CraveOnline: Has that opened all the doors for a lot of the leading roles we’ve seen you in since?
Danny Trejo: Yeah, a lot of them. Literally Robert’s opened the door for a lot of people and he’s really re-opened doors for a lot of people. You think of Don Johnson, you hadn’t seen Don Johnson in years and then he puts him in Machete and all of a sudden Don’s on top, he’s working again. And Steven Seagal, it just goes on. Mickey Rourke!
Alexa Vega: Mickey Rourke, that was exactly what I was thinking.
Danny Trejo: Mickey Rourke hadn’t done anything. He couldn’t get a job and then he stuck him in Sin City and he gets The Wrestler, he gets everything. So not only has he started a lot of people’s career, he’s restarted a lot of people’s careers. That’s kind of cool. He’s done so much for the Latin community as far as making movies and being in movies, and for independent filmmaking. My son’s making a movie right now just because of him. Him giving people the confidence to say, “I can do this.”
What’s your son’s name, Danny?
Danny Trejo: Gilbert. He’s doing a movie right now called Snap Shot. They raised their money on Kickstarter.
So we’ll see Gilbert Trejo have a movie coming out.
Danny Trejo: Oh yeah, producing, co-directing and he learned all that from Robert, shadowing him on Machete.
If you look at this world, Machete was Alexa’s uncle when she played Carmen, but now she’s Killjoy trying to kill you. How do you wrap your head around all that?
Alexa Vega: Well, here’s the thing with Killjoy and this is what I like to think about her. She’s not good or bad. She will do anything to protect the women of her house, whether it’s a good guy attacking the house or a bad guy attacking the house. If somebody gets in the way, she’s going to take care of the situation. Machete just so happens to get in the way. Wrong place, wrong time.
Robert, do you own the Machete Mobile that Jesse James designed?
Robert Rodriguez: Yeah, we have that one. It’s at the studio. People love it. They come up and I say, “Don’t touch it because you’ll get cut.” It’s real. It’s really rusty metal with huge plates on it.
Do you ever race Tarantino in his Pussy Wagon?
Robert Rodriguez: It’s impossible to drive it. It’s so hard to turn. There’s one scene where he had to come out really fast. All the crew operating the camera was told, “You’re free to abandon your camera if you think it’s going to go bad” because he might not make the turn. They were all operating like this [arms outstretched]. Here he comes, it might not make the turn. It barely missed us.
Why can no one say Ma-che-te right? Even I say Ma-shed-ee.
Alexa Vega: There’s no right or wrong way.
Robert Rodriguez: There’s no right or wrong way.
Danny Trejo: If you look in the movie, there are people who say it different ways.
Robert Rodriguez: I encourage everybody to pronounce it their own way. I love how Mel says it. “Mr. Machete.” Other people go Ma-che-te and then people are ma-shed-ee. They’re all valid. He’s for everybody. Everybody’s right.
Danny, you are in so many movies, does memorizing lines come easy to you?
Danny Trejo: You know what, the brain’s a muscle so the more you work it, the better. Even now I can remember lines but that’s all I can remember. If it’s your birthday, you better tell me the day before, and my kids do. “It’s our birthday tomorrow, dad.”
Robert Rodriguez: Danny’s really great with memorizing lines because it’s like Charlie Sheen will talk for ten minutes and then he’ll be like, “Find someone else.” Mel started cracking up because Mel had to talk more than he’s ever had. I said, “Well, it’s because you’re the villain. The villain talks.” Then he realized Danny had his role. He’s going on and on and on, Danny goes, “There can be only one Machete.” That’s the only line he has. It’s so funny. That’s all he needs.
How did you convince Charlie Sheen to go by Carlos Estevez?
Robert Rodriguez: It was another idea I had. I was like I want to wait until he’s coming to film and if he likes the experience, I would really like to use that name. I think it’d be really fun.
Alexa Vega: It’s genius.
Robert Rodriguez: Then the day we were shooting, he came up to me and goes, “Hey, did I tell you what I want to do with the credit? I want to be credited as Carlos Estevez.” I went, “Oh my God, I had the same idea.” So we both had the same idea independently. It was his idea too.
Danny Trejo: Great minds think alike.
Robert Rodriguez: But I love that he had thought of it too, that it wasn’t just me telling him.
Will the delay ‘til next year be good for Sin City: A Dame to Kill For?
Robert Rodriguez: Well, it was never really going to come out in October. It was impossible. We just barely finished shooting, there are so many effects but I think the Weinsteins like to claim a date and a time. I’m like, “It’s not going to be ready.” So they said okay, but I said, “Don’t move the date yet, because if you move the date, all the other movies will jump on it. Let’s wait, because we want to move Machete to that date.” That’s the date we wanted for Machete. So we waited until everybody was set up, then we moved on that date. It’s kind of like shuffling cards.
Well, I hope we do this again for Machete Kills Again In Space.
Danny Trejo: That’d be awesome.
Robert Rodriguez: We’ll have a big party if that happens.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Shelf Space Weekly. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
