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Original ‘Luigi’ actor slams new Super Mario Bros. movie for lack of diversity: ‘They messed up the inclusion’

April 8, 2023 | | Print Article

Hold on Hollywood. Brace yourselves, film buffs.

Actor John Leguizamo is boycotting “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” reboot because the new cast isn’t diverse enough for his liking.

Leguizamo played “Luigi” in the original 1993 live-action Super Mario Bros movie, starring alongside the late, great English actor, Bob Hoskins, who stepped into the role of “Mario.”

When asked if he’d be viewing the new animated movie, Leguizamo defiantly cried, “Hell no!”


(Video: TMZ)

“No, I will not be watching,” he told TMZ. “They could’ve included a Latin character. Like, I was groundbreaking and then they stopped the groundbreaking.”

“They messed up the inclusion,” he said. “They dis-included. Just cast some Latin folk! We’re 20 percent of the population. The largest people of color group and we are underrepresented.”

The thing is, “Luigi” is meant to be Italian.

John Leguizamo is not Italian.

Yet, somehow he was fine with cultural appropriation when he was cast to play the Italian-American plumber.

And another thing, the reboot is a cartoon.

He was fine with Bob Hoskins masking his accent and playing an Italian, but Chris Pratt and Charlie Day lending their voices are somehow a step backward from all that important ground Leguizamo tore up decades ago.


(Video: YouTube)

If one didn’t know better, the “To Wong Foo” star was hungry for some attention.

But the attention he’s getting is far from warm and fuzzy.

“John Leguizamo is an insufferable hypocrite!” stated one user on Twitter. “Whining about lack of forced ‘inclusion’ in Super Mario Bros movie. This is [the] same Latino who played an ITALIAN plumber Luigi, back in the awful 90s film.”

“I think he’s just butthurt that the new #SuperMarioBrosMovie is better than his!” the user added.

Conservative film critic and host of the “Hollywood in Toto” podcast, Christian Toto, called Leguizamo “a one-man inclusion warrior.”

And as such, Toto told Fox News Digital, he gets “plenty of press and zero criticism.”

Well, not exactly zero.

“It was groundbreaking to cast a Latino as an Italian?” one user on Twitter asked. “Just say you’re desperate for work and to be relevant again.”

“The original film, a dud by most measures, featured a British actor as Mario – Bob Hoskins – and the main characters are Italian, not Hispanic,” Toto said. “Now, he’s talking about an animated film where anyone from any background can play any of the characters. Yes, Hollywood has done a lousy job of being open to people from all backgrounds in the past, but the industry has taken great strides to address that issue.”

“This isn’t part of that otherwise noble fight,” he said. “Plus, the actor’s criticisms are being drowned out by the sound of box office registers clanging. The new film looks to be a blockbuster according to early results.”

The original film may have been considered a “dud” by “most measures,” but not Leguizamo’s measures.

In his self-obsessed mind, it was “iconic.”

Unlike the reboot, which he said back in October was too white.

“So glad #superMariobros is getting a reboot!” he tweeted. “Obviously it’s iconic enuff. But too bad they went all white! No Latinx in the leads! Groundbreaking color-blind casting in original! Plus I’m the only one who knows how to make this movie work script wise!”

https://twitter.com/JohnLeguizamo/status/1442576322316931074?s=20

Again, there seemed to be not a shred of irony in his statement about the notion of casting a “Latinx” lead to play an Italian part.

“Apologize to this movie right now!” he demanded of no one in particular.

“I’m O.G. A lot of people love the original,” Leguizamo told IndieWire when asked about the reboot. “I did Comic-Con in New York and in Baltimore, and everyone’s like, ‘No, no, we love the old one, the original.’ They’re not feeling the new one. I’m not bitter. It’s unfortunate.”

“The directors Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton fought really hard for me to be the lead because I was a Latin man, and they [the studio] didn’t want me to be the lead,” he said. “They fought really hard, and it was such a breakthrough. For them to go backwards and not cast another [actor of color] kind of sucks.”

 

Melissa Fine
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