John Leguizamo Slams James Franco's New Role as Fidel Castro
James Franco has been cast as Fidel Castro in an upcoming movie and his casting is being slammed by John Leguizamo.
Alina of Cuba will follow Castro’s daughter Alina Fernandez, played by Broadway actress Ana Villafane. The real-life Alina is involved in the film and she supported James‘ casting, according to Variety.
Click inside to read what John Leguizamo had to say…
“How is this still going on?” John wrote on Instagram. “How is Hollywood excluding us but stealing our narratives as well? No more appropriation Hollywood and streamers! Boycott! This F’d up! Plus seriously difficult story to tell without aggrandizement, which would be wrong! I don’t got a [problem] with Franco but he ain’t Latino!”
The View‘s Ana Navarro commented, “I’d like to think no Latino actor worth their salt would sign up to play and aggrandize a murderous dictator who terrorized the people of Cuba for six decades. For both reasons you articulated, I join you in the boycott.”
Deadline reports that the movie “follows the true-life story of Cuban exile turned social advocate, Fernandez, whose birth was the result of the tryst between Revuelta and Castro. Revuelta sacrificed her and her physician husband’s personal belongings and finances to help fund the start of the communist revolution. Fernandez learned that she was Fidel Castro’s daughter at the age of 10 when after years of secret visits to her home, her mother finally revealed that ‘El Comandante’ was her biological father. Alina grew to become one of Castro’s most outspoken critics, arrested on more than one occasion for trying to leave, and was classified as a dissident forbidden to travel outside of Cuba. Ultimately, she defected to Spain in 1993, an event that drew headlines from every major news network around the world, before she made Miami her permanent home.”
The movie is being shot on location in Colombia and production begins August 15.