Adam Rodriguez on Immersing Himself Into Penny Dreadful: City of Angels

How are you doing?

I'm good, thanks. I'm really good. How's everything going for you?

Congratulations on the new baby.

Thank you. Yeah, really excited. He's he's kept us nice and busy, along with his big sister. So, uh, it's been, you know, it it's made the time fly for sure.

Oh, yeah. So you got three little ones and the two older girls, are they just like running around all the time or?

Yes, that would be an understatement. Running around. Uh, fighting, screaming, jumping up and down from being happy. The full, full range of emotions all day, every day. And uh, I wouldn't have it any other way. It's been great.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. What are some of the things they like love to do? Right now, either at home.

Um, the big activity every day like almost without fail, we get on the trampoline for a good 45 minutes to an hour. There's a trampoline jumping session. Um, there is, I mean, a lot of make-believe. Uh, a lot of art projects. We definitely we've got some art projects happening. There's some piano practice. There's some phonics.

What an activity in the house.

Yeah, a lot of stuff going on. I mean, really like, I mean, it is from the moment we wake up 'til the moment it's it's bedtime, there is action.

Would you say you're busier in quarantine than you are like, you know, regular?

Without a doubt. Without a doubt. And I mean, and it's a great kind of busy because, you know, look, everything I do, I do for for my family. And so, you know, rather than having to be running around to go here and there and all the things that are necessary to provide for them. Uh, it's it's nice to be home and enjoy all.

Yeah. Just running from room to room instead of running all over the place.

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah.

And as like your kids get older, do you think that they'll end up watching some of your shows and movies and stuff?

Yeah, I think so. I mean, they've seen some of the lighter stuff. They've seen an episode of Sesame Street that I did. Yeah. Uh, that was a hit. Um, you know, I mean, I share my work with them. Penny Dreadful actually was something that I I was just so excited about as a job that uh, and as a role this this character of Raul Vega, I I really just my favorite character I've ever played. The character I feel the most connected to. The character I feel is is saying something in the story that I most wanted to say and and have never had the chance to up until now. And so, I I've shared a lot of that with them, and they've seen the makeup and the, you know, some of some of the effects changes that that end up happening to Raul and, um, you know, I I've shared every step of the process with them. So they they're really excited about this job. And then other jobs I've had in the past, they love coming to set to visit and meeting everybody and hanging out in the trailer. That's that's the big.

Yeah. It's so fun. It's always fun to like check that out.

Yeah, Exactly.

And speaking of the new series Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, how did you find out that you were going to be casting for that?

I read the script, and I I really fell so deeply in love with it that I got extremely curious about the actual history that we were exploring in the script. And I wanted to see how much of it was true and and not true, and I started doing a bunch of digging. And I probably spent, I don't know, four hours of just diving into the history of Los Angeles and, um, the Sister Molly character that's in the script was actually a woman named Sister Amy, who really did exist and, um, the building of the highway, you know, the 110 Freeway actually. Uh, that was a real thing. And, you know, so much of what was going on, and I just I I just became completely fascinated by this time period and started reading a ton of stuff about the unions and the workers of that time. And I I was just hooked from the from the beginning. And so, I had the meeting with John and Michael shortly after and, um, we spent like 45 minutes talking about all of this stuff and just my passion for the character, how I saw him and and mainly me asking questions because I hadn't fully formed my idea of who he was yet. But just I just became completely fascinated by this time period. Just hooked from the from the beginning.

So you really studied it. Like you took your time with it and everything.

Yeah. Yeah, no, and that was the beauty of this. You know, there's so few occasions in my career that I've that I've had a lot of lead time to prepare a character to really I mean, look, I haven't had that many characters that that on the page have had the kind of depth that Raul has, but I I I definitely have never had the time this far in advance to prepare, to really wrap my head around who this character is and and and, you know, and create all of the nuance that that I want to bring to the screen. And so that was that was that was so much fun. I mean, in terms of, you know, making little decisions, uh, you know, what does he do? I decided he's a cigar smoker, and he's got a mustache. And

Was the mustache your idea?

Yeah, yeah. I wanted to I I really felt like a mustache was right for him.

Yeah, that fit him very well in the show.

So funny because I never, ever imagined myself with a mustache. My dad had a mustache or still has a mustache. My whole life he's had a mustache. And I'm like, that's not for me. I'm not a mustache guy.

And now you have Penny Dreadful.

And I fully embraced the mustache. I actually am kind of missing it right now. Right? Right. I have to grow it back. It only The problem is this I can get away with for a week at a time. The mustache you kind of have to shave every day otherwise it looks, you know.

Was it kind of cool like when you're on set and you're filming like living in like the 1930s in like that time period? Like you

It was it was amazing. I mean, I there were days when I just went just to go because Yeah. Um, you know, when you show up there and you're you're walking around, especially in the scenes where there were a lot of extras and we were either

Like a real town.

It felt so real. And you've got these old, you know, uh, these authentic cars from that time period. And then buses. Things that you don't often see like, you know, you'll see old cars sometimes but you never see an old bus actually operating. And, um, these things just they it was like going to Disneyland. I mean, really, it was such a treat because you just you step into this world and you're transported. And it's it's like Halloween to the highest level.

You watch it each week when it's on?

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Of course. Yeah. No, we can't wait. My wife, I mean, as we were doing, you know, as we're shooting the season, I wanted to talk about the episodes with my wife, and she refused. She didn't want to know anything. No. She came with me to my first costume fitting because she's just in love with this aspect of, you know, uh, production. Just all of it, but the costumes, of course, were just like mind-blowing. And so, um, she's she's been she's been more excited than anybody I know about seeing the show. And so I haven't been able to share any of what's going on with the characters or anything else with her. So funny. And so, yeah, no, she's ready to go. Sunday night at 10:00. She is a front center.

Oh my gosh. The cutest.

Yeah, it's really it's it's really sweet. It's such a good feeling, too. I'm like, oh, my wife wants to see my stuff. This is

Right? Your guy is like a little good like, okay, like. That's so cute. And she so she doesn't She doesn't want you to tell her any details or anything. Like she's watching as like a fan.

No, I can't. There were times when I'm reading the script and I'm like, oh, my God, I can't. I mean, really, like mind-blowing. There was a day actually when for uh, for a few of the last, the last two scripts actually, the the cast members of the Vega family got together and we the script came out. Everybody was excited to read it. And so we all went together to the the house that's our house on the set and we sat in the living room together of the the set house and we all read the script together in a little group. We just read it out loud. Everybody played different characters. And I mean, we just sat there screaming out loud like, we couldn't believe this, we couldn't you know, because we wanted to see how it was all going to end. Everything was everything was hush-hush, you know, you would only get two scripts at a time. And so, nobody knew how things were going to get wrapped up in season one and what direction they were, you know, going to be headed for season two. And so, um, that's how exciting it was. I guess I'm just saying like, I I mean, literally, we all stayed late at work that night to do that. And I've never had that experience before on anything I've ever worked on. So,

Oh my gosh. Yeah.

And I had to hide all this from my wife. I can't tell her.

I'm like, I wanted to come home and tell her you're never going to believe like this is And she's like, I don't want to know. I don't don't tell me anything. And she was dead serious. I never I never said a word. So.

Oh my gosh, I love it. You're going to watch it all unfold now. Oh my gosh. And other than that, do you like what have you guys been up to? Like the kids are keeping you busy, but like do you have personal projects you're working on?

Yeah, I've actually I have had some time to work on a few things. There's um, there's uh, a kids' book that I recently got the rights to that I'm I'm working on. I'm trying to do something with that, which has been keeping me a little busy. There's an animated project that I've been working on for like longer than I care to admit. But almost two decades. Uh, myself and uh, very close friend and business partner. We've been working on this animated feature for many years, and it looks like we've got some life coming back to it now from from people that might be interested. So there's that happening and, um, and then I've just been helping some friends out actually that have a a hand sanitizer company. I've been helping them. Now's their time to shine. Yeah, trying to help them find people in need because it's really in short supply right now. And that's actually kept me pretty busy as well. I mean, as busy as you can be when I'm not running around with the kids. But Right. But it it's nice. It's nice to fill the day with something to do, especially when you feel like you're you're you're able to help.

Well, thanks for talking to us today. Hopefully, things, you know, clear up and everything. You can come back into the studio because we've had you.

Yeah, that would be nice. Be nice for things to clear up. I have a feeling we'll we'll get there eventually.