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b'STEVE WILCOX\\xa0is a Venezuelan born actor who had early success in American Me. It was rap icon Tupac Shakur\'s favorite movie and he sampled one of Steve\'s lines in Death Around the Corner. Working on the film was a watershed experience\\xa0that still keeps Steve pursuing his dream 25 years later.\\xa0(36:35)\\xa0 \\xa0 \\xa0 \\xa0 EPISODE NOTES: The 1992 film \\u201cAmerican Me\\u201d was Edward James Olmos\\u2019 directorial debut. But the movie also marked the professional acting debut for STEVE WILCOX who played teenaged J.D., the white kid who becomes a member of a Chicano gang in 1950s East LA. William Forsythe was cast as the adult J.D. and Steve had to adopt some of Forsythe\\u2019s mannerisms and physical attributes. As Steve tells me in VENEZUELAN-AMERICAN ME, he was fitted with an unwieldy dental prosthetic that gave him an unintended lisp, which he had to learn to speak without. A few years later, Steve worked with rap icon Tupac Shakur in \\u201cGang Related\\u201d who told him that he\\u2019d actually \\u2013 unbeknownst to Steve -- sampled some of his dialogue from \\u201cAmerican Me\\u201d on his track \\u201cDeath Around the Corner.\\u201d Tupac promised to give Steve a copy of it the next time he saw him, but was shot and killed a few weeks later. Playing a white kid in a Latin culture came naturally to Steve. Born and raised in Venezuela to a Canadian father and a Venezuelan mother, Steve says he was always the whitest kid he knew. To make matters worse, his mother dressed him in nothing but white clothing (shoes and boots, too) for five years as part of a pact she\\u2019d made with patron saint Jose Gregorio Hernandez who, she believed, answered her prayers to save her young son who was dying of spinal meningitis. Steve is a survivor, and for 25 years has been a mostly-working Hollywood actor. Given his particular look (he\\u2019s been compared to Tom Waits, Nick Nolte and Ron Perlman) he often plays bad guys, which he loves to do. Thanks to his connections in LA\\u2019s growing Venezuelan artistic community, Steve has recently appeared in a number of Venezuelan movies, including \\u201cLa Hora Cero\\u201d and \\u201cLibertador.\\u201d BTW: Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel, music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is a friend. The charismatic maestro used to call Steve \\u201cGringo\\u201d but now has a new nickname for him: \\u201cCreepy.\\u201d And it has nothing to do with the kind of roles he plays. BP \\xa0 Many thanks to the composers of the music featured in this episode royalty free through Creative Commons licensing: 1. "I\'m Going for a Coffee" by Lee Rosevere -\\xa0leerosevere.bandcamp.com 2. "Anders" by Blue Dot Sessions -\\xa0sessions.blue/sessions/ 3. "Liquor Files" by\\xa0Blue Dot Sessions\\xa0- sessions.blue/sessions/ 4. Latin Rhythm by Sunsearcher'