John Leguizamo says that while he has “love” for late co-star Patrick Swayze, he said he wasn’t the easiest to work with.
The two were cast together in 1995 film To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, in which they played drag queens alongside Wesley Snipes.
Leguizamo was asked in a new interview with SiriusXM host Andy Cohen about his experience of working with Swayze, who died in 2009 of pancreatic cancer aged 57, and the actor didn’t hold back.
“All I hear about Patrick Swayze was just what an absolute angel he was,” began Cohen, prompting Leguizamo to reply: “Hmm, that’s different than what I experienced.”
Describing him as “neurotic,” he went on to claim that Swayze worried about peoples’ perception of him, saying: “Rest in peace, I love him. He was just neurotic. And I’m neurotic too, but I don’t know, he was just – it was difficult working with him.”
When Cohen tried to suggest that perhaps Swayze was just a perfectionist, Leguizamo refused to back down.
“I don’t know – just neurotic, maybe a tiny bit insecure. And then Wesley [Snipes] and I, we vibed, ‘cause, you know, we’re people of colour, and we’ve got each other,” he continued.
“I’m also like an improviser, and he [Swayze] didn’t like that. He couldn’t keep up with it, and it would make him mad and upset sometimes.
“He’d be like, ‘Are you gonna say a line like that?’ I go, ‘You know me, I’m gonna do me. I’m gonna just keep making up lines.’ He goes, ‘Well, can you just say the line the way it is?’ I go, ‘I can’t.’ And the director didn’t want me to.”
Leguizamo said he “rewrote the role” of Chi-Chi Rodriguez while filming took place.
Reflecting on the film’s legacy, he said: “It was very important because a lot of transgender kids, [LGBTQ+] kids come up to me, who are now I guess a little older, they said because of that show and my character, they felt confident to come out to their parents. And I felt like, ‘Wow, that’s what art’s supposed to do.’
