Things Looking Rosie for Leguizamo

By Stephen M. Silverman

11/06/2001 at 09:52 AM EST

Rosie Perez, John Leguizamo and Annabella Sciorra all swung into New York Monday night for the premiere of their and director Seth Zvi Rosenfeld's "King of the Jungle." The film marks the second collaboration for the filmmaker and his actress wife, Perez, their first having been "A Brother's Kiss." And how is it working with your significant other? "I don't know," snapped Perez. "Ask him." Without missing a beat, Rosenfeld told PEOPLE, "It's fantastic. She's the best actress in America." In the film, Leguizamo stars as a mentally challenged man whose mother is murdered, forcing him to decide whether or not to find her killer. To prepare for the role Leguizamo spent time "at the Adult Home for Retarded Children in the West Village for the whole summer," he says. "I hung out with a couple of people and based my character on a guy there named Barry." Leguizamo is actually doing double duty in films and on the stage. His third one-man show, "Sexaholic," a stage opus dedicated to his sex life and all his past girlfriends is currently previewing on Broadway. "It's been pretty wild," Leguizamo says about the audiences coming out to see the show nightly in a post-September 11th New York City. "We get some crazy, rowdy, wanting-to-laugh New Yorkers, wanting to forget what's going on. And it's really exciting."