John Leguizamo Says His Pablo Escobar in Dear Killer Nannies Is the Most Human, and Most Chilling Yet - INTERVIEW

MIAMI - John Leguizamo entered once again in dangerous territory, this time as Pablo Escobar in 'Dear Killer Nannies', and in Miami he made it clear that this is not just another narco retelling. The series goes somewhere other projects have not, inside the Escobar home, inside the bond between father and son, and inside the emotional wreckage left behind by one of the most infamous criminals in modern history.

In an interview with this reporter, during an event in Miami to present the HULU series, Leguizamo said the project is "very different" from previous portrayals of Escobar because it was shaped with direct input from the family, especially Juan Pablo Escobar, who, he stressed, was more than a consultant.

"What we're telling are things that have never been seen," Leguizamo said about the series, which is already available. "What was happening inside the house, between father and son, between husband and wife. And when you read the script, you know these are not lines. These are words that were lived."

That is the angle that gives "Dear Killer Nannies" its bite. The series digs into the domestic horror around the head of the lMedellín Cartel , including the bizarre and disturbing reality that Juan Pablo was raised by nannies who were also sicarios. Leguizamo explained it bluntly: "The son couldn't go to school because they would capture him or kill him. So he had to be raised by nannies, but the nannies were hitmen to protect him, and suddenly they became informants, and Pablo Escobar had to kill one of the nannies. And that's when things got heavy."

Leguizamo also revealed the private guidance he received while building the role. He said Juan Pablo told him Escobar was not the loud, cartoonish figure many viewers might expect. "He said to speak in a low voice. Calm. Don't yell," Leguizamo recalled. He added that he was also told Escobar had "a good sense of humor," was "mischievous," and "very affectionate." That softer description became central to the performance, especially because, as Leguizamo put it, many Colombian fathers in the 1980s "didn't kiss" their children or say they loved them.

That contrast is exactly what Leguizamo says makes the character so unsettlingand puts him ahead of other performances portraying Escobar, including Benicio del Toro's, Javier Bardem's and Wagner Moura's. It's at the level of Andres Parra's in "El Patrón del Mal", and that is saying a lot.

The team wanted to portray Escobar "as he really was," adding that he was "a psychopathic killer criminal." But "villains are not black and white, but a gray shade," Leguizamo said. "This man can be charismatic and affectionate at the same time that he could murder thousands of people." For him, "Dear Killer Nannies" is not about glorifying Escobar. It is "a warning."

Leguizamo was just as vivid when discussing the transformation. He joked, with the swagger of a man who knows he landed the role, that he may be "the best Pablo Escobar that has ever existed."

He studied "everything that existed in video" and "all the recordings" to capture Escobar's accent, gestures and even his breathing pattern. "He had something in the way he breathed when he was talking," Leguizamo said, describing the tiny pauses he tried to reproduce on screen. Physically, he said he gained weight and then used prosthetics to go further. "I fattened up, but they added a little prosthetic to make me even bigger," he said, laughing that plenty of bandeja paisa, tamales and arepas in Colombia helped him get there.

But the emotional center of the role may be the final rupture between Escobar and his son. Leguizamo recounted what he said Juan Pablo told him about the last time he saw his father. According to the actor, Escobar said he had to kill one of the nannies because he had become an informant. The son pushed back in horror. "Who else are you going to kill?" Leguizamo recalled him saying. "Are you going to kill my grandmother if she looks at you wrong? Or my mother if she says something you don't want to hear? When do these killings stop?" Leguizamo's reaction to revisiting that moment was immediate and visceral: "Very powerful. That is chilling."

That may be the real hook of Dear Killer Nannies. John Leguizamo is not selling Pablo Escobar as an icon. He is selling him as a contradiction, a father who could be quiet, funny and loving, yet still be a "psychopathic killer criminal." In a culture crowded with narco stories, that is what makes this one feel different. It is less about the legend the world already knows, and more about the son who had to survive him.

Originally published on Latin Times