Latest / On with Mario Interviews / John Leguizamo

Transcript

John Leguizamo · On with Mario Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Pure on with Mario Lopez.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: So Ro Mario Lopez joining me right now on Zoom
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: actor in comic My man, John Leguizamo. How you been John?
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: What's help? Was help us up? How you doing, Mario?
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: How's everything going?
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: It's going really well, brother, blessed fee feel really good.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: I haven't seen you since your last show, which was
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: here was it the mark tape or form? We were
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: here in La or I was Comenson, That's what it was.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Excellent show, so much fun. Congratulations on the second season
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: of the docu series like Ozombo Does America. I know
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: it just premiere on NSNBC for those who may not
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: be familiar. Tell us about it.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, basically what I do in this show and
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: it's the first of its time, which is insane that
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: it's the first show on Latin culture because the first
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: language spoken in America was not English, was Spanish. We've
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: been here since fourteen ninety two and way before you know,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: most of the country has a Spanish name. So this
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: is the first show on our culture and it was
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: number one on MSNBC, so we got a second season.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: And basically what I do. I go around the country
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: looking for Latin exceptionalism, Latin genius, Latin ingenuity, and and
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: I celebrated, and I and I shine a light on it,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: and and I find that Latin joy all over the place.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: I love it. And that's one of the things I
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: loved about the show that I caught it the amen sin.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: I love history. It's always been my favorite subject, so
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: getting to know about that and the culture was very cool.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: And in the first episode of season two, I know
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: you're in Philly and you hit it. You hit a
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: boxing gym, right.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, I hit up a boxing gym. This
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: incredible uh boxing coach and in a poor neighborhood in
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Philly that's being gentrified severely. And you know, I always
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: knew gentrification and urban renewal and all these terms were bad.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: I didn't just understand how evil it was. You know,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: I always thought, oh, you get a couple of Starbucks
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: and people start to leave. But no, what happens is
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: this did fun schools, hospit those important resources supermarket. So people,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: you know, are basically starved out of their neighborhoods, so
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: they have to yell uncle himself for nothing. So this
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: coach won't give up. He stays in town. He has
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: his boxing gym, all these kids and uh, you know,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: I get beat up by that five year old in
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: the first episode.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: That's great, man, that's great. I know you've been all
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: kinds of different cities like Denver and New Orlands, San Antonio, Phoenix.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: Do you have a favorite that you've had the most fun.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's hard to say which is a fair
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: because everybody, each one had really interesting people. But I
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: got to say my I mean Nola's I love Noah,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: but I think San Antonio was my favorite. I didn't
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: think it would be.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: But that's an underrated city. I like San Antonio too
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: charming with he was saying so.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Charming and I didn't know it was the sixth largest
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: city in America either, it's it's massive. Yah. Food scene
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: is next level chef's. I mean, the incredible produce, the
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: ingredients is so fresh, the tied the tie two. Mexican
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: culture is so close that the food is really authentic tasting.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah. No, I love going there. I've got a nephew
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: in college there at the moment right now. You're also
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: John in this new crime drama Smoke Over an Apple TV,
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: along with tarn Edgerton and Jeriusmillett, and this was all
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: about the serial arsonists terrorizing the Pacific Northwest, right, that
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: must be very cool, fascinating.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, No, it's a sick story. It's a true
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: crime story.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Oh true. I love that.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Criminal. I guess that's the appropriate word. In the nineties,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: this guy John Orr was the pre eminent expert in
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: arson and it turned out that he was an expert
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: only because he was setting the fires himself all the work.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Dozens of people burned down millions and billions of dollars
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: with the property and wouldn't have been stopped, you want
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: to stopped unless somebody found them out. And that's what
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: this series is a fictional version of this guy and
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: I play, you know, the guy's best friend who gets
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: too close to him and starts to figure out that
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: something is fishy. So he has me my career destroyed
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: and sets me up as a fall guy, and my
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: career collapses. So I become a point director, because that's
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: what everybody who's in the fire department, who's in the
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: career does.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: That seems like a natural transition, right, I didn't see
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: that coming. You threw me off on that one.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: I went met it. I studied a lot of porn.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: Good for you research. You got to do the research.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: Not to get too much away, but I'm just curious
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: what these guys who do these do this. Is there
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: some sort of objective financially or is it? Are they
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: just kind of sick in the head and they want
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: to see people suffer?
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Or you know, they're financial reward. Obviously, if he's he's
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: a preeminent arts and investigator, he's.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: Going to be hired for Oh, I guess that's right,
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: because all oh, but that's awful. Oh my gosh, that's
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: like how many murderers and then you're you're the detective. Yeah,
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: here trying to try to selve the case. That's awful.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Oh that should be good, man, that should be good.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: This was cool, and I just it's a fun fact.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: I don't think I've ever asked you, but one of
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: your very first roles I remember was on Miami Vice
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: back in the eighties, almost forty years ago. What do
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: you remember about that particular time and audition?
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, that was crazy. I mean I was
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: I was like nineteen or twenty years old. I was
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: still in college. I went up for this audition for
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: the I guess the guest villain of the week. Yeah,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: and duckily I was really ill. I had like this fever,
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: so my voice was overy here. My voice was so low, right,
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: I think but helped me get the job. But then
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: when I went to work, my voice was back to normal.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: So I sound like a peachweek.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: That's hilarious, guy. And last question, John, I wanted to
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: ask you this Selena Gomez' fiance. I don't know if
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: you've ever met him or he you have met him.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: I met him at the New York Knicks VIP.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: Section, and so how did that conversation go. Was he
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: a huge fan of Carlito's Way obviously called himself Benny Blanco.
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: I'm curious about that inner interaction, Like, tell me about Yeah.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh, Benny Blanco, I mean, obviously you
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: love Carlito's Way. Yeah, and he was, yeah, yeah, I'm
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: I'm a big fan, you know. So yeah, you know school.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: I mean I don't own the name, no, but like.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: Your soil scenautous. I thought that's a big compliment to you, right,
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: because I was.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Like, yeah, a badge of honor that he named himself
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: after Benny Blanco. There was other A lot of other
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: stuff was named Benny Blanco through the years, Yes, which dude, honor,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: which was you know heron started being called Benny Blanco
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: after the show came out because of you know Blanco white, right, Yeah?
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: And I was, I guess I played a drug dealer.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: You know, I turned that road down three times?
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: Is that right?
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because I didn't want to play a drug dealer again.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: And I was like, I don't want to demonize my people.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: It's ridiculous. But then when they said they were going
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: to give it to Benicio char I said, okay, I'll.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: Take it right right. Hey, you're playing offosite Pacinto and
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: Sean fat I mean you can't go on?
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, how bad? It was a pretty great start.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: Oh it's the fast. Oh that's cool that you met, right,
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: Thanks for sharing that. Well. Listen everyone, Please be sure
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: catch John new episodes of Smoke on Apple TV every
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: Friday and in his docu series like Guzamo Does America
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: Sunday nights on MSNBC and available for streaming on Hulu.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: Thanks for checking in, brother, Good to see you.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: You're always faked to see you man.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: Much love you too, brother. Take care of You with
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: Mario Lopez