Erik Estrada (Eduardo Dominguez)

Exclusive interview with one of television's favorite actors.

Erik Estrada is a legendary TV figure -- he captured the hearts of millions worldwide with his portrayal of the wise-cracking and charming highway patrol officer, Francis Llewellyn "Ponch" Poncherello.

B&B recently cast Erik for the role of Eduardo Dominguez -- father of Antonio Dominguez (Paulo Benedeti). Eduardo together with his wife Liliana (Rosana DeSoto) traveled from Miami to meet the Forrester clan and to celebrate Tony and Kristen's (Tracy Lindsey Melchior) wedding. Erik took time out from the B&B set and discussed the portrayal of Latino characters in entertainment and the experience of writing his autobiography. Erik also reflected on his days as "Ponch" on CHiPs and how the CHiPs '99 reunion film, brought closure to that part of his career.

SoapCity: Can you tell your fans a little bit about your role on The Bold and the Beautiful?

Erik: I am married, and I play the father of Antonio on the show. And we came up from Miami because he's getting married but then I find out that he is HIV positive and so up to that point is where we are in my involvement so far in the show. So, I want to see what happens within the next seven episodes that I'm involved with the show and see where we go from there.

SoapCity: And you yourself have been involved in the AIDS Project LA, right?

Erik: Yes.

SoapCity: So the subject is close to your heart.

Erik: Oh yeah, I'm very familiar with it and I've lost quite a few friends to it, a lot of my friends. When I was doing my series CHiPs back in the seventies and AIDS wasn't well known, my driver named Robert, he contracted AIDS. He was pretty wild, so we lost Robert and then I lost a very, very old friend of mine. I lost quite a few people to it.

SoapCity: So think it's important to represent people...

Erik: Yes, I think it's important to keep it in the forefront, keep it out there because still, they don't call it what it really is, it's a plague, all right. And they put it on the back burner all of a sudden, not just because of the 9-11 tragedy that happened but way before that. It's a plague and they should call it such and they should attack it vigorously and they're not. So whenever television or radio or magazines can shine some light on it... good for it.

SoapCity: How do you feel about B&B's introduction of Latino characters into their storylines? I mean, daytime television in general has also been doing it, so what do you think about this whole move towards...

Erik: I think it's a very good move, I think it's a very smart move on their part business wise, social wise, and it's the new market place. It's the, really, the new market place. We have a lot of political power, the Latinos now, we have a lot of buying, certainly buying power and the population is ever growing and pretty soon everything will have to be bilingual. And as it should be, because if you're Italian you can also understand, if you're Spaniard, or Mexican or Puerto Rican, Caribbean or Venezuelan, Ecuadorian, Panamanian, it's a big language, and it should be spoken by most. It's a very good move and I love the classy way that they're bringing us in, you know we're a little upper-middle class, well educated, home-style people.

SoapCity: Family, like close-knit...

Erik: Family oriented, close-knit, you know. I like that, it's pretty cool.

SoapCity: Do you feel like there's been a shift within the entertainment industry towards bringing in Latino characters in prime time and in daytime? Or, do you think there's been an increase in that?

Erik: Well, I remember there was Ponch, well there was Ricky Ricardo in television, then there was Poncherello and then there was Eddie Olmos and then there was Hector Elizondo, and then, and you know...

SoapCity: Jimmy Smits!

Erik: ...Jimmy Smits, all the guys came in and I remember before CHiPs I played nine years as the Latino with the gun, the knife, the brick. And when CHiPs came along the only thing that made me neutral was that I was put in uniform for my screen test and it worked.

SoapCity: So you think that's stereotyping?

Erik: I think for a long time we were very heavily stereotyped. And it happens, but hey, there are some Latinos that are stereotypical. In every nationality, but I think there's more opportunity for us than ever before.

SoapCity: So you think that now it's...

Erik: It's slowly coming.

SoapCity: ...being normalized, it's regular people.

Erik: Yeah because it can be marketed.

SoapCity: People always say that daytime actors are the hardest working actors in the business. And you've been in both worlds really, prime time and daytime, particularly with your role on Dos Mujeres, Un Camino. So do you agree with this statement, having been in both worlds?

Erik: I think if this was an hour show, I would be working just as hard as I did on my hour nighttime show. But being that it's a half-hour show it's such a novelty, it's wonderful and I love it. And I hope they keep it.

SoapCity: It's a lot easier.

Erik: Much easier, it's a greater schedule, I can still pick up my kids at school half the time, I can pick them up after football practice, run them to karate. I can have a life. You know what I'm saying? I can have a life. And personally I hope they keep me on here, I kind of dig it.

SoapCity: Are there any major differences that you've noticed between Spanish productions and U.S. daytime productions?

Erik: (Laughs) Yes, in Spanish you have to wear an earpiece and a little microphone and they feed you the dialogue and you hear everybody else's dialogue. Yeah.

SoapCity: Is that hard to work with?

Erik: It was for me because my first language is English and when I go that soap in Mexico I went to "Berlitz" for 30 days, 8 hours a day so I could learn how to speak and read Spanish because I didn't know how. And then I went to Mexico a month earlier and learned how to operate the gizmos and all that and it took me about three weeks to get the hang of the technique but in my case it was a benefit because it helped me with pronunciation. So, it worked and I learned the technique and we went on to do like four hundred and fifty-seven shows. And it ended because I...

SoapCity: You'd had enough.

Erik: Yeah, I was flying home every Friday and flying back every Sunday night. It was killing me. So, I ended it.

SoapCity: And tell me what about... did you notice any sort of difference between the Spanish fans that you acquired from being on Dos Mujeres, Un Camino and the ones that you always had, you know the huge...

Erik: The CHiPs fans?

SoapCity: Yeah, the CHiPs fans.

Erik: Well, I was... well I think the Latino market already knew because they dubbed CHiPs in every foreign language ever and it still plays syndicated; Italy, everywhere it still plays. Still, after twenty-two years when we did the last show. I just think it endeared me to my Latin fans who already knew about me more because I made the effort to do the crossover, the reverse crossover.

SoapCity: Yeah, and to do it in Spanish.

Erik: And then learn the language and all that though. Yeah, I think I'm in their hearts, for a long time. Yeah.

SoapCity: Yeah, and they're very passionate fans.

Erik: Yeah.

SoapCity: Daytime in general, it's usually extremely passionate.

Erik: They are, aren't they?

SoapCity: Very dedicated.

Erik: Yeah.

SoapCity: Let's talk about the reunion movie, "CHiPs '99." How was that, getting back together with cast members?

Erik: Yes, you know I gotta tell you, that was really cool because it was closure for something, because everybody was doing one and here goes five years, here goes ten years, here goes fifteen years, here goes twenty years... no reunion talks. And finally, 22 years later we got it on the docket and we were able to get it done. And it was nice to have closure you know. It's so behind me now. But I love being called Ponch still.

SoapCity: Yeah? And it was good to be back together working...

Erik: It was cool. It was cool to see everybody, see how people developed... people, how they were and what paths their lives had taken. Yeah, it was very interesting. But it had finality... it had finale to everything, everybody... because by then everybody buried their hatchets or whatever.

SoapCity: Cause you had, obviously you had a lot of politics...

Erik: Oh yeah... yeah, yeah...

SoapCity: And... stuff going around when you're working together so closely.

Erik: Tell me about it.

SoapCity: Yeah. You also worked on some really interesting projects. I read that you were in some music videos for the Butthole Surfers and Bad Religion.

Erik: Oh yeah, Butthole Surfers and Bad Religion that was fun. It was just fun stuff to do. It was just fun stuff to be part of and do and sort of stay in the young culture, keep my hand in the young culture in a small sense, but it helped too. In various... I thought that was really cool and I was glad to be part of it. And it's always cool when I show up on the set and these guys are like twenty years younger than me, but they all grew up watching it. You know it's pretty cool.

SoapCity: You're an icon to them really.

Erik: Yeah, well that show is around. It will be around forever in syndication. Twice a day it runs, still. For 22 years it's been running twice a day. It's amazing.

SoapCity: It's true. Could you tell me, what would you say has been you favorite role or one of your most enjoyable roles in your career?

Erik: Oh Lord! Gosh...

SoapCity: You know, any of your features or...

Erik: I think I really enjoyed Ponch. I really liked it. Because my first career choice was I wanted to be a New York City cop. You know. So, I think I really enjoyed being Ponch. He was fun. Cause he could be what I couldn't be at times. He could be light, and he could make mistakes and you know, I could escape in his character that way. But in my own life I made a lot of mistakes you know?

SoapCity: I've read that you've written your own autobiography.

Erik: Yes.

SoapCity: What was that like?

Erik: Well I didn't want to write it, OK. And Hearst publishing, Morrow books, made me an offer to write my autobiography and I said, "No, no thank you…no thank you," and I turned away from it for about a year and a half I kept backing off of it. Because I, well I'm not bitter, but I'm pissed because I used to own fifty percent of CHiPs and I fought MGM for it, I had every right to, I had a contract. And I won, and I got my money, but I got blacklisted. There was a flag on my career in this town, but the Latin soap brought me back, eight, nine years later. So with the Latin market in my pocket, everybody's hiring me. But I decided I didn't want to write this thing. I kept telling my wife, " I don't give a sxxx what…" you know, "I don't need to tell on anybody or nothing." She says, "No, it's not about you telling people it's about you getting it out of yourself and having closure." So I got into it and I gotta tell you it's the best thing I ever did for myself. I mean it was so great.

SoapCity: Like therapeutic?

Erik: Oh, man! I would laugh about stuff I didn't laugh about when it went down, and I cried about stuff I didn't cry about when it went down. So it was really good for me. It was really, really, really, really, really good.

SoapCity: And I suppose writing is different…a completely different medium for you?

Erik: Yeah, It was very good for me. There again my old lady was right. She's always right. She is. Women are smarter let's face it, it's true.

SoapCity: And was it a lot about your childhood as well? Growing up in New York?

Erik: It was growing up in New York; what I had…what I didn't have, why I stepped in the dog poo. And I wish I had somebody who was there I could say, "Hey, how come I stepped in it?" you know, just give me feedback. I didn't have any of that so, I make a lot of mistakes and stuff, but then it was about my whole journey in the business. My journey through CHiPs, my journeys within CHiPs, and then after, up until I met her.

SoapCity: And I also read that you had a pretty tough childhood, you kind of had to become the man of the house?

Erik: Oh yeah.

SoapCity: I wonder if that obviously shaped you in a strong way?

Erik: It shaped me in the sense that I know I can always make a buck. I don't worry about money.

SoapCity: So you're a survivor really?

Erik: Yeah, I'll always survive. If I'm not shining shoes, I'm selling a snow cone. I can always make a buck! And so it's always made me strong, it's always made me feel responsible for everything and people around me, especially the people that I love. So that's what that gave me. But I lacked a few things when I was a kid you know, a male image, a father image, input. So, I had to learn as I went and so you don't always do the right thing.