Everything actor and comedian John Leguizamo has said about the lack of Latin representation in Hollywood

In 2020, Leguizamo explained why he was "boycotting" the Emmys to Yahoo Entertainment.

"If you don't have Latin people, there's no reason for me to see it, what's the point?" he asked rhetorically. The "John Wick" star went on to call the lack of Latin inclusion in front of and behind the camera "cultural apartheid."

He said that Latin artists succeed in all sections of the entertainment industry when measurable statistics are considered, citing musicians like J Balvin, Cardi B, Maluma, and Bad Bunny as examples of people whose success can't be denied because of numbers.

Leguizamo claimed that when it comes to TV and movie projects, where "an executive's opinion" and "taste" matters in order for a story to get told, "we're done."

"They don't see us, they don't know us, they don't care about us," he continued.

"The wall isn't on the border, the wall is in American culture," Leguizamo said in the 2020 docuseries.

The "Encanto" star, who was born in Colombia and raised in Queens, New York, said that he felt "betrayed" that his American education didn't teach him about all of the Latin heroes who are a part of US history. He said that the lack of Latin stories in his education made him feel "less than" others when there was no need for it.

"Where's a brown brother in 'Band of Brothers?' he asked, referencing the 2001 mini-series about World War II. He noted that Latin people have fought for America in every war in the country's history.

"They didn't want to do Latin stories. I didn't know that. I thought it was a fair playing field. I didn't realize it was so stacked against me," he said.

"The racism is so much more deeply woven into the corporate world," he explained of his struggles to get Latin movies made in Hollywood. He said he's only found acceptance in the world of theater.

Leguizamo posted a video critique of Spielberg's 2021 remake of "West Side Story" to his Facebook page months after its release.

He said the film was a "masterpiece," overall and praised the fact that there was authentic casting instead of brownface, but he also said he had "some issues" with it, including how many of the characters had accents.

The "Ice Age" star also said that the Latin characters "had no sense of humor" in the film, though some of the white characters did.

"Latin people have so much humor. I mean, we have to. We're all in social services. So, we gotta gave personality," he said. He described Latin and Puerto Rican characters in the remake of the classic love story as "mad" and "prideful."

As reported by Deadline in 2022, Leguizamo spoke about colorism in the entertainment industry in the series "Seen," a project by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences that premiered in January 2022.

"I've benefited from being light skin, and I stayed out of the sun so I could work. I definitely would not go in the sun," he told interviewer Nick Barili. "For years I was so pasty so I could work. All the Latinos who've made it so far, a lot of them were light-skinned."

He said that Afro-Latinos or indigenous Latinos "don't get a shot" in the industry.

In August 2022, Leguizamo posted a screenshot of a Deadline article with news of the casting on Instagram, reacting in the post's caption.

"How is this still going on? How is Hollywood excluding us but stealing our narratives as well? No more appropriation Hollywood and streamers!" he wrote in the post. "Boycott! This F'd up! Plus seriously difficult story to tell without aggrandizement which would b wrong! I don't got a prob with Franco but he ain't Latino!"

John Martinez O'Felan, the producer of "Alina of Cuba," told The Hollywood Reporter that he respected Leguizamo but disagreed with him.

"His comments are culturally uneducated and a blind attack with zero substance related to this project," O'Felan said. "The reality of the ignorance falls within his statement suggesting his personal view on being 'Latino,' because a land mass or living area does not determine a person's blood history or genetics."

Leguizamo wrote an open letter to the industry in the Los Angeles Times in November addressing the lack of visibility for Latinos in film despite the fact that they make up 19% of the US population.

"We need a better pipeline for Latinos in movies, TV shows, and plays," Leguizamo wrote. "We need a system for our stories and our projects. We need executives to provide the greenlight."

In the letter, he also wrote about white actors playing Latino roles and putting on brownface to do so. He added that there aren't enough Latino "executives, or development heads or directors or writers" in the industry, making it difficult to get projects centered on "Latin heroes and Latin success stories" greenlit.

In December, Leguizamo told Insider while promoting his gory Christmas flick "Violent Night" that there was an incident in which a director told him that he already had a Latin person in the movie, and couldn't cast him.

"He said, 'I love your work, I want you in the movie,'" Leguizamo told Insider. "And then I hear back from him, he calls me up and he says, 'Oh, sorry man, you can't be in my movie because I already have a Latin actress and I can't have two Latin people in the movie.'"

Leguizamo said the incident was indicative of an "unspoken 'Latin quota'" in films. In other instances, he told Insider that he would be cast in films that would whitewash other Latin roles, making him the "only Latin guy representing."

Leguizamo said that while Pacino was "his hero" and "brilliant" actor, it was a bizarre experience doing "Carlito's Way" with him.

"It's an odd experience to be a Latin man in a Latin story written by a Latin man and the lead guy's a white guy pretending to be Puerto Rican," Leguizamo said. "I'm not going to lie, it's surreal. It was surreal. I turned the part down a few times and then eventually I decided to do it."

During a guest-hosting stint on "The Daily Show" in March, Leguizamo spoke again about white actors being cast in Latino roles. This time, he gave an ultimatum — if it kept happening, he was going to do the same with white roles, starting with playing Gwyneth Paltrow in a hypothetical film about her ski accident trial.

"If white people can take our roles, I'm going to take theirs," he said. "When they do the TV series based on Gwyneth Paltrow's ski-accident trial, I'm going to be Gwyneth Paltrow."

As reported by Today, Leguizamo appeared on the Spanish-language morning program Hoy Día to promote his new docuseries, "Leguizamo Does America," about Latin contributions to American culture and civil rights issues.

During the March 14 interview, he argued that in order to get more Latin stories on big and small screens, his peers need to "complain" as he does.

"We have to protest, we have to make noise so that they hear that we are not happy with the representation," he continued, noting that he's not afraid of potential consequences.

"I grew up in this country, I suffered a lot, I fought a lot, and all my life my opportunities were a thousand. And I knew at that moment that even if I was super smart and super talented, I would never have the same opportunities," he explained.

Leguizamo starred in the 1993 live-action "Super Mario Bros." movie as Luigi, along with Bob Hoskins as Mario. He's been outspoken about the lack of similar representation in the cast of the new animated film, which premiered on April 5.

"No, I will not be watching," Leguizamo told TMZ on April 6. "They could've included a Latin character. I was groundbreaking and they stopped the groundbreaking."

"They messed up," he continued. "They messed up the inclusion, they disincluded."