Street thug turned movie star Danny Trejo shares the key to his success
The ‘Machete’ actor talks about prison, redemption, Hollywood and tacos in memoir
Danny Trejo’s life has always been an open book.
The actor, restaurateur and music industry executive has long talked openly about his past life of crime, his time spent in prison and his unlikely rise in Hollywood as a prolific actor.
Now, he’s written all these stories down in a memoir titled “Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood,” which is available in English and Spanish editions Tuesday via Atria Books.
The book covers all aspects of his life, including his time in prison, his sobriety, his family, his acting career, his record label, his restaurant chain — even when Los Angeles honored him with an official Danny Trejo Day recognition last year.
And laying everything out in print has been therapeutic for the actor.
“It was kind of a cleansing for me, really. I always believed people are as sick as their secrets. The secrets you have, that’s how screwed up you are. Since I got this book out there, I have been the most relaxed I’ve ever been,” said Trejo, who will discuss his book July 11 at Dynasty Typewriter in Los Angeles.
Writing the book with fellow actor and friend Donal Logue, Trejo had more than enough tales to choose from.
“Oh, there can be a book two. There’s so many stories, especially the stuff that happened in prison,” Trejo said.
He dedicates a good portion of the book to chronicling the years he spent behind bars for drugs and various other crimes. He says this was important to him, since he’s hoping to reach a particular audience.
“I think this book is for anyone that wants to read it, but my audience is also people like me. Guys that are lost and don’t even know why. Guys that are so angry they don’t understand why no one wants to get near them. But I think anyone can relate to this,” Trejo said.
“I think it gives people courage to get their secrets out and move forward,” he said of his 271-page
book.
Road to redemption
Trejo, who was born in Maywood in 1944, spent time in juvenile camps before eventually landing in Soledad and San Quentin state prisons.
Trejo began attending 12-step programs while still serving time and eventually became sober and later worked as a drug counselor. This led to a call in 1985 to the set of the film “Runaway Train” to counsel one of the actors.
He was clean and sober, but he still had his tough guy appearance and swagger, which paid off when he was noticed by the director, who wanted to put him in the film as an extra.
From there, it’s been a career any actor would dream of, with hundreds of roles in films and TV, although he’s known best for tough guy parts such as a knife-throwing assassin in “Desperado” and a former Mexican Federale named Machete in the “Machete” and “Spy Kids” series.
It’s through telling his life story that Trejo hopes to get his message across.
“This book is all about redemption. Everything good that has happened to me, holmes, has happened as a direct result of helping someone else. And I know someone is going to read this book and say, ‘My God, that’s exactly what happened to me,’ ” he said.
And while he has had an enviable acting career, Trejo doesn’t pull punches when talking about Hollywood in the book, questioning the veracity of a famous film about the Mexican mafia that was inspired by a true story. He writes about being known as a “fixer” who could help with problems off the set, such as when he had to step in after a fired extra threatened a director’s family. He describes being typecast as the bad guy with tattoos.
But since this book is about redemption, Trejo ends his memoir with his role as a restaurateur, which began in 2016 when he opened the first Trejo’s Tacos in Los Angeles.
And he touches on the day the city he loves loved him right back — when the Los Angeles City Council declared Jan. 31, 2020, as Danny Trejo Day, which still makes the actor chuckle a bit.
“That still makes no sense; it’s all a joke, holmes,” he said with a big laugh.
“I think from this book people are going to find out that I’m just a regular guy that had a lot of secrets and woke up one day in the movies,” he said.
“This book is all about redemption. Everything good that has happened to me, holmes, has happened as a direct result of helping someone else. And I know someone is going to read this book and say, ‘My God, that’s exactly what happened to me.’
— Danny Trejo