With a career that began over three decades ago, John Leguizamo is still one of the hardest-working talents in the industry. Aside from producing the Buena Vista Social Club, a new Broadway musical, writing a new play (The Other Americans), and continuously speaking out for the Latino community and against President Trump, he now stars in Bob Trevino Likes It, taking on a much different role than he’s played before.

“What was exciting to me was to play this new type of man in America,” he tells Entertainment Weekly. “He’s a more sensitive, a [more] nurturing man. A man who’s not afraid of being vulnerable. This is the new masculinity that we need to put forward and the best kind of masculinity.”

Directed by Tracie Laymon, Bob Trevino Likes It is loosely based on the filmmaker’s real-life story. In the movie, Laymon (played by Barbie Ferreira) forms an unlikely friendship with an internet stranger who shares the same name as her estranged father. After coming across Leguizamo’s Travino while searching online for her real dad (played by French Stewart), she discovers that this other Bob is a kinder, better father figure than the man she had set out to find.

“I just love the message in the movie, especially in these times that are so difficult and so divisive, and there’s so much lack of respect, especially in America,” Leguizamo says. “To show that decent human beings are really worthwhile people who respect each other, people who will reach out and do a kind act that has such a profound effect on another person, is something so lacking in our culture right now. It’s a very different role than I’ve ever done before. I’m usually doing the crazy guy, the wild guy, or the villain. This guy’s just a regular dude, a regular parental figure, a surrogate dad for the character of Lily in the movie. And so I jumped at the chance. It was something very different and something much closer to myself than usual.”

The actor and writer has never shied away from a challenge — from taking on Shakespeare to bringing his own life to the stage in one of his many one-man Broadway shows. One of his first major movie roles was To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar as the young drag queen Chi Chi Rodriguez. It’s a film that he says still holds power, even after 30 years. 

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly’s free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

“Good movies have that effect. Good movies have staying power. And I’m glad that To Wong Foo is still around because it has that. Because back when it came out, it was very daring. It was very groundbreaking because straight men were not playing those roles. You know what I mean? They just wouldn’t; movie stars wouldn’t do that because it would wreck their careers. And you had Wesley Snipes at the top of his action career. Patrick Swayze, top of his romantic lead era. It was a brave move and a beautiful move, a bold move by both those guys. And I was an up-and-coming star, so I didn’t have as much to lose.”

While much has changed since 1995, Leguizamo points out that many of the film’s themes are still sadly relevant. “It was about inclusivity,” he says. “It was about respecting others. It was about respecting transgender people. It was about respecting the LGBTQ+ community, and it was dignifying them all. This hate against transgender people is so ridiculous. And all this talk about transgender people in sports. I mean, transgender people are less than one percent of the population, and transgender people going into sports are how many people in the country? One out of 350 million people? Relax people; just let them be and respect them. And we could bring that back. Bring back respect to the transgender community.” 

Leguizamo has been advocating for representation for years, particularly for the Latino community. While Latinos account for 20 percent of the U.S. population and buy nearly a quarter of all movie tickets, onscreen representation remains less than 5 percent. The Encanto star remembers when productions refused to cast more than one Latino. In Bob Trevino, the film’s leading stars, Leguizamo and Euphoria‘s Ferreira, are of Latino background.

“It’s amazing!” he says excitedly. “Amazing because back in the day, there were quotas and not positive quotas, negative quotas. I was supposed to be in a movie, and I was talking to a director, and all of a sudden, he cast another Latino, and he said, I’m sorry, I can’t have two Latinos in the movie. That’s the things that were going on back in the ’90s. So, to be in a movie with another Latino who is a breakout star, this chick is a killer. I mean, it was the birth of a great actress and you could see it. I was so glad to be a part of it.”

Still, Leguizamo makes clear that “Latino stories don’t always have to be just about Latino culture.” He explains, “They can just be about anything because everybody’s the same, really. When you scratch beneath the surface of our skin, we’re the same as everybody else. So, a girl who’s looking for a father figure and finds one in somebody she looks up on Facebook and then becomes better friends than her real father. That’s just a touching, beautiful story that happens to have two Latinos as your leads.”

Bob Trevino Likes It is now in theaters.