3 days Ago By Connor McCrory
John Leguizamo expressed a positive shift in his attitude toward the 2024 Emmy nominees during Sunday night’s ceremony, noting that he is “almost happy and certainly less angry” with the selections. While on stage, the Emmy-winning actor highlighted his role in Hollywood as part of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. “I’m one of Hollywood’s DEI hires.
That’s right, DEI. The ‘D’ is for diligence, the ‘E’ is for excellence, the ‘I’ is for imagination. And everyone in this room tonight has dedicated their lives to diligence, excellence and imagination, so we are all DEI hires.
What a beautiful diverse group this is tonight,” Leguizamo said. John Oliver lets out expletive as he's cut off during Emmys acceptance speech D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai's Emmy's facial red handprint look has hidden meaning Reflecting on his youth in Queens, New York , Leguizamo shared his early realization that representation in acting was a distant dream. “At 15, I didn’t know the word representation.
.. but I saw a lot of brown face,” he said, citing examples of non-Latin actors in Latin roles, including Marlon Brando as a Mexican, Al Pacino as a Cuban gangster, and Natalie Wood as the Puerto Rican character Maria in West Side Story.
“Everybody played us, except us. I didn’t see a lot of people on TV that looked like me,” Leguizamo added. He acknowledged the presence of Ricky Ricardo and the Looney Tunes characters Speedy Gonzales and Slowpoke Rodriguez as limited portrayals of Latinos.
“And that’s how we saw ourselves, because that’s all we saw of ourselves,” he remarked. Leguizamo admitted he had not previously voiced complaints about the lack of roles for Latinos. “For years I didn’t complain about the limited roles my people were offered.
.. Turns out not complaining doesn’t change anything.
So for the past few years, I’ve been complaining,” he said. DON'T MISS..
. The Bear and Shogun dominate this year's list of Primetime Emmy 2024 nominations Selena Gomez leads the glam at star-studded 2024 Emmy Awards red carpet The Emmy Awards' most viral and comical moments - from Trump skit to Ellen roast He also mentioned an open letter he wrote to the Television Academy, published in the New York Times, where he urged the nomination of artists of color across all categories. Leguizamo praised this year’s Emmy nominees for their diversity, highlighting Latinx nominees Selena Gomez, Sofía Vergara, Issa Lopez, Kali Reis, and Nava Mau, as well as Liza Colón-Zayas, who won an Emmy earlier in the night.
“That’s five Latinx nominees being honored tonight,” he said, before joking that Mark Cuban could be considered the sixth due to his last name. “We need more stories from excluded groups: Black, Jewish, Arab, LGBTQ+, and disabled. And this show tonight is proof that our industry is making progress.
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