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I Had To Get The Voice Back, The Precise Pitch Of Sid's Voice And I'd Forgotten That I'd Pitched Him Higher Than My Regular Voice, So That Was A Little Difficult To Begin With. It Was Especially Hard Because We Started Recording In The Morning So I Had To Warm Up A Lot And My Usual Voice Is A Little More Gravelly.

-John Leguizamo

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I Had To Get

John Leguizamo

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I Had To Get The Voice Back, The Precise Pitch Of Sid's Voice And I'd Forgotten That I'd Pitched Him Higher Than My Regular Voice, So That Was A Little Difficult To Begin With. It Was Especially Hard Because We Started Recording In The Morning So I Had To Warm Up A Lot And My Usual Voice Is A Little More Gravelly.

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I Was Always Writing. I Was Writing In High School Because It Was A Really Competitive School For Class Clowns; I Used To Have To Write All Of My Snaps And My Disses The Night Before And Then Act Like I Was Making It Up The Next Day.

When You Feel The World Is Against You Or You Give Up Hope, You Look At Your Heroes And Say, "they Were Able To Do It. They Had Hard Times And A Lot Of Opposition, But They Got Through It." Then You Feel, "i Can Do It Too."

It Doesn't Make Sense. [republicans Are] Not For Us. You're Not For My Values. We're Working Class People Mostly And Blue Collar. We're Your Cops, We're Your Firemen, We're Your Carpenters And The Things We Need - We Need To Protect Our Unions, We Need To Protect Our Medicare, We Need To Protect The Working Class Person.

Don't Confuse The Beginning Of My World With The Breakup Of Yours.

I Grew Up With A Lot Of Cats Like That And They Always Were So Surprising, Magnetic, And Electrifying. You Can't Be With Them Too Long Because They Burn You Out But The Energy, The Impulsivity, And The Freedom Connecting Them To Their Animal Energy Is Just So Powerful To Watch. It's Dangerous To Live Like That But It's Riveting To Watch.

Great Acting Is Being Able To Create A Character. Great Character Is Being Able To Be Yourself.

It's Not Quite The Same As Other Kinds Of Performing, But I Love Animation. It Is Just A Different Kind Of Experience. The Difference Is That Making A Live Action Movie You Are Using Your Whole Body.

We See Them [animals] As The Ice Age Is Ending And We Know That Actually In The Long Run, They're Not Going To Make It. And There's Something Beautiful About That, Beautifully Sad. The Way The Characters Are Woven Together In The Film Adds To The Emotion Because They Need Each Other. The Message Is That It Doesn't Matter What Species You Are, You Can Still Love Each Other And That Is A Fantastic Message.

I Had To Work With Ben Mendelsohn Who's One Of The Great Actors Of Our Time. I Had A Lot Of Scenes With Him And I Was Thrilled To Be On The Set With Him; I Just Wanted To See How We Were Going To Play It.

I Had To Get The Voice Back, The Precise Pitch Of Sid's Voice And I'd Forgotten That I'd Pitched Him Higher Than My Regular Voice, So That Was A Little Difficult To Begin With. It Was Especially Hard Because We Started Recording In The Morning So I Had To Warm Up A Lot And My Usual Voice Is A Little More Gravelly.

I Keep My Kids Out Of The Whole Business Entirely. Allegra And Lucas Are Five And Six And I'm Not Interested In Them Doing Any Acting At All. I Don't Want My Kids In Show Business. I Keep Them As Far Away From My Work As Possible.

I Was Working At Kentucky Fried Chicken When My Math Teacher Said, "you're Failing In School, You're Messing Up, Why Don't You Just Try This?" I Said, "alright, Let Me Try It," And I Started Going To Acting Classes And I Loved It. I Thought, "i May Not Make It But I Love Doing It."

I Really Love It, I Love Working With Directors That Are Very Collaborative And Allow Me Input. I've Done Over 75 Films, It's Just Like You're An Apprentice. You Learn So Much About Camerawork, Lenses, And I'm Always Talking About Dps And Directors And They Always Give Me Lists. I Think Pretty Soon, I'll Be Ready To Move Away From Being In Front Of The Camera.

Bryan Cranston Is Generous, He's Funny. When We Did A Wedding Scene [in The Infiltrator ], At The End Of The Movie With A Big Set Piece, He Put The Veil Off The Bride, He Put It On, He Pretended Like We Were Getting Married, He's Just A Goof.

The Thing I Gravitated To Was Being The Class Clown. It Was Very Competitive.

Teachers Are Everything. I Mean, You're A Poor Kid From The Ghetto, Your Parents Are Busy Working 24/7, Working Like A Mexican.

Pablo Escobar Is One Of The Great Stories Of All Time. It's A Bizarre, Dark Version Of Success.

I Wanted To Enjoy The Process. I Wanted To Enjoy Just Being On Stage And Giving Back And The Feedback.

Independent Film Is For Actors That Love To Act.

It's A Product Of Being An Actor, You Know? A Lot Of Your Work Doesn't End Up On Camera And Some Of The Best Things Aren't Always In The Final Product. But Yeah, A Lot Of My Stuff Got Cut And It Was Painful, But I Know It Was For The Better Of The Movie.

I See The New Latin Artist As A Pioneer, Opening Up Doors For Others To Follow. And When They Don't Open, We Crowbar Our Way In.

You Know, I Am Kind Of A Bi-polarish Schitzerphrenic. I Run The Gamut Of Being Incredibly Shy And Withdrawn To Being A Crazy-eccentric Exhibitionist. And I Have Always Been Like That.

It's All About Respect; He's Looking For Respect From His Buddies. In The Last One He Just Wanted To Hang Out, To Be Part Of The Group, But This Time He Wants More From His Friends. And Without Giving The Story Away, He Finally Gets Something That He Has Been Looking For When The Mini Sloths Kidnap Him And Take Him To Their Tribal Area. He Gets To Be The Fire King And They Worship Him And There Is An Amazing Scene With A "call And Response" Sequence In The Style Of Cab Callow [the Legendary American Jazz Singer And Band Leader] Between Him And His Audience.

I'm Hoping My Play Opens Up Conversations, I Hope It Makes People Question Textbooks, I Hope It Makes #oscarssowhite And #hollywoodsowhite Question Things. I Hope My Play Sparks Conversation Between Latin Kids And Latin Parents And People Start Doing Their Own Due Diligence As Well, I Think It's Everyone's Responsibility.

Latins For Republicans. It's Like Roaches For Raid.

I Love Life, And I Embrace Every Minute Of It.

I Did Brad's First Film The Take And I'm Glad Brad [furman] Has Not Calmed Down. I Don't Want Him To Ever Calm Down.

At Murry Bergtraum High I Wanted To Be As Different From My Father As Possible. So I Acted Out In School, I Was Very Anti-authority.

In Moulin Rouge I Could Not Change The Name Of Toulouse-lautrec Obviously To Toulouse-lautrec- Martinez. But In Er I Did That, My Name Is Dr Victor Clemente, So Sometimes It Is Possible.

I'd Be Terrified Even Now For A Latin Kid Wanting To Be An Actor, But Back Then? Forget It. They Must Have Thought I Was Going To Be Working In Restaurants And Driving Cabs For The Rest Of My Life.

I Love Life, Man, And I Embrace Every Minute Of It So Maybe I Bring That On The Set. I Love People And I Want To Have A Good Time.

America May Not Realize It Yet, But Latin Prototypes Are Being Created Right Now, And Not Just By Me. They Are These Mambo Kings And Salsa Queens, Aztec Lords And Inca Princesses, Every Hernandez And Fernandez, Whom This Country Will One Day Come To Understand And Respect.

Very, That Show Is Crazy. It Was Like Doing Finals Every Week. It Was Interesting. I Really Learned A Lot. The Dialogue Is So Technical. I Was So Impressed Watching The Other Actors And How They Managed, So I Studied Them. And I Was Blown Away Thinking: "how Do They Do That? How Do They Put That Extra Spin On The Complicated Dialogue To Make It Interesting?

I Love Independent Films, It's The Only Place As An Actor You're Totally Allowed To Breathe.

Acting Is Kind Of A Calling For Me So I'm Just Happy To Be There And Do Great Work.

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Voices Come To Me But To Maintain Them Is Hard Work. They Go Away Just As Easily, So I Have To Remember Them And That Takes Work. With Sid, I Needed To Make Sure You Could Understand What He Is Saying, His Enunciation. Sometimes I Couldn't Even Say My Own Name [his Name] In His Voice. It Sounds Like 'shid', It Sounds A Bit Like He Has A Lisp.

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Definitely If You're An Athlete, You're Gonna Be Having All The Baseball Fame You Can Have. That's The Great Thing About Baseball And Sports. You Can Measure Ability.

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First I Went To C.w. Post And I Was A Psychology And Theater Major And Then I Transferred To Nyu's Tisch School Of The Arts As A Drama Major.

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Wild Imagination

Self-expression Is Something That You've Crafted, Something That You've Found. You've Practiced On That Piano For Hours, You Didn't Hang Out With Your Buddies, You Didn't Go After The Girls, You Stayed In Your Own Little Geeky Room Or You Wrote For Hours.

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I Had A Great Movement Teacher - He Showed Me How To Walk So I Wasn't Becoming Like A Cartoon.

I Love His [brad Furman] Ferocious Desire For Perfection And His Love Of Vitality, It Feeds Me, Man. It Feeds Him And It Feeds The Whole Crew. And He's Got Huge Respect For Talent. And That's Why Talent Goes In And Gives It 300% Percent.

I'm Just More Comfortable With People Who Are Like Me Than The People Who Are Not.

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So Many People, My Friends And Family, Were All Saying, "you're So Funny. Why Don't You Become A Comedian Or An Actor?" But It Wasn't A Reality At The Time, It Wasn't A Road That Latin People Were Accepted In.

I Was Just School Class Clown And That Was It. Someday I'll Get A Job As A Cab Driver Or Whatever.

I Love Theater. I Think Theater, When Its Done Right, Is The Best, Like A Religious Experience. When It Is Done Badly, It's The Worst Thing. It's Just An Incredible Experience.

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Is There A God? Yeah, But There's Not Just One God. There's A Whole Lot Of Gods, Because One God Couldn't Have Possibly Made So Many Mistakes All By Himself. This Had To Be Done By Committee.

You Just Want To Go Off And Be Intuitive And Wild, And That's What Bryan Cranston Brings To The Game.

The New York Times Made You Or Broke You.

T Is For Me Because I Needed To Do This. I Really Think Actors Shouldn't Act Unless They Really Need It In Their Lives. I Think It Has To Be Something That Is So Much A Part Of Your Chemistry, Such A Passion, That You Can't Live Without It. You Should Not Do It Just Because You Are Seeking Fame Or Want To Get Rich.

I Walked Around My Apartment With Food In My Mouth Asking Myself: "how Do I Come Up With This Voice?" Then I Found The Voice. I Called The Director And Said On The Phone: "guess Who You're Talking To Chris? Sid, That's Right Sid!" And That's How I Came Up With The Voice. That's A True Story.

Bryan Cranston Has Got Such An Incredible Light Touch. He Comes In Egoless, But With Bold Opinions, And He Wants To Play. He Wants To Play. And That's What I've Seen In Great Actors All My Life And What I've Always Tried To Nurture And Keep In Myself Is That Joy Of Playing.

But When You Are Doing An Animated Voice, It Has To Have More Energy Than Usual Or It Falls Flat And Doesn't Work. For Myself, I Found That I Had To Put Myself In The Same Physical Or Emotional State As Sid, In Order To Make That Voice Sound Alive And Authentic. So If There Was A Scene In Which He Was Running, I Would Be Running Beforehand To Sound Out Of Breath. That's Important Because The Audience Can Tell Intuitively If It Does Not Sound Real.

People Can Be Anonymous When They Go On Blogs And Say Crazy Things That They Would Never Have The Courage To Say To Your Face.

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I Like Drama. I Love Being In A Drama Where I Get To Be The Funny Guy. That's What I Really Love The Most.

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