¡Viva Trejo!
How to get a head in show business, with Danny Trejo.
Once seen, never forgotten, Danny Trejo has perhaps the most familiar face in Hollywood: like tanned, ridged leather, with a wonky handlebar ‘tache and eyes that’ll burn right down to your soul. A former drug addict, alcoholic and armed robber with years of prison in his chequered past, today Trejo is better known for memorable appearances in more than 400 feature films and TV shows.
“When you’re doing an action movie you’re surrounded by a bunch of Hollywood kids trying to act like gangsters,” says tough guy Trejo, 78. “They want to stay in character, be obnoxious and rough. Hollywood guys try to make you believe they grew up on the streets, but I tell ‘em, ‘Two shows a night on Broadway don’t count!’ They’re not the streets I grew up on. Those guys are kind of funny, but not on purpose.”
Back in Trejo’s jailbird days, a big screen career was way beyond his comprehension. “To tell you the truth, I never thought I’d get out of prison. I had a very bad attitude, a terrible temper and I didn’t play well with others. I was always in trouble and finally I realised, my life was my fault. I was to blame for everything. So I made some changes. Got alcohol out of my life. Then tried to help others too.”
A pleasing side effect of cleaning up his act was that the L.A. legend could finally enjoy Christmas. “When I was young all I did was get into trouble. Through most of the Sixties I was in jail. Every year, someone would set the Christmas tree on fire. It wasn’t very festive. Christmas 1969 was the best I ever had. I’ll never forget it. I was 25 years-old and it was my first Christmas at home in years.”
Decades later, father-of-two Danny still gets a great big kick out of the festive season. “Everybody always meets at my moms’ house, at least for a little while. It doesn’t matter what else we have going on. We all stop by and give each other presents. It’s kinda funny because Grandma still gives everyone 20 bucks. Every year the same, ignoring the fact the kids are all grown up now and $20 doesn’t go as far as it used to!”
The story behind Trejo’s meteoric rise to fame is a rags-to-riches fairy tale so classically Hollywood it beggars belief. “Back in the Eighties, there was so much cocaine in Hollywood, it was crazy. I was working as a drugs counsellor in 1984 and visited the set of Runaway Train (1985) to help somebody there stay clean. I ran into a guy who’d I’d been in the penitentiary with and he asked me if I still boxed. He remembered I’d won the lightweight and welterweight boxing titles in San Quentin. He said someone in the movie needed training. So of course I said yes.
“He introduced me to Andrei Konchalovsky, the film’s director. We’re still friends. I always give him credit for starting my career. He hired me to train Eric Roberts and I guess Eric was scared of me so he always did what I told him to do! Andrei liked that and put me in the movie.”
Konchalovsky aside, the director Trejo is most closely associated with is Machete’s (2010) Robert Rodriguez. “I first met Robert in 1994 when I walked into his office to test for Desperado (1995). He looked at me and said, ‘Wow. You remind me of the bad guys in my high school.’ And I said to him, ‘I am the bad guys in your high school.’ He cast me straight away. Gave me the knives I used in the film so I could practise throwing ‘em.
“While we were shooting the movie in Mexico, my family came down from Texas to visit me and when they met Robert, we realised that he and I were second cousins! We didn’t even know it. We became friends and that’s when we started talking about Machete (2010). Way back then. Robert said, ‘There’s this character who’d be perfect for you. We used the name in Spy Kids (2001), then shot the fake trailer in Grindhouse (2007), all the time working towards the first Machete movie. Now we’ve made two.”
Even after all these years in the biz, Trejo can’t quite believe his luck. Particularly surreal for the star was playing the lead in a movie where one of his all-time acting heroes, two-time Academy Award-winner Robert De Niro, had just a small supporting role.
“It’s hard to say you’re the lead if Bob De Niro’s in the movie with you! We did Heat (1995) together. When we did our scene in Machete, he said to me, ‘You’re ok! You’re number one! Way to go daddy!’ I looked him right in the eye and said, ‘Mr De Niro, can I get you a cup of coffee sir?’ He just laughed and laughed.”
The thrill of the shoot, says Trejo, is what keeps him on the straight and narrow. “The minute a director says action, for me, it’s an armed robbery in progress. I get the same rush of adrenaline, only this time it’s legal, and I get even better paid. Plus millions of people end up watching what you do. What an amazing thing to happen.
“I’ll tell you something else I love about the film industry,” adds Danny, wrapping up. “I still try to help kids turn their lives around, and speak in high schools, juvenile halls and prisons. The hardest thing to do when you’re speaking to kids is getting their attention. Then when you’ve got it, you have to keep it.
"The blessing that I have is that when I walk onto campus, I have their attention, because they want to hear what the guy from Con Air (1997), the guy from Desperado, the guy from Heat and the guy from Spy Kids has to say. Even the kids who don’t normally go to assembly want to hear what I have to say. So I have a chance to reach them, and help them to avoid making the same mistakes I did.”
When was the last time Danny Trejo popped up in something you were watching? It can’t have been long because that guy’s in everything!
I love this story so much. I hope someone makes a movie out of it! To go from where he came from to where he is now is truly remarkable.