Wilmer Valderrama Wants Young Latinos to Be Proud of Their Roots (2024)

In our "Good Housekeeping con" series, we speak with Latinx singers, actors and personalities about what their cultural identity means to them and how their backgrounds have shaped their experiences and successes along the way. Read the Spanish-language version of the interview here.

Originally born in Miami, Wilmer Valderrama moved to his father’s native country of Venezuela when he was just three years old. During this time, he also visited his mother’s home country of Colombia. At the age of 14, he returned to the U.S. to fulfill his father’s wish of getting a "proper" education. Though he knew his parents wanted him to go to college and become a doctor, lawyer or teacher, fate had another path in mind.

Best known for starring on Fox’s comedy That ‘70s Show, Wilmer has gone from a supporting character to a leading man over his years in Hollywood. Most notably, Wilmer has played Special Agent Nick Torres on the hit crime drama NCIS since 2016. As the 41-year-old star wrapped up season 18 of the CBS show, he took some time to reflect with Good Housekeeping about his early days as an actor, what it's like being a Latino in Hollywood and what he hopes to pass onto his newborn daughter, Nakano.

How did you approach your parents about pursuing acting?

After moving from Venezuela to the U.S., I started doing theater in school and somebody said, "Hey, you’re pretty good. You’re kind of funny. You should give it a shot. Let’s see if you can get some commercials." Imagine bringing that conversation to my parents, just two years in America and learning how to speak English. I said to my dad, “So I heard that if I audition and get some commercials, I might be able to get a little money.” At the time we were struggling, we were just breaking even. My dad ultimately said to me, “You can do this little fun, side, part-time hobby of acting .... if you get good grades. If you don’t have [good] grades, you don’t get to audition for anything.” I was like, “Okay, fine!” So that was the bargain — I would get my education and aim to be something more "reasonable" than an actor.

But acting was kind of like this weird, tiny hobby that I guess I loved doing so much and it was improving my speaking skills. I decided that if I was going to do [acting] that I was going to be as focused and as thorough and as daring as I was when I said to myself, “I’m going to learn a different language.” The commitment of saying that you were going to learn to speak a different language and actually speaking English kind of told me that I could do anything.

What was it like starting off in the entertainment industry as a Latino?

I was pretty naïve and innocent to the conversation about diversity, inclusion and representation. I was really blessed that I was given the opportunity to be Fez on That ‘70s Show. It was my first break. Those first couple of years I was treated like an equal. I was treated like an actor who was delivering the funny. I felt like I was doing my part and I was doing it with the level of integrity that just made me, as a human being, feel good. But I didn’t really understand the magnitude of what it all represented for the Latino community until a couple of years later when people realized I was Latino.

I never really saw myself as a minority. I just saw myself as an actor in a sea of actors, and I think that gave me the edge in knowing that if they did it, I could do it too. Supposedly, looking at all the statistics, what I did was almost impossible, and I think that’s the right perspective going into things — knowing that if you prepare the same, if you get up in the morning early like everybody else, why shouldn't you have the same shot, right?

What is it like seeing more Latinx stars in entertainment now?

It’s beautiful. The new generation of Latinos can wake up knowing that they can play themselves with integrity — unlike some of their parents who were told that in America you only speak English or you have to be this or that. I love seeing this new, young generation looking up at their grandparents and saying, “Wait a minute, I really identify with that. That’s who I am.”

It’s a resurface of this pride of being a Latino and that’s the achievement of many of my colleagues and a small wave of us back in the past 20 to 25 years that were able to kind of normalize who we are on screen and as personalities, public figures and activists. I feel like the door opened up for them to know that it was okay to be themselves and was okay for them to really speak their roots out loud and be proud of that.

How do you remind yourself of your culture?

I made a very strong point to not be very far from my mother or father. I was really taught that we all kind of stick together out here because we don’t really know anyone. My mom is still making arepas every morning and empanadas every weekend. My mom still makes hallacas and pan de hamon every Christmas. She’s still making bunellos. She’s still making el sancocho del domingo. She’s always doing stuff that’s so part of her and so effortlessly her because she doesn’t know how to do anything else. Having that next door, because I bought my mom a house next to me, it’s the biggest gift.

What do you hope to pass on to your daughter?

It’s not just okay, but it’s incredibly special to have the opportunity to speak out loud about your feelings, about what you are, about what you want to be. I want her to understand that she’ll grow up in a generation that will be born with a mind that says all is possible because of the ancestors and the people that have been fighting the fight for her. And I really hope that she takes advantage of the idea that she’ll have a bigger platform than most of us did. I never want her to forget that she’s not only equal but she can be bigger than anything she could ever compare herself to.