#465 – Robert Rodriguez: Sin City, Desperado, El Mariachi, Alita, and Filmmaking
Lex Fridman Podcast
Lex Fridman
4.7 • 13K Ratings
🗓️ 17 April 2025
⏱️ 215 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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Transcript:
https://lexfridman.com/robert-rodriguez-transcript
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OUTLINE:
(00:00) - Introduction
(10:04) - Explosions and having only one take
(17:39) - Success and failure
(26:28) - Filmmaking on a low budget
(38:41) - El Mariachi
(50:10) - Creativity
(1:12:06) - Limitations
(1:18:22) - Handling criticism
(1:34:32) - Action films
(1:45:53) - Quentin Tarantino
(1:55:52) - Desperado
(1:56:54) - Salma Hayek
(2:01:40) - Danny Trejo
(2:06:55) - Filming in Austin
(2:13:05) - Editing
(2:22:35) - Sound design
(2:27:43) - Deadlines
(2:31:14) - Alita: Battle Angel
(2:39:36) - James Cameron
(2:52:39) - Sin City
(3:06:48) - Manifesting
(3:18:12) - Memories and journaling
(3:27:56) - Mortality
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The following is a conversation with Robert Rodriguez, a legendary filmmaker and creator of Sin City, El Marriachi, Desperado, Spy Kids, Machete, From Dustal Dawn, Alita, Battalangel, the faculty, and many more. |
| 0:15.7 | Robert inspired a generation of independent filmmakers with his first film, El Mariah, that he famously |
| 0:22.9 | made for just $7,000. On that film, and many since, he was not only the director. He was also |
| 0:31.0 | the writer, producer, cinematographer, editor, visual effects supervisor, sound designer, composer, |
| 0:37.4 | basically the full stack of filmmaking. |
| 0:41.4 | He has shown incredible versatility across genres, |
| 0:44.7 | including action, horror, family films, and sci-fi, |
| 0:48.7 | with some epic collaborations with Quentin Tarantino, |
| 0:52.6 | James Cameron, and many other legendary actors and filmmakers. |
| 0:56.9 | He has often operated at the technological cutting edge, pioneering using HD filmmaking, |
| 1:03.3 | digital backlots, and 3D tech, and always. Through all of that, he's been a champion of |
| 1:08.6 | independent filmmaking, running his own studio here in Austin, |
| 1:11.9 | Texas, which in many ways is very far away from Hollywood. He's building a new thing now called |
| 1:19.7 | Brass Knuckle Films, where he's opening up the filmmaking process so that fans can be a part of it |
| 1:26.5 | as he creates his next four action films. |
| 1:30.3 | I'll probably go hang out at his film studio a bunch as this is all coming to life. |
| 1:35.6 | His work has inspired a very large number of people, including me, to be more creative |
| 1:41.8 | in whatever pursuit you take on in life and have fun doing it. |
| 1:47.8 | And now a quick few second mention of his sponsor. Check them out in the description. It's the |
| 1:52.0 | best way to support this podcast. We got InVideo AI for video generation, brain FM for focus, |
| 1:58.8 | Nestle for business, Shopify for e-commerce, and element for hydration. |
| 2:04.4 | Choose wise to my friends. |
... |
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