Chicago roots tapped to make ‘Holidays’
CHICAGO — “It’s so weird being here,” says actor Freddy Rodriguez, walking the pale boards of the auditorium stage at Lincoln Park High School.
These are Rodriguez’s old stomping grounds, where he and friends would break-dance in the hall, tag the walls and, occasionally, go to class. Although he started acting at age 13 with Chicago’s Whirlwind Performance Company, it was here he starred in productions of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “The Crucible” and “12 Angry Men.”
“I was pounding the pavement at 14 years old looking for work as an actor, but completely failed drama class,” says Rodriguez, 33, best known for his roles in HBO’s “Six Feet Under” and movies such as “Planet Terror” and “Bobby.”
And recently he was back — this time with producing partner and friend Robert Teitel, promoting their Chicago-based film “Nothing Like the Holidays,” filmed mostly in Humboldt Park. What started as a tour of Rodriguez and Teitel’s favorite haunts and filming locations detoured down memory lane.
The two met in the mid- 1990s, both part of the hip-hop scene that spawned Kanye West and Common. Back then, Teitel and directing partner George Tillman Jr. were shooting music videos in the same clubs haunted by Rodriguez as his film career began to take shape.
For years, they had talked about doing a Latino film based in Humboldt Park — the stronghold of Puerto Rican culture in Chicago, where both men had family. Rodriguez is Puerto Rican, while Teitel jokes that he’s “Sorta Rican,” from a Puerto Rican mother and French father. (This joke makes it into the film, as do others from Teitel’s life.)
Last winter, they got their chance. The production, originally called “Humboldt Park,” gathered the Mt. Rushmore of Latins for its ensemble cast, with Alfred Molina (“Spider- Man 2”), Elizabeth Pena (“Lone Star”), Luis Guzman (“Boogie Nights”), Jay Hernandez (“Friday Night Lights”) and Vanessa Ferlito (“Death Proof”).
Debra Messing (“Will & Grace”) plays the Jewish wife of Mauricio (John Leguizamo), both of whom return to Chicago with the rest of the family to celebrate Christmas.
Rodriguez provides the focal point in Jesse, a wounded Iraq war veteran struggling to adapt to family life, rekindle an old flame (Melonie Diaz) and, possibly, take over the family bodega.
“Nothing Like the Holidays” is Teitel’s most personal film. Like Jesse, he had to choose whether to make his own life, or continue working in the family business. Like Mauricio, he married outside his culture. Like Ferlito’s character in the film, he was once a newbie in Hollywood — only to have family and friends add pressure by treating him like a superstar.
“I knew it was very personal, and I wanted to be respectful of that and follow his lead — bring this film to life exactly as Bob envisioned it,” Rodriguez says.
Part of their shared vision was to tap into the success of Teitel’s “Barbershop” trilogy and “Soul Food,” and use the same resonant stories to connect with a Latino audience. The first casualty in that battle: the title.
“I’m still grappling with it. The name ‘Humboldt Park’ felt like it only resonated in Chicago,” Teitel says. “And we’re trying to break ground with one of the first mainstream Latin movies. So why not have a title that’s more universal? It made a lot of sense.”
Though the Latino population has grown dramatically in the U. S., few filmmakers have been able to bring Latino stories into the mainstream media.
“I think we saw a little bit of it in the ’90s with ‘Selena,’ ‘I Like It Like That’ and ‘My Family’ — it seemed like it was going to happen,” says Rodriguez. “After those films, in my opinion, there were a lot of films put together that were not as good. (Because of that) studios didn’t want to make any more, and the Latin surge didn’t happen.”
Log into MyBuffalo to post a comment
MyBuffalo is the new social network from Buffalo.com. Your MyBuffalo account lets you comment on and rate stories at buffalonews.com. You can also head over to mybuffalo.com to share your blog posts, stories, photos, and videos with the community. Join now or learn more.
Reader comments