Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro received the Career Award from the Critics Choice Association on Sunday (early morning in Portugal) in Los Angeles, at the association’s annual event that recognizes Latinos in film and television.
“They told me to put myself in my shoes and I told them to fuck off,” said the director in his acceptance speech for the award, referring to the obstacles he’s faced over the years as a Mexican, wanting to reach the darkest corners explore. range of your imagination.
“I felt the glass ceiling a lot,” Del Toro said of the obstacles he faced in his drive to delve into genres like noir and fantasy. “All my life I’ve been told what aspirations I could have.”
The director, who has almost thirty years of career and two Oscars behind him, underlined that there is a response to the increase in Latinos in front of and behind the camera.
“It’s no coincidence that this is the year when our skin is too dark to play an elf, or the accent is too heavy to play Marilyn, or a director is too ambitious and therefore criticized,” he said. “We’re coming, we’re here and they feel it”.
Del Toro referred to other Latinos awarded at this ceremony who were criticized for not fitting the traditional mold. Ana de Armas had her accent questioned when she played Marilyn Monroe in “Blonde”, Ismael Cruz Córdova was attacked for playing the elf Arondir in “The Rings of Power” and Alejandro González Iñárritu was considered pretentious for his new film “Bardos”.
“We have to be ambitious, fierce and disobedient to what they tell us not to do,” Del Toro said.
Before him, actor Ismael Cruz Córdova, who received the Revelation award, spoke emotionally about how playing the elf Arondir exposed him to racist attacks and death threats.
“In the past two years I have received the most violent racist attacks,” revealed the actor, who played the first Afro-Latin elf in the saga. “What’s the price if I wake up bombarded by online violence, with people saying I shouldn’t exist, that my skin color ruined their favorite childhood story, that they’re loathe to see someone like me on screen?”, asked the Puerto Rican actor. “A prize is a hand on the shoulder that says they support me, it’s a hug when I feel I can’t go on,” he replied gratefully.
Córdova said he hopes people feel represented by his work and that Latinos will not remain invisible. “My role in ‘Lord of the Rings’ became more than a role, it became a movement.”
Cuban actress Ana de Armas, who was not at the ceremony because she is filming, also spoke of the importance of escaping the corset that limited the types of roles available to Latinos in Hollywood.
“‘Blonde’ is the movie I’ve always dreamed of making,” said Ana de Armas, who received the award for actress in cinema at the ceremony. “I’m not just talking about playing Marilyn Monroe, but the opportunity to feel like I was breaking free from the labels and crossing my boundaries,” he continued. “Doing something innovative would prove to me and to all Latinos that we can do anything given the chance.”
This theme was addressed by several other winners of the night, from director Alejandro Iñárritu to actress Jenna Ortega (“Wednesday”), Cristo Fernández (“Ted Lasso”) or Brandon Perea (from the movie “Nope”), who portrayed the Rising Star in cinema from director Jordan Peele.
“This industry wasn’t built for us, but here we are tonight,” said Perea, whose audition for the role of Angel in “Nope” was so compelling that Jordan Peele changed the character and script for him.
“Let’s keep pushing and chasing dreams,” he urged.
The second edition of the Celebration of Latino Cinema & Television awards, by the Critics Choice Association, took place on Sunday night in Los Angeles (already early this Monday in Lisbon).
Source: DN
