denver when you're dead. A criminally underrated movie.
- [58:10]
Andy Garcia
Both criminal movies, yeah.
- [58:12]
Dan Le Batard
Do you regard any of your movies as a criminally underrated movie?
- [58:17]
Andy Garcia
Well, I think those movies are on, they're on the 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, I don't know, you call them cult films, but things that movies that to this day, people, I walk down the streets and someone driving by go, hey, Bolt drinks, you know. Oh, yeah.
- [58:43]
Dan Le Batard
Okay, well, what's the one of those you get the most like, I, I, I don't know whether you answer, you.
- [58:49]
Andy Garcia
Know, Zaza, the Godfather, when I kill Joey Zaza, I go, zaza. People go like, hey, Zaza. You know, you know, the people who, who enjoy those movies will have catchphrases from. And, and in, well, I mean, maybe Internal affairs, they, oh, everybody got a kick on when, when I started screaming at my wife in Spanish, which, you know, obviously wasn't script. It was just something. And I, and they all. I did a, I don't do these podcasts often, by the way, but I did one for Sebastian Manus, Maniscalco Mescalco. And he was just fascinated about what was it that thing you said to your wife, you know, in Spanish in his family. And I said, and I said to him it was something like me. Which he said, what does that mean? I said, you're gonna lie to me? And me. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
- [59:42]
Sleep Number Representative
Yeah, yeah.
- [59:42]
Dan Le Batard
Well, I mean, you, you channeled jealous Hispanic rage filled husband very well in that movie. Like that is.
- [59:51]
Andy Garcia
Well, that guy, you know, Richard Gere, who's 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 and the movie, he's like, you know, you still people, 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, oh, God, it's terrible. It's a terrible movie that way.
- [60:29]
Dan Le Batard
I love music. I love movies and music that make me feel anything, even if it's a bad, even if it's a shitty.
- [60:34]
Andy Garcia
No, I know, I know. But, you know, Michael Figgis, who is 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 remembered talking to him. I remember seeing his movie and I said, maybe this guy, I recommended him to Paramount, they met him and they gave him the job. 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 hand me, they showed me the script and said, we want to go with this. And I said, yeah, it's very powerful. You were saying about boxing because I also boxed for Internal affairs for 8 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, you box of 14 weeks. And I remember by the. Towards the end, I was sparring with, you know, young 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.
- [61:50]
Dan Le Batard
They make it look very easy.
- [61:54]
Andy Garcia
Okay, I'm coming in. And there was this one guy that was more heavier. They said, the lightweight guys that just pepper you all day long. And there's One guy, we were boxing, and we. I stepped to the right there to simulate and land on my right foot and throw a right hand.
- [62:14]
Dan Le Batard
Too slow?
- [62:15]
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, goes 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 because you feel. And you. That sense of, you know, the knockout thing, but because it was here and not here, it goes. It was a very interesting sensation, which. Talking about, you know, concussions. A lot of talk about concussions these days, especially in our home team.
- [62:54]
Dan Le Batard
That's a crazy way to make a living, to fighting another man for money. That's an insane way to make a.
- [62:58]
Andy Garcia
Living, but great way to get in shape, I tell you that much.
- [63:02]
Dan Le Batard
So when you look at. When fans come up to you and want to talk about one character or one movie, most is there one above all others. Because it's such a broad body of.
- [63:16]
Andy Garcia
Work, probably the Godfather. You know, I think. 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.
- [63:28]
Dan Le Batard
Do you have one that you're prouder of than any of the others? Because I would imagine.
- [63:34]
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, you know, because when you. When you're. You know, you're at 18 years old, you don't go around saying, I want to be an actor, and I'm going to be in Godfather 3, you know? You know, what are you talking about? I'm going to be in the Godfather. What are you talking about? 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 you chasing a dream that is particular to your dream, and you just somehow won't accept no for an answer. And yes, of course, sometimes it's very unique that it happened to be that movie and 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, and. 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 that this movie I did, the Lost City about Cuba, took me 16 years of my life.
- [64:57]
Dan Le Batard
That's what I thought your answer was going to be because. And you did the score.
- [65:02]
Andy Garcia
Yeah, you did. That would be number two. Because I, you know, Francis to me was a Lost Cities. I think in a way I, you know, personally, probably the most important work I've done from a cultural standpoint and personal and. But again, it was just Dog with a Bone. And eventually someone came. Sam Gors, who's 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. Nobody, it was outside the business. Nobody in the business ever supported the film. I saw, once we made it, we sold it back into the system. But it just took someone who believed in me and, and it was Tommy Gores and Johnny Lopez's partner who. And Sam, his brother, who orchestrated it, you know. And it was produced by Frank Mecuso Jr. My. My brother.
- [65:54]
Dan Le Batard
You know, for those who don't know the story of the Lost City and why it was important to you, obviously it's about Cuba. And you know, my mother's favorite musician is Arturo Sandoval.
- [66:08]
Andy Garcia
Right.
- [66:09]
Dan Le Batard
Why? I have an idea. But for the people who may not a 16 year project that you were insistent on making the music for yourself, why did this mean what it means to you, beyond it being your life story?
- [66:25]
Andy Garcia
Well, what happened with music was I got the script in 1990 while I was doing the Godfather. Frank had given. Mr. Mancuso had given me money to develop the material, the idea. And I went to Guillermo Ca? Infante, an extraordinary Cuban novelist and writer in London, one of our most important writers who also had written some screenplays, had started the Cuban Cinematheque Pre Castro and he loved the idea and he delivered a 340 page document. A 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 we. 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. So eventually I kept shaping it down to where I Got it down to like 126 pages. And that was the movie we made. And. But in the script it said that my character played piano, not like solitary, on his own, you know, privately. And I always wanted to play piano. I had studied percussion all my life and I was a percussionist and Afro Cuban percussion. And so I rented a piano while I was doing the Godfather in my house there in Quattro Miglio, which is just near the Chinichita studios outside of Rome. We had a little upright piano there. And I come home from work and we'd have dinner. My wife. And then I sit at the piano and start you with two fingers 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 hooked into the avid. It wasn't an avid, it was a steamback, which is 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 Kachow for years for the movie and the albums that we had done, so those were pre produced songs. And then we had needle drops from the era. And then I had the original score that I just wrote, the percussive side or. And then I worked with an orchestrator. If I wanted the theme to be like, bring in a chamber orchestra and here's the theme. And I would work with him on. I said, let's feature the violin here, whatever. And that's how it came about. So it was very organic. I always joke that, 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. Eventually, you know, taught myself how to play.
- [69:26]
Dan Le Batard
But it was important to you to stay with all of it for 16 years. That story was important to you because.
- [69:33]
Andy Garcia
Because it's, it's. 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.
- [69:47]
Dan Le Batard
There's not a movie like that. There's not a movie like that about the Cuban people that I've seen.
- [69:52]
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. Great Cuban director. Also about that. That subject matter that Cubans in exile. Like a super incredible film.
- [70:15]
Dan Le Batard
Oh, you can make the story. I'm talking about the. What you put on the story. I'm not talking about the Cuban people haven't had their story told. I'm talking about told that way with somebody who cares enough about the story to spend 16 years learning the piano so that he can hit the right note. I'm talking about that kind of care. Yeah, it shows in the film.
- [70:35]
Andy Garcia
I appreciate. 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 at a festival. They'll go, we want to honor you at such festival. And I said, thank you so much. What movies do you want to show? And I said, what? You can show whatever you want, but I want to show the Lost City because it's, you know, it's. Everyone's seen the D touch. I don't need to go there and show the Untouchables. You know, sometimes they'll say, but we'd like to show that. Okay, but please show this movie, because some people have not seen it. You know, they've been seen all over the world, but not everybody has seen it. So it's always a good opportunity to continue to. To tell the story, to not forget the story. And it was an uphill battle, you know, for that film, for sure. And. And it had a lot of support and also had a lot of people who tried to discredit it in the press and stuff, because obviously they had sensibilities that align themselves with the Castro regime. And I like just telling a historical story.
- [71:34]
Dan Le Batard
Yes.
- [71:34]
Andy Garcia
You know, I wasn't trying to. It wasn't a propaganda movie. It was things that really happened using their words, you know.
- [71:40]
Dan Le Batard
Oh, but I like your sort of. I'm not going to say immunity to criticism, but the way that you've arrived at a confidence that you can say Godfather 3 because all the things it represents. You chasing the light, Francis Ford Coppola. And you do not care what the critical acclaim of that was, because you made a work of art that represents your dreams and the starting point on you wanting to do all of this, so you can choose that as something that doesn't care at all what others think of it. Because you make the work of art, you release it into the world. And whatever anyone thinks about it, you do not have. Have to care.
- [72:18]
Andy Garcia
It doesn't. It doesn't matter because everybody has an opinion on anything. Everybody has an opinion. One's, you know, one person could say and get. The other person can say, oh, my God, that movie moved me so much. So it's. There's no right or wrong. It's just opinions, as they say. Everyone has one, you know. So 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. They asked him, do you. Do you care if your plays are successful? And he says, the fact that my plays exist is success enough already.
- [72:50]
Dan Le Batard
Getting to do it. That's. That's. I like to tell people that the success is that you get to do it.
- [72:54]
Andy Garcia
You have it. You do the exploration with your fellow contributors, and you make the movie. And it's curious. He said, I'm curious to see how it fares, right?
- [73:03]
Dan Le Batard
Because.
- [73:03]
Andy Garcia
Curious to see how it fares because I'm curious how anything fares in human nature. You know, how things are received. 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?
- [73:31]
Sleep Number Representative
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- [74:01]
Dan Le Batard
I promised you a chance to talk about your wife and love and what it means to have somebody by your Side for the ride. 35 years a movie star, but someone who was there. When is this going to work? Are we sure this is going to work? Believing in you and then getting to share it with that person?
- [74:20]
Andy Garcia
Yeah, she. There was never, ever an ounce of doubt in her mind that this is where she needed, she wanted to be, and this is where she, 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's as simple as that. And she's held the fort from day one like that. You know, it's never been an issue with what we need, what we don't need to pay the rent. 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. Got two granddaughters and a little grandson on the way, and knock on wood. Everybody's been healthy. Everybody pursues their dreams of two actresses. I have a professional model and a professional dj. So, you know, it's like, it's like, you know, it's like the. You, 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, they knew the pitfalls they grew up in. It was a totally different thing, you know, and they knew what they're getting into and the struggles it'll be. And. But I said, this is a life's work. This is not about if I don't make it in two years. If you, 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, 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, how his breaks came very late and when a late. Not six years old, but, you know, he was a. He was around for a long time before things cracked for him on, 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. And he got into another level in his life, and he's one of the, 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, stay in tune with it, explore, write, create your own opportunities if you can, but stay in tune with the same connected with you with it, you know, and also live life because life feeds your art for them. You know, it's like the whole thing is, well, I'm not getting married because until my career. Oh, forget about that. You know, you don't get married because you don't want to get married, because you don't know. 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?
- [77:16]
Dan Le Batard
You have had. And I'll let you go on this note. I appreciate you spending so much time with us. You have sung with Cher on screen. You are friends with Gloria Estefan and the Estefans for life. So you represent the only man to have kissed Gloria Estefan other than Emilio Estefan. When you look at one thing, you would put in front of the audience and say, I found myself even in that moment saying, holy shit, how did this happen? How did I get to here where I am nervous or awed by finding myself in a position that is. Even exceeds my dreams in terms of just absurdity of where it is that I get to. You go home and tell your wife or the kids, can you believe that this happened to your dad today? Is there anything that.
- [78:03]
Andy Garcia
Well, there's been many, I would imagine.
- [78:07]
Dan Le Batard
I'm asking you to. You can give me more than one if you want.
- [78:10]
Andy Garcia
I mean, the first job is always like the first job that you're in a real movie and where you're part of movie. Like the me sees it was like, okay, we step in it. We're in the. The light is here now. We're. We're in the light now. And. But then from there is Jeff Bridges and Hal Ashby, and then it's Sean Connery and Brian De Palma and then Ridley Scott. And then eventually I'm sitting in front across the table, the first read through with Al and Francis and Diane, and 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. You know, I'm cracking garlic with Francis in the kitchen helping him cook. You know, that's. You know. But yeah, it's kind of like it's. It's a situation in life where, 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, I'm a recipient of the blessing of all the examples around me. Parents, work ethic, inspiration, artistic inspiration. Everything that one receives that fill you with the momentum or the confidence or the insanity of saying, I'm gonna step in that direction. I'm gonna. Door is 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 and then you make, 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 in, 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 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 in another Cuban family, lived in a little guest house. When I say this is not a big property, it's a small house and an even smaller house, somewhat 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, 30 years old, maybe 12, 11, 10, 11 around that time. 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. And we would play toy soldiers and he would, I would make him laugh and he would laugh uncontrollably and you know, it's very difficult situation because, you know, you're looking someone who can even control his physical state because it's all over the place and you know, drooling and. But we were connected for months and months at least probably there for a couple years. And this was my playmate. And later on I challenged, you know, I paid tribute to him or I, you know, channeled him in this play. And, 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's. That was one of the breakthroughs, you know. And then later on, you know, here I continued work and. And, you know, it. When you make it have a breakthrough, you know, when you. And it always has to do with a sense of. Sense of truth in the work. You were 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 anymore because I've told my entire story. It's just. Listen to Dan lebarton. I don't need to tell this story again.
- [82:52]
Dan Le Batard
Thank you for doing that, by the way.
- [82:54]
Andy Garcia
Thank you. Well, only because you're a Dolphin fan. So. So. But we said, well, you know, you're known as being very private. And I said, a private person. I have many friends that are very gregarious. I'm very. But I just don't live in the limelight. I don't go to. You know, I'm not. I don't have publicists, and I don't. And. But I said, but the thing is, what you don't understand, as actors, we actually are very public because, you know, I've shared with you some stuff that you might not know where it's coming from or what. How it's manifesting itself in the character and the story, but it's very personal. And that's part of the. That's part of the. That's part of the craft.
- [83:39]
Dan Le Batard
Andy, it was a genuine delight to spend this time with you. I will tell you, and I think you know this already, that my mother will be insane with jealousy that I got to spend this time with you, but she will be asking me a lot of questions about what this was, and we'll listen to it several times because you are our inspiration, an inspiration to our people.
- [83:59]
Andy Garcia
So finally, we get a chance, us, to talk with Donald, and we didn't even talk about the dolphins.
- [84:03]
Dan Le Batard
No, we did not. You're desperate to. I don't want to talk about the dolphins. You want to talk about the dolphins. I don't want to talk about the dolphins. They're broken for 25 years. They're. They're busted up. If you want to, though. If you want to, I'll give you the floor to say whatever it is they've done to you over the last 25.
- [84:19]
Andy Garcia
Let's take a couple minutes, because this is a. You Know, we're. Yes, we're Dolphin fans.
- [84:23]
Dan Le Batard
That's right.
- [84:24]
Andy Garcia
You are a Dolphin.
- [84:24]
Dan Le Batard
I am, yes. My. My earliest memories of loving sports are my father taking me to the Orange bowl across the street from where your father was doing.
- [84:34]
Andy Garcia
We used to. I meant to say that that time we used to sell the parking spaces. There was like five or eight of them at the little warehouse there.
- [84:41]
Dan Le Batard
Yes.
- [84:42]
Andy Garcia
And we take that money and go to the, um, games.
- [84:44]
Dan Le Batard
No blocking, no parking. No parking, no blocking.
- [84:46]
Andy Garcia
And we take that money, we 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. I think we tied them right. There was no zero, zero.
- [84:57]
Dan Le Batard
You're. You're doing. You're doing early, late 60s.
- [85:02]
Andy Garcia
I was at that game with that. In the rain. Yeah, it was amazing. But anyway, I was at the opening game of the. You know, I saw Joe our. Oh, the.
- [85:11]
Dan Le Batard
The opening kickoff.
- [85:11]
Andy Garcia
Yeah, I was there.
- [85:12]
Dan Le Batard
Okay. So you're. You're lifelong Dolphin fan?
- [85:15]
Andy Garcia
Lifelong. Yeah. I've been to all of them. I've been. I went to all the. All the, you know, undefeated season.
- [85:21]
Dan Le Batard
And you still love them all the time. They haven't broken. They haven't broken your heart so much that you.
- [85:25]
Andy Garcia
No, of course they break my heart. That's the nature of sports. What are you gonna, you know, you're not gonna be undefeated every year. You're not gonna. And I always start off with great hope. I say, you know, I think this year we. That if our. If our office, if the old line can, you know, you know, protect, open some holes, I think we can do some damage. And then people get hurt and they're finally. Oh, God, what are we doing? And so it's, you know, that's just the nature of it, you know, but. Yeah. Yeah, I. I always have hope. I really do. I never.
- [85:54]
Dan Le Batard
They haven't won a playoff game in more than 20 years.
- [85:57]
Andy Garcia
I understand. I understand.
- [85:59]
Dan Le Batard
Come on. It's the. The league is based on a quality. They reward you when you don't win playoff games. There's a salary cap. There are very few team. The Lions are good now.
- [86:08]
Andy Garcia
Yeah, the li. The Lions are good with our ex coach.
- [86:12]
Dan Le Batard
That's right. With Dan Camp.
- [86:13]
Andy Garcia
I.
- [86:14]
Dan Le Batard
We made fun of him for two years, man. Camel. I can't win like that.
- [86:18]
Andy Garcia
I did.
- [86:18]
Dan Le Batard
Oh, you're just so. You're positive sports fan. You're like. You're about your team and you don't have anything in the way of criticism. You're just Dolphin fan, and you are.
- [86:26]
Andy Garcia
You know, I mean, my criticism is like, you know, we need a God. We need a better. You know, we need to fortify our offensive line. We need that. It's not like you suck.
- [86:35]
Dan Le Batard
Right?
- [86:36]
Andy Garcia
You know, you love them. You love them. I love them. I love them. My son. My son is fanatical, but he bails early.
- [86:42]
Dan Le Batard
You're an abuse. You're in an abusive relationship. He. He's smarter than you are. He's learned. He's learned that his dad. His dad's a fool.
- [86:49]
Andy Garcia
He does. Basically, you know, after the first quarter, he goes, I'm out of here. You know, 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?
- [86:59]
Dan Le Batard
Yeah, you see. The only. Only last year against the Ravens and. And maybe. And against the Patriots with the kickoff. It's been a bad 20 years, Andy. Your. Your. Your faith and your support have been misspent.
- [87:12]
Andy Garcia
Yeah, well, I guess I have more faith in the Dolphins than I do about our political system.
- [87:20]
Dan Le Batard
Thank you, Andy. I really did enjoy this time with you.
- [87:23]
Andy Garcia
Likewise. Finally I get a chance to hook up. Thank you.