Danny Trejo is a nice guy. Really. Despite usually being typecast as a stone faced bad-ass who shows the same indifference toward murdering someone, and checking his e-mail, Trejo was funny, and very friendly toward a crowd gathered to hear him speak Monday, Oct. 27, at Northeast State.
“Everything good that has ever happened to me, everything I have, is all from helping other people,” said Trejo.
He doesn’t hide his past, but he doesn’t glorify it. He spent more than a decade in and out of prison for crimes ranging from assault to robbing a liquor store with a hand grenade (at the age of 13).
He was 8 years old the first time he used marijuana, and 12 when first using heroin. These are not things he is proud of.
Trejo is proud of the work he’s done since in helping others overcome addiction. Since getting clean upon getting out of prison in 1969, Trejo has been working as speaker and sponsor for nearly 40 years.
Trejo received a call from someone he was sponsoring, who said there was too much cocaine where he worked and he was having trouble fighting to stay clean.
He agreed to come to his workplace unaware that it was the set where the 1985 movie “Runaway Train” was being filmed.
He was seen onset, and offered the role of an extra in the prison scenes due to his look, ironically, with no knowledge of his past.
While filming, Edward Bunker, one of the screenplay writers who also happened to have been incarcerated in San Quentin State Prison while Trejo was there, remembered Trejo and his boxing skills as San Quentin welterweight boxing champion.
Bunker asked Trejo to train the film’s star, Eric Roberts, for his boxing scene, as well as offering him a pay increase and larger role.
From there, his career steadily escalated, as he was offered new roles based on being previously seen in other films. He has since appeared in more than 150 films, as well as television shows, as a character in video games and voice overs for cartoons.
“I love working for Strickland Propane!” Trejo said with enthusiasm, in the same tone used by his character on “King of the Hill.”
He went on to mention how his role on that show, as well as in the “Spy Kids” movies, has brought him recognition among fans too young for some of his more violent work. Twice while speaking, he began fidgeting with something left on the podium, before eventually handing the items to his assistant seated near by.
“I’m too distracted by shiny things,” said Trejo, in a happy manner which runs polar opposite to the majority of his character portrayals.
Trejo turned the floor over to audience questions. One audience member asked, “What was the toughest set to work on?” Trejo recalled driving through the Southwest on the way to a shoot and seeing a road crew out laying pavement in the hot desert sun.
“I thought, now they are having a bad day,” said Trejo. “How could I ever complain about what I do when I could have to be doing that, or in prison?”
Someone asked how he got his role in the 2007 “Halloween” prequel. “I had done ‘The Devil’s Rejects’ with Rob [Zombie], and we were both being interviewed not that far away from each other at the premier.
“Someone asked me about Rob’s new ‘Halloween’ movie. I screamed over to where Rob was ‘Rob! Give me a part in Halloween or I’ll kill you!’ whoever was interviewing Rob asked him if I was in it and he replied ‘I guess so, you just heard him threaten my life.’ “
Trejo answered all audience questions. As the speed of the questions slowed, he asked multiple times if any questions remained, resulting in further waves of questioning, until he had given everyone with something to ask an opportunity to do so.
Following the question and and aswer session, Trejo posed for pictures and signed autographs at a table in the hallway in front of the auditorium.
One of the first in line was Shannon Wallen, of Wise, Va., who has a still-in-the-works tattoo of Trejo’s “Machete” character on his upper leg.
“I have been a fan of Danny Trejo all my life,” said Wallen, “long before I even knew his name back when I was just a kid and he was just that bad- ass guy with the gun and the frown in the background.
“Danny loved it and was nice enough to let us get a few pics with him, and we went away with big smiles. I think it is great that a true real life character and nice guy like Danny Trejo is being welcomed to this area to spread a very positive message.”
Jim Kelly, a history professor at Northeast State and one of the event coordinators, said, “I think it’s great to have someone from Hollywood come here and show there is another side to it, aside from the stereotype.”
Trejo stayed late, giving everyone in line their time, until the building was emptying out.
Trejo recalled, “One time I was somewhere with Ben Affleck and somebody asked him for an autograph,” said Trejo. “He said no and turned them away. Then I said to him ‘sign it,’ and he just grabbed it with his head down, and started signing away.
“He never complained about it, or refused anybody around me again. I don’t see how someone in a position we’re lucky enough to be in, could not be appreciative.