Hey, y’all. I’m Xolo Maridueña, and this is my last meal. Every person has exactly two things in common. We all gotta eat and we’re all gonna die. Today’s guest is the star of Blue Beetle, the co-host of the Lone Lobos podcast, he can catch him playing Miguel Diaz in the final season of Cobra Kai out now on Netflix. He’s been making waves in the sports world as the manager and spiritual leader of the West Side Otter Pops. What! Xolo Maridueña, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me, Josh. Xolo, coach, if I may. Yes. GM. The GM I’m so sorry. You’ve been promoted. Thank you. The Otter Pops, they’ve been redd with injury and adversity throughout the whole year. What are you saying to your men to inspire them through the back half of the season? Look, I know that Dak just went down last week, but my team is striving for victory. We actually just won this week, and I’m moving into second place, only behind one person. So for any doubters out there, I’m really appreciative that you brought this up because it’s looking up for me. It is really important. It’s a huge milestone in your career. I mean, I’m rooting for you to get that championship one day. Thank you. Yeah. We’re gonna the Super Bowl, we’re gonna watch Kendrick. I’m gonna be there and no one else. Sorry, Blake. One. Thank you for coming on the show. Two, have you thought about your last meal before? Not until this. But I was so, honestly, I was so pleased to think about my last meal. It was a bit morbid, but I was like, hey, yo, I got a good last meal. So I’m excited about it. But no, not thinking about the last meal too much. Do you like to focus on morbid things? Do you find it somewhat comforting to focus on that or are you somebody who tries to avoid it? I am someone that tries to avoid it, but my dreams and nightmares are the ones to like bring it up always. Like, I’m like, oh, I feel like I could go without ever thinking about some stuff, but my, like, in those REM hours, that’s really where the dark thoughts start to happen. So I feel grateful to not have to always think so morbidly and the characters that I’ve played have been pretty positive thus far, but we’ve gotten to explore some pretty, pretty weird stuff. Now that you are coming off of Cobra Kai and you’ve done the big superhero film, I feel like the next thing in the trajectory, you gotta start doing the super dark, depressing, indie films. That’s right. And then you can explore that even more. Is that gonna be part of the trajectory? You, you’re totally right now that, that these projects are done, it really feels like anything, anything is possible. I would like to do the sad stuff, but I’ve had such a great time doing the happy stuff thus far, so I’m just nervous for whatever they’re like, I think this guy could be, you know, a dark, a murderer. I hope today can inspire you to become that murderer that you are always meant to be. Thank you. I appreciate it. Nothing like a last meal to inspire me. I, yeah. And I think we have a good selection. It’s a hell of a selection man. And I’m starving. You ready to eat? Let’s do it. Xolo for the first course of your final meal, we got the fruit from the frutero in LA. We got the Mango Lassi. We have a side of Chamoy and Tajin. Tell me about it. I mean, the fruteros in LA are one of I think the most LA things out there. And I just moved out of LA and I am missing it right now. But I’m super glad that we get to be here today with some jicama, pina, sandia, mango, is my favorite for sure. We did the Quinto Man. We did everything. Which is generally my standard order. There are times when I’ve been driving by a frutero and I will literally just like yank the wheel on the car and pull over to get fruit. This is the best thing in the world. And honestly, pretty reasonably priced. You started playing Miguel Diaz in Cobra Kai when you’re about 16 years old. You were playing a high schooler going through all that awkwardness while you were a high schooler going through all that awkwardness. Yep. Did you come away with any life lessons from that that actually helped you in the real world? I had spent so much time as a 17, 16, 17-year-old character. We just finished the show this year, and I’m 23. So, in a way, I almost feel more blessed to get to live out these experiences again, ’cause I’m like, ah, I wasn’t as well spoken as Miguel was and to get to relive some of these, like this such an intimate time in your life is really exciting. But I needed that role at that time. Like, that character was so much more positive than I was, and so much more like the underdog. I think it really, I didn’t know it at the time, but it really helped being 16 and having a character so positive. Obviously it’s a gift to have such longevity in such a big series, but even like Billy Ska talked about when he was in Karate Kid, how he got pigeonholed as that villain character throughout his career. Do you have more excitement or more anxiety for the future about what roles you’re gonna get, what direction it’s gonna go? Getting to do Miguel and Blue Beetle, like those roles have totally changed my life. And they’re, I think because they’re so inherently positive, it’s doing something else in terms of representation. And I think getting to explore the other side of that, like the darker stuff that we’re talking about will be, you know, exciting in its own regard. For the longest time be like, damn, I can’t wait to do adult roles, or like… I’m 23 or I’m 20, or like, back then it was like, I’m 20. You know, I can’t be in high school anymore. But there’s something actually really healing, I think about getting to portray these characters that come from a, like a way more, you really feel like you could do anything in high school or middle school, or even younger, so. Yeah, it sounds like it was therapy for you to almost like enact out the best version of yourself minus like all the constant assaults that go on in Cobra Kai. Exactly. Minus the, you know, perilous and, you know, getting my ass kicked on a week to week basis. It, you’re totally right. You hit it on the head, yeah. What do you wish you would’ve done differently when you were actually Miguel’s age from the start? One of the biggest lessons, one of the biggest joys of getting to work on Cobra Kai was realizing like, oh, who I am is enough. Like, all these people here rock with me. Not because of all these other labels, but they just think that I’m cool enough. But I didn’t know that going into the project, and I didn’t know that before. Like, you inherently, you just feel so out of place everywhere. Tell me about the Mango Lassi. Okay. Keep eating the fruit man. Don’t let me stop you. So this is, yeah, mango lassi right here. It makes me think of one of my favorite grocery stores slash restaurants by my crib. Banu. It’s the best way to drink a mango. Have you had it? Oh, big time. Yeah. My best friend is Indian and I grew up drinking like Lassi in his house. Dude, this is, this is a tricky- Is Mango the way to go? Or do you like strawberry or just regular? So the plain lassi, it tends to not be sweetened and a lot of times it’ll be like savory with salt, which is like, that’s a little too far afield for like, the types of drinks that I grew up with. So to me, mango is like, it’s the perfect thing, man. This is fire. Did you take any keepsakes from the Cobra Kai set? I know you said you’re a sentimental person. Yes. Some of our wrap gifts have been really great, but I think the keys are maybe my best keepsake. I got to have the key, like all of the dojos that I’ve been a part of, I have all the keys. And then funnily enough, this last season it was like, all right, well they’re destroying the sets. You know, maybe some of them will be putting some archives somewhere in a lot somewhere, but we gotta like do something. So my brother, Jacob Scott Thomas Bertrand, well, my brother on the show, we had to take some, like Miyagi do stuff. That set was easily one of the coolest sets to be on. They, it was like a replica of the one from the original. And there’s this big hunk of rock back there that has like a scribe on it, and it’s made of paper mache. And we shipped it back like the day before they did demo on the thing. We went back there, picked it up and got it shipped over. So now it’s in our podcast. Was this the day before they demoed it or basically, or the night before when you threw the Miyagi Do house raid. Yes. Wait! Where was the invite Xolo? Where was the invite? This was the day we, yeah, we threw a rager at Miyagi’s. At Miyagi’s crib. He would’ve wanted that. I think. I mean, he definitely did want it. His presence was felt. And yes, we all the youngsters on the show, we devised a plan to sneak in and have a party at the Miyagi crib, and we took a rock. That was the only thing. By the time we had gotten to the party, by the way, everyone else had already taken their- It’s a ransack. Everyone else was like, yeah, it was a, it was a marketplace over there. And the rock was the only thing that seemed like, all right, well we should take this. I think they’ll forgive you even if you weren’t supposed to. I hope so. Yeah. We’ll see. We’ll find out later. Xolo, we have escalated into round number two. We got the We got the side of guac and the Chile de ar bowl, the salsa roja. Then we got the quesadilla de flor de Basa over here. And then you didn’t request this, but on your podcast, Lone Lobos, you talked about your last meal and that your family makes costilla and salsa. And you did not put it on your official list. So we wanted to give you a little gift here. We tried our best, I don’t know if it lives up to mom and pop’s, but this is what we got. I was apprehensive about putting this dish on because I was like, I mean, I don’t know if they could make it the same, but I’m so excited that you did put it on because it’s so delicious and this combination. I mean, it’s, once you realize how easy it’s to make, you can’t, you can’t go back. But guess yeah, this is gonna die in the window. Dig in. Grab it. Let’s do it. Okay. Oh my gosh. And y’all thank y’all to the folk who made this today. I mean, dude. Okay, dude. I mean, there’s nothing, there’s nothing to say. Especially in the world. Masa from kernel of truth too. They do an incredible job on their masa. And it’s good ingredients. Good ingredients. You can’t go wrong. We did queso Oaxaca in there. And a little bit of queso quesadilla. So you like, you get the kind of like meltiness from the queso quesadilla. Oh, oh, I’m wrong. You get that stretchiness from the ques Oaxaca. Yo. Can we rip open these tortas? Please. Dude, this. Okay, so this is something I’ve only been blessed to have in Mexico City, you can have chilaquiles, but then when you get out to Mexico, they’re like, let’s just put anything in a torta. There’s tamales inside of Tortas, there’s chilaquiles tortas. Is there a torta for chow mein? Put chow mein in a torta, yeah. Okay. You know better than me. Okay, so let’s go with this one first. Yeah. And it’s got the the fried chicken cutlet. There’s also a little bit of like pasta de frijole, the black bean paste, and then some, some crema and a little bit of cotija cheese. Let’s do this, bro. All right, you gotta touch tips. God damn. I got to say the F word once, right? No. We agreed on that? Yes. If we both say it at the same time. One, two- Man, that’s incredible. When was the first time you had this in Mexico City? I want to say I was getting to be out in Mexico just doing some research for Blue Beetle. Really trying to get more fluent in Spanish and get to just be out there. And this, you know- What is this place called? I mean, it’s just on, it’s a stand on the side and it people line up starting six, seven in the morning. And I’m a foodie, so I had to check it out. And it’s such an odd phenomenon having the like crispy tortilla chips in there with the soft roll. You talked about representation earlier. I don’t think I understood just how important representation was until I heard you talk about the types of roles that you were auditioning for when you were like a little kid actor. Because you’d be 10, 11 years old going up for a role that was like junior baby narco number three. Or like little baby gang banger. Exactly. What were your emotions at the time? And then how have you like reflected back on that stuff now that you are an adult and have done these incredible roles? Growing up, I had very few examples of folk that were like my age in the industry. Like when someone would say something offensive, I wouldn’t know what to do, aside from laugh it off and be like, surely this is like… Hey yo. The serious conversation. You starting to get the torta burps. I know, I know. Okay, okay. But my family, I think they come from these activist roots for sure. So they always made sure to let me know that it wasn’t okay, that these things that were happening shouldn’t have been happening. And I think they really helped me put a good perspective on it and, and learn to just wait, you know, and be okay saying no to certain roles. And that’s something that I think I still feel for people who are auditioning day on and day out, who are people of color or who still don’t have as many options for roles. And I think now and days that crazy stuff doesn’t happen as much anymore. Like I don’t think, I feel like the industry has kind of started to turn a new leaf, but now it’s, it’s only, I attribute to people behind the camera, directors, writers, actually getting to be a part of the filmmaking process. That’s cool, man. And I mean, one, dig into the castillas the castillas are getting cold, they’re gonna retain heat for a while. You gotta flip it. Do you, I gotta ask, how close is this to like what your family would’ve made? I mean, it’s looking pretty darn close so far. We kept the bone in, we made the sauce, the tortilla, the onion, chile, cilantro. Yeah. This is definitely looking proper thus far. Do you go hands or are you like- I’ll do it. Yeah, we can go hands. Would mom not have liked this at the table? No, I, no. Look, I mean, yo, it’s so funny. My mom doesn’t eat red meat. Oh really? She’s the best cook of steak and pork and all this stuff, but she doesn’t eat it. So she’s kind of like, all right, you do your thing. And I’m a like a… Whoa. I stuck the sauce off the bone. I just ate the whole bone. You ate the whole bone? I just chewed it. If he dies, is that on us? That is a good sign though of a good costilla. Like I’m a big, whether it’s wings or costilla or any sort of bone in, I got a, I’m like digging for treasure or something like that. Tell me about Casa 101. Casa 101 was honestly kind of the antithesis of these auditions that we were talking about earlier because although, you know, my first role at Casa 101 was young gang banger. It was way different. Okay? Because it was being told authentically from the community. Mm. And those moments being 10, 11 years old, I attribute Casa 101 and everyone over there for being the reason that I stayed confident enough to feel like, to have the gall, the audacity to think that I could be an actor, definitely because of Casa 101 and the whole squad over there. But it’s made me wanna get back into theater now. Your mom is also heavily involved in the arts, right? She’s the executive director of the Boyle Arts Conservatory. That’s right. How are you doing? And then hear me out. Hear me out. I got more, I got more. When Blue Beetle came out, we were in like the height of the SAG-AFTRA strike. That’s right. And so it completely killed your ability to actually market the movie. Your mom starts hosting community screenings at the Boyle Heights Arts Conservatory for like hundreds of people at a time. How much did it mean to have your mom in your corner like that? Yo my mom makes it at any, in every interview. She seems like she’s been a strong figure in your life. 100. I mean she, both of my parents, all my parents, I’m so blessed. I have four parents, all of them, but especially, you know, mom and pops, like they, at this specific time that you’re talking about, at a point where everyone was like, yo, you know, this is gonna be the craziest thing, the biggest thing ever to not be able to talk about it was like so different for me. But my fam like bringing the community together and I mean, I still went to the movies. I still, I still went to the movie. I didn’t take any pictures or anything like that, but I still went to the theater and got to see kids who grew up in the neighborhoods that I grew up in like some of them crying because they don’t even know why. But it made the whole experience the best and it totally like, washed away any, you know, like weird feelings that I had about the strike or whatnot because it truly put into perspective, like I’d always known that the role was gonna be bigger than myself and that it was that Blue Beetle was gonna be the biggest. And to get to witness that on a firsthand basis was like, I couldn’t be mad about the strike, couldn’t be mad about any of that stuff because I’ll always have that in my heart. And it honestly was like, alright, well this is why I gotta keep doing this. It’s such a good feeling to be able to do what I love and also honor my ancestors. Like, there’s very few times that those get to go in harmony, so. You had a mentor I believe named Eddie Padilla? Yeah. Casa. Yeah, Casa. Who told the LA times, like he loves what you’re doing for representation, but he never wants you to feel burdened by it because the best thing you can do for the culture is to do things that just uplift your spirit creatively. Do you ever feel like it is a burden? Do you ever put that pressure on yourself? I like, for example, recently I had to audition for a character who was a historical Mexican figure. And I had it, I did have a tough time grappling with it being like, dang, like I feel like I could do the role justice and that I could do this. But then you have these intrusive thoughts that are like, but you’re not that, maybe it should go to someone who actually has lived this experience, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I think these are things that I’m still navigating and still trying to, it’s not like a one-to-one or there’s like a right answer every time. But my family definitely does such a great job at kind of silencing those intrusive thoughts because they’re like, who the hell is gonna tell you you’re not Latino enough? Or who, who’s gonna like, it’s all of these labels, blah, blah blah are just methods of further separating us. And like, like you’re saying, just getting to put on these roles, like just by breathing, I’m Latino enough. Xolo, for course number three, first we have the poke bomb from Unreal Poke. This is filled with a bunch of Pokes wrapped in Inari. It’s got eel sauce, it’s got shrimp, it’s got a whole lot. Yeah. And then you said that buffalo wings were your favorite food. So we did something a little bit special for you. Guys can we bring in the wing tower? Wow! So we have created a giant three tiered buffalo wings seafood tower. Shut up. Oh my God, it looks so heavy. Holy shit. Move it in. Enjoy. Thank you so much. So we got the habanero buffalo up top. We got the sticky sweet and spicy, we got the lemon pepper. Then down here we got some chimi chori wings. We got salsa macha wings. And then we have, I think those are Korean. I don’t even know at this point. Yo, we’re having like a tea party. This feels like the most American thing in the world to change a tea party into this. Let’s go. Okay. Are you a ranch or blue cheese guy? Are you a dipper? Yeah, of course. Are you? Yeah, of course. Ranch is, it’s my blood type. Okay so just as I mentioned before, wings, you gotta eat everything. On the flat do you do like the twist and pull and then get it in one method? So there’s a way you can twist that bone out. And then. Honestly, this I usually do just, I guess the, the more basically like, let’s see… Hey yo. Oh. I see why you pulled this out ’cause that- That’s how you ensure you get everything. You create like a vacuum lock in your mouth and then you can just pull it out in one go. Can we move this down? Yes, absolutely. We can reach for the wings anytime. Well now we got the buffalo, so we gotta try it. I gotta be honest. I already did. Banging. Banging banging banging. Not too spicy for you? The heat tolerance? No. Okay, good. No, no, no, no. This is… I feel like buffalo, it’s not, there are definitely spicier flavors for sure. The habanero gives a little. Little kick. A lot of chilies are actually used like medicinally to treat pain because the capsaicin basically induces pain inside of you, so it kind of like dulls the nerves. I hear that. Speaking of indigenous medical practices, you read a book called The Shaman and the Jaguar. Yeah. You talked about it in your podcast. Yeah. You talk about the difference between Western practices around death versus like eastern slash indigenous. Did you come away with any lasting life lessons from that? Even in my own religion, I practice this religion Yoruba. Is that in west Africa? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s, yeah, it’s, you know, Afro-Cuban, Africa. Like there’s Santeria, like there’s versions, different versions all around, but in that religion, there’s definitely like bits of reincarnation and talks of what happens after death. So I was always like, after learning that and I’m, I mean, I’m a believer, I’m like, that’d be great. I love that idea. I think honestly there has been some comfort in doing more research than less. Do you ever research or like look into some, are you spiritual? Not spiritual per se, but I agree with the, like the facing it and making it a lot less scary. Because I used to, especially when I was your age, I got like a lot of death anxiety. MAnd I still get some bouts of it where, you know, you’re laying in Shavasana in yoga and you’re staring up at the ceiling and then you’re like, oh God, we’re gonna be nothing for eternity, and that’s a long time. So I started reading a lot more about it, albeit, I suppose a lot more from a western perspective. But there’s like Elizabeth K. Ross, she quit coined the five stages of grief. he wrote a great book called On Death and Dying, a great book by Caitlin Dowdy that I think you’d like called From Here to Eternity Traveling the World to Find a Good Death where she actually goes to a lot of other countries, places in Indonesia where they dress up people’s corpses and put cigarettes in their mouth and stuff and keep them in the family homes for months. Because they believe that the soul doesn’t pass until you have a certain ritual done to the body. And so it comforts me that there are so many different beliefs about it. And things are so wildly different from just, you go in the dirt and you die. Did you grow up with any specific messaging about death from practicing Yoruba? Yes, definitely some clarity. Definitely a lot of, I mean, we, a lot of our services are about kind of, I, I mean I went to cathedral like we had, we had mass every month. Like every time you’re getting these life lessons, most religions have so much comfort in knowing that, you know, life doesn’t necessarily end when you leave this plane. Getting to do this show, getting to do what you love, getting to live out and I guess honor those folk even yourself before you die, it offers a bit of a better perspective than just like fear. Like fear, like, this is what’s gonna happen after you die if you don’t do it right. I feel like the, I’ve been grateful so far to kind of have a little bit less of a fearful approach on death. What about you? When was your earliest interaction with thinking, like your fascination of death? And I won’t, eat the Poke. I’ll think about the question. Okay, okay. Let’s do this. So dude, as I, woo-hoo. Okay, so basically this is an homage to the podcast. I’m so grateful, so appreciative that you let me come onto your show. I wanted to bring a little bit of my show onto your show. And this right here is the poke bomb, as you mentioned from Unreal Poke. I sent you all the ingredients. I, there’s so much stuff going on here. I tried to list ’em off thinking that I could do that. No, there’s like 30 ingredients. There’s like 30 ingredients in here. But it is the most delicious bite you’ll have. I love sushi, I love Poke and Jordan, our producer on the podcast is Hawaiian and is always so quick to be like, I wanna make the most authentic Hawaiian food because honestly I didn’t have, I didn’t realize it, but I don’t, we don’t have the most authentic poke out here. So getting to meet Jordan and getting to do the podcast, while we were doing the podcast, he started Unreal Poke and I’m so excited for you to try this. Maybe for the first time. I can’t wait. This is definitely the first time that I’ve ever had anything like this. I do love inagi though. Right? A little sweet. And there’s, yeah, there’s sweet. Brother, what? Yeah, if you were to close your eyes and do the ratatouille thing where you’re like, there’s too many flavors going on here. But it’s still, it’s harmonious. It’s synchronous in my mouth. It’s playing a tune. It’s like, you know what, you know the people that can harmonize by themselves with like the two little whistle tone. You ever seen that? This is this. So I was like always aware of death, right? But then, yeah, no segue. I was always aware of death. Right? But my dad passed away when I was 19 and then that was what launched into this like, real obsession with it where I realized that I had to reckon with it. Otherwise it would just sort of consume me. But have you dealt with any death in your life? Like, have you dealt with major stages of grief and how it affects you? I have. Thank you for sharing that by the way. Yeah. I have dealt with a bit of death. I’m very thankful that, you know, it hasn’t, I haven’t had someone so close pass away. I do think about my own family, you know, I do have to think about like, I do have constant thoughts about them being like, yo, I gotta make sure that I’m spending all my time with them. Like, I, there’s never enough time and know that my family is like the type to be super strong and not tell me if something was going down. So I think sometimes I do think, like, I think I didn’t realize how much I might be like my parents until I found out how much my parents were like their parents. And like, I didn’t meet a couple of my grandparents. They passed before I was born. And as I get older I start to see mannerisms in myself and things in my own life that are totally my parents. And I think that makes me a little bit more comfortable to be like, damn, there are certain things that like I’ll have till the end of time to remind me of them. It’s a little heavy to think about it that way, but I find comfort in it. Xolo, for the final course of your final meal, we got the guava cheese pastry. This is coming from Porto’s. We can’t do it because then we let them have it. And then we got the oat griddle cakes with the apple butter from Salts Cure. Let’s go. Figured we’d throw the breakfast at the dessert table end with something sweet. That’s right. I’m so happy. I’m so pleased to be eating this dessert. Okay. Okay. I feel like Portos is a such a great, also another great touristy spot. If you haven’t been to LA this is definitely something that you have to head to. Yeah, and the patriarch, this is the patriarch just passed away. He was like 93, 94, Mister Porto. Mr. Porto. Mr. Porto, for you, man. Good dude. Well we’re so happy to honor you on this. This is one of my favorites. Line’s still out the door every day institution. Hey, yo. I mean, I will say though, you go anywhere in Latin America, south America, they have a version of this. Speaking of Cuba, what can you tell me about killing Castro? Speaking of… you got the segues. Right? Okay. So Killing Castro is a directorial debut. A banging story is the first time that I got to explore a period piece story takes place in 1960 and I play the only made up character. It’s the movie is full of people like Fidel Castro, Malcolm X, Eisenhower, Dulles, like all of these historical figures. And I get to play the one made up character. So it was exciting, especially getting to work with someone like an Al Pacino who there’s, there’s not a lot of people more famous in that industry than him. There’s one Al Pacino man. It’s not multiple Al Pacini, it’s one Pacino. Exactly. Singular Pacino. So I was getting, I was so blessed that Al specifically was so excited about the project, even at however old he is. Like the dude didn’t miss a step, was down to spend the extra time there and down to really get into the nitty gritty. So I’ll hold that with me so close. I really appreciate the, I just can’t wait for it to come out, ’cause I, I was a little nervous about it. I got the call like a week and a half before we were shooting, basically like we’re doing this thing. So I’m really proud of it and really proud of the whole team that got to put it together. But there’s not a lot of words for Al Pacino. Like he said, you gotta make sure that you wear comfortable shoes ’cause you’re on your feet a lot of your life. Life lesson. That’s so real. I was like, but can you gimme any acting tips, Al? I was like, what about- Cocaine! He was like a big old! Yeah. Yeah. But he was a pleasure. Yeah. Tell me about the salts cured oat griddle cakes. So this right here, this is maybe one of the most delicious breakfast dishes I’ve had. Oh man, thank you so much. Please. You’re in my house. Okay. It’s a bit different. It’s not a buttermilk pancake. No. It’s so wet. It almost is barely held together. It’s an oatmeal pancake and I know that that might throw some people off, but I really like the… You’re you’re kind of making a stink face. No, no. There’s no stink. It’s a little bit of like a this face. It’s so wet and so dense in such a pleasant way. I love, it’s almost like mochi, like in a way. Almost mochi. Like, it almost feels like a crepe a bit. Not in chewiness, but this is, the folk over at Breakfast by Salt Cure are so nice. They have my favorite pancake. After Cobra Kai, after Blue Beetle, you’re diversifying your career. You got the podcast doing serious movies with Pacino, you’re also a rapper and you just dropped an EP called Scarab Tapes. That’s right. There’s a song called Hero to Me where you define a hero as somebody who lives for something bigger than their existence, who dedicates themselves to a cause. Yeah. What is that cause that you want to live for bigger than your own existence? I think right now it’s getting to do what I do in, making, helping filmmakers like tell their story. Getting to be of service in that way has been I think a great motivator for me. Eventually I feel like it’ll be like parenting. I think it’d be cool. Like that’s probably another like big, like larger than like my heroes or my parents because they have the craziest job in the whole world. And as a, I guess a family member, just making sure that my family is happy. Like that’s what I would like to do. Make sure my little sisters are all set and all that. So that’s what being a hero is to me. But I think it’s so this movie and kind of how it ties in together, like the person is already the hero before you get the powers, you know. And I think that that was such a great sentiment to kind of go into this project with, and even in Blue Beetle, like the family really is the hero. Like they save him at the end of the day. And that’s so similar I think to like, I think that mimics real life. So getting to tell all of those different stories in this EP was a dream come true. Because I love rap. All I wanted to do was just honor this genre that I love so much and get to kind of blend the worlds together. Talk to me about mental health, ’cause you once gave a talk at the Boys and Girls Club in Santa Clarita about suicide prevention because you had a friend in high school take their own life. Yeah. And you said you felt some internalized guilt because of that. What is like the one thing that you would want young people today dealing with a very different world than say what I grew up with to take away from that? Like, especially literally right now at this moment. Like, it’s tough right now. I think it’s a big time of reflection. And I think something that I’ve been thinking a lot about a lot recently is that it does have to start at the small level. It’s up to us to instill the future generations with confidence as well. Like, I think getting to work with kids and make shows for kids and blah, blah blah. Like, it’s the most important crucial time of a person’s life are are those developmental stages and all of that. So if I can be of service in any way to help brighten up a person’s day, that’s more than enough for me. And I think it’s just patience as well. Like, I’d say for all the young kids out there. Like, we gotta be patient. Like it is tough, but it’s not if, it’s when, for sure. And I think never underestimate the simple power of bringing joy to somebody’s life, is something I believe in strongly. How do you protect your own mental health? ‘Cause a little birdie once told me you average 11 hours of screen time per day on your phone. Is that true, dude? 11 hours? That sounds so… should we look? I mean… Pull it up. I wanna dead that rumor right now. I don’t have my- Brandon! Please! We need accurate screen time. Does someone have my phone? I need to, I need to. Yo, if it is, I’m gonna be so embarrassed. I did just hop off of a flight so it’s a little different. Let’s see. Pull it up. Hey, how do I see screen time? I don’t even know. I get the weekly report. Okay. It’s a bit down. Okay. Seven hours, six minutes. That’s not bad. I didn’t mean to peek at your phone. That seven hour, six minutes. Xolo, how do you instill balance in your own life but not listening to what everybody else is saying? Well, I have a question. Does the music app count? ‘Cause I listen to music. No, I hope not. I hope that it does count because that’s where most of the screen time is going for me at least. It’s my friends and my family. Like I’ve rocked with them for so many years now and it’s so great to have a safe place. And aside from that, I think social media in particular is something that I’ve had to really keep finding a new, it’s a constant relationship. The the relationship is always changing. Yeah. And focus on your real life friends. That’s like the biggest thing that I think helps me. Real life connections, man. It can’t be can’t be overstated. Yeah. Well thank you for, for helping me. Like it’s nice to get to talk about these things and I don’t get to talk about it often. Sweet man, you ready to jump into the lightning round? What? There’s a lightning round. Oh yeah, It’s quick man. It’s lightning. It’s lightning. I don’t like that anymore. Who’s the one person dead or alive you’d wanna share your actual last meal with? It’s gotta be Nacho Libre. Nacho Libre. Yeah. Because he really savors his meals, so it’ll be a good long meal. What’s the one other superhero you’d want Blue Beetle to team up with? Oh man, it’s gotta be Batman. What song do you want played at your funeral? I want Dreams and Nightmares by Meek Mill. Who in the Cobra Kai cast is the pickiest eater? Look, and this is with a big heart, it’s just the first name that came to my mind. We do have a chicken finger person on our set. Name them. I think they’ve branched out. I gotta say. Ms. Mary Madeline Mauser. We’ve had some great times meeting chicken tenders together. I gotta be honest, but I don’t think we’ve, I don’t think we’ve branched out much. Mary, come here. We’ll make you the best chicken tender. Honestly, it’d be a great guest. Who’s your dream eulogize at your funeral? It’s Neil deGrasse Tyson. I feel like he would have a great way of just being like guys. Each of his atoms are now stars. Yeah, exactly. Would you rather have to fight Billy Zuka or have to see the disappointed look on Ralph Machio’s face when you showed up late to set? Oh my God. Either fight Billy, or- Dude, I’d rather fight Billy. I gotta be honest. Yeah. Few things that embarrassing than the lead of the show being like, don’t worry. Like him being nice about it even, made it so much worse. Kill ’em with kindness. So Billy Zaka for that reason. I’m gonna have to go with him. What’s your biggest fear? Unspoken words, I guess is is feeling like, dang, I hope that, you know, yeah, that’d be it. What’s the hardest goodbye you’ve ever had to say? Oh, this is about to get real dark. My dog drowned. Your dog drowned? Yeah that was one of the hardest, this was like last year. Oh my God. Oh my God. This was a few years back. Love. I mean, shout out to my dog Eunice. My first dog, my childhood dog. That was one of the hardest partings that I’ve had to deal with. We in our family, we just replaced one dog with another one. So now, so now we have three more dogs. That’s cool. You exponentialized. That’s right. Finally Xolo. Are you happy? Yeah. Are you happy? I’m getting there. It’s a process. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me on. This was one of the happiest interviews I’ve ever done. I love that man. And this is definitely top, this might be the best last meal food wise and guest of course. But I mean, strictly food wise, this might be top. Food is fine. Honestly. I feel like that’s a big compliment. I’m glad I could show up today and fill your tummy. I appreciate you, man. I can’t wait to watch the rest of Cobra Kai. If you wanna deliver your last words to that camera right there. Thank you! What can’t he do? Xolo Maridueña, check him out on Cobra Kai season six, parts two and three. Part two is out right now. Right now is the time. It’s right now. As we speak. Yeah. Yeah. I’m glad you made it all the way to the end. Now watch us kick each other’s butts for two and a half hours. You got anything else to plug? You already mentioned it, but I have an EP that I released called the Scarab Tapes. I’m really proud of it. I have a great team that worked on it. And at the same time, I do a podcast every week called Lone Lobos with my very own in-house brother slash dishwasher, Jacob Scott Thomas Bertrand. And we’re on every Tuesday. Appreciate you. Can’t wait to see how the Otter Pups finish up, man. That’s right. We’ll see you at the Super Bowl, bro. We’ll see you there and we’ll see you all next time. Thanks for stopping by. Face the reality of Mortality. Head on with our new Last Meals hat and tee. Available now at mythical.com.