Wilmer Valderrama is doing a deep dive on the life, profession and legacy of Desi Arnaz.
The veteran star has launched Starring: Desi Arnaz & Wilmer Valderrama, a 10-part podcast sequence from IHeartMedia and My Cultura Podcast Community. The primary three episodes dropped as we speak, a date that’s no coincidence as Oct. 15 marks the 74th anniversary of the long-lasting sitcom I Love Lucy, which starred Arnaz as bandleader Ricky Ricardo reverse his real-life spouse Lucille Ball because the zany Lucy Ricardo. Valderrama hosts and govt produces the sequence underneath his unique slate with My Cultura Podcast Community, which is devoted to elevating Latino voices and tales. Journalist Erick Galindo, who created and hosts Ídolo: The Ballad of Chalino Sánchez, govt produces with Valderrama.
Starring: Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderrama
Courtesy of iHeart Media
Starring: Desi Arnaz & Wilmer Valderrama will information listeners by way of Arnaz’s trailblazing life as considered one of Hollywood’s most iconic Latino performers. The Cuba-born Arnaz grew to become a significant business participant following the success of I Love Lucy, and Valderrama credit him with inspiring his personal leisure profession. The podcast finds him weaving in private reflections whereas exploring how Arnaz’s affect formed his path and tradition at massive.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Valderrama recalled watching I Love Lucy whereas rising up in Venezuela the place the present was dubbed in Spanish. It wasn’t till he moved to america and began studying English that he realized simply how a lot of an inspiration Arnaz was for him.
“I wished to be like him, I wished to decorate like him and be an entertainer like him. I knew I may as a result of his identify was Ricky Ricardo and he form of seemed like me,” Valderrama defined. “I grew to become very obsessive about studying every thing about I Love Lucy and every thing he did professionally by way of his manufacturing firm, Desilu Productions. Sure, he was entertaining however I gained a brand new stage of appreciation for him as a result of he constructed one thing and made issues occur for himself at a time when others wouldn’t have been given the identical alternatives to steer on an entrepreneurial stage like he did.
Valderrama mentioned it was particularly inspiring to take a look at Arnaz’s credit on such exhibits as I Love Lucy, The Lucy Present, Mannix, The Untouchables, Mission: Unattainable and Star Trek.
“He was an instance for me to say that if I wished to get within the recreation that I wanted to place by myself jersey and stroll on the sector and begin taking part in. I couldn’t watch for anyone to ask me to the social gathering,” continued Valderrama, who discovered extra about their shared historical past whereas writing his memoir An American Story: Everybody’s Invited. “I discovered from Desi — by way of the entire interviews, conservations, books and analysis that we compiled — that in the event you mentioned you had been going to do [a project], then do it and be intentional. He was going to carry you accountable till it obtained performed.”
As for a way they mapped out the ten episodes, Valderrama mentioned it’s all the time a “tough” endeavor to bottle up somebody’s lifetime so he leaned on an amazing piece of recommendation he as soon as obtained whereas writing his e-book. “Fake you’re on a street journey and in the event you solely had two hours to inform any person your life story, begin there. When you get by way of it in two hours, then you definitely’ve obtained the primary part. From there, you broaden it and break down the totally different sections of your story and preserve going from the subsequent part to the subsequent part. That’s what we tried to do. We checked out Desi’s trajectory and depart bread crumbs about my story and the influences there and the way it tracks together with his. We intertwine the tales in a relatable solution to get to the essence of the journey in a such a method that somebody can hear, and it hopefully shall be related to the subsequent Desi or Wilmer tomorrow.”
The sequence is co-produced by Valderrama’s audio manufacturing firm, WV Sound, and follows earlier podcast launches for the community like Extra Higher with Stephanie & Melissa, Forgive Me For I Have Adopted and Dos Amigos, which Valderrama co-hosts alongside Freddy Rodriguez. New episodes drop Wednesdays on the iHeartRadio app and all over the place podcasts are heard.
“Our partnership with Wilmer and WV Sound has introduced many highly effective and genuine tales to the community,” defined Leo Gomez, head of iHeartMedia’s My Cultura Podcast Community. “Starring: Desi Arnaz & Wilmer Valderrama celebrates one of the vital influential Latino icons and offers audiences from all walks of life unbelievable perception into the depth of his affect on tradition and storytelling.”
The My Cultura Podcast Community’s credit embody Chiquis and Chill, The Second with Jorge Ramos and Paola Ramos, Princess of South Seaside, Wrestling with Freddie, Sacred Scandal, Radio Ambulante, Magical Rewind, He Stated, Ella Dijo with Eric Winter and Roselyn Sanchez, Enrique Santos Podcast, You vs You with Lex Borrero and extra. Eva Longoria and her studio Hyphenate Media Group just lately joined Valderrama as stakeholders. All My Cultura exhibits are distributed by iHeartPodcasts.
