Although it may seem like he is always a working actor, Leon — yes, famously known as just “Leon” — said there have been dips and valleys in his career.
“Little Richard,” “The Temptations,” “The Five Heartbeats,” and “Cool Runnings” are some of Leon’s projects of note, which helped to catapult his career into the stratosphere in the 1990s.
More recently, Leon can be seen in the satirical Amazon Prime thriller “Swarm” and the Showtime drama series “The Chi.”
“Sometimes, I haven’t been working as much,” said Leon. “Sometimes, I’m concentrating on my music, and I’m not thinking about acting. In my eyes, I always feel like I’m underutilized.
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When Leon is not acting, he’s performing with his band, “Leon and the Peoples.”
“I’ve always delt with life as it is,” he said. “I’m not swept up in the make-believe of Hollywood or what people might believe. I’m always going to be real with myself and real with others.”
Leon said he never wanted to act to gain fortune or fame. He remembered that being the case for many of his peers, too. They were focused on being good at their craft, and if anything, he said, they also wanted to stand out.
Growing up in Mount Vernon and the Bronx in New York, Leon recalled sneaking into the Wakefield Movie Theater to watch an Elvis Pressley movie, which moved him to take up acting.
Leon believes natural actors who are also trained actors tend to have the best control over their body instrument. “They can give you a variety of performances because they know how to do that,” said Leon. “They’ve worked. They’ve practiced it. They’ve put it out there, and usually on a stage.”
Leon said any actor can excel playing themselves, but real talent can be seen in those who can embody others.
“In your practice [as an actor], you may go through many teachers, and different plays, and things that you do while you’re training that will allow you to have more control over exactly what you’re doing [as a performer],” said Leon.
But Leon said he doesn’t think he was prepared for a career in acting. He said he grew up as a city kid and knew nothing about the entertainment industry or Hollywood. He initially came to Los Angeles on a basketball scholarship at Loyola Marymount, where he was later discovered as an actor.
Though Leon was always a student of acting and the theatre, he said he didn’t know anything about the entertainment business.
“I didn’t know what I would have to go through to get roles, and consistently get roles,” said Leon. “When I first started auditioning, I could see how ruthless it was. It was interesting when I started to realize it wasn’t just about being good.”
Leon said he’s grateful to have loyal fans. But from time to time, he said his supporters ask him why he doesn’t land more standout roles. What they don’t know, Leon said, is that talent has very little to do with who gets which roles.
“The Hollywood game is so different. Then there’s the Hollywood game that you think you know. Then you discover there’s a whole [other] Hollywood game that most people aren’t even privy to,” said Leon. “I think we’re hearing about it right now. It’s all over the news.”
He credits his dad for his perseverance and confidence, which have helped him to endure in a very difficult business.
Another thing Leon said his father passed on to him was his love of music, and he could always fall back on it to navigate through the sometimes-uncertain world of acting.
“My love of music came from my dad,” said Leon. “In college, I wrote and performed a song for the Special Olympics. Music was always something that was a love of mine. And I think that once I became popular as an actor, I’ve had opportunities to be around really great musicians.”
Leon has portrayed several musical artists over the course of his career.
He played the fictional character “J.T.” in “The Five Heartbeats,” Motown great “David Ruffin” in “The Temptations,” and the titular character in “Little Richard,” which is based on the life of the “architect of rock and roll,” Little Richard.
“Maybe I look like a singer – I guess I look like a singer,” said Leon. “Now, even if I didn’t look like a singer, I look like a singer because of how many roles I’ve played.”
Nonetheless, Leon said he has never felt typecast because those roles are just a small part of his larger career and legacy as an actor.
“If I were to be typecast, then yeah, I’m cool with that,” he said. “I would rather be typecast as a singer than a cop or a doctor. I think that’s a lot more grown and sexy.”
Leon said music continues to inspire him, comfort him, and keep him sane through all the dips and valleys of his life and career. He said the soundtrack to his life right now is the kind of music he likes to play with Leon and the Peoples — a fusion of reggae and soul.
“We’re like the Sly and the Family Stones of reggae,” said Leon. “We talk about all aspects of life and love.”
The band is currently doing several spur-of-the-moment performances, and their song “Love is a Beautiful Thing” hit the Billboard Top 20 Hot Singles chart.
As an actor, Leon called himself a method actor. Method acting is a technique or type of acting where an actor aims to deliver a believable performance by fully becoming the character. Some professional actors have even said the process can sometimes make one lose themselves.
Leon said he has a profound sense of self, so this has never been a problem for him. “I like Leon,” he said. “So as soon as the role is over, I miss me — no matter how much acting I’ve done. I’ve been me more than I’ve been any other character.”
