Anthony Arguien and Mia Raquel

00:01 Testing 1 2 3.

00:03 I'm Tony are going on 52 and I live in Santa Monica and I'm one of the homeless and it's always been my aspiration to be a movie producer.

00:16 Hi, my name is Mia Raquel. I am 24 years old. Today is Sunday, January 5th, 2020. We are in Santa Monica California. I am here with Tony are Gwen and he is my new friend.

00:31 Columbia High, so tell me about your dreams of becoming a movie producer. Where did that come from?

00:41 That's an interesting question when I was growing up the kids will play football in the street and I don't like sports. I want to play football at them. So they always tease me and call me a bookworm cuz I always had my nose in a book and I grew up in a TV set and my dad is worried about me and he saw you know, you never go and play with the other kids are always watching TV. I was doing crossword puzzles and TV guide and I was reading word power and Readers Digest and I didn't know it at the time, but I was changing myself to become screenwriter.

01:15 And what kind of TV shows were influencing you as a kid?

01:22 Well when I was a lot younger, of course, I used to watch The Wonderful World of Disney, but I was watching shows like Night Gallery and I was really putting my dad off Quito here. Watch this and you put on Hee Haw. Come on dad. Really he ha sauce morning stuff like Night Gallery and watching stuff more mature level and I think that was a lot due to my mother.

01:46 So would you say that your father wasn't very, you know, he didn't really encouraged that but your mother did Willam. My dad was gone. A lot of time. He was a sheet metal worker. So he was always on the road and he was sort of like a company blind like a in and out father is a homebody. She was there for us all the time took care of me and my brother and yeah, we were strange for my father, but my brother was closer to him than I was.

02:21 And so what you know when you were growing up, like what was the pivotal moment when you were like, okay, and now I want to be a screenwriter. I know I want to do movies. Like what do you remember that day or not feeling this idea. I was 20 years old and I've been out of high school for two years and I was sitting in a bar with my grandmother. It was Veterans of Foreign Wars and she was playing video poker and I just started writing on paper and some paper and I will tell my hand turn black and I was writing a story called Gangland.

03:02 Whatever happened to Gangland. I was inspired my Mean Streets to write Gangland. It was supposed to be an omage to March for Stacy and Robert De Niro Harvey Keitel. 212 did the movie and being a blatant rip-off of Mean Streets. So I threw it away, but always remember that cuz it was the first time I took a stab at screenwriting.

03:26 And so what has happened in the decade since that well after I wrote Gangland my aunt Susie complained that it had too much cussing in it, like the story basically with the story Joey Santana, and she wanted to be a priest and you wanted Mary's girlfriend Angela, but at the same time, he's collecting numbers for his uncle. So here's a torn between the mob and religion and my grandma finished reading it. It was 129 pages and she goes well Anthony how serious are you about to screenwriting? And I looked at her and I said, I was 22 time and I said someday I'm going to win an Academy Award and they all laughed at me except for my mom and my grandma Yeah, but my brother hit me my aunt's laughed at me. It's okay. It's okay cuz he who laughs this.

04:20 Look at the last laugh and so kind of walk me through your journey until now from that moment. What's what's going on? What's been going on in the last 30 years? Okay. Let's see. I started riding after Gangland. I tried writing a story called her precious time and the kid was going to terminal cancer and he was a genius and his mom wanted to do everything for him before he died. So I submitted at 10 Academy in 1990 and I got a rejection letters and a 1992. I took my wife ex-wife to see a Batman Returns and whenever rolling the credits I told her I could write a Batman movie and she looked at me like I was nuts and I turned around and I wrote Batman 3D trees and I had Batman and Robin join together to take on Catwoman.

05:15 And a Bruce Wayne is in love with tuna Kyle, but when he's Batman, he has to fight Catwoman. So sore like a psychological study of the relationship and then I wanted the late great Robin Williams to play. Mr. Freeze. Yeah, so I called Warner Brothers and I talked to him about it and they said over not going to do any more Batman movies cuz we lost some money a lot of money on Batman Returns. So thanks relay 1995. They came out with a Batman Forever and kind of upset 94. I started riding The Godfather 4 because to me they left the Godfather 3 wide open Andy Garcia takes over the family and in the movie ends. So in Godfather 4 picks up with Andy Garcia taking over the family and he sinks into the ground and was going to make it like a Shakespearean tail.

06:15 130 pages I never finished it an ex-wife. Is that going to finish it? And I told her the same thing before hours-long. No one can sit there for our gangster movie. So I took a long break from screenwriting to raise a family. I got married in 1991 and I had my first child in 1996 Mary and then came Michael and his practice and Susie. So my wife this is when he got really pale do my wife wanted to go back to school and get her degree. So she could be an administrator to run her own daycare. So cuz you know, it's a chicken child psychology and counseling classes. So I said, okay so you need to be a stay-at-home dad. So I agreed so I polished off the books by Syd field screenplay screenwriters Workshop. How do you say Irish Spring play?

07:10 And I told her I'm a start riding again. And she's like really, okay. We are sitting in a restaurant one day with my daughter and she was 12 years. She was 8 years old at the time and she had a little homie action figures and your chat a little alien. So I got the homie with a beer. Can I dance come over to the alien and said wait for a message from Mars wife looks at me and I look at them I go. That's a movie and my wife go to what do you mean at the movie I go to the alien crash lands in Los Angeles and now they're dressing up like a cholo and a hiding it from the Air Force and all these people looking for the alien cuz it has overboard on its head and look at some other ideas and she was with me to call it an alien in the Barrio.

08:02 So I ended up riding got into the bride Enough by movies in 2016 home. I wrote an alien in the Barrio.

08:11 Add server parody on ET Mass hysteria about nuclear war I wrote Ripper about Jack the Ripper and I had Sherlock Holmes and Watson and Ripper and then I Hill Street Blues movie and five movies in 2008. And you know, what a lot to be a stay-at-home dad cuz that gave me the time to write these movies was watching my children. So it Park them in front of the TV and put on PBS for them and they had us TV show called Cyberchase and that would be also appear broke are my life because I found love with the actress Bianca degroat and she's a light-skinned black actress cheese irish-italian black. So she's got all three of those 10% and I had a crush on her.

09:02 And I realize that she look like Diana Ross and I figured I could write it down to Ross movies for her and she could lay down a Ross.

09:11 What happened with that by Young? I got her FAMU email address and I wrote to her. I wrote you in October of 2010 and it took her six months to get back to me. She wrote me of all days April Fools Day 2011 and I just felt when I got her letter cuz usually when you write to an actor and actress you get the public relations, she wrote me herself. And basically she said, I'm sorry it took so long to get back to you, but I've been really busy lately should besides had to check you out. Make sure you're not psychotic and you don't have body parts in your freezer. Cuz now I'm just kidding she goes but being an actress I did get a lot of crazies in my line of work shoes. Yes. I love to read your script cinnamon over. I'll take a look at them if I like what I see. We'll talk.

10:01 Someone is sending my script and my friend at the time George dies. We he used to work for 21st Century Fox Searchlight. He said never send you stuff. It's not copyright.

10:15 I never said her description at that time anyway.

10:20 And so where are your kids now? Are they in the area?

10:27 I was married for 18 years and I dated her for two sons of my ex-wife Maggie for a total of 20 years. My kids are safe and Baldwin Park they live at my mother-in-law's house with my ex-wife Maggie. Mary Kassandra, Michael Anthony Francis Lee and Suzette Lorraine. What are they think of your eardrums your long-term dreams with screenwriting. I'm not sure what my kids think about it, but I can tell you my father thinks it's a pipe dream you need a real career. He tells me I told her riding is my career. I told him he has been sold any movies yet. I said no and you guys will have to explain that I go the longer you do something you can I get better at it. I go announcement get better at riding cat and then one day I'm going to sell my boobies and we'll see what happens and have you tried your shot at

11:27 Finger, is it mostly just the writing right now? I'm taking video production and my professor is Peter's our story and I've shot a few movies in the past, but they were shot like on I4 phone and on my friend Rock shot them but I wrote them and I once called the loan shark movie and it's over at YouTube if anyone wants to check it out here so I can look under ROK the loan shark movie original movie called The Life of a thug are okay and I wrote and help her do some movie for Pierce. Their stories video class called the nature of the Beast.

12:03 And basically your nature of the Beast you need to hit man. Who's just a total. Jerk. He's getting ready to kill Tim Gunn for a million dollars. You find the Bible if somebody stuck in his bag and it read in the Bible when he has a change of heart. So he's over to agonizing the guns by the Bible the gun where to buy with a gun in the Bible and he told him holding him up, you know, they're talking to God and he has an epiphany he was going away and walked away at the Bible.

12:31 Took those supposed to kind of movies. I want to do very cool. And do you want to talk at all about your experience with homelessness in Santa Monica or what? You know what your thoughts are on on that? Yeah. Sure cuz I think homelessness has a very big problem and it's not just facing our state its face in our country. Definitely I think chocolate so, you know, like I think past presidents needed to wake up like Obama surprised you never do anything about it, and I know trunks cosplay for right now if I ran but I just want to say that homelessness is it's not epidemic. It's pandemic. It's everywhere you look it's in the every major Metropolitan City. I ended up homeless. I've been home is now for 10 years and I promise because my divorce

13:22 I'm afraid to say and all my stuff ended up in the garage in at my mother-in-law's and my daughter. Mary calls me and she has to Dad. You know, we need some money so we can get some school books and some clothes and I had the whole Punisher comic book collection.

13:39 For starters. I had a record collection. I had a cassette tape collection in a DVD collection that all this stuff sitting in the garage all my personal stuff and she goes home. Can we sell the stuff that said honey? So whatever you got to raise that money and all that stuff in the garage is now yours. All I have is which in my suitcase that's you know, when I'm close on my back and sleep in my sleeping bag and there's a man who lets me sleep in front of his building and he go see how you know, you're welcome to stay here. Just you know, you don't bug me neighbors. So I like having you here he goes plus you're here at night. So you kind of like watch a place for me. Just make sure you get out at 7:30 in the morning that said, okay, so I've been going to school and trying to sell my scripts, you know, cuz I want to get off these streets cuz I wouldn't wish this life on anybody, you know, not even my worst. Enemy Shinobi be home as can be that can be terrifying, you know, cuz sometimes you don't know where your next meal was going to come from.

14:34 And I don't like the big people for money or food. So I get on food stamps in general relief and I try to stretch that and just take care of yourself. You got to find a place to take a shower. If I put to take a bathroom to go to the bathroom. And these are things that people just take for granted cuz everyday, you know, they have these names available to them. But when your homeless it's a different situation. Yeah and Mike my heart goes out to a lot of the homeless cuz I've met a lot of talented people among the homeless and I just want to say right now, I'll be frank with you guys have put a homeless and mentally ill and these people need their meds and what they don't get their meds they can get violent and I think that some of the solutions to homelessness. I think they should bring job training.

15:23 House of Housing and a job placement Houston mentally ill and no veteran should be homeless if you fight for this country. You should not be homeless.

15:39 Yeah, someone was telling me recently that there's a law in Utah. Maybe it's Salt Lake but it's called like housing first or something like that. And basically it just provides housing like literally housing first because how is someone supposed to get off their feet if they don't have a place to do all those basic human necessities and I just don't see it being that hard to take care of the citizens of this country. And so I agree with you. I think that it's definitely a really intense thing that that the government Citywide and Statewide in the whole country needs to do something about and talk to me a little bit about how you kind of like do your writing where you do your writing and like kind of what place is inspire you because like you kind of get to move around very freely, right? So, where do you kind of where are the spots that dry you when you do your writing?

16:36 What is this one place on a 20th and Santa Monica and it's called the 10-speed Cafe and your parka 10-speed to go inside and you get your yogurt or your salad wrap your salad or your wraps? Cuz you know, I be sunny Health kick now and I like to go there and work on my screen place tonight. I get up at 2 in the morning to work on the screenplay. Like if I get tired I put I can tell myself like I need to lay down if I keep riding my writings going to turn to crap. So I go to lay down and I'll get writer's block if I get writer's block. I go lay down and I I wake up with fresh or Friday is so Texan riding movies. Are you might end up riding a 10 movies this year alone so places to go public libraries if they allow me in cuz I got the suitcase and some people don't like you bringing in a suitcase. I go to Long Beach Mark Twain Library. They're very friendly. I like that. I park my suitcase in there and take care of business.

17:35 I used to frequent the Santa Monica library, but they've had a lot of violence and issues in the past. So I tend to stay away from Santa Monica. And basically they they threw me out of LA Public Library. They said it's too big and in fact mental lawsuit cases anymore cuz if it a lot incidents in the past, you know, people can put guns or knives and suitcases and you know, we're living in the end times right now with a mini crew showtimes for schools are getting shot up. I'm going to try to get off the subject here, but so they don't like suitcases in libraries.

18:08 So I go to Mark Twain Library. That's one of my favorites by the spot on 20th and Santa Monica and just I just go somewhere quiet and work on my screen place and it's like me and my manager Leon were talking about this and he goes, yeah, you know what? I like I can put you in a Holiday Inn or Marriott cheapest pictures throughout their writing your movies and I go yeah. That's determination movies on my life, you know, and that's that's how I make my bread and butter I write these movies and it one day I'm going to meet somebody and say what you know sell my movies to them and then my mom asked me if I was willing to do just joking around she goes we can do when you get all that money, you know, and I told her well I go I could be a gangster she goes I told her and she goes no she goes your enemies. Don't waste your time on your enemies.

18:59 The best revenge is living. Well, I like that and take my money and buy my mom a new house. Bianca degroat to marry me and dumb and said her family got her dad's at her dad's a painter. So I would set him up with a new art studio and her sister. She's really cool. She's an actress too. I would say Hey, you know, if you want to run your own Boutique, I'll give you the money to set up your business my mom relocator, you know, cuz she lives in Walnut right now, but she listened to a slumlord and she's a hoarder so she's going through that right now. So I relocate my mother I relocate my my ex-wife. Could you ran out? Her mom is in the hospital my prayers go out to marry my mother-in-law even though we've had our differences in the past Mary I'm praying for you.

19:46 Cuz I know it's tearing apart my ex-wife know cuz she's very close to her mother. So I would help out my ex-wife and maybe have hurt your hope you do when you place a new minivan give her money. So the kids could go to nice universities and stuff like that cuz it's the end of the day. It's all about your friends and your family. You got to kick down your friends in your family. If you don't have friends and family you got nothing. It's true.

20:14 Is there anything else that we haven't talked about that you'd want to talk about?

20:21 I'm a byproduct a divorce. You know, my my parents were am I here to slam my parents but you know what they got married young and they rushed into it. Yeah, they're only like a the net 1964 and it's funny story cuz they asked my dad what what you do for a living and he told him all my truck driver in an ice cream truck and my mom is at a party and asked so, how'd you guys meet and she goes well with 1964 and she was at a party and should have beehive hairdo and she had her dress on and she went up to the ice cream truck to get a soda or whatever cuz you're thirsty and my dad saw her legs and he saw you know who belongs to his legs. I got to find out who that woman is and I told him that so he started talking and it started dating and how long are you guys dating before you got married and she goes out with your dad for 6 weeks before they got married and back then, you know, we only dated for six weeks and then I got married and a marriage lasted 10 years, so that that's a long time for only dating for

21:21 Weeks and was a different time back then, you know times were different compared to now and they had me and my brother Rene and Rene. He's a member of the homosexual Community. He's lgbtq, you know, and I don't hold that against him. I don't hold that against anybody, you know to me to each their own, you know, we just whenever close to you know, it's like a he got along with my dad and I got lost my mom and everybody thought, you know all your momma's boy cuz you know cuz I was raised by my grandparents when my parents got divorced and I ended up getting married and I had four kids and married for 18 years. You know, I'm bisexual. I've been with men and women but I prefer women after for women you could you love a woman you can have children with her raise a family with her, you know, and yeah, so it's it's rough, you know, it's rough being a child of divorce because you see a parent to fight

22:21 And then now you're in a marriage and you don't fight with your spouse to know you won't you what you want to teach your kids values you want them to be good. You don't want them going around cussing and and doing drugs. And did you want them to have class? You know, you don't have respect for people you want them to go places in my life. And I got a funny story for you guys. We took an IQ test me and my wife online and my daughter is twelve at the time Mary. So I take IQ test and white chicks IQ test. She's a schoolteacher, screenwriter. So she comes with a 113 I come in for 1:31. So I'm teasing her on like that, you know, you went to college and really got to win 13 year old school teacher. You only got to 113. She's okay. Mr. Hollywood and then I'm all she's in her if I got 131 tell my daughter she's twelve she goes well, let me take the test. So she goes in there and get to 144hz. So how about that? I'm smarter than you and Mom.

23:20 I want you to go places in life. I want you to go far in life. I don't want you to struggle ever. I want you to be successful at whatever you do.

23:32 They're lucky to have you. Thank you.

23:35 And thanks for having me here today and I'm just a little nervous cuz I never done a radio interview before but you know, I did an interview at school the kids interviewed me and it was called the Motown story. I guess I can tell you guys Motown story right away. The Motown story goes like this, okay.

23:55 I was telling you that I wrote that letter to Bianca degroat and she wrote me back. I used to like a I was holding her on Facebook and in her pulisic her PR told me okay, leave her alone. She wants nothing to do with you. I'll go but I'll try to make a movie with this woman and they said well, you know, she's busy and she's got no time for you we were alone. So basically they're telling me to stop stalking Bianca degroat. I wasn't stalking her. I was just may be stalking her Facebook. So I said, okay I got mad that went on Facebook and I wrote

24:32 This woman comes in and put he he has a comet under under what I wrote. I'm like, who is this? You know, if I click on her icon and she looks like Brittany Murphy. She's really pretty surnames in Valencia. So we talked for a whole week. We ended up talking for a whole week on Facebook. And then after we goes talking on Facebook she goes, okay. Now let's exchange phone numbers and talk on cell phones. Okay. So now for we talked for a whole week on the telephones so she goes I'm tired of this push button romance. She goes for 1 week. We instant message each other Facebook and another week. We just talk on the cell phones. We have to meet in person. I said I I go I agree with you how we going to do this. I live in LA you live in Peoria. She goes. Well my dad lives in Arizona, and I'm going to go out with my girlfriends and you could come meet me in, Arizona.

25:25 Stop first. I'm looking at my mom. Like I don't even know this person. You know what she could be such you could be Norman Bates. You know that my mom has Anthony. She just wants to meet you. So I took the Greyhound out to Arizona and there in Phoenix and she was staying at The Buttes but the Marriott Buttes in Tempe, so we went we went on a date and I was with her all weekend and turn into a sex Marathon. I met her father biological and her stepmother and her father used to be a spokesman for Toyota Corporation and her stepmother was a psychologist. So I hit it off with her parents are really did cuz I am good at winning people over. Try to win people over and you know, she like me if you don't well, okay, I'll just walk the other way. So we drop it when you know if she's dropping us off at the end of the night.

26:17 And he's kind of slamming her cuz she was at the party girl and I said, you know, she really is a good person.

26:23 So long story short, I went to live with Aaron a week later. She's asked me to go with her in Peoria, Illinois. And my mom said he's going to leave everything behind and go live with this woman. You met on Facebook. I said washing hands cut out of a bad marriage and you always tell me you know that I got to meet people come out of my shell I go to lose myself in my riding. So I put up my writing career. I quit being a security guard and I left California Lutheran Peoria, Illinois for 4 and 1/2 months and cheddar problem with drinking. Okay, so I was trying to help her, you know check that have it and it's hard when you live with an alcoholic because they live in denial that didn't want to make that the alcoholics and you know, he don't pick on them, but at the same time, but you don't want them getting drunk and fighting with them all time.

27:12 So she tells me let's drive to California so you can see your family for Christmas and I don't know like you got a Saturn sky Saturn sky is a very small car. It was limited edition and I go that's 2,000 miles from Peoria to El late. It's going to be the test of a relationship. So we thought the whole way back to California and a we end up getting an inflatable air mattress from Walmart and we put it in my mom's living room and we're camping out my mom's house / for 6 weeks and then one day she tells me or him. We're going to go to Santa Monica Pier cuz she loved to come to Santa Monica and this is before you know what I mean? Santa Monica was alien to me at that time and that she just loves coming to Santa Monica and just going to the beach and you know what time it is eating corn dogs from from hot dog on a stick on the beach, you know, I just this is different from me cuz she was used to eating four star restaurants.

28:10 Groat husband wasn't he work for Walgreens, and he was big shot. So he made money and a week love, you know, just giving drugs to all the Walgreens.

28:21 So, okay. So we go to Santa Monica all the time and she tells me we're going to be the good looking black guy and I'm thinking Wesley Snipes Denzel Washington. She goes know. Do you know if Philip Gordy I do you mean according some Motown and she's all what's Motown. I'm thinking while she's 40 years old Motown is like, okay Motown inside go to have all the major black axe. You know, I go Temptations Miracles Smokey Robinson. Ross Marvin Gaye Michael Jackson The Jackson 5, I would a small town and she looks okay. Well we're going to be at 12:40. So sure enough we go and meet Phil and this guy comes up with cornrows a Hawaiian shirt and I'm thinking wildest, you know, this is this is the nephew of Berry Gordy Jr. And across from him right now at Maria sold on Santa Monica Pier. How cool is it?

29:12 An deringer at therefore riky. Coach Anya Anya was the ex girlfriend so Gordie, so that's how I got to meet so good. So I told him about the Motown Trilogy and rope for that and he goes, what's the Motown Trilogy ago? Well first you have the story and then you would have the Marvin Gaye story and then you would have found the gold the Motown story itself. I'll Berry Gordy had to take encounter racism and deal with it to overcome it and start the world's first all-black record label Motown. He loves it. He was eating it up. He saw I can get you next to down a Ross with the tape recorder. I can tell you stories about Marvin Gaye because when his mom rosemary died he went to live with this.

30:00 And she raised him and she was married to to Marvin Gaye at the time. So he had the key and the dirt on Marvin Gaye Diana Ross and Berry Gordy. So long story short end up breaking up with Aaron and end up going to live with so Gordy to write his Memoirs. So one day he tells me get my phone and call my weed guy that take out his phone. I'm looking in his director and I find this fat lady with my last name Phil. How come she has my last name? He wouldn't tell me so I wrote to her at Yahoo! And her husband Greg calls and says, who is this guy riding to my wife? What do you want? Why is know why she but I'm probably in my wife, so she calls me and she go to are you know, why you think you know me, but we have the same last name and just who's your father a goalie arguien. She goes I have a nickname for you I go, but guess what? I think we're cousins.

30:57 So to wrap it up my cousin my cousin Debbie married Greg Gordy.

31:04 The brother of Sigourney

31:06 The nephew's a Pergola Junior unrelated to The Gorge Motown by marriage and Berry Gordy is second cousin to put Jimmy Carter and Jimmy Carter is 6 cousins with Alex Presley.

31:23 I know my life is a circus.

31:27 Well, it's your life and it's it's got lots of twists and turns it keeps it interesting. It does it really does and right now, I feel like I'm at Acme in my life, and that's why I want to settle down and no, well, I really hope it happens. Thank you, and it's been a pleasure. I'm really glad we got to talk today. Thank you for having me.