LOS ANGELES — “I’m John Leguizamo and I’m one of Hollywood’s DEI hires.”
That’s how the actor introduced himself to the audience at the 2024 Emmys Sunday night.
“That’s right,” Leguizamo continued. “The D is for diligence, the E is for excellence and the I is for imagination.”
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With that, the four-time nominee, one-time Emmy winner launched into a speech that was as passionate as it was funny as he called for more representation in the stories we tell on television and who we choose to cast in them.
“Growing up in Jackson Heights, Queens, a scrawny little wannabe gangster, I didn’t know people like me could be actors,” he told the room full of actors, writers and entertainment industry leaders. “At 15 I didn’t know the word representation.”
But he recalled seeing brown face all over his screen: Marlon Brando playing a Mexican in “Viva Zapata!,” Al Pacino as Cuban gangster Tony Montana in “Scarface,” and Natalie Wood playing the Puerto Rican beauty at the heart of “West Side Story.”
“Everyone played us, except us,” Leguizamo said.
When he did see Latino representation, it was in limited stereotypical roles like Ricky Ricardo in “I Love Lucy,” or the only Mexican characters in Looney Tunes, Speedy Gonzalez and his lazy sidekick Slowpoke Rodriguez.
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“That’s how we saw ourselves, because that’s all we saw of ourselves,” he said.
For years, Leguizamo recounted, he didn’t complain about those limitations. But not complaining didn’t change anything, so, he said, “for the last few years, I’ve been complaining.”
He even took out a full-page ad in the New York Times imploring the Television Academy to hire more candidates of color into the industry.
“What I see here tonight makes me almost happy and certainly less angry,” Leguizamo said, calling this year’s show among the most diverse in Emmy history.
He called out the nominations of Selena Gomez for “Only Murders in the Building,” Sofia Vergara for “Griselda,” Issa Lopez for writing and directing “True Detective: Night Country,” which also featured indigenous actor Kali Reis in a lead role, and Mexico City-born actor Nava Mau – who is also the first transgender person ever nominated for a limited series acting Emmy – for “Baby Reindeer.”
He also applauded the win for Liza Colón-Zayas for her role in “The Bear.”
He also praised the Television Academy for electing Cris Abrego as their first ever Latino chair.
Then he implored them for more.
“We need more stories from excluded groups,” he said. “Black, Asian, Jewish, Arab, LGBTQ+ and disabled.”
Watch John Leguizamo’s full speech above.
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