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Want to be an actor?
“If you are in it for the money, to be rich and famous, stop right now.”
That was one of the pieces of advice critically acclaimed actor Edward James Olmos gave to about 500 students in the Lower Valley during a festival at South Padre Island 28 years ago today.
By that point, Olmos had starred in the fan-favorite “Selena” alongside Jennifer Lopez as he portrayed the singer’s father, while also having heavy-hitters such as “Stand and Deliver,” “Blade Runner” and “Zoot Suit.”
Here’s what Olmos would go on to share with students through this story from The Monitor’s May 2, 1998 edition:
Olmos shares career with Valley students
By Gilberto Salinas | The Brownsville Herald (May 2, 1998)
SOUTH PADRE ISLAND — Good looks didn’t get Edward James Olmos ahead in acting.
Hard work and a bit of luck got him there, the Latino actor told a crowd of about 500 Lower Rio Grande Valley students on Friday (May 1, 1998).
“I’m here to say to you, honestly, take a good look at my face. If you notice, I don’t look like Tom Cruise nor Kevin Costner,” Olmos told the crowd that came to see the Hispanic Influence on the Arts festival on the Island.
“And I certainly don’t look like Denzel Washington, Andy Garcia or Jimmy Smits,” and Olmos, 51. “They have faces for movies. Mine, oh well.”
Still, the man who played Selena’s father on the silver screen last year and gained critical acclaim in 1988 playing real-life educator Jaime Escalante in Stand and Deliver, managed to break into Hollywood many years ago.
He told the students he started acting at age 17, in an East Los Angeles community college drama class. Acting became a full-time pursuit after that, he said.
“I did it seven days a week but not to become famous, but to find out who I was,” Olmos said.
At 31, he was still working at a Los Angeles “brick and stick” theater where one day, the stage manager gave him a call.
“We called it that because at the entrance they would give you a brick to squash the cockroaches and a stick for the rats,” he said.
The manager told him about a downtown theater that was looking for Latinos to audition for a play. Olmos, who at the time paid his bills by delivering furniture, drove his truck full of junk to the theater, where he tried out for the part.
“I didn’t feel too good about it,” Olmos said. “You know when you got the part and when you didn’t.”
As he was walking out of the building, an office secretary called him. “Hey you. You want to try out for a play?” Olmos said the lady asked him. “I said, sure. What is this?”
“Do you want it or not?” the lady told him. “Sure,” Olmos said.
The play was Zoot Suit, Olmos’ first Broadway gig that later turned into a movie. Almost all of the actors in the play were Latinos, which was a first. Olmos says he can’t forget he owes his break to the lady who was a temporary secretary. “Because of her, luck changed my life,” he said. “I had been waiting 14 years for that day. The opportunity came and the rest was history.”
At the festival, which is exclusively for selected Rio Grande Valley students, other actors scheduled to speak include David Barrera of the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo area, Daniel Escobar of McAllen, Valente Rodriguez of Edcouch-Elsa and Anthony Peña, who has ties to Brownsville.
Also, authors David Rice, David Delgado and Carmen Tafolla, and artist Simon Silva will speak at the end, which ends today.
Olmos told the students nobody is born with talent. Talent is acquired through study and perfected through practice, he said.
“I did not come out of my mother’s womb saying ‘To be or not to be,’” Olmos said. “It was just the opposite. I have no natural talent, nor am I naturally gifted. If you are in it for the money, to be rich and famous, stop right now.”
