PS: Seeing a Mexican superhero on TV, aka Netflix, it gives Latinx kids a chance to see themselves as the good guy, for one. But then, it also disrupts the trope of Latinos as crime-doers. What are your hopes for a show like this, considering its legions of fans are a testament to the virtues of better, more inclusive casting in Hollywood?
DC: That people that are watching it, that they know that there's a different way of doing things. Like, a lot of kids when I went to school, drama wasn't an option. Drama kind of felt like you were on an island. If kids can watch it, and they think, "You know, I'd love to try this. I'd love to see what storytelling is and where it can lead me," and just have the kind of first steps and initiative that everyone has. That, a kid that's brown-skinned, or light-skinned, or whatever skin color that they are — that they can see it and be like, "Mom, can I take an acting class?" Or, "Can you buy me a camera?"
And that hopefully, studios realize that stereotypes aren't working anymore. And, that the internet, and social media, and all these things are sort of opening up the world to realize that there are so many not even different races, but sections between a race — like skin color, and demographic, and socioeconomic placements. That there isn't just one way to put it.
"Hopefully now, when actors or myself get to read a script, it's like, 'Hey, first of all, who's telling this story? How well do you know this story? And the character that I'm playing, is he a real person?'"
I did a film called End of Watch, and I remember one time, a casting director came up to me, and she's Hispanic. She said, "I love that movie. I love that movie because there's so many Latinos in that movie, but there's so many different kinds of Latinos — from the cop, to the cartel, to the gangs, to the people on the streets — that it sheds light to not just one specific thing."
PS: Like you said, we've only just scratched the surface.
DC: Hopefully now, when actors or myself get to read a script, it's like, "Hey, first of all, who's telling this story? How well do you know this story? And the character that I'm playing, is he a real person?"
