(upbeat music)
- Hey everyone I'm Evan Real.
Welcome to In Studio today with Gloria Calderon Kellett,
the co-creator and co-show runner
of Netflix's One Day at a Time.
How's it going?
- It's going so good
- So good! - I'm so excited to be here!
- Season three is finally here, how does it feel?
- Oh my gosh,
it feels so good because we make them,
and then it takes like six months before
the world sees them. - Yeah
- So it's very exciting to finally be releasing it.
- I cannot wait to watch it.
Well here we are, three seasons in,
what were your expectations for this show
when you first started out on this project,
and how has the series lived up to those expectations?
- I really felt a tremendous responsibility to do justice
to the Latinx family.
- Yeah.
- Like for me growing up, I would watch shows like
Growing Pains, and The Cosby Show, and Family Ties,
and I would see myself through that lens.
So, to be able to finally put a Latino family
on television, I really wanted to infuse it with
all of those good feelings that I saw growing up.
- Yeah absolutely, and for those who don't know,
One Day at a Time, it is, it's a take on One Day at a Time
from the 70's,
- That's right. - Norman Lear's show.
- That's right.
- Who's also involved in this project.
- He is.
- What was it like adapting that blueprint
through the lens of the Alvarez family
for a Lantinx family?
- Well, there's so much pressure, because
Norman Lear, if you guys don't know who Norman Lear is,
really Google Norman.
He is really like, basically invented TV.
(Evan chuckles)
- At one point he had nine like, shows
on the air at the same time.
- So many hits.
- And ground-breaking work, not like silly feel good
shows, but grounded, talking about real issues.
I mean he had a character on a sitcom have an abortion.
Unbelievable.
- Pretty huge.
- Huge, and controversial, and talking about
real issues that American families were facing
with comedy, and that was just, he was the first
of his kind really.
And so, we had this tremendous legacy,
Mike Royce and I, to not mess up the Lear legend, you know.
Like, oh here it is, you get to redo this show
that was ground-breaking in 1975.
It was the first time a divorced woman had been on TV.
Can you believe it?
1975. - Insane.
- So here he's giving us like the keys to the kingdom,
and so we just didn't want to let him down.
- Right, and you obviously continued in that spirit.
You're tackling huge issues like immigration,
gender equality, homophobia, the list really
goes on and on.
Why do you think comedy is the most effective way
to tackle issues like that?
- Well I think it's, it feels less brow-beating.
It feels like you can enter someone's home, and
they can watch it with their families,
- Yeah.
- and they can laugh and they can cry,
and they can think about what the issues are
that we're talking about, and hopefully
carry on that conversation in their home.
- Yeah, absolutely.
Now, the show's obviously a vehicle
for activism.
Was that part of the appeal
when you signed on to do the series?
- No, not really.
I think it was, I mean look,
I'm a west coast Latina, I'm a west coast Cuban,
I am liberal.
- Yeah.
- But, I am also somebody
who really feels like there is a divide in this
country right now, and we need to have conversation.
And so, I have a lot of very conservative family members
and we talk about issues, and fight, and still
love each other.
- Right.
- And I thought, oh that's really interesting,
and if we can have those conversations on our show,
maybe we can bridge some gaps that are happening right now.
- Absolutely.
I feel like a really good representation
of that was Alana's coming out story.
We had so many different opinions,
but there, at the end of the day, there was so much love.
- Yeah, and that's ultimately
the thing.
We really try to come to it with the
lens of love, and acceptance, and to see, you know,
the Latinx journey in this country is very fraught,
especially right now, because there is not a narrative
that really is positive and supportive
in many television shows.
We're 18 percent of the country, six percent represented
on screen, and yet that representation is still
often gang bangers and drug dealers, et cetera.
So to be able to show a family that is struggling,
but hard-working and kind, going through things
like a daughter coming out, something that simple,
and the different emotions.
How some people are afraid for her.
How some people have their own homophobia
from growing up very religious,
and how they come to terms with that.
How a mother is struggling to be, she thought she'd
always be accepting, and then - She wasn't.
- And here's her daughter, - Yeah.
- And what, oh my god, now I have all these
conflicting feelings.
I'm, what is this going on inside of me?
So to be able to talk about all,
and then the brother who doesn't care.
- Yeah. (chuckling)
- He's like, oh you're gay, great.
- Right. - You know.
So it was so awesome to have this opportunity
to have all those conversations, and
hopefully make people feel seen.
Like, oh that's me but I can still
come to this from a place of love.
- Yeah, absolutely.
The cast is full of wonderful Latin actors,
including the sensational Rita Moreno,
Lydia, AKA Abuelita.
But, I know that representation
behind the scenes is also really important for you.
You have a writer's room that is half Latinx,
half female.
- We're actually more female than male now.
- Wow.
- Yeah. - I love that, too.
- And we have three queer writers, too.
- Oh hey.
- We got to give love to our queer writers.
- Always.
(both laughing)
Now how did you assemble that writer's room,
and why was that so important to you?
- It was thoughtfully put together, you know.
Very often in comedy writer's rooms,
it's very male, and very white male,
and I like white guys, I married one.
It's all good.
But, when you're telling these types of stories,
equity is important,
and so we really knew that
we wanted it to be very female.
It's a matriarchy, this show.
- Yeah.
- We have good men too.
But we wanted very strong women, and we also really
wanted queer voices.
We thought that was very important
to genuinely tell this coming out story.
- Right.
- And then obviously, Lantinx,
and so we have various Latinx, we have Cubans,
and Salvadorians, and Mexicans, and uh, Puerto Ricans.
We're all in there.
So, if it's relatable to all of us,
it tends to be something that goes in the script.
- Right, I love that.
Now, you were a writer on Devious Maids,
which a lot of people considered
a huge win for Latin representation on screen.
How did that experience compare to the work you do
at One Day at a Time?
Is there something you learned
working at that show, that has transferred over?
- Well, I took that show, Mark Cherry came to me,
and said, I want to do five Latina women as leads
of a show.
- Okay.
- It was groundbreaking,
- Yeah.
- for American television, and at that time it was
ABC for ABC, so we thought it was going to be on ABC network,
and then it ended up being sold to Lifetime.
(clapping) It was incredible.
- Yeah.
- It was incredible doing Devious Maids
'cause it was the first time
that there were five Latina leads,
with Roselyn Sanchez, Judy Reyes, Ana Ortiz, Edy Ganem.
It was just such a, and Dania as well.
They're just incredible women,
and so that was really, really great,
but it wasn't my voice, it was Mark's.
Mark Cherry, the wonderful Mark Cherry,
who's hilarious and wonderful.
But, he has his own point of view,
- Yeah.
- and I really got to see like, oh,
if I want to do my own thing, I've got to
write it, and I've got to be the voice of it.
- And here you are,
- And here I am. - doing your own thing.
(laughs) - Yeah.
- This show is such a beautiful portrayal of the
Latinx experience.
My Grandmother was from Columbia, so I found myself,
or, I continue to find myself,
relating to this show in such a personal way.
And in going back to what you're saying,
about how there's so many different Latin experiences
in the writer's room,
did you find that your like childhoods, your, you know,
growing up, did those experiences sort of match up?
- Oh yeah.
- Yeah.
- I found, what I found really interesting,
because I think the Latin diaspora in this country,
we are very singular in how we feel
about our own culture, right?
Cubans, and Puerto Rica, everyone's like we have our
own thing.
We have our own foods, we have our own things,
but, there's a lot of things that trickle,
- Yeah.
- And I think what often happens is, people really want
that Latin market, so they try to like make it all
sort of even.
Like we're going to do sort of a Pan Latin thing.
- Okay.
- And when you do a Pan Latin thing, it kind of
dilutes it too much, so we felt like, let's get
really specific, with the Cuban experience, and
the more specific we got, the more we realized those
specificities were universal,
- Yeah.
amongst Latinx culture.
So, it was this kind of wonderful thing, like we're
going to talk about Vicks VapoRub, 'cause this
is how we feel about it, then the Puerto Ricans and
then the Dominicans, and you're like--
- My Tia Alana was obsessed with
Vicks VapoRub. - Listen,
- It was the cure all for everything.
- I dare you to put that on your feet, when you're sick,
and put a sock on, and wake up not well.
I dare you.
- It always works.
It obviously does. - It always works.
I dare you.
- Or just like even all the little sayings,
said throughout, like (speaks foreign language),
or (speaks foreign language).
Like, everything just felt so relatable.
- Oh Good. - Which I absolutely loved.
So it's really cool that
everyone's experience sort of linked up and,
like you said, the more specific you got,
the more universal it got.
- It was amazing.
- That is so cool.
Now tell me about your process when you're coming up
with issues and topics to tackle.
Is there a strategy?
Do you map out the episodes or is it more fluid?
- We really do map it out.
We talk about, the wonderful thing about being on Netflix
is we knew we have 13 episodes, so we arc it.
We do things like, this is where the character
starts, this is where we'd like them to end,
and then here's some things we want them
to talk about throughout. - Okay.
- And we do kind of think about it
in that umbrella term.
What is the season about?
What are we, each of these characters
are going to go on a journey, what is that journey?
And, in terms of like the topics, we never really
think like, what topic are we going to talk about?
It's really what are we talking about?
- Right.
- What are we as women talking about?
What are we as Latinos talking about?
What are we as queer people talking about?
In the room.
What are we as parents talking about, right?
- Right.
- And so we'll infuse it with all of that.
This is what's happening with my kid.
This is what's happening with my brother.
This is what's happening, you know like the,
we did am episode season two, on colorism,
based on my brother, called me, and he's much darker
than I am.
- Same.
My brother looks very much Columbian,
I do not. (laughs)
- You do not.
Yeah.
- No.
- No, and I, sometimes people look, are you Italian?
I'm like no I'm a Latina. - (Evan chuckles)
- But my brother's very dark, and he lives in San Diego
like on a beach with his kids and somebody told him
to go back to Mexico.
I was like, what?
- Insane.
- So we were talking about that in the room,
and we were talking about colorism,
and we thought we should do an episode about that.
That's something not really discussed a lot
in the Latinx community,
and it became one of the episodes that people
talked about the most.
- Yeah.
Is there an episode or a topic the show has covered,
that has felt particularly meaningful to you?
Like above all the episodes, is there one that
really sticks out?
- I really feel like, Not Yet, for me,
which is the finale of season two.
I just loved the play of it, you know.
Norman is such a great lover of theater,
as am I, and that just was a live play.
- Yeah.
- Everyone had a monologue,
- It felt like that, for sure.
- And it was one room.
I mean you just can't do that on many shows.
- Yeah.
- And it also gave each of these tremendous actors
an opportunity to show all the layers
of what they bring to the character.
- Yeah.
- So, that was one of my favorites.
- Yeah, I loved that.
Now, I know that Penelope and Lydia's
relationship is definitely inspired by your relationship
with your own parents.
Where does your relationship with your parents
and Lydia and Penelope's relationship overlap the most?
- Oh my gosh.
Uh, religion.
- Yeah.
- You know, they're old school.
My Dad is still alive.
He's very upset that he's dead on the show.
He's very much alive, and when we got Tony Plana
to play ghost him, he was delighted, 'cause he loves Tony.
But I would say religion.
I'm a moderate.
I'm in the middle, you know.
I'm really in between.
I recognize wonderful things that the traditions
and conservative mindsets bring,
but I also have that liberal side,
so I feel really pulled in those directions,
like Penelope does.
- Right.
- So the conversations that we had about religion,
the episode, I think it's episode three of season one,
(speaks foreign language), No Mass.
- One of my favorite episodes.
- Yeah, that was, that's the conversation I had with
my parents.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- Absolutely.
Is there a particular scene that is
ripped straight from your life?
- There's so many scenes that,
- Yeah. (chuckling)
- Look the mantilla stuff,
mantilla is a piece of lace that you wear
on your wedding day, and we have one that's
been passed down over the years.
- Okay.
- The Mantilla's missing and it's a real drama.
- Yeah, that's a crisis.
- Okay, it's a crisis. (Evan laughs)
And, that was something that I was talking
about in the room, and we were like,
oh, what are those great things that
are so specific to family, that doesn't matter
to anyone else.
- Yeah.
- I'm like, oh a piece of lace
that everyone's fighting about.
(Evan chuckles)
How about that?
So we did a whole episode about the Mantilla,
we've done, the religion stuff, the, so many,
so many episodes.
- I love that.
Now Norman Lear, he's done several black shows
that have had great success,
like The Jeffersons, Good Times.
Why do you think now
was the perfect time to highlight a Latinx family?
- You know he tried to do a Latinx show,
with Paul Rodriguez, called a.k.a. Pablo,
- Okay.
- in the 80's I believe,
and he just said the timing,
and the alchemy wasn't really there,
and there is sort of a magic that happens,
- Right.
- when you get the cast together,
when you get a group together, like
something sort of magical has to happen for it to take fire,
and I think we just got really fortunate with Rita,
and Justina and this incredible cast.
It was just lightening in a bottle, really.
- Yeah, absolutely.
Now, tell me what fans can expect from season three.
Are there any topics or issues that
you haven't addressed over the first two seasons that's
going to be new for season three?
- Well we definitely do a me too episode.
- Okay.
- We also talk about pot, weed, recreational use of
marijuana, which is legal in California, now.
Not if you're under 18, which Alex is under 18,
but we do get to talk about that.
It's really interesting in Los Angeles,
'cause there's signs everywhere, like weed can be
delivered to your house.
- Yeah. (chuckling)
- And I think it's a mixed message for kids.
I think they're like, wait, what is this?
- What's going on?
So we try to talk about that, and we
continue to talk about PTSD, mental health,
anxiety, depression, homophobia.
I mean we really get in there. (laughs)
- (laughs) Yeah, absolutely.
Is there one fan reaction or piece of feedback
that has meant a lot to you, I'm sure?
- I mean for me, we do a lot of talks.
We go around and we talk to various Latinx groups
and LGBTQ groups, and veteran groups,
and I think that when kids come
with their parents and their grandparents and say
I was able to come out because of your show.
Forget it.
And, then you see parents really grateful that they have
a tool with which to see themselves reflected and try
to come to a loving end place, with where their child is.
I think that that is so meaningful.
- Yeah, that's awesome.
Last year you started the One Vida at a Time Campaign,
which challenged writer's rooms to stand against
the family separation happening at the border.
- At the border. - Yeah.
And then you also raised money for RAICES which is
The Refugee and Immigrant Center
for Education and Legal Services.
How did that idea come about?
- It was Tanya Seracho's idea.
Tanya Seracho was the show runner for Vida.
She's a great friend of mine.
We met doing Devious Maids.
- Okay
- We were the two Latinas there.
And she really had the idea.
We were talking about how upset we were
with what was happening, we felt so powerless,
and she said, why don't we go to the scribes?
Let's go to the writers.
Let's challenge writer's rooms.
This is not a partisan issue for us.
It really is about how do we treat people as a country,
when they come in, and we got over 90 writer's rooms
to come together and take photos,
saying, you know, family detention, keep families together.
You know, seeking asylum is not a crime.
All of this.
All of this and we raised some money,
and so that felt like something.
- Yeah.
- I mean listen, it's tweeting, right?
It's not, the action is the people of RAICES,
the people at the border,
that are giving legal time and effort to these families.
- Right.
- But, it did feel like something that we could
do with our platform.
- Yeah definitely.
Will the border crisis at all be reflected in season three,
or is that something you've thought about?
- It's not in season three.
I think we'll talk about it more in season four.
- Okay
- We weren't, I mean the one thing,
you know, Norman gets very frustrated because when he was
doing the TV shows, he could write something, and it'd be
on the air the next week, whereas we do 13 all at once.
- Not that fast.
- So we never know what's going to happen.
Unfortunately, racism and homophobia, all that is still
a problem.
- Yeah.
- We haven't solved it yet, you guys.
- Sadly. (laughs)
- We're trying.
So those are things that we knew,
but we were really hoping that the border separation,
that that would all be over,
- Yeah.
- and it's not.
- It's not, sadly.
So, season four.
- Yes, season four.
- If Donald Trump were to watch One Day at a Time,
what would you hope his main takeaway would be
from the show?
Or, someone who even subscribes to his
rhetoric about immigration?
- I hope that he would see
that we're much more alike than we are different.
And that if this was their child,
I mean, I'm one generation removed from this.
My parents came in 1962 from Cuba, where
they sought asylum in the States and were welcome.
So, I cannot walk around not speaking up for these people
because I am the direct beneficiary of what this country
does so beautifully.
They took my parents in.
they had a path to citizenship.
I got to go to college, and now I'm
writing a show about my family,
and this is what I look like, and how I sound.
This is what one generation can do with
the support of a country, which is what America does so
beautifully.
You will not meet more patriotic people than
people who this country has been good to.
My parents are like out with that flag
every chance they get.
And so, to see how different it is right now,
is really painful, because
those children are going to grow up and have feelings about
what happened to them here and I hope that there's a way
that we can remedy that.
- Yeah, absolutely.
Now even though the show does has serious moments,
it really feels like a celebration
of what it means to be a Latinx person.
How do you make sure that's laced through each episode?
Even during the ones that are a little bit more serious,
and a little bit more heavy?
- I think, I mean it's just infused in who we are I think.
- Yeah.
- So, you know, we're a comedy, first and foremost.
There are jokes, we are laughing.
We just try to make each other laugh in the room,
and we always try, it's called a
treacle-cutter, when you have an emotional moment and you
like cut it with something,
- Yeah - to make the audience laugh.
We also shoot in front of a live audience, which is
very rare these days for a TV show.
- Yeah definitely.
- So the audience keeps us really honest.
Like, we can ride the waves.
You can feel it.
There's 250 people there every week, we're doing a play for,
so you feel it, and you're like,
oh we got to give them a little laugh.
We got to give them a little respite
from this moment of seriousness.
So, we just try to balance that out.
- Right.
Well very well said.
Thank you so much, Gloria for
being here.
I really appreciate it. - Thank you for having me.
- Of course, of course.
And, be sure to watch season 3 of One Day at a Time,
streaming now on Netflix.
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