Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to Montecito. After sunsets, there was
a huge reveal in our world of deception this week,
finally our big finale, capping off our premiere episodes, and
here to break it all down with us is the
creator and executive producer of Monacito.
Speaker 2: Grant Rudder.
Speaker 1: Hello, welcome back branch.
Speaker 3: Thanks Christy, thanks for taking this journey with me through
all time episodes. It's great to see you, and it's
good to see Chelsea as well.
Speaker 1: It is we were so excited to celebrate the big finale
with the very special guest joining us to celebrate today.
An award winning actor since she was just seven years old,
and inspired activist and champion for Latino's in Hollywood, star
of the upcoming and himI anticipated Kevin Smith film The Unexpected,
and of course, the dynamic and gripping voice of Meeta
asked Randville, Welcome Chelsea Rendon.
Speaker 2: Oh I love this, Thank you for much.
Speaker 1: Oh just to hear your voice voice here, Chelsea in
such a pleasure. We have been listening to you for
ten episodes and everyone has.
Speaker 2: Been talking about nia. Thank you.
Speaker 4: But there is a difference. I'm not an evil narcissist.
I am not Chelsea in real life, it's not.
Speaker 5: I can vouch for that.
Speaker 3: You have very easy and fun and I was never threatened.
Speaker 1: Not even one. I love that. Let's jump into episode ten.
How is this possible?
Speaker 2: Chelsea?
Speaker 1: When you learned what the big reveal is, the true
identity we can say it now of Diego's father, what
was your reaction?
Speaker 4: I was not surprised, because again, when you play a
character and you dive in and you dig deep with
the character like Mina, anything is possible, you know what
I mean, Like she could have even I wouldn't have
been surprised if she took care of him while he
was passed out and then just Turkey based it herself.
Speaker 2: Like technically, anything would have been possible with Mina. So
with this.
Speaker 4: They again Greg was great in the way that they
like dabbled it in throughout the show, the way that
Bradley always had her brack and Bradley always defended her,
and it was like it was weaven in there a
little bit but not enough. So that was like the
perfect amount. So for me, I was not surprised at all,
But as the actor, I have to be that way.
Speaker 2: But as a found.
Speaker 4: I'm like, like I was listening to it again and
I was like, it was great.
Speaker 2: It was so great.
Speaker 1: Grant, where were you when you realized that this would
be with this turnless story would take And what did
you say?
Speaker 3: I knew I wanted to go in this direction, and
I said that the episode ten and has to be
like the Max, like, we need to squeeze everything out
of this. And I I remember calling up Andrew and
I said, ooh, do we want to do all this
and just end it in a paternity reveal? And I
was like, wait a minute, let's not frame it that way,
and let's give it like a little something extra. So
if people are on the track of this is not
so and So's child or Bradley's the mother, I wanted
to do hit him with a double reveal that not
only is Deacon clear of being the father, and we
know that Geo spoke with the doctor and was in
the things go Down in the Lab on soaps, But anyway,
in this episode we find out that the reveal is
that Deacon's not the father. Helena slaps the hell out
of Mina and then we it's Bradley. And I wanted
to give him a one two punch and I wanted
to have a couple reactions, so we just led everyone
to the edge of the cliff before it drops, and
that woul We got a little the intensity of that
moment and now what So that was the whole vision
behind that scenes.
Speaker 5: So it wasn't just a paternity reveal.
Speaker 3: It was supposed to be a wild and crazy and
I think it really hit where it needed to hit.
Speaker 2: Chelsea.
Speaker 1: Take us behind the scenes with you to recording this scene.
What was that experience?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 4: It was so fun because again, this is one of
the scenes where you have everyone at the dinner and
so you get to play with everyone, because when you
do the recorded sessions, it's like the people one on
one are like specific scenes that you worked with.
Speaker 2: So this was really fun to have the whole family there.
Speaker 4: And I'm not a mother, but I'm an ant, so
I'm like, my heart was like pulling for Diego. I'm like,
poor kid, you need therapy, Like your dad came out
to you. Then you found out it's not your dad,
it's your grandfather who you have a good relationship with.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, and it was like we though.
Speaker 4: But it was a really fun recording session, like feeling
all the height and energy in the room, being able
to be.
Speaker 2: Like, hey, let me in there, you get doing this
to me was fun.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Via I mean it's Beta was locked out a
couple times. We could do a whole supercut of how
many times people wanted Mina out, get out of the room,
leave everyone, even JJ, everyone told her to leave. And
then at the end of this show, the last line
is Deacon to Mina, you're not going anywhere for once.
Speaker 5: She's stuck.
Speaker 2: I was trapped.
Speaker 4: I know because even Bradley when I first come back
in after I break the glasses, you need to leave.
You should leave because he knows like what was just
said and that he's gonna finish the statement is get.
Speaker 2: Out of here before this happened, get out go.
Speaker 1: I know, I thought she might heed that advice for
a second, but glad she didn't.
Speaker 4: Oh see, when she's in that rage and she just
sees red. It could be God himself being like, you
should walk away right now before you fall off a cliff,
and I would be like, no, I.
Speaker 1: Love that kind of observation. Were there moments where you
filled things in for Mina or how did you give
us what felt like such a complete character when we
couldn't even see you.
Speaker 2: That's thankful to Grant. He gave us so much information
and backstory. We had conversations and we dove into it.
Speaker 4: And again, as an actor, you can never judge the
character you're playing because that's the first mistake.
Speaker 2: Like then you're gonna play it a certain way.
Speaker 4: So the way I've always done the work with my
characters is I put myself in that character shoots.
Speaker 2: So I'm like, do I know she's a narcissist, yes?
Do I know that she's evil?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: Do I know that she's vindictive?
Speaker 4: Yes, But there's a reason for all that, And she
says it throughout the show. She's always been on the outside.
She's always been gold, but there you're not good enough.
Speaker 2: So she has that chip on her shoulder. Her father's
in the hospital, which you find out as well.
Speaker 4: So that those are things that you it helps you
humanize her for me as the actor, Oh, this is
just a woman that wants to belong. She just wants
that connection. And Helena says it in this episode, you
don't even have family. We could easily unplug your dad,
and it's whoa that's a low blow.
Speaker 5: So that is.
Speaker 4: What I used to connect to her and just bring
out the most human But again, with the flaws of
the character, it is evil, it is narcissistic, it is
all these things.
Speaker 2: But she's still at the end of the day looking
for love because she doesn't even have love from.
Speaker 4: JJ, even though he's giving her some sort of power,
But realistically she doesn't have love in the show and
in her life, and that's I think the biggest thing
that again you wouldn't think about, But for me as
the actor, I'm like, how do I make everything make sense?
Speaker 2: So it's not just me being like, get over here,
get over there.
Speaker 5: Huh.
Speaker 3: Well, and you did such a great child. I've heard
from so many people. I'm not just saying this. Mina
is such an important character and Chelsea, you just it says,
such a fantastic job.
Speaker 5: You maybe laugh but I needed to laugh.
Speaker 3: He maybe maybe pissed when I needed to be passed,
Like you just really hit the beats.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you, I appreciate it. Your guidance was so helpful.
Speaker 5: Oh they you.
Speaker 3: I just loved working with her on Meta. It was
just so fun to craft and to talk about these scenes.
And really really try to make her a real person,
and like Chelsea is saying, not just like ra like
super Bitch, which I love Super Bitch and shows, but
there's so much more to it and it had to
come across that way, and those hospital scenes really humanized
her in many ways. We started Mina through ten episodes
being told get out, you're not welcome here basically, and yeah,
the character's rough, we like.
Speaker 2: And hey, everything work happens for a reason.
Speaker 4: I've had narcissists in my life, and so I just
took my experience with those people and I was like,
let me put this into this.
Speaker 3: See.
Speaker 1: I was wondering, Chelsea, if maybe you've worked with someone
like Mina in the past or somewhere where you could
just really nail what was all going down here.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't say I've worked with but I've had people
in my life that were very much Mina but also
were not aware that they were Mina. So that was
a really interesting thing. And again that's the thing. Mina
doesn't believe she's a narcissist.
Speaker 4: She feels like she's defending herself and she's standing up
for herself and she's taking her rightful place in the world.
So narcissists will never admit that they're a narcissists. That's
part of the narcissism. Oh, thest that.
Speaker 5: I've had in my life.
Speaker 4: Again, as you do therapy and you work, and then
you different people in your life that show you different
sides and beautiful sides of how things could.
Speaker 2: Be, you realize, oh wow, that was that.
Speaker 4: Oh I didn't even realize me as Chelsea didn't even
realize it for years. And then I'm like, oh wow,
I've had that experience now. So yeah, but luckily it
hasn't been a working situation, because that would be horrible.
Speaker 3: I've had some of my and I've watched them very
closely for many years, and I don't know, but I know,
and I took a lot of mental notes.
Speaker 1: Oh, I can certainly understand now how life experience and
the great writing everything that was going on when you
guys were recording. But there is so much anticipation built
up in this big reveal. There had to have been
even more to it.
Speaker 3: And I know pacing was so important for the scene.
It was a ten minute seed and we recorded else.
I think we recorded this four times, or at least
three and the cast actually, I think wanted to go
again and I was trying to. I always try to
get people out and try to be really respectful of
people's time, especially with a project like this. We should
just roll through as quick as we can. But it
was really important that we got it right, and the
sound effects were key.
Speaker 5: The pacing. I remember just asking Mark to go really
slow with his delivery.
Speaker 3: I wanted it to be like, Okay, let's go what
is this and then he's interrupted and then the situation
where Mina is thrown out into the rain, and then
he's interrupted again by the glass breaking.
Speaker 5: I just wanted it to be slow.
Speaker 3: We actually up to the last edit, which was a
week before we released episode ten, which the show was
pretty much locked. But I gave it a listen again
and you to sit with this stuff, and I said, no,
her entrance mete. His entrance to the glass is too fast,
like it's smashed. And then she's talking, so we have
to like what We got to hear this glass on
the floor break under her heels, We got to feel
the rain coming in, and we have just pictured this moment.
I love like a dramatic entrance. You can just picture
Mina soaked walking through the glass and.
Speaker 5: Like, what is he telling you people?
Speaker 3: And so that was really up to the last minute
just trying to perfect that scene. And the performances are
fantastic and everything just came together and it's like that.
Speaker 5: I love that scene so much.
Speaker 3: I wish I could have talked about it more because
but I didn't want to give anything away.
Speaker 5: But it's such a good one.
Speaker 4: And it's interesting for us because as the actor, we
didn't have the sound effects when we record it, so
getting to hear it in its entirety is a whole
different thing from even when we recorded it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it really came to live trade did a great
job and.
Speaker 1: Post Chelsea, what did you think when this project was
presented to you, how it was going to go off,
or about being involved to what did you think?
Speaker 2: I was excited.
Speaker 4: I'm like, again, there's always a new avenue in this business, right,
and so like stuff like this has been happening. And
I've done voiceover work before, I did an animated series,
so again, when it's animated and it's.
Speaker 2: A voiceover like that, you're just doing your lines.
Speaker 4: So this was really fun because we were all recording
and actually talking together.
Speaker 2: So that was really fun.
Speaker 4: But yeah, for me, it was just exciting and it
was just a different thing to do because again, I've
been in this business and I've done almost everything at
this point in the twenty six twenty seven years that
I've been in the business, and so it's was just
another thing that I did for the first time, and.
Speaker 2: So I liked to do that.
Speaker 4: Like recently, I did a play, but it was also
not really me doing a play because I was a voiceover.
I was like Iron Man's Jarvicks in the play, so
myself was pre recorded. But I was like, oh cool,
this is me dabbling into that world and let me
just play with that. So this kind of prepared me
for that, and so that was really fun. And so
for me, I'm always about trying new things and first
so this was really fun.
Speaker 1: As someone who just did a long study of your
IMDb and actually your intro was so long i cut
out the part about you having guest starred on every
single popular TV show of this century. I can absolutely
attest to that being true.
Speaker 2: I'm always crying, I'm always dying, something's happening in dramatic
It's just that's part of me.
Speaker 4: That's why I did my first sitcom a few years
ago when I did an episode of Lopez Versus Lopez,
but I had never done this, So I'm like, if
the last five years have been very much you're doing
different things, Chelsea, and I'm like, I love it.
Speaker 2: But it's so cool.
Speaker 1: And so I know a lot of the actors that
you were working with knew each other from the soap world.
But it must have been your first time working with
a lot of them.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, it was my first time. But there's some
people that I know. There was like mutual friends in common.
So like when I started posting about when the show
was out, people would be like, hey, like I know
that person. So again, the world is small in this industry,
so there's always some sort of connection. But yeah, but
everybody was always really welcoming, like I didn't feel like
I didn't. Again, it was very mena right where it's
like they all know each other and I'm like, hey,
I want to play with you guys, and they're like, sure,
you could play in our sandbox.
Speaker 5: But they were very well thought it.
Speaker 1: Like that life will circle. So Grant, how does it
feel now that the full story is out there that
everybody knows what's gone down in Montacito and your baby.
This idea that you've had for so long has finally
been enjoyed by fan.
Speaker 2: How does it feel.
Speaker 3: I'm very fortunate that the feedback has been very positive.
I have mentioned this in other interviews, but the soap
soap viewers can be very critical. They've had there's been
a lot of soaps that have come and gone in
the last twenty years, so they're very emotionally charged. Like audience,
they're always worried about things being taken from them, and
so they're critical.
Speaker 5: And I am a very big critic myself.
Speaker 3: But I really enjoy like seeing the positive feedback and
it's been really a great journey. Usually I don't know
how I feel. I'm still digesting it. It's like it's
been a long time coming, so it still feels too new.
I need to sit with it.
Speaker 2: I'll see.
Speaker 1: Have you heard from some of the Monasito fans.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've seen like the comments online and people I.
Speaker 4: Love that they love slash love hate me because I'm like,
that's the best. When you get a strong reaction, that's
what you want. You could either love me or you
could hate me. But I'm making you feel.
Speaker 2: Something and that for that is what we want.
Speaker 4: So it's been fun to see some of the comments,
the people that like again that are all like yes.
Speaker 2: Mina, go girl, or those one liner we love, like
that's really funny.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's exactly the character should be it.
Speaker 5: There's no right answer. You can love her or hate her,
but you have to feel a certain way.
Speaker 1: She even has her own theme song, Mina does, Is
that right?
Speaker 2: Grant?
Speaker 5: Oh, yeah, yeah, and actually I had it up earlier.
It's it's by Isaac Larson.
Speaker 3: It's called Spin that Wheel and it's it's actually very
that's aptly titled because you're getting caught in the net
in the web, she's spinning something. Get ready for this
spin of something going down in the seat She's gonna
spin in her own direction.
Speaker 1: I just love it so much drama there and for
it all to be tied up in the biggest, blackest
Barkley at Bow has.
Speaker 2: Just been very satisfying as the fans.
Speaker 1: Is there anything else that she would want the listeners
to know about episode ten?
Speaker 5: Grant?
Speaker 3: Yes, there's a little sound effect at the end that
could inform where this would go. If you listen closely,
so there's something in there. I slipped in and talk
with Trey about it.
Speaker 5: And it works.
Speaker 3: It's all for a potential extension of the run that's
still hoping to build the audience. And now we're in
this great kind of binge listen. Part of the release
it was week to week. Now it's all out there
for anyone to consume at any point listen at their
leisure and they're Apple podcast feed or on YouTube with
the little the looping video. So I really want to
push that now. And the plan has always been to
do ten episodes, go to market and see how people
respond and see what we can do next. So we're
in that phase now where we're going to keep people
engaged and we're going to get out in front of
people who like to binge listen and see what the
universe presents.
Speaker 1: What's exciting. I rested this episode twice and I didn't
catch anything out of the ordinary.
Speaker 2: At the end of Chelsea.
Speaker 4: Literally, I was like, I need to re listen right
now when we get off, because I'm like, now I'm.
Speaker 2: Curious because again have an actor. I'm like, what where's
it gonna go, What's gonna happen?
Speaker 4: What huh, and then as again as an audience member
when you're just listening.
Speaker 2: So I'm very I'm very intrigued, Grant, I'm going to
go back.
Speaker 3: Yes, it's all in the details. It's worth a good
second listen. I think for most people to go back
and checking it now they know where the story is going.
They'll see different markers in different ways.
Speaker 1: And one more question for Chelsea in the upcoming comedy
action movie which sounds like so much fun, The Expected,
what would Mina think of Patty and the trouble that
she has found herself in.
Speaker 4: Oh man, okay, So Mina would be the worst because
she'd be like, HATTI, why are you messing with these guys?
Why are you hanging out with them? Why do you
waste your time? Get away from them? You need to
level up, girl, you need to get your together. Because
The Unexpected is a group of like misfit friends that
they out each other in a support group.
Speaker 2: So it's from all different walks of life, Like I'm
like a lawyer, like paralegal.
Speaker 4: We have another guy that's an't actor, another guy that's
a father like and just works in an office like
very It's a mixed match group that you would never
put together.
Speaker 2: Sonna would be like, no, you need to get yourself.
Speaker 4: You need to get lawyer friends. You need to get
high end lawyer friends and go to fancy places. Don't
hang out with these guys in their basement. No, but
she would be so supportive of our plan that we
do in the.
Speaker 3: Okay, right, We.
Speaker 1: Will absolutely be in theaters on October fourteenth for that
one and everybody. You can follow Chelsea and check out
everything that she's working on at Chelsea Rendon on Instagram. Chelsea,
thank you so much for being here. It's been so
great to hear your perspective and to just hear from Mina.
Speaker 2: Oh, thank you. It's been so fun.
Speaker 4: I'm like again, Mina was such a fun character to play.
As an actor, you just want to grow and you
want to play different characters, and she was so dynamic.
So even though again for you guys, you didn't see it,
but like I found all the things, so it was
so fun for me.
Speaker 2: So thank you again, Gret. This was a great ride.
Speaker 3: Oh my pleasure. It was great to have you. It
was really a great experience. That's something I've always wanted
to do and I'm so proud of the product and
the people I got to work with. Truly grateful, yes.
Speaker 1: And I want to be the last one to congratulate
to Grant, Chelsea and everyone who worked on Monacito on
a job absolutely and perfectly well done. So congratulations to
everybody involved. And some guys can all keep up with me.
Not only been doing this for ten episodes, I have
so appreciated getting to know the Monastito community.
Speaker 2: You can always connect.
Speaker 1: With me at Christi Reports if you're into reality TV.
Some of the same similar narratives there themes. If you're
into it, you can check out my channel at Christy Report.
And I want to thank you all so much for
joining us each week here on Monaco after Sunset. You
guys are really special to us and we are going
to keep bringing you more from behind the scenes of Monacito.
Make sure you go back and listen to all ten
episodes that you had it or go back and binge again.
Grant just told us there are things we may not
have even caught up on. When you go back and
listen again, Can you think you can figure out what
the bigger review would have been? Maybe not, so give
yourself that opportunity. Stay subscribed on the Facebook page at
Monasito Theory. We are on Apple Podcast and of course
here on YouTube. Thank you guys again and we will
see you soon for more Monacito.
Speaker 2: By bye bye