It's a product of being an actor, you know? A lot of your work doesn't end up on camera and some of the best things aren't always in the final product. But yeah, a lot of my stuff got cut and it was painful, but I know it was for the better of the movie.

John Leguizamo

Categorized in : Cutting Cameras Finals

With kids, the days are long, but the years are short.

John Leguizamo

parenting inspirational kids

When you feel the world is against you or you give up hope, you look at your heroes and say, "They were able to do it. They had hard times and a lot of opposition, but they got through it." Then you feel, "I can do it too."

John Leguizamo

hard-times giving-up hero

Great acting is being able to create a character. Great character is being able to be yourself.

John Leguizamo

being-yourself inspirational character

America may not realize it yet, but Latin prototypes are being created right now, and not just by me. They are these mambo kings and salsa queens, Aztec lords and Inca princesses, every Hernandez and Fernandez, whom this country will one day come to understand and respect.

John Leguizamo

queens kings country

It takes time to understand yourself, to go inside yourself and to question yourself and really take yourself to task. That's self-expression.

John Leguizamo

tasks expression self

Latins for Republicans. It's like roaches for Raid.

John Leguizamo

roaches republican latin

But when you are doing an animated voice, it has to have more energy than usual or it falls flat and doesn't work. For myself, I found that I had to put myself in the same physical or emotional state as Sid, in order to make that voice sound alive and authentic. So if there was a scene in which he was running, I would be running beforehand to sound out of breath. That's important because the audience can tell intuitively if it does not sound real.

John Leguizamo

real running fall

I love life, and I embrace every minute of it.

John Leguizamo

i-love-life love-life embrace

Is there a God? Yeah, but there's not just one God. There's a whole lot of gods, because one God couldn't have possibly made so many mistakes all by Himself. This had to be done by committee.

John Leguizamo

yeah done mistake

I was working at Kentucky Fried Chicken when my math teacher said, "You're failing in school, you're messing up, why don't you just try this?" I said, "Alright, let me try it," and I started going to acting classes and I loved it. I thought, "I may not make it but I love doing it."

John Leguizamo

math teacher school

The message is one of the beautiful things about the film. And I think part of the appeal is simply that they are prehistoric creatures, they are no longer around and that makes them magical and makes us feel quite emotional, because we know that those creatures did not survive in the long run, so there's poignancy in their fight for survival.

John Leguizamo

fighting running beautiful

You know, I am kind of a bi-polarish schitzerphrenic. I run the gamut of being incredibly shy and withdrawn to being a crazy-eccentric exhibitionist. And I have always been like that.

John Leguizamo

eccentric crazy running

I like drama. I love being in a drama where I get to be the funny guy. That's what I really love the most.

John Leguizamo

guy love-is drama

Marriage is wild. I thought it was this perfect land of happiness and joy. Wrong! After you say you do, you don't for a long time.

John Leguizamo

wild-imagination land long

I love life, man, and I embrace every minute of it so maybe I bring that on the set. I love people and I want to have a good time.

John Leguizamo

love-life men people

People can be anonymous when they go on blogs and say crazy things that they would never have the courage to say to your face.

John Leguizamo

crazy goes-on people

Independent film is for actors that love to act.

John Leguizamo

independent film actors

Teachers are everything. I mean, you're a poor kid from the ghetto, your parents are busy working 24/7, working like a Mexican.

John Leguizamo

teacher mean kids

I wanted to enjoy the process. I wanted to enjoy just being on stage and giving back and the feedback.

John Leguizamo

feedback just-being giving

I had to get the voice back, the precise pitch of Sid's voice and I'd forgotten that I'd pitched him higher than my regular voice, so that was a little difficult to begin with. It was especially hard because we started recording in the morning so I had to warm up a lot and my usual voice is a little more gravelly.

John Leguizamo

voice usual morning