John Leguizamo boycotts Super Mario Bros. Movie for not including a Latin character

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is having a blockbuster debut week, but John Leguizamo won’t be in the audience.

That said the 62-year-old actor TMZ during a stop in New York City on Wednesday that he would not see the new film due to the lack of a “Latin character.”

It is not clear from his complaints whether he wanted the fictional Italian video game characters Mario and Luigi to be rewritten as Latin in the film, or whether he wanted a Latin American actor again to play one of the two protagonists, as he did in the 1993 live-action movie. Super Mario Bros.

The criticism, which he voiced earlier last year, doesn’t appear to have had a major impact on the film’s box office as it grossed more money on its first full day in theaters than the earlier film that sold in theaters throughout its domestic run. made. , without taking into account inflation.

“No, I won’t be watching,” Leguizamo said as he posed for selfies with fans.

Old school: Leguizamo starred as the Italian plumber Luigi in the critically-maligned bombshell Super Mario Bros. from 1993; seen with costar Bob Hoskins, who was English

“They could have used a Latin character. I was groundbreaking, and then they stopped groundbreaking,” he said.

“They screwed up the recording. They have withdrawn,’ Leguizamo continued. “I just cast some Latin folk. We’re 20 percent of the population — the largest group of people of color, and we’re underrepresented. Overrepresented in the worst jobs.’

While Mario and Luigi are portrayed as Italians in several games, the characters were created by Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokoi.

Leguizamo may have meant Latin actors, since he still played Italian in the 1993 film.

However, the new Super Mario Bros. movie does have some Latin American actors, but not in the lead roles.

Former Saturday Night Live star Fred Armisen – who is featured as Donkey Kong’s father Cranky Kong – has a Venezuelan mother and Korean and European ancestry on his father’s side. He has also regularly played Latin characters.

Anya Taylor-Joy, who plays Princess Peach, identifies as white, but she is fluent in Spanish and spent her early years in Argentina.

The Queen’s Gambit star’s father is of Anglo-Argentinean and British descent, while her mother is half Hispanic – which would be considered Hispanic, as it’s a Spanish-speaking country, but not Latin, as it’s not part of Latin America. America.

In November, Leguizamo seemed clearer about wanting an actor of color as one of the leads, rather than a character.

He told IndieWire that it sucks that the new movie had white actors Chris Pratt and Charlie Day as Mario and Luigi, respectively.

‘I’m OG. Many people like the original,” said the Bogotá, Colombia-born star. “I did Comic-Con in New York and in Baltimore, and everyone was like, ‘No, no, we like the old, the original.’ They don’t feel the new one. I’m not bitter. It’s unfortunate.’

He added: “The directors Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton fought really hard for me to play the lead because I was a Hispanic man, and [the studio] didn’t want me to be the lead. They fought really hard and it was such a breakthrough.”

He added, ‘for them to back off and not cast another [actor of color] kinda sucks.’

Misunderstood: “They messed up the recording. They’ve retreated,’ Leguizamo said. However, Fred Armisen is half Venezuelan, and Anya Taylor-Joy has Anglo-Argentinean and Spanish ancestry, though she identifies as white; still from The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Number one in his heart: In November, Leguizamo claimed to IndieWire that Mario fans had confessed at Comic-Cons how much they love the 1993 live-action film

Shut up: Seth Rogen, who voices Donkey Kong, called the previous movie “one of the worst movies ever made” while speaking to Variety during Saturday’s premiere; seen April 1 in LA

While the 1993 film’s rating has risen over time and newer viewers are appreciating the film’s impressive production design, Seth Rogen recently shared his disappointment with the earlier film during a conversation with Variety at the premiere of The Super Mario Bros. Movie on Saturday.

“When I was 11, I saw the original Super Mario Bros. movie and I was so excited,” he recalls. But it’s one of the worst movies ever made.

‘I was so disappointed. I think it made me realize that movies, for example, can be bad. That never occurred to me until that point,” he added.

Rogen also said he was happy that another “11-year-old out there won’t be disappointed in the same way I was.”