Actor John Leguizamo refuses to watch the new Super Mario Bros movie due to ‘lack of Latin actors’.
People remember the star for playing Luigi in the 1993 live-action version of Super Mario Bros. opposite Bob Hoskins, who starred as Mario.
Three decades after the original film, an animated version has been released and it features Charlie Day as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Chris Pratt as Mario, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, and Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong.
But The Violent Night star told TMZ that he won’t be watching the movie.
“No, I will not be watching, he expressed. “They could’ve included a Latin character. I was groundbreaking and they stopped the groundbreaking.
Leguizamo also said that the Latin audience is a huge part of the population but they are underrepresented on theaters.
“They messed up the inclusion. They dis-included,” he went on.
“Just cast some Latin folk. We’re 20 percent of the population – the largest people-of-color group, and we’re underrepresented. Over-represented in the worst kinda jobs, though.”
When a reporter asked him again if he would watch the new film, he firmly said: “Hell no!”
In a 2020 interview with IndieWire, the actor described the casting of the new film as ‘unfortunate.’
“The directors Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton fought really hard for me to be the lead because I was a Latin man, and (the studio) didn’t want me to be the lead. They fought really hard, and it was such a breakthrough,” he expressed.
“For them to go backward and not cast another (actor of color) kind of s*cks. A lot of people love the original.
“I did Comic-Con in New York and in Baltimore, and everyone’s like, ‘No, no, we love the old one, the original.’ They’re not feeling the new one. I’m not bitter. It’s unfortunate,” he added.
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