If at first you don’t succeed, then spend $15,000 of your own money. Or so the Hollywood saying goes. That was the case for John Leguizamo as he pursued the role of infamous drug kingpin Pablo Escobar in the upcoming KING OF COCAINE. Leguizamo lost out on the role numerous times as contemporaries such as Oscar Isaac and Benicio Del Toro were considered above him. After those two came and went (although Del Toro is still set to play Escobar in PARADISE LOST), Leguizamo pressed on and invested $15,000 of his own money in order to construct a fat suit and apply some prosthesis in order to convince director Brad Furman. It worked, though not at first, as financier Scott Steindorff still needed convincing. After people at Relativity studios failed to recognise Leguizamo, Steindorff gave in and here we are now.
Leguizamo is an astonishing actor and one who can completely lose himself in a role. Whether it’s being the only good thing about SPAWN, a vertically challenged artist in MOULIN ROUGE, or even giving a decent performance in the talent vacuum that was THE HAPPENING, Leguizamo constantly impresses. Pablo Escobar is also one of those names I’ve heard of, but don’t know much about, so here’s hoping this will be an eye opening experience.
KING OF COCAINE starts shooting in Columbia in January with a budget of $25 million.
Source: The Guardian
