Gina Rodriguez Creates #MovementMondays to Raise Awareness for Latino Actors
Gina Rodriguez is taking inspiration from the #OscarsSoWhite movement and starting a hashtag about diversity.
The 31-year-old Jane the Virgin star created #MovementMondays in order to bring awareness to the Latino acting community. Each week, Rodriguez will spotlight one Latino actor. And for her first post, she chose Guatemalan American actor Oscar Isaac.
"With all this Oscar talk and lack of diversity, I decided to start a movement and speak from the perspective of a Latina American who desires to see more Latinos on screen," Rodriguez wrote on Instagram on Monday. "There are 55 million Latinos in this country and although we all come from various backgrounds, our unity can make a movie explode at the box office or a TV show soar to the highest viewers possible. The better these projects do financially, the more money they will spend on putting Latinos in blockbuster films, as leads in TV shows, etc. My solution is this, support is needed."
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Rodriguez encouraged the community to support projects starring Latino actors.
"Right now there isn't one Latino that can greenlight a movie," Rodriguez wrote. "That means no studio will put their money behind a Latino face as a lead of a movie because they don't believe we can make their money back. I am told time and time again, 'Latinos don't watch Latino movies. Latinos don't support each other,' and sadly that is true. I'm not saying go and see a movie you don't like to blind support, I'm saying if you want to see us represented on film and TV, if you want to see Latinos nominated for Oscars, we NEED to support one another. The industry sees money, the excuse can't just be racism."
Not surprising given the current controversy surrounding the lack of diversity among Oscar nominees two years in a row, the Golden Globe-winning actress received some backlash on social media. Rodriguez responded on Monday, telling her critics to not "misinterpret [her] heart."
"I find it so disheartening that when you desire to create a solution for peace and unity you instantly get hate," she commented. "What is it that we long to tear each other down? Clearly, we live in a racist society."
"This movement is solely to unite all the various Latino communities," she stressed. "The opposite of racism."
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Last month, Rodriguez was embroiled in a controversy of her own, when the Golden Globes' official Twitter mistakenly identified America Ferrera as the CW star during the nomination announcement ceremony. The gaffe led to a hilarious bit between Ferrera and Eva Longoria at the Golden Globes ceremony, when they poked fun at people who have a hard time distinguishing Latina actresses from one another.
Clearly nonplussed by the whole mix-up, the actress brushed it off when she spoke to ET.
"America's lovely. She's so beautiful and such a fantastic actress," Rodriguez explained. "If there's anybody I want to get mixed up with -- it's her for sure!"
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