John Leguizamo says he avoided the sun to stay lighter-skinned for Hollywood

The ‘Encanto’ voice actor opened up about colourism in the industry

John Leguizamo has revealed that he used to avoid being in the sun to stay lighter-skinned for Hollywood roles.

The actor spoke out about his practice of staying away from sun rays throughout his career in a new interview, stating that he noticed that stars of Latin descent with lighter complexions got more opportunities than those with darker skin tones.

As a result, he intentionally avoided tanning for seemingly better chances at scoring roles.

“I stayed out of the sun so I could work,” Leguizamo said in a conversation with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. “I definitely would not go in the sun for years. It was a conscious thing because I could work. And all the Latinos that made it so far, a lot of them were all light-skinned.

“What happened to all the Afro-Latinos and the majority of indigenous Latinos? They don’t get a shot, you know. So, there’s a lot of things we got to deal with in Hollywood, and we got to fix, and we got to speak out and we got to speak up.”

Leguizamo provides the voice of Bruno Madrigal in the Disney film, Encanto. The animated musical, which has been hugely successful since its release in December, has been praised by audiences for displaying Latinx characters with a variety of skin tones.

Elsewhere in the conversation, the actor, whose past films include Romeo + Juliet and the Ice Age series, also reacted to last year’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, a study that looked at the 1,300 top-grossing films from 2007 to 2019.

Encanto is one of Disney’s most popular films in recent years (Walt Disney Pictures / Walt Disney Animation Studios)

The report found that only seven per cent of films from 2019 featured a lead/co-lead Hispanic/Latino actor, leading Leguizamo to deem Latinx talent in Hollywood to be “invisible”.

He said: “Not only are we invisible, but when we are seen, it’s a negative portrayal.”

However, the actor said he is hopeful that levels of representation are improving as time goes on. He continued: “Black Lives Matter was a huge awakening for America, a reboot for America to look at themselves and see what’s going on.

“I think everybody’s trying to do the right thing and hire many more people of colour. What I want to see, I want to see 20 per cent of the roles in front of the camera and the crew. I’m not asking for extra. I just want what’s due to us.”

Read The Independent’s review of Encanto here.