John Leguizamo gets PTSD when thinking about early movie role
John Leguizamo gets PTSD when thinking about his role in Regarding Henry as he believes it reinforces stereotypes about his community.
John Leguizamo gets PTSD when thinking about his role in Regarding Henry.
The 65-year-old actor played a convenience store robber in Mike Nichols’ 1991 classic movie but admitted he regrets taking on the role, which saw his character shoot Harrison Ford’s lawyer alter-ego, leaving him with memory problems and mobility issues.
Speaking on the Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade podcast, John said: "You know, I was kind of humiliated by it. I did it because I got no jobs. There were no jobs for Latin folk. There just weren't.
I'm not going to lie. It was like white doctor, white lawyer, white husband, white lover, Latino drug dealer.”
John added that “there were no opportunities," saying that Hollywood "was like Jim Crow" at the time, referring to the state and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced racial segregation.
John added that he was desperate to impress casting directors but was told they were not willing to see him.
He said: “They just want to see great shows, but they just weren't casting us. When I got Regarding Henry, it was a drug dealer. I shoot this white guy. It was like, I'm perpetuating what they want to see, which is negative Latino images … like a ghetto hoodrat. I had been working against that. All my acting teachers, when I was 17, they were like, 'No one can understand you with that accent. Do you really speak that way?'
“But there I am with my sloppy fro and I'm in the drugstore, I mean in the bodega, and there's Harrison Ford and I'm robbing the place. Even talking about it just gives me PTSD."
However, John auditioned for Regarding Henry because he "really wanted to meet Mike Nichols because he's one of the greats."
