We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Gabriel ‘G-Rod’ Rodriguez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Gabriel ‘G-Rod’, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
It has been said many different ways but I will share the most succinct quote of them all which is “Do what you love and the money will follow.” By Marsha Sinetar and that’s what I have been doing since I started my journey as an action actor. I think far too often people finish their education with either a high school diploma, college degree or a pricey degree from a prestigious university like Harvard, and their main focus is making money. They have a pile of student debt they have to pay off and they want to get to the good stuff ASAP—buy that beautiful mansion, drive a fancy car and start living the life they’ve been dreaming of growing up. Somehow along the way, their passion took a backseat and they end up settling in a career or working a job just to pay the bills and put a roof over their head. Before they know it, years have passed then decades and they’re looking back in their 40’s in a dead-end job wondering where things went wrong. Things go wrong when you settle! In life you should never settle but if there is one area of life wherein you should never settle is what you will do in life to provide for yourself and your family. Honestly, the hardest part for me was finding what I was passion about; it wasn’t until I was in my early 30’s that I discovered my love for acting and started pursuing it while keeping my regular corporate job. I began working on my craft, training hard and doing everything that I could to ensure I was making progress every day. I knew if I became successful I could one day earn a full-time living as a “working actor” but I never let that steer my level of commitment. I always let my passion, fulfillment of the creative work, and internal alignment with the craft lead me in the right direction. Today, I am proud to say, it has now been seven years since I walked into my supervisor’s office from my corporate job and handed him my letter of resignation. When I told him my plan to pursue full-time work as an actor he gave me a look of shock. He called me several years later to tell me he loves seeing my work on TV and congratulated me on my success.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I first discovered my interest in acting when I was interviewed for a U.S. Border Patrol position. During the interview, I was told they would start describing a job-related scenario and I would have to explain how I would handle the situation. Instead, I mistakenly began acting out the scenario in front of the interviewers. In the end, the director informed me I passed, but in his 30 years of conducting interviews, he had never seen someone act out the actions. This is one of those moments I realized acting was something I wanted to explore further. This is also around the same time random people would ask me if I was a cop, a firefighter or a UFC fighter. I remember being stopped at the airport by a man and his son; they told me I had a good fight last night and then asked if they would take a picture with me. I told them “look that wasn’t me. I’m not a UFC fighter”. The dad said “it’s cool I totally get it. It’s cool” and proceeded to take a selfie with me anyways. As they ran off to catch their flight I yelled it “It’s not me!”. They turned around and smiled and went off on their way. I asked myself, what can I do wherein I can be a cop one day, a fighter one day and play a henchman some other day–acting! I began taking acting classes after work, reading books and watching educational videos online. Around a year or so later, I decided to post an ad on Craigslist to find a videographer. I wrote my own scene and shot it like a movie and distributed it to a bunch of agents in the South Florida area hoping someone would sign me. Much to my surprise, I received quite a bit of interest from a number of agents and I was signed within days! It was quite an exciting time because I knew it was the beginning of a new journey. I never looked back and since then I have worked on some of the biggest shows on TV including Cobra Kai, Ozark, Power, Orange is the New Black, SWAT, Stranger Things, Barry and many more! I just finished work on Red One (a film Starring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans) and I’m currenting working on The Bad Boy Sequel starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
The most important resources for me include the acting Master Class by Dustin Hoffman which is essentially a video course with Dustin sharing his knowledge of acting and the mental tools he has used through is career to make him successful. I strongly recommend it and I can honestly say, it has made a significant impact on mastering the art of acting. The second resource is a book called “Respect for Acting” by Uta Hagen and lastly the pre-recorded acting class called “Acting in Film” by Michael Caine. I strongly recommend all of these resources if want to learn the fundamentals of acting. I will say this–there is nothing more important than joining and participating in a class. Remember performing without an audience is just talking to yourself.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I have to exhibit resilience continuously throughout this journey. I’m an actor which means I have to deal with rejection very often. Most of the time, my agent sends me an opportunity to read for a role; I study then audition for it and never hear back unless I book the role. After all these years, I have become pretty good at not letting it affect me but there are certain roles that I get really excited about which I don’t book and I just need to keep moving forward. Developing resilience and leather skin is absolutely necessary in this line of work because you’re going to book 10% of what you read for–if you’re damn good and a bit lucky. One of the hardest experiences during my journey that I really had to tap into some of that resilience of mine was when I was booked for a big role on a show and then I was released for whatever reason. I remind myself “this is what I signed up for”–I just have keep it moving and wake up the next day ready to audition again with the same level of enthusiasm or more!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.GRodAction.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrgrod/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mrgrod
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/iamgrod
Image Credits
Holly Lynch, Yody Vazquez, Bobby Hernandez