Leguizamo: Regarding Henry reinforced Latino stereotypes, few roles

John Leguizamo has said one of his earliest screen roles left him feeling humiliated, because a small part he took in Mike Nichols’s 1991 drama Regarding Henry reinforced negative Latino stereotypes at a time when opportunities for Latino actors were scarce. Speaking on the Fly on the Wall podcast, the actor recalled playing a liquor-store gunman in a film about a successful lawyer who loses his memory after a robbery, and he stressed that the broader Hollywood landscape then resembled “Jim Crow” for performers of Latino descent.

Leguizamo said he accepted the role primarily to work with Nichols and Harrison Ford, despite his misgivings about how the character was portrayed. He described the decision as a concession to the limited work available to Latinos in the early 1990s, explaining that roles tended to be restricted to “white doctor, white lawyer, white husband, white lover, Latino drug dealer.” He recalled begging his agents to let him perform challenging monologues by David Mamet in auditions, only to be told casting directors were not willing to see his work. “They just weren’t casting us,” he said, adding that landing Regarding Henry felt like “perpetuating what they...