Criticism of James Franco is mounting now that he has been cast in the role of Fidel Castro for an upcoming independent film called Alina of Cuba. On Friday, actor John Leguizamo made a post on Instagram that became a lightning rod for much of the outrage. Other controversies aside, Leguizamo couldn’t believe that this movie had cast a non-Cuban, non-Latino person for this important role.
“How is this still going on?” Leguizamo wondered. “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!”
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Commenters mostly seemed to agree with Leguizamo, and his post became the host of some spirited conversations. CNN anchor Ana Navarro wrote: “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.” Another fan added: “So we’re just going to act like he never sexually assaulted anyone??… Got it,” while a third wrote: “Definitely no seeing. Makes no sense when so many good Latino actors out there.”
Alina of Cuba was written by Jose Rivera and Nilo Cruz, and will be directed by Miguel Bardem. It is slated to begin production on Aug. 15, according to a report by Variety. It will be shot in Colombia, and will center around Castro’s illegitimate daughter, Alina Fernandez, played by Ana Villafaรฑe. Fernandez was an outspoken critic of Castro’s regime, and she is still alive today.
The real Fernandez has reportedly spoken out in support of Franco’s casting. According to a report by Variety, Fernandez is an on-set consultant for the movie, and she defended the decision to cast Franco. Meanwhile, the movie’s lead creative producer, John Martinez O’Felan, told Deadline that there was some logic to Franco’s casting. However, his explanation did not sit well with some commenters online.
“Since the inception of the film, our focus has been to produce an artistic piece of modern Hispanic history, with the vision for the project as being truly inclusive through uniting actors and creatives from both intergenerational and recent Latin roots from the US, Latin America, and the world,” O’Felan said. After remarking on some of the other actors, he said that the role of Castro was a “difficult process” to cast, and that he was looking for someone with a “similar facial structure.” He said: “Finding and convincing James Franco to play Castro, was a fun and challenging process and has been the collaborative work of the universe, because our director’s original order was to find an actor who holds a close physical resemblance to the real Castro to build from, along with finding someone Alina Fernandez would strongly endorse.”
O’Felan continued: “To get there on such a tough look to cast, we used Fidel Castro’s ancient Galician heraldry as our focal compass, and then combed through the entire ranks of actors with Latin roots in Hollywood to find someone who has a similar facial structure. In executing a close search into our hopefuls through the eye of Spanish and Portuguese genealogy which the Galicians held, we found that James, by far, had the closest facial likeness of our Industry’s leading actors, meaning that the focus would be to build out his character accent and we’d have a stunning on-screen match to intrigue audiences and bring the story to life with true visual integrity. Altogether, working with such a supportive and exciting cast has been a true blessing to our team and project.”
