Hit Man
[NOW Magazine - Jul.09-09]
John Leguizamo's Just For Laughs show is full of angry stories he can't tell in the U.S.
Most Hollywood actors keep quiet about the drama behind the scenes. Not John Leguizamo.
In his 2006 memoir, the fiery character actor best known for roles in Romeo + Juliet, To Wong Foo and Carlito's Way aired tons of Tinseltown's dirty laundry. Now his new solo show promises to take things a step further.
"Every day I'm making a hit list," he quips on the phone from New York City. "It's a laundry list of who's been messing with me and how to get back at them. This show is basically an expose. I take a very harsh look at who I am and how I got to where I'm at."
The play has already rattled some cages south of the border. Earlier this year, Leguizamo had to pull the plug on performances at NYC's Barrow Street Theater and the Actor's Playhouse after some of his barbs landed him in legal trouble.
"I had to cease and desist! I was told by this lawyer that I'm not allowed to say things like 'he's a sociopath' because I'm not a doctor, and apparently that counts as a diagnosis."
He adds that Canada lies outside the jurisdiction of the legal complaint, so what couldn't be said on stage in New York will be part of his show at Just For Laughs.
While he's starred in some bona fide Hollywood duds (The Pest, Super Mario Bros.), Leguizamo has real writing and acting chops and a clutch of stage awards to prove it.
His previous solo shows, Mambo Mouth, Spic-O-Rama and Freak, have earned him a solid reputation for playing all types of characters in rapid succession, as well as being brutally frank about himself and his past - no matter who gets offended in the process.
"Freak was about my father and me growing up as a kid. We never had a good relationship, but Freak put the nail in the coffin, so to speak, and now we're not talking."
He won't reveal who exactly gets dissed this time around (you'll have to buy a ticket to find out), but he claims that "a couple of actors are very angry with me for this, and one of them says he wants to punch me."
His memoir famously outed Leonardo DiCaprio as "a patron of prostitutes," so is it Leo who wants to tangle?
"No, Leonardo's not pissed off, actually," he says. "I saw him recently and he was totally cool. He didn't even mention it."
Balancing comedic and dramatic roles isn't easy, he admits.
"I can do it because I worked at it. I did my time in comedy clubs and doing performance art. I studied with the greatest acting teachers in New York City. I wasn't born a natural actor; I worked my ass off until I looked like a natural actor.
"This show is blatantly honest and unflattering. People are going to hear things about showbiz that they won't anywhere else. Nobody else is brave enough, nobody else has the balls to tell it like this, and I'm proud of that."
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John Leguizamo Live! at the Berkeley Street Theatre (Jul.14-18).
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Pimps, Hos, Playa Hatas and All the Rest of My Hollywood Friends: My Life
In this brash autobiography, comic Leguizamo recalls a life lived "on the fine line between acting and acting out." Readers who know his celebrated one-man shows, Mambo Mouth and Spic-O-Rama among them, will recognize some of the same people and topics: the doting mom, authoritarian father, brother Serge and the author's perpetually adolescent fascination with sex. Familiar, too, are the chameleonlike shifts of tone and theme— Leguizamo's trickster charm and outspoken ethnic pride can morph to candid yet searing takes on money, fame and the acting life. Mostly, Leguizamo tracks his maturation and unlikely rise from a smart-ass acting tyro born in Colombia and raised in Queens, N.Y., to an award-winning actor, director and family man. As he puts it: "I'm a horrible example of how to have a successful career." Yet Leguizamo makes this story full of behavioral quirks and professional beefs memorable. Whether he is being tough on Latin stereotypes or describing his sexual conquests, the text is hilarious—propelled by jokes, quips and situations in which the author usually finds himself driven to reaction instead of reflection. This mix of the glib and the sometimes glam presents a refreshing cultural tonic.
--Publishers Weekly
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Freak - part 9
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