Emilio Estevez’ dramatic film, Bobby, follows events in the lives of 22 people in the hours leading up to the assassination of Robert F Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel. Christian Slater plays the man in charge of the Ambassador Hotel’s kitchen while Freddy Rodriguez handles the crucial role of the hotel’s busboy, Jose.
While Slater and Rodriguez play characters who loathe each other in the film (Slater’s character is a racist who treats his staff like dirt), when the cameras weren’t rolling the two got along well. Even when they were filming Slater and Rodriguez managed to joke their way through difficult scenes. Together to promote Bobby, Slater and Rodriguez talked about working on Emilio Estevez’ passion project.
What did you remember about Robert F Kennedy and did you find out anything during the research that surprised you?
Freddy Rodriguez: “I don't if it surprised me, but what I got a sense of was how he affected the people at that time and the way people were energized and had this belief in the leader. I can say that in my generation I've never felt that way about a leader. I guess maybe a little bit Bill Clinton when he was in power, but I've never felt the way the youth felt at that time. That was always fascinating to me and was an educational experience to me. And just how the world was in turmoil at that time and how they depended on Bobby becoming a leader to change that. Because America depended on him, when he was killed they were so completely crushed. I mean, yes, because a being was killed, but also because their hopes that change would come were crushed as well.”
Christian Slater: “I was born in ‘69, so I did miss this particular moment in our history. But I relied on things my parents told me about the Kennedys and things I'd heard in school and (from) other filmmakers — Oliver Stone, Spike Lee, who represented this time period rather well. But the Kennedys to me have always represented a certain amount of American royalty – Camelot - and certainly survived a great deal of tragedy. I love the Kennedys. I love their faith and belief in people and in America, and in the direction we really could go. Somehow they just seemed to represent a really good quality and aspect of what's in each and every one of us.”
How long did you work on Bobby?
Freddy Rodriguez: [Emilio Estevez] has been at this for years and I kind of feel like I've vicariously lived that journey with him. The script was presented to me at least three years before it came into fruition, so when it was presented to me and I read it and the money fell through at the first production company it was at, I stayed in contact with Emilio. He kind of updated me throughout the years as to what was happening with it. I was very aware of the journey that he went through with it, just trying to get it off the ground. When he finally did get it off the ground and people did start to come on board, I was just really happy that it was happening for him because I knew what he was going through.”
Christian Slater: “For me it probably took about 10 days coming in there. It was the type of movie where everybody's schedule was really, really crazy. There were so many people and so many different story lines to put together and film. There were days when I would show up and not work, and sit around. But the key for me was just to be ready. Whenever they did need me I wasn't going to hold anything up. I just wanted to make sure I was as available to Emilio as I possibly could be.”
Freddy Rodriguez: “I was pretty much there from beginning to end. My schedule was pretty much peppered throughout the 37-day shooting schedule. I had a lot of scenes in it, a lot of stuff that was cut and you don't get to see, but I was pretty much there from beginning to end.”
Can you talk about shooting the assassination scene?
Freddy Rodriguez: “The assassination scene was hard to do for many different reasons. I guess for me it was a tad eerie because my character is loosely inspired by an iconic photo that exists of a busboy holding Robert F. Kennedy after he was shot. I guess when we were filming it, they would use that photo as reference to position me. That was surely eerie to recreate. And then actually to see a photo of myself in that same position, and to compare it to the actual photo was a little tough to digest.”
Christian Slater: “There were extras on the set that could point to themselves in the actual footage. ‘There I am, there I am,’ so that certainly added to the power and intensity. You could really feel the horror of it. From when they would say ‘action’ to ‘cut’, people were definitely shaking by the end of that scene.”
Do you know what happened to the real person who inspired your character? Did he ever come forward?
Freddy Rodriguez: “Oh yeah, he's definitely been identified. After the shooting there were even articles done on him and his picture was taken for the paper. I think he retrieved his rosary after he put it in Robert's hand, because I remember seeing a photo of him in an article and he had the rosary in his hand. But yeah, he was definitely recognized after that. I'm not sure if he's still alive or not. We chose not to contact him during the filming of this project because it was not really based on his life, so there was no need to do that.”
Christian Slater: “At the end of Bobby Kennedy's life, the person that was down there on the ground (with him) were the people he was actually speaking for and stood up. I find that to be phenomenally ironic. It ties into the whole speech in the movie. Here's the guy who's going to be the next President of the United States and at the end of his life, it just doesn't matter what position we have. We're famous, not famous, rich or poor — we have a short window of time here and what are we going to do with it?”
