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Keeping It Real With Luis Guzman

The NewYorkDailyNews.com catches up with Luis Guzman, who co-stars in HBO's upcoming comedy series "How to Make It in America."

Even though I live on a spread that I always joke is like Central Park in Vermont — it's 300 acres — one of my biggest joys in life is being back on the lower East Side and hanging with my buddies in my old apartment.

I do that as much as I can, especially when I'm working here in the city, like I am now. It keeps me real, and it keeps me grounded. I bought the apartment in 1991 after I started to become an up-and-coming actor, and I never gave it up. I still have family here in the neighborhood, and my buddies never left.

It's a great feeling to be on the street and everybody's passing by, and everybody knows me and saying, "Wassup." It's like everyone here is proud of me and takes pride in my work because it's a reflection of where we come from. For them, I'm just one of the guys who happened to make it. It's just such a good feeling, because this is where I have my roots.

On nights when everyone's hanging out, I get my buddies and some of the guys I went to Seward High School with right around the corner, and we stay up till 4 or 5 in the morning, playing dominoes and cooking and drinking Cuba Libres.

I take pride in my mom teaching me how to cook, and I hook everyone up with arroz con gandules [rice and peas], chuletas [pork chops] and bacalao [codfish]. Though when it comes to pasteles [similar to tamales], I love telling everybody I made them — except that my mom orders them for me from the viejitas, the old ladies in the neighborhood who make extra money cooking for people.

People sometimes ask me why I don't just live in Hollywood since I'm on the set a lot, but it would take something extraordinary to make me leave this city.

When you're an actor you have to go where the work is, but you get to a certain point in your career where you're able to make your own decisions, and I'd rather stay close to home. And this will always be home to me. So it's safe to say I'm going to be staying in New York for a while.