George Lopez Delves Into Childhood Strife in ‘Lopez vs Lopez’: ‘The More Truthful or Real the Scene Is, the More Comfortable I Am’

Note: The following story contains spoilers from “Lopez vs Lopez” Season 3, Episode 7.

While George Lopez and his daughter, Mayan, have already bared their souls by making their estrangement and reconnection the premise for “Lopez vs Lopez,” the NBC sitcom’s third season slowly uncovers the strife within George’s upbringing — a storyline that Lopez revealed was heavily inspired by his own life.

“I knew Tim Allen went home before ‘Home Improvement’ started, and he was still doing stand up and everything that was in this Showtime special became ‘Home improvement,'” Lopez told TheWrap. “I would watch these guys who had made the transition to TV, and I would say, ‘Wow, I don’t think I have that in my background … to actually propel a show.'”

It turns out he did, and he followed in Allen’s footsteps as “The George Lopez Show” aired on ABC from 2002-2007, a show that Lopez sees as representing his life “coming up.” Whereas “Lopez vs Lopez” is “more about [his] life going forward,” Lopez wasn’t shy about tapping into his difficult childhood to explore George’s leftover guilt and trauma.

“The more truthful or the real the scene is, or the real the situation is, the more comfortable I am,” Lopez said, pointing to “Lopez vs Lopez” re-creating the blouse he remembered his grandmother often wearing. “As you get older and you start to lose people, and you start to suffer loss, there’s some things you can’t do or go get back, and there’s some things you can change. I thought … forgiveness, but also regret, were good areas for comedy.”

In Season 3, Episode 7, “Lopez vs Lopez” tackles George’s conflicting feelings about Christmas, which he said was “over pretty quick” for him as a child, recalling the insults his grandmother would spew when she saw a Black or Latino Santa Claus.

“I remember I got this Cox plane, that I think you actually used gasoline in it … so after midnight, I’m putting gas into the carburetor and I’m spinning the propeller to try to get it started, but I guess I had flooded it, and it was sitting there for maybe like five minutes,” Lopez recalled. “I just touched a propeller, and it went off in the house, and it flew at my grandmother. It’s one of the funniest things that has ever happened, but also one of the more traumatic episodes of my life, just what they were yelling at me, the plane running into her.”

Below, Lopez unpacks the strides George makes in the Christmas episode, shares his gratitude for acting alongside Rita Moreno this season and shares his goal to hit 100 episodes for “Lopez vs Lopez.”

TheWrap: Where do we find George at the end of the Christmas episode?

George Lopez: We find a way more appreciative George than the year before, where I got excluded because I wasn’t around the family. When you’re estranged from your family, there’s nothing worse than the holidays, and I’ve been estranged for most of the people in my family for my whole life. When Thanksgiving comes, it’s just one day, and they’ll say, “are you going over to anybody’s house?” And I’m like, “no, on Thanksgiving I sit and I retrospect my year and what I want the year to come,” which is a great answer to being alone but that’s one day. And around the holidays, it really gets, like… because I’m not comfortable at other people’s houses, so it really gets to be a drag until the new year.

In this season, Rita Moreno returns as George’s grandmother. What was it like having her back?

I don’t remember having so many pictures of my grandmother, but she had this one blouse — she worked until she was in her 70s — and she would wear this blouse, and it was white, it had some pockets and they made an exact duplicate of it for Rita, so when she comes back from the afterlife, she comes back wearing that blouse.

I think Rita said in another magazine that I’ve changed since 2007, like, I got more, I think, generous, she said, and maybe not as aggressive, maybe personality-wise, as then. She means so much to our culture, but also a lot to me, so to be able to do scenes that are funny yet they’re more dramatic with her is maybe, aside from Mayan, the best gift that I think I’ve ever had — to do something with her and still have her be sharp at 93 and play all the moments and really step on it. When Rita says something twice … I know that she’s going to that place, and I go with her.

Last season, we saw George’s feelings for Rosie grow. Where is George at with his feelings for Rosie this season?

I think there’s a future for them if we go more seasons, but there’s also some dramatic twists with Rosie and I in the last episode of the season. Quinten and Mayan get their reveal, and then I surprised, really, everyone on the show with my own reveal.

What can you tease for the rest of the season?

There’s really good stuff with Brice Gonzalez, the kid who plays Chance, who’s a bit of a great narrator to the stories [and] to the rifts between myself and Mayan and Quinten. I don’t even believe he’s 10 years old yet, and I think, when all of us are acting with him, I don’t think we see anybody who’s nine or nine and a half … you see a full-blown actor. Sometimes, when somebody’s really young, you have to make adjustments. But with that kid, you do not. He’s very special.

Ideally, how long would you want the show to go on?

I would love to go 100 [episodes] with my first show on 100 [episodes] with this show … 22 years apart. That would make me very happy … it would be great.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

New episodes of “Lopez Vs Lopez” Season 3 premiere Fridays at 8:30 p.m. ET on NBC.

The post George Lopez Delves Into Childhood Strife in ‘Lopez vs Lopez’: ‘The More Truthful or Real the Scene Is, the More Comfortable I Am’ appeared first on TheWrap.