I love surprises. I’m not sure I’ve ever been more thrillingly unprepared for the fabulousness that was about to unfold. Fleaxatarian (he ‘splains), actorvist, Esai Morales, is a revelation. I knew I adored his work from Bad Boys, La Bamba, NYPD Blue, to Ozark, with so much fineness in between… but it’s the man––the human––the passionate, quite brilliant, committed, inspiring, humble, real, self-aware, loving, sensitive soul, who blew me away. For 2 hrs and 16 min, Esai was spellbindingly entertaining, informative, enlightening, and gottdamned exciting, I don’t need to mention easy on the eyes… isn’t it just a ridiculous given? For the first 30 minutes we’re mostly in a Facebook Live blur, and for another 3 minutes or so, the audio is compromised as we were firsting with our brand spanking new Blue Raspberry mic, and didn’t quite know how to set it. Sorry about that, chief. The remaining hour and 50 min are as smooth as Easi. He's so worth struggling through the first 30 for. We talked growing up in Brooklyn, the Bronx, his union activist mother setting the stage; starting out as a Mexican Jumping Bean, to The Sound of Music, The High School of Performing Arts, managing a building for free rent, scraping pennies, to co-starring with Sean Penn in Bad Boys and going to the movies with him, watching him see himself on the big screen in Fast Times at Ridgemont High; being wanted to play Ritchie Valens, but choosing to play Bob. Loving him, and all of his characters, finding the good, the humanity, their worth, even drug kingpin, Del in Ozark––a role he earned the hard way, working for it. What an inspiring story that is. We talked a little politics (go Marianne Williamson!), vaccines, Alzheimer’s, John Lennon, The Beatles, our friend Mitch Weissman, the original fake Paul in Beatlemania, who, Esai promised to come sing Beatles with at Women Who Write. There were nods to Lance Simmens, Tai Babilonia, Liberty Devitto, Candy Clark, Burt Young… we talked faith, and Esai’s proclamation: “Don’t let failure define you, let it refine you.” How I love that. And him. When he did his 4 Hispanic Hs, and the lines which separate Chicano from Nuyorican-well, it’s a blast. I loved every second, even if he isn’t the Esai who matched with me on Tinder 4 yrs ago… that story too. I could have sat there for another 2 hrs, and still have begged for more. We still talking Game Changers? I digress.. we did quite a bit of that as well. Above all that, come for the fun, the tears, the love. So much of all of the above.

Esai Morales on Game Changers With Vicki Abelson

Wed, 2/6/19, 7 pm PT/ 10 pm ET

With Pete George

Live on The Facebook

Full show replay here:

https://bit.ly/2RHVftW

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