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HBO Online Exclusive Interview with John Leguizamo
HBO
Okay, we're interviewing John Leguizamo for the "Undefeated" website. Thank you for joining us. We're going to edit this so we can just, you know...
JOHN LEGUIZAMO
So we sound much more intelligent and hip than we are.
HBO
Exactly.
JOHN LEGUIZAMO
Good.
HBO
Before we get into UNDEFEATED, I want to dip into the Leguizamo library for a moment. You've played an incredible range of characters going back for instance to "Time Expired" where you played-
JOHN LEGUIZAMO
A drag queen.
HBO
A drag queen, who's in love with an ex-convict. Wonderful, unconventional comic "love" story...
JOHN LEGUIZAMO
With Edie Falco.
HBO
With Edie Falco. And from around that time forward you've amassed a body of work, this range of characters. Was there a method to all this?
JOHN LEGUIZAMO
Well, what happened was, I always wanted to do things that were different and as challenging as possible, and never to repeat myself. That was, like, a vow to myself, just not to repeat myself... and to do things as challenging and as different as I could. So I did Spawn the clown, Toulouse-Lautrec, all these... bizarre and different characters. And now, I'm in a new sort of phase in my life where I'm doing things as close to me as possible.
HBO
Tell us about the evolution of "Undefeated," from the initial idea to screenplay. This was your idea...
JOHN LEGUIZAMO
Yeah.
HBO
... which you co-wrote with Frank Pugliese...
JOHN LEGUIZAMO
Well, it started a long time ago. We've been working on it for five or six years, and it started off as a true story, and it didn't work out at all, so we had to scratch that and start all over again.
And so three years working with Frank (Pugliese) and getting it to the right place. HBO really loved the project, really nurtured it, and helped me all the way through, and gave me enough money so I could make it look as expensive as I could.
You know, 'cause boxing sequences need a lot of time, you need a lot of rehearsal. I've been boxing for five or six years... longer than that. But for the movie, I really concentrated the last four months, right before the movie, I was boxing six, seven, eight hours a day... and choreographing it for two months. It was choreographed for four rounds and 50 punches, then it got whittled down to three rounds and I'm not sure how many punches remained.
But, it was really complicated, and it had to be all timed, because when I got there on the day, there was not going to be time to rethink things, or figure things out, or let's play with it a little, man... [LAUGHS] we had one day to do each boxing sequence.
HBO
Aside from the technical, what did you learn from the various fighters you trained with?
JOHN LEGUIZAMO
Well, one thing about boxers in general is that they're incredible gentlemen. There's a classiness to boxers that I didn't really find in other athletes. I guess because you go at it alone, all the time. And you have to be the best you can be at all times, that they have this incredible respect and humility at the same time.
Because every time you go out there in the ring, you could get beat down. So, I guess that's what makes them so incredibly humble.
But, what I learned from each boxer - there were different things, but it was always basically... you have to find your own style. Even though there's a real science to it, how your arms have to shoot out straight, and then twist, and all this technicality... basically, you've got to find your own style, man, whatever suits you, you know.
I kind of like the more fancy dancing... kind of... cocky thing, like Arturo Gatti, and Oscar De La Hoya have. And Camacho.
HBO
You've called this a Faustian story.
JOHN LEGUIZAMO
Yeah.
HBO
For those unfamiliar with the classics, can you elaborate a little on what you mean?
JOHN LEGUIZAMO
Well the Faust story comes from a Jacobian play - that's pre-Shakespeare - written by Christopher Marlowe. It's basically the deal with the devil. What happens when you get what you really wish for, and what do you do to keep it? What would you do or be willing to sacrifice for that?
And that's what I loved about the story. It wasn't just a boy from the ghetto makes good, you know, it was more than that. It was boy from the ghetto makes good, now what happens to everything he had, his friendships, his family life... what happens to all of that when you add money to the equation and fame? What happens to these people? What happens to the friends and the individual himself?
Does he start to mistrust? Does he start to get paranoid? Do his friends become parasitic? You know what I mean? What happens to all those relationships?
HBO
Tell us about your first experience as director? What was it like?
JOHN LEGUIZAMO
Well, it was crazily... challenging, I mean, I knew it was going to be difficult, but I didn't realize how difficult it was going to be, or how long. I just finished the movie last week, so it's been over a year I've been working on it.
HBO
Wow.
JOHN LEGUIZAMO
Like, 24/7, I mean, like, there's no break... no breaks, [LAUGHS] man, like, with movies, as an actor, you go there... what, three, four months sometimes, the most... sometimes a lot less than that. And half the day's yours, you know, to do whatever you want. This shit went on 24/7.
Answering questions about music, costumes, all the actors and their individual quirks, you've got to be father, patriarch, psychologist... [LAUGHS] you know, you got to be everything to everybody all the time.
HBO
One last question: what do you think it is about boxing stories that fascinate audiences so much? There's such a rich history, going back decades of...
JOHN LEGUIZAMO
Yeah.
HBO
... boxing movies...
JOHN LEGUIZAMO
Cagney, Garfield.
HBO
Yeah. What do you think it is about them that fascinates audiences?
JOHN LEGUIZAMO
I think because it's so primal, it's one of the most primal sport events we have. I mean everybody gets into fights, guys always get into fights, and... and you always feel like you have to protect your family, and someday you're going to have to get into one of those fights, so you kind of relive your drama through boxing.
And usually the people in a boxing match are giving everything they have. You play out a lot of the drama of your life through that. These guys are going out to give everything, everything they got, and only one of them is going to come out a winner.
It's kind of Darwinian, in a way, and I think that's what appeals to everybody, such an inherent, crazy drama, more than other sports, where... where it's more about style and technique and... and if a team wins, they still have a chance to come back and play another team, you know, this is it... [LAUGHS] you got to win or, or it's over.
HBO
Are boxers our contemporary gladiators?
JOHN LEGUIZAMO
Yeah, absolutely. They will always be our gladiators, and they will always speak to the primal part of us.
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