Danny Trejo has made a career out of using his steely gaze and gravelly voice to play lots of very tough characters and, at other times, lean into the cognitive dissonance that comes from realizing the man behind those characters is the sort of person who makes Animal Crossing islands and saves children from car accidents during his off-hours.
The latest example of that latter aspect of his public persona is brought to us by a new video that presents viewers with a question so simple it’s nearly rhetorical: “Would you like to see Danny Trejo play with his dogs?”
As the subject of Whistle’s latest installment of “Meet The Pets,” Trejo got the opportunity to show off his pack of rescue dogs. While he talks about all sorts of other topics during the interview—football, taco businesses, having to cry on film, Star Wars, Robert Rodriguez, Robert De Niro, and his car collection—it’s Trejo feeding, petting, playing around with, and, yes, talking baby talk to his many four-legged friends that’s the real highlight of the clip.
After stating that he doesn’t “like people that don’t like dogs,” Trejo explains that he grew up with them as pets and believes it’s our duty to rescue them.
“I think the good Lord wants us to start living up to all our responsibilities,” he says, sitting next to a sleeping dog. “One of them is taking care of these guys. They were wolves. We called them in. We domesticated them. We made them our responsibility.”
The dogs he’s responsible for are an eclectic bunch. There’s Liam, the “handsome guy” who’s recently relearned how to walk after injuring his hips. There’s John Wesley Hardin, who’s “named after the meanest cowboy in the West.” There’s also The Duke, Penny Lane, and a little fluffy dog named Sgt. Pepper.
These dogs, Trejo says, are spoiled with treats like carne asada that’s had all the spices washed off of it. And they are, he adds later, the loves of his life—next to his kids, and especially his daughter, he clarifies, laughing.
With all this mushiness recorded for posterity, we should note that Trejo does manage to make at least one statement that isn’t entirely friendly in this interview. “I’m just a dog person,” he says at the beginning of the video. “Cats ... cats remind me of movie stars, they think they’re so entitled.”
While dogs absolutely do not need to fear tough guy Trejo, cats, it seems, would do well to continue thinking he can be a mean dude.
[via Uproxx]
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