{"id":1098,"date":"2026-07-27T11:09:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T11:09:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=1098"},"modified":"2026-07-27T11:09:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T11:09:37","slug":"john-leguizamo-is-a-noble-fellow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=1098","title":{"rendered":"John Leguizamo Is a Noble Fellow"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Now that moviegoers have Odyssey fever, thanks to Christopher Nolan\u2019s blockbuster, audiences are revisiting characters that they first encountered in English class: wily warriors, cool monsters, island temptresses. Be honest, though. Did you remember Eumaeus, Odysseus\u2019 faithful swineherd, who waits in Ithaca for his master\u2019s return? Neither did John Leguizamo, when Nolan took him out to lunch a while back, at the Odeon, and offered him the role. \u201cI was trying not to eat, because I spit a lot,\u201d Leguizamo recalled recently. \u201cHe said, \u2018You\u2019re going to play the most loyal character in Western literature.\u2019 I was, like, Wow, that\u2019s a big deal!\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more How Netanyahu\u2019s Top General Became His Strongest Challenger<\/a><\/p>\n

Leguizamo, who grew up in Bogot\u00e1 and Queens, had read the Odyssey at Murry Bergtraum High School, near One Police Plaza. \u201cI didn\u2019t really pay attention,\u201d he said, at a Mediterranean restaurant on Lexington Avenue. He wore a tight black T-shirt and chains around his neck, and held a napkin over his lips to avoid spritzing. \u201cI was just about hanging out\u2014girls, partying, and being comical and whatnot.\u201d At nineteen, he reread the epic on his own time. \u201cI was trying to save myself, because I\u2019d been working at Kentucky Fried Chicken for two years,\u201d he went on. In the nineties, he made his name performing impish one-man shows such as \u201cMambo Mouth\u201d and \u201cSpic-O-Rama,\u201d placing himself, like the ancient singers of the Odyssey, in the oral tradition.<\/p>\n

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Lately, Leguizamo has been reading Daniel Mendelsohn\u2019s translation of Homer, which describes Eumaeus as a \u201cnoble fellow.\u201d Nolan had his own take on the character. He put Leguizamo, who is a spry sixty-six, in old-man makeup and cataract-clouded contacts, and had his hair bleached white. \u201cIt burned my eyebrows the first time,\u201d Leguizamo said. He spent most days on set covered in filth. \u201cI felt very fugly,\u201d he recalled. \u201cI was, like, Oh, my God, everybody looks incredible! Matt Damon looks fit as fuck. Tom Holland looks handsome as shit. I look like a gelded you-know-what.\u201d He shot many of his scenes at a cliffside castle in Sicily, acting alongside pigs and donkeys and oxen\u2014which had to be helicoptered uphill\u2014and also the Portuguese podengos that split the role of Odysseus\u2019 hound, Argus. \u201cIt\u2019s an ancient breed,\u201d he said. \u201cI call it Portuguese pendejo<\/em>, because it\u2019s not the brightest dog in the world. Pendejo<\/em> is Spanish for \u2018dopey.\u2019\u00a0\u201d<\/p>\n

After lunch, Leguizamo walked over to Hixenbaugh Ancient Art, a gallery on Sixtieth Street. He was greeted by its proprietor, Randall Hixenbaugh, in a room filled with busts, pots, and helmets. Leguizamo had worried that Hixenbaugh was a tomb raider, but the dealer, in an oxford shirt and khakis, assured him that the artifacts\u2014from Greece, Rome, Egypt, and Mesopotamia\u2014came from pre\u00ebxisting collections. Hixenbaugh opened a display case and took out a ceramic vase from the late Bronze Age, roughly Odysseus\u2019 time. \u201cThis is what\u2019s called a stirrup vessel,\u201d he explained. \u201cThis probably would have been for flavoring for wine.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He tried handing it to Leguizamo. \u201cOh, no, I\u2019m too afraid,\u201d the actor said, flinching.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the fun, I think, of collecting ancient art\u2014it\u2019s not all sacrosanct,\u201d Hixenbaugh said. He turned to a wine amphora from Athens, circa 460 B.C., painted with a tunicked soldier leaving home.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, why is this guy naked and the other guy not?\u201d Leguizamo asked, pointing to another amphora. \u201cIs he a god?\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more A Greenwich Village Dining Room That Feels Far from the TikToking Crowd<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, this is Dionysus,\u201d Hixenbaugh said. \u201cReally important men are often naked, too, like Alexander the Great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearby was a small Roman figure of Odysseus, from the first century A.D. Leguizamo\u2019s eyes bulged at the seventy-five-thousand-dollar price tag. \u201cThat\u2019s almost my whole salary for the movie!\u201d he said. \u201cIf it was cheaper, I\u2019d give it to Matt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toward the back was a wall of ancient Greek armor, including helmets, shields, and ankle guards (to protect those Achilles tendons). They looked at a bronze breastplate from the fourth century B.C., detailed with a belly button and pert nipples. \u201cThis would have scared the hell out of opponents,\u201d Hixenbaugh said. \u201cImagine if the Greeks were fighting some barbarians who don\u2019t have armor, and this guy looks like he\u2019s made out of metal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA robot!\u201d Leguizamo said.<\/p>\n

The Bronze Age Greeks, Hixenbaugh explained, had a limited geography. \u201cThe Odyssey\u2019s all about that. Odysseus is exploring the bounds of the Bronze Age Greek world, and it\u2019s very mysterious. They didn\u2019t know quite what was over the horizon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to tell Chris Nolan he should have talked to you,\u201d Leguizamo said. He predicted that the movie would send Hixenbaugh customers. The New York premi\u00e8re was that night, and Leguizamo spotted a gift for Nolan: a silver coin, from the Aegean isle of Th\u00e1sos, circa 140-110 B.C., minted with the wreathed head of Dionysus and priced at a reasonable seven hundred and fifty dollars. \u201cYou take credit cards?\u201d he asked.\u00a0\u2666<\/p>\n

Read more Gregg Araki Thinks It\u2019s Good to Get Your Heart Broken<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The \u201cIce Age\u201d actor steals Christopher Nolan\u2019s \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d as a loyal swineherd to Matt Damon\u2019s Odysseus. Back in New York, he bought the director a two-thousand-year-old thank-you gift. Michael Schulman writes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-pictures"],"yoast_head":"\nJohn Leguizamo Is a Noble Fellow - City Relocation News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=1098\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"John Leguizamo Is a Noble Fellow - City Relocation News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The \u201cIce Age\u201d actor steals Christopher Nolan\u2019s \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d as a loyal swineherd to Matt Damon\u2019s Odysseus. 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