Nando Parrado: The Miracle of the Andes
46:58 Share

Art in your home can instantly transform your space and bring you joy. Saatchi Art makes it easy for you to discover and buy one-of-a-kind art that you'll love. Whether you're looking to complement your home decor, fill a blank space on your walls, or start an art collection, you can find the perfect piece for your specific style and budget at Saatchi Art. Go to SaatchiArt.com today to bring the beauty of art into your home. Plus, listeners get 15% off their first order of original art with code ROB.

That's 15% off at SaatchiArt.com. S-A-A-T-C-H-I-Art.com. Ever wish your favorite TV show had twice as many episodes? Everyone knows that feeling, and so does Discover. Everyone wants more of their favorites. That's why Discover doubles another favorite thing, cash back.

That's right. Discover automatically doubles the cash back earned on your credit card at the end of your first year with Cash Back Match. Now that's a real crowd pleaser. Everyone knows how it ends. Double the cash back. See terms at discover.com slash credit card.

I'm just a small Uruguayan in Montevideo, you know, speaking one of the top celebrities in the U.S., the biggest country in the world, and it's so nice. It's wonderful for you to come on. Hey, everybody. Welcome to Literally. It's me, Rob Lowe. Today, we have Nando Parado on the show. Nando Parado is one of the Uruguayan rugby team members.

who crashed in the Andes in 1972 and for 72 days survived. Eventually, they all had to eat and used their fallen comrades as food. He then, with one other man, hiked out of the Andes Mountains and eventually found help.

It's a very famous story. It's been documented in many books. Currently, the movie Society of the Snow is out and is nominated for an Oscar and is one of the best movies I've ever seen. And this man's story, it defies words. This is a doozy. Pull up a seat. Fernando Parado.

Well, thank you for coming on the show. I mean, the journey that has brought us here together today is beyond imagining, wouldn't you say? Yeah, I think the journey that has brought me to be here, I shouldn't be sitting down in this chair. I shouldn't be speaking to you. I shouldn't be alive. I shouldn't have a...

second part of my only life, but I'm here. So let's make the best of it and enjoy the time that we have together because time is for me the most important thing. Time doesn't come back. That's the biggest thing.

richness that you can have time. At the darkest moments on the mountain, my sense is, and I watched the movie last night, and I've read some of your quotes over the years, there were many times where you thought you were dead. And once you die like that, you accept death, you have accepted its inevitability, and that it's upon you. When you get life then,

How does it change your view of life? - You know, I died many times there. I died on a plane crash. I died of injuries. I died of suffocation. I died of being too exhausted. I died of having any chance of crossing those mountains. And I don't know why I did it. I'm here. And I came back to a different world

I thought that the world would be different when I came back. And you know, when you die, what happens? When you die, I came back, I resurrected. You know, I came back almost three months after being dead. My photograph was on the mantelpiece with my mother, my sister, they were also dead. And I came back, and you know what happens when you die in the world? Nothing happens. Absolutely nothing. The world keeps on going. Cars are on the street, people in the supermarkets, and I was dead.

you know, how can girls live without me? How can people go to the beach? How can, I mean, I'm dead. And that's a, it woke me up. It told me that I was not the center of the world and I would never be, you know? So I came back from the dead and the world kept on going. So when I see people that are full of, uh,

of themselves. I've met a lot of celebrities, you know, sports stars, politicians, you know, royal families, whatever. And I look at them and say, should they know that they die and nothing happens? Absolutely nothing happens. So I was very lucky, very lucky that my father was a man with a great common sense. And he said, Nando, the day I arrived back home,

After my family had died, I resurrected and he said, Nando, we cannot modify the past. There's no way. We cannot do that. But let's not lose the second part of our only life. Let's remember. Let's remember. Let's remember with love, with tenderness. But let's not suffer all our lives because of what happened. Bad things happen in life. Many people, there are wars, illnesses, tragedies, accidents, etc.

Why should we be different? We were stuck with this story, he said, but let's not lose what's left. How does one not let a tragedy define them? There are people, and we all have seen them, read about them, maybe we have some in our lives, where they never can get truly beyond whatever that tragedy

tragedy is. They're a victim of this, they're a victim of that, or somebody did something bad to them, or they had... Whatever it is, they let that define them. And what do you think the hallmark is of somebody who moves on? I don't know if we are different from...

North Americans, Europeans, Germans, I don't know, Danish, Canadians, or we are South Americans. We have maybe a different education, maybe a different family, a tight bond, very, very, very tight bond.

In the US, in Canada, in many places in the world, when the kids finish high school, they go to college and they only see their families once a year or twice a year. We kept living. This is a small country. We live in our homes. I've been living in my home for 45 years. My father lived two blocks away. We kept a very tight bond. And maybe we accept that life changes.

has a tragedy. When you come back from a very strange and difficult survival experience, could be the war, could be an accident, could be illness, your life will be divided in two, before and after that tragedy. And there is a very dark place in between and it's in your power to get out of there. Maybe the help that you

I've got from my family for so many years helped me to cross that black bridge more than if you lived a lot of years alone. We are very family-tight bonds here. And thanks to my father, thanks to

my friends, I was able to go ahead. I didn't mourn. I can be very sincere to you. Maybe I'm very pragmatic like my father. I never had a nightmare. I never had a bad dream about the Andes, even from the first night. And I don't dwell on that. I don't want to know why. Why? I mean...

I'm so happy that I am alive. I've spoken to soldiers that came back from the war and maybe in their platoon, five, six or eight men died during the war and they came back alive, maybe without a finger or without a hand, but they are alive. And I say, you should rejoice that you're alive. Don't lose the second part of your life thinking, why did I survive and my friends didn't? I mean, there's no answer to that.

There are questions that will never have an answer. And you keep looking for answers and you get inside a very strange place and you need a shrink. Yes. When you think of...

your friends that you lost those many years ago on the mountain? A, how often do you think of them? And what are your thoughts? We were very tight friends. I knew most of them since first grade in my school. We went through the same school, high school together. The best sport men started to play rugby. We played rugby in high school, then on the national team.

league and we went out on the weekends with the girls and to the parties and we were living our lives. You know, we were 19, 20. What do you do when you're 19, 20? Yeah, you're good looking, you know, Uruguayans. You're out there doing your thing. Yeah, we were not university professors. So we were living our lives. One of my friends

Her parents were divorced under very strange circumstances. So he lived in my home like three or four days a week. He was like my brother. He did that for two years. He died besides me on the plane. He was sitting besides me on the next seat. And I remember them with candor, with friendship. And I know and I understand that at some point we were all on the same boat.

You know, when the plane crashed, which is a miracle that of the 45 people, 29 survived.

Of those 29, 24 without a single scratch, which is a miracle. There's no way. You can fall from a motorcycle, crash in a car. 29 guys survived. The only plane crash in history where there are survivors when a plane crashes at cruising speed and cruising altitude. You know, the physical forces that are on chain there are non-survivable. And the guys who survived

the impacts, we were already bonded before the crash. So we knew that we were in a very difficult situation, impossible situation. We were dead men walking. And because we knew each other so much, this is a story that cleverness, you know, or courage wouldn't have saved us. And I have to tell you, love and trust saved us.

Love to each other, trust into each other beyond what you can do on a normal life. You trusted your friends with your life over there. And that saved us. We trusted each other. So when I look back and I see that eight, nine of the ones who survived the plane crash are not here with me, I could have been one of them. Nobody chose me.

You know, when we made a pact and we embraced ourselves over there, we were on the same boat. Nobody knew who would survive. So I remember them with candor, with friendship, with love. And I also know I could have been one of them. And because I wasn't one of them, I have a family now. I created life. I have daughters. I have grandchildren. They wouldn't be alive if I hadn't done what I did.

So it's life. It's sad. It's like when you go to the war, why do some guys die and why do some ones live? It's God will, it's destiny, it's life and death. Nobody knows. And you believe in the end it is unknowable. It's unknowable. It's unknowable. Nobody can know.

who would live and who would die on these circumstances. I have a couple of practical questions having watched the movie. Why did the plane crash? Was it weather? Was it a malfunction? That was very unclear to me and I'm curious. Do you even know? Yeah, so many studies have been done here by the Uruguayan Air Force and engineers and

flight experts, this was a combination. Like every plane accident is a combination of factors. The plane is a plane designed, created, built to fly on flatlands. On the Netherlands, on Africa, it's a twin turboprop engine plane, not very powerful. Full of people, full of passengers, full of cargo, equipment, everything over there. Flying over the most

incredible and highest mountains in South America in bad weather with an inexperienced crew. So if you add all those things, I mean, what's the result? The result is that the inexperienced crew flying on bad weather on an underpowered plane crashed because it was a pilot mistake. They thought they were

Over Chile, they didn't take into account the headwind and everything. And they descended in the middle of the mountains when they thought there would be like 150 miles further west. Pilot mistake. And you add a lot of things behind that. It's an incredible story. I remember reading the, what is it? Paul's Pure Reads book. Yeah. Alive. Alive. I read it.

the year it came out. So I've been familiar with it for a long time. The notion that you were unconscious in the impact and that being in the cold saved you from your brain injury, isn't that what we think today? Yeah, I was probably, of the survivors, after the initial plane crash, one of the, I had the biggest injuries.

My head was broken in four places, was the size of a basketball, and I didn't have any physical motions. I was covered with blood. They thought I was dead, so they pulled me into the pile of the dead bodies over there, no? And the cold, my injuries were non-survivable, non-survivable. All the experts, they scanned my head afterwards, and they said, it's a miracle.

But nature did what science does now. When you have a very big head trauma, they freeze your head so that the brain doesn't explode. But they don't freeze your body because you die. They put the lowest temperature you can on your brain, on your head, and they do not hydrate you. They don't give you any water, nothing.

My head was on the snow. They didn't touch me for three days. They thought I was dead. The snow did what the biggest and the most creative neurosurgeon could do now. And then after three days, I started to move. And they said, "Hey, Yando, it's alive." And they pulled me from the pile and they sat me inside the fuselage. And I came back from a very dark place. I was dead.

Rob, I was dead. I know what death is. I know. I've been there. It's black. Blacker than black. It's very black. And I could think and say, I am dead. This is dead. Finally. Black. So black. And...

Then about two days later, I said, "I'm dead. I'm dead. This is death." But I cannot be dead because I'm thirsty. If I'm thirsty, I needed water. I didn't know what had happened. I couldn't see. I couldn't open my eyes. I didn't know where I was. It was very black, but I was thirsty. So I said, "If I'm thirsty, I need water."

I'm alive, but where am I? I was in a coma. I was such deep, so profound that I didn't know what happened. Then two days later, I started to open my eyes and I realized something terrible had happened.

All set for your flight? Yep. I've got everything I need. Eye mask, neck pillow, T-Mobile, headphones. Wait, T-Mobile? You bet. Free in-flight Wi-Fi. 15% off all Hilton brands. I never go anywhere without T-Mobile. Same goes for my water bottle, chewing gum, nail clippers. Okay, I'm going to leave you to it. Find out how you can experience travel better at T-Mobile.com slash travel. ♪

Qualifying plan required. Wi-Fi were available on select U.S. airlines. Deposit and Hilton honors membership required for 15% discount terms and conditions apply. Do you remember the first time you had enough awareness to realize what had happened and where you were? What was that moment like?

The first things I saw and I listened to and I heard were voices from my friends, very close to me, very gentle faces. And I remember very gentle eyes, very close to me, saying, "Nando, can you hear me? Nando, Nando, are you okay?" The plane crashed. We crashed. So I opened my eyes to that environment, you know.

I couldn't really understand, but I saw these faces very close to me. And maybe two hours later or three hours later, I saw these cables dangling from the roof. And I said, I was not alone here. Mama, where is my mother and Susie and Panchito? I mean, they were my closest human beings in my life with my father. And what happens? The youngest guy was 17 there. Right.

The average age was 19, 20. When you're that young, death is so far away. But these guys had an intensive course. They had buried their friends. They had taken out a fuselage, destroyed bodies, you know, something they never thought they would have done. And they said, Nando, your mother is dead. Straight to me. Panchito, your best friend, your brother is dead. And Susie's

She's very badly injured. She's laying on the floor there behind the cockpit. So the first physical move that I did was crawling to my sister. She was 18 years old. She was 18. I remember she had a very light dress with flowers and her feet, she didn't have any shoes on. Her feet were purple, you know, like violet, purple.

And I embraced her. She couldn't move. She couldn't speak. She could only look at me with her eyes. She could only move her eyes. Probably her injuries were so big inside the body. I was not a doctor. I didn't know what had happened, but she had internal injuries. She didn't have blood. And I stayed with her. I put some snow in her mouth a few times so that she could drink water.

and I stayed with her. And that night, I was embraced by her and I felt at one moment that she left. You know, like something left her, that she died in my arms. And you can say, Nando, how can you be so without feelings? I'm not without feelings. I have the same feelings you have. But the circumstances create different environments.

It was different if she died in my arms in a car accident in the corner of my neighborhood. She died there and I couldn't cry. And I said, "Nando, what's wrong with you?" I didn't understand myself. "What's wrong with you?" But decades later, I understood that the brain protects you and doesn't allow you to think and go into emotional things about sorrow.

you know, about pain and only focuses on survival. And I say, if I lose, imagine, how could I be so stupid, so cold? And I say, I thought, Nando, if you cry, you will lose water, you will lose salt, and you would need this to survive here.

So those are the circumstances that I don't talk about. Your story is just unbelievable. I was struck with when the different expeditions to the tail of the plane. I'm a skier. I've been in the backcountry.

I've hiked in mountains and been in drifts up to my thighs and stupid little ski resorts. And I know how uncomfortable, how, I mean, being at altitude, I can't even imagine. You guys are in loafers. And what you had when you got on the plane in 70 degree weather, and now it got as cold as minus 31 at night. What was the walk like? I can't even imagine it.

You know, I've been once to a meeting in Aspen with five of the best climbers in the US. They invited me for a meeting there with my wife. They had done, these five guys had done all the 14 8,000 meter peaks in the world. The 24,000, they had been there and they couldn't understand. They asked me so many questions, so many questions. They couldn't understand.

After we spoke for about four hours, because they were fascinated, and I was fascinated of speaking with them, they stood up and they said, let's make a toast for the best climber in the world, the one who has achieved what we dream of achieving. You crossed the Andes Mountain, probably one of the biggest mountain traverses in history, without any equipment.

without knowledge. And you know why you did it? Because of your ignorance, they said. Had you known what you were going to face, you wouldn't have started because it was impossible. No crampons, no PLH, no ropes, no gloves. How do you do it? I mean, it's impossible. We know that you did it because you are here, but I don't think we could have done it. In the

same position that you were. No clothes, no gloves, no crampons, no piolets, no ice axes. It was impossible. So the only way I can tell you, Rob, that we did it, when I reached the top of the first mountain and I thought I would see a small town,

I had this image of the valleys in Europe with the small towns in them. This is very different. This is rugged. This is the Andes. When I got to the top and I saw what was on the other side, I knew I was dead. There's no way. It's like dropping you in the middle of the ocean. Where do you swim to with no life vest, nothing? Where do you swim to? So I understood there that I saw in my mind

a big gate, a big door, you know? And it's an invisible door, an invisible gate that you cross into death. When you cross it, you're dead. So nothing matters. Whatever you do, you're already dead. And I told Roberto, Roberto, we're dead. Let's go. I won't stop until my face hits the ice. I won't stop until I'm dead. And he said, we have done so many things together. Let's

Let's die together. And he was looking into my eyes. Let's die together. And we started. And eight days later, we found help. Why did we do it? I don't know. But if you run the Ironman three times in a row and you get tired, you stop and you go home. Here you stop. You're dead. If you stop, you're dead. There's no let's rest for half a day. No.

Let's go. Keep on going. Keep on going. Keep on going. One, two, ten, fifteen, sixteen, eighteen hours nonstop. Climbing, falling, snow, ice, crevasses. And I look back and say, Nando, Rob, even now, I cannot answer that. Why? I don't know. Maybe my father was a lighthouse. I wanted to go back to him. And I thought a lot about him all day.

through this gruesome trek, I thought a lot about my father and I prayed a lot. Those two things. I prayed Hail Mary's, I'm Catholic, as a mantra in order not to think what was ahead because I didn't know what was ahead. I didn't know if it was one day or 20 days. I didn't know if I would last two days or I would die one week from there. Was the lack of knowledge

terrifying or liberating or both? Because I've heard that a human being not knowing when literally getting at the point where they don't know when they're going to eat again is among the most terrifying things. So I wonder, we all are petrified of what we don't know. But I also kind of think maybe at a certain point,

Maybe it's liberating. What's your thought on that? It's an interesting question, but I think it liberates you from the pressure of succeeding. Right. Yes. Yes. It liberates you. Whatever happens, I'm doing all I can. It goes back to what you were saying about, in a way, ignorance. Yes. It's like, I'm just going to do it and I don't know any better.

Because you have plans in your life or anybody, any human being in this planet, they have plans and they look into the future. And if they don't arrive to that place in the future where they thought they would be, they think they have failed.

But no, being alive is already a triumph. And fighting for what you want is a triumph. But not achieving what you want is not failure. Because not everybody achieves what they want. All those slogans, you can do it, you can do it, everything is possible if you try. The power is inside you. I mean, give me a break. Things are impossible sometimes.

Things are impossible. I'm fascinated also with the movie is so, so amazing. And we'll talk about that in a little bit because I want everybody to see it. And how just trying to sleep in the cold, it feels like you never slept.

It feels like, did you ever sleep? Or was it just more like passing out? I just don't understand in those temperatures, in those clothes. And again, you're in clothes you wore to get on until you find the stuff in the tail section, which is, thank God for that. But, you know, that's weeks into your time. I mean, you don't sleep like on a bed. No, for sure. It's very tight. And at the beginning, there are,

29 people on the same spot. It's not very big. So one is on top of the other one and it's very cold. You know, it's very cold and you shiver and you're embraced with somebody with a face very close and you say, come on, breathe, breathe. Give me your breath. You were always very certain that you would do whatever it took for you to survive when others didn't.

weren't willing to feed. They were not going to eat. How did you come to that persuasion? And I've been thinking a lot about that. And you could almost, I think shame is one of the most dangerous things that human beings can carry with them. And I think that you could make a case

that those that couldn't, wouldn't do it were worried about the shame of it, which eventually would have killed them. Yeah, you know, shame is a fantastic word. And you should have shame if you do something that allows you to be seen as somebody who has done something, that somebody could use that word. What we did was the most beautiful thing you can imagine. This is 51 years ago.

Transplants were in their infancy at that age. Now everybody has a transplant of any kind. Over there, it was very, very at the beginning. And we did a pact. You told about hunger a few minutes ago. Hunger is the most terrible fear of the human being. Not knowing when you're going to it again, it's the most primal, incredible fear a human being can develop in their minds.

And as we are the biggest experts in this subject in the world, interviewed by psychologists, hospitals, writers, professors, we know about this very, very much. And what happens when

There's no food inside. Being over there stranded in the Andes, it's like being in Venus, Mars, the Moon. There's absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing. And you will never understand the deep anxiety of hunger until your body starts to feed upon itself. Because you breathe, you move your arms, you walk. Where does that energy come from if you don't eat from your body?

So you eat your fat, your muscles, your body eats them. Then you feel that your liver is going and you feel you're out of consuming yourself. And all that information goes to your brain. You know, all that information goes to your brain. And your brain says, Nando, you have to survive. Survival instinct. You don't want to die. You're too young. You don't want to die.

So when I saw that the situation was absolutely irreversible, that there was no way out after you've spent a week without eating anything and the helicopters didn't come. And then the radio told us that the search was abandoned and we were abandoned to die. We were dead men walking, dead men walking. And I told Carlitos, he was the youngest guy, sleeping with me one night, very tight,

shaking, both of us, because of the cold. And I said, "Carlitos, I'm going to try to get out of here. You're crazy." He says, "How?" "I'll have to wait for the summer." "But the summer is two months away. But when the snow melts and the ice melts, I can climb these mountains." "What are you going to do?" "I'm going to eat." "What are you going to eat?" "We have proteins here. We have the dead bodies of our friends." "They're already dead. The soul has left."

And that's what we're going to do. Maybe I was the first one to bring it out to Carlitos, but I knew, and later speaking with all my friends, that they were all going through that process in their minds. Because when there is only one solution, there's only one. When there are two, you can pick between the two. When there's only one,

And we made a pact, a beautiful pact. We put our hands together, 29 guys, and said, if I die, you have the permission to use my body so you can go back to our families and tell them how much we miss them, how much we love them. And at that moment, all the guys who died and all the guys who survived were on the same instant in this infinity of life. Nobody knew who would live or die.

So we made the pact with our conscience, with our heart, with our friendship going forward. And this pact was the beginning, decades later, of us working with the government in our country. So there is a law now in Uruguay that every Uruguayan

He's a donor. Wow. If you don't want to donate your organs, you have to make a paper with a notary. We have saved more than 700 lives in these years with this law. That's amazing. People look at us, oh, these guys who use their friends. Yeah. But that's the first layer of the story. How many more layers are below that? How many lives have been saved?

How many lives are alive because we came out of there? Our sons, daughters, grandchildren. 16 guys came out. Now we are more than 180. That's right. Yeah.

That's right. It is true. In those days, organ donor, I don't even think it was on anyone's radar, being an organ donor at all. No, I mean, it was something that it was not in the news, not in the way people thought.

lived on a civilized world. Maybe only doctors after an accident and a body could be a donor. Even sometimes they didn't ask and they say, "Okay, let's take this heart or this and maybe we can save a life." But being a donor, it's a fantastic thing. Organ donation is done on a very dark moment, silent moment, and hard moment, always.

Always. Because the donor has a family also, and the family is there and say, okay, this beautiful human being that died because of an accident, because of something, is going to give life to another human being. So organ donation is fantastic.

All set for your flight? Yep. I've got everything I need. Eye mask, neck pillow, T-Mobile, headphones. Wait, T-Mobile? You bet. Free in-flight Wi-Fi. 15% off all Hilton brands. I never go anywhere without T-Mobile. Same goes for my water bottle, chewing gum, nail clippers. Okay, I'm going to leave you to it. Find out how you can experience travel better at T-Mobile.com slash travel. ♪

Nanda, what was it like? In the movie, it's depicted as you are at a stream, you're getting some water, and you look up and there is the Shepard.

Is that what it was? Literally an apparition appearing? Listen, The Society of the Snow, which is a majestic movie. For me, the movie of the decade. Not because of our story, because of how beautifully it is done, how strong it is. It's epic, it's sad, it's tragic, but at the end, it's elegant on a tragedy, which is very difficult to put elegance on a tragedy.

And this is because of the story and a great director like Juan Antonio Bayona. So this is a movie that goes beyond. It has been seen by more than 150 million people. I have emails of people that have seen it six times, eight times. One, I mean, a group of girls, they say, we have seen it more than 30 times. And they were small girls because this movie brings hope to young people now.

Young people want everything so fast, success so fast. And if they don't get that success very fast, they fall into depression. And I'm useless. I'm not what I should be. I mean, things take time. Believe in yourself. But things take time. And this movie brings love, brings hope to people everywhere.

And shows that you have to fight for things in life. So there's a clamor, there's something in the world about this movie that's fantastic. I was shocked by the majesty of it. To have the scope that you're talking about, the majesty, and also...

at the end of the day, it's people trapped in a fuselage on a mountain. So it's also very tiny. And yet it's also so huge. And the technical aspects of doing it, of being in the snow with just things you don't think about unless you make movies, right?

is how did you guys get up on the... How'd they put the actors up on the ridge with no snow tracks behind them? Yeah. Or in front of them, I should say. I mean, you know, if you do more than two takes, you have all of your footprints from the previous take. There's all... I already think about that scene, and I think you thought the same thing. You know, they're walking on the ridge, and they're coming, but there's pristine white snow in front of them. And...

Yes, that ridge, that shot of the ridge of you and Roberto walking on the ridge is unbelievable. There are a lot of unbelievable shots. It was shot on the exact same places that we crossed. So that's... No, I didn't know that. Really? It's exactly the same. I mean, Bayona is the master of reality.

Even anything that's on the movie is perfect. And it was shot in the Andes, exactly on the Maiteñez valley, on the ridge that we crossed with Roberto, exactly. I didn't know that. I had no idea. Well, that makes it even more incredible. It's shot exactly there. So that gives an impression of what we really went through. It was not easy.

And I have to be sincere with you. I think when somebody does something without wanting to do it, and you look back in the times, only you know how much it took you to do that. Only you know, Rob, how much it took you to be there, sitting, creating this podcast. It wasn't easy, if you look back. For me, it wasn't easy, but I cannot understand, even now, how I did it.

You know, even now. But I'm here, so it was feasible in a way. I am so glad that you're here, not because I'm glad that you're alive, but I'm glad that you're able to share your message with survivors, because I can only imagine, I can only imagine

how important that is to people and you're so articulate about it. And this movie, I urge everybody to see. It's just spectacular. And knowing that it's shot in the exact same place is just unbelievable. You know, I'm a television producer. I produce documentaries. I produce TV programs, all of that. And I don't want to be over the top. No.

But I have told some of my friends and some people, go to the movies or watch it because this is the best movie you will see in your life. You will watch it in life and say, ah, come on, there are so many movies. And they come back to me and say, you were right. You were right. So it's a good movie. It's an epic. And you know what? Just before we go, there are so many tiny grace notes in it that are so subtle and nuanced. Yeah.

The looks between all of you where it's clear what you're thinking, but nobody's speaking. There's that little moment when you have been saved and you're in the little village hut and the horses look at you and smell you and don't want to be around you guys. Yeah.

That's, I mean, that's an amazing, and they don't make a big meal out of it. They don't even really explain it, but you know, but you know what it is. It's, it's, it's, it's just, it's a marvel. The director plays a lot with movements and with the looks and, and the way people look into things. And even I didn't notice that until he explained me and I watched it on the second time I saw the movie and,

is when we are at the top of the mountains over there and I told, I tell Roberto, okay, you see those mountains very far away. We have to get there. And he said, the director makes the actor, Roberto's actor, to look at me, no, to the mountains. And he says, that explains that Roberto, when he's looking at me, he said, this guy is, I mean, I have to go with him, you know?

It's a very powerful, that's the most powerful. And by the way, and I absolutely noticed that, him looking at your character, basically agreeing to go with you is just spectacular. Those actors are spectacular. Yeah.

Well, thank you, Rob. We could speak for hours about this. Hours, I know. Please come to Los Angeles. Please come to Los Angeles. I would love to take you to dinner and I'd love to get to know you better. I'm going to Los Angeles next week. Oh, by the way, that's one of my favorite parties, things of this, is like...

You are clawing your way out of the Andes, and eventually it leads you to the red carpet of the Oscars. You can't say that. What? What? I mean, you know, I love the second part of my only life. I suffered a lot. I suffered a lot.

More than anybody can think. And I've been blessed with a lot of consolations. And I've been blessed with a second part of my life, which I created. I created this script of my second life. I created that script. Doing my sports with my father, my businesses, my television companies, my racing cars, my wife, my daughters, my grandchildren. I created that. And...

Being on the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival, for the first time, where the movie received the biggest applause in the history of the film festival in 50 years. Eight, nine minutes, non-stop. It's a big applause. And I was walking through the red carpet with my wife and I said,

Enjoy this. I mean, we are here. There are people that are not here. We are here because of something. So this will not happen again. So enjoy this. So we enjoyed that walk. And I told her later, you know, yesterday, George Clooney walked this red carpet. And the day before, Brad Pitt walked in this red carpet. And we are walking here. So let's grab those moments of life. Keep on creating memories.

Because they belong to us. Thank you so much for taking, again, the time to be with us today. And we will be cheering you on for the Oscars.

I have my fingers crossed and it will be great to see you. I'll be looking for you on the red carpet. That's for sure. And I'll be looking for you as our paths cross again someday. Thank you. This was fantastic. If you ever travel to South America, this is a beautiful country. I would love to get there one day, for sure. Hidden jewels. Awesome. Thank you, Rob. Thank you so much, brother. Thank you. That was great. Ciao, ciao. Ciao, ciao.

Unbelievable. What a man, what an energy, what a life force, what an honor it was to have Nando visit with us today, right? I mean, I hope you take away from it everything that I have, the inspiration and the warmth and the glow of the human spirit. It's an amazing thing to behold. Thank you for tuning in to Literally, and we will be back with more next week. See you then.

You've been listening to Literally with Rob Lowe, produced by me, Sean Doherty, with help from associate producer Sarah Begar and research by Alyssa Grau. Engineering and mixing by Joanna Samuel. Our executive producers are Rob Lowe for Low Profile, Nick Liao, Adam Sachs, and Jeff Ross for Team Coco, and Colin Anderson for Stitcher. Booking by Deirdre Dodd. Music by Devin Bryant.

Special thanks to Hidden City Studios. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time on Literally.

All set for your flight? Yep. I've got everything I need. Eye mask, neck pillow, T-Mobile, headphones. Wait, T-Mobile? You bet. Free in-flight Wi-Fi. 15% off all Hilton brands. I never go anywhere without T-Mobile. Same goes for my water bottle, chewing gum, nail clippers. Okay, I'm going to leave you to it. Find out how you can experience travel better at T-Mobile.com slash travel. ♪

Qualifying plan required. Wi-Fi were available on select U.S. airlines. Deposit and Hilton honors membership required for 15% discount terms and conditions apply.