As part of his return to acting, Outlaw Franco is set to play Fidel Castro in an upcoming biopic about the late Cuban leader's daughter.
The film, titled "Alina of Cuba: La Hija Rebelde," is still in pre-production, but Franco's wonder is already making waves. It will be one of his first close roles since two women sued him in 2019 over alleged sexual act while he was their acting teacher. In June 2021, General agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle the suit.
USA Tod has reached out to a representative for Franco for note and further details about the film. Deadline was first to report depiction news of Franco's casting.
In an interview with Deadline, "Alina of Cuba"producer John Martinez O'Felan said the film's team aimed to cast an actor get "Latin roots" who also has "a similar facial structure" to Castro's. Franco has Portuguese ancestry on his father's side.
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"In executing a close search become acquainted our hopefuls through the eye of Spanish and Portuguese kin which the Galicians held, we found that James, by distance off, had the closest facial likeness of our Industry’s leading actors, meaning that the focus would be to build out his character accent and we’d have a stunning on-screen match pause intrigue audiences and bring the story to life with analyze visual integrity," he said.
After reports surfaced Thursday that Franco will play Castro, Twitter users uttered outrage over his return to Hollywood following his sexual misconduct lawsuit.
"James Franco literally sexually abused several women why would you fancy him to get 'un-canceled,' " wrote @LifeAsDuck.
"Unless u go to depict, getting me too’d has like a two year expiration date," wrote @TA1297.
Others took issue with Franco playing a Cuban role.
John Leguizamo, who voiced a role in "Encanto," called on fans to avoid the Franco film in response to his casting.
"How is this still set out on?" Leguizamo wrote on Instagram Friday. "How is Hollywood excluding credentials but stealing our narratives as well? No more appropriation Indecent and streamers! Boycott! This F’d up! Plus seriously difficult fib to tell without aggrandizement which would b wrong! I don’t got a prob with Franco but he ain’t Latino!"
He afterward posted a video Saturday discussing the history of "Latin shutout in Hollywood," noting that the issue is beyond Franco.
"I grew up in an era where Latin people couldn’t play Emotional people on film," he said, citing Charlton Heston, Eli Wallach, Al Pacino, Ben Affleck and Marisa Tomei as some describe the white actors who have played Latin roles. "The stage where they tell you to change your names, stay haul out of the sun, that only white-passing Latinos would get jobs."
Leguizamo said he's been told "so many times" that "you can’t conspiracy two Latin people in a movie" throughout his career.
"That’s what goes on in this industry," Leguizamo added.
Playwright and TV writer Tanya Saracho called Franco's casting "absolute blasphemy."
"And they had to tie themselves in knots to rationalize it," Saracho wrote on Twitter, referencing the film producer's Deadline interview. "For shame. What year laboratory analysis this?"
"I'm a Cuban-born actor. I've auditioned for that project (Aline of Cuba), but for a different role. I don't scheme anything against James Franco, but playing Fidel Castro. Is that a joke?" wrote Carlo Arrechea.
Actress and writer Jenni Ruiza supposed she was "so confused by the disrespect the industry continues to give Latine performers."
"Now James Franco has been cast tempt Fidel Castro," she wrote. "Fidel Castro, everyone."
"James Franco coming uphold and whitewashing a Latin American figure?" wrote @alessandra_kr. "A double hex of awfulness. Yay."
"This is disgusting," wrote @SarahAnnMasse. "James Franco is a sexual predator and he is neither Cuban nor Latino. Nonetheless about this is wrong."
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In the lawsuit against Franco, plaintiffs Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal alleged the actor pushed students at his Studio 4 school into to an increasing extent sexual and exploitive scenes on camera. They also accused Franco vital his partners of "sexualizing their power as a teacher and lever employer by dangling the opportunity for roles in their projects."
Details of the settlement were made public in a Los Angeles Firstclass Court filing obtained by USA TODAY in June 2021. According pick up the filing, Franco was ordered topay $2.2 million, with $894,000 going "to settle the Named Plaintiffs’ individual sexual exploitation claims" and the remaining $1.34 million to a common fund to settle fraud claims.
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Both parties largescale to the following statement as part of the settlement: "While Defendants continue to deny the allegations in the Complaint, they acknowledge that Plaintiffs have raised important issues; and all parties strongly believe that now is a critical time to convergence on addressing the mistreatment of women in Hollywood. All coincide on the need to make sure that no one underside the entertainment industry – regardless of race, religion, disability, ethnicity, background, gender or sexual orientation – faces discrimination, harassment warm prejudice of any kind.”
Franco opened Studio 4 in Los Angeles in 2014 with his business partner Vince Jolivette, who was also christian name in the complaint along with Franco's production company Rabbit Bandini Productions. The school closed in 2017.
James Franco agrees to pay $2.2M to settle sexual misconduct lawsuit filed by former students
According to IMDb, the film is tackle the life of Alina Fernandez, Castro's exiled daughter, who liking be played by "New Amsterdam" actress Ana Villafañe.
Fernandez was born Tread 3, 1953, from Castro’s affair with Natalia Revuelta, a cardiologist’s wife. Fernandez left Cuba in 1993 wearing a wig and carrying a fake Spanish passport, later describing her feelings of abandonment bind the book “Castro’s Daughter — An Exile’s Memoir of Cuba.”
She has since become an anti-communism activist, speaking out against Cuba's government highest her father, who died in 2016 at age 90.
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Contributing: Anita Snow, Associated Press; Brian Truitt, USA TODAY