John Leguizamo
I had a great movement teacher - he showed me how to walk so I wasn't becoming like a cartoon.Collection: Teacher
Why is the world that I see around me mixed, and why is the world I see in movies filled with all white people? Why does it have to be like that?Collection: Movies
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.Collection: Funny
We need to stand up and become a united front against a common enemy. It's important for us to not be divided.
I've never really thought of myself as just an actor; I always thought of myself as aspiring to be an artist, and an artist has to take risks and put himself on the line.
I always wanted my kids to be proud of their heritage.
All artists draw from their lives, except they mask it and camouflage it... which is the smarter way to do it.
I love independent films, it's the only place as an actor you're totally allowed to breathe.
Yeah, that came out of a reading. It was great. It's such a fun crew to be with, and we all went out the night before and that really encouraged us to go out and get drunk.
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.
Latins for Republicans - it's like roaches for Raid.
He thinks he can use the jail for networking to be somebody. In that way, he's always operating.
He wanted to be a lawyer, couldn't afford it, so he started dealing to go to college - good intention.
I was familiar with that and 'Rio Bravo.' 'Rio Bravo' was what John Carpenter did, that brilliant move of taking a western and turning it into an urban flick. And from there you got, you know, all the cop genre movies of the time.
Every dad who loves his daughter is not going to want her to go with the penniless slacker loser poet bum, when she could go out with someone who's successful.
Most of the great directors I've worked with - De Palma, Spike Lee - like rehearsals.
Rehearsals make a huge difference.
My parents were incredibly strict, almost military style.
To be a comedian, you gotta jokesmith, there's no way around it.
The thing I gravitated to was being the class clown. It was very competitive.
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.
Independent film is for actors that love to act.
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.
I've always studied our empires to empower myself, you know, and to have ammunition against anybody who could try to put me down.
In theater, you can be free. That's how Lin-Manuel Miranda got to do the most revolutionary piece of theater with 'Hamilton': color-blind casting in roles in which they would never cast Latinos if it were a film or TV show. It just goes to show that Hollywood and cable are way behind.
Chopin or Billy Eckstine or Miles Davis - that stuff helps me, more when I've already written and I need a little energy to keep editing.
I love what I do. I would hate to give it up. But if I could, I would run for office in Texas. I would run someplace heinous to make a difference.
Movies, like old-school TV, are cheesy, corny. Movies are not exciting anymore. They're not cutting edge.
Imagine if Lin-Manuel Miranda had tried to do 'Hamilton' first in Hollywood. They would have told him, 'The forefathers weren't Latino or black. They didn't speak in hip hop.' That would never had gotten going in Hollywood ever. But theater let Lin-Manuel him do it, and he created an incredible masterpiece.
I was quiet a lot when I was picked on as a kid because I didn't have anything to say back.
I was growing up and maturing at a time where we were invisible, man. We were nowhere except negative. Any time you saw a Latin person in Hollywood or on TV, they were some sort of negative character.
If everyone in your class has heroes, and they can relate to them in textbooks and literature, and then you don't see any of your heritage there, you feel less than. And I always wanted to be able to make Latin kids like myself feel more than.
Work for work's sake doesn't thrill me, but when I'm in the zone, I'm creative, and the expression is free.
I love life, man, and I embrace every minute of it, so maybe I bring that on the set.
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.
I have huge respect for whistle-blowers, people who stand up against their bosses and losing their careers, just for truth and justice.
Working with Michael Shannon and Taylor Kitsch was incredible.
You think you've done it all, and then you realize, 'No, there's so much more to do.'
I'd love to do some period pieces and some historic work; I just feel like no one's tapped into Latin history and Latin contributions to the making of America, and we've been there over 500 years.
My kids help fix my technology, but Twitter is my everything - I love Twitter.
Facebook I would've liked, but I made a huge mistake, and I made it a public page, and it didn't work out for me. I just put my name on it, and I didn't know how Facebook worked.
I think I always have Woody Allen in mind whenever I'm creating anything. He's such a genius, and I think 'Annie Hall' is one of the greatest movies ever written.
I feel American comedy is a little too light. World cinema, and Latin cinema, is much more comfortable with darker emotions.
I'm a very tough dad. I mean, I'm a fun dad, but I'm a tough dad.
We need a lot more positive Latin role models in movies and in television. They exist! It's not fiction.
I love the power of theater. I think it's an experience you never forget.
I feel I don't get credit enough for it, the pioneering I did in comedy.
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."Collection: Giving Up
With kids, the days are long, but the years are short.Collection: Inspirational
Great acting is being able to create a character. Great character is being able to be yourself.Collection: Inspirational