{"id":95279,"date":"2025-08-25T07:06:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T07:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/95279\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T07:06:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T07:06:08","slug":"john-leguizamo-was-humiliated-by-early-role-in-regarding-henry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/95279\/","title":{"rendered":"John Leguizamo Was ‘Humiliated’ By Early Role In ‘Regarding Henry’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJohn Leguizamo<\/a> recalled being \u201chumiliated\u201d by an early bit part in 1991\u2019s Regarding Henry<\/a>, in which he is credited as \u201cLiquor Store Gunman.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring a recent appearance on podcast Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade, the Emmy winner ruefully reflected on the role after it was brought up by Spade. Though Leguizamo took the role as he wanted to work with late director Mike Nichols<\/a>, whom he called \u201cone of the greats,\u201d he noted that \u201ceven talking about [the movie] just gives me PTSD.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou know, I was kind of humiliated by it,\u201d the Ice Age actor said of his experience. \u201cI did it because I got no jobs. There were no jobs for Latin folk. There just weren\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe drama, written by J.J. Abrams and starring Harrison Ford and Annete Bening, came before Leguizamo\u2019s breakout roles in Carlito\u2019s Way (1993), To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995) and Romeo + Juliet (1996). Ford portrays a ruthless, amoral lawyer, who is shot by Leguizamo\u2019s robber, and, after waking from a coma with amnesia, transforms into a more compassionate human being. The movie received mixed reviews and grossed under $90 million on a $25 million budget.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the time, Leguizamo likened the landscape in Hollywood to \u201cJim Crow.\u201d He said the roles that were available at the time were \u201cwhite doctor, white lawyer, white husband, white lover, Latino drug dealer,\u201d adding that he would beg his agents to perform monologues from Pulitzer Prize-winning writer\u00a0David Mamet\u2019s projects at auditions but was told casting directors were unwilling to see him.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey just want to see great shows, but they just weren\u2019t casting us,\u201d he continued. \u201cWhen I got\u00a0Regarding Henry, it was a drug dealer. I shoot this white guy. It was like, \u2018Oh my God, I\u2019m perpetuating what they want to see,\u2019 which is negative Latino images.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen asked by Carvey if he was ever told to \u201cLatin it up a little more\u201d for a part, Leguizamo said it was implied.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey didn\u2019t have to say that to me as much. I was the flavor they were looking for, like a ghetto hoodrat,\u201d the actor explained. \u201cI had been working against that because all my acting teachers, when I was 17, they were like, \u2018No one can understand you with that accent. Do you really speak that way?’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOver the past several decades, Leguizamo has dedicated much of his time to uplifting his community with advocacy. His MSNBC docuseries<\/a> Leguizamo Does America shines a light on Latinos across the U.S., with the host saying it aims to highlight \u201cLatin excellence.\u201d Leguizamo\u2019s upcoming projects include Christopher Nolan\u2019s star-studded epic The Odyssey and Ice Age 6<\/a>. Over the weekend, he was honored with the Best Actor Imagen Award<\/a> for Bob Trevino Likes It.<\/p>\n

\n\tWatch the full interview below:<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Leguizamo recalled being \u201chumiliated\u201d by an early bit part in 1991\u2019s Regarding Henry, in which he is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75,37386,51380,55744],"class_list":{"0":"post-95279","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-john-leguizamo","13":"tag-mike-nichols","14":"tag-regarding-henry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}