John Leguizamo took to his Instagram page to criticize the recent casting of James Franco as Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro. Franco will play him in the next independent film Aline from Cubaand Leguizamo is against the casting because Franco is not Latino.
In his post to his Instagram followers, Leguizamo said: “How’s this going?” How is it that Hollywood excludes us but also steals our narratives? No more Hollywood grabs and streamers! Boycott! It’s fucked! As well as a very difficult story to tell without aggrandizement, which would be wrong! I do not have a [problem] with Franco but he is not Latino!” You can check out the Instagram post below!
Aline from Cuba is scheduled to begin production on August 15, with the crew filming in Colombia. Franco will star alongside Ana Villafañe, who plays the titular character Alina Fernández, Castro’s daughter. The script follows Alina’s life as Castro’s illegitimate daughter and critic of his reign in Cuba before she left the country and defected to Spain in 1993. The casting of Franco as Fidel Castro was supported by the real-life support of Fernández. , who is involved in the film as an on-set biographical and creative consultant.
John Leguizamo is no stranger to talking about these issues. hey said people magazine in 2020, “We are less than 1% of the stories told by Hollywood and broadcast media and networks when we are almost 20% of the population, 25% of the US box office. I feel like it’s a big hurt for kids not to see themselves reflected in a positive way.”
Do you agree with John Leguizamo?
