and they would cry,

and I would go, mom, why do you make me sing

if they're gonna cry?

And she goes, no, they're not crying because you're bad,

they're crying because you're touching them emotionally.

Hi, I'm Gloria Estefan.

- [Andy] And I'm Andy Garcia.

- And we are here to explain it all,

or at least what we want to explain.

Some of it might, you know-

- Be left out. - Not be talked about.

- Yes, absolutely.

You ready?

- Yeah. - Okay.

(bouncy upbeat music)

- Okay, I'll start it off.

When do you remember, (chuckles) do you remember?

That's the first question, do you remember?

- The first moment? - Anything? (chuckles)

- What do I remember from wanting to become a singer?

- Yeah. For the first time you thought I wanted to do this.

- Right after high school.

We were putting together a band for one night

for fun for our parents that had gone away

to the spiritual encounters

that they were doing at the time.

- Yeah, retreats, yeah.

- Right, the spiritual retreats.

And the guy says, oh we've got a guy at Bacardi

that has a band.

- We got a guy at Bacardi, that was already a red flag.

- Well, Emilio, he started as a mail boy there.

- I know, I know. - And at that point

he was an administrative assistant or something.

And he came with his accordion

and gave us tips on how to get a band together.

He had very short shorts. (Andy laughing)

I remember that because I was sitting on the floor

and the first thing that came at me

was a pair of legs that wouldn't quit,

and an accordion, he looked naked actually right there.

(Andy laughing)

(chuckles) So then he gave us the tips.

And then that summer I went to a wedding with my mother

and I walk in and I go, I recognize that guy.

He was playing "Do The Hustle" on the accordion.

- Wow. - Which was very brave.

And he asked me to join the band that night.

I didn't, I said no, but two weeks later he tracked me down.

So it was never anything like, oh, I decided.

- Yeah, right.

- It was very slow and happened naturally,

and I went with it,

still studying psychology communications

thinking I was gonna be a doctor.

- Right. - But what about you?

Because you sat in, in one of those gigs that we played.

- I used to sit in and you guys would look at me,

who's this guy that keeps jumping on the stage with us

when we play the conga at the end.

I would do it only at the end

when the conga line was gonna start

and you guys played a tradition,

you weren't even playing your hit.

- Yeah, no,

we hadn't written it. - You were just playing

the traditional different conga melodies,

and I would sit in and you guys would look,

oh, there's that guy again, you know. (chuckles)

(Gloria laughs)

You know I always kind of looked at it as a virus.

It sort of picked me, I didn't pick it.

It was slowly ruining me since I was a young boy.

The films and movies had a great effect on me

and actors in movies, of course.

In the sixties, people like Sean Connery

and James Coburn and Steve McQueen and Peter Sellers.

But I was a, you know, I was a jock,

so that kinda kept me preoccupied.

And then when I was in high school in my senior year

I got a very bad case of mononucleosis and hepatitis,

which came hand in hand.

I'd been prepping my senior year,

you know, sort of like to try to do well

and maybe get a little scholarship

or some small school as a point guard,

and I couldn't exercise for months and months

'cause I had my spleen was, anyway.

But I took an acting class.

It was a gentleman by the name of Jay Jensen.

But he was very, I was very stimulated by the class

and he was very encouraging.

(upbeat music)

- Well I know you mentioned some of the people

that really drew you in, but do you have any role models?

I bet I know one of them, but.

- My father, you know. - Yes.

That's always, my father and my mother,

I believe those are the people that I had

the privilege of watching them and seeing their work ethic

and everything they did to provide our family, myself,

with this opportunity in this country,

'cause all that, as you know,

those opportunity was taken away from us

in our home country.

The ability to be free and to speak

and to be entrepreneurs and-

- And professionally. - Yeah. There's so many.

- I know. - Like in the sixties,

obviously the Sean Connery's of the world,

we're like, wow. - There's another one

with great legs. Whoo! - Yeah. (chuckles)

That movie "Zardoz" that he did.

I was sitting there as a teenager looking at this guy.

- Yeah. So in that era,

but then later on as I got more serious in it,

the movie that really changed my life

and said, I'd like to aspire to do that one day,

that's the kind of work I was aspired to do

was when "The Godfather" came out, the first one.

- Oh my gosh.

- And that cast that was in there,

and just the movie itself was mind boggling.

- Okay so here you are, you love "The Godfather" movies,

how did you feel when that call came for you?

- You know, I felt a certain destiny about it in a way,

because they had announced the movie

that they were gonna do another one.

And I remember thinking to myself,

(hand thumps) that's my part.

And I had been working for Paramount, for Mr. Frank Mancuso.

We had lunch on set,

and he said, what are you doing in September?

I wanna talk to Francis.

I want you to be, play this part in the movie.

And I said, I'll check my schedule, I'll get back to you.

(both laughing)

- And on my end, I know that I have a role model

that I share with you, Cachao. - Cachao, yeah.

- And Celia Cruz. - Right.

- On the musical side.

Those were the first things I listened

to when my mom brought her albums from Cuba.

So that was my first musical influence.

And I remember poring over those album covers

and listening to how they sang,

and at the same time,

listening to Nat King Cole and Dean Martin

and Andy Williams, and my mom also had those records,

but I think that Cachao and Celia, to me,

the reason they're such role models

were because we got to meet them on a human level.

And these people were at the top of their game,

they were the best in their fields, only in their fields,

because they were unique,

yet they never lost their humility,

their love for people, they wanted to help.

They would wrap their arms around you, they'd joke.

I wanted that. I wanted to be like that-

- And you are, and you are. - In our career.

- That's why we all love you,

because you are that way. - No, thank you.

(upbeat music)

- Well I'm gonna ask you, always the most difficult question

that you could ask. - Oh boy, thank you.

- And I'll chime in to try to help,

but for me it's always a terrible thing.

In your mind, what do you think this movie is about?

- First of all, when I read the script, I was cracking up.

To me it's very important,

they've sent me a lot of scripts through the years,

and my criteria is, either it advances me as an actor,

or it's a really good script.