224: Danny Trejo

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0:31me him and Robert had lunch I sat there and I watched these two guys write a film during lunch let me tell you something if you stand between Robert and Quentin during a conversation you'll good electrocuted.

0:52You're listening to The Taste Podcast. I'm your host, Matt Rodbard.

0:59Danny Trejo is an actor and author of several cookbooks, including Trejo Tacos and his latest, Trejo Cantina. I had Danny into the studio recently and he honestly let it rip. Man, such a great conversation and so many stories. He talks about working with Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino, what makes a great taco, his life behind bars, and what food was like growing up in the east side of LA. I hope you enjoy this conversation with one of America's most colorful actors.

1:36Danny Trejo, welcome to the Taste Podcast. Thank you. Thank you so much. It's great to be here. Loves having you in. Your books are, they're full of life. I love your restaurants. I've been to several of them in LA too. Yeah. It's, but first from the jump, I love this line. You opened your introduction. Think like a prisoner, cook like a caterer. I love, like, what does that mean? I mean, it says a lot. When, uh, I was in the universities at California, uh, and we wouldn't get a visit on Sunday. Sunday's a visiting day. So what we would do is everybody would bring something to the table, you know, like a picnic on the yard.

2:16And we would get top ramen and go from there and mix it and end up with a really great casserole. Might have chicken, might have steak, might have both, you know, and a lot of vegetables. So all of a sudden, it's like everybody became kind of a we mix it cook. You know, like you were able to put things together. And then besides that, my mom was an unbelievable cook. Yeah, yeah. And she would cater meals for the whole family, like basically? Like great, so that's how. Let me ask you, when you're in prison and your food is a commodity, I mean, it's more valuable than it is in the outside world.

3:00What were some of the trades you were doing? Well, you know what? Now that they stopped smoking in prison, top ramen is actually the money. Yeah. You know, I'll give you three soups for, you know. For one cup of ramen. Yeah, yeah. And so it's like, but that's the money. And it's still it's like if prison, if you are like an inmate, you have a lot of trouble in prison. But if you're a German convict, it's like you kind of have people making food for you. And you have different privileges that the regular kind of prisoner don't have. What's like considered good food, like special treatment food?

3:47Well, you know, what do you got? I want a cheeseburger. I want a steak. A steak? Oh, yeah. You got a steak once in a while? Well, if your money's right, you know, you can get anything. It's fascinating. Well, I want to talk to you about your restaurants and your book. But before that, you referenced your mother, the cooking. What was food like in your household growing up? Well, you know, mainly Spanish tamales, enchiladas, migas for breakfast. Unbelievably good dish. Yeah. Yeah, just always. But, you know, again, it's like if you're a low-income, you know, family, it's like your meals are unbelievable the first of the month.

4:30But come towards the end of the month, you start – I used to ask my mom, what is this? It's called out of the cupboard. And she would know how to mix things and make them palatable, make them delicious, you know. And so that was the same. Did you have a lot of siblings growing up? No. It was just me. Just you and your mom. And my dad, yeah. And your dad, the three of you, you were a tight unit. What was her dish, the one thing that she did the best? It didn't matter. My mom was unbelievable cooking, yeah. And, you know, like on Christmas and stuff, the whole family would get together and everybody would be making tamales, you know.

5:12And so now you can just go down and, you know, buy three, four dozen anywhere, you know. And they're good. Where are you living these days in L.A.? In Los Angeles, I live in Mission Hills, which is about three miles from Pacoimo where I grew up. Yeah, yeah. What's your kitchen set up? Do you have like a pretty nice kitchen out in your outdoor? Yeah, but I have a great Mexican restaurant right across the street. Let's go there because I've been to Trejo's, as I mentioned, and you do something different. I think you're bringing life and energy. It's lighter in some ways. I mean, to use the word healthy is hard, but it is healthier.

5:50But tell me, what are you trying to do with Trejo's Tacos? You know what? It's like, okay, first of all, Latino communities has a real tough obese problem, you know, because a lot of starch, a lot of the food. So what we try to do is say, wait a minute, let's get a place to where it's like no matter how much, he's still healthy, you know, and it's good for him. So you can go in and order just about anything. We have gluten-free because I work with autistic children and doctors have said they don't do well with gluten. So you can order a gluten-free menu, and we also have a vegan, vegetarian, bite into a cow if you want to, or we got carnitas and chorizo.

6:37It's like whatever you want. We've made it to where it's an all-inclusive restaurant because a lot of times, especially me, when I wrap a movie, 10 of us will want to go eat and in every, well, okay, I'll have a salad because they're vegan. It's LA, come on, where that stuff is invented. And so we just made it. So a lot of times we can always tell when there's five or six or seven people coming in, it's like, oh, you just wrapped. Yeah, yeah. Well, I want to talk about the catering table on films, but one more question about Mexican restaurants in LA. If you're not at Trejo's, is there a spot that you go to a taqueria, a taco truck?

7:13You know what? there's only one restaurant that I eat at a Mexican restaurant. If, if it's not trails and it's called three hermanos and it's down the street from my house. So, and it's absolutely delicious. You know, it's almost, almost hits trails. I mean, Danny, if you're rolling in there and they're like, they know you own like nine, 10, 12 of these places. So what, what are you ordering? They must treat you well. What's so funny is that they actually have a chair with my name on it. Oh my gosh. So you got to share with your name. Are you doing tamales there? Oh, yeah. Tamales, enchiladas.

7:51Yeah. All the food is really, really good. And it's Mexican, so that's kind of a. Why as a culture do we love Mexican food so much? Meaning Americans who are not of Mexican descent. You know what? I think one of the reasons is because we're fed culture every day right from the border. You know, we are so close to the border that it's. We can almost hear the mariachis from the other side. And in San Diego, it's even bigger than coming up north and all the way up to Oregon. It's Latino. We have the biggest population of Latino now. I mean, absolutely. And certainly the cuisine has been articulated on menus regional Mexican, Jalisco, Oaxacan.

8:38You see it all. It's like the most exciting food in America. Yeah. And I love the fact that you can go into any state and find good Mexican food. Any state in the United States. Really? Like even like Nebraska? Hey. Omaha, I'm eating good. I'm sure. Listen, Nebraska listeners, I know you're out there. I'm sorry. That was not meant to be a dick. No. But, I mean, Mexican food, it carries well. It's incredible. So expansion-wise, are you thinking like you're going like big? Well, right now we've got five in L.A. Yeah. We've got a donut shop. We're opening up one in Detroit with a venue like the House of Blues.

9:18Wonderful. Because I started a record label, so. Why not? Play records there. And then we've got, we're opening up one in London. I love that. So why do you pick Detroit? I love that. I'm from Michigan. You know, there's a big Latino community, first of all. And then I think we're siding with Live Nations because they've had quite a following as far as concerts. So we're going to try like a House of Blues venue. I like that. Okay, let's talk about the set, like on a film set or on a television show set. What makes good catering on set? Budget. I love it. Well, it's like because, you know, like if you do a low budget movie, you know, you're going to get, you know, cheeseburgers.

10:14Yeah. You know, and. No one wants a cheeseburger when they're working. I mean, it's a beautiful dish. You know what? It's kind of what I do. If I'm on a low budget movie, I usually make a tuna salad before I go to work. Yes. And that's actually what got me into the restaurant business was because I was doing a film called Badass. Yeah. Which was a low-budget movie, but the director, a guy named Craig Moss, great director, needed a star, needed a name. So Gloria gave him mine and said, hey, this guy, blah, blah. So I got into this movie, and it was kind of as a favor. Yeah. But as the favor turned out, it turned into a trilogy.

11:03So I did three movies back to back, but I met a producer named Ash Shaw who had been in the restaurant business, and he saw me eating healthy. And he said, Danny, why don't you open a restaurant? jokingly I said Trejo's Tacos and then when we did Badass Badasses Badass on the Bayou with Danny Glover that's great he brought a business plan and so you know I looked at it the producer Ash did and he's like let's go he was like let's he saw it I looked at it and there was no killing in the first page so I gave it to Gloria and she kind of said It's a no-brainer. Because usually when somebody comes with you with a business plan, they want$100 ,000 up front.

11:55Yeah, I mean, of course. You're like, you've seen a million of those teams. They didn't. They said, no, let's do this together. And right now we've got like five restaurants. And they're really good. And did the catering get better as you ended up doing Badass 1, Badass 2, Badass 3? Oh, yeah, of course. Good point. Yes, yes. On Badasses on the Bayou, we had good food. Good food. I've heard that from a couple of actors who've had on the show. What do you like to eat when you're working? Do you have a pre-performance? If I'm working, I like to eat light. I don't like to light. Because you know what I mean?

12:29You eat heavy, and you want to take a nap, you know, and especially at my age. So I'll eat light. I won't eat heavy. I'd love to eat a good sandwich and a cup of soup. What was the catering like on Con Air? I feel like Con Air is like a big budget. Con Air, Heat. I mean, we had Fili Mignon on time. Oh, sick. On Heat, we had Pacino, De Niro, you know, Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, rest in peace. Yeah, R.I.P., man. And John Voight, you know, so we had the biggies. So, yeah, when you have a big budget, I mean, each one gets their trailer. What do you like to see in those menus? Oh, I don't care. It doesn't matter.

13:15Let me ask you about Con Air. So you've got yourself, Nick Cage, Ving Rhames, MC Ganey, but then I've heard a rumor John Cusack was the biggest badass on that set. John Cusack, let me tell you something. John Cusack, people don't know this, but his sensei is a guy named Benny Yukitis, who was five-time world champion karate kickboxer. Him and Chuck, if you ever want to, If you ever want to like shut the karate guys up on a movie set, mention Chuck Norris or Benny Yukitas. Cause then all the guys that are running around doing, they'll shut up or they'll walk away. Cause those guys were real. You know, the other guys are, I went, John Claude was a dancer.

14:02Seagal was, I don't know. A movie star. Not really a fighter, but Cusack's study. I'm the only person that ever killed John. I mean, Steven Seagal on camera. What's the kill shot? Take us through it. I killed Steven Seagal in machete when we were having a fight with machetes. And I'm the only person to ever kill him. So maybe that's like part of his contracts. He just does not want to get dead in. But, of course, you've got to do it. But Cusack was really tough on that set. Cusack, he was the great guy, nicest guy in the world. He is the guy that's carrying a gun and people don't. You know, because if you carry a gun, you know, and somebody gives you a hard time, come on, go on, go away.

14:48You know, you got six bullets, you know, put your lights out. And it's the same thing with Cusack. Cusack can kill you. And so it's like he didn't even know. Yeah, okay, okay. He's tough. The guy can, these are like certified weapons in his hands. Yeah. I like that to hear that because you need to think of like high fidelity, chunky Zach, not top. So nice guy. Such a nice guy. You worked a lot with Robert Rodriguez, Machete Spy Kids from Dusk Till Dawn. You guys have a special relationship. Robert Rodriguez is a great. Talk about him. You know, when I first met Robert, I walked into his office in Venice.

15:27He had an office there where he was casting for Desperado. And I walked in and he said, wow, you look like the bad guys in my high school. And I said, I am the bad guys in your high school. We just laughed, right? What a line. And so we made friends and talked and handed me a knife. Gloria, when I came back, asked me what he says. I don't know. He gave me a knife. And so I got the job, and I was in Acuna, Mexico with him. All my family came down from San Antonio to see me on this movie set. And my uncle, who is really, who was, he passed away, really known in San Antonio, seen Robert and said, who is that?

16:17And I said, that's Rodriguez, the director. My uncle, no etiquette, movie etiquette whatsoever. Hey, hey, hey, come here. And Robert, being Latino, seeing an older man calling him, he comes, you know, and director or not. And he goes, yes, sir. And he starts talking. And then all of a sudden, Robert goes, my uncle, hey, Danny, say hello to your cousin. Found out Robert Rodriguez was my second cousin. And each of you had no idea. Neither one of us did. And you had worked together on films. No, that was the first movie. That was the first film. So your family, let's go back to this knife. You meet Robert Rodriguez in an office and he gives you a knife?

17:00It's one of the little knives that I was throwing in Desperado. Yeah. He said, learn how to twirl that. Is that right? So he gave you that first cue that like it's a physical role. Did you have knife skills before then? What? Did you have knife skills before this? Yes. Gloria is sitting next to us shaking her head. You have to have knife skills in prison. Well, that's a given. We've seen the films. We've watched the shows. Believe it at that. Now, I would like to hear about Quentin Tarantino. You've worked with him a lot. And I wonder, I mean, you've acted alongside him. Now, Quentin seems like a very exacting guy.

17:38His films are very specific. In terms of food in Quentin, do you have any memories of sharing meals with Quentin? I feel like he's the kind of guy who probably orders. We, him and Robert had lunch one time at that Mexican restaurant in Austin that they like to go to. I forget which one it is. But I sat there and I watched these two guys write a film during lunch. Let me tell you something. If you stand between Robert and Quentin during a conversation, you'll get electrocuted. It's like magic. I mean, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. It's like seeing electricity. They're both unbelievably smart. And as an actor, you love seeing your directors do that because they're creating roles for you with that energy.

18:38And Quentin, it's funny. When I met Quentin, I was on the set of Desperado. And I'm standing there. And he just, I don't know who he was, right? He just goes, hey, you know what? We're going to do this role. Oh, it's going to be crazy. And they were already writing from dusk to dawn. I didn't know it. But he had this – he was already casting me from dusk to dawn. He writes to actors. Yes. That's famously his way. What do you know about his last film? He's working on his final film apparently right now as we speak in pre-production. I don't know. Gloria, get me on it. Exactly. I mean I feel like there's got to be a role for you.

19:20You've worked with him in so much. No, he's amazing. I got his phone number, so I'll call him. Yeah, yeah, text him. Shoot him up. Yo, yo, get me in this film. So in Austin, is it Fonda? Yes, absolutely. What's that place? You're, like, having a meal with these legends there with yourself as a legend? You know what? It's like I hate to sound like a little girl, but when you walk with those two, you're, like, three feet above the ground. I mean, you know, they're both tall anyway for Mexicans. I mean, they're both tall guys, you know, but you're just like, you're with heavyweights Quentin Tarantino Robert Rodriguez the heavyweight and Danny Treo what a trio you're modest but like you're part of the fabric of these films and there's these genre films that are so beloved no absolutely sir I mean I really appreciate what you do and I think your skill is tremendous and you know with Machete that was a big role for you but you started small right I'd like to get a sense of did you ever want to give up when you were getting just smaller roles?

20:21No. I had, you know, when I walked out of a movie set, a runaway train, I ran into a friend of mine that I knew in one of the universities, a guy named Eddie Bunker. Eddie Bunker was the most powerful inmate in San Quentin. He was the captain's clerk. Now, the captain's clerk is the guy that gets the captain to sign whatever he's got assigned. So if a guard is giving you trouble and you got$50 or$100, hey, Eddie, get this guy out of here. So he will write a transfer for that guard, put it in front of the captain while he's signing a bunch of papers. All of a sudden that guard would find himself on the 12 to 6 shift out in the bay.

21:16You know what I mean? And not know how he got there, but he would stop messing with it. And it was like, that's how powerful this guy was. And Eddie was my friend. And so when he saw me on this, he said, what are you doing? And we just talked. And he said, you know what? We need someone to train one of the actors how to box. He saw me win the lightweight and the welterweight title up in San Quentin. And so I said, what's it pay? Because they were going to give me 50 bucks for acting like a convict. and we laughed because we'd been doing that for free forever. I was going to say, that's the role you were made to play.

21:52Made to play. Yeah. And so I said, what's he paying? He says,$3.20 a day. And when he said that, I said, how bad do you want this guy beat up? I thought he wanted me to, it was a hit. You know, he matters. I'd have done it for another$50. And then I started training Eric Roberts out of box for the movie Runaway Train. Yeah. And Andrei Kozulowski, the director, saw me and just kind of said, hey, you be in this movie. That's a famous director right there. Oh, man, he was amazing. And that's how I got actually in. And that was his first American movie. Yeah. Andrei Jones. When you're training an actor, because it sounds like you had that role to box, what do you tell them?

22:34Well, you know what? It's like actors are really good people. Movie stars suck. You know, I mean, no, no, actors are like, listen, but movie stars know everything. I mean, some movie stars have been in the business since they were five, six, seven, eight years old. So it's hard to tell them, hey, you fight like a lady. You know, I'm so, and if you're trying to teach them something, it's like, yeah, yeah, that's right, that's right. But try it this way. You can't tell them they're wrong. It won't listen to you. No, no. You know what I mean? And stunt guys have told me, God, it's like, hey. Who's the biggest diva you've had to work with?

23:19Oh, no, I can't. I might want to work with him again. No, I appreciate you not taking the bait on that one. Have you had a chance to work with Leo at all? I feel Leonardo DiCaprio is method. No. I took tennis shoes away from Leonardo DiCaprio. It's funny because we were before, right when he did the Queen Mary, what was the boat movie? Titanic. The Titanic, right, yeah. And right when he finished that, but before he got really popular, we were at Adidas. And, you know, they used to give actors free stuff. Oh, yeah. And I put these tennis shoes down, and me and Black were, like, getting shoes, right?

23:56And he picked up my tennis shoes. Hey, that's mine. And so, oh, he put them down. You probably scared the shit out of that guy. I didn't know who he was. And then I got him. And then we walked around and it's, you know who that was? And now that was Leonardo DiCaprio. Okay, who's that? Well, he's a student of the game. It seems he probably has a lot of respect for you. I feel like you guys should share a role at some point. Oh, that'd be fun. Let's put that out in the ether. You've got the book. You've got restaurant. We'll talk about the book. But you've got restaurant growth. What have you been working on?

24:29Well, God, I finished seven cemeteries. Then I finished, what was the binge? The binge? And then I finished 1521. I played Magellan. And we were trying to baptize the Philippines. Wow. Well, you know, that was when... That sounds violent. When the Spaniards were trying to baptize everybody. That sounds violent. Or kill them. Yeah. Really violent movie. But it was real history, you know. What are you thinking about when you're playing this very problematic character in World of the Spring? I was very problematic. No, you had a great crew, great star. I forget his name. Great, great kid. And so it's like everybody was just so, we're in the Philippines, and it's 184 degrees.

25:24Well, you're wearing period costumes. You're wearing some crazy ass hat, I'm sure. And a metal vest, right? And thick pants. I mean, literally a chrome vest. So, oh, boy, this will get hotter. Oh, my God. Danny, are you on a soundstage? Are you on the open water? No, no, no. We're out in the ocean. You're out in the ocean on real period boats? Yeah, this is really unreal. It was beautiful. It had great fight scenes, though. It sounds unbelievable. It's going to be a great movie. 1521. And then Seven Cemeteries is about me coming back to life and having to raise some zombies to fight with me. And it's like awesome.

26:08It is amazing. That sounds really good. So when you're raising zombies, what's the plot point? Are you like – Well, I have to cut my wrist. Give them food. This whole thing, man. I love it when they get it right. And the director got it right. And my son even played in it. My son Gilbert played me as being young. It's so funny. They're trying to find an actor that looks like me being young. And finally somebody goes, what about him? He's my son. He looks like me. Is that his first role? No, he's been around for a long time. He just got into the DGA. Oh, good for him. What was he doing? Gilbert Trao.

26:50Right now he's going to London to shoot a music video. But he's just really coming up. And I told him, kid, you just turned into my retirement plan. You must be so proud to have a son in the business. I am so proud. It's a tough business. What's the tougher business, Hollywood or restaurants? Well, you know what? Nothing is tough if you have the right people around you. And if you are a people person and you can get along, people make things tough. I agree. People make things tough. If I want somebody to do something and I say, hey, go do this, it's like, wait a minute, could you please do this?

27:30It's like there's a big difference. And when people look at me, they think I'm going to say, go do this. So wait a minute, hey, would you please go do the ad? So that's what makes, you know, I refuse to make things tough. You have a great reputation in this office. We publish your books, but also in general. and you must surprise people when you come at them with like a very kind response. You're like kind of a scary dude on television. Eddie Bunker once said, Danny, you have to disarm people immediately. You have to say hello first and you have to say it not like you're going to kill them and then go kill the person that dry cleans their clothes.