Esteemed actor Edward James Olmos, 70, plays Chicharrón in “Coco,” an old soul living in the Land of the Dead. We spoke with the actor about the film.
How are you?
Really happy.
What’s going on? Why are you so happy?
I just saw the film last night again with the entire audience and it was just amazing.
What was your favorite moment?
God there’s so many. I think the grandmother slapping the mariachi with the chancla, the slipper, was a classic moment in cultural stereotypes amongst the Latinos, especially Mexicans. When they came after you with the shoe, it was really intense. Because as little kids, you could run and they would throw it, they would throw the shoe and it would hit you. It was really funny. It was a good moment. The whole movie was just really an endearing film.
I was in tears at the end.
All of us, the whole audience was gone, the whole audience. And it really makes you understand — I don’t know if you knew about the Day of the Dead and what it represented — a lot of people don’t. And I’m grateful that they’re now able to see this movie and just take a moment to reflect on how they remember their — those that have gone before us, whether it be a father, mother, or uncle, or friend, you name it.
What are some of your memories from your childhood?
When we celebrate that day, it’s a day of remembrance. I kind of take it the whole year. It’s just empowering. It’s an empowering moment of understanding. We take food and we sit around, we sit by the grave site and remember, tell stories — it’s a story time. And that storytelling is what really makes people come alive, people that are listening to it and the people that are telling the stories. So we tell stories about my grandmother, my grandfather, my great-grandmother, my great-grandfather, my father, you know. My mother is still alive. She’s 91. So we’ll be telling incredible stories about my mother, let me tell you. But it’s just a celebration of living. It’s quite different from a lot of people’s understanding. It’s a lot more fun than Halloween, even though Halloween you get presents and dress up and the whole thing — it’s really great.
What drew you to do this film?
The story, strictly the story. I got into the story and realize they were really trying to understand it and create it. It’s really needed right now, I’m sure you know. Nothing is more needed at this present time than to say, “Oh, gosh we’re looking at something that’s Mexican value and tradition in the United States of America.” … For it to come out now, on the year anniversary of the change of power, of the new political system over the last year. One complete year. It’s amazing. It couldn’t come at a better time.
What do you think people can learn from the film?
I think that this film, more than almost any film that Pixar or that I’ve been involved with, really exposes the culture, probably in the most genuine human way. Because, look, all of us have our way of remembering those that have gone before us. Every culture. The Japanese, the Africans, the Norwegians — they all have their own way. So this way, which is making offers and putting the foods and putting the photographs and bringing all the family together, and telling jokes and eating, and laughing, and living — a party, you have a party in the memory of those that have gone before is . . . If you don’t empower yourself by remembering where you come from, you’re not going to know who you are. It’s that simple. And that’s what this movie has done.
What else are you working on?
Right now we’re working on a few films that are really quite interesting. One of them is called “Windows on the World.” We just finished filming it. My son directed it, Michael. . . . It deals with the restaurant at the top of the Twin Towers that went down when the first tower went down on 9/11. I play a maintenance worker who has been working up that building for six years in a restaurant that had been in the building. When it comes down, my family sees it like everybody else’s family, but they live in Mexico. I’m the only one here. I’m undocumented. I’m just living my life and it goes down and, of course, no one connects with the family, no one calls. A few weeks later the family is destroyed. And one, the youngest, my youngest son, decides to go and try to find where I lived and try to get things that belonged to him, me, and bring them back to the family because there’s no way they’re going to be able to find any part of him. So that’s the story, the story is about this young man who comes looking for his father’s things . . . and promises his mother that he’ll really look even though he doesn’t believe that there’s a chance of finding him per se, but even finding out where he lived. So it’s really that simple of a story. A boy going up and trying to find his father and he comes across the border as an illegal. Goes up to New York and it’s a really endearing story.
How was it working with your son?
One of the proudest moments is when you can actually do things with family, where everybody is really exploring creativity and moving forward. It’s wonderful. I’ve had the experience quite a few times I worked with another one of my sons in “Battlestar Galactica.” He played Hot Dog. We did five years together. The son that directed me, this is the fourth film that I’ve done for him. I’ve worked on almost all of his films. So I’ve had a great life. My other two sons are musicians. We play music together.
Be honest with me, how are you on taking direction from your son?
Really good. I really believe in him. I think he’s a very smart kid. He’s much smarter than I am. He had a better education. He went to Columbia and studied writing. So I listen to him. It’s very easy.
