Robert Rodriguez Brings Big Dad Energy to We Can Be Heroes

Robert Rodriguez on the set of We Can Be Heroes (Photo by Ryan Green / NETFLIX © 2020)

Robert Rodriguez makes kids' films. Sure, the first instinct of the grindhouse enthusiast is to call him the king of Tex-Mex carnage for neo-exploitation titles like Machete Kills and Desperado. But he's spent more time in the world of the Spy Kids than he has in Sin City.

It's not that other filmmakers don't want to make kids' movies; it's that they rarely get the chance (for example, it took 16 years for Rodriguez's old friend Eli Roth to make his first family-friendly movie, 2018's The House With a Clock in Its Walls). But out of 20 features directed by Rodriguez, seven of them have been kids' movies. Rodriguez credited that to having made the first Spy Kids movie early enough in his career that he hadn't been pigeonholed yet. "Not many people have the privilege that I have to be known for two different things like that, to have that duality that happens in your life naturally. When you're out with your friends, you're Machete, you're Sin City. But when you get home, you're Spy Kids dad."

His latest, We Can Be Heroes, revisits the superpowered world of 2005's The Adven­tures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D. Time has passed, so the daring duo are now adults and parents, as are all the superheroes. But not all heroes are super, or even grownup, and when all the adults are kidnapped by aliens, it's up to the next generation – led by YaYa Gosselin's powerless Missy Moreno – to save the day. Not that the film started as a quasi-sequel. Rodriguez was approached by Netflix to create a family-friendly, live-action franchise. In recent years, those films have had a tough time at the box office, and Rodriguez knew why. "Kids can't drive themselves to the theatre, but they can watch it on Netflix as much as they want, and that got me excited." As he developed the story of an adult superhero team needing to be rescued by the next generation, he realized that he could add in characters from the first film, and he got the old producers to allow him to use them "the way they borrow Spider-Man and put him in an Avengers movie."

Time has passed in the real world as well, and in the intervening years, Rodriguez's own perspective has changed. "Spy Kids was based on my life as a sibling rather than a parent," he said, whereas We Can Be Heroes "is much more about my experiences as a father now that my kids have grown."

However, he had to bring out his parenting skills again when dealing with younger cast members like Gosselin, who was only 10 during filming. While auditioning, she said, "I definitely flubbed during the director session. I went, 'Oh, my gosh, right in front of a big-time director,' but he definitely made me feel more comfortable. ... He's this incredible director who's also a cameraman and a producer and a writer, but on the other hand he's this really fun guy that has little toys in his pocket and is making funny voices."

The only Rodriguez film she'd seen before was the fourth Spy Kids, so she watched Sharkboy and Lavagirl. The next day, Rodriguez surprised her by introducing her to actress Taylor Dooley in her full, signature Lavagirl purple hairdo. "I was so shocked that I walked back into a wall," said Gosselin. That was her introduction to Rodriguez's fantastical world, and she soon had to adapt to life in effects-driven cinema. "Reacting to a green pool noodle that's an alien tentacle, it takes a while to get used to that."

Yet another learning curve for Gosselin came from not being the only child actor on set. One real rarity about We Can Be Heroes is that it's not just a kids' film – it's a kids' ensemble film. That was a shock for Gosselin, who is usually the only preteen in the room for shows like FBI. She said, "I was used to talking with adults, and then walking into this big room of kids, I was [like], 'Hey, want to talk about the weather?'"

Ensemble kids' films are a rarity: Even rarer is when they're onscreen or on set together. The Spy Kids films and Sharkboy and Lavagirl both really center around two young actors, while even Rodriguez's episodic comedy Shorts kept its big cast separate for much of the film. But We Can Be Heroes centers on a team of 11 heroes in training, who were on set together for most of their scenes. That meant learning to wrangle a lot of youthful energy, but, Rodriguez laughed, "I grew up in a family of 10, so that turned out really handy." However, the ensemble aspect created one new conundrum. Child actors are only allowed to work six hours a day, and normally a production could stagger their time on set. But with so many group scenes, when one was done they were all done, and that meant the shoot was done, and even Rodriguez was done – at least in the studio. "We'd go home and work on pages for the next day, and with what happened that day we'd be coming up [with] the new stuff."

We Can Be Heroes (Courtesy of NETFLIX)

The "we" there is his children. Being a father is at the heart of so much of Rodri­guez's recent work, and that extends to the set. The original story for Sharkboy and Lavagirl came from his son, Racer, and his children have become working fixtures on his sets. "When you're mentoring a child, you learn more from them than they do from you. You can become actual partners and stay in a longer relationship than if you were just their parent and being a worrying Geppetto."

With Rodriguez's family on set every day, Gosselin got to know them all. "I really got to bond with his daughter, Rhiannon, and some of his sons. It was honestly so incredible to see them all together, with him, working together as a family. He really is a father figure, and he cares about the cast, and he protected us in a father-figure kind of way."

Rodriguez himself is on the other side of the equation – the parent who sees their kids growing up. "I brought my son [Rebel] on to compose with me so I could mentor him, but he ended up schooling me. I just became his assistant, because he was writing at such a level that I couldn't write with him. It was beyond my talents with music, and I went, 'Oh my god, the story of this movie is happening to me right now.' The kids don't just become your equal, they surpass you, and that's the way it should be."

That's why both the set and the story are places where kids come into their own – Rod­riguez's family, his cast, and the characters. Gosselin said, "It's so important, especially for young girls that are my age, to see this figure and go, 'I can be a leader. I can be confident in myself.' It's so special for kids to see themselves in that way – as heroes."

We Can Be Heroes zooms onto Netflix on Dec. 25.