Diego Luna revealed his personal experiences with Latinx typecasting in Hollywood prior to taking on the Empire in “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.”
During an installment of the Hollywood Reporter’s roundtable interview series, “Off Script,” the Mexican star of the Emmy-nominated series “Andor” revealed he was only offered drug dealer roles before he hyper-sped his way into a galaxy far, far away.
“Before ‘Star Wars,’ the only projects I’d get offered would be [about] drug dealers,” Luna said during the discussion, which included fellow drama actors Walton Goggins and Adam Scott. “I could be the nice drug dealer and not the vicious one, but still a drug dealer.”
The Golden Globe-nominated actor has been acting since he was a child in his native country of Mexico. He starred in various telenovelas during the 1990s before making his cinematic breakthrough in 2001 with Alfonso Cuarón’s Oscar-nominated film, “Y Tu Mamá También.”
Luna would later appear in English-language films, such as Steven Spielberg’s 2004 movie “The Terminal” with Tom Hanks, as well as “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights,” in which Luna played the main love interest. He eventually starred in Netflix’s cartel TV series, “Narcos: Mexico,” as Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, a founder of the Guadalajara Cartel.
Luna added that Hollywood productions were not “sending messages” that he could be himself in projects where he could see himself reflected in the roles. “I remember being asked, ‘Are you going to clean up your accent?’ That’s not part of the conversation anymore,” he said. “But when I was 20, it was like, ‘Man, you’re great, and if you work with your accent, you’ll be doing what this person or that person is doing.’ And you go, ‘Why would I like to do that? This is what makes me unique.’”
Luna’s presence in American productions has arguably helped increase the small percentage of Latinx representation in Hollywood; according to a 2023 report from the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, Latinx people represent 19% of the U.S. population, but they only account for 4.4% of actors in lead or co-lead roles. And when they do appear on screen, the study revealed, they tend to depict people who are immigrants and living in poverty, as well as characters that skew violent, angry and criminal.
In February, Netflix committed $1 billion to Mexico productions of series and films in hopes of creating opportunities for Latinx people nationwide, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
“This investment, and the productions derived therefrom, will benefit Mexican production companies and will contribute to the growth of the local audiovisual industry,” said Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix, during the press conference announcing the investment.
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