Benjamin Bratt on the Lack of Latino Representation in Mainstream Hollywood Fare

The Infiltrator star Benjamin Bratt is a social-justice advocate and has been vocal on many different issues, including ones that affects Latinos. Bratt, who is of Peruvian Quechua descent on his mother’s side, talked to Yahoo Movies about the lack of Latino representation in mainstream Hollywood fare. He says show biz is behind the times.

“The industry, in general, has years to go to catch up to what the reality is,” Bratt said. “We live in one of the most complex and multiculturally diverse environments in the world, and yet it’s not projected that way.”

Bratt thinks it has to do with the fact that many decision makers in Hollywood live in a bubble that precludes them from getting to know cultures different from their own. “The people who are in power and who are saying yes and greenlighting projects — what do they know of someone who lives a different life than themselves?” Bratt noted. “If your sole interaction with a Latino, as an example, is telling the gardener how short you want the grass to be cut, or that spot you missed on the bathroom floor, if that’s your sole interaction with a Latino, if that’s your sole understanding of what that person or that culture is like, how are you ever going to say yes to telling a story where they’re just a person who might be a doctor or a lawyer or a superhero?”

Bratt did make sure to say, however, that he thinks this problem is being corrected. “It’s changing,” he noted. “It’s getting better, but part of it has to do with authorship and access. And as technology advances, I think more and more there’s an opportunity for us to seize technology and use it and empower ourselves to tell our own stories.”

Bryan Cranston on playing characters within characters:

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