In a Q&A with CNN, Gina Torres, lead actress in the Fox show, 9-1-1: Lone Star, spoke about how she’s using her influence in Hollywood to change the narrative for others and, in the process, educating Americans as to how Black Latinx representation is frequently overlooked and essential to the industry.
Being the daughter of Cuban immigrants, Torres said there was a time when she had to audition for a role multiple times early in her career because she didn’t fit producers’ standard of American beauty.
“You’re too exotic, and they didn’t want to confuse the audience,” Torres recalled.
Torres claims that Black Latinx entertainers like herself have been “hiding in plain sight,” and Hollywood resorts to casting them for Black roles because they “don’t look, Latino.”
The actress said that after refusing to give up one part of her identity for another, has allowed her to feel better represented on-screen.
When Torres received an offer from Tim Minear, the co-creator and showrunner of Fox’s 9-1-1: Lone Star to take on the show’s female lead, she asked if her role could be an Afro-Latina.
The actress said Minear agreed to it, despite being unsure of what it would entail.
“I need to speak my language (Spanish) whenever possible. I need to let the audience know that this is also a face of Latinidad,” Torres recalled telling Minear.
The change made a difference not only for Torres, who sees her role as Tommy Vega as “beautifully crafted” but also for her role, which she believes is a “fully realized human being.”
“That was incredibly important for me because so often marginalized people aren’t really depicted as being fully human. They’re not given the same attention; they’re not given the same time, they’re not given families,” Torres said.
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Torres will continue starring as a lead in “9-1-1: Lone Star,” which has been renewed for a third season and hopes to continue shaping new, more robust characters of color.
“It’s just part of who they are, and it informs how they see the world in certain ways,” Torres said. “At the end of the day, we’re all human,” she added.
