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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."

-John Leguizamo

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I Was Working At

John Leguizamo

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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."

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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.

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

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.

[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.

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.

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.

Independent Film Is For Actors That Love To Act.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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."

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

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

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

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

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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