The accidental artificial insemination of a young woman saving herself for marriage and an aspiring lawyer on the brink of her big break are two new series debuting this fall that have one thing in common: They both feature predominantly Latino casts.
The CW’s “Jane The Virgin” and ABC’s “Cristela” are two series that highlight a growing number of opportunities for Latino performers onscreen and onstage. In addition to hosting the casting directors for both series, Los Angeles is also playing host to a growing number of Latino theater companies and workshops designed for Spanish-speaking actors.
Alyson Silverberg and Jonathan Clay Harris, who cast “Jane,” said that casting directors and TV executives are increasingly cognizant of the need to diversify the talent they showcase. “If you look at the landscape of what’s on TV now, it’s clear there’s a bigger push for diversity,” Harris told Backstage. “We’re using a lot more gay characters and transgender characters and African-Americans—there’s a push to have more diversity across the board, not just Latino actors.”
Silverberg and Harris try to foster relationships with a range of performers. “We read so many people for one role to find new talent. I’m sure other offices do as well, but we do an excessive amount of reading,” Silverberg said. “We’ve made it our norm to always bring in multiple ethnicities for roles where it’s not specified.”
Casting a wide net for talent is how they developed a relationship with Gina Rodriguez, who became the series lead. “She was definitely an actor who Jonathan and I were familiar with for two or three seasons,” Silverberg said. “It was just about getting that right project.”
Rodriguez, a highly touted young Latina performer, was the second actor to read for the part of Jane. Executive producer Jennie Snyder Urman “knew right away that’s who she wanted,” Harris said.
Some advocates for Latino performers take issue with the fact that actors from Latin America are often cast over American talent for U.S. series. The casting of Mexican actor-singer Jaime Camil on “Jane” illustrates their complaint. Still, the series, which is based on the Venezuelan telenovela “Juana la Virgen,” will cast out of L.A.
Playwright Josefina López wants to help East L.A. actors become the next Rodriguez. In addition to running Casa 0101 Theater in Boyle Heights, she recently opened Teatro Para Todos (Theater for All), which will produce plays in Spanish.
She noted that Puerto Rican actor Ivonne Coll, who plays Rodriguez’s devout grandmother on “Jane,” speaks Spanish in several episodes. “In the past it was no Spanish, or a word here or there,” she said. For actors looking to hone their craft in Spanish in L.A., López recently partnered with acting coach Raul Romero for a workshop.
“There is a shift,” she said of the casting of Latino actors. “The message is we need Latinos at the major networks because all the cable networks and Netflix are grabbing up the minorities. This is an audience that’s being ignored.”
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