TONIGHT

• Home
• Video
• Podcasts/RSS 
• Archives
• Young Voices
• About the Show
• Tell Tavis
• Features
• Mobile

RELATED LINKS

• American Family
• An interview with Ms. Marie
• George Lopez

E-mail a friend

Tavis: East L.A. is not far from where we sit right now, but there's no confusing the short drive with the long road to success for actress Constance Marie. The beautiful and talented actress now stars in not one, get this, but 2 hit TV shows. I ain't mad at you, Constance. First off, she plays George Lopez's wife on the ABC series based on the life of comedian George Lopez. But she's also a part, we're pleased to say, of our PBS family as a member of the great cast of the critically acclaimed series "American Family." Here now, Constance Marie in a scene from PBS' "American Family."

Nina: Every night I read to him, and this is his dinosaur book. It's his favorite. And every night we play this game. I say, "Pablito, can you find the apatosaurus?" And, um...he points to it.

Ofelia: Nina.

Nina: And, um... he's so proud of himself every time he gets it right.

Tavis: Very good.

Constance Marie: Thank you. That was me.

Tavis: Nice to see you.

Marie: Happy to be here.

Tavis: Now you know what's impressive about this-- what's impressive about this, Constance, is I was doing my research for our conversation. I discovered--I know this can't be true. I want you to set the record straight. You have to disabuse America of this notion that we've come to believe, what we've read, that you actually failed acting class.

Marie: Yes.

Tavis: In high school?

Marie: Oh, no, I'm sorry, America. Can't disprove that, because it's true. It's true.

Tavis: You failed? You're working 2 jobs now. Working like a Jamaican, you know? You got jobs everywhere, and you failed acting class.

Marie: Yes. Well, yes, and the reason is because, you know, I always had the passion and the drive, but I was incredibly shy and petrified, and so by the time--I was great when we didn't have to speak--

Tavis: "I was a great actor as long as I didn't have lines."

Marie: No, but, you know, we did mime things and exercises. I was fabulous until we had to memorize the words, and then get up there and speak, and, uh, I would freeze onstage, and the teacher would scream from the audience, "No, you know it. Just trust. Have actor's faith. You know the words. You can do it." And I'm like, "No, I can't do it." And I would get down off the stage and go sit down.

Tavis: Well, I'm glad you got this--the line thing down, 'cause that would--your career would be really prohibited, or inhibited, I should say, if you didn't do the lines.

Marie: What's so funny is that I run into people from high school, and they look at me, and they go, "Wow. You know, you weren't even in any of the plays or anything." "I know. I was shy."

Tavis: Some girls have all the luck.

Marie: Yeah, well...knock on wood.

Tavis: You and I have 2...we have one thing in common, at least. We both are working a couple different jobs. I got the NPR show--

Marie: Mm-hmm. I hear you all the time.

Tavis: I'm glad you listen. Thanks a lot, and I watch you all the time. So you got the PBS show, and you got the ABC show. So I know you've been asked a thousand times, so I'm not gonna ask you what it's like doing one show versus the other show, the comedy versus the drama. I know you've been asked that. I'm not gonna ask that, but I'm gonna ask you something more important. How do you stay awake? 'Cause I've gotta figure this out.

Marie: You have the same problem.

Tavis: Oh, every day.

Marie: You probably don't even stay up late enough to watch you.

Tavis: Uh...because the PBS executives are watching? Of course I watch my show. Every night. I would never rely on Tivo to watch this show.

Marie: No, I rely--I love Tivo. Tivo's the greatest thing ever invented, because--you know, I'm on my wish list, and I turn on the TV, and I'm like, "Oh. That thing that I did is on." I mean, I never get a chance to watch.

Tavis: 'Cause you're working all the time.

Marie: Right. I just try to get as much sleep as possible, and there is something about--I'm sure you know--you have to strike while the iron is hot, and, um, sometimes Latinos are hot, and sometimes we're not, and right now, we're hot, so I'm working as much as I can.

Tavis: Go for it.

Marie: Exactly.

Tavis: So there's no trick that happens? Eddie doesn't do anything on the PBS set, or George doesn't have any games he plays on the ABC set to keep you guys awake?

Marie: Well, Eddie is--you would never guess this, America, but Eddie is the biggest funnyman--just, like, crazy. Like he'll think the weirdest thing is funny, and I just think, "This is Edward James Olmos? This is Mr. Zoot Suit? This is Mr. Stand and Deliver?"

Tavis: Cracking jokes.

Marie: Exactly, and then George has, uh--well, he's the king. George is the king.

Tavis: George is hot. Speaking of being hot, he's awfully hot. He's sizzling.

Marie: He's on fire. So--but his thing is that, uh--you know, we get tired. Normally, you get picked up for 22 episodes. We got picked up for 28. Plus, we've been picked up for another year, already, which is so good.

Tavis: That ain't even hot. That's like being white.

Marie: Right. Exactly.

Tavis: That's not even being Latino.

Marie: Across the country! We are like white people. Um, so--but we're equal opportunity employers now--and so he has a disco ball and a whistle. When we get tired--

Tavis: A disco ball and a whistle?

Marie: He goes, "Y'all are lacking luster." So when we're lackluster, he blows the whistle at any given moment. You have to be prepared, drop what you're doing and start dancing right on the spot for like a full minute, minute and a half till he blows it again. Yeah, and they play "Brick House" and whatever. It's crazy, but the whole energy goes from "Uhh" to "Boom, Boom, Boom," and we're dancing, and then it goes back down again. It's pretty cool.

Tavis: That's a cool idea.

Marie: I know. I know.

Tavis: I'm sure you're giving all of my staff ideas now about how to wake me up--Ha ha ha...in between shows.

Marie: When you're lacking luster.

Tavis: When I'm lacking luster, which I hope I never am. Um, you mentioned a moment ago that Latinos are hot right now.

Marie: Right.

Tavis: What do you make of that? I want to probe a little further, but what do you make of that, first of all?

Marie: Well, personally, I make that we've always been hot. I don't know who makes this decision, you know--

Tavis: But you've always been hot.

Marie: Well--

Tavis: Yeah.

Marie: Thank you very much. Um, but seriously, what makes a race of people hot and not hot? I mean, who is the judge? And you know, I'm a third-generation Los Angeleno, and I personally thought I was always hot--

Tavis: Born in east L.A.

Marie: Born in east L.A. And--

Tavis: There's a song about that, wasn't there?

Marie: Yes, there was. I think it was Cheech. Cheech sang that. Cheech sang that. Um, so I never realized how Latino people perceived me to be until I got into the entertainment industry, and they were like, "No, you can't audition for those roles. You have to audition for these roles over here." And I had to learn Spanish, you know, which I didn't grow up speaking. You know, third generation. It's like being, you know, second-generation Jewish. Do you speak Hebrew? Or Italian? Do you speak Italian? So I had to go to school to learn how to speak Spanish, and I could only audition for certain roles, and that really, really bothered me, and I decided that I was only going to choose roles that spoke to me and that I felt represented my people the best way.

Tavis: You feel a certain burden to still do that? Because what's unfair, I think, about--I mean, we can speak, certainly as Latinos and African-Americans--there's an old adage that says very simply "When and where I enter, the whole race enters with me."

Marie: That's true.

Tavis: It ain't right. It ain't fair--

Marie: But it's true.

Tavis: But when and where we enter, the whole race enters with us. There's a certain burden that you have to play, because there's Latinos--Latinas, in fact-

Marie: Thank you.

Tavis: Who will be denied an opportunity, or advanced an opportunity, because Constance Marie either succeeded or failed, but that's a burden that those white folk I spoke of earlier, respectfully, don't have to bear.

Marie: Right. I once heard somebody say something about Denzel Washington. It was a producer, and he said, "you know, Denzel Washington, that is one angry young black man," and I said, "Well, you know, rightly so," and he said, "Why? He has all these opportunities," and he said, "I don't understand why, you know, Denzel's upset. They don't make African-American romantic comedies. They don't do well," and I said, "Well, there are a lot of anglo or white romantic comedies that don't do well, but they don't stop making them." It's like you got one shot if you're of color. You do have everybody on your back and I think that it's a burden, but it's also an opportunity, and I think if you do a very good job, it's not a job well done unless you bring a whole bunch of other people along with you, and that's just, you know, there are people that went before me, and there will be people after me, and that's just...

Tavis: I can tell you one time Denzel ain't angry: when he's going to deposit them checks.

Marie: Well, Denzel got the last laugh, OK? That's all I have to say.

Tavis: He's not angry about that. Tell me then, what kind of response that you are getting. The burden is one side. The flip side of it is though, the joy of knowing that your people love you and respect you and are proud of you, so what kind of response are you getting from people, now that you're doing both of these shows, 2 Latina roles?

Marie: Well the best thing for me is that because "American Family" and 'George Lopez' are--the mediums are so different, and the roles are so different. The compliments are different. When somebody has seen "American Family," the compliment is very intimate and very heartfelt.

Tavis: Very PBS-ish.

Marie: Right. Oftentimes, there's a lot of crying involved and they're so proud of me.

Tavis: Like I said, PBS...

Marie: Exactly, and then on "The George Lopez Show..."

Tavis: "I love your show!"

Marie: Exactly! The enthusiasm: "Oh, my God, you guys are so crazy," and you know, and oftentimes, it'll be another ethnicity giving me a compliment going, "You know, my family's just like that," and that's why I always say funny is funny, no matter what color you are, and just like "American Family," a good story will carry through and touch everybody.

Tavis: Speaking of good stories that aren't funny, you all have been very bold this season. Eddie Olmos was just here a few weeks ago. You guys have been very bold this season about tackling these issues about the Iraq war. When Eddie was here, he was premiering and talking about the premiere of the new season. You got a few episodes under your belt now. How are people responding to this Iraq story line?

Marie: Well, the thing that's wonderful for me is when we first shot this, this was a while ago that we shot this and I thought to myself, oh, my God, the things Nina--which is the character I play--is saying, people are gonna hate me. This is before we knew that, you know, pretty much, there are no weapons of mass destruction.

Tavis: We all knew that.

Marie: Well, some of us didn't know, and we went to a screening of it and I thought, "Oh, my gosh, what's everybody gonna think when these words come out of my mouth?" And people... a couple people stood up and a couple people were cheering at my comments and I thought, "Oh, my God. I'm on the right side. Yay!" But, you know, I think it's really important that television...I think TV can be used for good or it could be used for evil. It could be used to enlighten or it could just suck your brains out through your eyeballs, and I think that "American Family" is teaching people on a lot of different levels.

Tavis: What do you want to use this career for? Because right now, the opportunities for you seem to be endless.

Marie: Well, I used to always say, "Pay my rent," but now it's "Pay my mortgage."

Tavis: That's a good word. Mortgage is always better than rent. Yeah.

Marie: I just think for me, I know what it's like being a Latina raised in L.A., not having a lot of role models, not having a lot of things that positively portrayed people that looked like me and I think if the quality of work that I can do and if I could represent and be positive and help touch people on a lot of different levels, be aware of lots of different experiences and emotionally touch people, then that's what I'm here to do, and I will have made a dent, then.

Tavis: Well, you are representing.

Marie: Yay! Thank you.

Tavis: On ABC, PBS, and anywhere else you want to represent.

Marie: ¡Y todo! As George would say.

Tavis: Nice to see you.

Marie: Nice to see you.

Tavis: Constance Marie. That's our show. As always, you can catch me on the radio on NPR. I'll see you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from L.A. Thanks for watching, and keep the faith.

Anouncer: For more information on today's show, visit Tavis Smiley at PBS.org.

Anouncer: Tavis Smiley is made possible in part by Toyota, makers of the 2004 Toyota Camry.

Wal-Mart is proud to bring you Tavis Smiley. We embrace diversity, value its ideals, and strive to uphold those ideals for our customers and our associates. Wal-Mart is committed to its community partnerships and is an equal opportunity employer.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation...helping to build better futures for America's kids and families.

And by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you. Thank you.

Captioning made possible by KCET Public Television and the U.S. Department of Education

Captioned by the National Captioning Institute www.ncicap.org

Anouncer: We are PBS.