The Odyssey Star John Leguizamo is castigating Hollywood once again, accusing the film industry of discriminating against Latinos.
In director Christopher Nolan’s film, The Odyssey, the Colombia-born Leguizamo plays Eumaeus, a Greek warrior and friend to Odysseus — a character that is decidedly not Hispanic. Despite being cast in a non-Latino role (and not for the first time) Leguizamo insists that Hollywood operates on Jim Crow principles where Latinos are concerned.
In comments to Variety, Leguizamo praised himself as a fighter for Latinos.
“It’s always been a battle. Hollywood is not the most accepting place,” he exclaimed. “Even though we Latin people are 30% to 40% of the box office — and a third of streamers — we’re the most aggressively underrepresented group in America.”
The claims are hard to square with the actor’s very long and very busy career of more than forty years, including acting, writing, directing, producing, and even musical credits.
Still, Leguizamo insists that Hollywood bars Latinos all too often.
Last year, for instance, he accused Hollywood of being just like the Jim Crow south.
Speaking of one of his earliest film roles as a gang member in the 1991 movie, Regarding Henry, Leguizamo claimed that he was “humiliated” by his big break.
“You know, I was kind of humiliated by it,” Leguizamo claimed of the gangbanger role. “I did it because I got no jobs. There were no jobs for Latin folk. There just weren’t.”
Leguizamo, added that Hollywood was like “Jim Crow” for minority roles. He noted that it was sort of like, “white doctor, white lawyer, white husband, white lover, Latino drug dealer.”
“They just want to see great shows, but they just weren’t casting us. When I got Regarding Henry, it was a drug dealer. I shoot this white guy. It was like, I’m perpetuating what they want to see, which is negative Latino images,” he exclaimed.
In another case, the actor ripped Hollywood for casting white people instead of Latinos.
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