James Franco, who was accused of sexual misconduct by a number of ladies in 2018, has been solid as Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro in “Alina of Cuba.” The unbiased movie will chronicle the story of Castro’s daughter Alina Fernandez, in response to Deadline.
Fernandez was 10 years previous when she discovered Castro was her organic father. She later turned a staunch anti-Castro activist and was arrested a number of occasions as a dissident for making an attempt to flee the communist nation earlier than efficiently defecting to Spain in 1993.
Fernandez will function an on-set artistic and biographical marketing consultant, and the undertaking was written by Oscar-nominated screenwriter José Rivera and Cuban Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Nilo Cruz. However Franco’s casting has already sparked backlash — most notably from his fellow actors.
“How is that this nonetheless occurring?” John Leguizamo captioned an Instagram submit Friday. “How is Hollywood nonetheless excluding us however stealing our narratives as properly? No extra appropriation Hollywood and streamers! Boycott! This F’d up!”
“Plus significantly tough story to inform with out aggrandizement which might b mistaken!” Leguizamo added. “I don’t received a prob with Franco however he ain’t Latino!”
“I’m auditioning for one more generic Latin-American drug seller and James Franco is useless ass enjoying Fidel Castro,” tweeted actor Jeff Torres. “Latinos gettin’ executed soiled af out right here and in every single place.”
Lead artistic producer John Martinez O’Felan informed Deadline the casting was rigorously thought of, nonetheless, and that he “combed via your entire ranks of actors with Latin roots in Hollywood.” He famous Franco, who's one-quarter Portuguese, had a “shut bodily resemblance” to Castro.
O’Felan informed Deadline his staff particularly centered on actors of Spanish and Portuguese heritage as a result of Galicians like Castro shared that ancestry. He mentioned Franco was solid for having “the closest facial likeness” and that he succeeded in “discovering somebody Alina Fernandez would strongly endorse.”
O’Felan mentioned the “focus has been to provide an inventive piece of contemporary Hispanic historical past, with the imaginative and prescient for the undertaking as being really inclusive via uniting actors and creatives from intergenerational and up to date Latin roots from the U.S., Latin America, and the world.”
The Annenberg Inclusion Initiative on the College of Southern California’s Faculty for Communication and Journalism responded to the information on Twitter by contrasting the cancelation of “a number of Latinx exhibits” with Franco’s casting: “No surprise there may be so little progress on this city.”
The supporting solid consists of Cuban-born actors Sian Chiong and Rafael Ernesto Hernandez, in addition to María Cecilia Botero from “Encanto.” “Alina of Cuba” will begin filming in Cartagena and Bogota, Colombia, later this month with the colonial structure mimicking Havana’s.
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