Chris –
Nick, I really want to hear your story because I grew up with Nick and we grew up I mean, I’ll tell you guys a quick, quick story. So I met Nick. I was in seventh grade, and somehow my parents let me go to a pool hall like every Friday. And this pool hall was bad news. I mean, I think the reason it closed down was because somebody got shot there on a Friday night. So I’m there and I see this kid who is about the same size as me wearing the same clothes as me that there was what your brothers are. Guess it was vegetable grocery jeans, redwing boots, and a polo, and he’s sitting there smoking a cigaret. Right, and think about if anybody has seven kids in seventh grade, think about how messed up that is. So I walk up to this dude and I’m like, you got to light a cigaret. Yeah. So. So then the next day we had been hearing swirls like, there’s this kid at the school across the street that you’ve got to meet. He’s just like you, which is basically he’s cocky or whatever the word they wanted him and you know we were the smallest kids in a gang-riddled San Antonio Middle School and we had to rely on our personalities to not get our asses kicked. And when you’re.

Nick –
As small as we were.

Chris –
So we relied on each other from that perspective. But one of the things that I saw with Nick was he always had a confidence level that I wanted to have. And so when I think about where you guys can go with, you know, somebody set it up here, I think, Nora, you said that getting in the rooms with people that are doing just a few steps ahead of you are going to help you in life and I think this friendship with Nick has really propelled me because I remember him telling me one time, I hope I don’t come back because he went to Stanford. I don’t know if those of you who know Nick know that he’s an academic. He went to Oxford. He graduated from Stanford. He just had his 25th year anniversary with Stanford and his end as an actor in L.A. He’s doing very, very well, but I barely graduated, graduated high school. Like I think I spent five years at home high school.

Chris –
Yeah, I think yeah, I think so. So. So I was a bit of a mess up, but he was always on my he always had my back and he’s like, don’t let me come back home and see you in the same place and that conversation led me to get out of my seat and do something a little bit different and so I thought it’d be really cool to share with you guys. So, Nick, what is that like, how has this journey been for you? Because one of the things I noticed you got out of you got out of college and literally got like, I felt like it was a blink of an eye. And before you knew you were starring in Resurrection Boulevard, which was a boxing show, which was at the time it was Showtime’s answer to The Sopranos in the Latino version of it and you were the you were the main actor on it.

Nick –
I guess some ways you can describe that, but it was the first Latino primetime series. And yeah, I mean, it was when I moved to L.A. It was when I graduated, I actually couldn’t wait to get out of Stanford. And now I would love to go and sit like in a 7 a.m. class and sit there a lecture. But at the time I just couldn’t wait to graduate and move on and I graduated early, drove down to L.A., and never been there, anything like that, and at the end of that first year, when I got the pilot for Resurrection Boulevard and Ben was able to do three seasons of that show. Yeah, it was very quick I think, you know, my parents didn’t have to worry too long, but in their defense, they were also very supportive from the get-go when I had to break it to them, that this Stanford education that they had paid for was now going to be frittered away after, you know, trying to become an actor, which I have to say in there, you know, a feather in their cap in that in that they were they were just so supportive from the beginning. My mom told me she goes, you know what, you’ve always accomplished anything you set your mind to. I don’t see why this should be anything different.

Chris –
You know, looking at it from an outsider you hit it like I remember. Do you remember the bit when you went back home and there was this big premiere, you know, at Planet Hollywood or whatever, and it was like, Nick did it? He made it. He made it in Hollywood and if he can make it, then, you know, we can do something better with our lives. It was like it was like seeing that somebody left San Antonio and could do something with it. But you and I both know that’s not as easy as the reality was, because after that, there had to be at some point in this span of time, and guys, we haven’t talked about this, which is really cool. But there had to be a point where you had a breakdown. And, you know, I talk a lot about breakthroughs, and breakthroughs are like, I did this and I broke through and I found success, but I don’t really care about that. I really want to talk about the time when being in a business of rejection, being in a business, of having to figure it out on your own, in you know, in a town, you know, no one. What was the time that you really had your back against a wall and had to dig yourself out of it?

Nick –
You know, it’s pretty easy on that. Well, just first to lay it out is when I found myself, whenever I would come home to San Antonio, I mean, I. I remember the first thing I ever did was an episode of Dharma and Greg, which really I remember because if you guys saw it for me, Greg, that was quite a while ago was 1998 and I remember coming home and people would run into people and like, Hey, man, you said you’re going to do it.

Chris –
And you did.

Nick –
It. Then they didn’t realize it was like one job. You know, I had worked my one day and now it’s airing. But to him, I had made it. I was still waiting tables. I was still struggling to pay my rent. I was still trying to keep up the semblance of things. But at the same time, for everyone else I had, I had made it and I think the same thing. People also have an idea of what actors make or what their life is like and don’t realize that there’s not a lot of security. You know, you’re going after an occupation which for most people, more than 90% of the time you’re being told no and then still having to get get out there like, you know, you’re, you know, doesn’t stink, you know, and having to constantly prove yourself even after you feel like you have several times.

Nick –
So everything else can seem like it’s all on the up and up and everything’s working. But, you know, I think there comes a time and this comes a time, I think with a lot of people, no matter what your business is, when you start to realize that, yes, you’re doing something you set out to do, but you’re not enjoying it, you don’t have the passion anymore, you really can’t recommend it I mean, I used to have parents of kids that would come up and go, my daughter or my son wants to become an actor. What do you have to say to them? And instead of giving some really great, inspiring words, which I would give now, I said, If you can imagine yourself doing anything else, do it.

Nick –
Because there’s not a lot prodding you along this road. There’s not a lot that’s and you least of all because each job you get isn’t that next one? And that’s where you have your eyes on that. You can’t even enjoy what’s right in front of you. So I found myself at a time when I had been on Resurrection Boulevard and had done three seasons. I had done The O.C. and it was this big hit. And, you know, and I came out on the second season and everything along the way was always going to be that project, you know, Law and Order SVU, I was brought on, offered a role to be this new undercover cop and thinking, Well, this is going to be it and there’s always this was going to be at moments and offers would still come in and I was doing work, but it wasn’t things that I was excited about. And I was all trying to pay for a $5,000 a month, you know, not on my house. And so the jobs I was taking was to go, you know, was to pay for that.

Nick –
I didn’t have a girlfriend, didn’t have anyone else living in this three-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath house that I just put a second story on and did all this kind of stuff. And now I had to look at my life and say, Am I proud of what I’m doing to support this? I mean, granted, it’s not like I fell off and was doing, you know, softball or anything like that. But I mean, just the choices on where I wanted to be and where I was changing it from being I want to be in the sort of things that I love to watch rather than just being on TV or just, you know, having a chance in an in a very difficult industry and I short-sold the house I had to sell my house. I very luckily met an amazing woman who’s gone on to become my wife. And we have, I was about to say, three children together. I don’t know who this person is. I’m talking about three lovely children. Now we have two children but it came at a time when she was a bit of a saving grace because I was selling this house without really telling a lot of people about it.

Nick –
You know, like, oh, yeah, I’m selling my house, but giving it away practically right. And looking at it now, you know, I mean, you asked me last night, I think, about, hey, what did that house tell you when you. Yeah. And now it’s millions of dollars for, you know, this home that I, you know, and you look back with such regret and I think there were so many times when I could have just decided to leave. I don’t know what I would have done. I don’t know what I’m good at besides this if I can say I am. But there came a time when I just had to restructure everything and my wife was a big part of that and I moved into her.

Nick –
We were living together, know in a one-bedroom, you know, small apartment, and we just kind of looked at each other and we had so much belief that we were going to build our lives together, you know? She was building a staffing agency that went from Los Angeles to 14 cities across the United States. This was later, but this was all, you know, us coming up with our plan together and it took a lot of humility. You know, it took a lot of kind of starting from the beginning and realizing the kind of work I had to put in. But a lot of it I credit with realizing that, you know, your superpower really is being yourself. And that’s the one thing we try to hide the most. I want to come off with this veneer.

Nick –
I want you to think I’m slick. I’m this you know, or so as you say, confident, but we’re hiding that thing. That’s our best commodity, you know, because we’re trying to have this polished, but not realizing that we all want to connect with what makes you human, what makes you you, what makes you drive. And that includes your vulnerabilities, that includes the downfalls, and realizing then that what I have to share is me, not me trying to be all these other people.

Nick –
We’re not all Daniel Day-Lewis, right? We’re not all disappearing into our characters, but we are responsible for going up and showing life and showing a human experience that hopefully moves you, hopefully makes you identify with that, or that. Maybe repair is a part of me that feels broken because we watched someone go through that process and triumph. So those stories are very important to me and I had to tell them and not do the schlock I felt like I was doing at the time. So that really necessitated a reevaluation of everything. And really putting myself out there in a way I never had been prepared to before.

Chris –
At that moment where, you know, being Latino, there is a lot of pride that comes in our blood and we don’t want anybody to know the down that the stuff that’s, you know, behind the curtain and I say Latino, but I think it could apply to anybody with a sense of pride in who they are. And now being secretive about all these things.

Chris –
You and I have been friends for 33 years. I didn’t know that you short-sold that house. Like I literally didn’t know.

Chris –
So thanks for that. I guess we’re not exactly, but really, you know, that moment that you had to come to terms with that you who I know, who has always been confident. How did you get yourself to the point to say, all right, it’s got to go. I’m going to move on. We’re going to do this with Kelsey, your white now wife, to live in a one-bedroom apartment to go to that.

Chris –
That’s a humbling experience for whoever you are. And by the way, the reason I ask Nick this question is that I think that everyone at some point in their life is dealing with that shame of that crossroad of where do they go next, and what are people going to think if I make this decision and then come to think about it ten years later or however long it was, you’re like, wasn’t that it was part of the best decision?

Nick –
Also, nobody was really thinking about you. They’re all too worried about themselves and what you were thinking about them. To be honest. And that’s that’s like we spend so much time trying to satisfy other people. And it really came down to finally, look, teachers will show themselves, opportunities will show themselves. It’s just a matter of if you’re willing to take that jump I mean, how many of us have been in a situation where you unequivocally be like, Oh, yeah, no, that’s not me, thank you. But now that’s and I don’t do that. And it’s making that other choice, you know, and realizing that you’re capable of something that totally changes everything. But for me, people showed themselves, opportunity showed and show presented themselves.

Nick –
I also had a partner who was pushing me along and the times when I wasn’t seeing them because I still had my eyes set on somewhere else and not didn’t see the stepping stones right in front of me because they didn’t feel as big as the things I had had prior. I couldn’t recognize that these were things saving me along the way and I have to wonder how many times I kept falling lower before I finally grabbed on. And some of them were people, you know, and a mentor in my life was a woman who also married my wife and I. HILTONSMITH, who’s a famous acting teacher who coaches the kind of people that you wouldn’t even think have an acting coach and one of her big things that I think is really important is when she says, I am just beginning at any given time, you’re just beginning. You’re keeping a tally of who you were or maybe the police are, unfortunately for some, you know, but no one’s keeping this tally on what you what you’re holding true to or what you’re not like.

Nick –
You are just beginning this opportunity to be whatever you want and to take the steps in that direction presents itself. You don’t have to start Monday. You don’t have to start on the first of the next month. You just start, you know. And that became a big part. I started walking into rooms, being curious about what was going to happen instead of going in with a plan, and then I was going to dump all the work I’d like we all prep, you know, you’re doing your research, but you clients, right, I would imagine, don’t want to see the work sometimes put through. They want it to feel a little more effortless or put it in terms they can all understand. But when you just throw it all out there, it’s sometimes a little too much for people to take and so it became more about going in a room and being excited about what was going to happen, and people would be like, All right, do you have any questions you want to get ready? I’d be like, You know what? I’m just going to let me show you what I prepared. I’m completely malleable after that, but I’m excited to see what’s going to happen and they’re kind of like, okay, he’s not even prepared. Like you’re prepared, but you don’t go in with an idea because I’m depending on the person opposite me. I’m depending on my reader and what color is a person’s eyes opposite you. Have you ever felt so much like when you’re on a business deal, you’re doing things you don’t even regarding the person in front of you because they fit the particular thing that you already know how to solve?

Nick –
So you’re moving on and not realizing along the way there’s a human being opposite you. And it’s the same with me. I, you know, I have to connect with someone and play tennis. I can’t just be I’m not playing wall ball by myself and being open to that and being okay with they might take it some other place.

Nick –
I didn’t want to go with this scene or, you know, with our presentation. So I have to be ready to see what’s going to happen, not be so rigid, I guess.

Chris –
Well, it’s so amazing how that thought process happens to everybody sitting in this room. Everybody sitting in this room has to walk into a room and present, whether it’s to, you know, who you’re trying to get business with or whatever, to somebody. A lot of people I work with, I work with loan officers and loan officers ask me, you know, what’s the what’s my silver bullet? What’s the one thing that I can go to Realtors and say, use me because I’m a, you know, whatever company? Right? I’m not opposed to the company, but you know, I work for this company and I always say it doesn’t matter what that silver bullet is, because what matters is how can I help you? What are your problems?

Chris –
What is the? And so you’re walking into the room with a sense of curiosity instead of just going in there and saying, I’m going to play wall.

Nick –
Ball with my I would imagine much in the same in your industry is people want you to be the solution. That’s it. Yeah. One, they don’t want you to walk in and be a waste of time for them. Or the other thing would be like, See, that’s why I told you this person would work for me. They want you to walk in and be the answer. But for some reason we’re going and going, Oh, God, they’re not going to want this.

Chris –
You know?

Nick –
And it’s this disbelief in yourself of, you know when they want you to be the answer. So when you’re going to audition, they don’t want you. It’s uncomfortable. Auditioning isn’t what I do for a living. I’m an actor. I don’t. So what happens in that room is a different thing. It’s some bastardized version of theater meets, some weird, you know, singing for your supper in front of people.

Nick –
It’s it’s uncomfortable. And that’s for everybody involved, even the director and the people on the other side of the camera. So realizing that you’re a possibility, you’re a choice. But then they want to see an artist. They don’t want to see someone that just walks in and goes, Well, I’m completely direct. Will you just tell me what to do? and I’ll be there. You know, people don’t. So a lot of times don’t have as much of an idea of what they want then as you do or what you want. What’s going to be fun for you to be a part of this project? What’s going to be fun for me? And I’ll show you this is what I this is my idea.

Nick –
I’ll take direction, but I have an idea. I’m someone coming up with I have a passion and understanding of the text and a way that I can offer to be a part of this team as opposed to just someone who’s fulfilling a job opening. And yet, you know, not a part of the leadership, you know, why wouldn’t you be awesome?

Chris –
So I’m going to change gears on you for a second because I think you had built a strategy on something that I don’t even think, you know, you built probably good. And I want and I watched this because like as I study, you know, I study successful people and I always try to emulate some of those traits and you, my friend, have been the king of putting me through our lives in awkward situations, the king of awkward situations. And one of those situations was I was about 22, I think I flew out to L.A. to hang out with you, and I wanted to just go have a beer at a bar with you. And you kept taking me to these clubs and I hated clubs and you were like, We’re going to go. And I hate I like social anxiety, just hate all of it. So we would go. We wait in line, we’d walk up to the front like I’m a VIP. And they’re like, That’s the VIP line. It’s like way over there. Like, so we go away line. I hate waiting in lines and then, and, but it worked for you because you’re like, No, we have to be here because so-and-so is going to be here, or they invited us and we can not show up. But it was a networking opportunity for you like this is work. You were trying to explain to me that we had to be there because it’s worth and in a lot of ways I felt like like you, I was like a wet blanket little brother you were carrying around.

Chris –
Like, even though I’m a little bit older than you I did want to be there. And then on my 30th birthday, I happened to be in LA with some friends and you’re like, I’m going to take you out, like just you and I. Let’s go. And we walked right up to the club. They’d never say a word to you, you just walked in. We walked up, sat with Leonardo DiCaprio, and Kirsten Dunst, and flexed. But it did happen. And then who else was there? Emil? Hey, who else? Yeah, yeah. Hirsch And then. Yeah, and Tobey Maguire, I think too. And it was like a big deal. And I’m like, sitting there and you’re like, Hey, guys, it’s his birthday and I’m like, Just please, don’t. Don’t nobody look at me. I’m awful-looking. I did just like, leave me alone. I’m just sitting there smoking cigarettes because I have nothing better to do. And I remember realizing at that moment, that this guy from the first time I got here nine years later knows everybody. And if you think about you guys who all got up today like there are probably 50% of this room almost didn’t come like you were.

Chris –
You were telling yourself there’s a reason not to come, but you showed up. And because you showed up, you might have connected with somebody that you didn’t know yesterday. And that’s networking. You, my friend, made a business out of it. And how has that impacted you and your career in the industry you’re in?

Nick –
Well, I mean, at first it was very uncomfortable for me. I’m not a born networker. It’s not something I enjoy. And I don’t know if I said I have to be here. That doesn’t.

Nick –
Like me, but because I and I don’t like waiting either. So I would usually just not know. But I know for me I was also in an industry that I didn’t know anything about. I had never been allowed. And so for me was very important from the beginning to get out of the house. At least it wasn’t a matter of who I was with. It was just a matter of meeting people, meeting other people. It wasn’t a matter of, well, who didn’t know someone. It honestly wasn’t. I was very fortunate that so many people know other people who were just impressed as we got to know each other and were like, Hey, you got to meet this kid. I just met her. Oh, I heard you were looking for a young Latino actor. I know this guy. That was then, you know, not young Latino actor now, but that was the way things worked for me. And it was a thing like I, too, have social things. I don’t I wonder, does everybody because I feel like everyone talks about it and no one wants to talk about it. But yet we get up and we open up. I know I’m small. You talked about that a bit too. And it’s like, yeah, same. I mean, this is what I do for that. I get in front of a camera, but I don’t have to say my own words. I’m right. I can blame someone else for what comes out of my mouth. I can blame someone else for the lighting.

Nick –
I can blame someone else for the sound. You know, there’s a lot of. So it’s tough to then be flying out on your own without the support network that I usually travel with. You know that. I mean, not me, but meaning the accouterment of my industry. So I wonder if we’re all just feeling this way and no one wants to talk about it.

Nick –
But yeah, I have a real issue with that. But I think there’s something about being genuine that really grabbed people. I didn’t always maybe I was never a sycophant. I don’t I don’t do well being a part of an entourage. And whether I had the whether I had the juice on my own, it didn’t matter. I just it’s just what I wanted and I think people gravitated in some ways toward that, where they respected that. I didn’t I wasn’t, you know, trying to look after who I could meet and just kind of being very real. And, you know, we got along that way. I think also, Leo, like the girlfriend that I was dating at the time too. So I think that was he was like, How is Christine doing?

Chris –
She had those green eyes.

Nick –
Oh, yeah, yeah.

Chris –
She must have been really young.

Nick –
I mean, because, you know, there’s nothing.

Chris –
Really. I think you’re the same. We were all like 25.

Nick –
But, you know.

Chris –
So you and I were talking just before this and I don’t think you love this conversation, but I do think your take on the conversation is needed because I do think it could be overlooked and maybe we need to change our perception of it was like, you know, tell me how it’s so hard for you to be a Latino in Hollywood. And mainly the reason that resonates with me is because I do think that there are subtle decisions that are made in our industry without even the person who’s making those decisions knowing that they’re making decisions when it comes to people of color and so I do feel like know, I heard John Leguizamo talk about it, you know, very outspoken. He’s been very outspoken about it. And it resonated with me because no one was willing to just open up about it. Right. And here you are, successful, and we’re in a business of rejection. So how many times do you let that dude creep into your mind? Well, I would of if you know eight or is that playing victim to the idea? So that’s why I wanted to I wanted your take on this.

Nick –
The hard part is I mean we have to be honest about the things that lie there. There are racial biases that people have towards us, that they have against themselves. But for me, I still got to get up. I still have to go after this role you know, I can complain. I’m not and John is great and we stand by him. And you know, I do a lot of panels I’m very open about the way it is, too I’m tired of being asked the question. So tell us the state of Latinos in entertainment today because I’m saying this answering the same questions that I’ve been answering from the beginning of my career and not much has changed.

Nick –
There is a bit more visibility, but there are a lot more channels now. There are 500-odd channels. There’s all these TV shows. Some of you haven’t seen anything I’ve done because there are literally that many shows now. We’re not just watching three networks and Fox that came along one day, which a lot of you probably don’t even remember. But there only used to be three networks. And if a president was talking, then, you know, that was all you watched. So I still got to get to work. You know, if you’re going to and if there’s something that if you’re having a breakdown or we say or if I have to fall down, I have to fail. And there have been several big ones in my life, very recent ones, too, where I can let it completely demolish me and come up with all the reasons why I’m I don’t belong anymore or why I’m not relevant anymore or, you know, every time you always wonder, will I get hired again after each job ends? And if I allow it to take me down all the way, I know I’m not going to give up. So then it’s only that much further. I have to come back up. So I don’t try to dwell on that. But have I been told several times to change your name?

Nick –
Yes, I’ve. I’ve been told, well, you can’t play that part because that’s the lead and they’re not going to have a Latino guy to lead. You know, Gonzalez isn’t going to be up on the marquee. It’s not going to be on the poster. And those are very real. And there are so many times where they’re the character that I identify with, you know, the way I sound or something that I want, that I don’t even get the chance at, you know, And then I got to fight with everyone else over the cartel roles that are left over or, you know, gang bangers, which I never, you know, delved into too much because I was pretty adamant about what I was willing to do. I mean, I’m still sitting here wondering whether or not I’m going to do an audition that I have. Even though the strike is not over, they’re still starting. They’re thinking we’re going to end soon where it’s four crazy, unpredictable cartel guys. You know, like you watched Esai Morales on Ozark just recently right? Did an amazing job. Great actor, Great. He’s still out there doing it. But the bummer is like we’re still telling some of these same stories you know, But there’s stories that need to be told. There are stories, and some of them are written involving the border. Some of them involve teenage pregnancy, and some of them involve drugs and like there are stories, we’re also telling a lot of their stories or how they see us. And I just honestly, I think I speak for not only me but several other people around my generation that I’ve sat down with other Latino actors where we’re just tired of doing like sometimes you just want to do something good.

Nick –
Not everything has to be that next, that next Latino project. This is going to be the one that puts us on the map. This is the one that’s going to show that we have billions of dollars to spend on entertainment. So they very well better start catering towards us. This is you. No project can’t carry all that weight. So every movie that comes along is going to be that thing and for some of us, it’s right there in the forefront of us. And other times we don’t even notice, You know, was Blue Beetle a big thing, as it should have been for everyone in this room? As for having a, you know, our first Latino superhero Marvel superhero, maybe not as it should have been. Right. Like, do these things matter to us in the same way?

Nick –
Is it just a bunch of actors arguing about stuff? But, you know, we have to admit, like the COVID hit and what we’re all doing watching TV, right? I mean, so we do want to be entertained. We do want to feel like we’re a part of something bigger. We do feel like a part of a community when we share this art.

Nick –
So I just want to start making it better. I don’t want to make it dependent on being Latino, what I am my culture, and the people around me that I work with that share that culture because we’re not. And that’s the other thing. We’re not a monolith. You know, it’s hard. It’s great that we have this partnership that comes from, you know, I’m Mexican and might be someone from Puerto Rico.

Nick –
I met another young lady here, the Salvadorian-like, but we’re different. I didn’t have that same experience. And they try to lump us all together and say, Well, you’re Latino, you should write up abuses, right? Somalia is not going to be like that. And you go to a Colombian, huh? Hot sauce. You guys like hot sauce, right? Because they don’t even like spice, You know.

Chris –
Like we’re all different.

Nick –
So much, I think, God, that we have this connection that brings us together for us to be willing to suspend and go, okay, we have an allegiance here. We can start from that. Even though these stories are very disparate. That’s why we don’t all cling to a flaming hot movie that comes out or maybe we know exactly that story and that’s my aunt. That’s my own book. But others for others.

Chris –
Were like.

Nick –
It’s not my experience. And so I think it’s more important now to just if the young people see someone like me as a doctor, you know, they see me as a celebrated surgeon and it’s not about that. I like to sell stuff on the weekends and I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but the thing is, it doesn’t have to revolve around that. It’s me as a person, me being Latino, for one thing. For many people, it might be the first thing they see me or the first thing they think when they see me. But, you know, for me, it’s just it’s who I am. So sometimes it’s the fifth thing, not as far as a priority, but just I don’t have to put it up there because that’s me.

Nick –
Do you see what I’m saying? So now I’m just concentrating on trying to put out work that I feel represents us universally. You know, you see a story that you can’t we’re not I mean, name a famous story that brought people together that you may not have any experience with that part of life. You know, but yet we all feel it and identify because there’s something else that represents that we’ve struggled for and have been denied or that we ultimately got and so we can take part in this stop drawing these lines off of who’s going to enjoy this or oh, this is a Hispanic movie, this Latino movie, you know, it’s just a damn good movie, you know, with a good story.

Chris –
Yeah. But I think also.

Nick –
The work has to be better, You know, just blindly supporting it for the sake of support isn’t the same thing as we just having to demand a better quality and, you know, it takes a lot, like to become a professional. You got to throw up a lot of a lot of schlock first. You know, there’s a lot of stuff that just goes up on the wall until we start figuring it out but, you know, it’s time.

Chris –
To do good work. You. I love it. Thank you. Yeah. And, you know, Nick, I really appreciate the fact that you took time to come out. And for those of you that are like, have been sitting through this like, what is this guy on? You could IMDB him, but. But he is on the Good Doctor. He was on Narcos.

Chris –
He’s been on SVU a ton of times. The popular show right now is brilliant. But one of the things about this individual is he was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. That’s where I was born and raised. He went to Central Catholic, then went to Stanford, spent some time in Oxford, did and has just done an amazing job in his career and, you know, was really cool enough to come out and do this for us. So I just want to thank you. And by the way, like, I don’t think my success would have been what it is without my buddy. Thank you.

Nick –
I can say the same. I can say the same because, you know, for me, one of my biggest things when I was really going after it was I knew I had a whole city, eventually. A whole state. Yeah. The whole culture or, you know, maybe not everybody in this room. And I don’t mean to say I have everybody behind me, but I genuinely felt like I had people that were really looking out for me, that you may have been like the others I came over like you made in and I’m just sitting there going, Oh God, he doesn’t even know. I’m sure it’s all in my house and, you know, and stuff. But he’s like, You did it. You said you were going to do it, you did it. And that’s what I knew. I had people rooting for me that that were really looking like it was a win for all of us in many ways, you know, And people look at, you that way.

Nick –
I mean, our friends back home and not just people who are like people who’ve gone on to do so many other things. I know my friends that call you for advice, you know, that you don’t even know independently of you know, that we share and are motivated by. But you do that for so many people, you know and I mean, you’re one of the reasons I didn’t die of I mean, we can really get into some of these stories. This guy saved my life. I mean, you had to be a talker when you were as tiny as we were, like four foot something. Not that we’re much taller than that now. And we weighed about half of what we did. You know, one of us was two of us back then. You know, I mean, he saved literally saved my bacon a couple of times because this mouth, you know, didn’t know how to stop. So I learned a lot from it.

Chris –
I tell you that for sure.

Nick –
And also for me, it’s never a thing about like, oh, thank you for taking time. And, you know, look, I have a family. That’s what my time is about. Not because I have parties. You and I don’t do anything with my kids, you know? And then I go off to work and then I can’t wait to get home to them. So for me to be relevant, for you to even be like this, this is this is a win for me. I met so many amazing people. I said, Listen to your panel. And I was like, That’s me. Those are my stories too. Like, that’s why I feel like an imposter all the time. I’m the one over there that someone’s finally going to go, Hey, what are you doing over there? I’m going to skitter out of the room for later. You know, he’s been in here all this time. You know, you’re finally going to be each project. I’m going to be figured out. Who knows? Maybe I’ve been. But this is important to me. This is, you know, sharing. I’m here to learn. I’m here to listen the same way.

Nick –
I don’t I would hope that some of the stuff we’ve shared has resonated. But no, that it’s I get just so, so much back from even the modicum of support I didn’t see today. So thank you for having me.

Chris –
Thank you, guys. Thank you And Nick. Thank you, man.