Annotations for Names: Hollywood

Well, that's interesting because, I mean, I've never negated it. I've always said, I mean, as a matter of fact, in my early years in Hollywood, I was in trouble.

As you know, there were a lot of racist things going on at that time in the 30s and 40s during the war.

So was it when you went to Italy that you feel that things changed? You had been typecast in Hollywood for so long as a pirate or an Indian chief, for example. When did the roles that you were able to play begin to change for you?

The film was made independently, backed by a group of investors from Europe, but says Ortenberg he hopes it's successful enough at the box office to convince Hollywood to take on similar projects.

In Hollywood, they call it the Hispanic market. We know it to be simply the presence of millions and millions and millions of people that are attuned to the new realities of the Southwest.

Ten years ago, Luis Valdez had this to say about his experience as a Hollywood filmmaker.

Hollywood is an ongoing carnival, you know, deal-making. It's a game that can wear you down, and literally I think it wears people to the ground.

Ten years later, Valdez still has an uneasy relationship with the movie business.

I don't think the general public really understands completely how Hollywood works, and they only understand what they see, and what they see are movies that make it to theaters, but they don't understand it.

Not only is it a competitive business, but it's also a corporate business with corporate structures and multimillion dollar investments made by individuals in some cases, but more often than not by corporate combines, corporate investors.

Both inside the studio system and outside the studio system that expect a quick return for their money, and that quick return, if you look at most movies, is generated in the first couple of weekends.

And what is becoming the frightening norm for filmmakers that are attempting to work in LA or Hollywood slash planet Earth, because it's really a worldwide business, is the frightening thing is that if you don't make 20, 30 million dollars on your first weekend, you're not in competition.

And in order to ensure that, and some movies have made over 50 million on their first weekend, in order to ensure that they have to pack films with movie stars with a lot of flash, a lot of stuff that is really aimed at the target audience, in most cases the largest audience is the 17 to 25.

So a film has to cater to those tastes, meaning action, meaning male action oriented films. And occasionally they allow themselves, these investors in studios to gamble with an unusual project. Occasionally a surprise comes along and a sleeper becomes a big hit. But there are limits. Nothing can compete with the big blockbusters.

And I will continue to work with the family, with United Farm Workers, and with Hollywood in order to make that a reality. So the ultimate result though, and I know Dolores Huerta feels this way, is that maybe what that project is, is an independent film. You know, unrestrained by any corporate pressures. And I think probably Cesar would have appreciated that more.

And don't be surprised if it comes out of this packing shed, because this is a very natural place for it to come out of. And really just looking at it, it's very difficult to take Cesar and to try to put him through the sieve of Hollywood. You know, it somehow doesn't work. And I think he knew that. He knew that for 10 years, the last 10 years of his life, when I was talking to him about this. He resisted the notion. He didn't want a Hollywood movie about him. He hated that stuff.