INTERVIEW: John Leguizamo Talks 'Dear Killer Nannies,' ICE, Trump Administration, Bad Bunny Super Bowl, New Exorcist Movie, Hollywood + More

Summary

The Breakfast Club – Interview with John Leguizamo

Episode Date: April 1, 2026
Main Guests: John Leguizamo
Hosts: DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, Angela Yee, Lauren LaRosa

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Episode Theme:

Inside Hollywood, Identity, and “Dear Killer Nannies”
John Leguizamo joins The Breakfast Club for a candid, lively discussion centered on his new show “Dear Killer Nannies”—which offers a fresh take on Pablo Escobar’s legacy—while tackling larger topics including Latino representation in Hollywood, the Trump era, ICE, cultural identity, political activism, and personal/artistic resilience.

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Key Discussion Topics & Insights

1. The New Show: “Dear Killer Nannies”

• Premise: A series about Pablo Escobar from his son’s point of view, exploring the gangster’s home life, the fear his family lived in, and the nannies who doubled as assassins and protectors.
• Escobar’s Humanity:
  • Leguizamo tried to avoid “normalizing” Escobar, showing both his brutality and flawed parenthood.
  • “We were trying not to humanize him and normalize him… but we do show the parent side. That was complicated.” (John, 07:34)
• Research & Preparation:
  • Leguizamo studied Escobar intensely, consulted with Escobar’s son (who’s a consultant on this project for the first time), watched tapes, and read everything available.
  • “To show up everybody that I could do it better than everybody else had done.” (09:07)
• Spanish Language & Dubbing:
  • The series is in Spanish with an English dub, voiced by Leguizamo: “But you know, it's Squid Game, come on… Americans did not wanna be reading…but America is different now. It's much more sophisticated, much more worldly. I think we got a big shot.” (40:39)

Timestamps:

• Show intro and premise: [04:53]–[06:49]
• On Escobar’s parenting and family life: [06:54]–[08:11]
• Violence, nannies, and family trauma: [08:19], [09:49]–[11:58]
• How Colombians view Escobar: [12:06]–[13:10]

2. Latino Identity & Hollywood Barriers

• Longstanding Discrimination:
  • Leguizamo shares experiences of “Juan Crow” (anti-Latino Jim Crow), being locked out of mainstream roles, and classic Hollywood’s reliance on stereotypes.
  • “The Russ report would…say white lead, white doctor, white lawyer…Then every five months I get like a Latin drug dealer.” (15:33)
• Inclusion Takes More Than Casting:
  • Latino representation needs writing and executive power: “Until we get 20% of executives, things are gonna change. But until we have Latin executives, things aren't going to change that much.” (16:57)
  • Cultural authenticity matters: “Sometimes a lot of Latin content is not written by Latin people or directed by a Latin person…People can smell that out.” (17:51)
• On All-White Movies:
  • Leguizamo won’t see all-white films: “It's a transgression, man. Include us. Include us.” (31:45)
  • Favorite all-white movies (classic): "Good Will Hunting…Goonies.” (32:22)

Timestamps:

• Barriers in the industry: [13:13]–[17:51], [23:27]–[25:21], [31:29]–[32:22]
• All-white movies section: [31:29]–[32:41]
• Favorite all-white movies: [32:22]–[32:41]

3. ICE, U.S. Policy, and Speaking Out

• Leguizamo’s Stand:
  • “If you follow ICE, don’t come to my shows…Because the way I see Latin bodies being treated…That’s not America.” (19:51–20:39)
• On Backlash and Security:
  • He’s had to increase precautions, and speaks about the personal cost of activism: “When you speak out, there are consequences…my family’s afraid.” (21:31)
• Reflection on ICE Agents:
  • Struggles with seeing Black and Latino ICE agents “treating their own people”: “That bugs the hell out of me…how do you treat your own people?” (21:56)
• Trump Administration:
  • On using ICE in elections, militarization, and the blurring of American values: “That private military…Send them wherever they want.” (21:08)

Timestamps:

• ICE segment: [19:40]–[22:14]
• On personal and community impact: [21:31]–[22:24]

4. Comedy, Acting, and Artistic Process

• Roots in Comedy:
  • “I was a class clown and a troublemaker…you couldn’t sit at this one lunchroom table unless you crack the best jokes the day before.” (23:51–24:13)
  • Transition to acting: “Started taking acting classes. NYU students…offered me student films. Boom, boom, I got an agent. I got Miami Vice…” (24:45)
• Testing Material:
  • Now tests jokes via Zoom and with trusted friends due to fame: “I have to do different things…make it smaller and more protected.” (30:49), (31:00)
• Emotional Impact of Roles:
  • Taking dark roles home: “Every movie affects you personally…Your mind doesn’t know the difference between reality and fantasy when you’re feeding stuff into your head.” (34:55)
  • Coping: music, walking, reading light material (35:25)

Timestamps:

• Comedy and acting origins: [23:43]–[25:21], [30:23]–[31:19]
• Artistic/coping process: [33:34]–[36:26]

5. Politics, Activism, and Cultural Accountability

• On Speaking Out:
  • Leguizamo lost half his followers after going political in 2016: “I lost half my following…I have a hard time being quiet. I have a hard time keeping to myself. I have a hard time seeing our country…going down.” (37:28, 38:02)
• Impact on Career:
  • Recognizes career consequences, lost gigs, fewer invitations: “You know, when you become political…it has consequences. I mean, how could it not?” (38:38–38:54)
• Calls for Accountability:
  • "Write those names down and let’s Nuremberg them…Nobody gets away.” (43:08)
  • Need for a “Project 2028” to rebuild and reverse Trump’s policies, increase funding for schools, and protect democracy (43:36, 46:55)
• Democratic Party & Reform:
  • “Democracy is not a spectator sport. You got to do something. You got to participate.” (38:02)
  • Calls the American left “left of center,” not radical: “We never really had a left America.” (45:40)
• Preferred Leader:
  • Touts Gov. Gavin Newsom as the best hope among Democratic leaders ([48:53]).

Timestamps:

• Politics and activism: [37:22]–[39:11], [42:33]–[43:45], [45:31]–[48:02]
• Favorite candidate: [48:53]

6. Cultural Touchstones & Representation

• Cultural Recognition:
  • On Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance: “It was moving, man, to see all these Latin kids performing on that stage being their authentic selves…To see us celebrated instead of demonized, instead of being attacked.” (49:43)
• Artist or Disruptor?:
  • “Can I be both? Can I be a great entertainer that’s culturally disruptive? Because I believe artists are political.” (51:14)

Timestamps:

• Bad Bunny & cultural moments: [49:32]–[51:06]
• Entertainer vs. disruptor: [51:06]–[51:36]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “To be a Black or Latin talent, you have to be 10 times better than a white talent to get that job.”
  — John Leguizamo [14:21]
• “You're not reading them their rights and not treating them with due process. That's not America. That's not the America that I believe in.”
  — John Leguizamo [20:39]
• “I won't go see a movie that's all white. ...We were in history. Latin black people were. We've been here since, since the conquest and before…”
  — John Leguizamo [23:33]
• “I believe artists are political. I believe art is political. Entertaining is a different thing. But I'm an artist, man. I like to create stuff that changes the world, that makes the world a better place.”
  — John Leguizamo [51:14]
• “Democracy is not a spectator sport. You got to do something. You got to participate.”
  — John Leguizamo [38:02]
• “I want a president who’s just like Trump, as tough as Trump…But not as cruel.”
  — John Leguizamo [48:20]
• “There are two types of men born into the world, Those that create and those that destroy…Trump, he destroys everything.”
  — John Leguizamo [48:28]

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Additional Highlights & Humor

• Playful banter about name mispronunciation and all the ways teachers said “Leguizamo” wrong ([03:36]).
• Loving callout of the “rice and beans circuit”—the big-city tour for Latin comics ([18:42]).
• Insightful history lesson on Spanish as the original European language of the Americas ([41:17]).
• Joking about favorite “all-white” movies and the absurdity of casting white people as Egyptians in “Exodus” ([32:22], [32:54]).
• “I'm in the new Exorcist… It’s terrifying. I'm not allowed to speak exactly about it, but it's more true crime, like Seven meets Satan.” ([33:04], [33:34])

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Conclusion

This episode is rich in humor, hard truths, and social awareness—balancing the realities of multicultural identity in America, the hardships and victories of carving out space in Hollywood, and the fierce necessity of standing up for community and justice, even at a personal cost. Leguizamo blends wit and resolve, leaving listeners with a rallying cry: include us, create, don’t destroy, and never be silent.

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Transcript

[Lauren LaRosa]

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[Lauren LaRosa]

Let me get this straight.

[John Leguizamo]

You're in Italy?

[Lauren LaRosa]

Child pretended to be the white Italian man's fiance. Hard to believe.

[John Leguizamo]

This is Michael, my nephew.

[Lauren LaRosa]

Then you ended up catching feelings for the black Italian Cousin Brothers.

[Movie Trailer Voice]

On April 10, she came for the pasta and got lost in the sauce.

[John Leguizamo]

Please just tell me that you support me, girl.

[Angela Yee]

No.

[Lauren LaRosa]

Is he fine though? Come on baby.

[DJ Envy]

You can eat, pray and Love Me, Baby.

[Movie Trailer Voice]

UV in Tuscany PG13 only in theaters April 10th. May be inappropriate for children under 13.

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[Angela Yee (Lip Service Segment)]

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[Lauren LaRosa]

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[Breakfast Club Intro Voice]

Hold up.

[Angela Yee]

Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up. The Breakfast Club.

[DJ Envy]

Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy. Just hilarious. Charlemagne, the guy. We are the Breakfast Club. Lauren Larose is here with us as well. We got a special guest in the building. Yes, indeed, John Leguizamo.

[John Leguizamo]

How are you doing?

[DJ Envy]

Did I say your name right?

[John Leguizamo]

Leguizamo. That's how I pronounce it. That's not how you're supposed to say it.

[DJ Envy]

How you supposed to say it?

[John Leguizamo]

Okay, but you know when teachers would get to that My name, and they go like. Like Cubano, like gizmo, like grisamo. I was like, you know, I'm gonna just do it phonetically and shut them up, okay? They'll be laughing at me.

[Angela Yee]

I was like that with my first name. My first name is Leonard. But the teachers would always say Leonard, right? And so I would get tired of correcting them. So I was just like, man, just call me my middle name, my daddy's name, which is Larry.

[John Leguizamo]

Like Larry, Larry. That'll just stop the nonsense. Your first day of school, everybody starts laughing at you. Is not the way you want to start the year. You know what I mean?

[Interviewer/Host]

How are you?

[John Leguizamo]

I'm great. I'm great. Great to be here. This is exciting to be here, man.

[Angela Yee]

Happy to have you.

[DJ Envy]

That's right.

[John Leguizamo]

And you on Netflix now. God damn.

[Angela Yee]

Yes.

[John Leguizamo]

That's a big deal.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yes.

[John Leguizamo]

Ching. How much? How much? How much? Come on, let's talk.

[Angela Yee]

Tell us how much you made for Dear Nanny

[DJ Envy]

Killing.

[John Leguizamo]

I don't brag, man. I don't like to brag. It's not cool. It's not cool to brag, you know? No, they. I mean, Disney pays well. It pays well. I'm not gonna lie. Yeah, Apple, Disney, Netflix doesn't pay well for Actors anymore, I don't know about your show is a totally different thing.

[Angela Yee]

Licensing is.

[John Leguizamo]

We do a good. Licenses is different. Right. I like the way he just threw it. Licenses is a little different.

[DJ Envy]

Let's talk about Derek. Killer Nannies. It premieres on the first. Well, which is tomorrow.

[John Leguizamo]

Yeah, yeah.

[DJ Envy]

And it's about Pablo Escobar, but in a different light.

[John Leguizamo]

Absolutely. Cuz you know, everybody's done Pablo Escobar.

[DJ Envy]

Correct.

[John Leguizamo]

You know, and I guess, you know, like white actors have to do, like Hamlet. And they all do it. Latin actors all have to do to show who's the best. Because Javier. But them did it. Benicio Toro did it. Wagner Moore, who just got nominated for an Oscar, did it. So now it's my turn to do it. So everybody did good. Some didn't get the accent quite right. Right. A couple of them not going to name who. And some didn't get the gestures, the behavior. So I tried to do it all, man. I studied my ass off. I watched every tape, every recording he ever had. I read everything about him. I talked to his son, gave me a lot of tips about how to play him nice and things that happened because the son was a consultant on this one for the first time ever.

[Angela Yee]

Wow.

[John Leguizamo]

So we're seeing the inside of what happened and what was said at home. And that's what's exciting about this show because you. You didn't know what was going on. Like the kind of fear that they lived under. Even though he was, I guess, the wealthiest gangster that ever lived, he was worth 30 billion when he died. I guess that's 70 billion in today's 20, 26 money that. So he's the wealthiest, but he still had to move homes sometimes, stay away from the family, so he would. So he could be like a decoy away from them. The son tried to go to school, but the DA was after them. Assassination attempts, the kids were afraid of him. So he had to be schooled at home by these trained assassin nannies. And they became his friends, his family. And you know, you can't totally trust them because they're not really family. And some of them became informants. So Pablo had to off some of them. And then that was confusing to the son that his dad was taking out some of the nannies that he loved. And so that's all in the series. It's really wild.

[DJ Envy]

It's not about the drug part of it. It's more about the son growing up and how his father was a father.

[John Leguizamo]

Exactly. Trying to be a father, you know, and you. Back then, it was a tough love kind of love, but Pablo was the first guy in Colombia, maybe in all of Latin America in the 80s, because it was a tough love kind of. You raise your son like being tough. You want to meet him, prepare for the world. He would say, I love you, kiss him, hug him. In public, at home, everywhere. And Colombian dads weren't doing that. Obviously, Pablo knew that he might die, so that's why he was more affectionate. But he. But, you know, because I hug and kiss my son and say, I love you, but that's not how my dad treated me. You know, my dad was like, every day I see you, you get more stupider than the last day. That's how my dad, you know, there is you back then.

[Angela Yee]

Did playing him in this series humanize him for you?

[John Leguizamo]

I would. We were trying not to humanize him and normalize him. You know, we do show all the killings and the assassinations that he did, but. But we do show the parent side. That was complicated because the son did call him out a lot of times. You know, he's, you know, what kind of life are we living? You're killing the nannies. You're killing some of my friends. Are you gonna kill my. My mom if she says the wrong thing to you? So he. The. The son does call him out in the show, which is that. That's the only part that you might feel kind of humanizing him a little bit.

[Angela Yee]

I wonder why. Why did he. Why was he so willing to just kill people and let people know that he was killing them? You would think that that would be something he would keep to himself.

[John Leguizamo]

Well, I mean, because he was.

[Angela Yee]

He was.

[John Leguizamo]

He owned Colombia. You know, he owned the whole country. He owned the government. He was bribing everybody. His thing was plata oblomo. So either you take the bribe or you get a bullet. So that was your choice that he put to everybody. And he took all. You know, he bombed a lot of journalists. He bombed a lot of politicians. He controlled the country, basically. He. He. He told him that he would pay their debt if they let him take over completely.

[DJ Envy]

Were you nervous or scared playing this part at all?

[John Leguizamo]

You know, it's been years now. No, I'm not scared anymore. I was just like, what you mean anymore?

[DJ Envy]

Were you scared first?

[John Leguizamo]

You know, back in the day, you couldn't do that because, you know, who knows? Somebody might come after you. But now, I mean, it's years later,

[Interviewer/Host]

you know, what drew you to the role initially?

[John Leguizamo]

To show up everybody that I could do it better than everybody else had done. And I think I did a crazy good job, man. There's one actor that might have beat me, the Colombian actor who did a TV series about Pablo. He looked just exactly like him. His accent was perfection. The gestures, I'm second, I think. But you, you judge for yourself what

[Angela Yee]

is a role like this demand from you emotionally that, that other roles did.

[John Leguizamo]

Well, this one, you know, it was a lot of research that, that more than other roles where I could be myself or tap different parts of myself here, I had to, like, reach to the level that you could play Paulo Escobar tape next to me and me and see that there's not that much difference, you know, that that's what I was after.

[Lauren LaRosa]

Yeah, I saw that. His son told the LA Times that doing a movie like this is like his way to tell the truth and to kind of push back against the way that other movies has made the violence a spectacle. But how do you not make it a spectacle? Because he's so notorious and like, you got to include all of that stuff so, like, in the writing. How did they try and figure that out?

[John Leguizamo]

Yeah, yeah, because we did, we did still show all his violence, you know, all the assassinations, attempts that he put on people and, and, and, and, and the kind of life of paranoia that he lived, we kept that. But I think the difference in this is that you, you, you see what the, the family life was like at home with the wife and, and, and with the kids, and how he was trying to be a loving dad, but his morality said the opposite message. You know, he just couldn't help it. I mean, I mean, we all mess up his parents, but our kids are going to hit us for something. But I mean, he, he had extra, you know, he had all that having to move the kids from place to place, having to stay away from them so that he wouldn't bring violence to the house. And eventually, you know, that kind of lifestyle always ends the way it always ends. You know, like he got shot up

[Interviewer/Host]

when we were talking to the son. Right. And I imagine the son had to relive all this and go down memory lane a lot. Was it ever emotional for him, do you think?

[John Leguizamo]

Yeah, he got, he got emotional, you know. Cause he did love his dad, you know, I guess he had a lot of words and some beef towards the end, but I guess you have to make up for that after your dad passes. You know, he changed his whole life. He moved to Argentina, changed his name, became a psychologist. I guess you would have to Become a psychologist, lifestyle and, and he goes around the world doing, you know, speeches about, you know, giving good, putting out good.

[Interviewer/Host]

That's amazing.

[John Leguizamo]

So that, that's how he, he escaped the sins of the father.

[Lauren LaRosa]

But even though he's done all of that does, is there like traumas that he still deals with daily, even all

[John Leguizamo]

these years later, you know, he definitely has to deal with, I mean, the, the way they grew up and, and all that money that he didn't get because, you know, a lot of it was disappeared. It, it, it, we never, it was never really discovered where a lot, a lot of that money went. But I think a lot of people robbed it and, and took it and

[Angela Yee]

especially law enforcement, I'm sure they got

[John Leguizamo]

here, they got a huge chunk of that. And all his other comrades must have taken a piece.

[DJ Envy]

I wanted to know, you know, for, for Colombians, how did they view Pablo? Because, you know, did they love him or was it just a fearful thing or did they hate him?

[John Leguizamo]

They hate him. I mean, I think mostly the journalists and people who are law abiding citizens hate him. But you know, the people in the town, they loved him because he did all the right things, you know, and he was representing them because, you know, Latin America, you know, it's, it's 10% of the people run everything. Anybody else lives in poverty, you know, so he was building stadiums, churches, you know, helping out, building schools. He did all the right things to make people love him. And he represented sort of the little man, the ordinary guy, the underdog, making it, making it big, busting out of this sort of world where if you're born into money, you get the education, you get the best jobs, you know, and that, you know, and also like, the more white looking you are in Latin America, the more successful you are, and if you're more indigenous or Afro Latino, it's a much tougher life. Just, you know, all that colonist colonialism and conquest doesn't go away that easy, you know.

[Angela Yee]

How do you pivot between comedy, you know, doing dramas like this? Because I'm an amazing actor, you know what I mean? Like, how do you pivot between all of that stuff? So.

[John Leguizamo]

Because I'm an amazing actor, that's why. How else can you do that? Yeah, you know, I love what I do, man. I love, I love animated voices like Encanto and the Sloth. I love doing that. Plus, you know, the check is really nice too. That's another Disney check, by the way. Two Disney checks. License to Disney.

[Angela Yee]

Disney ain't no joke. I feel like I know Bruno. Like, we don't talk about Bruno. But. But is. Is it as effortless as you make it look?

[John Leguizamo]

Yeah, pretty much. You know something? No. Yeah. I mean, the. I do the voices easily, but the Pablo was a harder one because, you know, English is my dominant language. So even though Spanish is my mother tongue, that. To get that right, I had to work really hard because I had a lot of pressure. I didn't want Colombians to be embarrassed by me, that I messed up. You know, I messed up that representation. I didn't want to do that.

[Angela Yee]

But, you know, you're just a great actor, period. Not a great Latino actor, Right?

[John Leguizamo]

Oh, thank you, bro. Thank you. Yeah, yeah.

[Angela Yee]

Why do you think the industry still moves so slow when it comes to, I guess, just inclusion for Latino.

[John Leguizamo]

Yeah, but. Well, you know, obviously this administration doesn't make it easier, you know, deeming us dei, you know, like we were. Got the jobs because of our skin color, our ethnicity. No, we got here because of our greater talent. Because to be a black or Latin talent, you have to be 10 times better than a white talent to get that job.

[Angela Yee]

That's right.

[John Leguizamo]

It's not less talent. You have to have more talent. And then you're still not selected for everything. I. Hollywood, you know, back in the day, they would be straight up. They would tell you to my face, you know, they would. You know, some producer came to me with doing Spawn, and he said to me, you know, too bad you're Puerto Rican, because if you. If you weren't Puerto Rican, you'd be such a big movie star. But that was the reality of things, you know, and then executives, when you pitch them a story, they will go, you know, that's really good and everything, but, you know, we don't have to do Latin content because Latin people go to the movies no matter what they see. They'd rather see white people. And I'll go, what? You know, they would tell you that to your face. Now, they don't tell you anything. They just. You don't hear anything, right? You don't hear. They get silent radio now Spun.

[Interviewer/Host]

You absolutely killed it. I was one of my favorite.

[John Leguizamo]

Thank you.

[Interviewer/Host]

Thank you. But when they told you that, what. What was going through your mind? Like, what? Did that crush you in any way, discourage you in any way at that point?

[John Leguizamo]

No, that was a fact. That was a fact. I mean, that. That back then, in the. In those days, you know, there was this thing called the Ross Report that would come out on Mondays. This. I'm Talking about the 80s, ancient history. The Russell Report come out Mondays and tell you every movie that was available, every role that was available. And it was a little Jim Crow or Juan Crow because that's what they called it. That's what they call it for Latin people. That was the real name. Juan Crow was what they called it for Latin people in the Southwest because there was Jim Crow laws against us as well. We weren't, you know, allowed to go to churches, parks, movies. You know, you couldn't eat with white people or go in the pool when white people went in back in those days in the 1800s and before that. So this Russ report would come out and would say white lead, white doctor, white lawyer, white love interest, white this. And then every five months I get like a Latin drug dealer and I would ask my agent, can I go up for these other roles? Let me just do my monologue. Let me just read for them. They'll see. They wouldn't even see you. They wouldn't see you. That. So that's, that's the way it was. No matter how talented you were or how you studied or whatever you. You were never going to get the opportunity, the same opportunity as a white actor.

[Angela Yee]

It feels like even now, like Hollywood celebrates Latino culture but still doesn't trust Latinos to like, lead major projects.

[John Leguizamo]

Right, Right. I mean, I. We're 20% of the population. We over index at 30% of the box office.

[Angela Yee]

Wow.

[John Leguizamo]

For bad boys, we were 40% of the box office. And. And until we get 20% of executives, then things are going to change. But until we have Latin executives, things aren't going to change that much.

[Angela Yee]

I don't know why the white people fighting it though, if the country's getting more browner. Yeah.

[John Leguizamo]

Just. I know it makes everything better. Why are you so. What. What are you holding? I mean, so crazy. It makes. Makes no sense. We all could get along to have a great time. It's going to flip anyway. White people are only 58.2% of the population. They're almost just nearly half. But they still getting 90% of the roles, 90% of the executives, 90% of everything.

[Angela Yee]

You think it's our fault sometime because we don't show up with the green like we should. Meaning? Like, meaning like when there's a project, you know, led by a brown person, brown people should make sure they show up. Like when it's a project led by a black person, black people should make sure they show up. Because everybody cares about money at the end of the day.

[John Leguizamo]

Yeah, yeah. But you know, we black and Latin people do show up when. When the content is right, you know, I mean, the content has to be right. But sometimes a lot of Latin content is not written by Latin people or directed by a Latin person. So you have all this culture appropriation that makes things look weak and soft and doesn't represent correctly. And people can smell that out, you know? But look, Fluffy, the comedian, he sells out Dodgers Stadium. There's no comedian in America that can sell out Dodger Stadium. Bad Bunny sold out Yankee Stadium twice. Mark Anthony sells out the Madison. Latin people show up for the content that's genuine. That's theirs. I mean, George Lopez and I, when we do the rice and bean circuits across America, yo, you selling out in all these major cities, you sell out and you make. I used to make all my bank. There you go.

[Angela Yee]

Tell me what a rice and beans circuit is. The rice and beans.

[John Leguizamo]

26. 26 big cities. You got Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Miami, Tampa, Orlando, Chicago. Also California. You know, you got. You got San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco. You got Denver, Colorado. You got Phoenix, Arizona. Then in Texas, it's Austin, Houston, Dallas, McAllen, Corpus Christi, San Antonio. Where else? Did I forget something else? Las Vegas. Vegas is.

[DJ Envy]

I don't think he said Miami.

[John Leguizamo]

Yeah, Mike, did I say Miami?

[Interviewer/Host]

No, he did. He said Miami.

[Angela Yee]

That's all you need.

[John Leguizamo]

That's all you need. Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

And the Rice and Bane show consists of, like, y' all just, like, doing comedy on your culture.

[DJ Envy]

Yeah, you do.

[John Leguizamo]

In your comedy. Yeah, yeah. All these comedy circuits, and you go to these venues, and boom, you sell out. And you stay as long as you. You keep selling out, and then you move to the next town.

[Angela Yee]

Yeah.

[DJ Envy]

You had a strong message for ICE and the followers of ice, but you didn't want to match your show. I want to read it because it says, if you follow ice, don't come to my shows. Don't watch my movies.

[John Leguizamo]

Yeah.

[DJ Envy]

Why was that important?

[John Leguizamo]

Follow me.

[DJ Envy]

I'm following. Why was that so important for you?

[John Leguizamo]

It was important to me because the way I see Latin bodies being treated, you know, moms, grandmothers, children, pregnant women. I mean, why are you arresting children? I mean, how do you do that? How can you. How can you wrap your mind around that? It's so inhuman and cruel and the way they're treating people. You see that? So, yeah, I can't be for these kind of like, domestic terrorists going around covering their faces, not giving badges, not reading you your rights, not treating people with respect. That's not what they set out to do what? Didn't they set out to grab criminals? These aren't criminals, obviously. They're just innocent people. I mean, they're not reading them their rights and not treating them with due process. That's not America. That's not the America that I believe in.

[Angela Yee]

Have you seen them at the airport?

[John Leguizamo]

Yeah, I saw him at the airport.

[Angela Yee]

I don't think that the one. I think the ones at the airport are not the same ones that are in the street.

[John Leguizamo]

Right.

[Angela Yee]

I think it's. I think it's a totally different bunch of people because they're so nice and they're so helpful, and Trump said that it was image rehab for them.

[John Leguizamo]

Oh, that's absolutely what it looks like.

[Angela Yee]

What I think he wants to do is, you know, you go to the airport and you realize, oh, that's so nice. And then. So when he says, and we're going to have them at the voting booths during the midterms, you're not going to think nothing of it.

[John Leguizamo]

Right, right. You know, that's. That private military.

[Angela Yee]

That's right.

[John Leguizamo]

Send him wherever they. Wherever he wants.

[Angela Yee]

That's right.

[John Leguizamo]

Yeah. I mean, that's what it looked like. The optics to me was the other day I was in the airport. It was like, oh, you're trying to normalize these guys and make them look like they. Okay. Because they're not wearing the masks. They're not grabbing anybody. They just standing around. Yeah.

[DJ Envy]

Have you got backlash at all for that? For that statement I pulled over effed with at all?

[John Leguizamo]

Not yet, but I'm taking lots of precautions. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, my family's afraid. You know, when you speak out, there are consequences, so. Yeah, yeah. I take much more precautions than I used to. You know, I make sure my phone's on lockdown mode and whatnot. Yeah.

[Angela Yee]

Did they see you, therefore, how they treat you at that point?

[John Leguizamo]

They looked at me, eyeballed me, and I. I balled them back.

[Angela Yee]

Yeah.

[John Leguizamo]

I wasn't friendly, and I'm not going to be friendly to people who are treating my people the way they are.

[Interviewer/Host]

Absolutely.

[John Leguizamo]

And the problem is the majority of these ICE guys are Latino and black. That's correct. Dramatic for me. That bugs the hell out of me. I mean, how do you deal with that? I mean, the majority of people, I. I know, they're going for a check, most of them. But still, how do you treat these.

[DJ Envy]

Your people?

[John Leguizamo]

Yeah. How do you treat your own people?

[Angela Yee]

Now, I'm telling you, the ones in the airport are not the same ones that are on the Street, I truly believe. Yeah, now, now. But when the midterms come, the ones that's gonna be at the voting booths are the ones that were in the street.

[John Leguizamo]

Yeah, right, right, right. Doing all that thug, thuggery.

[Angela Yee]

Now, what's something about Hollywood that you used to accept that you'd never tolerate now?

[John Leguizamo]

I, I, you know, I used to accept all white movies, all white movies, all white events, you know, that was just like you thought, I guess there's not enough of us or we're just not good enough to be there, you know? But now I don't accept that anymore. I, I, I won't go see a movie that's all white. I just, I just won't. Because it's a it that we were in history. Latin black people were. We've been here since, since the conquest and before we, you know. Like, I used to love madmen, but then I was like, what, there's not one Latin person? Come on. In the 60s, you had west side Story in the 50s. Is that one Latin person you could have thrown into that series? And I love that series. But then I felt so left out and so excluded and erased in New York, in my New York City, when salsa was happening and Latin jazz was happening, there was none of that you could have squeezed into your Mad Men, you know. So, yeah, all white shows are out for me.

[DJ Envy]

I wanted to ask, I wanted to go back a little bit, if you didn't mind. How did you get into acting? Right. Growing up in New York City, we would see your name all over the place, Right. Whether it's Caroline's or you performing here. And I knew you at first as a comedian, of course, and then you got into acting. What got you into comedy?

[Interviewer/Host]

And then I was gonna ask that. Yo, you just asked him how he get into movies.

[DJ Envy]

I was gonna do it from comedy. Cause he started with comedy. How did you get into comedy? And then how did you transition into.

[John Leguizamo]

Well, I started. I was a class clown and a troublemaker and a troubled teen and all that stuff. And, and the school made me go to therapy because they wouldn't let me back and. But I was a class clown, you know, at Bertram, and it was a competitive school for class clowns. Man, you could not sit at this. Yeah, you couldn't sit at this one lunchroom table unless you crack the best jokes the day before.

[Interviewer/Host]

Damn.

[John Leguizamo]

So I used to have to write my jokes the day before and all that stuff.

[DJ Envy]

And this was at what age?

[John Leguizamo]

This. Me, 16, 17, you know, and Damon Wayans went there And Q Tip and Jungle Brothers.

[Angela Yee]

Oh, wow.

[John Leguizamo]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Angela Yee]

Y' all knew each other.

[John Leguizamo]

I knew Damon. I didn't know Q Tip. Q Tip was like two years younger than me.

[Angela Yee]

Damon was always funny.

[John Leguizamo]

He. I don't know about funny. He was. He was an odd man. He was a handsome dude, but he was just always to himself. Always kind of smiling and had jokes in his head. I just didn't hear them out loud.

[DJ Envy]

So back to the story. So he was writing ahead and at the lunch table.

[John Leguizamo]

Yeah, yeah. So, you know, and then my math teacher, Mrs. Zufa, was like, you know, Mr. Liquizamo. Squeezer Mo, he used to call me because he couldn't say my name correctly. And he go, if they can make penicillin out of moldy bread, there must be something we can do with you. And he suggested I use my comedy for some good instead of disrupting. And I started taking acting classes. And boom, that started my. My career started taking these acting classes. NYU students came to see these shows and they offered me student films. And boom, boom, I got an agent. I got Miami Vice, because that's the only place people could work in those days was as villains on Miami Vice. But, hey, they were funding our careers,

[Interviewer/Host]

you know, Damn, that's dope. And then I just had shows at the New Brunswick in New Brunswick, New Jersey, at the Stress Factory. And you're on the wall up there. I don't know if you. Do you remember going there?

[John Leguizamo]

Yeah, I do.

[Interviewer/Host]

Okay. Because Benny always talks about you and. And, you know, coming to his club. And I love seeing you on the wall. I mean, I'm a stand up comedian myself.

[Lauren LaRosa]

So let me get this straight.

[John Leguizamo]

You're in Italy.

[Lauren LaRosa]

Child pretended to be the white Italian man's fiance. Hard to believe.

[John Leguizamo]

This is Michael, my nephew.

[Lauren LaRosa]

Then you ended up catching feelings for the black Italian Cousin Brothers.

[Movie Trailer Voice]

On April 10th. She came for the pasta and got lost in the sauce.

[John Leguizamo]

Please just tell me that you support me.

[Interviewer/Host]

Damn.

[Klarna Ad Voice]

No.

[Lauren LaRosa]

Is he fine, though? Come on, baby.

[DJ Envy]

You can eat, pray and love me, baby.

[Movie Trailer Voice]

You'll be in Tuscany. Radio PG 13th, only in theaters April 10th. May be inappropriate for children under 13.

[State Farm Ad Voice]

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[Lauren LaRosa]

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[DJ Envy]

We know parents want to feel confident as their teens navigate social media with Instagram teen accounts. Teens get automatic protections by default. Teens between the ages of 13 to 17 are automatically put into a protective experience. That means they get built in content settings for what they see, contact limits on who can contact them, and time management tools like daily time limit reminders as well as sleep Mode, which mutes notifications from 10pm to 7am plus, teens under 16 need a parent's permission to change any of these settings to be less strict. Instagram continues to work on building new safety features to help create age appropriate experiences for teens. Learn more about teen accounts and Instagram's ongoing work to help protect teens [e-mail] teenaccounts Hey, y', all, what's up?

[Lauren LaRosa]

It's Lauren LaRosa. Okay, let's talk curls for a second. Cause you already know if you have curly or coily hair. Moisture is not optional, it's essential. Dryness is one of the biggest challenges for curly hair. And most products, they clock out after wash day. The new Ultra Moisture collection was literally designed with our hair in mind. Curls, coils, all of it powered by Botano oil and Jamaican Black castor oil. Which means the science is actually doing the work. Clinically proven to help retain moisture for up to five days. Five whole days. The shampoo gently cleanses without stripping. The mask deeply conditions and helps reduce breakage. The leave in adds a lightweight hydration with hyaluronic acid. And the curl cream defines without crunch. No sulfates, no parabens, no silicones, no mineral oils. Just nourishment without the compromise. Because here's the thing. Your hair deserves products that actually understand it. Moisture that starts at the root and keeps going. Well past Sunday, that's the Ultra Moisture collection from Cantu Explore, their full line built for every curl pattern, every hair routine available now at Walmart, Target, and Amazon. Go get it.

[John Leguizamo]

Oh, cool.

[Interviewer/Host]

Like, I see you on a lot of the walls, but it's so funny that I saw you there and then I. And they were talking about Vinnie.

[John Leguizamo]

Yeah. You know, because I, I. You got to test out your material, you know, and you gotta go somewhere, right?

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah.

[John Leguizamo]

So I, I try to stay out of New York because then I'll get reviewed and they'll, you know, they'll crush some new stuff that's not right, not right for the public eye. So I go to Jersey. I go, you know, wherever I, I can as far away and test my stuff out. And you know, I love that.

[Lauren LaRosa]

That got to be hard for you now, right? You testing out anything anywhere. I feel like your face is so known. Like everybody knows you.

[John Leguizamo]

Yeah. So I have to do different things, obviously. Now I just, I kind of do zoom testings of my material.

[Lauren LaRosa]

Zoom. I can't even imagine, like, what's the impact on the people.

[John Leguizamo]

No, no, no, not audience. I just get like my trusted Friends and trusted. So, yeah, so I have to, like. I mean, make it smaller and smaller and more protected, obviously. Yeah.

[DJ Envy]

That might be worse, though. You tell a joke in front of five friends and they just look at you like, that's not it.

[John Leguizamo]

You gotta be confident in yourself. And then when they do crack it, you know, then they do laugh. You're like, oh, I got them. That one really kills. I'll work on the other ones.

[Angela Yee]

I want to go back to something you said about the. The all white movies. How you wouldn't do an all white

[John Leguizamo]

movie that I wouldn't go see.

[Angela Yee]

You won't go see an all white movie.

[John Leguizamo]

You know, because if I'm in it, then it won't be an all white movie anymore.

[Angela Yee]

Exactly. People will take that statement and be like, well, that's racist. Why is that not racist?

[John Leguizamo]

Because it's been like that forever. All white movies, America. White people are only 58.2% of the population. That's. That's how they should be in terms of executives, the amount of stories, the amount of actors per film. I mean, that's. That's the proper equation, I believe, for fairness and equity and parody. I. I just feel that it's been going on for too long. It's a transgression, man. I feel like it's a transgression. Include us. Include us.

[Angela Yee]

Do you have a favorite all white movie? There's a good all white.

[John Leguizamo]

Yeah, they are Good Will Hunting. That's. That's a really good all white movie.

[Angela Yee]

The 80s movies, like Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

[John Leguizamo]

Oh, that's another good old Goonies.

[Angela Yee]

Those are some good old white movies.

[John Leguizamo]

J is a good old white movie.

[Angela Yee]

J is a good old Exodus. Remember Exodus.

[John Leguizamo]

Exorcist.

[Angela Yee]

Exorcist, yes. Exist.

[DJ Envy]

Exodus.

[John Leguizamo]

I'm in the new Exorcist.

[Angela Yee]

Exodus, though.

[John Leguizamo]

Remember, I'm talking about Exorcist.

[Angela Yee]

When they took. It was supposed to be Egyptians, but they had all the white people.

[John Leguizamo]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no people of color. None.

[Angela Yee]

Yeah. In.

[John Leguizamo]

In. In Africa.

[Angela Yee]

That's crazy.

[John Leguizamo]

Yeah, yeah.

[Angela Yee]

You're the new Exorcist.

[John Leguizamo]

Yeah. With Laurence Fishburne. She would tell Elijah for Scarlet Joe.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yes.

[John Leguizamo]

Yeah, yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

Amazing. How was that?

[John Leguizamo]

It's great, man.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah. And it's already done. Like, it's.

[John Leguizamo]

No, no, no, no. We're filming right now. Okay. Yeah, yeah. In the Story of Queens. Wow.

[Angela Yee]

Yeah.

[John Leguizamo]

Nice, Nice.

[Interviewer/Host]

When you do, like. So this is obviously your first movie like this, right? Yeah. Exorcist. Are you big on, like, horror? Anyway, like, this does that type of shit scare you? Because it gets very, very graphic on them sets. I can only imagine. Oh, my God.

[John Leguizamo]

This is one of my favorite secrets. This is terrifying. I mean, when I saw exorcist at 13, because my grandmother was a Seventh Day Adventist, and she was like, you're going to hell every time you meet me. Hey, you're going to go to hell. And she slapped me once because I joked around that I was possessed by the devil. And she, like, walloped, knocked Satan out of me. And, you know, so when I saw the Exorcist, I thought it was a documentary. I thought it was real. I was so terrified. I slept with rosary beads. I had holy water. I couldn't be left alone. Right. So here we're doing this new one. It's terrifying. I'm not allowed to speak exactly about it, but it's more true crime, like seven meets Satan. It's incredible. It is really horrifying.

[Lauren LaRosa]

So you're gonna go through beads again and all that? Like, how do you flush it out of your.

[Angela Yee]

Exactly.

[Lauren LaRosa]

System?

[John Leguizamo]

You know, I did a serial killer movie once. I was the detective. I wasn't a serial killer. And I did mad research. I went to morgues. I saw autopsies and whatnot. But I started really having paranoia issues. I couldn't sleep. I was hallucinating during the day, and it was too much, man. It was too much. And I promised myself I would never go that deep again. I'm just going to use the memory of that situation to recreate it in this. In this show. Because I. I did. I said I couldn't sleep. I kept thinking people trying to murder me and whatnot.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah, that's why you think about those type of movies when people. Doesn't really affect you personally. When you do, you carry that stuff home.

[John Leguizamo]

Every movie affects you personally. There's no way, if you're. If you're a deep enough, good enough actor, you're gonna take it home. So I have to be careful with the roles I choose. And. And also, like, you know, if I'm doing a really rageful role, I have to kind of stay away from my family a little bit and try to stay calm. And, you know, because you, You. You're revving up your. Your mind doesn't know the difference between reality and fantasy when you're feeding stuff into your head. Yeah, it doesn't know the difference. So your body reacts to it like. Like normal.

[Angela Yee]

How do you get out of it?

[John Leguizamo]

Well, you got. You got to try to, like, listen to, like, Upbeat music. You got to try to read stuff that's light. You have to try to, you know, you know, purge it out of your body.

[Angela Yee]

Do you have a nanny? And did you?

[John Leguizamo]

Did I what?

[Angela Yee]

Do you have a nanny now? And did you ever feel like, you know, you wanted to.

[Interviewer/Host]

Hey, yo.

[State Farm Ad Voice]

What?

[John Leguizamo]

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's just like, you know, you get. No, it's just like you get. You get. You know, you start raging at little things, and then you're like, oh, whoa, that's the character. I need to. I need to just walk. Go for a walk. Just need to leave the house for a minute. You know any.

[DJ Envy]

Any movies? Did you ever take it out on your kids and your family? Like, because, you know, he joked about the nanny, but I know sometimes what we do at work, sometimes we take it out on our kids. Does that happen to you?

[John Leguizamo]

Yeah, Yeah. I snapped at my wife with stupid things. Yeah. Yeah. And I realized, oh, that's a character. And she knows, and she starts to, like, you know, you gotta. You gotta check yourself. Check yourself at the door, you know, I go, yeah, no, you're totally right. Yeah. Or you get depressed. I just did a movie that was really depressing, and I was depressed all the time, and damn, you know, you just can't help it because you're feeding yourself all these depressing things to get to that place. Your body doesn't know the difference. You start getting depressed.

[Angela Yee]

Do you think that we need to know actors? And what I mean by that is,

[John Leguizamo]

right, like, their personal lives.

[Angela Yee]

Personal life. Because you know how you see a lot of these guys, they'll get on podcasts or they get on radio and share things that.

[John Leguizamo]

Yeah.

[Angela Yee]

And it's like, I don't know if I need that, because I love the characters that you play. Like, do you. Is it a risk involved in doing so?

[John Leguizamo]

I think. I think you. You. You rob the audience from believing you're that character. Because now we know that you, you know, either you're silly dude, or. Or you're. Or you're softer than you're playing, you know, or you're meaner than you are. You know, you rob the audience of the opportunity to have a clean slate. They already know so much about you. I think it's. It's better that, you know, early my life, obviously, I was all about sharing, oversharing. You know, that was my comedy. That was my whole freak and mambo mouth and sexaholics and whatnot. But now I believe it's better to keep a Little of that mystery for yourself.

[Angela Yee]

Because, like, even with a movie, TV show, your political views, I guess, could it impact the audience?

[John Leguizamo]

Absolutely. I mean, I lost half my foul. My following when I became political in 2016. I. Because I saw that boom, boom. And also the racist attacks, you know, jumped up, you know. You know, you go back to Mexico if you don't like our country. I mean, I'm not Mexican, but I'll gladly go to Mexico if you pay for my ticket. I love to visit. I heard it's a great city, Mexico City, you know, and then, you know, a lot of hate. We used to think you were funny. You're not funny anymore. When was your last good movie? Sorry. Like, the. The hate starts coming, you know, the. The bots and whatnot.

[Angela Yee]

But you can't be quiet, though, right?

[John Leguizamo]

Like, I have a hard time being quiet. Yeah. I have a hard time keeping to myself. I have a hard time seeing our country, you know, going down. This destruction of democracy and the corruption that's going on, it's. And then this endless wars are horrific, man. You know, just like, it's hard to sit there and be a parent and. And not feel, you know, responsible somehow, if you. Because I feel like democracy is not a spectator sport. You got to do something. You got to participate.

[Angela Yee]

What do your Asians and stuff say to you? Like, do they try to encourage you?

[John Leguizamo]

Oh, they start to give up.

[Lauren LaRosa]

Were you losing business on that side? Like offers and deals and movies and stuff?

[John Leguizamo]

You know, it's hard to see that.

[Angela Yee]

But.

[John Leguizamo]

But I'm sure it has an effect. You know, I'm sure I'm not being invited to red states to. To perform or to do speaking engagements, but, you know. Yeah. Yeah. You know, when you become political, you know, it hasn't. It has. It has a. Consequences. I mean, how could it not?

[Angela Yee]

You know, the craziest thing about this time, though, God willing. Yeah. The pendulum will shift back.

[John Leguizamo]

Yes.

[Angela Yee]

Yes, I would. I hope so.

[John Leguizamo]

I mean, right.

[Angela Yee]

They're moving like. They're not leaving. Right.

[John Leguizamo]

But.

[Angela Yee]

But you would.

[John Leguizamo]

Moving to not leave.

[Angela Yee]

They're moving to not leave this ice

[John Leguizamo]

in private military and all the things that he's trying to do. Stopping elections, controlling elections, raiding voting elections in Georgia. You know, he's trying to figure out ways to not ever leave. Asking to maybe, you know, remove the third term, the second term limit.

[Angela Yee]

It's crazy.

[John Leguizamo]

But then Obama can run.

[Angela Yee]

But that would. But that's. I hate when people say that, because the fight is already fixed. If. If they. If they.

[John Leguizamo]

Right.

[Angela Yee]

Change The Constitution to where he can run for a third term. It don't matter. He's winning. Yeah, that's the case. Yeah. But I. I just. Hey, I forgot what I was going to ask.

[John Leguizamo]

You were talking about the pendulum. You're talking about.

[Angela Yee]

Oh, yeah. How are executives going to look you in the eye and be like, hey, John, welcome back. You know, how would you treat. Treat them then?

[John Leguizamo]

Well, you know, I treat them like every employer. Do you know what I mean? If you got a job for me, that, that, that I want. Berto Brecht, the great playwright of the. Of the early 19th century, said, I'll take rich people's money and use it against them. And I thought, oh, my God, that's like the best artistic saying ever. Should be a T shirt, you know? So, yeah, that's what I'll do.

[Angela Yee]

I love that.

[Interviewer/Host]

Now, dear Killing Nannies is in Spanish. All Spanish.

[John Leguizamo]

Yeah, yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

Do you think that will limit how wide the audience will be? Like the range of audience? Because you gotta read and pay attention. I know it's so much going on, but it's like, you can like that reading. What about people that can't really read that good, you know what I'm saying already?

[John Leguizamo]

So they got a dub version that I did. I did a dub version for those that don't wanna read.

[Interviewer/Host]

Okay.

[John Leguizamo]

But, you know, it's squid games. Come on. I mean, money hides, snorkels. It's a whole different world than it used to be. Americans did not wanna be reading. They didn't want anything that wasn't in English. But America is different now. It's much more sophisticated, much more worldly. I think we got a big shot.

[DJ Envy]

Yeah, I think it'd be great. I hate the dub version. Like, it's just sometimes the mouse would

[Angela Yee]

be like, kill him. Back in the day, my wife says the dragon. My wife says it all the time. Like, you got to learn Spanish because all the kids know Spanish because they get them taught to them in school, dude.

[John Leguizamo]

The first Euro language spoken in Americas was Spanish, not English, because this was discovered by. I mean, look at. California is a Spanish word. Arizona, Nevada, it means snowy. Florida means florid. I mean, these are all Spanish words. Mar a lago is a Spanish word. It means from sea to lake. Come on. Wow. Trump doesn't even know that. He doesn't.

[DJ Envy]

He's going to change the name.

[John Leguizamo]

I know. Take our Spanish name out.

[Angela Yee]

You've done Stand Up, Broadway, tv, film, what. What medium gives you the most power to tell your truth?

[John Leguizamo]

Oh, Stand up, obviously and stand up gives you the opportunity to be your most honest and most reckless self, you know? Yeah.

[DJ Envy]

You still enjoy it?

[John Leguizamo]

Yeah, when I do and I do it. Yeah, I love it. I love, but I do now it's more speaking engagements and I love that that's what I'm doing now.

[Interviewer/Host]

How do you have time to do any of that? You always booked, you always filming a, you know, project. How do you even have time to even do speaking engagements?

[John Leguizamo]

Well, I don't do as many as I used to. I do sporadically now, you know, so. Yeah, and the DEI thing has affected his. Trump's attack on DI has affected the speaking engagement circuit. For real.

[State Farm Ad Voice]

Really?

[John Leguizamo]

Yeah. A lot of corporations now are afraid to dole out dollars to something that looks Latino or black. They don't, they don't want to look like they're doing, you know, that they're going to be called by the federal government. So yeah, there's a lot of, I mean his, his policies do have negative effects and trickle down negative effects on our, on our communities, on our employment, on our opportunities to make money.

[Angela Yee]

I love what you said about, you know, taking rich people's money and using it against them, but I still feel like there has to be some type of accountability. When all of this shifts back, we should remember the people who stayed.

[John Leguizamo]

Write those names down and let's Nuremberg them. I want Nuremberg trials. I want every one of these Pam Bondies and Kristi Noems to be prosecuted. Nobody gets away. And they know that. I mean, I think they're feeling that.

[Lauren LaRosa]

But y' all don't feel like when the black square, that whole movement happened, right? And everybody was like, oh my God, we wanna have empathy for black people, brown people. And then everything just switched. We didn't hold anybody accountable for things that didn't happen. Like we just moved on and just lived our day to day life.

[John Leguizamo]

I know. Cause the problem is you don't wanna put the same aggression and violence back into the system. But they're in the verse. You don't wanna do that. But I need to be held accountable, you know, I mean, we Democrats are so behind. How come we don't have a project 2028? Where are our projects where we undo everything they do? Where we fund public schools with $9 billion as opposed to defunding them every time Trump gets into office? You know, where's our plan to increase the Supreme Court to 11 and to put age limits? Where's our goddamn Project 2028? That's going to change Everything and see that.

[Angela Yee]

Sometimes I wonder, John, if they're just all in this together and we're all just getting played. Sometimes I wonder because we see what they're doing and we all where's the defense? And think about it, four or five. Everything that's happening now is people were saying was going to happen.

[John Leguizamo]

Yeah.

[Angela Yee]

So if our dumb asses on the radio and you doing movies can see it, why didn't they see it and create some type of defense against it?

[John Leguizamo]

Right. Right.

[Angela Yee]

Sometimes I just wonder if we're, if they're not all in it together and we're just all getting played.

[John Leguizamo]

I can't believe that. I can't allow myself to believe that. I believe that politicians are ambitious and they're always playing chess moves and trying to figure out ways to get ahead. You know, a lot of politicians who are very progressive and left are moving towards the center because they see bigger sites because they want to be presidential, because they want to move up there. So they start shifting. And you know, the progressive side with Pelosi wanted to do a lot of radical things and they told him, you know, sit back and relax, you'll get your shot. But they didn't get their shot and they let it. They moved everything to the center. And it looks like everybody's just working for the man.

[Angela Yee]

Yeah, I don't even think the center exists anymore. Well, because. Because I don't want to be center. I definitely don't want to be center right. And I don't even know if I want to be too center left. I just feel like we need something new.

[John Leguizamo]

Well, we never really had a left America. There's no such thing as antifa, Trump and the Republicans. There's no such thing. We don't have a real left. It's just left of center. Real left is the same thing as the radical right. Real left wants to destroy, bomb. It wants to do the same things. The radical. We don't have that. We don't have any of that. We've had some real left in Latin America that, where guerrillas and, and, and be, you know, civil wars came out of that because they needed to change the system that was corrupt and, and damaged. But we don't have real left in America. It's not a real left. It's, it's a, it's a left of center.

[Angela Yee]

So when you say left of center, what does that look like to you?

[John Leguizamo]

Like, like all the progressives, like they want to change things and make things better, but a real, a real left wants to disrupt things Wants to blow up. They wants to do the same thing the radical right wants to do, you know, and that we don't have a real left, not that we need a real left, because that radical right is crazy. To destroy January 6, break into the White House and then say that they were all heroes is craziness.

[Angela Yee]

Oh, God.

[Lauren LaRosa]

I was gonna say. But I agree, we don't need it. But when you talk about the pendulum swinging back and holding people accountable, what do. What is the plan of accountability that we hold people to? Like, what do we actually do? Because we get. Things go soft, and then, I mean,

[John Leguizamo]

we have to have a project 2028. I mean, that's what we have to demand from our next president, our next elected officials at the midterms have a plan. How do you undo. How do you refund npr? How do you refund public schools? How do you fix the justice system? How do you put back all these Latin and black heroes, military heroes that were taken, statues that were taken down? You know, how do we fix this mess that Trump has done? You know, they wanted to privatize public schools. They want to privatize the post office, they want to privatize tsa. Those are the things that we have to undo. And it's going to take a lot of effort, because now the deficit is the biggest it's ever been in the history. Because he doesn't tax the rich like they used to back in. After World War II, all the rich were taxed at almost 70%, and the economy was the best it's ever been.

[Angela Yee]

And I want a social Democrat.

[John Leguizamo]

Yes.

[Angela Yee]

Who supports. I'm a social Democrat who supports a capitalist mixed economy, but also supports a robust welfare state.

[John Leguizamo]

Yes.

[Angela Yee]

And that's going to hold everybody in the Trump administration.

[John Leguizamo]

I'm voting for you. Come on.

[Angela Yee]

No, that's what I want. That's all.

[DJ Envy]

I'm.

[John Leguizamo]

What else do you want? What else do you want?

[Angela Yee]

That's what I want. I want a social Democrat who's going to hold the Trump administration accountable.

[John Leguizamo]

Absolutely. I'm with you.

[Angela Yee]

That's it. You give me that Social Democrat who cares about capitalism. Strong.

[John Leguizamo]

Who's tough.

[Angela Yee]

I want.

[John Leguizamo]

I want to. I want a president who. Who's just like Trump, as tough as Trump. That's what I want.

[Angela Yee]

But not as cruel.

[John Leguizamo]

But not as cruel.

[DJ Envy]

Yes.

[John Leguizamo]

Yeah. He wants to unite, not divide. Because Trump just. I mean, Jose Marti, the great revolutionary Cuban poet, said there are two types of men born into the world, Those that create and those that destroy. And you see Trump, he Destroys everything. And it's easy to destroy. It's impossible to build and to fix. That's what's difficult. Have you seen. That's where anybody can destroy anything in a day.

[DJ Envy]

Have you seen that person that you said that you want, that you want to see?

[John Leguizamo]

Right now, Newsom looks the best to me of all the Democratic candidates. I mean, that's the best we got.

[Angela Yee]

But they're going to point to California and they're going to look at the crime in California. Hollywood is leaving like, like this.

[John Leguizamo]

I still, it's still.

[Angela Yee]

The environment is.

[John Leguizamo]

Come on. It's still the richest state in the country. California is still the richest state, still the most put in, puts the most money in and gets the least out of it all. All the red states. Just take none of them put in.

[Angela Yee]

It's going to be interesting to see how he defends his record in California. Like I've seen.

[John Leguizamo]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Angela Yee]

That's going. I don't, I don't see how he gets, gets past that, but maybe he can and I don't know.

[DJ Envy]

I don't know.

[John Leguizamo]

I hope he figures it out.

[DJ Envy]

I also seen you. I seen you, you tearing at the super bowl. Tears of joy.

[John Leguizamo]

Oh, yeah, man.

[DJ Envy]

Why, why did that performance mean so much to you? Because there's been other Latin people that performed at the Super Bowl. Why was that one so emotional for you?

[John Leguizamo]

Oh, dude, because I think because of the situation that we're living through. You know, you watch enough, you know, TikTok and Graham, you know, you see all these horrors happening and now they're now that the Ellison's Own Tick tock, you know, you see less and less, you know. And then, you know, so to see Bad Bunny there in Spanish because, you know, there's Joseph tried to sing in Spanish back in the 60s and they arrested him after in Yankee Stadium. And then some Mexican kid wore mariachi outfit and tried to sing this American Star Spangled Banner and they mistreated him and threw things. So for him to speak Spanish at Super bowl was such a powerful statement and such a brave statement that it was moving, man, to see all these Latin kids performing on that stage being their authentic selves. And I knew, I knew all the signals that he was sending. Like the old Puerto Rican flag that was banned, the electric plants that, that, that, you know, that FEMA's money was robbed in Puerto Rico so they didn't have electric, proper electricity. I saw all the little Easter eggs that he planted, the little, the little boy and the real marriage. It was all Just so touching, man. To see us celebrated instead of demonized, instead of being attacked. It was just overwhelming for me. You make me cry now.

[Angela Yee]

I know you gotta leave, man. So my last question to you is, when it's all said and done, what matters to you more? Being remembered as a great entertainer or a cultural disruptor?

[John Leguizamo]

Oh, wow. Wow. Can I be both? Can I be a great entertainer? That's culturally disruptive? Because I believe artists are political. I believe art is political. Entertaining is a different thing. But I'm an artist, man. I like to create stuff that changes the world, that makes the world a better place. And I think that's the place for art.

[DJ Envy]

There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. Definitely check out Dare Killer nannies out today. Make sure you watch it. Thank you for joining us.

[Angela Yee]

John Leguizamo.

[DJ Envy]

John Leguizamo.

[Angela Yee]

Why you ain't gonna say his name?

[John Leguizamo]

I had to write it out right there.

[DJ Envy]

So I said Legizamo. I knew I was saying it.

[John Leguizamo]

I practice this.

[DJ Envy]

Leguizamo. John Leguizamo. Thank you for joining us Mr. Breakfast Club. Good morning.

[John Leguizamo]

Much love. Much love.

[Breakfast Club Intro Voice]

Hold up.

[Angela Yee]

Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up. The Breakfast Club

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[Interviewer/Host]

So good.

[Angela Yee]

Your bill, ladies.

[Lauren LaRosa]

I got it.

[John Leguizamo]

I got it.

[Interviewer/Host]

No, I got it.

[Lauren LaRosa]

Seriously, I insist.

[John Leguizamo]

I insisted first.

[Lauren LaRosa]

Oh, don't be silly. You don't be silly.

[Angela Yee]

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[State Farm Ad Voice]

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[Interviewer/Host]

Okay.

[Lauren LaRosa]

Rock, paper, scissors for it.

[John Leguizamo]

Rock, paper, scissors. Shoot.

[Shopify Ad Voice]

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[State Farm Ad Voice]

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[Lauren LaRosa]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.