Actress Gina Torres Explains Why She Felt Trapped Being A Latina Woman In African American Roles

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Actress Gina Torres Explains Why She Felt Trapped Being A Latina Woman In African American Roles
The actress says she used a “jedi mind trick” to overcome the challenge as a person of color in Hollywood.
CELEBRITY
By Alexis Reese
September 7, 2022
12:08 PM

David Livingston
Afro-Latina actress Gina Torres is opening up about her struggles in Hollywood and how she often felt pigeonholed when it came to the kind of roles she was offered.
The Bronx-native, who is the daughter of Cuban parents, says that as an actress she felt like she had “no place” in the Hollywood world, in a conversation with Suggest.
“There was no place for me as a Latina, and then as a Black woman—I didn’t identify as a Black woman, because for me it was cultural. Because, of course, I present Black, I am a Black woman. I am also Cuban,” she shared. “When you’re here in the United States and they ask you to be in a box, and you don’t fit into the box…culturally, it was different. It was not one that I identified with. But to work, to survive, it was something that I had to learn.”
RELATED: Gina Torres Talks Professional Pursuits
A graduate from the LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts made her first on-screen debut in 1992 in an episode of Unnatural Pursuits. She has also had roles in 9-1-1: Lone Star, Law & Order, Suits, Bones, Riverdale and more.
For Torres, she practiced what she explains as a "jedi mind trick" to fit into the industry when it came to accepting roles as a Latina woman.
“To then learn to be whatever ‘Black’ was, and then feel like I was alienating that other part of myself, that Latina self,” she shares. “To keep myself from just being sad all the time about not being able to fully experience and express the entirety of myself.”
The 53-year-old will next co-star in the Netflix film romantic comedy feature The Perfect Find alongside Gabrielle Union and Keith Powers.

 

[MASTERBAKER]

Top fan
Robin Haynes Russell
If she doesn't want to be considered Black and it made her sad, she should have denied the roll saying she is Latina not Black and let the roll go to someone that is proud of being Black. No shade, just speaking the truth.


Stephanie N. Yarbrough
Robin Haynes Russell Exactly my thought. She could have kept this to herself until death.

 

[Da Backshot Champ]

The bitch is ugly any fucking way, so fuck her!

 

[Diomedes3000]

Fuck this broad! Everyone shits on black folk. Wasn't she married to Laurence Fishburne too?

 

[Black James Bond]

Doesn't this say more about how the Latino Community view themselves more than how Hollywood categorised her.

How many shows coming out of Latin America you see any roles of prominence for black people. Heck when they redid West Side Story, black people were almost nonexistent.

 

[LordSinister]

I hated portraying a black woman. Can't you see I'm Latina? Whatever bitch, you took the money out of an African American woman's pockets.

 

[gdatruth]

Real talk even knowing her name it never dawned on me that she was Latina. she was synopsis with playing black women

in this world you are what you look like and i can see why she was pigeonholed

but she should be grateful
There aren’t that many roles for ppl of color. But being categorized as a black woman gave her access to roles that didn’t exist for Latina actresses

everyone wanna be black
but they don’t really wanna be black

 

[sorcererforemost]

So then stop taking roles for black women.


Oh what's that? You can't get hired for any other roles?

Then shut your black ass up.

 

[mrcmd187]

Some shit you should just keep to yourself

 

[KA$H]

These island latinos love to run with that bullshit.
They can't wait to not be considered black.

You never hear Alexander Skarsgard complaining about being casted as a White American. It's always those self hating idiots that feel the need to continually draw a line in the sand, that only they care about. Whites know she's black. Blacks know she's black. Hell even Cubans know that she's black. The only person confused is that dumb bitch....

 

[GAMETHEORY]

wheres her nudes?

 

[dade305]

She has to be real with herself....
How many latinas that have her complexion, hair texture and facial features are being casted strictly as Latina?

 

[Curtwalk]

White Cubans don’t claim her ass anyway

 

[respiration]

She's not in denial of her blackness or African heritage,

She's saying that she was raised a Latina- which does not have a specific color assigned to it.

African-American culture is different in many ways, idiom, meals, rituals.

Yet, these are the roles that she is offered. And it's not always easy to play the roles because it's not native to her acculturation.

As well, the movie industry tends to have only a narrow view of what Latina looks like despite the fact that there is a spectrum of looks that Latino people have. Afro-latina has traditionally been rarely represented.

 

[JungleBros]

Where are the "We Are The World" crew. They have to be out in full regalia flying their foreign to the drumbeat of PanAfricanist ideology...

 

[gdatruth]

i just had a thought this is called ACTING not real life

there are countless british actors who are cast as African American. (its so commonplace black actors in America complain about it)
you never hear them complain about not being cast as british or being stuck playing american

no they are actors and go where the roles are
i think the bigger issue is that there are that many latina roles and in hollywood she doesnt the latina aesthic
damn shame that her complaints can easily be interpreted as 'anti-black'

 

[knightmelodic]

Yeah, whatever. She used to have a body on her, man.

 

[gdatruth]

She's not in denial of her blackness or African heritage,

She's saying that she was raised a Latina- which does not have a specific color assigned to it.

African-American culture is different in many ways, idiom, meals, rituals.

Yet, these are the roles that she is offered. And it's not always easy to play the roles because it's not native to acculturation.

As well, the movie industry tends to have only a narrow view of what Latina looks like despite the fact that there is a spectrum of looks that Latino people have. Afro-latina has traditionally been rarely represented.

i understand her sentiment and syphamtic
but its called acting

her real grip is that there arent that many roles for latina women during most of her career and when hollywood sees her they see a black woman (not neccessarily a latina)

 

[34real]

“There was no place for me as a Latina, and then as a Black woman—I didn’t identify as a Black woman, because for me it was cultural. Because, of course, I present Black, I am a Black woman. I am also Cuban,” she shared. “When you’re here in the United States and they ask you to be in a box, and you don’t fit into the box…culturally, it was different. It was not one that I identified with. But to work, to survive, it was something that I had to learn.”

This statement is ass backwards cause she is black let her tell it but culturaly she's different and why did she take the roles cause some real black person who is culturally not confused could of used that role.

Latino's you can't act black,be black,be apart of black culture when it's convenient to you,stay a latino and leave my people and the shit we do,have and will have THE FUCK ALONE.....BINGA BINGA BINGA AND BE LATINO.

 

[respiration]

i understand her sentiment and syphamtic
but its called acting

her real grip is that there arent that many roles for latina women during most of her career and when hollywood sees her they see a black woman (not neccessarily a latina)

True which goes along with what she said, which is that there really is not a place in Hollywood for Black Latina women to be able to rep both at the same time in roles. More so speaking a reality than issuing a complaint.

 

[gdatruth]

True which goes along with what she said, which is that there really is not a place in Hollywood for Black Latina women to be able to rep both at the same time in roles. More so speaking a reality than issuing a complaint.

i it get but alot ppl will interpret this as a dig or anti-black (like she had to settle for black roles)
its just like biracial kids who pass for black but want to claim their whiteness. That claim of whiteness however legit can easily be interpreted as minimizing/ignoring your blackness

 

[TheBigOne]

Always thought she was sexy

​

 

[Bluelaser]

Here are some other actresses that you thought were Black but if you asked them they would consider themselves to be Latina or Afro Latina.

Irene Cara

Her father, Gaspar Escalera, a factory worker and retired saxophonist, was Puerto Rican, and
her mother, Louise, a movie theater usher, was Cuban-American.



Zoe Saldana

Her father was Dominican while her mother is Puerto Rican.
Saldana also has Lebanese and Haitian roots.
With regard to her racial identity, Saldana stated, “There's no one way to be black.



Thandiwe "Thandie" Newton

Thandiwe Newton was born in London.
She is the daughter of Zimbabwean mother Nyasha, a health-care worker from the Shona tribe,
Her British father Nick Newton, worked as a lab technician.




Tessa Thompson

Her father, singer-songwriter Marc Anthony Thompson, is Afro-Panamanian and the founder of the musical collective Chocolate Genius, Inc. Her mother is of half Mexican and half American ancestry.

 

[Race Harley]

 

[Chiyo]

She's not in denial of her blackness or African heritage,

She's saying that she was raised a Latina- which does not have a specific color assigned to it.

African-American culture is different in many ways, idiom, meals, rituals.

Yet, these are the roles that she is offered. And it's not always easy to play the roles because it's not native to her acculturation.

As well, the movie industry tends to have only a narrow view of what Latina looks like despite the fact that there is a spectrum of looks that Latino people have. Afro-latina has traditionally been rarely represented.

Its called being an actor.

You think Daniel Day Lewis knew what it was like to be a 19th century American politician?

You think Wesley Snipes ever hunted vampires growing up?

 

[GentlemanJack]

So she played herself because she couldn’t play herself.

 

[knightmelodic]

Here are some other actresses that you thought were Black but if you asked them they would consider themselves to be Latina or Afro Latina.

Irene Cara

Her father, Gaspar Escalera, a factory worker and retired saxophonist, was Puerto Rican, and
her mother, Louise, a movie theater usher, was Cuban-American.



Zoe Saldana

Her father was Dominican while her mother is Puerto Rican.
Saldana also has Lebanese and Haitian roots.
With regard to her racial identity, Saldana stated, “There's no one way to be black.



Thandiwe "Thandie" Newton

Thandiwe Newton was born in London.
She is the daughter of Zimbabwean mother Nyasha, a health-care worker from the Shona tribe,
Her British father Nick Newton, worked as a lab technician.




Tessa Thompson

Her father, singer-songwriter Marc Anthony Thompson, is Afro-Panamanian and the founder of the musical collective Chocolate Genius, Inc. Her mother is of half Mexican and half American ancestry.

How in the world is Thandie Newton "latina?"

 

[blackpepper]

On a lot of levels this just seems like a silly gripe. She was in total control of her roles. If she hated it she has no one to blame but herself. I have no fucks to give about this. I'm out.

 

[woodchuck]

I can tell she was upset by all of the roles she turned down.

 

[godofwine]

Fuck this broad! Everyone shits on black folk. Wasn't she married to Laurence Fishburne too?

And she fucked Vic Mackey. Fuck that bitch

 

[ansatsusha_gouki]

 

[Complex]

First Larry and his daughter, and now his ex

 

[Complex]

The bitch is ugly any fucking way, so fuck her!

 

[lightbright]

The bitch is ugly any fucking way, so fuck her!

"Well imma about to give her Da Back shot...... Champ!!!"​

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