Charlie Hunnam Hated for Playing a Mexican Drug Lord
Since the Oscars “so white” controversy ignited this year, many people have started a dialogue about the lack of diversity in Hollywood. And this discussion couldn’t come at a worse time for Charlie Hunnam, who has just been cast to play the notorious drug kingpin, Edgar Valdez Villarreal.
The problem is, Edgar is a Mexican-American, and many disapprove of Hunnam’s casting because of his race. And in spite of Hunnam’s great acting talent, fans have reacted in a very negative way on Twitter, suggesting that the role should be recast with an actor who has real Latino roots.
A twitter user complains:
I guess there aren't many Mexican-American actors who could play a MexAm drug lord, so casting English actor Charlie Hunnam makes perf sense
— Julieta Colás (@jujujulieta) January 24, 2016
Edgar Valdez Villarreal is one of El Chapo’s most famous rivals, and is one of the violent drug kingpins in history. Now, that both drug cartel leaders are in police custody, there has been an immense interest in their lives.
Given Hunnam’s high-caliber acting performance in the hit ‘Sons of Anarchy’ series, there’s no question that he can pull off the violent role of Villarreal, but should he? You be the judge.
He’s 35.
yeah because he looks so mexican
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While I agree that certain roles should be played by actors of the same race, this works both ways. And while it was just a tv show, I didn’t like Will Smith playing the role of James West, which was played by the white Robert Conrad in the original series. Surely there are enough actors of every race to play their own people these days.
A lot of these cases where they use a white guy to play someone Middle Eastern or Native American – I get annoyed too.
But this case I don’t get it. The guy he’s playing is white. His nickname was “La Barbie” because he had blond hair. He doesn’t look Mexican.