EXCLUSIVE: Fidel Castro’s daughter, Alina Fernández, has emphasised to Deadline her endorsement of James Franco taking part in her Cuban chief revolutionary father within the upcoming unbiased characteristic, Alina of Cuba.
She can also be proud that “the venture is sort of solely Latino, each in entrance and behind the digicam.”
“James Franco has an apparent bodily resemblance with Fidel Castro, apart from his abilities and charisma,” mentioned Fernández in regards to the 127 Hours Oscar nominated actor of Latin-Portuguese heritage.
Fernández shall be performed in Alina of Cuba by Ana Villafañe.
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Deadline instructed you first that Franco would play Castro, Villafañe as Fernández and Mía Maestro as her mom Natalia “Naty” Revuelta, the Cuban-born socialite who El Comandante has a passionate love affair with. The film which is directed by Miguel Bardem and scripted by Oscar-nominated scribe Jose Rivera (The Bike Diaries) and Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz, follows the true story of Cuban exile-turned-social advocate Fernandez, whose start was the results of the tryst between Revuelta and Castro.
“I discover the collection of the forged wonderful,” Fernández tells Deadline.
“Ana Villafañe is awfully proficient, and never solely as an actress as a result of she can also be an amazing singer, a really full performer. I’m positive that Mía Maestro, an actress I like, will perceive and interpret Naty, my mom, in a singular method and I can’t wait to see her constructing her character,” she added.
Within the film, Revuelta sacrificed her and her doctor husband’s private belongings and funds to assist fund the beginning of the Communist revolution. Fernández realized that she was Fidel Castro’s daughter on the age of 10 when after years of secret visits to her residence, her mom lastly revealed that “El Comandante” was her organic father. Alina grew to develop into one in all Castro’s most outspoken critics, arrested on a couple of event for attempting to depart, and was categorised as a dissident forbidden to journey exterior of Cuba. In the end, she defected to Spain in 1993, an occasion that drew headlines from each main information community world wide, earlier than she made Miami her everlasting residence.
The supporting forged of Alina of Cuba additionally consists of Alanna de la Rosa, Maria Cecilia Botero (Encanto), Harding Junior, and Cuban-born actors Sian Chiong and Rafael Ernesto Hernandez.
“The remainder of the forged goes to be a beautiful shock for all audiences,” continued Fernández who’ll be a biographical and historic guide on Alina of Cuba.
“The filmmakers labored so much and I can’t be extra grateful to them for his or her total inclusive choice”.
“To me, crucial factor about this film is that the dialog about Cuba is alive,” Fernández asserted, “Personally, the expertise is thus far too surprising however greater than something, humbling.”
Her statements come within the wake of Primetime Emmy winner and The Menu actor John Leguizamo expressing his objection to Franco’s casting as Castro on social media yesterday: “How is Hollywood excluding us however stealing our narratives as nicely? No extra appropriatiofn Hollywood and streamers! Boycott! This F’d up! Plus critically troublesome story to inform with out aggrandizement which might b mistaken! I don’t received a prob with Franco however he ain’t Latino!”
Alina of Cuba producer John Martinez O’Felan fired again at Leguizamo earlier as we speak saying, “I wish to level out that his odd feedback, if you happen to base them on family tree, are a blind assault and lack any factual substance”.
Leguizamo posted a follow-up video as we speak the place he additional expounded on his preliminary protest and identified how Hollywood has typically casted non-Latino actors in Latino roles, whereas additionally capping the variety of Latino actors in a film, and appropriating their tales amongst many different wrongs.
Alina of Cuba is being shot solely on location in and round Cartagena and Bogota, with Colombia’s colonial Spanish structure and design standing in for Castro-era Havana, Cuba. Manufacturing begins on Aug. 15.
