Danny Trejo's son explains his father's pro-ICE film controversy: 'People don't turn down work'

Gilbert Trejo is speaking out about the "Pawn Shop" backlash after his father's rep told IndieWire that the actor didn't know Ben Shapiro or The Daily Wire were involved when he accepted the role.

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Danny Trejo was excited to play the good guy.

His son, filmmaker Gilbert Trejo, recalled when the 82-year-old actor played "Shop Pawn" a few weeks before filming began. The film follows a Mexican American shopkeeper who tries to keep the peace amid protests and escalating violence. After some time spent playing with criminals and criminals, this opportunity was appealing.

Gilbert recalls his father saying, "Oh, great. I'm playing a good guy."

The people behind the independent project were more controversial. Produced by The Daily Wire's Ben Shapiro and Bonfire Legend, this pro-ICE action film has sparked protests and questions about why a popular executive known for his support for immigrants is participating. RELATED STORIES 'La Gradiva' director Marin Atlan is the leading new voice behind the most sweeping teen drama since the Fall Festival 'Kids' sold-out films: Orizzonti's Venice Prize winner A Day in the Life of Jo: Phaedra Season in Special 1-2

Denny's agent, Gloria Hinojosa, told IndieWire that Trejo personally did not know that Shapiro or The Daily Wire were involved when he accepted the role. Gilbert said his father thought he was playing a sympathetic character, and also explained his fears that walking away from or criticizing the project could expose his father to a lawsuit the actor could not afford.

Asked if Danny felt empowered to turn down the job, Gilbert pointed to his prolific results. With an extensive filmography including Heat, Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn, Spy Kids and Machete, Trejo has amassed nearly 500 credits in film, television, video games and music.

"I think his IMDb confirms the fact that no, he said no," Gilbert said. "He's like most of us in this country. People don't turn down work."

Gilbert said he sees his father almost every day, but he was not involved in the negotiations with the pawn shop. He has not checked his father's contract for this film either. Still, Trejo's predicament echoes a question raised in a previous IndieWire report: What did the people hired to make the film know before they started, and what choices did they have once they did?

Hinojosa confirmed to IndieWire in an Oct. 13 email, “Danny hadn't heard about Ben Shapiro or Daily Wire's involvement until a few weeks ago. "He was not familiar with any of them and had never heard of them before." A representative for Trejo also directed IndieWire to his client's recent statement on social media.

"I am a proud Mexican who has always supported and will continue to support my community," Danny wrote. I am obviously in favor of immigrants. "I'm not a fan of ice."

"I know where I come from and I know," continued Materjo, "I'm an actor. My job is to tell stories." Neither The Daily Wire nor Bonfire Legend responded to IndieWire's request for comment on the actor's involvement, and Hinojosa's email response did not respond to claims that his client could not publicly review the film. "Pawn Shop" follows a federal immigration agent who takes refuge in a Minneapolis pawn shop amid civil unrest. Trejo plays Malik, a Mexican American military veteran.

Harvey Keitel, Henry Thomas and others also star in this film. The footage, which was filmed in Livingston, Montana, sparked protests and public safety complaints earlier this month. City officials temporarily suspended the production's filming permit before reinstating it with additional restrictions, and the Daily Wire reported on October 9 that filming had wrapped.

The draft script, previously confirmed by a crew member and reviewed by IndieWire, includes a sequence similar to the fatal shooting of Renee Goode by an ICE officer in Minneapolis earlier this year. In those pages, a protester hits an ICE officer with his car before being shot by his accomplice, and the officer subsequently dies. No agents died in the actual incident, and whether or not Goode's car ever posed a threat to his killer, Jonathan Ross, is widely debated.

When pressed on the content of the "Pawn Shop" script as he understood it, Gilbert said, "Nobody approached my dad and said, 'Hey, we're going to do a pro-ICE ad.'

Of course, knowing the producers and not understanding the film are different things. And neither Hinojosa nor Gilbert would specify to IndieWire what was in the script Danny received or when he learned more about its overall picture from ICE. "Pawn Shop" was also not his first job at Daily Wire.

Trejo previously voiced a character in the Daily Wire+ Adam Carolla animated comedy Mr. Birchum,” whose December 2023 announcement listed Bonfire Legend's Dallas Sonnier as producer and Shapiro as executive producer. Gilbert described the mission as a casual acquaintance asking his father to voice a cartoon, without Danny meaningfully appreciating the companies involved.

Gilbert doubted he would recognize his father Shapiro as he walked onto the set. He also believes that Hinojosa, Denny's agent for decades, informed him of the political implications of the partnership amid the "Pawn Shop" controversy. He said that his reaction showed that the team did not fully understand them.

"It's really hard to believe when you know everything that's going on on the Internet that other people don't," said Gilbert, describing his father's focus on living closer to home. For Denny, Hollywood is part of the local economy: a place to earn money through tasks that often follow a familiar daily routine and fixed annual cycle.

"He looks at Hollywood like it's a factory. It's a factory that makes movies," Gilbert said. My dad thinks of Hollywood like Detroit.

Trejo's challenge has been getting more roles for most of his career, and now there are fewer for everyone. A formerly incarcerated Mexican American actor, Denny built his legacy on parts that often made men of his background a threat. "And he's one of the few Mexican men, especially in his generation, who's been able to turn being a convict, a gangster, prisoner number three, prisoner number four into goodwill and goodwill," Gilbert said.

Acting gave Danny a wider audience for the community work he had been doing for years, his son said. In prisons, schools, and recovery sessions, people get to know Trejo first and then listen to the man's own story. On the day of our interview, Danny recorded and distributed socks to the homeless, Gilbert said. He keeps them in his car just for that purpose.

"He feels that this profession was given to him so that he can help people, so he wants to continue to work," Gilbert said. He just wants to work. This is what he wants to do."

Trejo's financial problems are public record. After he filed for Chapter 11 personal bankruptcy in February 2023, a judge approved a five-year plan to repay nearly $3 million in tax debt, including through the sale of one of his two Los Angeles homes, Bloomberg Law reported. His restaurant businesses were outside of bankruptcy, but Trejo said in a court statement that roughly 90 percent of his income for the tax years in question came from acting. The Hollywood strike further cut off this cash flow.

The temporary closure of the case in April 2025 does not determine his outstanding debt or available funds today. IndieWire spoke with his bankruptcy attorney, Jeffrey S. Shinbrot called for clarification. However, Gilbert fears that his father will not be able to handle the legal battle. "It's like, yeah, if I'm Tom Cruise, sure, whatever," he said. Do you know what I mean? But not if I'm an 82-year-old, hard-working Mexican-American man.

IndieWire has not reviewed Trejo's contract and cannot determine what consequences he may face for walking away from "Pun Shop." SAG-AFTRA previously told IndieWire that productions are expected to provide performers with enough information to make informed decisions.

"Deceiving an executive about a role may undermine the meeting of minds needed to form a binding contract," a spokesman said. (The union did not respond to additional questions about Trejo's terms or the current production signee's status before publication.)

An unnamed "Pawn Shop" crew member interviewed for our earlier investigation said they accepted what was described only as a "fun action movie" without knowing its connection to The Daily Wire or Shapiro. Kargar eventually left the shooting due to political and safety concerns.

After the allegations against Trejo became public, Karger again doubted that the main actors could have been so ignorant. They emphasized that in the version of the script they saw, Trejo's character "ends up helping the ICE agent," but they also had no knowledge of the actor's negotiations and were not present for most of the filming.

They said, "I don't want to discredit what he says, and I like to believe it's the truth."

Speaking had its own complications for Gilbert, who wanted to explain his father's situation without making it more difficult for him to navigate. His early explanations were intended for a smaller audience. On October 10, she posted a Close Friends Instagram story in which she described her father as "handcuffed to this stupid project." It was leaked to the press, and Gilbert said he would have phrased it differently if he had expected his comments to be widely shared.

"I hate the idea that anything I said could be used against him in any way," he said. "I'm not saying that anger is the problem. I'm saying the problem is that there are so many things to be angry about. Saying, 'I'm angry, I'm angry here,' and stopping and going, 'Wait, who's good is my anger?'

Explaining this consequence to his father has also meant explaining the anger of the Internet. To illustrate the disconnect, Gilbert recalled asking Danny not to post photos of him because social media commenters mocked him for not looking tough enough to be Trejo's son. To his father's response, Gilbert said, "Can they tell you things when you put something on it?"

"Thankfully, people believe in him, and he's telling his story, and they know he's been through what he's been through." "Unfortunately, they expect him to think with their brains," he continued.

Gilbert said it was ironic to realize that his father played rapists, drug dealers and cartel members without the audience mistaking their beliefs for his own. But that was changing to the so-called "good guy" that Danny had to explain himself.

"He's playing what he always thought was checkers, and now it's chess," Gilbert said.

A likable character, even a hero, can still be a political argument. But the younger Trejo's account at least offers an explanation for why his father took the job with Shapiro's Daily Wire. And whatever Danny found out when he accepted Pawn Shop, the filmmakers are using his face to tell their story.