10 Times Latine Celebrities Got Candid About Racist Stereotypes In Hollywood

It goes without saying, but such stereotypes are harmful — especially in mainstream media — because they perpetuate inaccurate portrayals of Latine people, which can reinforce biases while resulting in Latine people feeling misunderstood or marginalized.

From Jennifer Lopez to Rita Moreno, here are 10 Latine celebrities who talked openly about how they handled dealing with harmful stereotypes and how it impacted their careers.

Oscar-nominated actor Salma Hayek, who is of Spanish and Lebanese descent, told GQ last February that she spent years “typecast” in Hollywood and wasn’t able to branch out into comedy roles as a result.

“I was typecast for a long time,” she said. “My entire life I wanted to do comedy and people wouldn’t give me comedies. I couldn’t land a role until I met Adam Sandler, who put me in a comedy [Grown Ups], but I was in my forties! They said, ‘You’re sexy, so you’re not allowed to have a sense of humour.’”

The Martian actor Michael Peña, who is Mexican and American, once admitted that the first 14 years of his acting career were a huge struggle due to constantly being stereotyped when it came to casting.

“I’ve been an actor for 20 years, and I think the first 14 years it was all struggling. At first it was all gangsters,” he said. “The reality that everyone is stereotyped; every one gets typecast so you have to work to get out of that.”

Honduran actor America Ferrera told Elle last year that she wanted to branch out into acting roles that didn’t “fit into stereotypical Hollywood.”

“What I continue to wish for my career, and women’s careers and people of color’s careers, is that we don’t have to exist inside of these boxes or these lanes — that we don’t have to be relegated to represent just the thing that the culture wants us to represent,” she said. 

“I want to be more of who I am as a person, and to get to make art that doesn’t fit into any of the boxes and isn’t about the dominant conversation people have wanted to have about me because I’m a woman who doesn’t fit into stereotypical Hollywood,” she added.

In 2021, Aubrey Plaza, who is part Puerto Rican, opened up about fighting Latine stereotypes in Hollywood during an appearance on the Highly Relevant podcast. Citing her famous role on Parks and Recreation, Aubrey said of her character, April Ludgate, “I was very adamant about going, 'Look, maybe she's half Cuban. Maybe her mom's Cuban.' And they were like, 'Great idea!' Obviously, it wasn't about that, but in my own way, I feel like I try to portray Hispanic characters that aren't the stereotypes because that's one thing I think we're really up against. Especially Latina women.”

In 2016, Eva Longoria, who is Mexican-American, recalled being instructed on how to appear more Latin by a white, male casting director. She said, “Some white, male casting director was dictating what it meant to be Latin. He decided I needed an accent. He decided I should [have] darker-colored skin. The gatekeepers are not usually people of color, so they don't understand you should be looking for way more colors of the rainbow within that one ethnicity.”

During a 2018 interview with Porter, Puerto Rican and Dominican actor Zoe Saldaña opened up about struggling to land leading roles in Hollywood early in her career. “Every time I read a script, even if it was a period piece, I read it thinking that I was going to go after the lead role. It wasn’t until I would come across the introduction of a supporting ethnic role that I realized, ‘Oh.’ I wasn’t even allowed to try to get that main role, because they want to go traditional on the part. I would hang up on that conversation from my agents, thinking, What about me is non-traditional? It was a very hard pill to swallow,” she said.

Oscar, full name Oscar Isaac Hernández Estrada, opened up about fearing that he’d be “pigeonholed or typecast” before he professionally dropped his last names. “Starting out as an actor, you immediately worry about being pigeonholed or typecast,” said the Guatemalan and Cuban actor. “I don’t want to just go up for the dead body, the gangster, the bandolero, whatever. I don’t want to be defined by someone else’s idea of what an Oscar Hernández should be playing.”

Back in 2020, J.Lo — who is Puerto Rican — told Variety, “When I started, I would always go in for what they would call 'the maid,' 'the Rosie Perez-type role,' 'the dishwasher.’ I was like, ‘I don't want to do that,' and I had to kind of break out of that and convince somebody to put me in the first romantic comedy, which was The Wedding Planner.”

John Wick star John Leguizamo, who is Colombian-American, revealed in 2015 that he purposefully took on many of his projects in a bid to fight the limited opportunities that Latine actors have in Hollywood. “I didn’t want to be a drug dealer or a murderer for the rest of my life. That’s not me, that’s not my people,” he said.

Rita, who is Puerto Rican, told NPR in 2013 that she was constantly stereotyped early in her career. “I became the house ethnic. And that meant I had to play anything that was not American. So I became this Gypsy girl, or I was a Polynesian girl, or I was an Egyptian girl,” she said, before recalling once telling a director at an audition, “I’m sorry, but I don't do Mexican whorehouse madams.”

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