Breaking Boundaries Through Film: Mauricio Pita's Safe Word
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Rob Lee
Welcome to the truth. And that's all right. I am your host, Rob Lee, and today I'm in conversation. I'm privileged to be in conversation with a Venezuelan American actor, director and producer. Their latest project, Safe Word, is a quirky, queer psychological drama about the paralyzing tension between self-loathing and love. Please welcome Mauricio Pita Welcome to the podcast.
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Mauricio Pita
Hey, Rob. Thank you for having me.
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Rob Lee
Thank you for coming on.
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Mauricio Pita
And nice introductions.
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Rob Lee
Oh, thank you. I've had some people say, look, I'm just going to take this part of the parka as a geyser for my real.
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Mauricio Pita
Exactly.
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Rob Lee
So before we get to like embedded into the conversation, I want to like start off with something that either is paralyzing or that is very opening. Tell us about your story. Tell us about the introductory story. What's that sort of like elevator pitch, if you will? Like who is Mauricio Pita? Give us a rundown, please.
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Mauricio Pita
Well, Mauricio Pita is somebody who is a Latino queer man who struggles with mental health and loves making art and connecting with people. I grew up in Caracas, Venezuela. And in 1985.
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Rob Lee
Yeah.
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Mauricio Pita
So all you do is say no. You are. And I moved to the U.S. in 2002. So I've been in the country for 20 years and I've moved to Connecticut and then went down to New York City, went to school in New York City, went to school for acting. And I was doing a lot of music. And then I moved to D.C. about five years ago.
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Mauricio Pita
And that is like a super short version. A lot of stuff happened in between. And of course, I'm going to probably get into it, but that's the elevator pitch idea. Right.
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Rob Lee
I appreciate that. Sometimes I, I troll people and say poorly, describe what you do. And they're like, I don't know what to do with that. I'm like, My example would be I talk to people who are smarter than me all the time.
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Mauricio Pita
Well, I don't know about that. Well, if I had to describe myself, like, poor, like describe what I do poorly, I would say I make stories up and I somehow put other pieces of art together to help tell those stories. Well, you know, I don't know. I make stuff up. I make stuff up. I'm a liar, basically.
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Rob Lee
No, that's great. Actually, that's so that's that's one of those things when, you know, as we were talking about a little bit where more this networking stuff comes in, that actually is an interesting way to describe it. Like I remember, you know, enough references before the Austin Kleon books deal like an artist and they even talk about just different people.
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Rob Lee
I remember there was, I think, a David Bowie quote, and he was like, I'm just a tasteful thief. And that right there is like, Oh, this is interesting. Tell me more. But someone comes to see all my act. I'm in theater. I'm good at their site. I'm a liar. I make believe for a living.
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Mauricio Pita
Yeah. Yeah. And there's truth in all of that. Like there's truth in lying. Right. Like, as an actor, I know. The thing is, like, everybody has a different idea of what an actor is like, and so and a different approach. And and in my career, I've learned that, you know, imagination, which is the idea that you believe so truthfully in like in a circumstance and something allows you to become a really good liar.
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Mauricio Pita
But I like to describe it's really I have a really difficult time actually describing the type of art that I do or who I am as an artist because I can't put myself in a single category. You know, if I say that I'm an actor, I, you know, a lot of people will imagine that my life is going from audition to audition and that sort of and I had thought I'd lived that life at one point, but I think now I think it's a little different.
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Mauricio Pita
I try curating my own stories and commissioning work with me with collaborators. I find myself devising a lot of work, and so I call myself an actor, but it's not in the traditional sense, I think. And so calling myself a liar is provocative in a way I don't know. I call myself that, by the way.
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Rob Lee
So that's absolutely it is, though. And yeah, you should use it. So I want to talk about some of those late, early inspirations, like what drew you to to acting to that role, to acting, but more so like the whole production side of things. Acting, producing, directing. And ultimately, this is a short film we're going to talk about in a bit.
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Rob Lee
So what drew you to that initially?
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Mauricio Pita
I wanted to live a life that was different from the one that I was living through. And that was the thing that really drew me to the performing arts in general. I when I was you know, I grew up in Venezuela and there, I guess, the environment that I grew up and I grew up in a really loving home.
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Mauricio Pita
Like it's nothing to say about my parents. Like my parents were really loving people, but I was bullied a ton like daily in school, like it was torture and I would had to deal with that. You know, I went to a school that from the I went to the same school from elementary all the way to high school, like it was the same building with the same classmates.
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Rob Lee
Same bullies, same bullies.
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Mauricio Pita
You're absolutely right. I dealt with that the entire life. So I fantasized and so I would live in my imagination and I would come home. And I remember playing music and pretending that I was Britney Spears. I'm just being completely honest here at order in order to comprehend all these, like, movie stars that I was watching and and pop stars and all these famous people.
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Mauricio Pita
And I and I felt like they were living this amazing life. And so I started to really get into the idea of, okay, like, this is not real, this is an imaginary and this is all imagination. And so there was a career path where I get to imagine and I get to play and I get to be other people and I get to escape my own troubled, you know, experiences.
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Mauricio Pita
That's really what drew me into it. And then I had a couple of teachers who kind of noticed that I had one specific teacher when I was like ten years old who was doing like it was like a music teacher and he did like a, like a like a auditioning class for a, like singing competition for, you know, middle school or elementary school actually was like fifth grade and, and he picked me and then sort of curated, you know, we started to rehearse something and then I started to develop a relationship with the art itself, you know, and the way to produce that art.
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Mauricio Pita
And I thought that that was I felt like there was a path away. And then one thing led to another. And I received a lot of support from my parents. I have to say, like both my parents, they never question and like they never said to me, well, how are you going to make a living doing that? Or they never said to me like, Oh, you know what?
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Mauricio Pita
You should really think about doing like computer science or like something else that I actually was interested in too. Like, I was interested in doing other stuff too, but they always pushed me to do the thing that I that they saw me, the hobbyist.
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Rob Lee
That's great. That's great to have that have that around, have, you know, people who are close to you, family, parents that are more important because, you know, I don't talk about this often, but I mean, despite me being a large and intimidating person in person, you know, I had the bullying thing because, you know, or being bullied, rather because I was into some of the geekier stuff, I was into some of the weirder stuff.
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Rob Lee
And you don't fit in. And it is like, you know, being a, you know, black kid or what have you, oh, you got to do this, this and this. But it's like, Yo, I'm into wrestling and like anime and I like to record conversations and you know, that's kind of what that is. And in having some degree, like, you know, as I got older where my parents were like, I'm not sure if I understand it, but I'm not going to I'm not going to reject it.
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Rob Lee
I support it like I support, you know, what you're going to do. And, you know, being able to do both, like I pursued business, but always in the back. And it's like the Australian thing when you talk about when you sell off pieces of yourself, you had that phantom limb syndrome like, Oh, I still want that. That's what I came back to doing this and even doing art.
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Rob Lee
I do a comic book and you know, I still have that business foundation kind of what we were talking about earlier that you can still navigate while still creating. And it's it's hard work, it's long hours and doing some of the things that we all do is creatives. So filmmaking, theater, production, performing arts long hours hard. Let's let's talk about finding your why and let's talk about what keeps you motivated.
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Mauricio Pita
I feel like there's no I have no choice. It was one of those things where just like when I one thing that I do have is that I am very persistent and I really do not give up easily on if I if I want something to go all the way on to like I get it even in a self-sacrificing way.
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Mauricio Pita
Like, you know, like sometimes a sacrifice. A lot of, you know, there were times where I was not seeing my family for a long time, but it's just because I was I had that ambition and that goal and that idea. And so, like, that determination is something that I kind of kept me going. And there were times and episodes and chapters of my life where I just had to take a break from art making in a way, because I needed to survive for I needed to, you know, get a job somewhere.
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Mauricio Pita
Like primarily those are the things, right? And I'm like, you're saying there's like there was something missing and something that always pulls you back and you just go, Yeah, you can try to do this, you can try to do this other path, but you know that that's not authentic to who you really are. And you just have to listen to your gut and say, Listen, if my spirit is fulfilled by doing this thing, then the sacrifices that you make hurt less like they don't hurt as much.
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Mauricio Pita
Like for me when I when I'm producing, say, for free, like in this process of producing support and starring in it and doing fundraising for it and marketing and doing all these things for it. Like I feel like a job. Yeah. It just doesn't, it feels like it feels like I'm taking care of a lot of my baby, of my child, of my spirit, my soul.
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Mauricio Pita
Right? Like, it just feels different. And I found myself, like, working part time at an office somewhere. Feels like torture. It feels like, oh, my soul, you know, like, in a way, you know, in a way, in a way for me, for me and so on. And then as you get older, as I got older, I'm spent I speak from my own experience.
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Mauricio Pita
You learn to sort of find the balance right? Like you can't always be making art because art has to be funded and has to be organized and you have to get people to see it. And so you have to learn business. You have to utilize the experiences of working and administrating and budgeting and and doing all of the things that come with those experiences.
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Mauricio Pita
So it all comes together at the end, but it's it's hard. The motivation is telling that story. I have to tell that story. I have to do it. You know.
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Rob Lee
And I think it's important to be to share what goes on under the creation of the art under that finished product. And I think it's a disservice when people just, you know, this I was blessed and then it happened. No, that's not how it goes in. And I think I make an effort when I do these interviews with folks of I want to know about the work, but I also want to know about the person because that's what's underlying it is is like, you know, Mauricio might love peanut butter.
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Rob Lee
It might love, you know, like, look, I need this peanut butter sandwich while I'm working. This is what keeps me recharged. And, you know, I have a special thank you at the end of this film to Jeffy. Oh, I need to know why that happened. So, so, so, if you will, since it's a really good spot for us to talk about because you mentioned it and tell us about safe word and I have a second bullet point for.
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Rob Lee
But I want to start off there. Give us the rundown, please.
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Mauricio Pita
So what is the story of Caesar? Caesar is a masochist, somebody who sells clothes, and he is seen. I'll just tell you a little bit of the plot. He's seeing a DOM, somebody who has a relationship with and the rules change halfway through the film of what their role play is. And it forces Caesar to confront the self-loathing in order to keep the relationship going.
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Mauricio Pita
And so the film started with a desire to talk about the conflict that exists internally with with my own introduction to the idea of self love. And so let me just clarify that a little bit. When, you know, when dealing with depression and sort of like my mental health and when I started to go to therapy for, for, for it like years ago, a new positive voice was sort of getting introduced.
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Mauricio Pita
And instead of just being like, okay, now everything is amazing. Like I have this like amazing positive voice that I can rely on. What ended up happening is that I ended up having like an argument with myself constantly because I had the negative voice that would say, You're not good enough, you're worthless, all of these things. And then you have the new positive ways coming in and interjecting and going, No, actually, factually, you're this and this and this.
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Mauricio Pita
And so I'd have an argument with myself. And so I brought up the idea of making a film about that specific conflict, that battle to a dear friend ever find that's who lives in New York. And I've met I worked with her devising theater while I was living in New York, and I just sent her some journal entries about that kind of conflict.
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Mauricio Pita
And then she came up with the original story concept of this two people who are in a relationship and the character of Bear. Who is the other character in the film, is sort of like an externalization of my inner voices, right? That's where he switches the rules of the game and he goes and actually, what about this? And then the character goes, I don't know what to do with that.
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Mauricio Pita
Like, No, you're lying to me. This is not true. What's going on? Right, right. And then Christopher Kunhardt. Okay, who I've worked with also a few times was like an amazing he's an incredible visual artist and filmmaker and writer and he's a local he's a DC local filmmaker. I brought up the film to him. I brought up the script to him and I said, Would you like to take the lead in this as a director?
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Mauricio Pita
And he jumped in and he helped fine tune the script, make it a little bit closer to me. And, and so that's kind of the story of Seyfried and that's why it came about and, and it's been a really healing process. And it's also been extremely difficult because it's very meta in a way, because through it, while I'm producing it and I'm acting in it, I keep asking myself like the voices.
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Mauricio Pita
Of course, come back. Like the negative voices come in my head. And so I just go, This is really a dangerous thing. And at any moment I feel like I could just say, this is too much for me. I can't handle this right? And am I going to use a safe word meaning I quit at any moment, right?
00;16;23;01 - 00;17;01;22
Mauricio Pita
Yeah. So I kept saying to myself, my voices are saying, you need to stop doing this. You need to run away. And I need to do the opposite. I need to keep going. I need to do the opposite of what that what they're saying to me with my own inner negative voices saying to me. And so this is this is for I it's going we're going all the way all the way to challenge that to challenge that narrative that I've made about myself in the hopes that other people, when they watch it, identify themselves, find things that, like, I just don't I doubt that I'm the only person in the world who feels that way.
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Mauricio Pita
And I hope that the film builds that kind of community and opens up that conversation.
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Rob Lee
That's great. I think we we get to these spots and thank you for sharing it.
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Mauricio Pita
Of course.
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Rob Lee
I think we get to these spots where we have something that overrides what our impulse is, what that negative self-talk might be. And, you know, one of the things that you mentioned earlier, you know, having ambition, I always joke like I'm running off. Ambition is in spite, you know, it's just it's just that. And, you know, when it gets to a spot of when I'm stretching outside of that comfort zone, that's when I know that the naysayers there, when I know that that negative self-talk is there.
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Rob Lee
And there have been a few times where I have these somatic responses of, okay, I'm about to do something. I'm like, I can do this. This is easy, right? But if I'm doing this same sort of thing, just talking to people, but I'm doing it on stage, I'm sweating, I got migraines. It's it's just a mess. And it's something telling me, Oh, get off, you're going to fail.
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Rob Lee
Hurry up and bomb, you know, and do all of that. And I choose the other thing I choose just to do it and I choose to make it happen. Yeah.
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Mauricio Pita
Yeah. Well, my therapist on the has said something to me that really stuck with me is sort of like I kept saying it was like, I wish I was fearless. I was just one of those people who was fearless. Right? And he was just like, that's denying a part of your humanity. Like, fear is an emotion that is extremely human.
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Mauricio Pita
And so fears are not going to go away. Like, I'm not going to stop being afraid. Right? But it's about doing the things that I dream about in spite of being afraid of them and like me producing a film and committing to it and putting money into it and asking people for their support and putting myself in a really vulnerable position.
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Mauricio Pita
And many layers of my brain says, don't do it, don't do it, don't go there. Like you're, you know, if you fail and your career might be destroyed. I mean, like that's literally like my my brain, they say, right. And you just have to go and say, no, you know what? I have to do it. I have to do it.
00;19;04;19 - 00;19;27;01
Mauricio Pita
And thank you, Brain. Thank you for trying to protect me. Yes. But if I stay in the comfort zone, I'm never going to grow. I'm not going to reach my dreams. I'm not going to accomplish the goal. So I have to put myself in an uncomfortable situation and see for it is that it's literally that it's that. And of course, it's, it's sexy.
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Mauricio Pita
And there's other things that I love. And you have to you have to give something to the gays. I mean, just getting hot.
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Rob Lee
At that sounds great. Great. Give the people what they want, dammit.
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Mauricio Pita
You got to give me. You got it. But you know, it's so funny because like, sometimes when I was, like, pitching the movie to, like, donors and fundraising, we're really going in here. I was like, Oh my God. People are going to think that this is a.
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Rob Lee
Very.
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Mauricio Pita
Sexual film. It's really not like it's really not the word safe word. And like, you know, Adam and a sub and all of that and it's like underneath all of that, it's somebody who really wants to love, who really wants to find love and you know, and underneath all of it is a deeper story. And but I was just like, but sex is good.
00;20;09;28 - 00;20;23;24
Mauricio Pita
Like, people watch this, you know? So it's like finding that right balance between like, how do I make sure that donors know that I'm not just, like, producing something that's, like, crazy pornographic film is not like that, I promise. It's not that.
00;20;23;24 - 00;20;40;12
Rob Lee
But but I think that's I think that's the thing that, you know, in terms of like media that we've gotten really weird with, we've regressed in some regards or what have you. And I'm not doing that for Segway yet. I could go on for hours. But yeah, I think that we have regressed and really it's like at the root of it.
00;20;40;12 - 00;20;48;04
Rob Lee
What is the story? And you've described it and I think if people aren't able to see that, then they're doing themselves a disservice if we're if we're being honest here.
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Mauricio Pita
Right, right. Right. I mean, that's the thing. It's sort of like you can't look at something with at face value. You have to be curious enough to know that there is something more underneath it. And and hopefully people will find it and see it. It's there, but in general, with every project, right? Like, you know, right now we're doing a lot of like work in terms of like marketing materials and all of that.
00;21;09;06 - 00;21;29;13
Mauricio Pita
And at that point you just have to go and like do a reveal the substance of the film and the marketing materials, or just let it exist for what it is and let people discover it when they see it. And so those are the questions that I always ask myself as I produce work. It's sort of like, do we want to like tell people and how much to want to hide it?
00;21;29;13 - 00;21;42;18
Mauricio Pita
So that way they're surprised, like pleasantly surprised that this movie is about the human condition and what we do to ourselves when we have hated ourselves for so long, you know? So anyway, I don't know.
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Rob Lee
Did you. No, no, no, you do. You do it.
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Mauricio Pita
You know.
00;21;45;05 - 00;22;08;15
Rob Lee
100%. You do. So and I know that I encounter this. And I think when we have skin in the game, whether it's, you know, the time investment, the financial investment, the you know, the equity, you're calling in those chips like, hey, man, come on out, come on to my show. How how do you know when to cut bait on something, when it's, like not working?
00;22;08;15 - 00;22;35;14
Rob Lee
Like when you feel like this isn't when you get the real not even the naysayer, when you're like, there's a lot of things going against this right now because I struggle with that on occasion where I try to do everything. I've been riding this wave of not saying no right and being able to stretch for opportunities. And some are just like, this doesn't fit, this doesn't fit my life configuration or you know, what sort of test, if you will, that you run to make sure things are running congruent to what you value.
00;22;35;21 - 00;22;39;12
Rob Lee
And when do you kind of lay cut bait for me?
00;22;39;12 - 00;23;09;16
Mauricio Pita
Is that I really argue with myself and then I just at the end of it all, you just have to trust your gut. Like to me is gut God, gut instinct. Instinct. If something doesn't feel sound, it doesn't feel like like. Right. That's the thing about art. It's subjective. There's no formula and you just have to go with your gut and you also have to listen to other people.
00;23;09;16 - 00;23;30;14
Mauricio Pita
It is not an isolated process for me. I like to collaborate. A reason why I like to collaborate is because other people can also push things forward where if I was just doing it alone, you know, I would quit before everyone else. But having the responsibility of taking care of other people and collaboration can sort of give you that.
00;23;30;14 - 00;23;51;29
Mauricio Pita
That sort of like it's not just me, there's other people involved in this and they also have a say. But you know, like I think in your gut, you know, when something is when you just have to go, nope, not working. Right. And then you have those big debates, right? Like with your team or with your collaborators if you have collaborators, right?
00;23;53;14 - 00;24;13;16
Mauricio Pita
I like to show work to people who I trust, even in what's an incomplete process, just so I can get feedback and and questions. I like people to ask me questions about the art itself because it makes me think I don't want I don't want necessarily people to give me the answers, but just make me think and let me come up with my own answers.
00;24;14;17 - 00;24;18;20
Mauricio Pita
And then the magic thing is that when you know it's right, you know it's right.
00;24;18;20 - 00;24;19;19
Rob Lee
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00;24;20;10 - 00;24;24;19
Mauricio Pita
Something works, you know, as well. So that's why.
00;24;24;24 - 00;24;44;16
Rob Lee
But yeah, I rather I rather hot streak. When I step outside of what I kind of do, I'm like, Oh, this is centered in Baltimore, this is centered in Denver and so on. But when I say I'm going to go here and I did a series of interviews in Texas and I kind of struggle with and I asked, you know, kind of the same approach, like, all right, this isn't out yet.
00;24;44;16 - 00;25;00;21
Rob Lee
I want to get a, you know, a temperature on. Does this make sense? Should I do it in this way? Should I separate it from the main feed? And one of the pieces of advice that he gave me and I kind of apply this to what I do now, it's more of a confidence sort of thing and more of a informative sort of thing.
00;25;01;02 - 00;25;18;13
Rob Lee
It's like the people that dig what you do, they trust you. So you're saying this is the lane and this is what you're doing. They want to ride along with you and those who don't. That's just what that is. So now when I pitch ideas, I say it was with a chest into it with some confidence of This is what I'm going to do.
00;25;18;20 - 00;25;34;08
Rob Lee
I can tell you why. I could tell you what was the thinking behind it, but it's very much my idea of my unique perspective and really valuing that because course who can do what I do, you know, the same as you, who's going to have your perspective and those experiences that are baked into your work.
00;25;35;09 - 00;25;51;11
Mauricio Pita
And you also know, like, I mean, for my in my, in my experience, it's also like when I know that something if I if I have the conviction and the confidence to a to to to believe in a project, right. Like safe word is something that I knew I believed in from the beginning. And I felt really personal to me.
00;25;51;19 - 00;26;14;04
Mauricio Pita
And I know that had a lot of negative voices coming in my head about logistics, like money and time and schedule and who's going to do this and who's going to do that. Insecurity was that I was never insecure about the story, right? So if I had that one thing as an anchor that was grounding me, there was no no way to deter me from doing it right.
00;26;14;04 - 00;26;31;25
Mauricio Pita
So I just the pitch became about like, no, I believe in this and this is why I believe in this. And then people people perceive that and they don't like you said, they don't they don't know. They don't. They don't they're not in it. They don't have the same sort of input. And so they trust you and they believe in you.
00;26;32;05 - 00;26;53;16
Mauricio Pita
And so I always felt this is actually a really healing process, this whole filmmaking, because the people who support you, you know, sometimes you just go like, oh, you know, fundraising, asking for money, like, who's going to support it? Who's going to do that? And then people start to show up. Yeah, and, and you just go, oh, it's a big, you know, slap to those voices in your head right?
00;26;53;16 - 00;27;13;28
Mauricio Pita
It sort of says, you were lying to me this whole time. Look at this evidence now and then in the future. Then I have now a while I'm going to age myself here. We're going to a role of decks of of evidence. It says that says no. If it's a lie, it's a lie.
00;27;13;28 - 00;27;35;06
Rob Lee
That's that's not that's great. We're all on the same page. Or speaking of saying, is that 85 is at 85. Right. They're speaking the same language. Yeah, it's 85. So I think I think that that's a good spot for us to stop on them. Real questions. And I want to throw out some quick rapid fire questions for you because, you know, we like to peel the onion back even further.
00;27;36;21 - 00;27;53;22
Rob Lee
So this is going to be ridiculous. I'm just letting you know. Please stick around for a quick sponsor. Break. This episode of The Truthiness Art is brought to you by Double Dutch Boutique. I'm a big fan of buying my family and friends great gifts for the holidays.
00;27;53;29 - 00;27;54;29
Mauricio Pita
From their trendy new.
00;27;54;29 - 00;28;19;11
Rob Lee
Dress to candles to vintage sportswear. Double Dutch Boutique has me covered. This is why I make them a part of my holiday plans. The shop has lots of gifts for the holidays, including items from local makers and new modern lines from abroad, as well as vintage treasures. There's so many options at Double Dutch Boutique, I recommend heading over to 1021 West 36th Street in Baltimore, Maryland.
00;28;19;21 - 00;28;37;12
Rob Lee
That ham the neighborhood or hitting up double Dutch boutique dot com to check out their offerings. Oh okay I'm going to throw out a softball, though. What is something you regularly have for breakfast?
00;28;37;12 - 00;28;38;00
Mauricio Pita
Fried eggs.
00;28;39;00 - 00;28;40;13
Rob Lee
Okay. No, that's. That's that's fun.
00;28;40;19 - 00;28;42;28
Mauricio Pita
It's fun. Protein is good. Yeah.
00;28;43;23 - 00;28;55;15
Rob Lee
I have spiked. I have spiked for breakfast. A nice baller spiked with whole milk ice. If you could be an animal for for a day, which animal would it be?
00;28;56;02 - 00;28;59;15
Mauricio Pita
My own dog, to be honest with you, it's a really amazing life.
00;29;00;12 - 00;29;02;03
Rob Lee
It's like you just keep winning, don't you, pooch?
00;29;02;19 - 00;29;07;02
Mauricio Pita
You sleep. Always has good food, has somebody who loves them. It's great.
00;29;08;02 - 00;29;19;00
Rob Lee
It's a good treat. It's like a it's like the shaggy dog, right? Yes, it is a Venezuelan shaggy dog situation. Yes. What is the best piece of fashion advice you've ever received?
00;29;20;01 - 00;29;33;09
Mauricio Pita
Oh, best piece of advice. My mom used to say to me from Coco Chanel, take one thing off before you go to out like an accessory.
00;29;33;09 - 00;29;34;09
Rob Lee
It's great. That's great.
00;29;34;09 - 00;29;43;19
Mauricio Pita
Sometimes I wear like a, you know, an earring and a necklace and a bracelet and it ring and it go, That's too much. Just take one off. You're good.
00;29;43;19 - 00;29;56;24
Rob Lee
I like to wear, like, bandanas now as as my life partner, but I go for the big foot. You say, Hey, you're going into this phase. She's like tiny glasses, big scoffs. You've been around too many artists now. Like people. I was like, I say, can I listen?
00;29;56;24 - 00;29;57;19
Mauricio Pita
I don't do.
00;29;57;21 - 00;29;57;29
Rob Lee
But.
00;29;58;04 - 00;29;59;17
Mauricio Pita
I don't want a lot of patterns.
00;30;00;13 - 00;30;00;29
Rob Lee
Yeah, I.
00;30;00;29 - 00;30;14;02
Mauricio Pita
Like to wear, like, simple, like black bread, you know, simple colors because I don't like to think too much about matching and like what works and doesn't work. And so I just wear like neutral. So I guess that's another piece of advice, but no one gave me that. I just came up with that.
00;30;14;15 - 00;30;38;08
Rob Lee
I'm, I'm going into this phase where I want to just Steve Jobs that a little bit where I'm just a guy by all black Carhartt where the doc martens and then wear ridiculous like necklaces and goofy jewelry. I have I have a piece of handmade jewelry is a two finger ring but it's the the hokusai great wave of chemical in the last few times I've gone to like the galleries sometimes I was like, How did you get that ring from us?
00;30;38;08 - 00;30;41;15
Rob Lee
I had somebody make this and I was like, Oh, snap, I just did the art thing.
00;30;42;03 - 00;30;56;16
Mauricio Pita
No, but that's great because you see what you did, you just have like very neutral, like sort of like a blank canvas, and then you have a conversation piece. So you have something to start the conversation and everything else is just there to exist. Yes. I don't like to think too much about what I do in terms of like clothing.
00;30;56;16 - 00;31;09;17
Mauricio Pita
And I and I was saying yesterday to a colleague, so I'm getting into it. But I, I actually do love fashion. Like, I love fashion. I just don't like to think about it too much when it comes to myself.
00;31;09;17 - 00;31;29;29
Rob Lee
100%, 1%. I'll throw out this last one. Like, remember, I was growing my hair at the beginning of the pandemic and I was like, So are you just going for the Lester Holt thing or what? Because she was like, I see. It's slicked back now. And I was like, Look, just just stop it. Like, if that's what you're doing, I like it, you know?
00;31;30;01 - 00;31;31;25
Rob Lee
You like it. I love it. I was like, I don't love it.
00;31;31;25 - 00;31;36;25
Mauricio Pita
I just it just brings questions. You questions your choices a lot. I just have to say.
00;31;38;09 - 00;31;58;25
Rob Lee
She's a theater person. She is. She's like, what are you doing? What's happening here since the last, last rapid fire question, guys? So I've I've heard several artists of various disciplines describe copying or stealing or being influenced, if you will. Who do you steal from? Who your influences, and what do you steal from them? Like, name one or two of them.
00;31;59;12 - 00;32;23;02
Mauricio Pita
Ooh, ooh. You know, I was thinking about that. That's hard. I don't, Wolf, you know, I would say I have close collaborators. I don't necessarily like to steal from them. I stole from all of them. I actually really admire this local artist. I'm sure you know who is somebody in a 24 she. If you listen to this interview, he's going to be a good friend of mine.
00;32;24;10 - 00;32;51;24
Mauricio Pita
I love his art. I love what he does. I love what he does. He is he has the audacity to create work is just truthful, honest, personal and goes all the way. And I've worked with him and I, I steal from him in terms of, like, famous people. It's kind of tough, like I was. Robin Williams is somebody who I really admired growing up.
00;32;51;24 - 00;33;07;14
Mauricio Pita
I thought that he was, like, the most versatile and talented actor out there. Yeah. And so I really, really admire him. But so many industry anymore. 24 has been one of the biggest influences career wise. For me, and I've only known him for like five years, so. Yeah.
00;33;07;28 - 00;33;28;05
Rob Lee
Let's watch it. Thank you. So with that, I want to come on to close out. I want to thank you for being on this podcast and I want to invite and encourage you. Here is the shameless pitch, the same shameless plug portion of the podcast. Tell a fine folks about safe word, where to find it, where to check it out website, which is a great website, by the way.
00;33;28;05 - 00;33;31;07
Rob Lee
So shout out to you on that. The floor is yours.
00;33;32;00 - 00;33;57;00
Mauricio Pita
Thank you. So safe word you can learn about safe word by going to a safe word that film. And you can learn about my company, my production company by going to Tipperary. That's t e p u i media dot com. We're going to have a press screening on November 16th, a gala Hispanic theater. You can just go to the media website and reach out to us there and then it's going to go into the film festival circuit.
00;33;57;00 - 00;33;58;19
Mauricio Pita
So it'll be in a city close to you.
00;33;59;11 - 00;34;00;07
Rob Lee
I like two ways of that.
00;34;00;26 - 00;34;01;11
Mauricio Pita
Yes.
00;34;01;26 - 00;34;29;07
Rob Lee
So there you have it, folks. I want to again thank Mauricio Pita, safe word, safe word, safe word for coming on to the podcast. And I'm Rob Lee saying that there's art performance, creativity in and around your neck of the woods. You just got to look for it.
