Antonio Banderas Says Hollywood Execs Once Told Him ‘Blacks and Hispanics’ Only Play Bad Guys on Screen

While reflecting on his early career in Hollywood, legendary actor Antonio Banderas said executives once told him that only Black people and ethnically diverse people could portray antagonists in film and TV.

“They said, ‘You are here, like the Blacks and the Hispanics, to play the bad guys,” he recalled during an interview with The Times of London out Wednesday.

For clarification: While the terms Latino and Hispanic can often overlap, Hispanic refers to people who have linguistic and/or cultural ties to Spain or Spanish-speaking countries, while Latino encompasses people who have ancestry from Latin America.

Banderas, who started acting on stage in Málaga, Spain, began his career in the early 1990s, with his first American film debut being in “The Mambo Kings.” He went on to nab his breakout role in “Philadelphia,” and ultimately cemented himself as a leading actor with his performance as the masked swordsman in “The Mask of Zorro.” The actor said the “Zorro” franchise helped break stereotypes about Hispanic and/or Latino people in the industry.

“A few years later, I had a mask, hat, sword and cape and the bad guy was Captain Love, who was blond and had blue eyes,” Banderas noted. “Even more important is ‘Puss in Boots,’ because it’s for young kids. They see a cat that has a Spanish — even an Andalusian — accent and he’s a good guy.”

Some of his other massive hits include “Desperado,” the “Spy Kids” films, “Evita” and “Once Upon a Time in Mexico.” His character Puss in Boots, first seen in “Shrek 2,” went on to earn three spinoff movies and a TV series, the latter of which saw the character voiced by Eric Bauza.

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