Manny Montana

Every year before he leaves for Florida to shoot the new season of “Graceland”, Montana organizes a football game where he invites former football students that he used to coach at Pop Warner, those from the Jordan Panthers whom he is currently coaching, as well as his old friends. We were lucky enough to witness everything in action.

“Coach Manny has a big heart”, says one of the parents on the field and we could not agree more. Manny Montana is a humble man with a huge heart full of unconditional love for kids and the desire to change his community for the better, one step at a time.

We chatted with Manny about his background, inspirations, community work and his life purpose.

What made you the happiest when you were a kid and what makes you happy now?

Manny Montana: What made me the happiest was football. You know when you find something that’s just like, “This is what I’m supposed to be doing!”- that’s what football was for me. And that’s all I ever did. Even in high school the only reason why I got good grades and that I got to college is because I wanted to play football. So football was just that thing to me. And acting kind of reminds me a lot of it. That’s why I do it. It just moves me, I can’t really explain why. It’s just something about the field, working with your team, having your boys with you, having a common purpose. I just love it and to this day that’s what I still do. It reminds me so much of acting. When you are acting, you have a coach (director), teammates (castmates), and you all work together.

So we can say that you are a team player?

I am! When we are shooting, we all work together for months to put on this show. Same way with football: you work all week long for one Friday night game. So it has such similar things to it. It just moves me inside.

I guess having a big family has contributed to your sportsman mentality. Could you share a little about your upbringing?

I have three brothers and a bunch of cousins and a bunch of aunts; we all live next to each other. It’s just a big Mexican family. I’m first generation Mexican-American, with a lot of Spanish, Native American, and Irish blood in me.

Is everyone creative in your family?

Surprisingly, yeah! My family grew up really poor in Mexico, so they had to work, they didn’t get to go to school. You don’t have time to be creative. What are you going to do with creativity in a poor town in Mexico? But then we were at this thing, and my grandma started singing. I never knew she could sing. I started talking to my dad about different people in a family and my dad said: “Yeah, your uncle could draw.” My big brother is an artist. He is the real artist in the family. His photography, drawing, the way he dresses – everything is just art. My little brother loves editing, making films; my youngest brother likes working on cars. It’s just a creative family, but we don’t know where it came from. It’s in my blood somewhere!

Having deep roots in Long Beach, has there ever been any other place that you felt you could call home?

I still live in Long Beach and I plan on retiring there, but I just got to the point now where I want to travel a little more. Growing up it’s all you know- you are so hood and ghetto, but then when you start traveling, you start seeing more people and places. I love Chicago; I’d think about living there. I love San Francisco, New York. But I love Long Beach! It’s different from LA because not everybody is an actor/writer/producer. It’s just normal people doing normal things. So I like that about it. Would I move abroad? Probably not. I get homesick. I’m a beach kid, I love the weather, I love LA, I love the beaches, I love the people. I went to London last year, it was cool; I enjoyed it a lot. I’ve never been to France, Spain, Australia, I want to go all these places, but right now acting’s kind of keeping me busy, which is good.

What strikes me the most about you is the fact that you have this powerful sense of community, you motivate kids both on and off of the field, helping them to understand passion through your kindness and commitment to your dream as well as theirs. This is a very big deal when you stop to think about the tough environment where they grow up. It goes without saying that they have learned so much from you, but what have they taught you?

A lot! First of all, thank you for saying all that. I love my kids, and I love what I do. Sometimes I’d be on a football field and I’d think: “Why am I acting? I like doing this a lot. Maybe I should be a coach?” But then when I’m on the set, I love doing that too. And my kids I think just need to have somebody that they can look up to or anything like that. I hate saying it, because they just see me as another person. And I like that. They are just my boys, my little brothers. There I’m reminded of how I grew up. When you come to this business, you start meeting more people and going to nice places. And I like showing my kids there is a bigger world. I try to expose them to different things. But what I learn from them the most is just the humility and the hustle. They are trying hard to get out of there. It reminded me of how it was when I was a kid. So what I’m trying to show them is more than just football, it’s that you could be a normal person doing normal things and still living your dream. And that’s what I tell them more than anything, because they always talk about wanting a scholarship here or there, but then they are at home doing nothing. That’s when I always say to them: “It pisses me off when you guys say that you wanna do this and don’t make any actions”. That’s what kills me: their mentality is they want to get out, but sometimes their actions don’t speak to it. I used to have this old teacher that told me: “It takes a superhuman effort to achieve a dream.” And it’s true, you can’t sit at home, you can’t just coast through it; you have to work really hard. So hopefully it hits them.

So true. Even if it’s just one kid, you did your job right!

It’s so worth it. And I have to remember that they are kids. And I remember what it was like to be a kid. I’m not that old, so I remember that [laughs]. People could look at my boys, and they all look tough, and they have that side of them, but at the same time they all are really sensitive, they’re sweet, they are funny. In Long Beach, you grow up a certain way. You have to know how to be polite; you are raised that way by your parents. But you’re also really tough because you deal with people messing with you or testing you. I think anybody from the hood has both sides. That’s why I could be good in acting, I could play a nice guy like I do in “Graceland”, or I’ll play a thug like I’ve done in the past. I want people to see my kids as who they are- funny, sweet and cool, but they’re also really tough. I love my kids. They know where I live, they know who I am, I’m happy to be part of their lives.

Thinking of yourself as a soul on Earth, what is your mission and in what way do you think one person can make the world a better place?

It’s a good question! First of all, I want to act. When I was a kid, I used to watch movies and just be so moved by them and that’s why I thought I should be an actor. That’s what gets me going; it gives me a drive and a purpose. But for the most part I used to say: God and the Universe, if you gave me an opportunity to live my dream, I’d always give back, I’ll always help people. That’s what I want to do.

Growing up I used to have all these friends that complained about the government and the city and what I would always tell them was: “What are you doing for the city? What are you doing to help, besides complaining?” And that’s the main reason I started coaching: in my opinion it’s all about community. If the community helps itself, it will create a domino effect in everything else. But every individual has to do something. If you could sew, go teach the kid how to sew; if you are good at math, go tutor somebody, go help somebody. Everybody needs to give that little piece of themselves to the community. And that can lead to a ripple effect ultimately changing the world, in my opinion. But everybody just wants to sit around and look at the grand scheme. When you look at the big picture, it’s hard to change something in the government, it’s hard to change something in the city, it takes so much time and you got to gather people. But what you can do is go do something in the community! You could do that quickly, you could coach, you could teach, that’s what people need to be doing. That’s my mission in life. I want to continue acting; I want to continue coaching, sometimes acting might take me away a little more than I would like, but coaching will always be there.

Yeah! And you are inspiring people through acting as well, so you’re a continuous source of motivation.

That’s funny, because I don’t think about that sometimes.

Do you ever think about yourself as a role model?

Not really. I was raised by good parents, so it’s not like I don’t do bad things because I don’t want to disappoint people. I just like living a righteous life. I’d rather be helping people.

Speaking of, Gina Rodriguez comes to mind. Are you familiar with her?

I love her! We have the same publicist. It’s funny, she says that I’m the male Gina Rodriguez.

She really is so inspiring. Her speech at The Golden Globes literally had me in tears.

It was so real and genuine. I was so happy when she won!!! Her background is similar to mine.

So the achievement is not yours alone because it also inspires the fans who watch you!

So true! And like I said, I don’t realize that until I see somebody like Gina win something like that. I mean there are so many Latin girls all over the world watching and being inspired. And after that they say: “I’m going to be an actor!”

You played football and got a scholarship to play in college, but you’ve mentioned in one of your past interviews that you didn’t think you’d go pro. How did you imagine your career? How did you feel when you had to give it up after your shoulder injuries?

I wasn’t going to go pro. I just wanted to play college. But then I got hurt, so it just wasn’t happening. It’s weird because you live your whole life just for one goal and once you get hurt, it stops. When I knew that I wasn’t going to play, it was just a dream crashing. It was awful. I was crying on my mom’s and dad’s shoulder, and they were telling me it was ok. And I was like, “How is it ok? What am I going to do?”

Did you transfer to a different school right away?

I just left; I didn’t transfer. I transferred later once I stopped crying [laughs]. And I ended up graduating from Long Beach State with Journalism degree. But I didn’t know what to do. Then I figured – maybe I would do something like ESPN journalism, covering sports. I tried and didn’t like it. I did news programs in college and hated it. I started doing radio on the college campus and then I got an internship at a hip-hop station out here. I was on a street team first, and then I got on the air – from 2am to 6am playing music and talking, and it was fun. And then I met some girl who was doing a USC student film and offered me to be in it, I did it, and it was terrible. After it there was just something that fired me up, and I was like, “I want to do this!” and I hit the ground running. It’s been a blessing ever since.

Your current profession started through student short films and one of them actually helped to launch your career. Can you connect the dots of how one short film and one surprising meeting with Tony Sepulveda (Senior VP of Casting, Warner Bros.) changed your life?

If you are working so hard to get there, somebody’s going to notice. And that’s what it is. It wasn’t like I got discovered; I was working really hard. And then the Universe or God, whatever you believe in, gives you the opportunity, but you got to be ready. I was hustling hard, and I still hustle hard. I met Tony at the short film (El Primo) screening, he told me to give him a call, so we could set up a meeting. It’s funny, when I met him, I thought that I had to be all business. I was a little ghetto kid and never had any big meetings like that. So I go suited up, and I get there and Tony is the funniest dude ever! He teaches improv, he is hilarious, he is easy. When he offered me all the help, I still had all this mentality asking: “Why are you doing this, man?” And he was like, “I just like helping people out.” And to this day I see him all the time, we talk all the time, he is just one of my best friends.

So Tony not only introduced you to every major studio person in Los Angeles, but to your manager Devon Jackson as well?

Yes! I love Devon. We became the best of friends. When I introduce him, I always say: This is my friend and manager Devon. Thank God for Tony for introducing me to somebody like that. With Devon’s help I got my first auditions and I was so ready because I’ve been hustling forever. I started booking right away and it just took off. And it’s been good, it’s been a fun ride.

Do you watch a lot of TV shows? Have there been any actors that actually inspired you from TV or film?

A LOT. All the HBO shows; I love Parks and Recreation, Masters of Sex, Sons of Anarchy.

My all-time favorite actor is Heath Ledger. Something about the stuff that he did just moved me. It just reached me to the core. Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale, Daniel Day-Lewis – I could list so many people that inspire me. I get inspiration every day from the kids I coach, from my mom and dad. I’m inspired easily, which is a good thing.

What steps do you take to make sure you’re always improving?

I’m always in the class, because I like doing it. It’s kind of like football. You are never the best, there is so much to learn. You might be the best for one week, but you are never going to stay on top. And I want to continue to get better and better. And it’s like any form of art, you just get inspired and want to do it. You should want to do more, you shouldn’t want to feel like you are just the best and it’s easy now- fuck that! That’s when your career starts falling apart because you are not working hard. I love what I do, and I love every chance I get to do it.

Is there anything that you’ve dreamed of doing for a long time?

Maybe producing, putting together a show. And I definitely want to get into movies. I really want to do indie movies and go to Sundance, go to Cannes. In time it will come, but that’s my next challenge.

It’s no secret that you are a surfer, but what made you so passionate about the sport?

My big brother, as I told you, is the artist in the family, he grew up the same way I did, but he was always willing to try different things. I remember when he first started surfing, and I made fun of him. But I’m an athlete, I like playing all sports, I watched him do it and I was like, “That looks hard!”. And he got me out on the board, and I was terrible at it, but when I finally got up I was like: “Holy shit!”. My big brother got me into snowboarding too, and I really want to get good at it. But football will always be my favorite sport.

Those are pretty daring sports. How did you find yourself in The Silver Gloves Amateur Boxing Championship?

Yeah, when I was in college and just started doing it the trainer signed me up for it. I got my ass whooped, I wasn’t ready. But it was fun, I’m glad that I did it. And now I just do it because I love it. It takes a lot of aggression out, I think every man should do it. It just calmed me down. That’s why I still do it, and I love it. I keep my gloves in my trunk.

Have your friends been a big support? Are most of your friends people who you grew up with or people you’ve met along the way working in this industry?

It’s a good balance. I have about five friends that I keep up with from my childhood, and I have a lot of great friends that I met through acting. They are very supportive. In the beginning maybe not so much. Everybody was like, “Yeah, you should try it, but have your side job, a backup plan”. And now it’s like, “Yeah, Manny is an actor.” And I like that, it makes me proud when my mom and dad can say that.

So what kind of music do you listen to? Do you mind if I see your playlists?

Sure, You can look! I go from hip-hop to reggae to rock to RnB – everything. I grew up listening to hip-hop and then my brother introduced me to so many new things like Rage Against the Machine, rock, RnB and old school, and I was like, “Damn I like this!”. So it’s like a bunch of different music. On my old iPod where I could keep like 20 thousand songs – that’s where I have a bunch of weird shit.

That’s the one you should have brought with you!

Yeah! It’s like when you put your iPod in a friend’s car you always say: “You know, this is just a bunch of weird shit, I don’t listen to it all the time”. You gotta put the disclaimer on.

Who would you consider a real Warrior?

Tupac was a huge inspiration to me. His songs and how he spoke about the community, that’s what first made me want to help people. When I was a kid, I thought that’s what I was going to do. Mos Def was a big inspiration. And I look forward to meeting people like that. I want to meet more people that want to help people.