When John Leguizamo spoke out about diversity on Sunday night’s Emmy Awards telecast, he said, the audience at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles “got real quiet.”
“I’m one of Hollywood’s DEI hires,” he said from the stage. “That’s right. DEI: The D is for ‘diligence,’ the E is for ‘excellence,’ the I is for ‘imagination.’” He said the industry often engaged in “brownface” casting, citing Marlon Brando in “Viva Zapata!” Al Pacino in “Scarface” and Natalie Wood in “West Side Story.”
“Everybody played us,” Leguizamo said, “except us.”
John Leguizamo in “The Green Veil.”Courtesy The Network via YouTube
Leguizamo said in an interview that, as he spoke that evening, he could see people in the audience start to nod along. “At first you could hear a pin drop,” he said. “Then it started building up momentum, and people were applauding and laughing and cheering. It was an incredible moment, and I felt like
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