John Leguizamo trashes Hollywood as not an ‘accepting place’ for Latinos

John Leguizamo, who stars as Eumaeus in Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” is accusing Hollywood of shutting Latinos out of the industry, even as he appears in a major studio epic playing a character from ancient Greece rather than a Hispanic role.

Speaking on the red carpet at the film’s New York premiere, Leguizamo reflected on his decades in Hollywood, describing his career as an ongoing fight for Latino representation. Asked about his own “odyssey” in the business, he did not point to a specific role or milestone. Instead, he framed his career around advocacy. 

“It’s always been a battle. Hollywood is not the most accepting place,” Mr. Leguizamo said, according to Variety. He went on to argue that the industry underserves Hispanic audiences despite their spending power: “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.”

Mr. Leguizamo, who was born in Colombia, plays Eumaeus, the loyal swineherd who remains devoted to Odysseus throughout his long journey home, in Nolan’s big-budget adaptation of Homer’s epic. The role is not written as Hispanic, and it is not the first time Mr. Leguizamo has taken on a non-Latino part. Some commentators have argued that his casting complaints sit awkwardly alongside his own career choices, noting the irony of an actor who champions representation taking a Greek role in a Greek epic. 

The film’s ensemble includes Matt Damon as Odysseus, along with Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Lupita Nyong’o and Jon Bernthal. The Trojan Horse built for the production became a centerpiece of the movie’s New York premiere Tuesday night, where much of the cast walked the red carpet together.

This is not the first time Mr. Leguizamo has compared Hollywood’s treatment of Latino actors to segregation-era discrimination. Last August, in an appearance on the “Fly on the Wall” podcast with Dana Carvey and David Spade, he said he still feels humiliated by one of his first major film roles — the liquor store gunman in Mike Nichols’ 1991 drama “Regarding Henry.”

“You know, I was kind of humiliated by it,” Mr. Leguizamo said of the part. “I did it because I got no jobs. There were no jobs for Latin folk. There just weren’t.”

He described the Hollywood casting landscape of that era as resembling Jim Crow, saying available roles for Latino actors amounted to a narrow set of stereotypes: “white doctor, white lawyer, white husband, white lover, Latino drug dealer.” Of “Regarding Henry” specifically, he said, “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.”

Mr. Leguizamo said he took the part anyway because he wanted the chance to work with Nichols, whom he called “one of the greats.” He has built a career spanning more than four decades since, with credits including “Carlito’s Way,” “Romeo + Juliet,” “Moulin Rouge!” and voice roles in the “Ice Age” franchise and Disney’s “Encanto.”