Lack of Diversity in Hollywood

The new Mario Bros. movie is out, but John Leguizamo is upset that there are no Latino's in the movie. Does he have a right to be upset? Does he have a point about Latino's being misrepresented in Hollywood?

Topics Discussed:

• John Leguizamo upset over no Latino castings in new Super Mario movie
• Hollywood's problem with diversity
• A new ghetto word of the week
• Most romantic comedies are starring white people
• Knicks are in the playoffs
• Yet another mass shooting

Ghetto Word: Mad
Urban Dictionary: mad

Featured Song:
Mad Izm - Channel Live Ft. KRS-One

Referenced Links:
John Leguizamo Says 'Hell No' to 'Super Mario Bros. Movie' (insider.com)

Check out The Culture's official website:
www.theculture.one

Sponsors and Affiliates:

Audible
get a 30-day trial and an audio book absolutely FREE!

Buy us a Beer!
Like our show? Go ahead and buy us a coffee....Or a Beer!

One Time Donations
Cash App

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Transcript

Jeff: 0:31

Oh, let's get this show underway. We are a day late, just a day late. And for good reason. What's up, man, how you feeling?

Anthony: 0:41

tired, exhausted outside of that. Another day,

Jeff: 0:46

you had a, you had a death in the family. So we want to give our condolences to the Austin family. So that's why we were a daily just a day late. But, you know, we do have an obligation to our fans, and especially our coach crew. So keep them entertained on a weekly basis. So here we are. Of course, speaking of the coach a crew, let's do the coach a crew Roll Call. First off, let's start with the black Helwig. I think I've decided that I'm going to do in the order that they signed up as how do you feel

Anthony: 1:23

about that? Was it first come first serve, right?

Jeff: 1:30

So the black hallway

Anthony: 1:32

sounds fair to me for you. First of all signed up for someone named? Correct.

Jeff: 1:36

Then we have King causa, the third. Then we have Melly Mel. Then we have Tash and we spoke last time we spoke about tash but she didn't have a nickname. And we were trying to figure out what her first or her favorite Disney characters, I found out that her favorite Disney character is, uh, her favorite Disney Princesses Anastasia, Anastasia, and that's what I was actually going to call my daughter if I would have had a daughter. I was gonna call her Anastasia. Like,

Anthony: 2:09

not because of the movie just because you like your name.

Jeff: 2:11

I like the name. Next up, we have Mikey she and we have DJ Screw our newest member, or one of the newest members because the newest member is actually last but not least, anonymous, aka shall remain nameless. And oh, we got some changes coming up to one of the changes is you know how I usually well not usually, but the coach or crew members always get the release of the episode sooner they get it like a day before it actually releases to the public. But the way we've been doing it, we've just been sending them the links, you know, however we find them like you know, if I got your number we texted if we however you know, Facebook, whatever. But we're gonna do it now in a central location. So from moving forward, all episodes or early access to episodes will be posted on your Patreon. So I encourage you to download the Patreon app. If you don't have it as much easier that way. I mean, they do they usually do email you Patreon will notify you by email whenever we post them. So be on the lookout for that. But yeah, you're gonna get early access through the Patreon page. And also, we had another comment from our newest Patreon DJ Screw. He said because last week you said about whether you're gonna joke about drug jokes, and I was like I don't know if it might trigger some. He said great episode again guys and drug jokes don't bother me. I want to hear a drug joke. Next week. Much love. So I'm gonna leave the drug jokes to you. I'm gonna draw. He said his eye he's expecting to hear one.

Anthony: 4:01

Yeah, totally. People don't get censored but I gotta be strong over no drug jokes immediately. But since since they said it's cool. I'll make sure I'll squeeze whenever you can't have a drug joke of the week. That sounds ridiculous. But the drug joke of the week I find something that's gonna make them laugh.

Jeff: 4:18

That might we might be able to do that. That might be a new segment. The drug joke of the week. WILL FUCKING I gotta joke

Anthony: 4:25

cuz like people will say like, Drugs aren't funny. Go ahead, shoot,

Jeff: 4:29

smoking will kill you. Bacon will kill you. But smoking bacon will cure you or will cure it. A fact of the joke. Something to that effect.

Anthony: 4:40

The enemy that lead to drug drug alone, man. You gotta let it flow. Drug jokes are hard. Drug jokes are hard. But people being on drugs doing things are hilarious. Like you're seeing people like hi, man. The best start pop black and shit.

Jeff: 4:57

But anyways, oh, another thing. I mean, we know we're an audio only podcast. And we don't really record our soul. We don't have video but that doesn't mean we can't dabble in the YouTube. As you already know, I've been dabbling with the YouTube. So I'll put the link in the show notes. I encourage everybody to go on their YouTube page and subscribe to our shit. I really appreciate that. I try to put you know post more and more content more faceless content up there for now. But anyways, Yo, have you seen the Super Mario movie yet?

Anthony: 5:35

No, I plan on it but no, I have not. Yet me

Jeff: 5:37

neither as of this recording me neither, but I'm gonna watch it later today. And it's like breaking box office record for an animated movie. But the only reason I bring it up is because John Leguizamo they you know, they asked him if he was gonna watch it or whatever his thoughts on and he was like hell no he's like anger is shit about it because there's no Latino actors in it or nor Latino voices in the fucking movie, right? And this is what he said. No, I will not be watching they could have included a Latin character. I was groundbreaking and they stopped the groundbreaking. They messed up. They messed up the inclusion they dis included. And first of all, Mario doesn't need no fucking Latin characters. Okay, the first live action adaptation of the Mario movie was one of the worst movies of all time. It's fucking trash. It ruined all our childhoods. It's easily the worst movie that John Leguizamo was ever in a fucking Puerto Rican. Luigi. Get the fuck out here. I'm mad. I'm mad enough that the actors playing Mario Wynnum are fucking like American. They're not actually Italians with an accent you know, but that's neither here nor there. That's bad enough, let alone throwing a Latin character. We don't even know Latin characters. John Leguizamo went on to say just cast the Latin folk, Latin folks were 20% of the population, the largest people of color group and were underrepresented. over represented in the worst kinds of jobs though. He goes on to say you had Al Pacino and tan makeup coked up and wild as a Cuban in Scarface. This Studio's loved us so much, they put him in Carlitos way, as a Puerto Rican from Spanish Harlem. They surrounded him with Latino actors, but not one of us had a lead role. And our own stories, we were still just supporting players. And I agree with him there. But he's he's referencing, he's referencing movies that are 30 and 40 years old, right? I mean, I'm not saying Hollywood couldn't use a little more diversity. I mean, you have you know, all the English actors taking all the American roles. You know, it's definitely a problem when you have white people playing Latino roles. But I think they're getting there. You know, we got the little mermaid coming out. And she's a black character. But yes, can Latinos be represented more in Hollywood? Sure. Does the Super Mario movie need a fucking Latino in it? No, it does not. Your thoughts?

Anthony: 8:09

I think it's funny that John is hell bent on finding that doesn't sound like a Latino Mario like it. Okay, like Mario's voice, all in one that's kind of highly problematic, because it's like, Italian, Italian, Italian, like he'd sent me. And I'm like, it's like, it's all the biases that we think that Italian people sound like so and so forth. The original had, you know, an Italian Englishman, and playing to plumbers are supposed to be Italian. And I'm like, the thing. Okay. John has a slight point, I don't think that you should be fit into any kind of box, I think, if your ability and your talent put you forward, that she'd be able to do almost any role, with like, within reason, with within reason, let's be really honest about that. I don't, I don't want to see Tom Hanks being Malcolm X, that's a bit much for me. But if you have the say, so they know how to play these particular parts. You're able to go above and beyond like, I understand, like, we have to, we're not as particular. But the Hollywood system has to change, it can't put their bias aside, stop putting people in particular categories, like not all Hispanic has to be some type of service worker. Not all black people have to be, you know, criminals are from broken homes, like these general societal biases that we put in the movies that only reinforce the things about people that those that don't know, kind of just run forward with that. John, more than anything else is like he didn't see it. Many fields a particular way. And what's more Latin representation in other things. I want all types of participation of all people of colors and genders and all things. Now, if you're making a particular movie, where there's a particular ethnic group, like when he read their West Side Story, they're Hispanic like this, it just supposed to be there, that they were casting with someone else, you're kind of messing up the essence of the story. But I mean, this is a cartoon, and it's, it's supposed to be fun. It's supposed to be one of the things we're supposed to take away any kind of racial animus that kind of goes along with it. These kids don't know. They play Mario Kart eight They, they play the games, they have the toy, they do this thing they don't really care about, you know, who's supposed to be black or Hispanic or white or gender or whatever supposed to be in it, like just playing the game. And that's why I like it made such big numbers because it's something about the simplicity of it. There's a guy who in his land who rescued the princess, kind of a straightforward story, and other other in betweens that go along with it. And like we talked about before we play the game. They have, you know, Mario Kart they have, you know, the Nintendo Switch they have, they're often granted like children that are younger. And I don't think I've never sat back and, like, played any Mario game was like, man, we really need Hispanic here. No, it just doesn't fucking work that way. That's, that's regressive. Like, it's, that's not the design of the point of that. Same thing with the movie, the design of the point of it, is that you got people from different races, doing different voices of different people. And like I said, there's going to be more characters is going to be more things with it's going to be more voices, it's going to be other opportunities that are going to be there and available. So to kind of bug out about this first thing is like, no, it's a large expanding world, there's more characters and things that come along with it. That might be a possibility that they're going to ask, you know, other people of different races to do so. Like, what is it the spider verse movie coming out? There's an English person, there's isa Ray, there's Oscar Isaac, there's a bunch of people have different like, it's, it's common to put in the main characters.

Jeff: 12:06

You know, it's just half like half Latino.

Anthony: 12:08

Yeah, African Afro Latina. The characters Afro Latino for the person playing if not like, should meet more he just he just a black, right, but he's colored. But the character stuff, right, but But it feels like story Mark Rossi that he's, he's what Puerto Rican and black

Jeff: 12:23

because I think the thing that they're the Hollywood likes to do now, especially when we see it a lot in like Disney and Marvel and stuff like that is instead of creating new characters, they like to recast the old characters. And a lot of people don't like that shit. You know, you'd like you have the black Little Mermaid. Okay, that's fine. And then you, you know, you change at one point they had kingpin who's historically white, they made him a black actor. And you know, the list goes on and on with different characters that the that they, you know, they keep changing the race or whatever. Instead of creating a new character, you know, I'm saying, like, I understand, like, the diversity, we appreciate that, but instead of, you know, changing all the old characters that we the way we know them as, why don't they just create new characters? Why can't they create a new Latino superhero? or new black superhero? You know what I'm saying? Like? Why do they have to go back and always change to try to accommodate people and you're never gonna be able to please everybody. Somebody's always gonna be mad, like, oh, they changed. They changed that you don't I mean, but create new characters. I feel like Hollywood is like, running out of ideas of some shit. Like they have to keep rehashing old shit, or rebooting and redoing you know, instead of creating new shit, like you can't like you know, if you create a Latino Superman or if you make Superman black like, ah, like, I don't know, like, you know, how about just make a new character? You know, I'm saying like, black Adams was white black Adams was white in the comics.

Anthony: 13:52

Yeah, but you're thinking about movies, right? Why are the movies that have the most diversity the most fucked up ones? Give me an example. Simple. Movies about jail and movies about war, right? Like you'd never see like an all white platoon is like some black people, some Hispanics, some Irish, some English. It's always like when it's war time. We're all together. We're in jail. We're all together. Outside of that everyone has their own little fight. I've always found that weird. So do the black Mexicans or Hispanics are the ones getting killed? bloods the Crips? Why someone Weiser? Right. And it's always that it's always I always find it so interesting. The time when diverse like, oh, we need a black guy in this movie. Like, I don't want to go to war or I don't want to go to prison. Can't like, you know what? It's like It's like dislike Why aren't there more like Latin and black romantic comedies? Are those the Rams specifically for white people? And I'm pretty sure there's some exciting love stories that loved universal, right? We can find that target audience but most romantic comedies are one starring white people, the only romantic comedy

Jeff: 14:59

comedy that I can think of off the top of my head. The only one I can think of was the one that it's not a comedy. The only one I can think of is the one with Will Smith and Eva Mendes. Hitch. Yeah, I think that was a thing. You could categorize that as a romantic comedy. And it was a Latina and a black man. That's, that's, that's the only one I can think of. Otherwise, there's some Adam Sandler is Jennifer Aniston is Drew Barrymore they got that shit on the wraps. They got that genre to take care of you, Robert.

Anthony: 15:30

But That's the thing about diversity is like it's not creating, you can think you should create different characters, you should read different superheroes. But I think in particular pockets of the art of film itself, like specifically that one, there's a lot of room for characters of color to tell, like love stories, because they're, they're good, they're easy sales, they don't cost much, it's got to have good actors doing it. And think is a place for a lot of people that can actually do so like, would you? Like, would you see a romantic comedy with I don't know. Eastery and Michael B. Jordan, I watch that. Right? Because that's the tricky part. Like you got to do the romantic part. But you got to do the comedy parts, you got to have that, that kind of blend to it. But it's a missing thing. I think it's not necessarily the lack of diversity. It's the lack of imagination, that you have particular properties that you can probably maybe do with maybe an all black cast, and see if it works out. Like, I don't know how well pretty women would go over. If you have like, an all ethnic cast, but I think it would be good. I think you get a lot of people doing a lot of things like you find the right person, the right people be funny. I think it could be great, but you gotta like, you know, expand your range and ideas of possibility. Because once you do that, and see that people are capable, which have always been of doing those type of things. Then other doors open up of avenues where you want to do some type of recasting, where you might be a little bit annoyed by it, but like I understand, like, there's a rumor, well, not a rumor because he said to himself, like Giancarlo Esposito, he wants to play Professor X. I'm like, I get it. I think he has a gravitas to play it. I think he's a tremendous actor. But a lot of people are not gonna get past the fact that well, he's black. I'm like, Yeah, but new Charles Xavier could be anybody. When they see it in the car, you'll see Charles Xavier, a white man born to draw Xavier and fill in the rest itself. We just have that color. I think you'll be excellent at it. But it's creating opportunities and those avenues for people to not necessarily take advantage of it. But always prove what was always known. I'm very talented that this does disregard my color and I can do an amazing job. I think that's the point John was trying to get across, I'll be a little bit will be by bringing up old stuff, but you got to kind of focus on the future to things that we can do better. And that's part of it. There's there's a will there's a way but I want actors in these roles doing amazing things. And that's what I hope I mean, shit. I mean, you'd like the woman King and it was like that was all black women. Yeah,

Jeff: 18:06

that was good. I mean, Viola Davis, to me is the female version of Denso. So yeah, I got the air to.

Anthony: 18:12

I was at us the Jordan shit. I didn't see you. I want to I want to go through that. Oh, yeah. I'll tell you. So you sort of not No wonder please. Michael Jordan model. I'm like, Oh, she's pregnant kill that.

Jeff: 18:22

I wonder if Jordan makes an appearance. Some type of cameo in that but no,

Anthony: 18:27

no, no. Okay. No, I read an interview with Ben Affleck. He asked Michael for his blessing to, to, you know, just go forward the movie. Michael said, yeah. But some things have to happen. He said there has to be a part for how white who's one of his friends. And one of the lead people that got him to go to Nike. He said the Viola Davis has to play his mother. Like he didn't want to be in because like he's Oh, he's old enough. He said, I'm not giving up less and less. These two things happen. You got to have a role for somebody to play how white you got to make sure that that Viola Davis specifically plays My mom wants to get that done. They got Michael's blessing. And that was it. Damn.

Jeff: 19:08

And send them checks my way too for using my name my likeness. My sneaker.

Anthony: 19:15

Oh, no, Mike, this I don't think Mike wanted a dime out of this because this is just free advertising for Air Jordans. I don't want to access fact. I don't need $1 is gonna make a whole movie about how you created the most iconic sneaker of all time, and it's mine. That's the free advertising budget.

Jeff: 19:33

They might release a series of the sneakers movie versions and shit.

Anthony: 19:39

Yeah, they might they might bring back the original red and black Air Force One for like limited releases something like that. That wouldn't surprise me. Because opportunistic sounds like Michael me.

Jeff: 19:50

But you know, you know what we haven't done in a long time. It's about that time. What it's time for. Boom. Get a word of the week. That's right. Get a word of the week. I'm using this week's word is mad. M A D mad and the way we use it we don't use it to mean angry. No. The way we use it actually has two meanings. And according Urban Dictionary, it's mad, most predominantly used in the greater New York area. Mad is an appropriate replacement for Northern California's hella or Boston's wicked. In the common vernacular, it translates into a lot or extremely. It can be used almost interchangeably with any of the above listed words. For example, if it's hot outside, you can say it's mad hot today. Like it's extremely hot, it's very hot. It's mad hot. Or if it's short, he has a problem you can say or has a lot of problems. You can say she has mad problems. She has a lot of problems. Like if I'm hungry, I can say I'm mad hungry. As a result, I'm going to eat mad food. And there you go. I still use that word today. I

Anthony: 21:11

use it a lot. No wonder someone says mad mad.

Jeff: 21:15

Now because if you pissed off I say I'm mad pissed. I'm mad tight. You know, I mean, I know.

Anthony: 21:24

That's my stupid. It's mad. Like, like, I understand like, it's a word to show the extreme extreme of what you're about to say next. But even that, I'll always find it funny because it's never really that much. And it's always a simple word that follows it like this is mad good. This is mad hot. This is mad. dreamily good Yeah. Damn, this is mad, mad loud or whatever. Like for me I don't say it's mad code. I'm like it's brick. By brick cold brick person out there was so it's mad mad cold got you double down on. Like brick is a shorthand for Mad code. Like you want to simplify like, I understand how fucking code that is outside. And in the summertime, boy, I don't even think about it being mad hot. Like it was just hot. I'm thinking about it. I didn't quantify the shit like it's, it's like it's heat that's bothersome. Like I don't mind Sun Sun is okay. It's just that when it's hot, and then It's muggy. And you feel like you like it sweat and like, everything falling up close, but it's it's a mess. Like I hate sniping mad hot. I think the heat makes me mad. I don't think I'm mad hot, though. It's the difference. But the whole point of it is that the word definitely comes. It has its uses though. It's funny, but you don't really use it in a professional setting. You don't do mad anything at work. You're just mad that you at work. I mean, I guess

Jeff: 22:50

I'm mad angry. You can say like, I'm not angry.

Anthony: 22:56

It's that sounds mad angry. Like, see? But you got to do it in the right audience because if you tell someone else that they're gonna say something stupid. Are you mad? Are you angry? Which is only going to make you more mad and more angry? When you're around the right people? Like okay, I get it You mad angry? Understand? One of those things this weekend. But that's neither here nor there. But that's just family for you. Somebody was mad angry. But I tell you okay.

Jeff: 23:23

The Knicks are in the playoffs. Yay. And they're, they're gonna be underway. Less than a week. First round, because the Cleveland Cavaliers where are we watching it?

Anthony: 23:34

I don't know. I got I got 20 bucks. Knicks losing this round. Oh, really?

Jeff: 23:39

Some fan you are? I'm a realist. Something that could beat cash. Why would you only put down 20?

Anthony: 23:46

Because my dad didn't want to 50 or your dad

Jeff: 23:48

has the Knicks winning? Yeah, shout out to Mr. Austin, my man.

Anthony: 23:54

I said let's start off at the same time because 20 Other Alright, cool. 20

Jeff: 23:58

I don't know, man. We beat and we beat them like the last three times we played them in the season.

Anthony: 24:03

But that's the thing about see me being a fan doesn't mean I believe in anything blindly. But that's just me generally. So like my sports fandom is not blind faith. Like, they when they lose. I just, I want them to I want to enjoy the game. I don't think they're going to destroy it. I think they're going to be competitive all the way through. Right. I don't think that they're going to be able to beat them. I'm gonna say I'm not sitting next to them your watch? No, I think there's going to be at least go six. But can it beat Cleveland? Yeah. I just don't think it's more likely. I think it's likely that Cleveland be stumped. And then being Cleveland and getting out of this round. Nothing against the Knicks. I think they had a fantastic season I think. I think Julius should be at least third team all NBA Jalen Brunson had a great season. RJ was so so quick. We really showed up. Tom did a great job coaching again. But do I think that it belt in Cleveland? I just don't. I mean, we're going to see the game soon to figure all this shit out. But I don't think so. Would you rather I'm guessing Yeah. Well, Nixon, Nixon fix. I got

Jeff: 25:03

Nixon six. Okay. Would you rather have them lose just so you could win? You lose? $20? Or would you gladly give over the$20 to have them win?

Anthony: 25:12

I mean, win lose or draw. If I win money if I lose I immediately. I I just think that Cleveland's probably a better teammate,

Jeff: 25:22

but you sound like you're gonna be almost rooting against your own fucking team.

Anthony: 25:26

No, I'm still gonna cheer them on to win but I think it's just still likely that they're going to lose it. I'm a Giants fan. This gave us a win today. Like, I know you guys are going to lose. We play in the playoffs, I knew we're going to beat Minnesota. And I knew we wouldn't get destroyed by Philadelphia. I knew it because I'm like, Minnesota is not that good. They've had, they won like a bunch of one, one, like one score games. Like the record was like nine one. I mean, that's just some number thrown out there. But it was really high. They were really, really close lucky games. But like, we played them before, we're better than we beat them, then we could probably beat them now. And we did feel it was the best team in the East they should have all year, we had trouble them all season. Having them after like, Oh, we're probably going to get destroyed. It's like there's nothing gets fandom. And none that fake ass. Like, I believe with some help of that God don't work with luck. I just kind of look at what's there. Like, that's a better team, they're probably going to win. Cleveland's probably a better team. But that does mean that it's not going to be competitive. I'm not saying that they abandon him that they're gonna get blown out like it's gonna be a sweet. No. I'm saying that the Knicks are going to be competitive. It's going to be a lot of good games probably tight. But I think Cleveland just has a few things that are better than the next that's probably going to pull them over. So

Jeff: 26:40

before we go coach a crew, please visit the new YouTube page. Check out a couple of videos. We're going to start posting content on there regularly. And like Booker T, Washington said, you know, he was the first president of the Tuskegee University,

Anthony: 26:58

which meant Wow, now, my bad I didn't catch the Washington I think I say Booker T like the wrestling. Oh, wait, you

Jeff: 27:06

gotta book A T equals named after him. So it's Booker T. Washington. Yes. He said character is power. Three words.

Anthony: 27:15

Okay, and before we go, let me give you a quick rundown because this is America. I'd read the first paragraph a mass shooting at a bank in downtown Louisville, Kentucky on Monday morning. But five people dead inside the building. It's in six people to the local hospital. Police said the shooter is dead. Oh my good old America. Another mass shooting.

Jeff: 27:37

And where are you start Kentucky? Yeah, no,

Anthony: 27:39

it is part of my phone like breaking news.

Jeff: 27:41

Another another gun friendly state.

Anthony: 27:44

I got I got I got to remember what I said before about. I said before the shoot out we will have at least three more down to I'm not even trying to be morbid about this. I understand this country. This is just what we do. It's ridiculous. It keeps happening. This is some random as breaking news that happens on your phone that five people are dead, apparently at a bank in Louisville, Kentucky and then that, you know, the shooter is dead. Like so. I'm not trying to be funny about it or trying to make a joke about it. They're trying to bring light to a particular situation. This shit keeps happening. keeps happening randomly, violently. And only people that pay the price of just random clips and trying to go about the day. I wish we could do something only in America this is America we probably won't

Jeff: 28:24

only in America. The Culture, peace.

rap music playing: 28:30

(Mad Izm - Channel Live ft. KRS-One) Intro- KRS-One] Uhh! Yeahhh I know you're diggin' this type of shit right here We about to spark it on the mic, yeahhh Come on![Chorus] All we do is spark mad izm All we do is spark mad izm All we do is spark mad izm All we do is spark mad izm[Verse 1 - KRS] The episode starts when I walk down the block, kid Reach in my pocket, yo where's my knot, it Follows me into the spot, compellin' Go check the dread and yes he's herb sellin' A punani gate, I'm a potential felon Izm is smellin', like I ain't even tellin' Channel one two, I'm smashin' the law Channel three, I make a run to the store Channel four, leave the store with the Phillie 'cause I... Spark the izm, I'm off to Channel Live [Verse 2 - Hakim] Wake up in the mornin' got the yearnin' for herb Which loosens up the nouns, metaphors, and verbs And adjectives, ain't it magic kid what I'm kickin'? Multi-flavored bags of sess, for the pickin' So listen to the izm as it talks non-stop Hawaiian when I'm rhymin' but so is the chocolate Thai Now the high, starts to settle Kickin' fat lyrics that rocks, like heavy metal