Lopez vs. Lopez

By starrymag | November 4, 2022

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

 

Q) Yeah, for Mayan. I was wondering how many of the issues that your character raises are kind of autobiographical for you. I know in real life your dad did drink too much during the times when you were a teenager and so forth, and he did divorce your mom.  Was any of that ‑‑ was there a time where you guys were estranged, or you stayed ‑‑ separated apart?  At what point was this relationship similar to your one in real life? 

 

MAYAN LOPEZ:  Yeah.  Thank you for that question.  You know, my parents got divorced about ten years ago.  And within the last four ‑‑ two years, my dad and I really solidified our relationship.  There was a time where we didn’t speak and were estranged for about three years.  But, really, the pandemic brought us back together, and we ‑‑ I started making TikToks with my family to reconnect.  And Debby Wolfe was scrolling one day and she saw one of our TikToks and this whole “Lopez vs. Lopez” was kind of born from that idea.

And I say my story, but it’s also an amalgamation of the writers’ stories, cultural references within Latino parent‑child relationships or any minority.  And so we really tried to do a really great job, and we are doing a wonderful job on “Lopez vs. Lopez” of sharing those stories.

 

Q) George, it seems like the art of doing a multi‑cam always is what it is. Do you see any significant differences as you do this new show vis‑à‑vis what you did on the “George Lopez” show, the show that had the title “George Lopez”?

 

GEORGE LOPEZ:  Well, clearly, I mean, there’s Peacock, which is wonderful, and then the next day you’re on Peacock and then on you’re on NBC.  I just think as times have changed, social media has changed, the comedy has changed, but yet the social ‑‑ the unit of multi‑camera doesn’t change.  So to have done it 20 years ago is great, but to do it now and to do it with people that are incredibly talented and much easier to find than it was 20 years ago.  I think Bruce can answer that too.

 

BRUCE HELFORD:  Oh, yeah.  No.  The casting people…And Debby [Wolfe]‑‑ Debby really has the handle on this.  But the casting pool, the pool for casting and for writing ‑‑ for writing a show about Latinxs is a hugely different thing now.  That’s way different than it was.

 

DEBBY WOLFE:  And I think that’s because George Lopez and the show really did pave the way and opened up a lot of doors and inspired a lot of Latinx talent to pursue their dreams.  And now fifteen years later, like, here we are.  And we do have so much great talent coming in and it is different than it was in the past.

 

GEORGE LOPEZ:  Well, I want to say that to have been in it is an honor.  But to leave for fifteen years and to have Debby see Mayan do TikToks about our unfortunate break in our relationship, you know, but to create a beautiful thing from something that was so painful and so much my fault is just a wonderful thing that Debby to ‑‑ for you to do and for you to think of us and to just be as devoted to the show as you are is ‑‑ I mean, thank you.

 

Q) George, your original series was based a lot on your comedy act and your reminiscences of working with your rigid, ethnically rigid grandmother in a factory. Do you have that kind of length of history with your daughter to draw material from that as well?

 

GEORGE LOPEZ:  You know, I’m going to say yes.  I mean, I’m going to say that Matt Shively is an incredible actor, an incredible comedian.  And much like the young Caucasian, the gentleman that Mayan brought home, with a name that was tough to pronounce, but also in the fact that you have to let kids and let young adults have their own life.  So, I would say yes.  I’ve made some mistakes.  I’d like to think Mayan hasn’t done everything perfect, or else, you know, be following in my footsteps.  But I think the people that we’ve brought into this world are definitely the right people to take the journey with.

 

Q) Selenis, now, the Lopezes are obviously playing versions of themselves. You’re playing a version of a real person, but you’re not the real person.  So how is it?  This is sort of a unique situation where it’s not like everybody is playing a fictionalized version of somebody else or everybody is playing a fictionalized version of themselves.  How is it being the person who isn’t that person, working with the two people who are?

 

SELENIS LEYVA:  Thank God.  No.  No.  I honestly ‑‑ I approached this role just like I do any other role.  You come in and you bring as much of yourself into it, even if it is a nonfictional person.  I feel like every actor has to find a little bit of themselves to bring in, if that makes sense.  And with George and Mayan, although they are playing themselves, I think they’re playing a part of themselves.  When you watch them, you can tell that these two ‑‑ and this is ‑‑ I want the audience to really know that they’re just not showing up and just opening their mouths and just being George and Mayan.  They are actors, and they are delivering really complex situations.  Their job is a lot harder than mine, I think, because it’s like they come in and there is a part of themselves that is very much real, but then there is that fictional side.  And I’m doing the same thing.  Yes, there is a little bit of, you know, someone else in there, you know, a little bit of maybe Ann Lopez going on.  But I would love to just kind of create my own and make my own path to tell the story.

 

GEORGE LOPEZ:  And if you don’t think prison can rehabilitate people, she’s an incredible actress.  Come out of prison and just ‑‑ this job that’s going to last forever.

 

DEBBY WOLFE:  I just want to step in and clarify here that the creation of Rosie, the character, she is a fictionalized character and she’s based a lot on my own mother and a lot of the Latina moms of writers in the room.  So, she’s sort of, like, a blend of many Latinas in one.  So, she’s not as close to Ann as George is to the George character and Mayan is to Mayan.

 

GEORGE LOPEZ:  She’s like the bottom of every Latina woman’s purse.  You don’t know what’s in there.

 

Q) For Mayan and for George, what is it like working for your father, working with your father, working with your daughter, and what are the best and worst things about it?

 

MAYAN LOPEZ:  I mean, this is a gift of a lifetime.  This is an experience of a lifetime, to be able to do this with my father.  I have studied personally to be a comedian.  But, really, the inception of my love of comedy started at a young age.  And the “George Lopez” show started when I was five years old, and so I’ve been around sound sets like the “George Lopez” show.  Those are my family.  Like, I’ve known Bruce since I was five years old.  Like, it is a family.  There’s real connection there.  And now, making that switch to working with him every day, there is ‑‑ like my character “Mayan,” I’m playing a different version of myself, which at first I thought, oh, well, I’m ‑‑ I’ve gone to therapy.  I’ve done things.  Like, I’m going to be teaching “Mayan,” the character, some things about my dad, but, really, “Mayan” is teaching me things that I’m actually gaining more confidence in my relationship with my dad.  And now, you know, we’re coworkers, and there’s ‑‑ we have to make ‑‑ for the sake of our relationship, there has to be some emotional separation, but the bond and the love shows very clearly on screen with ‑‑ not just with my dad but with the entire cast of “Lopez vs. Lopez.”  And so it is just ‑‑ it’s a beautiful, beautiful thing.

 

DEBBY WOLFE:  Yeah, I like to say ‑‑

 

GEORGE LOPEZ:  I keep it real by not saying goodbye to her when I leave at the end of the day.

 

MAYAN LOPEZ:  Got to keep me humble.

 

DEBBY WOLFE:  I like to say, like, the only way these two were going to heal their relationship was on the set of their own NBC sitcom.

 

GEORGE LOPEZ:  Bruce means so much to me.  And when I look at Mayan, I can see the different times in her life every day as I look at her be five and ten and thirteen.  I mean, it’s just ‑‑ my eyes have seen a lot of incredible things, but what I get to see every day, I never imagined would ever be something I would be able to do.

 

BRUCE HELFORD:  There’s almost moments that the actors aren’t talking to each other, but the people are in the show.  It’s almost a fun game for the viewers, I think, to watch and go, ooh, that’s all of a sudden very ‑‑ there is something there that’s really ‑‑ it’s amazing thing to watch and that both of the ‑‑ and both George and Mayan are so open to exploring all the things, not just with the writers, but also what they have to bring from their own experiences together.  So, there are times when you guys talk that I look and I go, that’s George talking to Mayan.  That’s for real.  It’s really wonderful.

 

MAYAN LOPEZ:  I like to think of comedy as pain and time.  And so now I feel like there’s enough time that’s passed that we’re able to create laughter and create beautiful stories and so that the hope is that people will watch the relationship with Mayan and George or Mayan and Quinten or Mayan and Rosie and George, and able to see their own families and be able to start conversations and ‑‑

 

GEORGE LOPEZ:  Well, I told Al ‑‑ Al’s been one of my favorite comedians for a long time.  And I told him years ago that my ideal best friend after Trinitop Balinka [phonetic] would be Al.  And the fact that he loves ‑‑ he loves his job so much that every day you catch him saying, “Man, I can’t believe this.”  But the idea that you can manifest something is something that I think, when you’re blessed to do something and then being able to do it, you start to believe that you can make these people happen in your life, and Al’s one of those people.

 

AL MADRIGAL:  And just if I can add to that and just what Bruce was just saying, it’s like there’s been moments ‑‑ and I think all the other actors agree ‑‑ when I’m in a scene and I’m watching Mayan and George, like, say “I love you” or ‑‑ and the pat on the back, whatever it is, and it’s just so genuine that I just can’t believe I’m lucky enough to be a part of this, because I’ve never seen ‑‑ when you’re having actors that they’re supposed to care for each other, but to look at two people that, you know, have a deep, deep love for each other as a father and daughter and thinking about my own daughter and just how cool this is, it’s pretty special what we have here.  And I know you probably have a lot of actors saying the exact same thing.  But I think we’re all part of ‑‑ we all recognize that we’re part of something pretty cool and unique in this relationship.

 

SELENIS LEYVA:  Get all emotional.  I have to remind myself, no, this is comedy, you know.

 

GEORGE LOPEZ:  An actor can get cast, but conceived, that’s talent. NBC has meant so much to me and I’m such a person ‑‑

Like, I was on “Johnny Carson” in ’91.  “Johnny Carson” is across the street, the building.  I came here when I was thireen and saw all the things that people see today.  And to just know that “Johnny Carson,” Freddie Prinze, “Sanford and Son.”  And at the most critical time of my childhood, my junior high years, that those people kept me connected to just not having the loneliest childhood and the fact that I would be here and be able to see these trams go by when I was in the tram is just ‑‑ I can’t ‑‑ it’s ‑‑ it’s unimaginable to me.

 

Q) Despite the fact that Debby and you reaching out on social media brought you together, I imagine there had to be a big emotional in‑person getting together, and I guess I want to know how both of you had the courage or the wish to do that, to put all of this in the past.

 

GEORGE LOPEZ:  That’s a good question.

 

Q) What was the getting together like?

 

GEORGE LOPEZ:  When you do the pilot and it’s ‑‑ and it was very difficult to find the right actors, as we have.  And you know that you’ve got one shot at it and ‑‑

 

For me, as a father with working with my daughter, it was important to me to get this show picked up.  I love Joe Namath and the Jets and saying that he’s going to win the Super Bowl when no one gave him an opportunity to win the Super Bowl and he did is reminiscent of how I felt coming to work every day and hoping that I could get this show picked up and get it to series ‑‑

 

Q) Well, but beyond just the show, were you manifesting in your mind getting back together with your daughter? Before the show became an idea, the two of you personally getting together.

 

MAYAN LOPEZ:  I think I definitely manifested this type of deep healing in some part of my journey and, I think, the journey with my father.  I think now with this show not only do we get to have our relationship, which I feel like is almost our family’s kind of journey of ‑‑ you know, the “George Lopez” show, that was his life if he didn’t become a stand‑up comedian.  My dad actually did work in an airplane parts factory when he was young.  And so now it’s ‑‑ we’re able ‑‑ our family’s journey is always to talk and share and have our reconnect with the world.

And it’s so funny with bringing up everyone together in person, it’s like with the conception of the show, it happened in 2020, October of 2020, and so a lot of this, because of COVID ‑‑ like, I didn’t meet Debby until we already had a treatment, and we were already about to pitch.  And even with the casting process, like, that was ‑‑ like, we did all of the casting over Zoom.  Chemistry reads, like testing, all of that and ‑‑

 

Q) But did you get together face‑to‑face with your dad?

 

MAYAN LOPEZ:  I did.  I mean, I’ve had multiple re‑comings, going, reconnecting, re‑going, which is ‑‑ in this show, it really shows the pain of reconnection.  Sometimes it can get a little too overwhelming and maybe you need to go take a break.  And that’s something that in relationships, it is ebb and flow.  And I think with this show, now we are on and we’re working.  And just like in real life, we are working on our relationship and we’re learning new things every day, and so it will add, and you’ll be able to see how our characters grow as on and off screen.

 

GEORGE LOPEZ:  And you know what.  I want to answer the question.  I do have a lot of respect for you Jeanne ‑‑ that I have ‑‑ I used to give up on people, whether it was my fault or not.  I would remove people from my life.  And if I was to blame, you know, I would just never have to see them again.  But this is the one relationship that is the most valuable thing to me in my entire life.  So it was very difficult to be able to have to look at yourself and your flawed self and be honest with yourself and know that whether it worked out or not, I was going to do something that was entirely new to me and was going to take me on a very painful journey to look at myself.  But much like life, laughter is the best medicine.  I don’t think it’s as good as antidepressants, but it can be a good medicine.

 

MAYAN LOPEZ:  Supplement.  It’s a supplement.

 

Q) Matt, what we can expect of Quinten, and how you working in this experience and working together with George and Mayan?

 

MATT SHIVELY:  I wasn’t sure if I was going to talk, so let me gather my ‑‑

 

MAYAN LOPEZ:  Here’s our boy.  Here we go.

 

MATT SHIVELY:  For starters, I think I’m having to get comfortable.  I feel like I’ve always played kind of the same character.  And up until four months, I was always playing a teenager, which is far from my actual age.  So, Quinten is quite a stretch for me being a TV dad now, which is something I’m consistently joking with Mayan about.  But it’s like a totally new world for me, and I’m having to say lines that me as a person and me as an actor has never had to say about having a son and about having ‑‑ being in a relationship.  I’m usually playing just the funny guy rather than being the empath, path kind of emotionally there and stable person for somebody else in a relationship.

And then, as far as working with everybody, this for me truly has been like a dream come true.  I started in multi‑cam 13 years ago, and I think I was too young to really enjoy it and understand how great of a job it is and I think I took it for granted.  So when this started, even from the first time we did a live audience taping, it was like I took everything in.  And to be working with a legend in George Lopez and to be working in a legend in the making of Mayan.  And Selenis, she’s absolutely incredible.  Like, these people are some of the best actors I have ever worked with.  And so at the end of the day, I wake up every morning and truly thank my lucky stars that I’m even here and that I’m able to come to work every day with these people, because it’s the greatest job in the world.

 

Q) Mayan, I went to the “George Lopez” show tapings many times back in, I guess, ’07, ’08. And you were ‑‑ every time I was there, you were on the set with your mom, walking around on the set and all.  At that young age ‑‑ I don’t know.  Maybe you were about seven or eight at the time ‑‑ were you, in fact, enamored with being on the set?  Did you want to be part of the action?  You said that you wanted to do comedy and all, but at what point of your life was the epiphany that you said I want to play on a sound stage like this and maybe even play opposite my dad?

 

MAYAN LOPEZ:  I think that’s one of the things that is very unique, is that people always think that I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth.  Like, no.  My mom and dad brought me home, were paying ‑‑ I kind of came up as my dad’s career was coming up.  I was about five years old when the “George” ‑‑ yeah, I was about seven or eight.  And so, really, I got to see on screen and the behind the scenes the hard work that comes with show business, like, and I really fell in love with the business side as well as the on‑camera side.  That was actually my first job.  I was a kid AD.  They called me “kid AD.”  I was a kid AD on set.  And I used to have a little headset.  I made 20 bucks an hour.  In about four weeks, I was able to buy an American Girl doll.  And I would take ‑‑ I would go and get Constance Marie, who played Angie from the set, and take her to makeup and then take her to ‑‑ you know, so that was, like, my first job.  And then I used to make quesadillas in craft services, and I would carry them around on a little plate for everyone.  And so it really kind of ‑‑ I saw the family of.  And some of my greatest memories sitting on the cameras and having to be really still as they were making a take; and sometimes I’d move and I’d be like, “Oh, I’m so sorry.”  And it was ‑‑ from then, I got the bug.  I kind of always used to ‑‑ Like, my dad and I always joked that, you know, I got being very quick from him.  I really ‑‑ it’s genetic, and it’s proven here.  And I got to really fall in love, and that love has only grown in this show and that it’s surreal that I’ve watched my dad do this and now I get to have the honor and privilege of playing alongside him in something that’s so personal to us and our family.  And it’s the dream, the dream of a lifetime.

 

GEORGE LOPEZ:  And I love being able to send Debby a message and tell her how impressed I am with the writing and the direction of the show.

 

MAYAN LOPEZ:  Yes.

 

GEORGE LOPEZ:  And I also, like Selenis, I walk up to her and say, “I think you’re just doing an amazing job.”  I tell Matt, Al.  And somebody that has been around kind of as long as I have, at some point they become jaded and they become a little bit turned off to people’s performances.  But I’m a fan of the multi and a fan of Bruce’s legacy.  And to be able to walk up to them or look at them and let them know that they’re doing something really incredible is ‑‑ I’m honored.

 

MAYAN LOPEZ:  Yeah, I’ve admired ‑‑

 

Q) George, you’ve hit a few bumps along the road in your career, in your life. What from your experience that you learned that you gave as advice for Mayan, that you can make her road a lot smoother than yours was?

 

GEORGE LOPEZ:  I’ve told Mayan a few times, I said, “I’m going to tell you something my grandmother never told me.  I want you to be happy.”

I always told Mayan that she should never be anywhere she didn’t feel comfortable.  And I told her ‑‑ it’s almost like I say in “Bewitched,” when Tabitha could move something across to her crib and you realize that she had the power that Bewitched had.  That I told Mayan, “Sometimes these things are going to come into your head, but don’t always say them because they might not always be kind.  They’re going to be funny.  But give yourself a few seconds to taking to understand what you might be saying and always trust your instinct.”  And I think that’s ‑‑

 

MAYAN LOPEZ:  Yeah.

 

Q) The “George Lopez” show meant so much to me as a teenager, seeing a Hispanic family on TV in such a positive and hilarious light. So, with this show, it’s very similar in the sense we’re just seeing a family be a family. So, what does it feel like to be part of that representation?

 

DEBBY WOLFE:  Well, I think, you know, it’s huge.  I think that we still have a long way to go, actually.  While there are more shows that are based on Latinx people and stories, we’re still vastly underrepresented on screen and behind the scenes too.  And it’s something I know in my career I have worked to change.  This has really been a lifelong goal for me.  And I’ve always wanted to be a part of a growing movement to tell more of our stories and hire more of our people in leadership roles and honor the diversity of our experiences.

“George Lopez” ended in 2007.  There haven’t been very many since.  But the ones that we have done, like have been ‑‑ have been really amazing and pushed the movement forward.

I had the pleasure to work at “One Day At a Time,” which was a show that you, run by Gloria Calderon Kellett, who also, like, paved the way for Latina showrunners.  But there’s still ‑‑ I’m only, like, the second Latina showrunner to have ‑‑ to be an executive producer on a network sitcom.  The last one was “Cristela,” and that was seven years ago.

So, we still have a lot of work to do, so I feel a huge responsibility to make sure that we deliver an amazing show that will open the doors for our people, that represents our people and will open up the doors for our people.

And I also just want to say, like, we’re not a monolith.  Like, we’re not all the same.  We’re all so different.  And, you know, I think that by telling a very specific authentic story about two Mexican American ‑‑ Mayan is Cuban/Mexican American ‑‑ just telling a very specific story about these two, and our hope is that it will just resonate with everyone and open up doors, so ‑‑

 

SELENIS LEYVA:  And I can say that for me, as a Latina, as an afro Latina, this is the dream job not only to act in, but I envision myself watching something like this and being very excited.  And as an actor, I’ve always said I would love to get to a place in my career where I am just part of storytelling, I’m just part of the great storytelling, not necessarily because I’m Latina because, no, just storytelling, you know.  And I have landed the dream job.  We are telling a story.  Yes, we are ‑‑ we’re a mixed bunch, but we’re just telling stories, human stories, family stories, of flawed people trying to make the best that they can, being funny, having moments where ‑‑ that’s going to resonate, it’s going to sit.  There might be a little bit of thoughtfulness, right?  Moments of, like oh, wow, clarity, an aha moment.  And for me, honestly, it’s taken 20 years to get to my dream job where I am part of storytelling.  Not because I’m a Latina, not ‑‑ but I’m an actor.  So, this is wonderful and in such a positive light.  Flawed, yet positive.

 

DEBBY WOLFE:  Yeah, I agree.  Like, I think the story, you know, is universal, while also, like, speaking with specificity to the Latinx community.  We do ‑‑ it’s really important.  We put so much work into the details, like, the language, the costumes, the jokes.  You know, it’s been at the top of my mind really from the beginning that this look and feel and sound like a familiar ‑‑ familiar to Latinx viewers, because we do rarely get to see ourselves on screen.

 

MAYAN LOPEZ:  It’s a beautiful responsibility, and I feel like it almost drives me in my creation of doing it for the culture.  And even, like, Selenis, she’s someone that I saw in “Orange Is the New Black.”  Even just, like, seeing someone like me, it’s something ‑‑ even just that small, it’s, like, wow, I’m accepted.  I am seen, or, you know, people can see what I look like.  It changes.  And it really affects, like, at least, for young women, young Latinx, like, everywhere.  And so to be able to tell our stories and for someone ‑‑ or even ‑‑ that’s what also the beauty of the “George Lopez” show, is that throughout the years, I’ve had people from all races, all different types of ethnicities being like, “That was my family,” that was this.  And so family is just family, and we just happen to be a Latin family.

 

 

 

*CONFERENCE CALL*