LOS ANGELES?Not many Hollywood actors go around proclaiming, ?I?ve been in every prison in the state of California.? In fact, only Danny Trejo, star of Robert Rodriguez?s ?Machete,? likes to say that in interviews.

A former drug addict and criminal, Danny did spend 11 years in jail?but now, he?s an actor who speaks to youths to help them avoid the mistakes he made.

With his badass mustache and craggy face, Danny reminds us of the sneering kontrabida actors in Filipino movies in the ?60s and ?70s.

That?s why he was perfect as the lead in a parody trailer that Robert made for his and Quentin Tarantino?s homage to that era?s Hollywood B movies, ?Grindhouse.? Response to the fake preview?a winking tribute to the movies that were so over-the-top that we loved them?and to Danny was unexpectedly phenomenal.

Fan-driven

?Once we did the trailer, the rest was fan-driven,? shared Danny in a recent interview. ?We got calls from all over the world, telling us, ?Please, make this movie! It will be great!??

He recalled, ?When I was autograph-signing in London, guys came up to me and said, ?Hey, check out my tattoo.? They would raise the back of their shirt?and they had the image of Machete that big on their back. I called Robert. I emailed him a photo of that guy?s back.?

Due to the enthusiasm for the pseudo trailer, Robert gave in and made a full-length movie. And, finally, Danny, the pony-tailed ex-convict who has over a hundred movie credits, has a title role in ?Machete,? which premiered at this year?s Venice Film Festival.

The resulting movie about a, well, machete-wielding outlaw, has no less than Robert De Niro as a Texas politician, Steven Seagal, Michelle Rodriguez, Don Johnson (humorously credited in an ?introducing? role) and Lindsay Lohan. And, Jessica Alba. Danny smiled as he said, ?Jessica plays a gorgeous immigration officer. We had a joke going: ?If I were illegal, I?m turning myself in. I?d say to her, ?Hello, I?m illegal!?? Illegal immigration is a sub-theme of this gory send-up of exploitation movies.

The 66-year-old, whose buff physique has been described as a pitbull?s body, said in between chuckles, ?I?m always asked this question, ?What was the best thing you enjoyed in making this movie?? I always say, ?Kissing Jessica Alba.? After I kissed her, my three best male friends were trying to kiss me! They went, ?You kissed Jessica Alba?? ?I said, ?Get away from me!? Jessica is a pro. She can make anything look real. Acting is making people believe that you?re not acting. She was acting, I wasn?t. I was in love with her. She was a blessing. I kept messing up the kissing part. I said, ?Robert, could we do another one?? But, she was awesome about it.?

State prisons

?I was famous in institutions,? Danny said, recalling his days in California?s San Quentin and Soledad state prisons. ?I did a lot of fighting.? He won the lightweight and welterweight boxing titles while he was in the former. With a grin, he dished, ?But, I like fighting in the movies better. Because you don?t have a headache afterward. You?re not cut.?

Danny?s anecdote about how he became an actor is a long but amusing tale in which he takes a dig at Hollywood?s make-believe world: ?I was a drug counselor,? he began. ?And, I was working with a kid. He was 18 years old; a rich kid. He got off cocaine after two weeks. This kid had an allowance of about a couple of grand monthly. I tried to help him stay clean. One night, he called me up. He was in tears. He said, ?I think I?m going to use drugs, Danny, because there?s a lot of them in my job. Will you come and hang out with me?? I said, ?Sure.? That?s what I do.

Tattoos

?So, I went. It was in the warehouse district of Los Angeles. I thought he worked in a warehouse, but it was the set of a movie called ?Runaway Train,? with John Voight and Eric Roberts. It was the cutest thing I?ve ever seen in my life! All these guys were trying to act like convicts. They were trying to be so tough?it was funny! They all had fake tattoos. I?d smear their tattoos. I kept saying, ?Oh shoot, I?m sorry.?

?This guy asked me, ?Do you want to be an extra?? I replied, ?Extra what?? He said, ?Can you act like a convict?? I said, ?I?ll give it a shot.? I took off my shirt. I have a big tattoo on my chest. A guy came up and said, ?Hey, you?re Danny Trejo. I saw you win the lightweight and welterweight titles in San Quentin.? I said, ?You?re Eddie Bunker.?

?I knew the guy?he wrote the screenplay. Eddie asked me, ?Do you still go boxing?? I went, ?Yeah.? He said, ?Do you want a job?? I said, ?I got one. They?re going to give me 50 bucks for acting like a convict.? He said, ?No. We need a boxer to teach one of the actors how to box. I said, ?How much does it pay?? He said, ?$320 a day.? I said, ?How badly do you want this guy beat up?? He went, ?No, no. This actor might sock you.? I said, ?For 320 bucks, give him a stick! Are you crazy? I?ve been beaten up for free.?

?So, I started training Eric Roberts how to box for ?Runaway Train.? They saw that I was easy to work with. Then, the director (Andrey Konchalovskiy) hired me to act in it. From that day on, I?ve made over 189 movies. I?m absolutely blessed!?

Danny?s real-life story has a Hollywood-style happy resolution so far. He described it like the final scene in a movie: ?Forty-one years ago, on Aug. 23, I stepped out of prison. It was amazing that last Aug. 23, I was at the Mandarin Hotel on the 10th floor balcony. I stepped outside at 6 a.m. and looked over Miami Beach. I was like, ?Wow, you?ve come a long way, baby!? For me, every day is the first day of the rest of my life.?

E-mail rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com.