Within the next 50 years, Latinos will come to make up one quarter of this country's population, according to the Census Bureau. Yet it's no secret that Latinos are among several minority groups that are still not being given fair representation in mainstream media. While success stories like those of Selma Hayek, Jennifer Lopez, Cameron Diaz, and Antonio Banderas, of television stars Benjamin Bratt and Jimmy Smits, are often cited to indicate the beginning of an era of more diverse casting, how well do these individual cases represent the current job market for Latino actors?
Last year, many Latinos had a fairly bleak year in terms of finding work in mainstream television. Due to this lack of work in mainstream media, and a tendency for agents to segregate Latino talent to the Latino market, the Latino actors who worked the most were often those who are bilingual, and willing to cross over into the Spanish-language market. Advertisers are scrambling to reach out to this demographic, creating a demand for Spanish-speaking talent to endorse their products. Sony/Telemundo, which until recently has imported almost all of its programming, has also experimented successfully with two new U.S.-made Spanish-language sitcoms, realizing that the new generation of Latinos in the U.S. demands more than the old staple-telenovelas-to keep them entertained.
There are also signs that mainstream media is finally beginning to open its doors to Latino talent. Since the outcry following last year's "whitewash" on new network television shows, networks are attempting to develop several new "Latino-themed" pilots, and more Latinos are being considered for non-ethno-specific roles. Also encouraging is that, slowly but surely, both mainstream and Spanish-language networks are making important attempts to smash the stereotypes that have long frustrated Latino performers.
Back Stage West recently spoke with a variety of casting directors, actors, teachers, and leaders in the Latino community to give Spanish-speaking actors a glimpse at the kind of work now becoming available, and some guidance as to how bilingual actors can strive for the best in both worlds.
"Generic," Por Favor
While U.S.-made Spanish-language television is just starting to take root (the majority of the popular telenovelas are still imported), and films in Spanish continue to be shot in less costly locales, the Spanish-language commercial industry is thriving, and is only expected to expand. Advertisers seem to have been the first to recognize the need to acknowledge and target the rapidly growing Latino audience in the U.S. For every major commercial aired on network TV, about 35 percent of those advertisers now shoot a Spanish-language version of the same commercial, estimated casting director Bill Hooey, who has recently cast campaigns for McDonalds, Honda, Alaska Air, and for the major-league baseball season.
So what does the Spanish-speaking actor need to get an edge? While it may seem to be obvious advice, all of the commercial casting directors and actors that Back Stage West spoke with had similar suggestions: continue training and learn to speak a "correct" Spanish.
What advertisers and casting directors are most often listening for is what they call a "neutral" Spanish, one that sounds educated and isn't noticeably colored by a regional accent.
"A lot of Hispanic actors that I audition have what's known as the North American accent," said Hooey. "Even though they're speaking Spanish, they don't sound like a real Latino. I tell them to go get voice training in Spanish. It's hard sometimes telling that to Latinos, because they look at you like you're nuts. They go, "Hey, I've been speaking Spanish for 25 years. Do you mean to tell me my Spanish is not good enough?' I tell them, "Look, your family understands you, but if you go to a TV or radio audition, you've got to have a broadcast sound. You've got to enunciate clearly, you've got to have that fluency, that professional sound, and that's a trained thing; you don't learn it by osmosis. Put aside your pride, get in touch with reality, and sharpen whatever skills you have.'"
While this "neutral" broadcast sound obviously does not reflect the diversity of Latino cultures in the U.S., it does allow advertisers to appeal to audiences from a wide variety of backgrounds.
"There's a freaky little thing in the Latino community that few Hispanics will admit to," said Hooey. "There's a little bit of oneupsmanship-like Mexicans might think that they're better than Puerto Ricans, or Puerto Ricans might think that they're better than Cubans. If you air a commercial in a market where Cubans are the primary viewers, and the guy has that Mexican sound to his Spanish, they'll dismiss it."
For actors who are primarily interested in voiceover work, being able to capture this "generic sound" is of utmost importance. Popular bilingual voiceover artist Gustavo Rex, who has done commercials for AM-PM, Ford, Taco Bell, and Glen Ellen Wine, pointed out that there is some difference in the style of demo tapes that Spanish-speaking casting directors want to hear. Said Rex, "in English, your agents will want you to use one kind of voice, perhaps your normal speaking voice. On a Spanish demo, you can do a variety of different voices: sexy, hyped up, hip/nonchalant. There are more people in the English market. They have 15 actors per type of voice, and they'd rather go that way then have five actors who do 10 different types of voice." Demos should be two minutes of 15 second snippets, edited smoothly together (with no space in between), and should use good background music.
For on-camera commercials, advertisers are often looking for what they call a "generic" Latino look. Hooey defined this as "a person who could look Hispanic, but you don't know exactly what their background is. A slightly tan Latino, who might even be able to pass for Italian."
Aside from the popular "generic" look and sound, some advertisers make an effort to reach a much smaller group, and seek out talent that can best represent it. "Sometimes, I have to target a very specific market," said Orlette Ruiz of Mambo Casting, "So I do have to cast people with specific accents or looks. It can get quite complicated. For example, right now I'm doing a radio spot where I need to target people from Argentina, Peru, and Brazil."
Ruiz explained that some companies even request different actors for their campaigns on the East and West Coasts. Because of the demographics on the East Coast, she is often asked to consider more Caribbean accents, while on the West Coast the most popular accents are more toward South and Central America and Mexico.
Another encouraging development within the past few years is the emergence of bilingual commercials, or commercials that switch between English and Spanish within the same commercial, giving a more realistic depiction of the linguistic mix that is often heard in Latino speech in the U.S. Ruiz recently cast an MCI campaign with Oscar de la Hoya in which actors interacted with him in both languages, and the commercial is set to air on both Spanish and English networks. Based on other similar campaigns in the works, she anticipates the trend will continue, and therefore stresses the advantage of being fully bilingual.
"Learn to speak English as well as you can," added Hooey, "without an accent, because if you are hired for the Spanish-language version of a commercial, and you can impress the ad agency with your English, they may hire you for some English-speaking parts. There is a crossover market."
Spanish Segregation
Yet even for fully bilingual actors, landing a commercial for the general English-speaking market is an uphill battle. Ad agencies, and even the actors' own agents, will often try to confine them to the Spanish market, where pay is significantly less, despite the fact that they are fully "Americanized" Latino actors.
"We happen to be Americans who speak both languages," said Nosotros president Jerry Velasco, "but they don't want to represent us in the general commercials, so we don't work in those markets. We're segregated to the Spanish markets, so that's where our income comes in."
Several actors reported that because of this tendency to segregate, and the relative abundance of work in the Spanish market, agents often prefer Latino actors whose Spanish is up to par.
"It's a little absurd," said actress/comedian Yelba Osorio, who estimated that about 80 percent of her commercial auditions were in Spanish, despite her being an American-born Latina with ample theatrical training, "If I were Jewish, would I have to speak Hebrew to work?"
Texas-born actress Lina Gallegos echoed her concerns, "It's not really fair. I mean, I love being able to speak both languages and I encourage everyone to become bilingual. But I certainly understand that you can grow up in this country speaking only English. No other ethnic group is expected to maintain their language. They don't expect it of Italians, or Germans, or anybody else, but they certainly do if your name is Garcia. It's one of those strange paradoxes-they want us to assimilate, but they won't let us."
Latinos also face the problem of being cast in stereotyped roles, both in English and Spanish commercials.
Said Ruiz, "Unfortunately, most of the commercial campaigns normally request the mom, the father, and the children, because they think that all the Latino community does is hang around with family. We are much more sophisticated than that. Some campaigns are starting to take that into account. For example, beauty-product campaigns often request the professional, yuppie type of woman, someone educated."
Overall, commercials appear to be the bread and butter of many Latino actors' work, accounting for roughly 80 percent of the money earned, estimated Velasco. But exactly how much money are they getting from commercials? Unfortunately, roughly 60 percent of the work is non-union, estimated Hooey, and pay for that is usually somewhere in the range of $100-600 per day, often without residuals. Even for a SAG commercial, the session fee is the same as it would be in English, but the amount an actor will earn in residuals is often less than half what he would earn were the commercial in English for English networks. There is, however, a proposal in the new SAG commercial contract which, if approved, would provide for a 30-percent increase in pay for Spanish-language commercials, though negotiations will continue until Mar. 31.
Velasco, who is also chairman of SAG's Hispanic Subcommittee, stressed the need for actors to become active and show their support for these kinds of proposals.
"We have to force the union. If we, as members of the Hispanic community, are not involved in making sure that we better our contract, the union will not do it. I was a board replacement for the SAG annual membership meeting in December, and it was embarrassing to look up and only see six Hispanics out of thousands. How do they expect us to improve their working conditions if they don't come and show support for our efforts? Members need to be there to show solidarity." Velasco suggested that actors become involved through the SAG group known as "Members on the Move."
Goin' South
Another factor which may complicate the job market for Spanish-speaking Latino actors in the U.S. is that production companies (many of them SAG signatory) are continuing to go outside of the U.S. to shoot, especially to Mexico. "They use Mexican talent and do a buyout," said Ruiz, "so they save a tremendous amount of money, without considering the Latino actors here who are also the consumers of those products. I watch TV constantly, and I can see that more and more productions are going out of the United States. I don't know if there's something that SAG needs to do, or what we can do to stop that."
A similar trend plagues the Spanish voiceover industry. Disney, for example, has consistently sent its animated features out of the country to be dubbed. "We go to the Spanish-speaking countries," explained Blake Todd, head of Character Voices International at Disney. His justification for dismissing the pool of Spanish-speaking talent in the U.S. was that, "[In Mexico], you're assured of accents. If we called in 50 actors here who speak Spanish, they could have various accents." Another advantage of foreign dubbing which he neglected to mention is that union jurisdiction does not extend across the border, and Disney can pay foreign talent far less than SAG would require.
Eunice Suarez, an actress and acting teacher with Nosotros, has also noticed a trend in the U.S. in which ad agencies will cast well-known Spanish-speaking talent from other countries, and fly them in to do union commercials here, a practice which, while allowed under a special SAG provision for foreign "celebrity" talent, is disconcerting to many union members.
"We have been fighting this in union meetings, but they aren't interested in changing it," said Suarez. "We live here, we pay taxes here, we consume the products, we pay our union, yet often we don't work."
Dos en America
While the majority of Spanish television is still made up of imported telenovelas, game shows, talk shows, and variety shows, anyone who has tuned in to the two new hit sitcoms on Telemundo can tell that times are changing. Solo en America and Los Beltran, which both began last year, are the first sitcoms on Telemundo to be shot (and set) in the United States. With a high production quality, great scripts, and a distinctly American sensibility, the shows have been some of Sony/Telemundo's first programming experiments, and are proving to be successful.
According to Dan Ramirez, who casts both shows, "Telemundo has decided to go with a lot more original programming and sort of follow the mainstream format, doing sitcoms, one-hour series, and they're talking about doing made-for-TV movies."
What this means for the bilingual actor is, of course, more work, and thanks to the efforts of groups like Nosotros, who helped to negotiate an AFTRA contract in recent years (a landmark in Spanish television), the work will be union.
The shows' characters are anything but stereotypes. While Solo en America is a rewrite of the popular '80s show in English One Day at a Time, about a divorced mother and her daughters, Los Beltran centers on Cuban duplex owner Manny Beltran, his family, and tenants. Recently nominated for a GLAAD award, along with such shows as Will and Grace and Sex in the City, the show also portrays one of the first gay couples on Spanish television. Said actor James Leary, who plays Kevin on the show, (whose partner is a Latino doctor), "In telenovelas, you've seen gay guys, but you've never seen a really well-adjusted, openly gay couple being openly gay together, and surprisingly, everybody loves it."
When casting for the shows, Ramirez explained that he believes it's important to hold open auditions and give newcomers a fair shot. "If someone sends me a picture and they have a good resum , I always set them up on a general," said Ramirez. "I believe that's the only way to get to know the market consistently. I have them read and if I think they're acting is good, then I'll bring them in to the producers, or I'll develop it-bring them in for other roles knowing that maybe they're not that experienced, but their acting is generally good and they've got talent."
Ramirez also mentioned that several times he has brought new talent in three or four times over the year, just to see how they are progressing, and offer them advice. "I know there are a lot of struggling actors," said Ramirez, "especially Latinos. I try to help everyone regardless of their experiences, as long as they're trying, and there's effort."
Ramirez does reiterate that any actors interested in pursuing this kind of work learn to speak a fluent Spanish simply to increase their chances of working, though he doesn't prefer any particular accent, unless dictated by the role, and he has occasionally used an actor's lack of Spanish to a show's benefit.
"If someone isn't completely fluent in Spanish," said Ramirez, "I can tell right away. But I don't think that that should necessarily be a detriment. Sometimes it only adds to the flavor of the character." Actor Leary, an Anglo-American actor who speaks no Spanish but works with the scripts phonetically (and with a lot of coaching from fellow actors on the show), is a case in point.
Laboring for Improvements
Though the shows do have an AFTRA contract, the pay is significantly less than it would be for a mainstream sitcom. A week as a guest star, for example, pays around $1,200, about 30 percent less than shows in English. Velasco, who helped negotiate the contract, explained it this way: "First, we had to convince the union that they had to play ball with the production company. Then, the production company said, "We can't pay those fees, we'll go broke!' We told them, "Just try it! The union will work with you,' and they did. They're not charging them what the U.S. shows pay, because we do realize that it's a lesser market. You've got to give them a break when they start, to get them hooked on the deal, but once they're in and they see that they're making money, they can't go back. Then, like we've done in the past with the Spanish-language commercial contract, we can work to improve it."
Dmitrius Navarro, who plays Miguel Perez on Los Beltran and also has a recurring role on ER as paramedic Gabriel Morales, explained that pay is obviously not the motivating factor for actors to take roles on Spanish shows ("You mean we get paid on Los Beltran?" he joked) but that it was more a labor of love, and the fact that he was offered such an interesting role. Navarro plays the Beltrans' live in son-in-law (his relationship to Manny Beltran, the father, is reminiscent of the "Meathead"/Archie Bunker dynamic), a college-graduated artist who teaches art to children at a community center. "They didn't have to go union," said Navarro. "They could've gone down and shot in Baja, paid us dirt, and we'd have no union to protect us. But it says something that they decided to make it here."
Not only does the show offer Latino actors the chance to get a foot in the door, but the production staff is also nearly 80-percent Latino. Sony offers internship programs with the show, giving Latino crew, writers, and directors a chance to hone their skills. Ramirez is hopeful that the program will help to bring more Latinos into the industry, both on- and off-screen.
There are signs that the networks are making a similar effort to increase roles for Latinos on mainstream shows. As a result of the outcry following the notorious "whitewashing" of mainstream network shows last year-where Latino employment on mainstream television reportedly reached an all-time low-all of the major networks have recently signed agreements to integrate more minorities into their programs and production teams, and there are rumors that a number of "Latino-themed" shows are already in development.
Bilingual actress Osorio described this as her busiest pilot season yet, as she has been considered for a number of roles for network television. Casting director Roger Mussenden, who has cast both Selena and Mi Familia, recently ran a casting notice in Back Stage West for a CBS pilot called American Family, a groundbreaking one-hour dramedy about a second generation Mexican-American family living in East L.A., directed by Gregory Nava (El Norte). He describes American Family as a show about "real people, in real situations, who just happen to be Latino," and unlike the majority of shows even on Spanish television, the show will be cast with actors who have "a dark, Mexican, indigenous look."
While more roles are opening up, stereotypes are still quite common, though there are encouraging signs that the networks are considering a broader array of types. Said Navarro, "Earlier in my career, they wanted the bandana, the homeboy, and it's just recently that it's been broadening. But now, you may not be the gang member anymore, but you're often cast as the "good kid' trying to make it out of a "bad neighborhood.' So you may not be the bad guy anymore, but you're still coming out of a bad situation." His role on ER, however, has offered Narravo hope. He plays a professional paramedic, whom he describes as "a kind of leader" to the other characters.
Casting director Dan Ramirez is less hopeful. "I don't think the stereotyping is going to change until you get more minorities in the position to hire people. I was just talking to a Latina actress who probably has the biggest resum of any Latina in Hollywood, and she was just cast to play a maid for the billionth time in a series. She said to me, "But she's a very smart maid,' and I said, "Well, I guess we're making some progress then.'"
Argentine actor Maximo Mulrooney, who works regularly in both languages, including a recent guest appearance on Solo en America as an orchestra conductor who becomes Laura Fabian's love interest, suggested that because of the market's competitiveness, the most important thing is "not to burn any bridges. There are opportunities out there, but you have to find them."
Casting director Bill Hooey echoed this sentiment. "I was brought up in this culture, and you learn certain phrases like, "One day my ship will come in, I'm paying my dues right now.' That's baloney. You can pay your dues for 50 years, it doesn't mean you're going to get anything out of it. And opportunity's not going to come knock on your door. You've got to put on your running shoes and go after it, get your best lasso, and bring it home kicking and screaming."
Screen and Stage
At the moment, Spanish-language film is probably the least promising industry for Latino actors in the U.S. New Latin Pictures, however, was founded to change that, "to allow the American Latino public to take their rightful place at the American table," said owner/founder Lawrence Martin. Committed to what he calls "the American Latino Cinema Movement," Martin explained that his company plans to use both English- and Spanish-speaking talent. The company has already produced the film Nueba Yol! (slang for New York), a Spanish-dominant film which is revolutionary in its mix of Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban talent, primarily foreign-born actors who have taken up residence here.
However, the company's current film Luminarias (which will be released, significantly, on May 5, Cinco de Mayo) is an English-language film, a romantic comedy featuring Robert Beltran and Seidy Lopez. Martin explained that the content will continue to dictate the dominant language of the company's films, but that there is always a use of both languages in the films. Said Martin, "When you call up Pacific Bell or your bank, what do you hear? Press 1 for English, 2 for Spanish. This is a two-language marketplace, and these films reflect that."
For Latino thesps who prefer the thrill and challenge of live performance, and are interested in attempting the challenge of bilingual performance, bilingual theatre is still alive and well in Los Angeles, with companies such as the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts and Grupo de Teatro Sinergia continuing to produce at least four classical and modern plays per year, with performances in both languages. Both companies regularly run casting notices in Back Stage West, and cast productions from open auditions, often taking chances on newcomers with little experience. As early as June, Grupo de Teatro Sinergia will be holding auditions for its upcoming production of Macbato, an adaptation of Macbeth set in East L.A., said artistic director Ruben Amavisca.
Lina Gallegos, who has worked at the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts, Nosotros, and Frida Kahlo Theatre, emphasized that what theatre offers Latino actors is the chance to sharpen their skills and to work on more complex roles than are typically available in commercial and television work. Gallegos suggests that actors "work with different theatres, in different parts of town, in English and in Spanish, even if it means taking a non-paying job, just to keep honing your craft." Having been given the title role in the Trial of Susan B. Anthony at the Attic Theatre, Gallegos has also found that some theatre directors for English-speaking theatres are very open to "non-traditional" casting, giving Latino actors the opportunity to transcend the "Latino-themed" mold they are so often forced into.
Training Is the Key in Any Language
While acting classes in English are a dime a dozen in Los Angeles, finding a class in which to hone your skills in Spanish can be like finding a needle in a haystack. Those that do exist, however, are surprisingly inexpensive, and taught by seasoned professionals. Grupo de Teatro Sinergia offers "Acting for the Camera" in Spanish, an ongoing class taught by Rebecca Silva, a mere $8 dollars for a two-hour class. Nosotros has been offering seminars, lectures, and classes in both languages for nearly 30 years, at a mere $15 dollars for a three-hour class. For the $50 membership fee, seminars and showcases are free, and actors are also given the chance to post their headshot and resum in the talent database on the Nosotros website. Scholarships are also available. Having recently purchased the Doolittle Theatre, scheduled to open as the Ricardo Montalban theatre in June, the organization also plans to open a performing arts academy in the old Belmont school location within the next year.
For the time being, many instructors offer classes out of their homes, also at surprisingly low cost. Nosotros teacher Eunice Suarez offers an acting class in Spanish out of her Burbank home, where she focuses on the method of Stanislavski. In Colombia, Suarez was a student of the late Seki Sano, a Japanese actor who studied with Stanislavski in Russia before coming to Colombia and Mexico in the '50s to teach Stanislavski's Method himself. Her class covers everything from muscle relaxation, breathing, and vocalization to improv, monologues, and scene study.
Suarez believes that it's important to keep classes affordable. "At Nosotros, in some situations we've had talented students who weren't able to pay, and we haven't charged them a cent." She warns students to be wary of certain Spanish-language acting schools, now in existence, which charge students hundreds, even thousands of dollars, promising to make them "stars." One of her students reported that a certain school, marketed towards Latinos in various newspapers, at ads handed out in churches, and even on a reputable Spanish television station, is currently charging parents $800 for their children to participate in its plays, an amount that is outrageous by any standard.
Other bizarre scams include a reported photographer team who travel into minority neighborhoods and take photos of children on a pony, later calling the parents and promising them that their children have been selected from thousands to be "groomed" for success. ("What they don't tell you," said an anonymous source, "is how much you're expected to pay them.")
Tina D'Marco is another instructor with Nosotros who teaches voiceover workshops in Spanish (at $25 an hour), helping actors to perfect a "generic" Spanish sound. D'Marco stressed that with constant practice she has noticed that students can make a fair amount of progress in a mere three weeks. "It's very simple," said D'Marco. "If they pronounce each and every vowel, and each and every consonant, they're on their way to generic Spanish. The problem is that a lot of the Latin American countries eat the last part of a word. They don't pronounce it." D'Marco suggests that students practice by reading La Opinion aloud and recording themselves as they read it. "It's amazing how once you get the trick of not eating the end of the words, you can get into the habit of pronouncing everything, and it sounds just wonderful."
Bill Hooey also suggested that a good way to find a Spanish voiceover coach is by simply calling up the Spanish radio stations and asking for recommendations.
Whether in English or in Spanish, all of the casting directors that Back Stage West spoke with agreed that constant training is essential to landing roles, and to becoming a master of the craft. Said Ruiz, "I often see actors who, once they have done some commercial work, stop their training. I would really encourage people to continue their education, and to keep taking workshops and acting classes, because it is like a muscle, it's something that they need to develop on a regular basis. It's a very refined instrument that needs to be constantly rehearsed."
Rehearsal may indeed be key. But with the new developments in mainstream and Latino markets, it looks like more of these artists with fine-tuned instruments will finally be called upon to perform as well. BSW