John Leguizamo About Hollywood Being Hostile Toward Latinos [WATCH]

John Leguizamo is taking aim at Hollywood once again, accusing the entertainment industry of being unwelcoming to Latino performers despite his own decades-long success, as reported by Breitbart.

The actor, who appears as Eumaeus in director Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, said the industry continues to operate with discriminatory attitudes toward Latinos even as their audiences make up a major share of moviegoers and streaming viewers.

In an interview with Variety, Leguizamo described himself as an advocate for Latin representation and said the struggle for inclusion has been constant.

“It’s always been a battle. Hollywood is not the most accepting place,” he said, stressing that “even though we Latin people are 30% to 40% of the box office — and a third of streamers — we’re the most aggressively underrepresented group in America.”

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The Colombia-born performer used his role in The Odyssey as an example of how he continues to navigate an industry where he believes authentic Latino casting remains rare.

The character he plays is a Greek warrior, not a Latino figure, something he pointedly noted.

Leguizamo has raised similar criticisms for years, describing Hollywood as having a “Jim Crow” mentality toward minorities.

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He pointed out that while he has enjoyed an extensive career spanning over forty years across film, theater, and television, progress in Latino representation has lagged behind the industry’s rhetoric about diversity.

Last year, Leguizamo compared the treatment of Latino performers to conditions under the Jim Crow era, arguing that systemic exclusions continue in modern Hollywood.

Looking back on his early work, he recalled feeling degraded by the roles he was offered when starting out, including his part in the 1991 film Regarding Henry.

“You know, I was kind of humiliated by it,” he said about that job. “I did it because I got no jobs. There were no jobs for Latin folk. There just weren’t.”

Leguizamo explained that the limited range of roles forced him to take characters that reinforced stereotypes, often casting Latinos as criminals or villains.

He said the common pattern was clear at the time: “white doctor, white lawyer, white husband, white lover, Latino drug dealer.”

The actor voiced frustration that such portrayals shaped public perception while excluding Latinos from more complex or positive characters.

“They just want to see great shows, but they just weren’t casting us,” he said.

He recalled how his character in Regarding Henry fit that mold. “When I got Regarding Henry, it was a drug dealer. I shoot this white guy. It was like, I’m perpetuating what they want to see, which is negative Latino images,” he exclaimed.

Despite these grievances, Leguizamo continues to work onscreen and behind the camera while maintaining his advocacy for better representation within the industry.

He has also been vocal about Hollywood’s tendency to cast white actors in parts that, he argues, could and should go to Latinos.

>Be The Odyssey actor John Leguizamo
>Claims latin people are under-represented
>Stars in a movie stealing a role from another ethnicity/group ( Greek ) that is also under represented

You can’t make this shit up, the hypocrisy is baffling https://t.co/KPmDYPp0sJ— Endymion (@EndymionYT) July 15, 2026

Pedro Pascal, Oscar Isaac, Salma Hayek, Jennifer Lopez, Antonio Banderas, Jenna Ortega, Diego Luna, Gael García Bernal, Sophia Vergara… AND YOU, YOU DINGBAT! John Leguizamo is an A-list actor https://t.co/ZZRHzPFJiq

— Comics And… (@comicsand_) July 16, 2026

Through his criticism, Leguizamo has positioned himself as both a successful veteran and a persistent critic of what he describes as systemic bias that undermines talent from Latino communities.

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