The Odysseystar John Leguizamo is highlighting a film from his past that he believes more people should have seen.
To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar was met with mixed reviews and made less than $50 million at the box office. In recent years, it has earned a cult following with many appreciating how pioneering the movie about drag queens was.
The 1995 movie starred John Leguizamo, Wesley Snipes and Patrick Swayze as drag queens with opposing personalities who take a road trip between New York and LA to attend a pageant.
On the way to the drag pageant, the trio has a run-in with a homophobic cop, and after their car breaks down, end up stuck in a Midwestern town. The town doesn’t realize they are drag queens and accepts them into their small community. Soon the group adds their own flair and brightens the lives of the inhabitants of this impoverished town.
Leguizamo believes the release of another film with similar themes stopped To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar from becoming the hit it should have been. “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert stole our thunder because it came out just before,” the Moulin Rouge! actor told Bustle in a recent interview.
The Australian film, which starred Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce, also features a trio of drag queens on a road trip. “There was only room back then for one drag queen movie. We didn’t get the accolades that we deserved, I feel.”
“I think Patrick did an amazing job, and Wesley and I crushed it, too. And we took it seriously, and we really wanted to give these characters integrity,” he added, explaining how the actors went to a drag coach to perfect their performances.
“She was from the Bronx, and she was trying to help me do my accent correctly. And she taught me how to do it all right. I loved her, and I borrowed as much from her as I could,” the Ice Age voice actor said regarding his coach, Laritza Dumont.
Chi-Chi was written especially for Leguizamo, with the actor even embarking on a vegan diet to lose his muscles. “I got all soft and girly,” he wrote in his 2007 autobiography, per Attitude. “Little jelly rolls under my arms, round little tummy. Oh, I was cute.”
Why The Film Still Resonates With The LGBTQ+ Community
While the film might not have been a box office smash, it still holds great importance with the LGBTQ+ community. “LGBTQ+ teenagers came up to me a lot and said that that movie gave them the courage to come out to their family,” Leguizamo explained.
“That’s what you hope your work does: gives people a sense that they’re seen, that they’re important, that their lives matter. You know, that’s what you hope that you do with your work,” the Romeo + Juliet star explained.
In 2015, The Advocate wrote a piece about how revolutionary the movie was for the community, especially during the AIDS crisis. “I think of what it meant to make a movie about three out and proud gay men back in the mid-1990s,” Mitch Kohn wrote.
“What it meant to have a major studio finance and release it. What it meant to have one of the preeminent men in the history of the film industry support it from day one, without any begging or convincing,” Kohn added.
This story was originally published by Parade on Jul 26, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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