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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.

-John Leguizamo

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T Is For Me

John Leguizamo

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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.

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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.

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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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.

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.

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 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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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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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.

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