20 Questions: John Leguizamo

Actor and monologist John Leguizamo's one-man show "Mambo Mouth" introduced New Yorkers and, later, cable and video audiences to a collection of wildly entertaining but disturbed Hispanic street characters recalled from his youth in New York City's borough of Queens. For his performance in "Hangin' with the Homeboys," Leguizamo was described by one critic as a "Latino version of Brando."

Born in Bogotá, Colombia, Leguizamo moved to New York at the age of five. He admits to hanging out with tough kids but claims that he was actually the goofy type. His teachers insisted on counseling and encouraged drama studies. He took the advice and got hooked on the stage, studying with Lee Strasberg, among others, and at New York University. His performance in a prizewinning student film attracted the attention of the casting director of "Miami Vice." Movie roles followed and "Mambo Mouth" premiered at the end of 1990. He recently finished filming a thriller with Annabella Sciorra and Alan Alda, and his second oneman show, "Spic-O-Rama," debuted in Chicago earlier this year.

Leguizamo's one-man shows are hardly examples of an actor mouthing off; he's a stickler for careful writing and rewriting. Contributing Editor Warren Kalbacker met with him during rehearsals for "Spic-O-Rama." Kalbacker recalls, "He had just finished a script review with an English tutor. One of his characters, Rafael Gigante, firmly believes that he's the love child of Laurence Olivier and has the diction, at least, to prove it. Leguizamo wanted to make sure that he'd rendered Rafael's part in perfect British English."

1.

[Q] Playboy: You are pretty adamant about including Spanish in your show Mambo Mouth. Are you going to insist we speak Spanish now?

[A] Leguizamo: It should be your duty to learn Spanish. It's not arrogance. It's just that Spanish is so prevalent in countries neighboring the United States. It's a beautiful, poetic language. There's much more rhythm to it than English.

Besides, we actually outnumber white people, but we're not going to let them know that. A lot of us are illegals.

2.

[Q] Playboy: How come your name is John, not Juan?

[A] Leguizamo: My mom named me after her favorite movie actor, John Saxon. She thought he was a handsome man. He had black hair and dark features. I was very hurt when she told me. John Saxon? I've seen his movies. Couldn't you have made up a better story, Ma? Like you named me for John Kennedy?

3.

[Q] Playboy: A Latin homeboy, an illegal immigrant and a transvestite, among others, populate Mambo Mouth. Haven't some Hispanics grumbled that you weren't doing much for the ethnic image?

[A] Leguizamo: The way the Latin people responded, I knew they were proud of what I had done. Some people ran up and hugged me. But there were pseudo-intellectuals who felt that I wasn't uplifting--how could I have been portraying all these street types when Latin people are so many other things? They don't want that image because they're huppies--Hispanic urban professionals. I can't write for all Hispanics. I just write from my experience. If huppies dislike Mambo Mouth, they'll come down on me with a vengeance for Spic-O-Rama. I perpetuate agonizing pain for them. Spic-O-Rama is about the discount dream you get when you come to this country. You wanted to be corporate but instead you run something. You run your mouth. You get the laundromat instead of IBM.

4.

[Q] Playboy: You grew up in New York City--and sound like it. Do you have to work on Latin accents when preparing your monologs?

[A] Leguizamo: It's always work. I have to listen to my family. I have to listen to whomever I'm trying to do. Spanish is like English in the United States, where almost every state has a different accent. Spaniards to us have all the class, all that European finesse. We respect them and love their sound. I have this facility with accents because I grew up with Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Colombians, Ecuadoreans, Salvadorans and Argentines.

5.

[Q] Playboy: What are the secrets of a Latin lover?

[A] Leguizamo: Latin lovers are really sensual and physical. Latin people are much more sensitive to all kinds of touching. We're not so conscious of the germ thing. WASP people always seem so sanitary to me. You feel like you're with doctors and nurses. When we go out to eat, everybody's digging at one another's plate. It's no problem to put your spoon into somebody's glass. You hug and kiss all the time. You hug and kiss members of your family. You hug and kiss your father. Lovemaking is much wilder and freer. Not that I've been in every Latin bedroom. I'm speaking hypothetically.

6.

[Q] Playboy: Doesn't your blonde Anglo girlfriend stand about a head taller than you?

[A] Leguizamo: She's my Amazon love. She's six-foot-one. I met her when she was sitting down so I didn't know how tall she was. Then I realized. When I look at pictures, I go, Oh, my God, I look like a dwarf. Carolyn is more Irish than WASPy. The cross-cultural thing is nice. I find that Latin people and Irish people often mix. The Irish crave that dark meat. Martin Sheen is half Irish, half Spanish. My cousin is married to an Irishman. My aunt is married to an Irishman. My girlfriend's brother is engaged to a Dominican girl. I think it must be the Catholic thing and there's a sameness in temperament. Carolyn's changed so much. She's Hispanicized. She's much more physically expressive than she used to be. She's much more huggy-kissy. She also dances better.

7.

[Q] Playboy: Didn't you debut on the Queensborough subway line--over the conductor's PA?

[A] Leguizamo: I got booked for that, but it didn't count because I was sixteen. Seventeen is the cutoff point. That was my first performance. We got busted and handcuffed before I got to cracking the big jokes. They said I had to go to family court. This teacher-counselor recommended that I try acting. I looked in the Yellow Pages and found an acting school. I took three hundred dollars I earned at Kentucky Fried Chicken and went there for three semesters.

8.

[Q] Playboy: You've studied drama for years. What are the benefits of rigorous thespian training?

[A] Leguizamo: I was in Lee Strasberg's class when he got ill and had to leave. He died the next day. Wow, I thought, was my acting that bad? Studying with Strasberg was the most exciting training I had. I understood the Method. You live it. You become it. You experience the moment instead of being some clever actor who thinks and plans everything and knows how to show himself off.

I got a kick out of the sense-memory cup. You hold a real cup of hot coffee and feel it and drink it and try to remember all the details; then you take away the cup and try to create the sensation again from your imagination. My roommate thought I was a nut.

9.

[Q] Playboy: Did you recommend the Method to Sean Penn and Michael J. Fox while filming Casualties of War in the Thai jungle?

[A] Leguizamo: They already had their systems worked out. Michael J. Fox is the friendliest, most pleasant person I ever worked with. Maybe because he's short, I don't know. The Thai people can't pronounce "X" so they called him Michael J. Fuck. It was a joke to all of us.

Sean Penn's a different story. At that time, he was my idol. He was the young actor who was most daring and provocative. The rest were brat-pack pussy actors who were really Milquetoast cream puff white bread. If you meet somebody you admire and you see how many flaws they have, then they're not so admirable anymore. I admire him, but he remained in character and made me do twenty-five push-ups every time I said something wrong.

10.

[Q] Playboy: Did phone calls from agents and casting directors come in after your appearance in Casualties of War?

[A] Leguizamo: People said it was going to be my big break. I got good reviews, but it didn't do much for my career. I played a terrorist in Die Hard 2. My part was so small there could be a trivia question: How many times did Leguizamo flash across the screen in Die Hard 2? It's seven times. It's hard to say whether I'm on the verge of a break. I really do believe that things would be different if I were a white guy or a black guy. The roles offered to me are always drug dealers, gang members, thieves, crooks, all this underbelly stuff. I'm not a Latin person who's trying to pass. I don't expect to be playing a WASP executive. But I should be able to play any character who has some of my mannerisms but who isn't really Hispanic or white or anything. Why can't a Latin person be Peter Pan? Or be in Star Trek? Why couldn't a Latin person be the character in a Tom Hanks movie? There are so many roles. There are so many of us. I have to create my own opportunities. The only way is for me to write my own stuff.

11.

[Q] Playboy: Could you use your Method training to pass if you wanted to?

[A] Leguizamo: I want to play Robert Redford's son. That's my goal. I'm going to bleach my hair blond, wear really pale make-up and put in blue contact lenses. Then I'll sit around and stare at myself in the mirror: I am white. I am white bread. I enjoy mayonnaise and bland foods. Nothing upsets me. I'll put on light FM and mellow out and read a Hemingway novel. I'll be ready. In the Method kind of way.

12.

[Q] Playboy: Is Latin culture mankind's last best hope?

[A] Leguizamo: Latin people have a lot of old values that Americans have lost. Americans get rid of their grandparents and put them in nursing homes and their kids are put into camps and boarding schools. But Latin people bring all the relatives together. The grandmother has to be at every function, every party. You get that sense of family and community. Pride is our flaw. We're easily insulted and that's why we fight a lot. If you attack the family, that could be dangerous to your life.

13.

[Q] Playboy: Can Anglos ever look good in a conga line?

[A] Leguizamo: It's a kick for us to watch white people try to dance to Latin music. They're not hitting the rhythm right, they don't know the right moves. They're trying really hard to be loose and free and trying to have a good time. But they're so awkward. They're like those gooney birds that try to walk after flying for a long time: They crash-land and they're all rubbery. They don't cross over enough so they don't have the experience. If they crossed over more often, they would know what to do.

14.

[Q] Playboy: Do you have plastic slipcovers on your furniture?

[A] Leguizamo: I left the plastic on my mattress. My girlfriend said to take it off. I go, No baby, what if I have to move? I want my mattress to be intact and brand new. When I was young, furniture was supposed to last your whole life. I wasn't allowed to sit on it or breathe on it. I had to stay away from the living room. I wasn't even supposed to turn on the TV because it would waste it. Not waste electricity. Waste the television.

15.

[Q] Playboy: You made several appearances--as drug kingpin Calderone's son--on Miami Vice. What do you think of that show's depiction of Hispanics?

[A] Leguizamo: Miami Vice gave so much work to Latin actors. And every Latin actor wanted to be on it because it was exciting. It was filling our pockets and destroying us at the same time. It perpetuated so many negative stereotypes. Unbelievable. Every Latin man was a drug dealer. Every woman was a prostitute and junkie. But it's better to be seen than not to be seen. I'd rather be a gangster than a nobody.

16.

[Q] Playboy: Just how do starving actors spend those days waiting for the big break?

[A] Leguizamo: I was eating a lot of rice and sardines and pasta with butter. I convinced myself that I loved those foods. I didn't have enough money to pay rent. I was staying with anyone who'd have me. I was the king of the busboys at the Black Rock Cafe, a Mexican joint on Eighth Street. And I was a salesman at Angel's apparel store. I read law books to this guy who was legally blind. I would try to act it and he'd say to just read it plain and fast. I fell asleep reading the books a couple times. I cleaned apartments for three years. I scrubbed people's toilets. I did all the nasty things in those apartments. I'd lock the doors and eat their food. Take a shower. Watch TV. Use all their Clinique stuff, all these fancy funky lotions. People had sexual gadgets in their bedrooms. I was cleaning, but it was an excuse to pry. I'm certainly eating a lot more than I used to. But you never know. Knock on wood.

17.

[Q] Playboy: Tattoo parlors are illegal in New York. Where did you acquire the artwork on your shoulder? Why did you choose a heart in such distress?

[A] Leguizamo: I got the tattoo on Sunset Strip with my friend Darren Burrows. He's in Northern Exposure. It doesn't say "Born to Lose," but it has the same effect. I wanted a tattoo and searched to find a symbol that motivated me. It's a heart being stabbed and set on fire--and still living. No matter what, I'll survive. The tattoo reminds me to dare. To risk.

18.

[Q] Playboy: Are you going to celebrate the five-hundredth anniversary of Columbus' arrival in the New World in a big way?

[A] Leguizamo: Columbus Day is the big Italian holiday, but who gave Columbus the money to come? A Spanish lady. The difference between the conquistadores and Pilgrims is that the Pilgrims came here with their women. They weren't horny so they didn't mix with the Indians. They killed them. The Spaniards came here in ships and they had been at sea a long time and they'd been eating fish and they were horny and when they saw these Indian women, they mixed with them. They had all that sex and all those bastard children and that's why Latins are such a funky mix of European, Indian and African. The Pilgrims came to conquer and everything had to fit their structure. The Spaniards were a little wilder and looser. They had less control. They came, had sex, took the gold and left. It was like a big Las Vegas. You came to gamble with a lot of nice naked ladies all around. But the Anglos came here and they settled.

19.

[Q] Playboy: Don't you have some 'splaining to do about why Desi Arnaz is your hero?

[A] Leguizamo: He was a role model for me. He fought hard to be on television. He was one of the few Latin persons on TV for the longest time. He tried to find what was funny about Latin people: the temper, rambling in Spanish--a passionate, jealous man, loving his music, loving to dance. They didn't want the Ricky Ricardo character in the show. They said you can't have an interracial marriage. Lucy said she wouldn't do the show if he wasn't in it and it ended up that Desi produced it. He's the one who first used three cameras in a comedy show and it still looks good today. He really changed comedy in many ways.

20.

[Q] Playboy: One of your characters enjoys making love to "mountains of mocha." Is that a clue to one Leguizamo kink?

[A] Leguizamo: My fantasy is Roseanne Barr Arnold. If I could make love to her, my life would be complete. Chubby women. Carolyn was chubby when I met her, but she's skinny now. I didn't put her on a regimen. I'm real active and I didn't have much money and we didn't eat, so it made her lose weight. She is tall.

When we kiss, she bends over a little, I lean up a little and it's OK. I dip her as often as I can. When we dance Spanish or when we're goofing around and I kiss her, I dip her. And in bed it makes no difference whatsoever. I'm right there at all the important parts. I'm closer to the important parts than a regular guy.

america's leading latino scholar explains the challenge of tall women, the legend of desi arnaz and why anglos look funny in a conga line