John Leguizamo wants to cast himself as Gwyneth Paltrow in movie about ski accident
Topics: Gwyneth Paltrow, Celebrity
Ali Condon
Featured Image Credit: Pacific Press Media Production Corp. / REUTERS / Alamy Stock Photo
Topics: Gwyneth Paltrow, Celebrity
John Leguizamo has joked that he deserves a leading role if they decide to make a movie about Gwyneth Paltrow's ski accident trial.
The actor is currently guest hosting The Daily Show following Trevor Noah's departure, and used the platform to crack a joke about representation in Hollywood.
He playfully suggested that since white actors keep being cast in Latino roles, maybe he should start getting white roles.
Offering the example of James Franco being cast as Fidel Castro in the film Alina of Cuba, Leguizamo joked: "Well guess what? If white people can take out roles, I'mma take theirs.
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"When they do the TV series based on Gwyneth Paltrow's ski accident trial, I'mma be Gwyneth Paltrow."
Were they ever to make a film about this completely bizarre trial, I'm not sure whether Leguizamo would be the first choice to play Gwyneth but, like he said himself, stranger things have happened.
Leguizamo has always been very vocal about the treatment of Latino actors in Hollywood.
Just last year, he told Insider that he had been turned down for a part in a film because the director had already hired a Latin actress and didn't want to have 'two Latin people' in it.
"There was this unspoken Latin quota, if you had too many Latin people in your movie that was a bad thing," he explained.
"And the thing is the guy, the real guy that the character I was to play was based on, was really Latin."
He has also called out the team behind The Super Mario Bros Movie for not hiring actors of colour for the parts of Mario and Luigi.
Leguizamo, who played Luigi in the 1993 Super Mario Bros film, told Indie Wire that he wasn't too thrilled about Chris Pratt and Charlie Day's casting.
"For them to go backwards and not cast another [actor of color] kind of sucks."
Meanwhile, in case you haven't been following along, that ski accident trial that Leguizamo mentioned involves Paltrow being sued for negligence after allegedly crashing into retired optometrist Terry Sanderson while skiing in 2016.
Paltrow has disputed Sanderson's story and countersued, arguing that it was him who ran into her.
The trial has been totally absurd to follow along with, and has been referred to on social media as the 'whitest trial of all time.'
Sanderson claims that Paltrow's 'reckless' skiing landed him with four broken ribs and brain damage and is seeking damages of $300,000, having had a previous claim for $3.1m dropped.