Comedian and actor John Leguizamo isn’t pleased with the casting of James Franco as Fidel Castro in the movie “Alina Of Cuba”. After finding out that the role of Fidel had gone to Franco Lequizamo shared his discontentment on Instagram, even calling for a boycott.
Leguizamo has an issue with Franco’s race, not his acting skills or him as an individual it all comes down to the fact that Franco isn’t a Latino.
“How is this still going on? How is Hollywood excluding us but stealing our narratives as well? No more appropriation Hollywood and streamers! Boycott! This F’d up! Plus seriously difficult story to tell without aggrandizement which would b wrong! I don’t got a prob with Franco but he ain’t Latino!”
“The View” co-host Ana Navarro quickly added to the calls of boycotting the film. Her reasons for calling for a boycott of the film, encompassing not only Franco not being Latio but the film is about a “murderous dictator who terrorized the people of Cuba for six decades.”
James Franco was chosen to play Fidel Castro because he has a “similar facial structure” as the politician according to the producers of the film.
The casting of individuals in roles outside of their race has been called, “cultural appropriation” more and more of late. It may seem to some that taking on a role and portraying a character is all part of acting, not everyone feels the same.
Leguizamo is very vocal about Latino representation and history. He jumps at the chance to voice his opinion on the lack of representation of Latinos.
In 2020 he told People, “We’re less than 1% of the stories told by Hollywood, streaming media. And networks, even though Latinos make up almost 20% of the population and 25% of the U.S. box office. I think it’s bad for kids not to see positive reflections of themselves.”
In an interview with MSNBC that he did last year about the approved Latino Smithsonian, he compared the Latio representation to that of Black representation. Before he makes the comparison he also acknowledges that Latios are Black, European, and Natives as well. Although he is happy that Blacks have gotten more representation he at one point in the interview says Latios have zero representation.
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