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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.

-John Leguizamo

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I'm Hoping My Play

John Leguizamo

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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.

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More From John Leguizamo

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.

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

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

You Can't Really Walk Anywhere. Where Are You Going To Go? Everything Closes At A Certain Hour And It's A Highway With Bars On It; That's What It Is.

I Think As You Mature As An Actor Things Open Up To You In A Lot Of Ways, Especially If You Do Work On Yourself.

After Kids Leave The House, They Can Decide To Do Whatever They Want, But While They're Under My Roof, They're Going To Be Lawyers Or Writers Or Something, Something Important, Anything Except Actors.

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.

Sid [the Character From 'ice Age'] Is A Prehistoric Sloth. Sloths Move Really Slowly And They Store Food In The Cheek Pouches. That's Where I Got The Voice That You Hear. He Had To Sound As Though He Was Storing Food.

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

That's The Happiest I Am, When I'm Doing Great Work.

My Mom [comes] To See My Shows Because She's So Proud, But I'm Talking About Losing My Virginity, My Ex-wife And Our Sexual Problems, And She's Sitting In The Front Row Smiling. I Just Go, "mom, You Can't Sit In The Front Row, You Can't Smile. You Have To Go Way In The Back And Dress In Black. If I See You It's Like You're Breaking In When I'm Having Sex With My Wife. It's Just Wrong."

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

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

With Kids, The Days Are Long, But The Years Are Short.

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.

My Parents Were Incredibly Strict, Almost Military Style.

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.

Independent Film Is For Actors That Love To Act.

I Don't Think It's My Responsibility, But I Definitely Try To Create My Own Projects That Are Latin-based With A Latin Crew And Latin Cast. I Try To Give All My Characters Latin Names Whenever I Can And Make Sure That They Are Of Latin Heritage. But That Does Not Work With Every Project.

Well I Was About To Be Expelled From School, I Had Been Arrested And A Teacher Said: "why Don't You Try Acting, Instead Of Distracting The Class? Why Don't You Use Your Comic Talent For Something More Productive?" My Maths Teacher Suggested I Do Comedy And I Decided To Have A Go. I Pursued It After That. I Was About 17.

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

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.

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.

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

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 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.

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.

It Takes Time To Understand Yourself, To Go Inside Yourself And To Question Yourself And Really Take Yourself To Task. That's Self-expression.

Some Kids Are Fine, But Often I Don't Like What I See In Child Actors. My Kids Are Young And They Are Already Showing An Interest, So I Have To Try To Discourage Them, Squash That In Them.

You Grow Up Latin In This Country And You're A Third Class Citizen From The Word Go, And So You Have To Deal With Everything Around You From That Point Of View And Trying To Feel Entitled.

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

The New York Times Made You Or Broke You.

To Be A Comedian, You Gotta Jokesmith, There's No Way Around It.

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.

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.

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

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.

I Did 40 Voices For Chris Wedge, The Director Of The First Film, Before Coming Up With The Version We Used. He Was Hard To Please, I Don't Know Why. I Gave Him Really Slow Talking Voices. Then I Thought Perhaps Sid Could Be An Indian Sounding Sloth. To Find Out More About My Character, I Watched Footage Of Sloths. I Discovered That The Food They Store In Their Pouches Rots And Ferments And Half The Time They're Drunk.

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

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

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.

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 Like Helping People Achieve Their Dreams Just Like People Helped Me.

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 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.

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."

Marriage Is Wild. I Thought It Was This Perfect Land Of Happiness And Joy. Wrong! After You Say You Do, You Don't For A Long Time.

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.

I'm Not Really Against A Lot Of Things Unless They Are Just Pure Exploitation And Then They Create Their Own Copycat Culture That Comes From Someone Acting Irresponsibly. That's Dangerous When That Happens.

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.

Yes It Did Really. It Was Very Exciting To Find That My Energy Could Be Directed Into Something More Useful And Positive. I Was Starting To Get Panicked. I Was Thinking 'what Am I Going To Do With My Life?' I Wasn't Sure What Was Going To Happen. Then I Became Crazily Obsessed With Acting. I Suddenly Had A Work Ethic And Then Everything Changed Completely For The Better Because I Knew What I Wanted To Do With My Life.

[brad Furman] Is Incredibly Collaborative, Man. He's So Respectful Of Talent, He Has So Much Admiration For Talent. He Nurtures You, He Lets You Give Input. Of Course We'll Debate If We Disagree, That's Just A Healthy Atmosphere To Air Your Differences.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

Rehearsals Make A Huge Difference.

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.

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

Self-expression, To Me, Is Something That You Worked On, That You Have Mastered A Skill To Say Something In The Most Artful Way That You Can. It's Not Just Blurting Stuff Out And Having Verbal Diarrhea.

You Have The Hilarity And The Great Production. These Films Are Distinctive Because They Are Not Just Topical, They Tell Good Stories And They Let Scenes Play Out Physically. Apart From The Dialogue, The Characters Also Have A Non-verbal Existence, For Example With Scrat.

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.

There Were No Latin People On 'star Trek,' That This Was Proof That They Weren't Planning To Have Us Around For The Future.

We Are Taking Our Culture And Suturing It To America. Like Gum On The Bottom Of A Shoe, We Are Not Going To Disappear. Unlike Other Peoples Who Totally Assimilated, We Are More Interested In Co-assimilation.

It's Been Great, I Have To Dig Deep For Really Raw Emotions And At The Same Time I Have To Use My Intellect To Say The Ridiculous Medical Jargon While Acting And Treating A Patient And Then I Have To Try To Have A Personality And Emotions As Well. So It Is Definitely Hard Work.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

[brad Furman] Wants To Try Stuff, He's Willing To Try Stuff. And He Wants Electricity On The Camera. And That's What I Want, I Want Electricity Whenever I'm Performing.

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.

Most Of The Great Directors I've Worked With - De Palma, Spike Lee - Like Rehearsals.

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.

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

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.

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