Following John Leguizamo’s criticism of James Franco’s casting as Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro within the impartial movie Aline from Cubaproducer John Martinez O’Felan responded, calling the feedback “culturally uneducated”.
Directed by Miguel Bardem and based mostly on a screenplay written by Jose Rivera and Nilo Cruz, Franco stars alongside Mía Maestro, who performs Natalia “Naty” Revuelta, a Cuban-born socialite with whom Castro turns into romantically concerned. The movie is predicated on the true story of Alina Fernandez – performed by Ana Villafañe – a Cuban exile turned social activist who learns at age 10 that she is Castro’s daughter.
Leguizamo, a Colombian American actor who wrote and starred within the Broadway manufacturing Latin historical past for moronstook to Instagram on Friday to slam the choice to forged Franco, questioning why Hollywood is “excluding” the Latinx neighborhood and noting {that a} film about Castro is a “very onerous story to inform with out making it large.”
“How is it nonetheless going? Leguizamo, who has beforehand spoken concerning the lack of Latinx illustration in Hollywood, mentioned of the casting. “How does Hollywood exclude us but additionally steal our tales? No extra Hollywood appropriation and streamers! Boycott! This F’d up! Furthermore, a severely tough story to inform with out enlargement, which might be flawed! I’ve no downside with Franco, however he isn’t a Latino!
In response, O’Felan, the movie’s producer, mentioned in a press release to The Hollywood Reporter that he admires Leguizamo however that his feedback are a “blind assault”.
“A man like John Leguizamo has all the time been thought-about by Hispanics to be one of many premier Latin American actors because the 90s and I’ve all the time seemed as much as him as an underdog. However his feedback are culturally uneducated and an indiscriminate assault with out substance associated to this undertaking.
“The fact of ignorance is his assertion suggesting his private view of being ‘Latino,’ as a result of land mass or space of life doesn’t decide an individual’s blood or genetic background,” he continues.
O’Felan goes on to say that “Leguizamo’s be aware is a good speaking level as a result of they characterize the identical confusion and identification disaster in Hollywood proper now among the many Hispanic neighborhood of America who argue that we should not determine solely as Latins, which is principally due to the lies unfold by the actors who’re imagined to characterize us, however as a substitute create division amongst their very own individuals.
The producer concludes that Leguizamo’s criticism in the end undermines the movie’s identification: Fernandez.
“I feel he ought to step up and likewise acknowledge that this story is a few Latin immigrant residing in America that’s traditionally vital, led by a Latin girl and I am simply an outsider doing that, so he also needs to perceive that it’s a little disappointing to see our work being attacked by somebody who claims to be a pacesetter of the Latin neighborhood”, he declares.
Aline from Cuba includes a forged and crew from “at the very least seven nations around the globe” based on O’Felan, with manufacturing design by Carlos Osorio, modifying by Diego Fernando Bustamante, costume design by Daniela Rivano and Juan Carlos Gil in as director of images. Nana Fisher, who has ceaselessly collaborated with Franco, will lead his make-up staff whereas Jessica Drake will function the primary forged’s dialect coach.
Alanna de la Rosa, Maria Cecilia Botero, Harding Junior, Sian Chiong and Rafael Ernesto Hernandez are among the many movie’s supporting forged, with filming set to start August 15 within the Colombian cities of Cartagena and Bogota.
The position is one in all Franco’s first because the 2019 animated movie arctic canine and the HBO sequence The satan. The Oscar-winning actor was charged in a Los Angeles Time report in 2018 by a number of ladies of sexually exploitative conduct after his Golden Globes victory for The Catastrophe Artist. In 2021, Franco settled a sexual misconduct lawsuit introduced by actresses Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal – former college students of his now-defunct Studio 4 appearing faculty. Franco’s attorneys have denied the allegations, however the actor admitted to having slept with college students, though he mentioned it was not with anybody in his class.
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