John Leguizamo Discusses THE ODYSSEY Prep and Early Hollywood Bias

John Leguizamo appeared on SiriusXM's 'Let's Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa,' discussing his early years facing discrimination in Hollywood as a young Latin actor, his history with Madonna, and how he prepared to play a sight-impaired character in Christopher Nolan's THE ODYSSEY.

On discrimination in Hollywood

Leguizamo reflected on the limited opportunities he faced coming up in the industry. 'Developing your thick skin to deal with nos is the most important thing that I'm trying to teach my daughter. That somehow because I was a Latin actor and had very little opportunity, no matter how talented you were, I saw it happen. And I'm think- I know you're young, but back then in the '80s there was this thing called the Ross Report,' he said.

'It came out every Monday. Of ross report. So it was like, it was a little like Jim Crow. Or in my case, Juan Crow,' he continued.

'But it listed, like, all the roles that are available and it said, 'White doctor, white lawyer, white lover, white this, white that. Latino drug dealer every five months.' So that was, I was going to NYU. I was with Andrew McCarthy and Debbi Sweeney, two big actors of the '80s. And they were going to five auditions a day. I was going to one every five months for a drug dealer. So here we are, three young men, all in the same school.'

'We're paying the same fee, although mine are all loans, and that ruined my credit. But, I'm getting A's, but they're going to five auditions a day. So no matter how talented I was, no matter how much I studied, I was never gonna have the same opportunity as them. So I learned pretty early on that I was going to have to enjoy what little I got, spend most of my time in acting classes and write my own material, create my own future,' Leguizamo said.

Kelly Ripa responded, 'But, when I think about you doing the thing that you did, which was not just make the most of the once every five month audition, you created your own roles.'

'Exactly. I created my own opportunities. I figured out that, it was Hollywouldn't for me. So-' Leguizamo said.

'I was gonna create my own path, so I started doing, performance art spaces, comedy clubs. I joined improv groups. I joined everything and anything that would accept me, and I was thrilled. Thrilled to be a part of anything. I think that was my superpower, was that I was happy to be anywhere, however they wanted me, and I was just glad to be there,' he continued. 'And so it didn't matter w- how high level it was.'

Ripa observed, 'Those actors that went into the outer stratosphere of success- they had crash outs fast.' Leguizamo agreed: 'Yes.'

Ripa continued, 'And whereas you did a slow, steady ... steady, and you've never stopped. You've never stopped. You've always been in the zeitgeist films at the right moments, in the right way, always moving forward. And I'm wondering, is it because of your- Latino-ness that you said to yourself, 'I can't have a crash out.''

'It's interesting because I think my lack of ability to move forward because of my ethnicity was, it's not a blessing, but it forced me to appreciate what I had and it made my climb really slow,' Leguizamo said.

'So it always forced me to rely on myself and not to be Hollywood hungry or that Hollywood was everything. It wasn't for me because I knew- they rejected me constantly. So i- it built me, a strength in me and a foundation that I built that in, into like I just love the craft,' he said.

'I had to fall in love with just the fact of getting better in my craft, not achieving success, not achieving fame, not chasing money. The poor guys that were successful early didn't have any foundation. And nobody prepares you for fame. Fame is a really difficult thing that nobody's prepared for because now you start falling to the trap of imposter syndrome, where you think you have to be perfect all the time, that you have to be special, and nobody's perfect, and nobody's special, and that's a really hard thing to live up to, and you start, people start imploding,' Leguizamo said. 'They start, the highs and lows are too unreal. They're too unreal and nobody prepares you for that.'

On Madonna

Ripa asked Leguizamo about appearing in Madonna's 'Borderline' video. Leguizamo recalled being invited to Madonna's homes for dinner on multiple occasions, including in London and Manhattan. 'Hell yeah. She's invited me to her h- house a couple times for dinners. I had dinner with her in London, in her townhouse, and then we had dinner with her in her townhouse here in Manhattan,' he said. Asked what he ate at her house, Leguizamo said, 'Oh, wow, I can't even remember. I can't remember. It w- it was myself, Lenny Kravitz. It was a, it was three of u- three, three or four of us.'

'Wow. Yeah, and we sat down to dinner. She had incredible paintings. The food was delicious, and she sat at the head of the table, and we all paid tribute- Were her kids there? Were her kids home? No. Oh. It was just adults. Just grown-ups. At 8:00 PM, 9:00 PM. But I had heard as a young man that she loved Latin guys- ... and that she would drive around l- LES in a limo, and so instead of making her drive around trying to find me, I thought, let me go to her. Like I was Cinderella or something,' Leguizamo said.

'Let me go to the ball- ... and see what happens. See if I meet the princess. So I get to the shoot for the video, and I don't even get picked for the center, for the lead guys. I get picked for the background guys, and then I didn't even meet her. I got a pat and a sandwich to go home, and I was like...' he said. Ripa noted, 'But now look at you. Now you're at the head table. Yeah, how did you become friends?'

'She married Sean Penn. We were doing Casualties of War, and Sean told me that she had a crush on me. And I was like, 'What? Oh, wow. Word.' But I was otherwise engaged, but so was she, 'cause she was married to Sean,' Leguizamo said.

On going method for THE ODYSSEY

Ripa asked Leguizamo about getting the call from Christopher Nolan for THE ODYSSEY. 'So my agent calls me, right? And then, what happened was I was hanging out with Himesh, who plays Eurylochus. I can never pronounce that one. He said that they gave him a straight offer, and I was like, 'That didn't happen for me, motherfer,'' Leguizamo said. Ripa asked, 'Wait, you didn't get a straight offer?'

'No. Wait. No, he wanted to meet with me. My agent called me up and said, 'He wants to meet with you. He's interested in you for a role. We don't know what it is. We don't know what the story is. We don't know what the script is, but it's yours to lose.' And I go, 'Thanks,'' Leguizamo said.

'And so I go to lunch with him at Odeon, his favorite spot, and it was amazing. We sat there for two hours. He shared about his life, his career, which was so vulnerable- ... and open, and it was so beautiful. I was like, 'If I don't get the role, I don't care. I had the best lunch of my entire life hanging out with this dude.''

'And then he told me about the character. 'Look, I want you for this...' But he's got a British accent, yeah. Even though he was born in America. And he was like, I've got this role. It's called Eumaeus, and I think you'd be wonderful in it. It's the most loyal character in Western literature,'' Leguizamo said. 'Amazing. And I was like, 'That sounds just right up my alley.''

'So he explained it to me. 'You're gonna have a lot of expositional dialogue. Can you make it conversational? That's gonna be your job.' But what he didn't tell me was that I was gonna be playing a really old motherfer,' Leguizamo said. 'That I was gonna be playing a 100-year-old guy who has no vision. So I learned that later. But anyway, he offered me the role at the end of the lunch, and I tried to act cool, and I was like, 'Oh, thanks.' But I ran home.'

'30 blocks. Hugged my wife, called all my friends, called my mother, my kids,' Leguizamo said. 'Amazing. I was so excited to be working with him, so thrilled. And to do The Odyssey?'

Ripa noted, 'Yeah, it's massive. But-' Leguizamo replied, 'Incredible ...' Ripa then asked, 'you're a method actor, right?' Leguizamo confirmed, 'Absolutely. Big-time method.'

Ripa asked how he trained to play a character with no vision. 'So I, my high school friend Gina Velasquez is legally blind- ... so I spent time with her- ... and followed her around. And then also I walked, I turned off all the lights in my house, and at night I would walk around the house, like, trying to see what i- what is it that I have to memorize?' Leguizamo said. 'How is it that people who are sight-impaired function in life? You know- ... what do I, how do I eat my lunch? I would put bandages on my eyes and I'd try to eat lunch and try to cook a breakfast, with somebody looking so I don't burn myself,' he said.

Don't Miss a TV News Story
Sign up for all the news on the Summer season, discounts & more...