Luiz Guzman, ‘The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3’

Luis Guzman caught the train late and had no idea where it was going.

“I didn’t study acting,” says one of the busiest character actors around, calling his career “a fluke.” “I pretty much was a street kid growing up, always involved in the neighborhood and all the different characters. I hung out with poets and musicians and community activists. I met Cesar Chavez when I was 17. This is everything I use. My career is a reflection of my life.

“That character I did in ‘Anger Management’ -- I really grew up with a guy like that. He used to dress so sharp, he was so buffed but when he spoke, you thought you were listening to your sister.”

The actor is in town for only two days, for the premiere of Tony Scott’s “The Taking of Pelham 123,” in which he plays a disgruntled former MTA motorman sucked into a hijack plot by a vengeful ex-convict (John Travolta) while an ordinary MTA employee (Denzel Washington) tries to defuse the situation. The movie, he says, was “a cool flick” to work on, “watching Tony, how he manipulates the whole situation, all the cameras. And seeing how John Travolta drove this movie; he was like a badass badass, if I can say so.”

Guzman is eager to get back home to catch his 13-year-old son’s baseball game, but rather than his native New York City, that destination is Vermont, where he is a gentleman farmer with his wife and five children. “It’s a different life, a different head,” he says. “I think it keeps me younger. It keeps me much healthier mentally, spiritually; the air is cleaner, the environment.” And, he says, “You learn how important manure is in your life.”

It has been a long, strange trip for the former social worker from the Lower East Side. “My job was to build up the confidence of young people, their interview skills, get them focused on their life,” he says of “the best job” he has had. “Maybe five, six years ago, on 57th Street and First Avenue, I hear some woman: ‘Mr. Guzman, Mr. Guzman! I want you to know, I’m a supervisor now in that company you got me a job at 15 years ago. I’m putting my daughters through college; I started a women’s group.’ Great, great stuff.”

One day when two of his charges didn’t show up for their appointment, “I went out into the street looking for them. I ran into a friend of mine who said, ‘I’m writing for this TV show, why don’t you see if you can get a part?’ Next thing you know, I’m costarring in the season premiere of ‘Miami Vice.’ I had no clue what I was doing.”

Guzman’s unexpected career has sometimes led him down some unfamiliar tracks. “Driving that train, being in the motorman’s cab -- I spent 99.9% of my life being a passenger,” he says with pleasure at the memory of shooting “Pelham.” “It was amazing being in the tunnels. Those trains are passing you,” he says, putting his hand inches from his nose, “like that. Take off your face, whatever. Number One, you’ve got to respect the system down there, because it can kill you.”

Even in what screenwriter Brian Helgeland calls “an underwritten part,” Guzman delved into his character’s calamitous shortsightedness. “There’s a certain innocence about this guy, even though he’s driving the train for the bad guys. From the moment it turns bad: ‘I don’t want to be here. This is not the idea I had.’

“I’ve been in that situation as a teenager, you know, where you’re coming in to support somebody and you think they’re just gonna talk this out; next thing you know, somebody pulls out a knife and someone gets stabbed or something. Now because you were there, you become a target; you wanted to make peace.”

Perhaps success coming relatively late to Guzman has helped keep him grounded -- although there is some widely viewed video on the Internet of him pitching a fit on the set of “Waiting” (2005). Of course, his turning diva and getting into an extremely unpleasant argument with director Rob McKittrick -- before a stunned cast -- turned out to be an excruciatingly effective prank.

“That’s how you know you are good at your craft,” he says, still chuckling with pride at punking the likes of costars Ryan Reynolds, Justin Long and Dane Cook on an April Fool’s Day -- and fans as well. When McKittrick posted only the portion of the bit with him and Guzman arguing over a line and McKittrick subsequently cursing at him, some fan reactions were telling of the status the actor has achieved.

“I was getting e-mails like, ‘Yo, dude, I used to love you; I see how much of a . . . you are now. You were my icon. . . .’ So I called Rob and said, ‘You’ve got to put up the other half.’ And he goes, ‘I know, I’ve been getting people e-mailing me, saying, “Who the hell do you think you are, talking to Luis Guzman like that? Don’t you know he’s a national treasure? If I ever see you in the mall I’m gonna punch you in the face!” ’ “

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Where you’ve seen him

Luis Guzman has been in more than 100 movies and TV shows since 1983. Among his highlights have been three films each with Paul Thomas Anderson (“Boogie Nights,” “Magnolia” and “Punch-Drunk Love”) and Steven Soderbergh (“The Limey,” “Out of Sight” and “Traffic”). One of his smaller films, however, is one of his favorites: “Maldeamores.” “It was all in Spanish. It was such a beautiful, beautiful little movie.”