00:00You know, everybody thinks I'm an actor turned director, but I've always been a
00:06producer-director that fell into acting. I've always been fascinated with being
00:10behind the camera, putting the whole project together, you know, having a
00:14total vision and control of the final product.
00:18I've had some amazing mentors in this industry. You know, I use Desperate Housewives as my film school.
00:33I paid attention to where the cameras went and lenses and lights and blocking and, you know, it was
00:39ten years of my life and I had so many directors come through. You learn some really great things
00:45and then you also learn what not to do. And so I really feel like my curiosity was my
00:52greatest strength. I asked a lot of questions and when a good director came
00:56along I picked their brain. I was inspired by so many directors and their work. You
01:05know, I wanted a strong POV in the film and nobody does it better than Scorsese. I
01:11loved the journalistic approach of Adam McKay and I like, you know, the social
01:17issues of Ava DuVernay. I like the heart of all of Ron Howard's films. I mean, I
01:22really studied so much of their work to see like, God, I want a little bit of that. I
01:30want to do a little bit of that. I want to, I want to, you know, I was so inspired by, you
01:34know, their approach to filmmaking. For me, I, you know, kind of touched every rung of the
01:40ladder in directing. I started with short films. I went to episodic TV, did, you
01:45know, comedy, did drama, did multicam, single cam. And so it was the natural
01:51evolution to do a feature next, although I wasn't looking for one. This story found
01:56me and I was obsessed with wanting to tell Richard Montaignez's story. This movie
02:04hasn't been made and I say that humbly and I say that with sadness because, you know, I think the last
02:10major studio that did a film about us and by us Latinos was 20 years ago. And so you
02:17can't get a film, we can't get a film every 20 years. So yeah, I mean, I really
02:23tried to get inspired by some of the the greatest filmmakers of our time and and
02:28and put it into Evil and Gloria style, you know. Oh God, that's horrible. Don't ever
02:33speak in third person into my style. I don't know when I felt represented on
02:40screen. The first time I would probably say, which is not accurate, but West Side
02:44Story with Rita Moreno because she was brown like me. But I wasn't Puerto Rican
02:49and I wasn't particularly, I wasn't from New York. I had never been there. You know, I
02:55related nothing to, to, you know, the story other than Rita Moreno looks like me. And
03:05I remember, you know, that being one of the first times. Also, I would say Salma
03:10Hayek in Desperado and Robert Rodriguez's name just like, whoa, wait, a Mexican
03:18American like me directed that. I remember being very blown away by that and the fact
03:24that Robert was from Texas, I'm from Texas. So I remember, I think, feel like
03:29those were the earliest memories I have of representation looking like me. You
03:35know, I think there's an illusion that Hollywood's very progressive and it's
03:41super diverse and the data and statistics say otherwise. Actually, there's less
03:47female directors behind the camera than there were a couple years ago. There's less
03:51Latinos in TV and film than there were a couple years ago. So, you know, I feel
03:57like we have to keep our foot on the gas. For me, I mean, that's, that's the whole
04:00purpose of getting behind the camera is to tell our own stories, you know, write our
04:05own stories, produce our own stories. And, you know, we, on this film, I dedicated an
04:12immense effort to hiring Latinos behind the camera because that's the story we were
04:18telling. And I needed that authenticity in every department head.
04:24I really only say yes to projects that have something to say. Like, what are we
04:28saying about society, about culture? Are we changing anything? Are we changing
04:32anybody's hearts and minds? And that's why this particular film is so important
04:38because it's entertaining and it's funny and it's a fun ride and, you know, it's heart
04:43tugging. It's emotional. It's all those things, but it also is saying a lot about the hierarchy
04:49that we live in and society and about how opportunity is not distributed equally. And a man
04:55like Richard Montanez who said, but why not? Why not me? Why can't ideas come from somebody who looks
05:01like me? And that was important to me to direct something that says something. Yeah. And I also think,
05:08you know, I've heard this recently, like, imposter syndrome is made up by patriarchy.
05:12You know, it's made up by a certain group of people who want women to think they don't belong
05:19and want women to be so humble and so thankful for this job, you know. And I, with this project
05:26and with Flaming Hot, I keep balancing between immense gratitude and humility for what we've created
05:34and all the talent that was assembled to make this film possible. And I balance that with like,
05:39like, yes, I want to own this space. Like, I want to be proud of this space and stop saying,
05:44thank you so much for allowing me the space. Thank you so much for letting us be here. Like, no,
05:49this is our space. We deserve to be here. And so, so it's, it's a balance.
05:56It's just been this amazing journey to, you know, finally present this movie to the world and for it to,
06:02for it to be received the way it's been received with the intention of what, how we made it, you know.
06:06I really think like, how am I ever going to care about another project as much as I cared about
06:11Flaming Hot. It was a special story, special, talented group of people that, you know, helped me
06:17bring my vision to life. And now we, we get to be here to tell the world, go watch it. And them saying,
06:23I watched it and it's amazing. Like all of it is pretty amazing. So, um, you know, I'm going to
06:29continue to tell the stories from my community. Um, cause I think we have a lot of stories to tell.
06:35And I think we're amazing storytellers.
Comments