Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption and Hollywood

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Trejo began attending 12-step programs while still serving time and eventually became sober and later worked a a drug counselor. This led to a call in 1985 to the set of the film “Runaway Train” to counsel one of the actors. Donal Logue: One thing is, look... What's important is, that was an intersection between our world of film and television and what it does, and the very real world that it was attempting to portray. Edward James Olmos, to me, is one of the greatest actors of all time. Danny Trejo is more than an actor for the millions of Mexican Americans, like me, who love him,” says Michelle Herrera Mulligan, senior editor at Atria Books. “He is a legend. A role model. The first Chicano action star. Someone we can always hold up as a hero who made it. One of my proudest acquisitions to date, this book shows us the difficult path it took to get him there, in unforgettable, literary detail.” If there's anything he hopes readers walk away with, he says,it is the belief "that it doesn't matter where you start, it's where you end."

On the television side, Trejo reunited with Robert Rodriguez for Miramax’ From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series. He also had recurring roles on Sons of Anarchy, King of the Hill, Breaking Bad, and The Flash, and has been featured in episodes of Blue Bloods,WHAT We Do in the Shadows, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Kidding, among others. Danny has recently wrapped the 3rd season of AMERICAN GODS, where he will be playing the character of MR. WORLD. Donal Logue: And they don't really make movies about that, which is unfortunate, sometimes. The kid who comes up from the barrio or the hood or whatever, and he goes, "I went to college and I'm a CPA now."Don’t take everything on your shoulders. The ocean, other people’s behavior, they do what they are going to do. Since you can’t control that, don’t be distressed about it." At age seven, Trejo participated in his first drug deal. [17] He was first arrested at the age of 10, [18] but experienced his first incarceration at Eastlake Juvenile Hall in 1956. [18] Trejo was born on May 16, 1944, on Temple Street in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, to Mexican-American parents. [2] [3] [4] He is the son of Delores Rivera King [5] and Dionisio "Dan" Trejo (1922–1981), [6] a construction worker. Trejo was the result of an extramarital affair; Delores's husband was away fighting in World War II. [7] His parents met at a dance hall in Highland Park, Los Angeles in 1943. [8] He had a maternal half-sister, Dyhan, but saw neither her nor Delores from 1949 until 1965; his father banned his mother from seeing him after Trejo sprained his arm in her care. [7]

a b c d e Bowles, Scott (September 3, 2010). " 'Machete' star Danny Trejo is an illustrated man, in many ways". USA Today. Archived from the original on June 30, 2012 . Retrieved November 4, 2011. Danny Trejo at Sofi Stadium 'Pinch Me, I'm Dreaming' ". June 11, 2021. Archived from the original on August 29, 2021 . Retrieved August 29, 2021. Trejo, Danny and Logue, Donal. (2021) Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood. United Kingdom: John Blake Publishing. ISBN 9781789465426. An honest, unflinching, and “inspirational study in the definition of character” (Kevin Smith, director and actor), Trejo reveals how he managed the horrors of prison, rebuilt himself after finding sobriety and spirituality in solitary confinement, and draws inspiration from the adrenaline-fueled robbing heists of his past for the film roles that made him a household name. He also shares the painful contradictions in his personal life. Although he speaks everywhere from prison yards to NPR about his past to inspire countless others on their own road to recovery and redemption, he struggles to help his children with their personal battles with addiction, and to build relationships that last.Danny Trejo: The reality is, Edward, stepped into a realm that he knew nothing about. Nothing. And he wanted to play this character that was a real gangster, who was a Mafioso. So, instead of playing him real, he played him as an actor, understand? Instead of writing "real," he wrote as an actor. I remember, me and Eddie Bunker said, "You can't do this, homes. You're gonna get in trouble." And to show you... I met with Edward James in the morning. That afternoon, I get a call from my cousin, Sal, who was in Palm Hall, that's where they held the Mafiosos. And Sal says, "Danny, do you know Joe Morgan?" I said, "Yeah, I know Joe." He said, "Are you okay, homes?" "Yeah, I'm alright, what are you talking about?" "He wants to talk to you." And Joe [doesn't] call people unless he's gonna say, "We're gonna kill you." And then, he won't even call! But I said, "It's fine, it's cool, don't sweat it." He said, "Go over to Eddie's, he'll call you at 5:00." He calls Eddie, goes, "Hey, what's up, Joe? Here he is!" And he hands me the phone. I had met with Edward James about his movie at 10:00 at Jerry's Deli on Ventura Boulevard in Encino. That afternoon, that evening, Joe Morgan, leader of the Mexican Mafia, called me and said, "Hey Danny, I hear you're up for that movie, American Me." And I said, "Joe, I'm up for both of them. I'm up for Blood In Blood Out, too." And he said, "Which one are you gonna do, homes?" I said, "I'm gonna do Blood In Blood Out, why?" And he said, "Oh yeah, that's the cute one." See, he already knew we weren't going to disrespect anybody. Yes, we were going to make a movie about killers and bad guys, but we weren't going to say "The Mexican Mafia" and try to make a documentary. So I had his blessings, and he said, "You know, Danny, you could do the other one and get away with it, but va a caer un chingao de perro (they're gonna come down on this guy *in so many words) I remember him saying it, and Joe spoke perfect Spanish: "va a caer, un chingau de perro, homes." I was like, "I can see that, Joe." Masculine means you go to work, you support your family, you help out your neighbors – that’s masculine, that’s machismo. We got it screwed up, thinking we’re supposed to be warriors. No, we’re not, we’re supposed to be caretakers. That’s what masculinity means to me now." After concluding Animal Factory in 1999, he contracted Hepatitis C and "had to drag [his] ass" from Canada to Austin, Texas, to begin filming of Spy Kids in 2000. Spy Kids marked Trejo's debut as the fictional character Isador "Machete" Cortez. Having already made Desperado and From Dusk Till Dawn together, the opportunity to collaborate with Robert Rodriguez, Antonio Banderas, and Cheech Marin once again "felt like [a] family reunion." [56] Spy Kids provided Trejo with worldwide recognition and for the first time he was "instantly recognizable" amongst children around the globe. [57] Trejo’s co-writer, Logue, has been friends with Trejo for 30 years. "Although Danny has told his story many times, I think we were able to go much deeper with this book," Logue said. "He dealt with the specter of his childhood traumas and discovered things he had compartmentalized and put away.” Now, he’s written all these stories down in a memoir titled “Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood,” which is available in both English and Spanish editions July 6 via Atria Books.