“I had a booger cry,” Trejo said of the experience.
“Nothing manly about it.”
Even tough guys break down in tears sometimes.
Danny and Gilbert Trejo in 2023.JC Olivera/FilmMagic
“I wanted to cry likeJohn Wayne.
I’m a tough guy.
But that’s not what happened.
Danny Trejo in ‘Machete’.Courtesy Everett Collection
“We stop, and it’s freezing cold.
It’s actually really cold.
And I asked her, ‘Did you kill my son?’
You know, ‘No, I loved him!’
It’s his only friend, and she busts up.
I cried for everything I didn’t ever cry [for].
I had a booger cry.
Nothing manly about it.
And I was trying so hard to be manly, but he saw it.
He’s got it on film.”
JC Olivera/FilmMagic
From a Sonshot in 2021, but has yet to be released.
“In it,” Trejo explained, “[Gilbert] plays my son.
He overdoses and dies, and when he’s dying, I’m waking up 90 miles away.
I don’t know where he’s at, and I’m looking for him.
That came from my mom.
When I used to get hurt on the street, she would wake up.
She knew something was wrong.”
Now a father, Trejo can relate to his mother’s incredible capacity for empathy.
“I wanted to kind of do it like John Wayne.
‘Okay, pilgrim, we gotta be strong.’
But he kept showing me baby pictures all week!
‘Hey, dad, remember this?
‘Oh, yeah, yeah.'”
Courtesy Everett Collection
Trejo continued that when Gilbert “finally said cut, the whole crew was crying.
It was like they knew that I was not just acting.
Me and him really bonded over that.”
