John Leguizamo Celebrates Diverse Emmy Nominees, Urges: “We Need More Stories From Excluded Groups”

Lexy Perez
·3 min read
4

John Leguizamo is “almost happy and certainly less angry” with the nominees for the 2024 Emmys.

When taking the stage during Sunday night’s show, the Emmy-winning actor was quick to point out, “I’m one of Hollywood’s DEI hires. That’s right, DEI. The ‘D’ is for diligence, the ‘E’ is for excellence, the ‘I’ is for imagination. And everyone in this room tonight has dedicated their lives to diligence, excellence and imagination, so we are all DEI hires. What a beautiful diverse group this is tonight.”

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He went on to reflect on when he was growing up in Queens, New York, he “didn’t know that people like me could be actors.”

“At 15, I didn’t know the word representation… but I saw a lot of brown face” he said, pointing out varied actors for their portrayal of Latin characters despite not being of Latin descent, including Marlon Brando for playing Mexican, Al Pacino for playing a Cuban gangster and Natalie Wood for playing a “Puerto Rican beauty” named Maria in West Side Story.

“Everybody played us, except us. I didn’t see a lot of people on TV that looked like me,” Leguizamo said.

“Of course there was always Ricky Ricardo,” he added, also mentioning the Looney Tunes cartoon mouse Speedy Gonzales and his “lethargic, useless sidekick” Slowpoke Rodriguez.

“And that’s how we saw ourselves, because that’s all we saw of ourselves,” he said.

“For years I didn’t complain about the limited roles my people were offered… Turns out not complaining doesn’t change anything. So for the past few years, I’ve been complaining.”

He then talked about the open letter to the Television Academy he published in the New York Times in which he urged his peers to nominate artists of color across all categories ahead of the Emmy voting.

He shouted out this year’s ceremony for including the “most diverse list of nominees” which also include his “incredibly talented Latinx brothers and sisters.” He applauded nominees Selena Gomez, Sofía Vergara, Issa Lopez, Kali Reis and Nava Mau for their notable nominations and Liza Colón-Zayas for her historical Emmy win earlier in the night. Colón-Zayas became the first Latina actress to win in the supporting comedy actress category.

“That’s five Latinx nominees being honored tonight,” he said, before quipping that Mark Cuban would be the sixth since his last name was Cuban. “We need more stories from excluded groups: Black, Jewish, Arab, LGBTQ+ and disabled. And this show tonight is proof that our industry is making progress.”

Heading into the ceremonies, Shogun led the nominations and also topped the Creative Arts ceremonies last week with 14 wins. Other top nominees include The Bear, Only Murders in the Building, True Detective: Night Country and The Crown.

Shogun, which took nearly 10 years to bring to fruition, marked a major moment for Asian representation and non-English-language television. Following Netflix’s 2022 Korean hit Squid Game, Shogun is just the second majority non-English-language series to be nominated in the outstanding drama series category. All of the series’ honored Japanese castmembers are first-time nominees on an individual basis, and most are also the very first Japanese nominees in their respective categories in Emmys history.

After winning for best drama series actress, Shogun star Anna Sawai became the first actress of Asian descent to win in the category. Meanwhile, Hiro Sanada, who won the Emmy for drama actor for his Shogun role, became the second actor of Asian descent (after Squid Game’s Lee Jung-jae) and the first Japanese performer to win the best drama actor Emmy.

The Emmys aired live from L.A.’s Peacock Theater on ABC. Eugene and Dan Levy hosted. See the red carpet arrivals.

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