Why not use Real Mexican Actors as Mexican Actors

angrymexican

angrymexican

Active member
Hey All,
first I would like to say, this is not to be taken as a Racist comments nor are racist comments welcomed. We are all professionals and this is a clarification for me only(unless anyone alse ever wondered)

Okay, that said, I would like to know why Mexican characters are portrayed by mostly Puerto Ricans or others. Is this becuase of the Screen actors guild or some other goup, union, or special employment laws? For example: "Traffic" (this is one of my favorite movies of all time. I know that Benicio del Toro is from Puerto Rico but played a Mexican. Dont get me wrong he is one of my favorite actors but, his spanish is really bad. Jacob Vargas (Benicios Partner in the movie) he is mexican but has lived here and his spanish is horrible. I would like to see movies with real clean "Mexican Spanish" when a mexican is to be one of the characters.

Also, one major complaint I had about the movie cronicas was the fact the the main charater John Liguizamo spoke English with a Brookyn accent. Everything else was good about his performance until he spoke english.

Anyway, I would like to hear your opinions on this matter as I am confused about this when "my people" (My family asks me: "why don't they put mexican actors in the movies?")

Thanks to anyone who responds.
 
Is Antonio Banderas Puerto Rican? I dunno, but I bet it has more to do with represented talent than anything else.

I had a good friend from Lisbon who worked tirelessly to get roles stateside - he was never even cast in a Brazilian role. I'd be interested to know how big the mainstream North American market and talent pool is for hispanic entertainment?

Casting calls must be very competitive when they come up at all.

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Antonio is from Máalga Spain. He is good but you can hear a slight accent. I would really like to see Jorge Salinas (he was in amores perros and one of the top "Novela" actors in Mexico. Also there is Gael Garcia Bernal (Amores perros Motorcycle diaries, el padre amaro, y tu mama tambien etc.., Jesus Ochoa (he is in one of 50 cent music videos and possibly the only I really see these days)
But maybe you need to be registered here in the US or something. This is what I would like to know.

Thanks overlandfilms for replying
 
I think overland's right - racially specific roles are very competative.
I mean, what would Puerto Rican's do if only mexican's were cast in mexican roles?

I have a friend who is Indian - yet he's played everything from Pakistani, to Saudi, to ... well, odly enough he's even been asked to audition for mexican roles.

It's more about talent than anything else, I think.
If you can pass for mexican - then you can get the role, if you're right for it.

It would seem ridiculous to pass on someone as talented as Benicio Del Toro because he is puerto rican. Acting is the art of faking it while telling the truth, after all.

Getting non mexicans to play mexicans isn't really any different than getting Matt Damon to play an international spy - as long as someone looks like they could be that part, then the rest is up to the talent of the individual.

That's my take anyhow.
 
Luis Caffesse said:
I think overland's right - racially specific roles are very competative.
I mean, what would Puerto Rican's do if only mexican's were cast in mexican roles?

I have a friend who is Indian - yet he's played everything from Pakistani, to Saudi, to ... well, odly enough he's even been asked to audition for mexican roles.

It's more about talent than anything else, I think.
If you can pass for mexican - then you can get the role, if you're right for it.

It would seem ridiculous to pass on someone as talented as Benicio Del Toro because he is puerto rican. Acting is the art of faking it while telling the truth, after all.

Getting non mexicans to play mexicans isn't really any different than getting Matt Damon to play an international spy - as long as someone looks like they could be that part, then the rest is up to the talent of the individual.

That's my take anyhow.
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Well put, Luis :thumbsup: You might as well ask about Aussies playing Americans :evil:

vjbrennan said:
As long as Charlton Heston stays north of the border and John Wayne stays out of Mongolia...
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LMAO!! I just watched "Touch of Evil" last week. "Mr. Vargas", right. :grin:
 
Blaine said:
Well put, Luis :thumbsup: You might as well ask about Aussies playing Americans :evil:
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That's true - in fact, lately we've seen deluge of non-americans playing american roles:

House (TV) lead actor is british.
Prison Break (TV) both main actors are not americans.
Batman Returns - half of that cast was made up of nonamericans playing american roles.
Mel Gibson has played numerous American roles, as has Russel Crowe.
the list goes on....

Again, I think it just comes down to who can play the role - not who most closely resembles the character in reality.

To quote SNL - "Acting! Genius! Thank you!"
 
I gree with you on this Overlanfilms, and I love Benicio del toro. But what I am wondering is the language or better yet, the accent is so noticable to me that it seems wierd. I don't know if asian are really speaking "well spoken Chinese or Japanese" I think they might say the same about their actors... May that is where my dilema is, I know what it is supposed to sound like. You get me? It might sound right to most non spanish speaking movie fans ..

I think that is it.
 
I agree with you, I"m bilingual and can spot the 'bad spanish' a mile away - and it makes me cringe everytime. But the majority of the movie going audience isn't going to care.

I'm sure many british people cringe when we see American's pulling off bad english accents. But that hasn't stopped us from doing it.

Perhaps as the mexican population grows in this country we'll see more of a push for 'authentic' accents... but I think it's going to be a while. As somone already pointed out, only a few decades ago we had Charlton Heston playing a mexican. While that's something that we find laughable today - it does put things in perspective.

As far as accents go though - you have to keep in mind that if unilingual americans are helming these films - from the producers on down - then they may not even take the spanish accent into consideration.

Soderbergh doesn't speak spanish as far as I know.
All he knows is Benicio Del Toro is a great actor... and that's all he probably cares about.
 
And my favorite movie of all time had a Scotsman playing an Arab. Sean Connery in "The Wind and the Lion" accent and all.:thumbsup:
 
Or Connery the Scot playing an Egyptian-born-Spaniard training a Frenchman playing a Scot in Highlander


I loved The Wind and The Lion. "Mrs. Petikaris, you are a lot of trouble."
 
vjbrennan said:
Or Connery the Scot playing an Egyptian-born-Spaniard training a Frenchman playing a Scot in Highlander


I loved The Wind and The Lion. "Mrs. Petikaris, you are a lot of trouble."
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I was beginning to think that I'm the only one who'd seen it. And how about the Japanese ambassador to Sec. of State Hay after making an eloquent toast, "You likey fork, you likey knifey?"
 
Most in an American audicence will not pick up on poor foreign accents unless they speak the language themselves. A name actor draws an audience. Why would you sacrifice a big draw for something most of the audience won't even pick up on? Especially when the actor is of Benicio del Toro's caliber. Why replace him with someone who is relatively unknown?
 
Consider Cold Mountain, the American Civil War plight of two Southerners --Aussie Nicole Kidman and Brit Jude Law--in North Carolina (shot in Romania). :grin:

Southerners can spot a fake Southern accent a mile away...but at a certain point, the main issue is whether the actors/locations in question will be accepted by most audiences in their roles.
 
Sean Michael said:
Southerners can spot a fake Southern accent a mile away...but at a certain point, the main issue is whether the actors/locations in question will be accepted by most audiences in their roles.
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Yeah, if you don't speak the language, you're not going to pick up the accent. I remember some Germans from Hamburg making fun of a Bavarian's "southern" accent. It all sounded like German to me and I could even understand some of the language at the time. :thumbsup:
 
Cpt. Shiner said:
Accents matter little, the overall performance is what matters.
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If the performance is good enough, this can be true. But you have to respect Crowe, Kidman and Poppy Montgomery among others that use dialogue coaches to get that "American" accent right.
 
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