I’m not spouting any new knowledge in saying that Hollywood is a difficult industry to break into. Everybody and their mom want to get involved with movies on some level, and as a minority talent, things have tended to be at least a little bit harder in the past.

More often than not, the “standard” race for actors is white, so if you have a role that doesn’t call for a specific race, chances are it defaulted to white for many casting directors — and many audiences seemed to expect it as well. But just how difficult was it for Latino actors? While we can’t speak for all of them, there is one big Latino actor who voiced his difficulties. Speaking with The Guardian, Ant-Man and the Wasp star Michael Peña painted a picture as to why things were so difficult 20-some-odd years ago:

“The thing is, I started acting about 23 years ago, and it was very tough to get an audition, let alone a part. There are these things called breakdowns where they give character descriptions and outline who can audition for them. I still have some of these, where the first 10 would be Caucasian, so only Caucasians could audition for them.”

“Twenty-three years ago, that’s just the way it was. It would be around the 12th character down the line where it was open to other ethnicities, and that’s all I had to go on. It was difficult for me to break through, because nine times out of 10, it was some gangster or whatever. Now, though, I don’t have such a pessimistic viewpoint about it all. The way that I’m seeing it, things are changing and becoming better all the time. I’m glad I can be a part of that. I want to keep on changing the status quo. It’s good to want change, but only if you’re willing to be part of that change. Be active, instead of just talking about it. I try not to complain. Instead, I just keep on finding interesting projects.”

Rest assured, things are getting better. The social landscape of the world has changed a lot in the past five years, and while things aren’t anywhere near perfect, they do seem to be improving. Let’s hope this continues so that one day we could even see a Latinx superhero hit the big screen!

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SOURCE: The Guardian