Miami Living Magazine

EXCLUSIVE MIAMI LIVING 97 I arrive at an unassuming West Village café only to second guess whether I have the correct address. I was told that a reservation had been made for John Leguizamo and me, but I am confused as there are only four tables. I tell the barista I have a "reservation," and she points to the only vacant table by the door. I take the seat facing the window. The afternoon sky is gray and the rain is steady. A man in his 70s or 80s sits down opposite me, directly between my table and the one beside me on the wooded window seat. The man will literally be arm-to-arm with John when he eventually arrives. He asks if I am waiting for someone, and then refers to my mystery guest as a "lucky guy." I concur. He is lucky, but not in the way he's implying, I clarify. John arrives and takes a seat. Considering the lack of personal space with his new neighbor, I ask him if he wants to stay here. We stay. He chose this place, and tells me it is a local-spot that regularly produces a very long line of patrons, that includes Alec Baldwin and Daniel Day-Lewis, there for the "amazing" coffee. I apologize for dragging him out in the rain. "I do like when it rains, except in the fall," replies John. [It is fall.] True to his roots, the Columbia-born, Queens-raised, 50-year-old actor is more convincing at still being Johnny from the block than JLo, in his black rimmed glasses, University of Pennsylvania baseball cap (sticker affixed to the bill), gray Nike hoodie, navy blue jacket and black Adidas track pants. After requisite small talk, he stands up to order a drink from the counter, but not before asking if I want anything [I decline.] and eyeing my business card on the table. "Miss Pascale," he reads, then chuckles. As soon as he's out of earshot, the older man nods toward John. "He's very talented. He has a one-man show." Many of John's one-man shows, Spic-O-Rama, Freak, Ghetto Klown (his "masterpiece"), Sexaholix…A Love Story… have been performed on Broadway and taped for HBO. When John returns, the man gives us our space, but before he walks out the door he turns to John and says, "Nice work." "Oh, thanks a lot. Thank you," John replies. The prolific actor, who has six films coming out in 2015 alone, has appeared in an extensive list of movies and television shows including, To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, (which he received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor), Moulin Rouge, Romeo + Juliet, Lincoln Lawyer, Ride Along, Chef, John Wick, FUGLY! (the last four were just released this year), a one-year stint on ER and a number of guest roles on TV series like My Name is Earl. And now there is FUGLY! to add to his list – the first film he has written (with Katie DeMarco), produced and starred in. (Though, he co-wrote Undefeated for HBO but was uncredited, he tells me.) Loosely based on his life, FUGLY! features John as Jesse Sanchez, alongside Rosie Perez as Zowie and Radha Mitchell as Lara. The latter bears a close resemblance to John's wife, Justine Maurer, I point out. While Lara is not supposed to be his wife, he tells me, "I definitely picked a very classy, white girl-type. My wife is a very classy white girl-type, Upper West Side, good breeding. So, yeah I picked someone who was like her. Rosie was kinda like the other situation." He smiles. The idea for the film sprung from an incident that occurred when John was 12-years-old. "Going into junior high school," he recollects, "I walk into the classroom. I had my 'fro all ready to impress the ladies. It rained like this and it got all soggy. I looked like a wet dog. And the girls starting going, 'He's fugly! He's fugly!'" The name quietly fades out. "It stuck for a year of my life. That was a painful year. It was that incident that kinda shaped this movie." A revenge movie of sorts, Jesse sets out to show people that he can make something of himself – and succeeds.

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