Like many other Hispanic actors, Guzman started his career playing a lot of gang members and criminals until Sidney Lumet cast him as a detective in 1990's Q&A. Although the bad-guy roles kept coming -- most notably in 1993's Carlito's Way, where he played Al Pacino's crony Pachanga -- other offers arrived, too, including some from A-list directors such as Paul Thomas Anderson and Steven Soderbergh, who have cast Guzman in three films each.

''My career has all been a matter of gradual steps,'' Guzman says of his longevity. ``Miami Vice was my introduction to the business at this level. Q&A was another step. Carlito's Way was another step. Boogie Nights was another step. Carlito's Way really put me out there, because it's such a cult movie with people. The Count of Monte Cristo really inched me up, because no one had ever seen me in that kind of role.

''Those are all very different directors,'' Guzman says. ``Sometimes they want to keep you on the leash and be very hands-on. Other times they just let you run. But my compromise with every director in any given film is the same: I'll give you whatever you want. Just let me have the last take, and let me play. Because then I can feel like I'm really a part of this.''

One perk of being a character actor is that your work can often be appreciated outside and beyond the movie around it. That remove comes in handy when a film turns out to be a bomb.

GOOD REVIEW

''Many years ago, I did a really bad movie -- I'm not even gonna tell you the name of it -- and I had one scene in this movie,'' Guzman says. ''When it came out, it got panned by everybody. But one review had one little paragraph that said the most notable performance in this movie is by Luis Guzman. That gave me a certain level of pride, because it felt like I had done my job and got noticed for it, even in a bad movie.'' Guzman may well be talking about the 2002 Eddie Murphy debacle The Adventures of Pluto Nash, about which the New York Times' Elvis Mitchell wrote ``Luis Guzman is all lowlife sparkle as an admiring small-time thief who calls Pluto the Tito Puente of smugglers.''

Although Pluto Nash was bad enough to derail careers -- its director, Ron Underwood, has yet to make another studio-backed feature in Hollywood -- Guzman emerged from the wreckage unscathed.

''That's one of the biggest advantages of being a character actor instead of a leading man,'' Guzman says. ``We last a whole lot longer than lead actors. The lead actor is the guy who has to sell the movie. We're just the foundation, the blue-collar guys who show up to the set in our pickups. And it's one of the best jobs in the world, man.''

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