You won't find too many Hollywood
action heroes continuing to kick ass when they're almost in their 70s. You'll
find even fewer who would survive being fed into a meat grinder by murderous
intergalactic scumdogs - actually, there's only one actor we can think of who
fits that bill, and that's Danny Trejo. A few weeks back, we caught up with
this career badass (and frequent Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino
collaborator) at the Rock & Shock horror convention in Worcester. There, he rapped with us about Machete Kills, Sons of Anarchy, and Mexican warlocks - only to have GWAR toss him
into the sausage machine at the Palladium a few hours later.
I know that the
sequel to Machete comes out next
year.
Probably in March.
How is it playing a leading role as opposed to more of a supporting roles or smaller characters?
I
think that a supporting role, you've just got to get into it. You're
in, then you're out. A leading role, you're on every day, so it's
basically your employment for six to eight weeks. Depending on how you
look at it -- like me, I bring my A-game no matter where I go. Whether I
got one day, I don't care if I've got one line -- "Fuck you" -- it's
gonna be an a "Fuck You." ... So the difference is that you have your A-game every day.
Just out of
curiosity, are the rumors of Machete
Kills Again ... In Space! actually true?
They set up Machete
Kills to where he's going into space to go fight the bad guys. It's unreal.
... I mean literally, Mel Gibson, Charlie Sheen, Lady Gaga, Sofía Vergara,
Amber Heard. It goes on and on. And they're all just unbelievable.
... Mel was, I mean, he's a brilliant actor. He's tops. And to watch him,
you learn so much -- he's that quick. And Charlie -- Charlie Sheen is
really an underrated actor because he does all his trips, you know. But
he plays the president. And in the movie, he's asking Machete to do
something for him, and Machete says "Find someone else." And Charlie,
you know, [he says] "I'm not asking, I'm the president of the United
fucking States." And he is so believable that you can almost see the big
battleships in the background. And so the first take, I went, "Daaamn!"
and Robert goes, "Cut! What are you ... ?" I said, "I really thought he
was the president!" He was unbelievable, he is just that good.
Is it any different
working with Robert Rodriguez now, as opposed to back in the day with Desperado? Is it all the same?
You know what, me and Robert have developed a relationship.
I know what he wants, he knows what I want. And he's the same guy. We did Desperado what, 15 - 19 years ago! And that's when he started
talking to me about Machete, 19 years
ago: "I got this character, you're perfect for him." "Yeah, lets do it!" Even
then, he was innovative. Desperado
was so over the top. Every time he comes out with a movie, he pushes the
envelope a little more, you know? I think he's done more for independent
filmmaking than anyone has in the past 15 years. He just let any one of us be
able to make a movie. It used to be this unbelievable, scary, big project.
Shit, my kid's producing a movie right now, he's 24 years old.
Do you have any
future plans to work with Rob Zombie on anything? Are you doing anything with Lords of Salem?
No. ... There weren't too many Mexicans running around killing
witches. How about a Mexican warlock or something? But if he's got anything,
he'll call me.
You play the
quintessential badass character quite often. Are you just accustomed to that,
or do you like playing anything outside of that?
You know, I'll play a tree if the money's right. Put fruit
on it, and pay me more. But me, I like action movies. I love Charles Bronson's Death Wish and Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry. I prefer those to like the
superhero. That's why I love Machete, because he didn't fly, he didn't wear
cute tights, he was just a badass. So I like that character better than the guy
flying around in tights.
Do you have any
future plans for television?
Next season, I'll be on Sons
of Anarchy, and that's cool. All the guys are really cool. Ron [Perlman]
and Charlie [Hunnam] and Theo [Rossi], all the guys are really down-to-earth
guys. I always tease them because if you've ever seen them, they're all, like,
in fucking great shape. Little cocksuckers. ... I just finished talking to
Charlie yesterday because I was wearing a shirt from Sons of Anarchy with his picture on it riding a motorcycle, and
about 20 people offered to buy it - like, "Hey, how much for that shirt?" I called
him up: "Hey, homes, I'm getting a hundred bucks a crack for your shirt!" "Oh,
hey, gimme a piece." I said, "Fuck you!"
Keep tabs on Danny Trejo at
facebook.com/officialdannytrejo.
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