Interview: Danny Trejo (Machete 2 / Ranchero)

Danny: Tim!

Tim: Hey, what’s up man?

What’s up homes?

How are you doing today buddy?

Great, great… Tim.

Good. Before we get going I wanted to wish you a happy belated birthday.

Thank you. Yeah, it was about three or four days ago.

We actually share the same birthday, mine is also May 16^th.

Oh, awesome!

Alright man, we are here to talk about Ranchero.

Ranchero, yeah! It’s a good little movie.

It comes out June 12^th. I actually saw it a couple nights ago and it was really good.

Yeah.

So for the people who haven’t seen it – tell me a little about the movie.

You know, it’s about the struggles of a new kid coming across the border. You know, trying to buy the American dream and he finds out real quick that there’s not too many of them for sale. And he gets involved in everything that is bad in Los Angeles – and there’s a lot. And he gets involved with a girl who happens to belong to a guy named Capone. And that’s me. [laughs]

The badass of the film of course. [laughs]

[laughs] Yeah. Yeah, Capone is in a wheelchair. And it’s a whole movie about struggle, it’s a hell of a struggle. It’s a little different from what I’m used to. But, she’s struggling – he’s struggling – Capone is struggling. Everybody is struggling to survive.

Now, could you relate to the story at all?

[laughs] Every day of my life man. [laughs]

You know, one thing that really appealed to me was Roger Gutierrez (Jesse Torres in Ranchero). He was amazing I thought.

You know what? I got involved in this through his brother – Rick. Rick, I was in prison with – his older brother – and so he asked me to do him a favor and read his brother’s script. And I was like “sure”, and I read it and thought “ah, it’s not a bad little script”. And I said, “you know, I don’t know if I can give you any days, but have him call my agent and see if it will work out”. And I think they worked out three or four days, and so he put together those days and I did the film. And I’m really glad I did it because I like the way it turned out.

Yeah, it was really good. It’s something kind of different from what you’ve done for most of your career. And that comes out June 12^th. And since I only have you for a few minutes, I do want to talk to you about…

I’ve got Bad Ass coming out, I’ve got a movie called Dead in Tombstone coming out, I’ve got Recoil coming out. I just finished a film for the SyFy channel. And then I’ve got Machete 2 [Machete Kills] getting ready to start.

Yeah, you start shooting this month isn’t it? Or next month?

Yeah, June 14^th.

I was looking at the cast earlier, and the cast is even better than the first one.

No doubt. You said it. Boy, it is going to be awesome.

I mean Sofia Vergara, are you going to have a couple scenes with her?

[laughs] Oh, I’ll pay Robert [Rodriguez] to have a couple scenes with her. [laughs]

If you guys need a 6’4” extra, let me know and I’ll be there.

[laughs] You got it. [laughs]

Yeah, seriously. Mel Gibson is signed on as well, it is going to be amazing.

I’ve read the script, Robert said he’s keeping the good stuff stashed though. I’ve read it, and it’s amazing.

Alright man…

Thank you my brother. God bless you. Don’t forget, Bad Ass, Recoil, Dead in Tombstone and Machete!

Definitely! And hopefully I’ll get a chance to talk with you next year when that comes out.

Gotcha!