"When
I'm in love, I float above the clouds, believe everything is
possible, sing songs out loud."
It was
while pursuing a bachelor’s degree in both film and
philosophy at the
University
of
Miami
, that Venezuela-born Jason met best friend Max. While in
college, the two produced and starred in a video documentary
about hedonism and spirituality, which made its way to the
desk of Current TV’s President of Programming. From over
4,000 submissions, Jason and Max were immediately flown to
Los Angeles
and offered full time jobs anchoring and producing content
for the start-up network, which now has national
distribution to over 50 million homes.
.. the FACTS
Born: Caracas, Venezuela. I largely grew up there through
the end of high school but I always came back and forth to
the states for a vacation because I had family ties in South
Florida as well as in NY. So I was always back and forth in
the summers and at Xmas/winters time.
Resides: Los Angeles, CA
Birth date: 2-6-82
Sign: Aquarius
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 180 lbs.
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Family: Younger brother. My parents are divorced so my dad
is still in Venezuela. My little brother is in Miami at the
moment and my mother moved to NY. She's a teacher. She used
to teach at the American school in Venezuela and now she's
teaching in NY. She teaches underprivileged kids, she's
pretty amazing."
Ethnicity: Hispanic//Jewish
Status: Never married, no children
Want children: Undecided
Nonsmoker
Education: I studied in an international high school. Double
major in college. Bachelor's Degree in film and in
philosophy.
What were your aspirations: "I don't think I had
crystallized an exact description of what I wanted but I
knew that I wanted whatever I did to involve the ability to
constantly express myself artistically and intellectually.
Part of the reason that I studied film and philosophy which
might seem like two unrelated fields is that I always liked
the film and video medium, but I always liked it best when
it affected me intellectually or philosophically. I wanted
to be around art that stirred me up inside so whatever I
did, I wanted to be in the field of TV or film. I didn't
really know in what field but I just wanted to do things
that were important to me and were meaningful. And really,
when I was in school, Al Gore's TV network didn't exist.
This idea of an alternative media channel for passionate
people to talk about the things that matter to them in the
world. It didn't really exist and so it's kind of
serendipitous the way it sort of fell into place that they
were launching as I was graduating. You can never plan for
these things."
Was acting an option: "It's difficult for me to say
that acting was because I was always better with my own
words than with other peoples. I was always better
unscripted and philosophical rather than memorizing lines so
my whole thing was how can I express myself in that field. I
mean I didn't really like the idea of being called a
broadcast journalist because that was almost limiting and
myopic in my view. I just wanted to use the medium of video
and audio to just articulate what was going on, what I
thought was important. To have a conversation about things
that matter and really until Current TV came on, I don't
think that I knew how I was going to pursue that. I really
didn't because it's not like I wanted to host a reality show
or anything like that. I was looking for something that had
a little more depth and Current really fit the bill."
Occupation: Host of Current TV, Producer,
Journalist, Filmmaker.
What was the documentary about that got you noticed by the
head of programming at Current TV: "Yeah it was crazy.
Me and Max were best buddies in college and we were
collaborating on an independent study film project, a short
film documentary, and the theme was the confliction of
Hedonism and Transcendence. Literally the idea was that we
all sort of have this vague goal or idea to do something
important and meaningful with our lives and sort of
transcend ourselves and do something greater than ourselves.
But usually the majority of western moral systems and
religions will tell you that you can only sort of transcend
through self sacrifice that is painful usually whether it's
fasting or bowing down before some higher authority or lying
on a bed of nails in some extreme circumstances. And our
idea was that you can transcend without that sort of
pilgrimage of self sacrifice and self denial and labeling
everything as sin. So our point was you can transcend
through art that includes all sorts of indulgences whether
it's in poetry or sexuality or whatever it may be. You don't
need to deny yourself everything that feels food in order to
transcend. That was the pitch of our film which was right in
line with my philosophical sensibilities and Max was a
double major in psychology so it fell in line with his
psychological sensibilities too. I mean hundreds of people
from across the country sent films to Current TV to try to
get involved, it sounded like such a good idea. We thought
it was a long shot but through some way it ended up on the
desk of the head of programming and he really loved it. He
called us right then and there and flew us out to meet with
him. And a few weeks later we had an offer to move to Los
Angeles and be hosts and they launched the network."
What
is Current TV: "You can think of us as the HBO of
YouTube. We're sort of a very sophisticated TV version of
the idea behind YouTube which is the audience can be the
content creators and collaborators. But on Current, it's
much more sophisticated, our audience is encompassed of
citizen journalists and young passionate people who are out
there documenting the things that matter to them and putting
it on Current for the world to see. People submit their
videos via the website, the best stuff is voted on on the
website and the best of the best makes it to the TV channel.
When Al Gore came on board as the founder of this network,
he envisioned a place that was a democratization of
television, making television something that was assessable
to everyone."
"Max and I are like the
quintessential hosts on the TV channel. If you tune in,
you'll see us, we'll pop up like the Carson Dalys. We're on
Direct TV, Comcast, Time Warner and Dish Network. We won an
Emmy our 2nd year for interactive TV platform."
You were also featured as part of The Gap Icons 2008 print
campaign, what was that like. "That was amazing because
the campaign is encompassed of personalities who have done
something really cool. There's some actors but then there's
also people like us who are technically on TV but we're not
actors, and it's called the Icon's campaign. It was very
flattering to be included in the group like that."
What's on the horizon: "We're currently in
pre-production for a feature length documentary called
Manitou with director Hunter Richards. Basically it's a
documentary on sustainability technology that could take us
away from this global warming horror that we're facing. It's
an optimistic film because it looks at all the potential
that there is out there in the world of technology to find
sustainability solutions. We're in pre-production on that
but that would be really cool to make that leap into feature
length docs while still remaining within Current's
walls:"
... on HIMSELF
Strengths: "Passionate, empathetic, kind, involved in
social change. I think that my friends would say that I'm
very passionate, incredibly driven. They'd probably say that
I'm really philosophical and if they were to criticize some
quality they would say at times I'm impatient."
Weaknesses: "Impatience.
If I'm feeling a moment or a circumstance, I really want to
go with it and sometimes that affects my dating life.
Because I don't like to hesitate. I really do wear my heart
and mind on my sleeve and I'm always hungry for an intimate
connection if the circumstances are aligned in a way that
feels good to me. I just don't hold back. Sometimes I don't
go slow enough or give it the proper time to build a
relationship at the pace that people might be comfortable
with. I'm sort of in a rush to get to a certain level of
intimacy that maybe people aren't ready to go to as quickly
as I am. I'm really comfortable going there, you know."
Others may not see: "My acute sensitivity and a desire
for permanence. Well, because I grew up in Venezuela,
people have sometimes an idea of somebody who grew up in
South America, you're like the Latin lover. They think that
I'm a shallow player or something like that when really I
find that there's a lot more depth to me and sometimes
people don't know what to make of it. They just don't see it
right away because they just assume that I'm a certain way
and they don't give it a glance sometimes."
You're still young, is it important for you to settle down
now: "I wouldn't say settle down but I like for an
experience to mean something and to have significance. I'm
interested in depth. Because I'm keenly aware of the
transience of life and how everything that is beautiful is
sort of fleeting and quickly gone, I'm very hungry to make
an imprint whenever I'm surrounded by it. Like there's an
urge within me to say you know I was here and I felt this
and it mattered and it matters. In the ultimate scheme of
things for Jason, like this moment, this instant, this
connection with this person, it matters. And too much, too
fast things are over and so I think there's a sadness in
that and so there's an urge for me to always kind of make
sure that the moment was cemented as something that was
meaningful."
So do you always try to cherish each moment you have:
"Oh, absolutely. I would say that that's one of my
creeds to always live the moment."
What made you realize the importance of that at such a young
age: "Interesting. I don't know. My parents divorced
when I was young and I was a really sensitive kid and so I
think that I was able to appreciate loss and really get a
dose of what loss is like early in life. I think that that
gave me the sensitivity and the sensibility to pay attention
to it and to not take anything for granted because I've seen
how we can lose things that we love and people around us
that we love and so it makes me appreciate the beautiful a
lot more only because I'm aware of how it is usually
surrounded my mediocrity and sadness."
I've been known to ..."have the courage to live my
dreams."
Are you someone who always goes after what you want: "I
think it's important but ultimately the greatest high in
life is to feel fully expressed and to feel understood and
to love and be loved and so if you're not going to do
something that makes you feel fully expressed, that's almost
as sad as not finding somebody to love and to love you. I
think we need both. If you take a job you don't like, you're
not going to feel expressed, you're going to feel
existentially stifled and life is going to seem gray and
dreary and you're going to feel like a hamster in a hamster
wheel racing around. Because I'm so obsessed with making a
dent in the universe and sort of making sure that my time
here is meaningful, it sort of forces me to always go after
what I want and what will satisfy that hunger and that
yearning."
Why do you think a lot of people stay in mediocre jobs and
lives: "Well, I think there's a complacency factor.
Sometimes people choose safety by virtue of it being
predictable. Like if it's safe and it's routine and it's
predictable then one doesn't have to face the sort of
unknown or the unpredictable or the risky. But I think that
you have to sort of take chances in life but that's not
always the easiest thing to do."
Of course, you being 27 and single, you have a little more
of that luxury than someone who's 45 and married with kids:
"I totally agree and I think that's something that
everybody struggles with. There's a reason why American
Beauty won the Oscar when it was made because people could
relate to that film. They could relate to the
disillusionment of reaching a certain age and realizing that
you never really did anything that inspired you. You sort of
just settled in to some convenient grind that ultimately
made you feel vacuous and empty."
Interests: "Love, immortality. Well, I think that that
makes me if anything human in that I admit that there's a
yearning for immortality. We all have it, I just think that
we've grown complacent and it's not really politically
correct to say so. But I think that death is ultimately a
horrendous tragedy, losing people that you love is tragic.
My whole thing is about challenging that. I refuse to be
complacent and to accept with docile humility the idea that
oh this is just how it is, or this is just nature. Mankind
by our own record have shown that we challenge nature all
the time. We weren't meant to fly but we made airplanes. We
create wireless technology, we engineer miracles of
engineering every single day. And so we don't say oh no we
can't, we say, yes we can. So why not challenge the ultimate
paradigm of all, death. I think it's sad, that's all, that
we're thrown into this world with such an infinite sense of
self awareness and purpose and yearning and longing and
ultimately we're food for worms. I have a little problem
with that, you know."
"Especially when you have all your beauty and your
youth when you don't know as much, and then when you have
all this wisdom, you're 80 years old and no one wants to
date you anymore: It takes you 60 yrs to become this
agonizingly unique preacher and then you're good for what,
for dying. I think that's a travesty, but who knows, I mean
stem cell research is showing a lot of promise. I think that
in the next couple of decades were going to learn to
engineer our own biochemistry. The science fiction of today
is the science of tomorrow."
Do you believe in reincarnation: "I'm not sure what I
believe in. I believe believing in anything that makes you
feel better is good, I just don't have that luxury. I have
to much of a critical mind that's looking for concrete
solutions but there's a poetry in the idea of reincarnation
and melting into the everything and becoming part of the
universe again but I'm sort of really attached to my
consciousness and I don't like the idea that it will one day
not be... you know."
Any other interests: "I love to read. I'm a big fan of
traveling. I think that you are spiritually renewed every
time you travel but I hate what has happened to commercial
aviation. I think that the fact that most airlines are
flying around 25-year-old refurbished planes is a crime when
you consider putting people's lives in these machines at 500
mi/hr. I think commercial aviation has become God awful at
least on a domestic level. I really follow politics and
global news a lot. I'm really close to my parents, both of
them.
Turn-ons: "A beautiful smile, confidence, aesthetic
sensibility. I like it when I'm overwhelmed by stimulation
and I don't mean overwhelmed in a bad way but I mean when
I'm moved by sight and sound, that turns me on. Like I love
either watching a film that touches me somewhere really
deeply and gets a physical reaction out of me whether it's
like welling up in tears or getting the goose bumps. I like
it when art has the ability to physically affect us because
then you know that there's some kind of symbiotic connection
that has been made there that is bigger than me and the
arts. I like that feeling. It connects me to something
divine and delicious."
Turn-offs: "Flakiness, insensitivity. Obviously
corruption, crime, violence, unkindness turns me off, racism
turns me off. You know what also turns me off, a political
system that subordinates the individual to some sort of
semblance of a collective good. I really don't like Marxism
and all these individual crushing philosophies. I don't
really like what Hugo Chavez has done in Venezuela, what
he's trying to institute there at all. I think we need
political systems that celebrate individual rights and
individual freedom."
Special Talents: "Improvisational wordplay. That's just
something that someone once used to describe me. That's the
idea that I can get really riled up in something that I'm
interested in and start talking about seemingly without
really rehearsal and I sort of end up coming out with these
rants that sound like they were prepared beforehand. I'm
really good in the moment."
Charities: "Causecast.org. Causecast is a one stop
philanthropy shop - basically they're a website that
aggregates all these different non-profits to come together
under one sort of place which is causecast and the idea is
they use social media to raise money for these non-profits.
You build a profile, you associate yourselves with the
non-profits you care about and you help raise money using
small donations so basically they're doing what Obama
successfully did for his campaign. Max and I are featured
leaders on their website so they basically use us as public
faces to promote the idea behind it."
Travels: "Europe, South America, Caribbean, North
America."
Spirituality: "Agnostic."
Fashion sense: "I like to be comfortable. I'm tall and
lean so usually finding clothes that fit me is a little
challenging because I like T-shirts that are form fitting
you could say and I like jackets that are slim fitting,
European cuts would be a lot better."
Staying healthy: "Rock climbing .I love to be healthy,
exercise and eat really well. I love to rock climb, it's a
sport that I've practiced for years."
What touches my soul: "Music, film and a beautiful
smile."
... on WOMEN
I first notice ... "that she smiles with her eyes. I
have a soft spot in my Achilles heel. Basically what I mean
is when the muscles around the eyes are involved in the
smile, eyes get sort of squinty. I really just love that. I
think that it's beautiful. And there's a name for it, it's
called a Duchenne smile vs. the alternative which is called
the Pan American smile named after the flight attendants
from Pan Am that sort of have this wide eyed smile."
Attention-getters: "By being kind, confidence and
extremely comfortable in her skin."
What would make someone stand out to you: "I really
love like if I catch them looking at me and they have a
really pretty smile, I'll probably go up to them and talk to
them right away. Then once I'm talking to them, I
really appreciate a girl who surprises you with her
whimsicalness. Somebody who just doesn't seem cynical and is
not really caught up in negativity but instead is like so
surprisingly fun all of a sudden and quickly. I like to be
pleasantly surprised, like where did you come from and how
did I find her?"
Ideal woman: "Penelope Cruz in the film Vanilla Sky. I
think she's beautiful in general but I think that her
character and the way that her character was explored in
that film both in his real life and then in his lucid
dreams. She became the idealization of everything that he's
ever wanted in love so she was influenced by all the films
he saw as a child about love and the ideas that he had built
over time based on the iconography of this youth of what
love is. She's a composite. Her character in that movie, the
poetry of that ideal like her being a composite of what love
can be and the idealization of that. That's why I like to
use her because I'm very much like that. I'm a romantic, a
hopeless idealist, and when I'm in love I think it is
required to idealize a romantic partner. You have to, you
have to convert them into something divine because that's
what makes love sort of a divine experience to begin
with."
But is that hard for a lot of women to live up to:
"Well yeah, no relationship can bear the burden of
Godhood, as they say but I think that ultimately that's why
it's very difficult to maintain a relationship for a long
time, unless you really find somebody who's special. I think
in the beginning you're going to assume that they're special
just because you really like them and then you're going to
find out whether they are or they aren't."
But then when you put that extra burden on them of being on
that really tall, tall pedestal: "Yes, I think that's a
mistake that I have made but I think that to lower
expectations is to renounce the power of what if. So I'd
rather always hope for somebody who really is going to ... I
don't know... they're childish and overly romantic notions
about love but I refuse to let them go."
What other qualities must a woman posses to be in your life:
"She's got to be really kind. I'd love it if she was
passionate and well read. I'd love for her to have
simultaneously this intellect and wisdom but also the
qualities of still being like a little girl in the sense
like ... she can have fun and force me to have fun. You know
that kind of girl. I like to call them a `pull your arm'.
The kind of girl who's always excited and she's always like
pulling your arm towards somewhere. And you're kind of just
smiling to yourself thinking wow, where did I find her.
Somebody who's incredibly positive and optimistic and
seemingly has it all put together. Also assuming that I'm
attracted to her, I like a girl who's really comfortable and
forward in her sexuality. I like the idea that she'll just
lunge herself at me because she had a moment where she was
just like, I just love how you did that and she jumps on me.
Something about that warm intensity, I like hot blooded
women."
I can't resist a woman who ..."isn't the least
intimidated by me, but rather gets me right away …"
Most important quality in a woman: "Kindness, passion,
intelligence and a beautiful smile."
Ideal date: "Lots of wine, intense conversation and
soul-stirring intimacy."
What makes me call a woman back after a first date:
"Feeling like there was a genuine exchange that altered
us both. Here's the thing, I respond very quickly to
stimulation so if the date is amazing, I want everything to
happen that night. And if it's not because of some
extenuating circumstance then I will definitely call her
again, if it was amazing. If the date was average, if it was
just ok, or just fun, then I might still call her again but
I'm only doing it because there's nothing better to
do."
And you don't like the anticipation of what's next: "I
do love it but that's where I get conflicts with my
patience. I do love the anticipation and I think that it's
healthy but what happens is if I'm in the moment and I'm
feeling it, in that moment I'm like oh I don't care, I don't
want to anticipate anything, I want everything now."
But that's why us women get mixed messages, a lot of
times men will say if you give everything out on the first
date, what else is there, they've seen it all, been there
done that: "No, no, no, you're right and I think that
if I was to ... I mean maybe I'm different from most guys
but yeah, I think it's important to maintain mystery and to
be challenging. I think it goes straight to man's ego that
men want to be challenged, maybe it's a primordial thing so
I can totally understand that but there's always the fantasy
that you're just going to have such an intense connection so
fast that there's going to be no walls."
"Everything obviously it's individual, if there's a
strong connection, if it's meant to happen and it happens
right away, you can still date them for three years and then
there's stories where the guys slept with someone on the
first night and doesn't want to see her again: And I've had
both of those instances. So I would say it's an individual
case by case basis every time. Here's what I wouldn't do, I
wouldn't make rules. Because if you made rules, you risk
following your rules when you're not supposed to and that's
the problem."
Right, but speaking for women. How do we know if we're the
girl who's going to be the one that it works out with:
"I would say that you know when you know, the same way
you know when you fall in love, to make a rule oh I have to
make anticipation, what if one night you meet the guy that's
just it, you don't want to make him anticipate anything. If
it's it, you want it to be it I would say case by case
basis. That's what instincts are for, follow your female
intuitions."
I'd never date a woman who ... "is busier thinking
about something else when she's with me. Oh, I've had that
experience in LA of girls on their blackberries the whole
dinner, that's miserable."
How I show I care: "By constantly videotaping her at
the beach, at the park, walking around the street ... once I
start creating iconography of her, I'm hooked. Oh yeah, I'm
like Mr. home video and I don't mean that in a sexual way, I
mean that in just like I'm the guy that we're hanging out at
the beach and most of the time people are taking a photo,
I'm the one that's like oh no, let's videotape this. I'll
put the camera on her and I'll be like so describe this
moment, how are you feeling right now and I just want to
catch the nuances and the subtleties of her reflecting on
this moment she's having with me. I just get such a pleasure
out of watching those later. It sort of reinforces what I
might have already been feeling in the moment, but sometimes
you're busy living the moment you're not reflecting on it,
and it's very important to reflect on a moment after you
lived it as well and that's what video's good for."
But then has the moment kind of changed: "No, people
say that, people say you're ruining the moment by making a
video of the moment and I disagree. I think you're enhancing
a moment, it's forcing you to be both actor and spectator in
your own narrative and I get a big rush from that. I'm the
actor and the spectator, I'm living the moment but I'm
anticipating watching myself living the moment later and
that feels kind of omnipotence in a way."
"For me that came from always being affected from
scenes in films like flashback scenes or scenes that showed
montages of like relationships with like a beautiful song
playing in the background. You knows those kind of edited
montages in films usually the character is thinking back or
remembering someone and they show like clips of it, I've
always been a sucker for that. I literally get chills every
time I see that in a film. So that's my way of doing that
for myself. I'm obsessed with having that sort of
melancholic narrative of my love."
What makes a woman unforgettable: "Her nuances
and demeanor on camera. The little videos of our time
together become the reinforcement for my cinematic love ...
so if she's the perfect, endearing and lovable creature on
camera ... I'm hooked."
I wish women understood ... "that we are just as hungry
for affection and love. Well, that's a totally self
reflective answer because there's a lot of men who are
Neanderthals but my thing is that I wish that women would
get that I am as sensitive and as hungry for affection and
intimacy as any woman. I'm not a caveman - it's not just
about sex for a lot of guys. We're meaning making creatures,
we want things to mean something."
But not all the time: "I think when we settle for
having something not mean anything it's usually because it's
like ok, well, I'm hungry and I'm too lazy to go out to buy
fresh food so I'm just going to eat the cold pizza because
I'm hungry. It's still good but it's not as good as hot
pizza."
Yes, and we're not talking about pizza, right:
"Right."
One thing a woman has never done for me yet, but I would
love it: "Embrace my love of immortalizing moments on
video. Girls I date very quickly realize that I'm a total
sentimentalist and I'm always romanticizing our time
together and think that's a beautiful thing. I don't work
well with cynical girls at all. They have to be romantic and
they have to be optimistic and they have to have a soft spot
to be moved."
... on RELATIONSHIPS
On relationships: "I love relationships. though I
realize they are cloaked in pain because it is very
difficult for them to last. No, I'm not a cynic. What I am
is extremely connected with the irony and the absurdity of
many things in life. I glorify mankind all the time, I think
we are cosmic creatures, we can contemplate the infinite
with our minds and here we have these finite, frail bodies.
I think that the absurdity is we're the species who created
Shakespeare, poetry, cinema, Beethoven and music. I mean
we're Godly and yet we're creaturely because we sort of
wither away, decay and die. So that awareness, while I'm an
incredible optimist, because I'm such a fan of all
this joy there is in life to live, what makes me upset is
that I also see that it seems ultimately futile. What I am
is just restless. Have you ever read Ernest Becker's book,
The Denial of Death. It's one of the most sophisticated
comprehensive books about the human condition ever written.
Basically it attributes all of mankind's anxieties, the
whole human experience, all that tension and restlessness of
modern man can be attributed to our awareness of death.
We're the only species that is aware that we're finite. So
that is a big problem for man, that affects everything he
does, conscious or subconscious. So don't get me wrong, I'm
a total optimist. I do think that we'll eventually ... we
can find a solution to any problem, I mean we put a man on
the moon, for Christ sakes, but there's a sadness wrapped to
every joy that I have. I don't think it makes me a cynic, if
anything it makes me more appreciative of every moment. If
anything, I'm foolproof protective from ever taking anything
for granted, because I take nothing for granted."
Is a relationship important to you: "Absolutely, I
think they're wonderful. I think when they work, they're
wonderful. But you don't find somebody who is both
relationship material and available and the timing is right
all the time. It hasn't happened that often. The stars
really have to align."
What I love most about being in a relationship: "The
voluntary illusion of complete safety, intimacy, happiness,
comfort, sensuality."
It's interesting how you think: "The thing is,
I believe it... love makes me feel immortal. There's a line
from Ernest Becker's book and it said that when you're in
love, you temporarily step off the moving walkway that's
moving everyone else towards death. When you're in love, you
step out of it. You're mingling with another person outside
of time. You discover what it would be like to be as God
mingling outside of time. That's what love promises, that's
what love feels like. But the both times that I was in love,
it ended for whatever reason, so it's kind of like Eh! I'm
not about to surrender or give up on it, don't get me wrong,
I'm out for love all the time but there's that whole thing.
It's kind of like choose you the best illusion under which
you can live."
Top relationship keys: "Tell each other everything -
build a narrative together, become very attached ... it
might hurt in the end, but it's better that way. I like
brutal honesty. If I am smitten with a girl at dinner,
I'm not subtle. I'm just like, `you're so beautiful, I'm
having trouble coming up with things to say to you.' I'm
brutally honest. But the thing is I've gone on dates where
I'm sort of attracted to the girl, but not really and in
that case I kind of feel inauthentic. I'm obsessed with
authenticity. I like genuineness, that feels really food
because that makes it easy to make a connection with
somebody."
A woman in a relationship with me can expect ... "to be
loved in the way they stopped believing was possible."
What kind of boyfriend are you: "Oh my God, the
sweetest, most attentive, romantic boyfriend ever. Oh yeah,
they're loved. Well, think about it, if you sum up my entire
philosophy of life and my awareness of the transience of
everything. It means that every little exquisite instance
with her is going to be squeezed and held onto and cherished
infinitely."
How do you show your romantic side: "I guess it's a
mixture of my philosophical outlook and my Latin sort of
warm blooded touchy, feely sweetness that I think I
definitely have. So it's very much like you take care of
each other, you're there for each other, a lot of cuddling,
a lot of holding, making the other person feel like you're
there and everything is ok, make them feel safe."
What I expect: "Honesty, transparency, passion,
commitment."
What makes me feel close to a woman: "Feeling like I'm
understood ... like she gets me. Feeling like when she
smiles at me, lots is conveyed."
Greatest relationship lesson: "Learn to never take
things for granted."
What makes a woman marriage material: "Well, I never
dated anybody who I didn't think I could have kids with.
That's why I've only really dated two girls, because I don't
think I can be with somebody unless I believe I can be with
them forever. If I'm dating somebody it's because I think
I'm in love with them. And usually it's because they have
the perfect sort of combination of qualities that sort of
fit together harmoniously."
Is marriage and family important to you: "Sure, but I
definitely have to be financially independent before I can
do that. I would never want to have kids and have to be
worried about finances. If this career leads to the level of
financial independence that I think it will, that I can be
sort of a free wheeling artist, not worrying about money
then yeah, I would love to be in love and raise kids and
travel the world with them, absolutely."
Does this recession make you look at things differently:
"It's a reminder that the foundations, that everything
can move around and nothing is certain, nothing is
completely safe, yeah it's frightening. I'm excited about
Obama, hopefully he can restore some confidence which will
then lead to some genuine improvement in what's going
on."
... on SEX
You mentioned earlier the Latin stereotype: "There's
two stereotypes, there's the romantic Latin lover but then
there's the Latin player that is macho and who treats women
like property. The romantic stereotype I'm happy to
embody."
It seems that South Americans are more open sexually:
"Well, here's what it is, to find like the right nuance
for that is interesting because like I'm very open but it
doesn't mean that I want to be with a slut either. I don't
like the girls to be too aggressive but what I mean is if
we're being intimate, I like the idea that we can both be
naked for extended periods of time. What I don't like is
you're with a girl and then she gets dressed or she's
covered up right afterwards, like the moment is over and
she's going to get dressed and cover everything up. I like
to wallow in the intimacy that has just happened so I really
appreciate like an uninhibited sort of, like we're not
hiding, we're not ashamed. It's good, it's cool, it's
comfortable, it's close, it's safe because there's so much
shame that's attached to nudity. While I do think that
intimacy is sacred but I also don't like the idea of hiding
it, I mean I like to wallow in it. When I care about
somebody, I like to just marinate in the nakedness. I do
find that people outside of America have a sexual nature and
development that is less about shame and more about
comfortableness."
What makes sex good: "If it's a combination of tender
and naughty and fully uninhibited "
I feel my sexiest when ... "a girl lunges at me
unexpectedly. When she suddenly tells me in the restaurant
that she wants to make love."
Most sensual part of a woman's body: "Face, eyes,
breasts, butt."
Sexiest thing a woman can wear in private:
"Nothing."
Surefire to seduce me: "Get up in my ear and whisper
all the naughty things she wants to do ... the combination
of feeling her breath in my ears while hearing her words is
insanely sexy."
.... on LIFE
Making my mark: "Using Current TV to democratize the
media and leave a dent in the universe ... by partnering up
with people who inspire me to help spread word of the ideas
that will change the world."
Responsibility to society: "To have a visceral impact
on people and make them see that our potential is
limitless."
Valuable life lesson: "Death is a tragedy. My
grandfather died from emphysema, I was close to him. He was
a wealthy guy and all the money in the world couldn't save
him, hard lesson."
I must ... "find lasting love, become fully expressed
in an artistic way, travel the world and document my most
inspired moments."
Best advice received: "Dare to live your dreams. Dare
to love again."
Best advice I've given a woman: "Learn to make the
moments count."
... on HIS FAVORITE THINGS
Movie: "Vanilla Sly."
TV Show: "Little Britain USA."
Book: "The Immortalist by Alan Harrington; The Denial
of Death by Ernest Becker; On Love by Alain de Bottom."
Music: "Anything used well in a film. I like Radiohead,
but I'm not really a band guy, I'm a song guy. So it's like
people's songs. Actually you know what band I like, Sigar
Ros, I like a lot. And I like Moby. Bob Marley, I
love."
Food: "Ethnic food - Latin/Brazilian, Thai, Ethiopian,
Spanish Tapass."
... final THOUGHTS
Always in my refrigerator: "Hot sauce. We eat out a lot
so it's very much a bachelor pad in that way."
Hottest possession: "All my videos … "
I'd change places for 24 hours with ... "George Clooney
or Barack Obama because I think both of them are at the top
of their game and they're both where they get to touch
people with the work they do as president or George Clooney
with films that can make people think and touch them or
inspire them in some way. But both of them are basically
like rock stars in what they do. It must be fascinating to
get to a point where you are so looked up to for your
accomplishments. That must feel good."
I'd most like to hang out with ... "Cameron Crowe. I
love his cinematic sensibilities."
Celeb I'd love to take on a date: "Virginie Ledoyen in
The Beach. I always thought she was beautiful. Penelope Cruz
in Vanilla Sky and Virgenie in The Beach, that pretty much
is my type."
Why I'm a great catch: "I'm incredibly passionate and
joyful and I don't take things for granted. I'm well aware
that the little things are the things that matter. She's
definitely going to be mentally stimulated, I hope, by being
around me. And I'm a big fan of love in the best sense of
it."
Me in five words: "Passionate and obsessed with
living."
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