Hangin' With The Homeboys - Main Characters

Main Characters

• Mario Joyner plays Tom, an aspiring actor who works as a telemarketer while waiting for his big break. His girlfriend cancels their date for the night, so he goes out with his friends, and later finds out she is out with another man. At the end of the movie, he reveals that he is weary of his friends and their destructive and derisive behavior between themselves. He is especially angry at Willie and Vinny, who manipulate him into paying for them because they are unemployed, but constantly criticize and make fun of him.

• Doug E. Doug plays Willie, an angry unemployed bum who embraces the Black Power movement, but is genuinely devoted to his best friend Johnny. He has a tenuous friendship with Vinny and a passing friendship with Tom (which disintegrates when Tom calls him on his mooching). He is hypocritical, calling Tom a failure even though he is comparable to a bum, and describing a black female he encounters towards the end of the film as an Uncle Tom because she "dresses white", but he is not a member of any political organization and does not even vote.

• Nestor Serrano plays Fernando (aka Vinny), a philandering Puerto Rican who is ashamed of his heritage and pretends to be Italian, much to Johnny's horror. He later has to confront this fact when a police officer asks him about his nationality. The oldest of the four, he is cynical and verbally abusive to virtually everyone. He is a sex-hound who tries to talk to every pretty girl he sees. He is both amused at and contemptuous of Johnny's naivete and has a strained interaction with him because he sees him as a sad individual who would depress everybody in the gang, especially him. Vinny is unemployed, but is supported by the generosity of his many girlfriends. Hypocritically, he openly derides Willie's lack of employment.

• John Leguizamo plays Johnny, the youngest of the group, who is idealistic and naive. Also Puerto Rican, Johnny is very proud of his heritage, unlike Vinny. He works at a grocery store, but has an opportunity for a scholarship. Romantically naive and having a rather chivalrous ideal towards love, he is infuriated to find Vinny dancing suggestively with Daria, the girl he has a secret crush on. The last straw comes when Vinny selfishly demands an apology for "ruining his night". Instead, Johnny punches him on the jaw and knocks him unconscious. At the end of the movie, the disastrous night makes him decide to go for the scholarship and start a new chapter in his life, away from his "friends".