RIDGEFIELD — With more than 120 acting credits to his name, including several wildly successful HBO comedy specials and a recurring roles as the voice of Sid the sloth in the Ice Age animated film franchise, John Leguizamo is a familiar face in the entertainment world.

Newtowners are being invited to get up close and personal, and maybe to learn a thing or two with Leguizamo, when he brings his new one-man show Latin History for Dummies to The Ridgefield Playhouse on Wednesday, September 16, at 8 pm.

Leguizamo assumes the role of hard-hitting history teacher, guiding audiences through his biting and comic take on 500 years of Latin history, covering topics such as the Aztec and Mayan empires, Christopher Columbus, the Pilgrims, the Conquistadors, the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, and other subjects.

In an exclusive chat with The Newtown Bee ahead of his Ridgefield stop, Leguizamo said he patterned his delivery in Latin History after one of his own college history professors.

An Emmy Award winner, Leguizamo is known for bringing both boundless and visceral creativity to his work in film, theater, television, and literature. He just debuted his fifth HBO solo special, Ghetto Klown, an adaptation of his Drama Desk Award-winning one-man stage show of the same name.

This year, Leguizamo completed three back-to-back films: The Nest, American Ultra, and The Man on Carrion Road. And he recently starred alongside writer/director Jon Favreau in the feature Chef, as well as Ride Along, opposite Ice Cube and Kevin Hart.

Leguizamo's other film credits include Walking with Dinosaurs, The Counselor, Kick-Ass 2, the Ice Age franchise, Moulin Rouge, and the Spike Lee thriller Summer of Sam.

His accomplishments also include the celebrated autobiography Pimps, Hos, Playa Hatas, and All the Rest of My Hollywood Friends.

During his call-in to The Bee, Leguizamo talked about channeling the educator who inspired his latest stage role, his relationship with his teenage children, and how he worked with Spike Lee to craft his favorite film role.

Newtown Bee: Should I refer to you as Professor Leguizamo? Your advance says that in Latin History for Dummies you "assume the role of hard-hitting history teacher." Besides all the incredible things you've accomplished, have you ever wanted to be a teacher?

John Leguizamo: Well, I've been wanting to play a teacher for a long time. You know I'm a product of the New York Public School system — which really failed me by the way. I wanted to undo all that unlearning that happened to me. But I'm more like an absent-minded professor in Latin History for Dummies. I kind of based it on this history professor I had in college — he was this kind of goof ball crazy man, but he really inspired me. So I found myself doing a lot of research over the last ten years. First I thought after the Aztecs and the Incas, we really didn't do anything. But I learned that we were part of the American Revolution, the Civil War — on both sides — and there were so many heroes. Men and women — so many crazy contributions.

Newtown Bee: But were there enough notable Latino heroes or achievements that were funny enough to make the cut for your show?

John Leguizamo: Well, you always have to put a spin on these things. That's how comedy works, and how my mind works. There was this one lady who dressed as a man to fight in the Civil War, with a fake mustache and everything. And she died in battle. So you have to picture the doctor in the autopsy when the pants came off, right (laughing)?

Newtown Bee: How much of this production and script was born from the routine that ended up on your 2001 live CD where you riff on the history and culture of Latinos in America?

John Leguizamo: That was sort of the beginning of my passion and obsession with Latin History — big books — tomes, I think they are called. I wanted to comb the archives so I'd have these stories to pass onto my kids.

Newtown Bee: For a moment, I envisioned you commanding a room full of researchers culling the depths of dusty Latin history books for ideas.

John Leguizamo: It was a lot like that. First I'd talk with a professor. Then it was off to the library to dig into the history books, then I'd go to Google to learn more and to look for pictures and things. So I'd just keep digging until I found the most interesting stories. When I started out I had way too much information to boil down into this crazy balance between comedy and theater.

Newtown Bee: This production seems to be an ideal vehicle to squeeze maximum output from both your acting and comedy chops. Do you find in Latin History for Dummies you're calling more on either your acting or stand-up experience?

John Leguizamo: My work usually calls more on my acting than anything else — but maybe this one is more rooted in my comedy [background]. I want to be a lot more Jon Stewart-like. I do call on the acting to help bring these characters to life, then I talk about how some of these historic incidents and people are analogous to my life.

Newtown Bee: How much room, or permission do you give yourself in these one-man productions to improvise?

John Leguizamo: There's always room for improvisation, but in this show, you obviously can't improvise on the facts, but I can improvise my take on it based on how the audience is reacting. And I can always riff depending on the emotional state I'm in — in the moment.

Newtown Bee: If you do give yourself the occasional length of rope, by improvising, do you find you're beating yourself up afterward for venturing too far off script, or giving yourself credit for taking the risk?

John Leguizamo: I've got to give myself credit. This is like my sixth show. So it takes between 200 and 300 performances to get Broadway bound. So anytime I take a risk I'm proud of myself for coming up with a whole new twist on something — it's those little miracles that happen — they don't happen in the movies or on TV,  it's only in the live performance — when the audience reacts a certain way. Then all of a sudden I'm taken to a different place. That risk just became a whole new and different theatrical experience.

Newtown Bee: As you're working your way through those hundreds of shows, do you find it goes through a lot of changes?

John Leguizamo: The show changes constantly — it's a workshop — a work in progress that could change vastly from performance to performance. I'm a perfectionist so I'm always changing things up on the way to beauty — that's what I'm always looking for — beauty.

Newtown Bee: What about before your shows, do you prepare the same way every night?

John Leguizamo: I gotta get there about two hours early so I can do my vocal, physical, emotional, and spiritual warm-ups. I've gotta be in a place on stage, I gotta go through all the pieces of the act in my head, then I gotta be alone for awhile.

Newtown Bee: According to IMDB you've got 123 different acting credits to your name, but only one directing credit. So does that mean you're not one of those actors who dream of directing, or are you just waiting for that dream pitch?

John Leguizamo: You know, I love acting more than anything else in the world. That's my gift. I've directed. I've directed some commercials — I won a best of award for one commercial I directed for Burger King. You're right though; if I'm going to direct something it's gotta be a mad passion project because it's going to keep me away from acting for awhile. It can take three years to put a feature together.

Newtown Bee: Your son and daughter are around the same age now as when you first started unleashing some of your earliest comedy routines; do you see any of yourself in some of the things your kids are doing?

John Leguizamo: I like my kids a lot — we have really deep conversations about everything. We argue a lot, too, but when they agree with me it feels incredible. I really see a lot of myself in them. My son is always trying to crack a joke and buck the system. And when it doesn't work, he's a lot like me.

Newtown Bee: Your affiliation with the Ice Age franchise certainly exposed you to a younger generation of fans. Do you ever look out in the audience when you're doing some of your raunchy material and spy a kid who begged his parents to go see you because they're such big Ice Age fans?

John Leguizamo: Well, 50 percent of my crowd is Latin, and they bring their kids to everything. And my live act has always been pretty blue — so when I look down and see kids or grandparents in the front row, it's always very uncomfortable, but I just look beyond them and do my stuff, man!

Newtown Bee: I've seen many of the film roles you've played, but my personal favorite is Summer of Sam. Can you talk a little bit about working with Spike Lee on that film?

John Leguizamo: Dude, that is my favorite [role] — I mean me and Spike Lee — he and I just mind-melded. We had such an amazing time together me and Spike. It was my most complex role and I think it was Spike's second best film after Do the Right Thing. We went to Cannes with that film — my first trip to the Cannes Film Festival — I mean that was electric. I'm so proud of the work we did on that — Mira Sorvino was fantastic, Adrian Brody was brilliant, man, there was magic in that film.

Newtown Bee: I guess it's also got a place in film history for the most widespread use of the f-word — besides a separate documentary about the f-word.  Do you find it strange when people pull these weird little bits of trivia out for discussion about films you've been in or roles you've played?

John Leguizamo: No, I love that stuff. It helps me put my character into the time line of the film. Summer of Sam took place in a time when the f-word was being used a lot and we wanted to be authentic to the period. Spike and I were trying to do a lot of new things — experimenting. Spike brought in an acting coach for us weeks before we started to shoot — I mean it really ended up being a real work of art.

Newtown Bee: Do you find more of the roles you are getting offered today are for more mature characters, or are there still a fare share of zany or frenetic parts coming your way?

John Leguizamo: Definitely more mature characters — a lot of father parts. But I still get a few wacky parts. I'm in the new Tina Fey / Amy Poehler comedy playing the guy Amy's character loses her virginity to in high school, but he's still stalking her all these years later. I had so much fun with those ladies — they are so generous, so egoless — really just brilliant.

For tickets to see John Leguizamo's Latin History for Dummies ($110 orchestra, $95 mezzanine/balcony), call 203-438-5795 or visit the box office at The Ridgefield Playhouse at 80 East Ridge. Get tickets on line at ridgefieldplayhouse.org.