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John Leguizamo Based Has-Been Action Actor Character In The Menu On Steven Seagal: “He’s Kind Of A Horrible Human”

John Leguizamo didn’t have a good time working with Steven Seagal on the 1996 movie Executive Decision.

John Leguizamo still can’t get over his one-time co-star Steven Seagal — but in a bad way.  

Leguizamo, 62, is currently starring in horror-comedy The Menu, where he plays Georgie Diaz, an also-ran action star trying to reinvent himself as a lifestyle host. He’s one of many high-profile guests invited to an island to dine at an exclusive restaurant run by Ralph Fiennes’s Chef Slowik.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the Spawn actor revealed who he modelled Georgie on. “I’ve met lots of these stars like that, maybe before they were washed up,” he said “I mean, now they’re washed up. I kind of based mine on Steven Seagal. I had a bad run-in with him. We did a movie together. It was Executive Decision. He’s kind of a horrible human.”

Executive Decision is a 1996 movie directed starred Kurt Russell, Halle Berry, BD Wong, Leguizamo and Seagal, among others. It’s about a Special Forces squad attempting to recover a hijacked airliner mid-air.

Leguizamo's feud with the Undersiege is well-documented,

In a 2012 interview with AV Clubthe Encanto actor said then: “He came in and was like, [low, breathy voice] 'I'm in command. What I say is law.' So I started, like, [snorts]. I mean, who the f*** talks like that? Who comes into rehearsal and says that shit? So I started laughing and he slammed me with an aikido elbow against a brick wall and knocked all the air out of me. I dropped to the ground, and all I could say was, [gasping] ‘Why? Why?’ I really wanted to say that he runs like a bitch and has no hair, but I was afraid.”

That was why he relished the days he showed up early on set to watch Seagal — spoiler alert! — shoot his death scenes. “I wanted to see him die. It was like a fantasy”, he added.

In 2014, Leguizamo referenced the altercation again in a Los Angeles Times interview where he said he was respectful to all the celebs he mentions in his autobiographical play Ghetto Klown – except for Seagal.

"I'm not really attacking anybody in the whole show, except Steven Seagal," he said.

In April, Leguizamo called out Seagal’s bully behaviour in The New York Post. “Yeah, I did not have a good time with Steven Seagal. No one has.”

Leguizamo's next movie, Violent Night, arrives on the big screen on Dec 1. The Menu (NC16) is now showing in cinemas; Executive Decision is now streaming on Netflix.

Photos: TPG News/Click Photos

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