In An American Story: Everyone’s Invited (Sept. 17, Harper Select), Wilmer Valderrama traces his roots from humble beginnings as a Venezuelan immigrant who spoke no English when his parents enrolled him in Mulholland Middle School in Van Nuys, California; to overnight superstardom as the lovable horndog Fez on That ’70s Show; to, at 44, an established Hollywood multi-hyphenate. For Valderrama, who since 2016 has played Special Agent Nick Torres on CBS’ flagship procedural NCIS, the book is a love letter to the vast possibilities of the American dream.
What it isn’t, however, is a juicy tell-all. Past relationships with stars like Demi Lovato (whose song “29” is rumored to reference their 12-year age gap) and Mandy Moore (whom Valderrama said he’d deflowered in an infamous 2006 interview with Howard Stern) are not touched upon. Nor is the fate of his That ’70s Show co-star and confidante Danny Masterson, sentenced to 30 years to life last September after being found guilty of two counts of rape. For the past four years, Valderrama has adjusted to life as a family man. He married model Amanda Pacheco in January 2020 and became a father the following year.
Valderrama took a break from his busy NCIS shooting schedule to field questions from The Hollywood Reporter about the upcoming presidential election, in which immigration is a key issue; his thoughts on Masterson’s conviction; and his lifelong dream of bringing Zorro back to the screen.
Let’s start with your work with immigrants and all the charitable things you’ve done for people that come to this country, fleeing dangerous places or simply to find a better life. And too often they arrive and are pushed down by those already higher up on the ladder. You went through that yourself. We are about to elect another president. We’ve seen examples of what both candidates will do in the White House when it comes to those issues. I’m wondering where you stand on the current election?
VALDERRAMA I appreciate the question. A lot of what this memoir was really about was to humanize the immigrant experience. I think that every time there is some kind of election, there is a paraphrasing of our culture. And I thought it was really important to just say, “Hey — this is what immigrants really look like.” Immigrants are police. Our attorneys, our nurses, our doctors, our essential workers. They have such an essential and vital contribution to this country. It’s important that as we go into these conversations, and as they become hot topics in the news, that we don’t forget the humanity. We call ourselves “the 200 percent” — because we’re 100 percent American and 100 percent Latino, too. The potential of this moment is to really come together.
You don’t mention your politics in the book. You do mention meeting Barack Obama and that being very exciting and also being disturbed by things that happened in 2016, but you never mention Donald Trump by name. I know that you’re on a popular show, NCIS, that’s watched by the entire country, blue and red, and maybe you don’t want to alienate your viewership. Because of course when it comes to Trump, you could say a lot of negative things about the way he talks about immigrants.
VALDERRAMA I mean, look, obviously, as you and I know, his words can really speak for themselves. When I joined Voto Latino 20 years ago, the goal was to wake up the interest of our Latino community. My biggest first priority was to [get Latinos to] sign up to the census and make sure that we’re counted and know how many we are here. Imagine now if everyone who was eligible to vote went out and voted. When politics become debates, we lose the humanity in the conversation. The most important part was to fire up my community to go out there and vote for their interest and what they feel their future should look like. And I’m not here to really tell anybody who to vote for. I think you and I know who I’m going to vote for, but the most important thing to me is to tell our culture that this is their election, too.
There’s a scene in the book in which you experience a very narrowly averted charter plane crash on your way back from the Super Bowl. You’re with Colin Hanks and Ashton Kutcher and Danny Masterson and the plane is shaking and filling with carbon monoxide. Masterson says he can’t feel his limbs. You and Kutcher share a single oxygen mask. What could you tell us about that flight and how it changed your life?
VALDERRAMA The first thing I thought about was my sisters, my mom and my dad. If I ever leave this Earth, do they have everything they need? You think about, what do you really fear in life? Death may be one, but leaving your loved ones without everything they need was the most petrifying experience. So I went on to just work my ass off. I went off to be an entrepreneur and to start many businesses and to really stay working. It’s a great testament to what this country can provide for you.
Looking at what’s happening now in Venezuela, opposition leader Edmundo Gonzales just fled to Spain to seek asylum. It’s very disheartening, and a dark reminder of what’s at stake in the next U.S. election.
VALDERRAMA I feel like every election Venezuela has, there is this one moment of fresh air where it just seems like for a second it might open up again. And it is really heartbreaking. I still have family there. People are making a couple of dollars a month. It’s horrible. They’re the largest producer of oil in the world. Venezuela should have been a Dubai. It really is heartbreaking to see a country be prisoned without its freedoms.
As one of the most visible and successful Venezuelan expats, do Venezuelans reach out to you in to help? Are they saying, “Please Wilmer — come back and save us?”
VALDERRAMA I think we, as [Venezuelan] individuals who are abroad with a platform, I think our biggest job is to amplify the reality. God, I wish I could be there. I wish I could be in the streets with the people that I grew up with. And the biggest issue here is that there’s no entry point for any of us. So much is being blocked away. I try so hard to really make sure that the world doesn’t forget what’s really happening out there. I get the messages from my fellow Venezuelan saying, “Please tell the world.” So that’s what we try to do.
I want to ask about your That ’70s Show co-star Danny Masterson, who was found guilty of rape. Ashton and Mila Kunis, also your castmates on that show, both caught backlash for writing letters of character for Danny that came out in the trial. What your feelings are about that?
VALDERRAMA Well, look — I totally understand why you have to ask the question. I definitely get it. But, respectfully, I like to use this time to really talk about the book that I’m really excited about. And that I worked so hard on for people to read. I mean, really the book is about my family and my immigrant story, and my parents sacrifice.
Did Scientology ever court you?
VALDERRAMA Again, my focus is to talk about my parents and my sacrifice. I don’t have anything to add to that.
In terms of your personal life, you had a lot of high-visibility relationships with other stars, and I noticed you didn’t talk about them in the book. Is there a reason you didn’t?
VALDERRAMA I didn’t set out to actually make a memoir. My book was supposed to be a book about service. I traveled with the USO for so many years since in my mid-20s. It really is just a thank you to America for giving me a future that probably I could have never gotten in my own country.
I saw headlines with season 22 of NCIS coming up, that you teased something that made fans worried. So what did you tease exactly, and what are they worried about?
VALDERRAMA I think they always worry. The fans are so passionate about NCIS. I would say this: That in season 22, the contribution these writers have done to the show is just invaluable. We’re playing a lot more with personal journeys for our characters. This season will be a little bit more humorous, definitely a lot more emotionally driven for our lead characters, and perhaps — perhaps — they’re going to be in major danger.
So you’re not going anywhere.
VALDERRAMA Yeah, no. I’m OK. I’m in the season.
Finally, there’s a passage in the book where you discuss a business lunch with Disney Entertainment co-chairman Dana Walden, where you convince her to have Disney re-acquire the rights to Zorro as a starring vehicle for you.
VALDERRAMA In the early ’60s, there was a rights dispute between ABC and Walt Disney [which were separate companies at the time]. The rights ended up going back to the original owners of the Zorro books. When I had a conversation with Disney, they were incredibly empowering. And after 60 years, we were successfully able to bring the rights back to Walt Disney and start developing a new legacy for the characters. And now it’s spinning in development.
I do love Zorro, I must say.
VALDERRAMA Me too. Zorro was the direct inspiration for Bob Kane to create Batman. Bruce Wayne was leaving the movie theater with his parents when they were murdered — and the movie they had just seen was The Mask of Zorro.
We need the gritty, Christopher Nolan version of Zorro.
VALDERRAMA That would be so cool. But [TV’s Zorro] Guy Williams had this effortless lightness, so we’re going to try to make sure that that humor is still there, too.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
