With over 120 movies and TV shows in the last twenty years, he’s an often unrecognized Latino character actor everybody recognizes. Now the New York Daily News is giving him some of the appreciation he deserves.
We’ve been talking about Luis Guzmán for years now, and it’s good to see him getting at least a little of the attention he deserves. A character actor (who did have a short-lived sitcom under his own name in 2003), he’s showcased his abilities as a comedian, a dramatic actor, and a bad-ass in more movies than we can name, from How to Make it in America to Oz to The Caller to The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3, and on and on and on. Most recently you heard his voice in Turbo and saw him in all his considerable glory in We’re the Millers, the new Jennifer Anniston/Jason Sudeikas comedy in theaters now.
Voice of Angelo in Turbo
One of the great things about Luis is how absolutely normal he is. He’s a family man (five kids, four of them adopted), and he told SeFija! in an interview long ago, he consistently treats his acting as a job just like any other job–one he does to provide for his kids, and he’s happy to do it. He says that again in his Daily News interview, and talks about Aztec Warrior, one of his upcoming project where he actually plays the lead.
He’s also a guy who gives back, and Zayda Rivera, the interviewer at the News, manages to get him to talk about his frequent and very low-key charity work, like visiting a children’s hospital in Miami when he was down there for a recent shoot. Still, he seems slightly surprised that anyone pays much attention to his work. “I’m going to Puerto Rico in three weeks because they’re naming a new theater wing after me in San Juan,” he said “That makes me feel really good. I honestly never thought in my lifetime that any of this stuff would happen. Just so you know, I’m grateful and I pinch myself every day.”
Read the whole (excellent) interview here. Both Turbo and We’re the Millers are in thousands of theaters nationwide; we’ll let you know when Aztec Warrior finally gets a premiere date (or In the Blood, Enemy Way, Henry & Me, or The Lookalike–just some of the other Guzmán projects we haven’t seen yet).
