1 week Ago By Seth Abramovitch
In ( ), traces his roots from humble beginnings as a Venezuelan immigrant who spoke no English when his parents enrolled him in Mulholland Middle School in Van Nuys, California; to overnight superstardom as the lovable horndog Fez on ; to, at 44, an established Hollywood multi-hyphenate. For Valderrama, who since 2016 has played Special Agent Nick Torres on CBS’ flagship procedural , the book is a love letter to the vast possibilities of the American dream. What it isn’t, however, is a juicy tell-all.
Past relationships with stars like Demi Lovato (whose song “29” is rumored to reference their 12-year age gap) and Mandy Moore (whom Valderrama said he’d deflowered in with Howard Stern) are not touched upon. Nor is the fate of his co-star and confidante Danny Masterson, sentenced to after being of two counts of rape. For the past four years, Valderrama has adjusted to life as a family man.
He married model Amanda Pacheco in January 2020 and became a father the following year. Valderrama took a break from his busy shooting schedule to field questions from about the upcoming presidential election, in which immigration is a key issue; his thoughts on Masterson’s conviction; and his lifelong dream of bringing Zorro back to the screen. I appreciate the question.
A lot of what this memoir was really about was to humanize the immigrant experience. I think that every time there is some kind of election, there is a paraphrasing of our culture. And I thought it was really important to just say, “Hey — this is what immigrants really look like.
” Immigrants are police. Our attorneys, our nurses, our doctors, our essential workers. They have such an essential and vital contribution to this country.
It’s important that as we go into these conversations, and as they become hot topics in the news, that we don’t forget the humanity. We call ourselves “the 200 percent” — because we’re 100 percent American and 100 percent Latino, too. The potential of this moment is to really come together.
I mean, look, obviously, as you and I know, his words can really speak for themselves. When I joined 20 years ago, the goal was to wake up the interest of our Latino community. My biggest first priority was to [get Latinos to] sign up to the census and make sure that we’re counted and know how many we are here.
Imagine now if everyone who was eligible to vote went out and voted. When politics become debates, we lose the humanity in the conversation. The most important part was to fire up my community to go out there and vote for their interest and what they feel their future should look like.
And I’m not here to really tell anybody who to vote for. I think you and I know who I’m going to vote for, but the most important thing to me is to tell our culture that this is their election, too. The first thing I thought about was my sisters, my mom and my dad.
If I ever leave this Earth, do they have everything they need? You think about, what do you really fear in life? Death may be one, but leaving your loved ones without everything they need was the most petrifying experience. So I went on to just work my ass off. I went off to be an entrepreneur and to start many businesses and to really stay working.
It’s a great testament to what this country can provide for you. I feel like every election Venezuela has, there is this one moment of fresh air where it just seems like for a second it might open up again. And it is really heartbreaking.
I still have family there. People are making a couple of dollars a month. It’s horrible.
They’re the largest producer of oil in the world. Venezuela should have been a Dubai. It really is heartbreaking to see a country be prisoned without its freedoms.
I think we, as [Venezuelan] individuals who are abroad with a platform, I think our biggest job is to amplify the reality. God, I wish I could be there. I wish I could be in the streets with the people that I grew up with.
And the biggest issue here is that there’s no entry point for any of us. So much is being blocked away. I try so hard to really make sure that the world doesn’t forget what’s really happening out there.
I get the messages from my fellow Venezuelan saying, “Please tell the world.” So that’s what we try to do. Well, look — I totally understand why you have to ask the question.
I definitely get it. But, respectfully, I like to use this time to really talk about the book that I’m really excited about. And that I worked so hard on for people to read.
I mean, really the book is about my family and my immigrant story, and my parents sacrifice. Again, my focus is to talk about my parents and my sacrifice. I don’t have anything to add to that.
I didn’t set out to actually make a memoir. My book was supposed to be a book about service. I traveled with the USO for so many years since in my mid-20s.
It really is just a thank you to America for giving me a future that probably I could have never gotten in my own country. I think they always worry. The fans are so passionate about .
I would say this: That in season 22, the contribution these writers have done to the show is just invaluable. We’re playing a lot more with personal journeys for our characters. This season will be a little bit more humorous, definitely a lot more emotionally driven for our lead characters, and perhaps — — they’re going to be in major danger.
Yeah, no. I’m OK. I’m in the season.
In the early ’60s, there was a rights dispute between ABC and Walt Disney [which were separate companies at the time]. The rights ended up going back to the original owners of the Zorro . When I had a conversation with Disney, they were incredibly empowering.
And after 60 years, we were successfully able to bring the rights back to Walt Disney and start developing a new legacy for the characters. And now it’s spinning in development. Me too.
Zorro was the direct inspiration for Bob Kane to create Batman. Bruce Wayne was leaving the movie theater with his parents when they were murdered — and the movie they had just seen was . That would be so cool.
But [TV’s Zorro] Guy Williams had this effortless lightness, so we’re going to try to make sure that that humor is still there, too. THR Newsletters Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day More from The Hollywood Reporter.
