Five Times Luis Guzmán Showed Up and Made Everything Better
If you're a fan of pop culture or an alumni of Greendale Community College, chances are you're familiar with Luis Guzmán, the award-winning actor who has appeared in acclaimed movies like Boogie Nights, Out of Sight, and Carlito's Way. And if you're under 25, we're talking about Wednesday's dad.
This week, Guzmán is set to guest-star in an episode of the delightful yet cosmically-mystifying Poker Face. So really, there's no better time than now to run down some of our favorite Guzmán appearances, such as when he played…
Bacon in 'Keanu'
In the Key & Peele-starring Keanu, Guzmán appears as a villainous drug kingpin named Bacon. And, really, how many other actors would be able to sell both the comedy and the drama of a scene in which a violent shoot-out is waged over a tiny tabby kitten?
Luis in 'Magnolia'
While not the most substantive of his collaborations with director Paul Thomas Anderson, Guzmán shows up briefly in Magnolia as … himself? Yeah, he plays an ornery game show panelist named Luis and steals a few moments of the frenzied movie – but sadly, Luis wasn't invited to participate in the Aimee Mann singalong.
A Cop in 'We're the Millers'
Back when he was playing scumbags instead of mustachioed do-gooders, Jason Sudeikis starred in the raunchy comedy We're the Millers. In one dumb but memorable scene, Guzmán plays a cop who pulls over the faux family's RV full of drugs and very casually solicits a bribe.
Lou in 'Anger Management'
Thanks to some Hollywood executive's insistence that the Happy Gilmore guy should be in a movie with the star of Chinatown, we got Anger Management – which is now mostly remembered as the source of that GIF of Jack Nicholson nodding intensely. But Guzmán's small role as a member of Nicholson's therapy group is arguably better than anything else in the film.
Himself in 'Community'
In one of Community's best running jokes, Luis Guzmán is revealed to be the most famous graduate in Greendale history, inspiring Dean Pelton to commission a statue of the actor to place in the campus quad. Guzmán himself later showed up in the episode "Documentary Filming: Redux" and found himself smack in the middle of a Hearts of Darkness parody…
Community turned out to be a pretty good gig for Guzmán, who negotiated a deal in which he got paid every time his bronze likeness appeared on screen. As he later explained: "They could've showed the elbow in passing; I got paid."
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