John Leguizamo won't be tuning into the 72nd Emmy awards on Sunday! That's because during an interview shared on Thursday, Leguizamo told Yahoo! Entertainment that he plans to boycott the ceremony because it hasn't adequately represented the Latinx and Hispanic community.
Leguizamo calls lack of Latinx stories "cultural apartheid"
Leguizamo said he's upset at how Latinx nominees are largely absent from this year's Emmy awards. "I'm boycotting," he announced. "If you don't have Latin people, there's no reason for me to see it. What's the point?" As People mentions, the only Latinx up for a major award this year is Alexis Bledel, who's nominated as Outstanding Guest Actress for The Handmaid's Tale.
"We're less than one percent of the stories being told by Hollywood streamers and networks, that's cultural apartheid," he went on to say. "It's unbelievable that our stories aren't being told and there's one reason for that," Leguizamo said. "Executives don't see us, don't get us [and] don't care about us."
Leguizamo's feature film debut a Latinx-centered story
Leguizamo's debut feature film as a director, Critical Thinking, was just released on September 5. He also stars in the movie as the protagonist, "Mario Martinez"! As People shares, Critical Thinking tells the story of "a Miami high school teacher determined to lead his underserved Black and Latinx students to the National Chess Championship — despite challenges standing in their way."
People also mentions that the Television Academy has spoken out about the lack of actors of colour as nominees, making a statement to the Los Angeles Times. "We feel it is a very positive sign that over the past decade the well-deserved recognition of performers of color has increased from 1 in 10 to 1 in 3 nominees across all performer categories," they began.
"Clearly that increase in representation has not been equal for all groups," the statement from the Television Academy finished, "and clearly there is still more to do to improve both gender and racial representation across all categories." Hopefully next year's Emmys will mark yet another important step towards this goal, and more people will feel represented when it comes to the list of nominees!
"We'll come to you!"
