The Hollywood Byte #61: Grindhouse's Freddy Rodriguez

Actor Freddy Rodriguez is everywhere these days. He can be found on the edited syndicated run of Six Feet Under on A&E, as well as on the new Bobby DVD from The Weinstein Company directed by Emilio Estevez. Rodriguez also has a starring role in the new Harsh Times DVD from Genius Home Entertainment, alongside Batman Begins' Christian Bale. But starting this weekend, a legion of new fans will know Rodriguez as Wray, the leading man in Robert Rodriguez' and Quentin Tarantino's homage to '70s exploitation flicks, Grindhouse.

"It was an actual dream-come-true to be able to work with directors Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino," said Rodriguez. "It was great and it was an honor because I got to play an action hero. I got to be the iconic action hero in that film."

One of the reasons Rodriguez has gotten the attention of Hollywood in recent years is because of the work he did back in 2005 in the sci-fi film, Harsh Times.

"Harsh Times was another great experience," said Rodriguez. "I got to work with Christian Bale who plays my best friend and he and I go toe-to-toe. Doing the film was a little hard for me because I was still doing the television show at the time. I was working on the TV show on Thursdays and Fridays and I was doing the movie Saturdays through Wednesdays."

Rodriguez, who was still in his 20s at the time, decided that if he was ever going to make the leap from television to the silver screen, that was the time to do it. Those long weeks paid off, as the film received critical praise and his work opened up the door to roles in high-profile Hollywood films like Poseidon and Lady in the Water.

Gamers likely know Rodriguez from his work in the THQ Xbox 360 hit, Saints Row. He played Angelo in that online gang warfare game.

"It's quite an interesting experience," said Rodriguez, who's a gamer. "They put the material in front of me and asked me to read it. And I just tried to apply as much emotion to it as I could and make it as real as I could. It's great when you go through that process and then you see it when it's all done. To hear your voice coming out of this animated character is a trip, especially coming from the Nintendo and Atari age. I never thought in a million years that I'd be a character in a videogame."