How is this Father of the Bride different from—or similar to—the earlier versions? It was refreshing setting this in Miami with a traditional Cuban father, and the introduction of a new Mexican family from Mexico City. The common [link] is the father being concerned about losing his precious daughter to someone else. She’s going off on a new journey in her life, and although he’ll be a part of it, not as much as he would like. Had you worked with Gloria Estefan, who plays your wife? Yes, we had a bit together on one of her music videos. She also participated in For Love or Country, a movie I produced based on the life of [Cuban American musician] ArturoSandoval. She’s one of the most intelligent women I’ve ever met. She has a natural gift for a sense of truth and understanding of the work. How long have you known Gloria and Emilio Estefan? We have been friends since the late ’70s. They used to be a wedding band; before Miami Sound Machine, they were called the Miami Latin Boys. They would play weddings. In fact, we tried to get them to play at our wedding, but they were booked. But that’s how I met them. I would crash their band and try to sit in, and it always looked like, “Who’s this guy constantly showing up at these weddings and crashing the band?” Like your Father of the Bride character, you and your family came to America from Cuba when you were a child.What was it like? I had to learn English. I was 5 years old. We were encouraged to assimilate. We felt extremely grateful to have the opportunities that we had here in America that were stripped from us in Cuba. A lot of people who haven’t gone through that don’t understand how important it is—the ability for you to voice your opinion without any repercussions or repression. That’s a very basic human right. I consider myself bicultural—Cuban and American. Your version of Father of the Bride has the Latino spin. What did you want to retain from the older versions? I really wanted to honor the intellectual property of it all. I had a lot of respect for all those versions—the Spencer Tracy and ElizabethTaylor version and, of course, later on with Steve Martin, DianeKeaton and MartyShort. They were totally different movies. Your character experiences quite the emotional journey in this film. Was that the attraction of the role? I knew the producer, PaulPerez. He had confided in me that they were developing this movie and he had me in mind for this part. I was obviously quite honored and excited about it. I was a fan of the previous ones; I was honored to be a part of it. You’ve been married 40 years. Does that help you relate to Billy, who is also in a long marriage? Sure. When [an actor works], you bring everything about yourself to every character that you play. That’s the well that you pull from. You try to find the parallels that somehow you can relate to service the characters. Some of them are closer to home, other ones are very far away from you, and you have to find those values. It’s almost like a mixing board. You have all these instruments to play, all these volumes, and you can pull down the faders on one side of the character and heighten the faders on the other. But you have to find a very deep personalization of the character inside of you, because that’s the instrument you’re using to access those emotions. We get to see beautiful parts of Miami. Do you feel like it’s another character in the movie? Absolutely. One of the largest exile communities of Cubans is in Miami. It’s a very culturally specific movie in that regard. Of course, new generations have become more and more Americanized. Billy, my character, has a foot in both the old traditions and trying to adapt to the New World, which he stumbles through and eventually learns the new ways and accepts the new ways. You consider yourself an exile, rather than an immigrant. But with Billy coming from Cuba and the new family from Mexico, isn’t this an immigrant story, a positive one, something that has been missing from movie screens? For me as a Cuban exile, my parents brought our family to this country because of the lack of basic human rights that were taken from us in Cuba. One of the main things, aside from the nationalization of all your personal belongings and property and everything, was that you lost the rights to your children to the state, to state education, which quickly became state indoctrination. Religion was abolished, so you basically were taught to worship the regime, FidelCastro, CheGuevara and their way, and they’re trying to create a new man in you. That was the last straw for my parents and, obviously, we came to America. I was blessed that they had the foresight and the courage to take their family and start new in this country. This country provided us—like it’s provided for all exiles and all immigrants to this country—the opportunity to pursue our dreams freely. If you work hard and you’re diligent and you have dreams, you’re able to achieve those dreams through that work ethic. That’s what I was taught, and I am a product of what they taught me and what America has provided as opportunity for me. I’m proud to be called an American. But, my home country, my native land as they say, my culture is very important to me. To this day we’re still awaiting—I guess you would call it—the liberty in Cuba, the promises of the revolution to take hold and not have been betrayed. Have any of your personal dreams come true? To be blessed with this wonderful family I have—my wife and my kids—and to be able to provide for them with the work that I love to do. That was what I aspired to. To raise a family by being an actor, that was another dream come true. How did it feel to be a part of Godfather: Part III in 1990? It was a great honor and a great privilege to be part of that trilogy. The Godfather was the movie that solidified my interest to pursue my life [in film]. It was a dream come true. In the room behind you, you have a lot of drums. Do you play? Yes, I’ve been playing all my life. There are conga drums, bongo drums, there are timbales over there. There’s a piano that you don’t see. I have quite a large collection of percussion instruments and I play piano, also, and harmonica. I’ve been playing music all my life. You also direct. Is Hemingway and Fuentes still happening? You’ve been working on it for more than 10 years. Like all independent movies, they’re always very difficult to get off the ground. The first feature film I directed, The Lost City, took me 16 years of my life to get it made. So, yes, I am still in process with that film, and I have written another script that I want to direct and act in. So, yes, these are personal projects and I’ll run with them until I get them made. We know who Ernest Hemingway is, but who was Fuentes? He was the captain of Hemingway’s boat for the last 20 years of his life. So it’s about that relationship and the time he wrote The Old Man and the Sea in Cuba, and how that relationship influenced and inspired the book and the story. The Untouchables, which was your breakout role, is celebrating 35 years this year. What do you think the legacy of that is, especially in terms of your career? It was very important in my life because it was a very successful film. Whenever you’re in an important part in the story of a very successful movie that really helps you out as an actor. It gives you more opportunities to work, people think of you, so that was a very important film. Aside from the fact of getting a chance to work with SeanConnery, who is my hero, and of course BrianDePalma and RobertDeNiro, who’s a beast. I had done other things that led me to that opportunity, but that one broke out in worldwide success and that was very helpful. I remember working many years ago with a character actor, who had been working all his life. He said, “If you’re lucky, you’re working all your life, and if you’re really lucky, you’re in one movie that everybody sees.” So, I’ve been fortunate I’ve had many of those. But every year you have the Oscars, for example, and you get nominations for Best Performance by an Actor or Best Supporting Performance by an Actor or an actress, five performances. Well, there’s dozens of great performances that year that do not have the benefit of wide distribution or a marketing team spending money to formulate a campaign for that actor. So, there’s a lot of extraordinary performances that you could say, “I would vote for that performance more over the one that won,” but they don’t have the benefit of the machinery behind them and it’s hard for them to compete because there’s a lot of campaigning and money spent to create awareness for these films and for these performances. If you’re in a smaller movie or one that doesn’t get that, it’s hard for people to remember the performance, or even see the performance, for that matter. You also have The Expendables 4 coming out in which you’re playing a CIA agent. Do you love the action genre? As an actor I enjoy all the genres. It always stems from the material, the people you’re working with, the director. It’s like, if you do Shakespeare, Molière, ArthurMiller or NeilSimon, you have to be able to enjoy all the different genres, and I do. What gets you out of the house? What makes you say yes to a project? Well, the script is essential, right? Sometimes you’ll have an interesting script with a director you know nothing about. Sometimes you’ll have a script that has potential and still needs some work, but the people involved are people you’d want to work with or respect. Sometimes all the combinations are good. Sometimes they make you an offer you can’t refuse, and you try to figure out how to make all those elements work. Because at the end of the day, I wake up every morning as a father, not as an actor. I need to provide for my family. What is it that you’re most proud of that you’ve achieved? On the film side, obviously being able to be in that Godfather trilogy was a very personal thing I’m extremely proud of. Outside of that, because you can’t compete with The Godfather, it’s impossible. I made a movie that I directed that I told you took me 16 years called The Lost City, which is something that I’m very proud of. Obviously, it’s a story that’s very close to my own experience, even though it’s not about my family. It took place at the turn of the revolution in Cuba and it’s about how revolution and a political upheaval can destroy a family and destroy a country, really. That’s something I’m very, very proud of. I have other things like that, my collaboration with IsraelLópez—Cachao—musically; we did four albums together. So, on the creative side those things, the movies I’ve produced personally are very important to me. I’ve done many, like City Island, because those are things that you scratch and bite and scratch and try to get to the starting line because nobody is helping you. You’re making the things outside the system and then once they see it, they’re like, “OK, we’ll buy it.” Thank God. But no one’s there to help you out and go, “When can you start? We love this.” Next, 12 Best Father of the Bride Gifts
