I grew up in the hood, and I was raised to hate cops. But then, I started to realize that they're people, and they have lives, too.
Manny Montana
I come from an area where it's mostly, like, football and basketball, those are the sports. So my brother started surfing... I used to make fun of him for it, and then he challenged me to do it, and I'm a huge competitor, and I did it ,and I got hooked.
As an actor, you're always worried about getting stuck on a show that's not good because working actors need the paycheck. So being cast on a regular procedural, where everything gets wrapped up by the end of the episode, was always a fear of mine because that doesn't really test you as an actor.
I grew up a really shy kid, but I always surrounded myself with a lot funny people. It depends on the day - if I feel like being quiet, I will be. I'm not a complete goofball, though.
You remember Donnie Brasco? It's the most notorious undercover movie ever; it's so street and so real. If you ever imagined yourself doing cop work, you imagined yourself getting pushed to that limit - seeing the furthest you can push yourself while still upholding the law.
You can't always be the jokester and the doormat.
I'm from Long Beach - not the best area in the world - and I had a lot of ghetto friends growing up.
Honestly, with me, as long as I have a park to play basketball in, I'm pretty cool.
My friends told me that it's the hardest thing to separate the personal life from their work.
People usually spend the first two months playing themselves up, not really being themselves. You waste those two months - and then they tell you, 'You're not who I was dating the first month!'
When you're young, it's all about the society of school and being cool, but they don't understand that somebody can be different and live a different lifestyle and still be a regular person. I was the same way when I was a kid.
If you're driving, and a cop is behind you, you automatically think they're going to pull you over, but cops have so much more going on than to think about pulling you over. The last thing a real cop wants to do is write a ticket. That's the truth.
If I was to do anything besides acting, I would be a fireman or a beat cop. I'd do a regular job.
I'm quiet and introverted, and I like to just be by myself a lot. I like to read and just get away and surf. I have a lot of alone time.
I've done a lot of TV, but not film.
I'm first generation in the country - my family's Mexican.
