John Leguizamo spoke candidly about the “difficult” experience he had starring alongside Patrick Swayze and Wesley Snipes in the 1995 comedy, To Wong Foo, thank you for everything! Julia Newmar.
Although he praised the late actor, Leguizamo explained during a recent appearance on Andy Cohen’s SiriusXM show. Radio Andy that he and Swayze certainly had their differences on set.
“Rest in peace, I love you. [Swayze] I was just neurotic and I didn’t… you know, I’m neurotic too, but I don’t know. He was just… difficult to work with,” Leguizamo said. “Just neurotic, I think maybe a little bit insecure.”
Leguizamo claimed that Swayze “couldn’t follow” his improvisation. “I am also an improviser, and [Patrick] “I didn’t like that,” he recalled.
“He was like, ‘Are you going to say a line like that?’ I would say, ‘You know me.’ I’m going to do me. I’m going to keep inventing lines,’” Leguizamo shared in Radio Andy. “He says, ‘Well, can you say the line as it is?’ I say, ‘I can’t.’ And the director didn’t want me to do it.”
Leguizamo said “I would [Swayze] angry and upset at times.”
As for Snipes, however, Leguizamo said, “Wesley and I vibe because, you know, we’re people of color and we have each other.
Beeban Kidron’s film starred Snipes, Swayze and Leguizamo as three drag queens who embarked on a crazy journey across the country to Los Angeles to make it to the national drag competition in time.
Leguizamo spoke proudly of his performance in the film, noting that he practically “rewrote that role” from what screenwriter Douglas Carter Beane intended.
“I expanded that role, because that role was nothing,” Leguizamo said. “Beane may not agree because he wrote the script, but he knows what I brought to it. He knows. … Is incredible”.
The revelation came after Cohen commented that he heard a lot of stories about “what an absolute angel” Swayze was, to which Leguizamo responded, “Hmm, that’s different from what I experienced.”
The actor also revealed in 2020 that their feud almost came to blows.
“We were about to fight, but we said, ‘Look at ourselves: we’re in shorts and fucking high heels.’ It was ridiculous!” leguizamo said Yahoo! Entertainment. “So we stopped and hugged each other.”
Despite their differences, Leguizamo praised the film’s legacy in the LGBTQ+ community.
“It was very important because many transgender children, [LGBTQ+] Kids come up to me, who I guess are a little older now, said that because of that show and my character, they felt safe talking to their parents. And I thought, ‘Wow, that’s what art is supposed to do,’” he told Cohen.
