5/29/2006



Latinos in entertainment

Success continues to arrive in fits and starts.

By Kimberly Nordyke


Veteran TV director Jesus Salvador Trevino remembers a time as recently as the 1980s, when casting directors had to be not so gently nudged to consider Latino performers -- or any other actors of color -- for series roles. Trevino, who has directed episodes of TV series ranging from "NYPD Blue" and "Dawson's Creek" to Fox's current hit "Prison Break," often made a point of specifically asking casting directors to audition minorities.

"When I first started, there were many instances where I would have to say to a casting director, 'For the role of Judge Smith, I'd like to see diverse casting options, so that we may wind up with Judge Gonzalez or Judge Lee or Judge Wong. I want to see actors coming in who are not all white,'" says Trevino, an alternate member of the Directors Guild of America's national board of directors and a former co-chair of the DGA Latino Committee.

Casting directors generally would accommodate his request. These days, the good news is that they no longer need much nudging: Casting on merit rather than skin tone has more or less become a matter of course.

"Most places now are very good about colorblind casting, so I'll see a range of people auditioning," Trevino says. "Especially in guest roles, there's actual thoughtful thinking-out of (casting minorities) ... so you wind up creating a universe that is somewhat reflective of the way the world is. Not every episode lends itself to having a thoroughly balanced, integrated cast of characters, but over a 22-episode season, there's certainly no excuse why you can't show a range of diversity."

Trevino might sound optimistic, and he has good reason to be. Shows such as ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" and "Lost," as well as CBS' "CSI: Miami" and NBC's "Crossing Jordan," feature diverse casts; the alphabet's "Freddie" and "George Lopez" even spotlight Hispanic actors in the lead roles.

But Trevino -- and several other Latinos working in entertainment today, along with a number of recent studies -- insists that no matter how far the industry has come, there is still much progress to be made in terms of increasing the number of Latinos both in front of and behind the camera.

In December, the Multi-Ethnic Media Coalition issued its annual network diversity report cards on the Big Four networks, grading the progress made by ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox. The study, which most recently examined primetime during the 2004-05 season, looked at the number of minorities who work in front of and behind the camera and as network executives, among other factors.

The National Latino Media Council, one of the groups in the coalition, said it was "encouraged but not satisfied" with the progress of the four networks. The group doesn't disclose its data, but NLMC chair Esteban Torres said that "the overall grades for all four networks are encouraging, but performance still lags behind in proportion to our population. In other words, we still have a long way to go."

The DGA, which studied the hiring of directors among the top 40 primetime shows during the 2004-05 season, was even less encouraged by its findings, saying that Caucasian males directed more than 80% of the episodes studied. While the DGA didn't break down specific minority groups, it said that minority males and females combined directed only 7% of the episodes in the study.

"Statistics for minority directors have remained bleak and virtually unchanged over the past five years," the study said.

Meanwhile, the Writers Guild of America recently found that minority writers earn less than both white males and women. In 2004, the $29,500 gap between minority and white male writers was the largest in the previous 14 years studied.

And the Screen Actors Guild weighed in on the issue in October, saying that Hispanic actors' overall share in film and TV roles increased by only 0.1% in 2004 from the previous year, resulting in a total of 5.5% of roles. In fact, they "lost" a total of 242 roles in episodic television as compared to the previous year, though they gained 95 theatrical roles.

But it's a Catch-22 in terms of Latinos actually breaking into the industry, says director Jay Torres, who serves as co-chair of the DGA's Latino Committee. In an industry that relies heavily on executives and showrunners hiring people they've already worked with, how are Latinos supposed to break in if they haven't had the opportunity to accrue experience and contacts?

"I don't think anybody necessarily freezes (Latinos) out; it's more of the fact that (those in a position to hire others) just don't know people of other ethnicities," Torres says. "They may not come in contact with other Latino writers or directors. ... You can't give a director a show who doesn't already have a show; it's hard to do that with strangers, and I understand that. But if somebody really wants to make a change and they are in a position to do that, they should."

Torres says the biggest challenge he faced was just getting an opportunity, and he credits his big break to ABC and Touchstone Television, which hired him to direct an episode of "Alias" after he went through one of the ABC Entertainment Television Group/Walt Disney Studios' talent development programs, which are designed to find and develop talent across all ethnicities in the fields of writing, acting, directing, TV studio production and management.

ABC is the "only place that is really making a concerted effort to make real change, and that is because you have several people really dedicated to the cause," Torres says, citing ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson and vp talent development Carmen Smith.

"Steve is a person who has the authority and power and really wants to see real change," Torres says. "He's taken a leap of faith believing that having people of color is good for the business, and it's proven him well because the success of (hit shows such as 'Lost' and 'Grey's Anatomy' that feature diverse casts) can be directly attributed to being something different. ... We have to have people like him who are executives who really want to make a difference, or change isn't going to happen as quickly."

McPherson echoes the sentiment that having Latinos and other minorities onscreen and behind the camera is "good business."

"We live in a multiple society now," he says. "The Hispanic marketplace is exploding across the board. We look at ABC as a 'broadcast' network, and we want to reach the broadest audience possible. If you're in the business of trying to find voices to create and executive produce shows that are about a multicultural society, you have to have that (diverse) mix in front of and behind the camera."

Among the programs ABC is involved with is the annual Latino Television Writers Program, a project of the NLMC that's administered by the National Hispanic Media Coalition in Albuquerque, which she says is designed to serve as "an intensive program" to help Latino writers and "give them those skills so that they are competitive in that environment." The program is sponsored by ABC, NBC and Southwest Airlines.

"We look for Latino organizations that are about developing talent, and we actually have relationships all over the country," Smith says. "It's important for us to work with the Latino community. ... The partnership with NHMC makes us more sensitive and also makes us more aware of all the talent that's out there."

Smith cites such recent success stories as Latina writer Maria Escobedo, a 2005 ABC Entertainment/Walt Disney Studios writing fellow who was placed as a staffer on "Grey's Anatomy" and was doing such solid work that her name was listed with the rest of the writing team in trade advertisements for the Golden Globes, Smith says.

Recently, a trend has emerged where ABC and several other networks are beginning to embrace the popular Latin American telenovela format. ABC, CBS, NBC and My Network TV are among the networks that have recently announced projects based on the format -- all in various stages of development or production.

While the format hails from Latin America, it remains to be seen whether the projects will translate into an increased number of jobs for Latinos. But so far, there are some encouraging signs.

In February, Nely Galan's Galan Entertainment signed a two-year, first-look development deal with NBC Universal Television Group for the production of telenovelas and other Spanish-language formats in English across NBC Universal's networks.

In developing the projects, Galan Entertainment is drawing on the existing assets and expertise of NBC Universal-owned Telemundo, an expert in producing telenovelas for the Spanish market.

Galan is actually taking this opportunity to ensure that the projects that come out of her deal translate into more jobs for fellow Hispanics, drawing on her contacts as a producer of both English and Spanish programming, as well as her experience as former president of entertainment at Telemundo.

"On the casting side, you'll see a lot of crossover; it's not all Latinos because it's a multiethnic cast," she says. "But I'm definitely making a concerted effort (to hire more Latinos behind the scenes) because it's a genre that we particularly know how to do. We're experts at it."

Patricio Wills, president of the Telemundo-RTI joint venture (with Radio Television Interamericana) and head of production at Telemundo Studios, agrees.

"Those who know about the format will be the ones helping Nely maintain the quality of the product for the English-language version," he says. "People who work in telenovelas nowadays are already familiar with and know the format."

My Network TV, Fox's new primetime network, is actually launching with a schedule comprised solely of shows that have been remade from popular telenovelas. The network kicks off at 8 p.m. Sept. 5 with "Desire," followed by "Secret Obsessions" at 9 p.m.

It's understood that Twentieth Television, which is the distributor behind the two franchises, also has made a concerted effort to hire among its cast actors who have previously appeared in telenovelas, as well as crew members who have telenovela experience.

ABC hasn't committed to a specific telenovela project yet, McPherson says, but the network has ordered a pilot adapted from the Colombian telenovela "Yo Soy Betty, La Fea," though that project will air once a week instead of the multiple-nights-per-week schedule associated with the format. The pilot, "Ugly Betty," does star a Latina, America Ferrera, and Salma Hayek is on board as an executive producer.

McPherson isn't sure if the telenovela format now being made for English-speaking audiences will translate into significantly more jobs for Latinos. But he is hoping for a day when Latinos will have more jobs in all series, no matter the format.

"This is just a format; it could be produced without any Hispanics," he says. "But I want to have Hispanics in front of and behind the cameras across the whole schedule. ... I'm proud of the initiatives we've undertaken and the results we've gotten, but we've got a lot more work to do."

Galan says much progress has been made, with more Latinos onscreen and behind the scenes than ever before. But she agrees that there's "always work to be done" toward improving the state of the industry and that challenges Latinos face will only make them stronger in the end.

"I think we as minorities always have to prove ourselves more, but that's what makes us really good," she says. "I have to be good in two languages and two markets, and that makes me universally good. ... We can decide to be victims and let it get in our way or let it be the fire that fuels you. I let it be the fire that fuels me."