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“America’s Mexican,” as George Lopez referred to himself in his 2007 HBO comedy special, knows he’s made it big.
It has nothing to do with his arena-size stand-up career or his successful television career or even his burgeoning movie career, which includes a key role in Disney’s new film “Beverly Hills Chihuahua,” which opened Friday.
No, it has more to do with the where, when and how of this interview.
“I figure that if I’m still home and in my pajamas conducting business at 11:30 in the morning, then I must be big,” he said with a laugh.
“I’m happy the way my life turned out,” the comic added on a more serious note. “I wasn’t supposed to do anything in my life. When people come up to me after shows and tell me that they want my life, I tell them that I’m sorry, but I want it, too.”
Lopez, 47, said he never forgets how far he’s come, but there is one aspect of his life that hasn’t changed at all.
After his parents split up, his mother remarried and moved away with her new husband, leaving her young son behind to be raised by his grandparents in the San Fernando Valley.
Although his grandparents were well-intentioned, Lopez said they didn’t know how to deal with a young boy in the house and expected him to act like an adult. They left him alone a lot, and Lopez said he was so lonely that he retreated into a fantasy world. Each morning, as he left the house for school, he repeated a ritual, which he described in an earlier interview with The Orange County Register.
“I would hear an imaginary clapboard, and I would pretend my life was being filmed. If anything bad happened to me during the day, I remember telling myself that I would edit it out later. I know that sounds bizarre for a 10-year-old, but I was very lonely.”
Lopez said he is no longer lonely, but he still hears the clapboard.
“Now, it’s a good thing to hear because my life really is a lot like a movie. And it’s a good movie, like ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ only it’s my life.”
When Lopez graduated from high school, his future looked anything but wonderful.
Inspired by Latino comic Freddie Prinze ‘s success on the TV sitcom “Chico and the Man,” Lopez gave stand-up comedy a try.
“Seeing Freddie on that show changed my world,” Lopez said in that earlier interview. “It changed the way I thought of myself. Here was someone who spoke like I spoke, and looked like I looked.”
Lopez made the rounds of open-mic nights at local comedy clubs, but failed miserably. He quit his dream for the next six years, working a series of dead-end jobs. When he was 24, his boss suggested that he try comedy again. Even though Lopez was suspicious of his boss’ motives (Lopez still believes that the boss wanted to replace him with the boss’ brother-in-law), Lopez returned to the open-mic circuit.
This time, he clicked and he started to make money. One night, Arsenio Hall caught his act at the Improv in West Hollywood. Four months later, Hall got his own late-night talk show and booked Lopez, the first of 15 guest spots over the next five years. Lopez was now a major headliner.
His headliner status led to three comedy albums, a bestselling autobiography and a network sitcom, produced by Sandra Bullock, that ran for six seasons and is now enjoying strong ratings in syndication on Nickelodeon’s Nick at Nite. Along the way, he got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, hosted the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic golf tournament and was the first Latino to host an English-language morning radio show in the Los Angeles market. Time magazine named him one of the “25 Most Influential Hispanics in America.”
Less impressive has been his movie career, which has had a few highlights, including “Real Women Have Curves,” “Bread and Roses” and the more recent Kevin Costner film “Swing Vote.”
“Beverly Hills Chihuahua” is significant for Lopez on two fronts - it is, by far, the biggest Hollywood film he’s been in, and he plays a dog.
The live-action family film stars actors as humans, and the voices of other actors as animals. Lopez is among the latter group of actors.
He provides the voice of a feisty, courageous and hard-working Chihuahua named Papi, who is owned by the landscaper at a Beverly Hills mansion. When the owner of the mansion, played by Jamie Lee Curtis, leaves on a business trip, she leaves her beloved but painfully spoiled Chihuahua (voiced by Drew Barrymore) in the hands of her irresponsible niece (Piper Perabo).
The flaky niece takes her aunt’s pet with her on a weekend trip to Mexico, where the dog is kidnapped. Papi (Lopez), who is infatuated with Curtis’ pampered pet, makes his way south of the border to rescue the “damsel” in distress.
Other dogs are voiced (the dogs are not animated, but their mouths move through Hollywood magic) by the likes of Andy Garcia, Placido Domingo and Edward James Olmos. Cheech Marin lends his voice to a rat, and comic Paul Rodriguez voices an iguana.
Lopez, who is active in Latino charities and has been vocal in his opposition to entertainment projects that reflect badly on his ethnic community, said he was skeptical at first when he received the script.
“By the time I got the offer, most of the parts were taken,” Lopez explained. “My part was supposed to be just eight lines. Still, I am very sensitive to movies and TV shows that might be insulting, and I wasn’t sure about this one. But Andy (Garcia) is even more sensitive to these things than I am, and he had already said yes.
“I talked to Andy and the other Latino actors in the film and they convinced me that Mexico and the Mexican people were being shown in a positive light, which is a change from what most Americans see. If you only watch CNN, you never see the fun side of Mexico, only the dark side.
“The other actors also showed me that the message of the movie reflects the message I care about most. It’s about finding your own identity and not judging a book by its cover. These are the same things I talk about in my stand-up act.”
Persuaded by the other actors in the movie, Lopez agreed to do the eight lines in one recording session. Apparently, that one session went so well that the filmmakers returned to the writing room and made the Lopez character a major player in the script. Instead of one five-hour recording session, Lopez worked 12 sessions.
“I like the movie. I think it shows Mexico in a beautiful light, and that’s a nice change for Hollywood.”
Lopez said he would like a bigger movie career, but not at the expense of that “wonderful” life he’s leading.
He said his health is excellent following a 2006 kidney transplant (his wife was the donor) to combat a genetic life-threatening condition, and he’s trying to stay home more.
“I’m working hard, but the only priorities in my life right now are resting and enjoying. For instance, I’m working hard right now answering your questions, but I’m in my pajamas.”
