Mark Consuelos on I Hate My Teenage Daughter: "I Play a Spanish Teacher — and I Don't Speak Spanish"

On February 27, 2012, FOX held a press call with Mark Consuelos ahead of his two-episode guest arc on I Hate My Teenage Daughter, airing March 6th and March 13th. Consuelos plays Alex, a Spanish teacher at the community college where Jaime Pressly and Katie Finneran's characters enroll. The catch: Consuelos doesn't speak Spanish. Italian is his first language. He talked about the irony of the casting, what it's like to misspell "burrito" on camera in front of a live audience, and why his dream role would be something between Breaking Bad, Mad Men, and The Walking Dead — shot in New York, a few days a week. Premier Guide Miami was among the outlets on the call.

I play a Spanish teacher and I don't speak Spanish. I speak Italian — that's my first language.

The burrito incident

The most memorable moment from the shoot was also the most embarrassing. Consuelos described it: "I'm teaching the class how to say burrito as I'm spelling it out — B U R R I T T O, or however you spell it — and I spelled it incorrectly and it was a take and people were just cracking up. I'm like, what's wrong? And they said, 'You spelled burrito wrong.' It was just hysterical. Very embarrassing." The casting itself had the same energy: "I really don't speak Spanish and to play a Spanish teacher kind of tickled me a little bit." He added context: "I speak Italian — that's my first language. We recently went to Spain and I thought, because they say Italian and Spanish are so similar, I could not communicate at all. The two languages aren't that easy to communicate. I made do, I made it back from Spain to the United States. So I guess I survived."

Why the multi-cam life suits him

Consuelos was candid about why the format appealed to him beyond the role itself: "I've always been limiting the shows I can do to kind of New York, because my family's there and it's hard to commit to a whole season on a one-hour that shoots in LA. This was just a couple-episode arc, which made it more appealing — I can go out there for a few weeks, do the show, and then I'm done." He also spoke to the rhythm of sitcom production: "You go in there for a few hours the first day, a couple of hours the second day, and then on show night it's a live audience. The hours are really civilized — not these 12-hour days. And you end up laughing all day, which is a great life." On the formula for good comedic TV: "It's got to be funny. Good and funny. The table reads, we were just hysterically laughing, and that's usually a good sign."

The dream role — and what makes him laugh

Asked about his ultimate dream role, Consuelos didn't hesitate: "Something like Breaking Bad mixed with Mad Men and The Walking Dead, shot in New York City, and I only had to work a few days a week. That's not too demanding, right?" On comedic icons, he cited the classics — Desi and Lucy, The Honeymooners, All in the Family — and Richard Pryor above all: "I was a huge Richard Pryor fan growing up. Getting ahold of those cassette tapes as a kid, the language was so bad and he was just so funny. When I got cable and was able to watch his live show on HBO — that would have to be Richard Pryor." The thing that makes him laugh hardest in real life: "When we're disciplining our kids and trying to be really stern and they start cracking up. My wife and I are trying to be serious and she looks at me and she's going to break, and I'm not going to break, because if I start breaking then the point is lost on them." I Hate My Teenage Daughter returned to FOX on Tuesday, March 6, 2012, at 8:30/7:30 p.m. Central. Consuelos appeared in the March 6th and March 13th episodes.

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