He's an Emmy and Tony Award winning actor, writer, producer, filmmaker, who you may also recognize from classics like Carlitoe's Way, Mulan Rouge, and Encanto. And last but certainly not least, he's an activist. And in his latest documentary, John Leguizamo, live at Rikers, performs his one-man Broadway show, Geto Clown, at Rikers Correctional Facility for an audience of more than 400 inmates highlighting narrative truths as he sits with these young men to hear their stories.

I think a good question to ask is, do you love yourself? That's a.

Great question, man. That's a great, great question.

That's.

Crazy. How do you ask something like that? Because I ask that question because you might say, Oh, yeah, I love that guy, but you got to love yourself.

Joining us now is Mr. John Leguizamo himself. Pleasure to have you here.

Thank you for having me. What a pleasure.

So you start off in the documentary saying, If I can do this and you're on the stage about to perform, I can do anything. What was it about being in that particular location that you felt I need to do this?

Well, it was the hardest performance of my life because I'm used to being in a theater, in a fancy theater. It's my space. People are paying crazy, ridiculous, Broadway prices to see me. They come in to see me. Here I'm coming in their space. Well, it's not their space. It's a system space. I wasn't sure if I was been out of touch for a while. I'm not that down anymore. Am I going to seem like I'm tone deaf or something? But I felt like my piece, Getto Clown, since it was about my life and I was a problem child, I got arrested and whatnot and I was going down the wrong path. I was hoping that that would connect with them somehow and give them some hope. And it worked. I went in there, they were laughing. The guards were laughing. And then we sat down together, and that's when I felt like a connection really happened.

It really did seem that way. I mean, they were sitting upright, leaning into your story. It seemed like you had the street cred in order for them to actually say, okay, he's a real one.

Well, I earned it because I was like, I don't know if they're going to be laughing. They asked me... Before I went in there in Rikers, they asked me to no sexual content, no violent content, no vulgarity. And I said, I can't do the show any less than what I wrote because I'll feel inauthentic to them and they'll know that I'm pulling my punches. So they let me do it the way I wanted to do it. I've been part of... The part of the reason I also did it was because the numbers. We know the majority, the largest ethnic groups in prisons in American jails are Latino and black men, and I have great empathy for them. I felt like if I could bring my show live to them, entertain them for a moment, bring them a little joy, maybe spark a little bit of hope to keep them going.

It felt like, I mean, there were a number of things that felt like your life was parallel with theirs. One of the guys even said you show a slide of this building in Jackson Heights where your mom lives, and he's like, Oh, that's where my mom lived too. Then your story about your dad, that really seemed to resonate with them.

Yeah. I really felt like I could connect with them. I've been part of Go So, get out, stay out for 10 years. I'm on the board. Mark Goldsmith, who's my hero, has run it for 20 years. It's not government funded, we've got to raise money. I'd go there and I'd give them acting classes and teach them how to do one man shows and I fell in love with them because I wanted people in this documentary to see that they could be your son, they could be your cousin, they could be your brother. These kids are just regular kids that made a mistake and the system should rehabilitate them, not punish them. A whole prison system should be about rehabilitation, and the large numbers of Latino and young black men in jail is horrific in this country. So I feel like I had to do something, bring something to them.

And I want to give that organization Goso really a pat on the back here because the recidivism rate is what? 86 % of the guys who are in that program don't go back.

It's incredible. And it's a high school. It's a high school in Rikers Island for the younger population from 18 to 21. And yeah, they don't come back. They stay out. Get out, stay out really works.

You and I were talking earlier about how quite often when you're trying to be a blessing to someone, you end up getting that blessing back. Did you feel that way, going in there? It's like to do them a service, but you end up feeling.

That as well. Yeah, I just felt healed in a lot of ways. I went in there thinking I'm going to bring them healing. I'm going to bring them joy, and they brought me so much. I could talk about a lot of things that I went through and they understood. And then that's healing when you get it out, when you can talk about it.

Really great work what you're doing, John. Thank you so much for what you're doing and for coming on the show and talking with us. John Leguizamo, live at Rikers, is now streaming on The Black Experience on Xfinity and Zuma.

Hi, everyone. George Stephanopoulos here. Thanks for checking out the ABC News YouTube channel. If you'd like to get more videos, show highlights, and watch live event coverage, click on the right over here to subscribe to our channel. And don't forget to download the ABC News app for breaking news alerts. Thanks for watching.