THE FIXATE & BINGE PODCAST, with Host, Joe Curdy: Deep dives into cinema and storytelling with voices who create it · Joe Curdy

From Watsonville to Hollywood: Sedrick Cabrera on FREAKY TALES, DREAMS, and Working with Screen Legends (Part 2)

·1 hr 1 min·4 clips

Cedric says stage performance can feel like tapping into the Maya idea of "vibrant being."

1. The Fixate & Binge Podcast episode centers on Sedrick Cabrera's film work after a theater-heavy first part. 2. Joe Curdy hosts Sedrick Cabrera, an actor who teaches, consults, and advocates for theater while building a screen career. 3. The episode asks how Cabrera carries stage discipline into film roles like Freaky Tales and Dreams. 4. Cabrera says theater will always stay part of his acting life, whether he is on stage or helping other theater spaces. 5. He says he still teaches a lot and uses his experience to support collaborators who are heavily involved in theater. 6. He describes stage acting as a week of table work, debate, rehearsal, props, and discovery before the audience arrives. 7. Cabrera says the audience changes theater because reactions, timing, and attention reshape the performance in real time. 8. He connects that live exchange to a Maya phrase he says roughly means 'vibrant being.' 9. He says he feels that energy most clearly when an audience is completely with him on stage. 10. Curdy agrees by comparing the feeling to catharsis and the emotional force of theater and film. 11. Cabrera says film is more immediate because budget and schedule constraints can make scenes shoot out of order. 12. He says an actor has to make quick, smart, educated decisions while staying calm around production chaos. 13. He emphasizes that theater reps inform film work because he has tried gestures and choices '1000 times on stage.' 14. Cabrera describes Freaky Tales as a project shot in Oakland in 1987 with interlocking stories and a punk backdrop. 15. He says Pedro Pascal was already famous to him from Narcos, then met him on his first day in hair and makeup. 16. Cabrera recounts Pedro talking about The Last of Us before it was announced and later surprising the crew's expectations. 17. He says Tom Hanks appeared on the project too, which made the scale of Freaky Tales feel even bigger. 18. He says Ryan Fleck asked him to play a Scanners-style mind sequence during the callback and later confirmed that he matched the reference. 19. Cabrera says his work in Dreams came through during the 2024 strike period and involved director Michel Franco, Jessica Chastain, and Rupert Friend. 20. Someone who likes acting craft, on-set stories, and movie-making details should listen; someone wanting a plot recap with spoilers may skip it.

As heard by us

A warm, craft-forward conversation that stays close to the work and the people doing it.

This episode stays rooted in the work. It starts with theater, the path into acting, and Cabrera's years at San Jose State before moving into film.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

For when you want a working-actor story with real set details, not press-release polish.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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