Do We Need To Explain You Why Casting James Franco As Fidel Castro Is Wrong?

FidelCastroJamesFrancoStupidFace.jpg
FidelCastroJamesFrancoStupidFace.jpg

The short of it is this: There is a semi-indie film in pre-production called Alina from Cuba, a biopic based on the life of Alina Fernández, Fidel Castro’s love child and now an outspoken exile and dissident. I say “semi-indie” because this doesn’t feel like a small film by the standards of Spanish-language productions, directed by Spanish director Miguel Bardem, who has helmed several major projects over the past two decades. The movie made a splash recently when they announced that James Franco had taken on the role of Fidel Castro…

There are so many levels on which this is wrong. Let’s preface with what King John Leguizamo had to say. He did not mince words:

Leguizamo explained it further in another video, explaining how this takes us back to the days when no Latino roles were played by actual Latino actors, even white or white ones. He also made a “no disrespect to James Franco” caveat because a black actor is more likely to be canceled by the studio system for calling out a white actor than a white actor actually being canceled.

Let’s get this over with quickly: James Franco landing this role is further proof that cancellation culture only exists for beloved Netflix series in their second season or on HBO Max. I don’t think you can call this his comeback role – it’s certainly not going to be the Big Fidel Biopic – but it’s still a higher-profile role than he deserves. I mean, it’s not like he’s a once-in-a-generation range master. What the hell were they thinking?

According to one of his producers in a press release for Deadline, it’s because James Franco looks “Hispanic enough”:

To get there in such a tough-to-cast look, we used Fidel Castro’s ancient Gallic heraldry as our central compass, and then searched the entire ranks of Latino actors in Hollywood to find anyone who has a similar facial structure. In conducting a close search into our hopes through the lens of the Spanish and Portuguese genealogy carried by the Galicians, we found that James, by far, had the closest facial resemblance of our industry’s leading actors, meaning that the focus would be it was his construction. accent the character and we would have a stunning match on screen to intrigue the audience and bring the story to life with true visual integrity

Jesus f**king-Christ.

It is true that Fidel Castro was the son of an immigrant from Galicia (who had previously fought for Spain in the Third War of Independence/Spanish-American War) and that there is a common linguistic heritage between Galicia and Portugal. But that’s like asking an actor from Minnesota to play a Swedish-speaking role just because of the country’s Nordic ancestry. Also, if physical resemblance is a point of reference, well:

I really don’t want to wade into the Israeli-Palestinian-level shitstorm about race and whiteness in Latin America, but for once, the case is self-explanatory. Yes, within Latin America’s hierarchical systems of race and class, Fidel Castro was a white man, a relatively privileged man given his father’s business prowess. But also, his father came from a poor rural background, and in the Spanish-speaking world, rural Galicians are our hillbilly equivalent.

None of these are nuances that a non-Latino actor would be able to convey. Fidel Castro is an iconic figure in Latin American history because of the fact that he is so uniquely Latino. For better or worse, he created an entire performance around himself that made it difficult to separate him from his mythology or his caricature. Not to mention that Fidel was the defining moment of the second half of the 20th century south of the border. Does anyone think that someone as brash as James Franco could embody all of that? Javier Bardem’s exit, the default for real-life Latinos in big movies, would have been bad enough.

Which got me thinking: Did they cast James Franco as a way to deliberately disrespect Fidel? Casting the worst actor possible as a punishment for the tyrant that, objectively, he was? Because a) that’s a very strange way to do it and b) it’s not something that would benefit the story the film is trying to tell: of his daughter, even though Alina gave this her blessing.

What’s the point of casting someone who will fail so spectacularly in the role, someone who will guarantee a performance that will come across as farcical? Are they trying to pull a Taika Waititi? No No Rabbit? Because behind that film stood a series of very well conceived artistic decisions. Satirizing Hitler and the Nazi aesthetic strips them of how they want to be perceived. However, this film is definitely a serious biography, (self) serious.

As I said before, Castro was already someone who could not be separated from his stereotype, but there are also a number of reasons why the Cuban Revolution has been markedly different from the typical revolution-dictatorship cycles of Latin America. There’s no way a half-ass, camp-filled performance at the center of this would do justice to the tragedy of Cuba’s history.

In the comments of John Leguizamo’s post, Ana Navarro-Cárdenas wrote something I strongly disagree with:

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99 times out of 100, we stay Navarro-Cárdenas in this house. But on this, I think she’s dead wrong: On the contrary, Fidel Castro is a character actors would kill to play. With a proper, full biographical treatment, it would be one of the most enjoyable roles for Latino actors. We’re talking about the perfect contemporary version of a Shakespearean tragic hero: the last revolutionary despot turned, stale relic of the Cold War. There’s also those two weeks, six decades ago where he was right at the center of the potential End of the World.

Dictators are part of our history as Latin Americans, almost always the result of American intervention (for or against). To have an American actor portray one of them, someone as belligerent as James Dean once portrayed, someone with no cultural connection to Latin American culture, is just erasing from a story we barely ever get to tell. Even for a movie that is clearly going to be a bust.


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Header Image Source: Getty Images

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