John Leguizamo Recalls The Messed-Up Reason He Lost A Role To A White Actor

"If you happen to look Latino, or in case you have a Latino final title, the percentages are towards you in Hollywood," John Leguizamo wrote within the Los Angeles Occasions.

Jemal Countess through Getty Photographs

John Leguizamo is talking out concerning the discrimination he’s confronted all through his profession and continues to expertise.

In an interview revealed Wednesday, the American actor and comic of Colombian-Puerto Rican descent advised Insider about an “unstated Latin quota” in Hollywood — the assumption that there could be too many Latino individuals in a movie.

“This one director wished me to be in his film,” Leguizamo advised the outlet, not naming the director. “He stated, ‘I like your work, I would like you within the film.’ After which I hear again from him. He calls me up, and he says, ‘Oh, sorry man, you may’t be in my film as a result of I have already got a Latin actress and I can’t have two Latin individuals within the film.’”

Leguizamo added:

“And the factor is the man, the actual man that the character I used to be to play was primarily based on, was actually Latin.”

The “Encanto” solid on the movie's world premiere in 2021: Angie Cepeda, Rhenzy Feliz, Jessica Darrow, María Cecilia Botero, Stephanie Beatriz, Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Wilmer Valderrama, Mauro Castillo, Carolina Gaitán, Adassa, John Leguizamo and Diane Guerrero.

Jesse Grant through Getty Photographs

The Golden Globe winner additionally advised Insider about different cases the place he’s gotten a job in a movie with quite a few Latino characters — however they’re all performed by “white guys,” and he’s “the one Latin man representing.”

Earlier this month, the “Carlito’s Method” actor wrote an open letter to Hollywood revealed within the Los Angeles Occasions. In his letter, Leguizamo expressed his anger with the shortage of Latin voices in fashionable media.

“The Latino inhabitants is bigger than the white inhabitants in California, and but we're not represented accordingly. That's cultural apartheid,” Leguizamo wrote. “In New York, the Latino inhabitants is the same as the white inhabitants, however you'd by no means comprehend it should you watched native TV or learn our newspapers and magazines. The metrics are on our aspect, however the system isn't.”

He described Latinos in his letter as “born in Latin America. Not Spain, nor anyplace else in Europe. These are white peoples.” He additionally wrote overtly about how Latinos are discriminated towards in his trade.

“You could be as gifted as Marlon Brando or Ingrid Bergman, you may write like William Shakespeare or Arthur Miller, you may have the display screen presence of Ryan Gosling or Jennifer Lawrence,” he wrote. “However should you look Latino, or in case you have a Latino final title, the percentages are towards you in Hollywood.”

Leguizamo advised Insider that he thinks Hollywood ought to embrace extra Latino-led initiatives. He used the success of his 2021 Disney movie “Encanto,” an animated characteristic that happened in Colombia and featured a largely Latino solid, as a chief instance.

“That’s why ‘Encanto’ is loopy as a result of it was the No. 1 film on this planet, what extra proof do you want?” he stated. “I’m not seeing the greenlights of these initiatives. Greenlight the goddamn issues.”