Hollywood has slowly started to alter their bizarre history of whitewashing characters and casting white actors to play minorities. It's weird that it took this long, but, hey, better late than never. Even though there have been some changes in modernity, the practice hasn't entirely fallen out of favor. Thankfully, Hollywood isn't casting actors like Mickey Rooney as horrific Asian stereotypes anymore. They've just taken to casting Scarlett Johansson as an Asian woman- sans an absurdly racist depiction, of course, but a damaging one nonetheless.
The latest example of a white actor earning a role as a minority is James Franco landing the role of Fidel Castro. Aside from the copious scandals surrounding Franco, the move is an incredibly tone-deaf one considering the increased scrutiny that Hollywood is facing to implement more nuanced forms of representation. As a proud Latino actor, John Leguizamo isn't content to keep his mouth shut about the issue.
John Leguizamo took to Instagram to speak out against the recent casting of James Franco as Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro in the upcoming independent film, "Alina of Cuba." Variety confirmed Franco's casting on Aug. 4. "Alina of Cuba" is directed by Miguel Bardem, based on a script written by Jose Rivera and Nilo Cruz.
"How is this still going on?" Leguizamo asked his Instagram followers about Franco being cast as the Cuban historical figure. "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 be wrong! I don't got a [problem] with Franco but he ain't Latino!"
