John Leguizamo calls Steven Seagal a 'horrible human'

Despite their feud beginning over three decades ago, John Leguizamo has seemingly reawakened his feud with former co-star and action hero, Steven Seagal.

In a recent interview, the Moulin Rouge star even admitted that he’d based his washed-up character in The Menu on Seagal.

However, it’s not the first time that Leguizamo has taken shots at the former macho man.

The pair infamously came to blows on the set of Executive Decision, which saw Leguizamo play a lowly sergeant, whilst Seagal starred as a bolshy Colonel Austin Travis.

Although Leguizamo had been excited to work with the A-Lister on hijack drama, he fell out with Seagal almost immediately, as rehearsals got underway for the 1996 action flick.

He explained the feud to the AV Club, with the 62-year-old saying that the role had gone to Seagal’s head, and alleged that he was even violent on set.

"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**k talks like that?” he told the outlet, adding: “Who comes into rehearsal and says that s**t? "So I started laughing and he slammed me with an aikido elbow against a brick wall and knocked all the air out of me."

Things became so bad on set that Leguizamo showed up early when Seagal had death scenes, saying: "I wanted to see him die. It was like a fantasy."

Warner Brothers

The feud has continued for over thirty years, but died down after Seagal stepped away from acting to focus on a career in law enforcement.

However, Leguizamo has restarted the ongoing argument as he promoted his latest film, comedy-horror The Menu.

In the 2022 flick, the veteran actor plays Georgie Diaz – an action star way past his prime and claimed he took inspiration from Seagal for the role.

When asked about this by Entertainment Weekly, the Romeo + Juliet actor said that other A-Listers had also contributed to the character and said: "I've met lots of these stars like that, maybe before they were washed up."

Continuing, he told the publication: "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."

It seems the men will not be settling their feud any time soon.

Ladbible has reached out to Steven Seagal about the allegations made by Leguizamo.

Topics: Celebrity, TV and Film

Katherine Sidnell

Katherine is an entertainment journalist with a love of all things nerdy. Starting out writing Doctor Who fan fiction as a kid, she has gone on to interview the likes of Matt Damon, James May and Dua Lipa to name a few. Published in The Sun, The Daily Mail and Evening Standard - she now joins Ladbible as resident nerd in chief.

@ksidnell