John Leguizamo began his career with the 1990 one-man off-Broadway play “Mambo Mouth,” where he wrote and played characters from his life growing up in New York. A misogynistic failed actor, a father sharing bedtime stories, a trans woman’s experiences with men in the neighborhood, to name a few. He found comedy in people from his community and humanized them on the theater stage.
“Mambo Mouth” was an instant hit and won a handful of awards, leading him to his Broadway debut with the show “Freak,” for which he received a Tony nomination.
Since then, John Leguizamo has been acting in films and playing characters that have become American comedy cult classics: including Chi Chi Rodriguez in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, Benny Blanco in Carlitos Way, and Tybalt in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet. Roles that he argues would have skyrocketed any white actor to stardom—and while he eventually got to a comfortable place in his career, all the while John was asking one question: “Where are all the Latinos in Hollywood?”
Outside of Hollywood, John Leguizamo has never shied away from speaking out and getting political. In this episode, Maria Hinojisa and John Leguizamo look back on some of his iconic roles, why he thinks entertainers have a responsibility to speak up, and why he’s excited to take on a new role, playing a controversial real life character.
Watch part of the interview below:
Collage by Luis Luna (Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage via Getty Images, The Walt Disney Company, Universal Pictures, and 20th Century Fox)
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Episode credits:
Host: Maria Hinojosa
Producer and reporter: Monica Morales-Garcia
Editor: Julieta Martinelli
Production Assistance: Reynaldo Leanos Jr.
Social Media: Luis Luna and Anhelo Reyes
Engineer: Julia Caruso and JJ Qerubin
Managing Editor: Fernanda Echavarri
Executive Producers: Peniley Ramirez and Maria Hinojosa
Video Editor: Memo Tejada
