Vincent Rodriguez III – a gay Filipino American from the San Francisco suburbs – a seemingly perfect combination not to “make it” in Hollywood, has defied all the odds and made it to your screens all the while continuing to thrive in the entertainment industry.
Working with Vinnie is like a dream – with his phenomenal talent combined with an innate presence and effective emotional delivery – he made our shoot and interview such a pleasant engagement!
You’ve mostly likely seen his rise to fame and stardom from his Broadway “Anything Goes” as Luke to his most significant break in the CW’s “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” in 2015 as the lead character, Josh Chan.
Fast forward to 2021, he’s portraying a pivotal role in Amazon Prime’s “With Love” as a Filipino-American bisexual dreamboat. A role which has been an excellent opportunity to amplify the essence of diversity and inclusivity and the normalization of these beautiful realities.
As we opened our interview I ecstatically asked him if he thought this dream was possible, to which responded, “I saw glimmers of it in my imagination. I was around people who saw it for me, and over time, I started to see what they saw. I need to do this for myself, for what it means to the communities that I belong to – whether it’s the LGBTQ community, the Asian community, the Broadway theater community, or even the Daly City community.”
Clearly, his sense of purpose shines through. He’s laser-focused with his “why” which is profoundly rooted in service and going beyond himself. Delving deeper into his vision of success and what drives it, Vinnie’s empowering perspective is:
“I’m not racing against anyone now cause that’s a finite mindset. I’m an infinite player. I work hard and smart every day to continue playing the game so that I can always play. It’s just my way of following my passion, following where my energy goes, and this amazing thing called joy happens, and people wanna be around that.”
His advice to fellow dreamers who may still be striving to find that path towards an inspiring rainbow is:
“Follow your passion. Take care of the things that take care of your passion. It’s important to remember where you come from, where you wanna go, and keep in mind that it doesn’t matter where you start; it matters how you finish. How you do anything is how you do everything. If you approach it with love, enthusiasm, and gratitude, that’s what you’ll get.”
Watch the full interview of Vincent Rodriguez III by our Editor-In-Chief Francis Arden and be inspired (and tantalized) by this uber-talented human who lives and breathes joyful authenticity inside and out.
Talent | Vincent Rodriguez III @vrodrigueziii Creative Director | Francis Arden @francis.arden Photographer | Evan Duning @evanduning Video | Francis Gum @francisgum Video | Edward Harrington @edwardinfashion Styling | Malcolm Joris @studio.joris Grooming | Danilo Cifuentes @makeupbydaniloc Article | Joseph Alcantra @flywithjoseph Special Thanks to DFLA Studios @dfla_studio
