John Leguizamo reveals what’s ‘festering inside’

In a city where, so the joke goes, people would apologize to a lamppost they bumped into, it’s an adjustment meeting someone like John Leguizamo.

The brash and funny and not at all polite New Yorker is in town to debut his latest one-man show, John Leguizamo Live!, as part of Toronto’s Just For Laughs festival. In it, he revisits familiar material — his rough-and-tumble childhood in Queens. But he also explores the ups and downs of his acting career, exposing what happens behind the scenes in Hollywood, celebrity egos be damned.

And he would know. Over the past two decades, he’s worked with scores of A-listers while playing everything from a flamboyant drag queen named Chi Chi Rodriguez to the damaged, absinthe-coiffing artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in Moulin Rouge. Currently, he’s the voice of Sid, the sloth in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

But the brutal honesty that has served Leguizamo well in past live shows like Freak and Sexaholix…A Love Story, is now proving embarrassing to the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Patrick Swayze and Steven Seagal.

Is that likely to stop him from speaking his mind? Not a chance.

Your new show is about your life in showbiz. Why did you choose this subject matter?

I don’t know. It kind of chose me. That’s what usually happens with me. I write about things that I feel like I have to write about. It’s not like, “What do I want to write about next?”

It’s just what interests you and what naturally flows?

What’s troubling me is more like it, what’s festering inside. So before it kills me, I put it on paper.

How long does the process take you?

Oh, you know. It always takes me quite a bit of time. I figured this one out pretty fast. But to get it to be the masterful work that I want it to be it’s going to take me at least about three years.

Just trial and error?

Trial and error, yeah, going around. But it’s more really trying to understand what I’m trying to say from the inside of it instead of just from my head, my intellectual point of view. It’s more what am I really feeling that I have to say. And it’s kind of grey. I haven’t really refined it to that point yet.

Is it seeing what the audience reacts to as well?

Well, you know, that helps. That’s more for laughs. Yeah, it is a barometer of where you’re at. (But) I don’t want to be catering to the audience. I don’t want to pander to their taste. The way I write, it has to be a dialogue. It has to be a conversation. (That’s) the only way it can be written because part of it is performance and part of it is writing. So the two of them have to become completely one.

Can you describe your process? Do you test things out on your friends and family?

I used to test it out on friends and family till I lost my family from Freak. And I can’t show them stuff anymore ’cause they get aggressive with me. I write it on the computer by myself for a long, long time and just test it on myself. And then when I felt comfortable enough, I started going to colleges in America and doing it. And that’s how this one developed — in colleges.

What does your family say about your material?

I haven’t talked to my dad since I did Freak. The rest of my family, they have a price tag, which is great. So I bought them. I bought my mom a Brownstone. She’s my best friend again.

You got into some trouble with people who weren’t happy with some of the material in this piece. Are you worried about burning bridges?

Some people said they want to punch me out and another one’s lawyer called and said I have to cease and desist. And I did cease and desist on that person just ’cause the material didn’t seem suited for what I had to do. The only one that was upsetting was I heard Sean Penn is upset at me. And I’m not saying anything really aggressive or negative about him. I love and respect him. I’m sad to hear he’s offended by what I said. But I’m not really saying anything that wasn’t part of my learning experience and part of what happened between the two of us.

You didn’t mean it to be offensive.

No, that segment I didn’t. Other segments I do mean to be offensive, but that one I didn’t.

Do you feel when you’re doing comedy, it’s still a risk? Are you still going out of your comfort zone?

I am putting myself out there. But it’s not about the comedy. It’s about what I’m saying. It’s all very difficult stuff that I’m dealing with ’cause I’m trying to do a play. I’m trying to do a piece of art. It’s a little different than what most people do.

It’s not just stand-up.

Yeah, I did stand-up clubs very infrequently. It wasn’t really my thing. It wasn’t really what I wanted to do. I liked writing plays that happened to be very funny. I like that blend.

In the way that there’s a British sense of humour — the dry wit — do you think there’s a distinctive Latin sense of humour?

Well, you know, Latin humour is very similar to Jewish humour in a lot of ways. There’s a lot of wit, but there’s also a lot of physicality to it, voices, a lot of mimicry. The biggest radio station in New York that used to beat out Howard Stern was a Latin one. And they were hilarious! But they did everything, you know, parodies, satire. They did voices, mimicry, fake interview. It was brilliant.

And voices are a big part of your shows too.

Yeah, and in this one I did imitations. I never did imitations before. I mean, they were of my family, but no one knew if I was doing them right or wrong ’cause they don’t know my family.

Now they have something to compare it to.

Exactly! (laughs) Now people can be more critical.

In your shows you sometimes come off as a guy’s guy and other times you come across as vulnerable. Which one is closer to the truth?

Well it’s both. I don’t think guys are really as tough as they say or as weak as they say they are. I think I’m all that. I grew up in a tough neighbourhood in New York City, so you had to be tough. There was no choice. And I had a tough childhood. But I’ve still — especially as I’ve had kids — become much more vulnerable and it’s something I want to be. I want to be that type of dude that’s much more vulnerable than shut off and closed down.

Is there anything else you want to say to your fans?

Go see Ice Age 3! (laughs) If you see Ice Age 3, I’ll be the richest Latin man you’ll ever know.