The role that humiliated John Leguizamo: “Even talking about it gives me PTSD”
Getting a big break in a movie from an Oscar-winning director should have been a career-defining opportunity for John Leguizamo, but it ended up being a thoroughly upsetting experience.
An actor with far more knowledge and interest in the direction that the industry takes than one may have assumed based on his standup comedy, Leguizamo has not only proven to be a fantastic performer who has attracted the likes of Christopher Nolan, but someone who’s been unafraid to speak his mind when it comes to current political issues.
He has been passionate about advocating for the representation of Latino actors and the opportunities given to them to have less stereotypical and more worthwhile roles. While helping his community have a better route to success is clearly something that he has always valued, he’s also hoped to use his actions to respond to a particularly painful experience during one of his first movies.
It was long before Leguizamo ever starred in Carlito’s Way or Moulin Rouge that he was cast in Regarding Henry, a drama directed by the great Mike Nichols and written by a young JJ Abrams. The film starred Harrison Ford as a greedy, petulant lawyer from New York City who loses his memory after being shot by a robber in a convenience store.
Regarding Henry is actually more progressive than its premise may suggest; it’s after having to start over that Ford’s character learns to be a better and more sensitive man, and begins to develop into someone that his wife and daughter can be proud of. However, Leguizamo felt that casting a Latino actor to play a criminal was confirming negative stereotypes, and instantly regretted taking on the role, admitting, “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”.
Although he knew from the moment he read the script that the role was racially coded, he was forced to take it because of the lack of opportunities for Latino actors, lamenting further, “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.”
The actor claimed he was interested in the film because he “really wanted to meet Mike Nichols, because he’s one of the greats”, which is an understandable position, given that the director is responsible for such classics as The Graduate, Working Girl, and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, but the scene in question proved to be a bummer.
“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,” he said with a heavy tone, adding, “Even talking about it just gives me PTSD.”
Thankfully, Regarding Henry didn’t end up making a massive impact on Leguizamo’s career, and while reviews weren’t exactly scathing, the general consensus among critics was that it was far too sentimental for its own good. In fact, even those who have seen the film may be surprised to learn that the actor was even in it.
