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CNN Live Today

Leguizamo and His Eerie Role as a Dwarf in "Moulin Rouge"

Aired May 28, 2001 - 14:42   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SHERRI SYLVESTER, CNN ANCHOR: This week may belong to "Pearl Harbor," but next week belongs to John Leguizamo, who joins us here.

You have two films, "Moulin Rouge," and "What is the Worst That Can Happen?"

Thanks for joining us live.

JOHN LEGUIZAMO, ACTOR: My pleasure.

First of all, let's get the record straight on "Moulin Rouge." You do sing the opening song, "Nature Boy."

LEGUIZAMO: Who started that? That David Bowie sings for me. I don't need anybody singing for me. I do the opening and I sang it -- the original was done by Nat King Cole, but I did a version that Natalie Cole did that was eerier and creepier.

SYLVESTER: Tell us a little bit about your looks now. You play Toulouse-Lautrec...

LEGUIZAMO: A dwarf.

SYLVESTER: ...who was a dwarf, and he also talked a little bit like Daffy Duck.

LEGUIZAMO: That's the way it comes out through me, but he was like the son of two first cousins, and he was born with like cartilage-like tongue and lip. And he lisped. He had a high-pitched voice and he spoke this way. So (UNINTELLIGIBLE), not really Daffy Duck. Daffy Duck was more like, "suffering succotash." Or was that Sylvester? I don't know.

SYLVESTER: And then tell me about the legs, what you had to wear on your legs, which I understand was a very painful prosthesis.

LEGUIZAMO: It was a ridiculous, torturous device. I will get that director. I had a needle and a cast, and it hardened. And then they built miniature, amputee prostheses, like little mini stilts, that I had to learn how to balance on. And I was 4'1", which is exactly Toulouse Latrec's height.

SYLVESTER: Wow. LEGUIZAMO: What was amazing about him, even -- with all this physical grotesqueness. Grotesqueness. Is that a word? Grotesqueness. It's Memorial Day weekend, ladies and gentlemen. He had a very large penis.

SYLVESTER: Can we say that on cable?

LEGUIZAMO: Yes, it's cable TV. But it's true. They called him "The Tripod." Prostitutes.

SYLVESTER: Oh, my.

LEGUIZAMO: That's how I got the part. Don't walk away...

SYLVESTER: I bet you had great outtakes on the set.

LEGUIZAMO: Yes, we did. We had funny, crazy stuff. I mean, because they were 45 pounds each, each piece. And I always tripped. And I'd be in the middle of a line, "look, quick, I want to tell you." AAAAH! Cut, cut, let's start again. Constantly falling down.

SYLVESTER: You're also starring in, "What's the Worst That Can Happen?" with Danny DeVito and Martin Lawrence. And you play the sidekick to Martin Lawrence?

LEGUIZAMO: Yes, I play his buddy. This -- they're like these two thieves, like Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, and I talk him into going into one last heist. And of course, it all goes wrong. And that's the "Worst That Could Happen?"

SYLVESTER: Now, I heard a story that in one scene, when you guys are committing robbery, there are all these laser points all around you. And the director actually made you stand in place for a long period of time?

LEGUIZAMO: A long -- directors are cruel to me. They had me standing there, like -- it was a long take, it was like 10 or 15 minutes, in really unusually weird positions. And then, later on, they put the laser beams in. But we were like, (UNINTELLIGIBLE), trying to improvise and stay in the scene, because you know, Martin and I were like, you know, a little competive. And I'm like, I can handle it man, don't worry -- and our legs are trembling, we're shaking, and then, he yelled cut! And we had to walk away like, aah, I can't move.

SYLVESTER: So, tell me what you got next? You've got a one-man show; you're going out, and you're also shooting another film.

LEGUIZAMO: Yes, I'm going on my 20-city tour of America, which I've never done before. And I'm going to -- everywhere; every city with Latin people in it, and -- Miami, Chicago, Seattle. and it's going to be mostly about relationships, sex, breaking up, divorce, break-up sex, all that good stuff. Having kids, being a parent.

SYLVESTER: All right, thank you very much. And in the meantime, people can catch you at the movies. LEGUIZAMO: Yes!

SYLVESTER: This weekend, "Moulin Rouge" and "What's the Worst That Could Happen?"

LEGUIZAMO: Which one? I don't know.

SYLVESTER: I don't know. Thank you very much for joining us.

LEGUIZAMO: My pleasure. Thank you.

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