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John Leguizamo hits out at new Mario movie’s ‘all-white’ lead cast

Published 12:04 15 Oct 2022 BST

Charlie Herbert
John Leguizamo hits out at new Mario movie’s ‘all-white’ lead cast

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'Too bad they went all white!'

Actor John Leguizamo has taken aim at the upcoming Super Mario Bros film, criticising the cast of the animated adaptation for being 'too white'.
Leguizamo played Luigi in the infamous 1993 live action Super Mario Bros film - which holds a rating of 28 percent on Rotten Tomatoes - alongside Bob Hoskins.
And last month, the 62-year-old actor and comedian penned his thoughts on the upcoming film following the release of the latest trailer, which gave fans their first clip of Chris Pratt in the role of Mario. Although Leguizamo said he was excited for the movie, he revealed he was disappointed by the lack of diversity in the casting.
He also expressed regret that nobody from the studio had reached out to him during its production.
"So glad #SuperMarioBros is getting a reboot! Obviously, it's iconic enuff [sic]. But too bad they went all white! No Latinx in the leads! Groundbreaking color-blind casting in original!" he tweeted.
"Plus I'm the only one who knows how to make this movie work script-wise!" he added, before posting three screenshots of himself and Hoskins from the 1993 film.
He then told viewers in the captions to: “Apologize to this movie right now!" https://twitter.com/JohnLeguizamo/status/1442576322316931074?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw In particular, many have been critical of the decision to cast Pratt as the voice of Mario.
Chris Meledandri, CEO of animation studio Illumination, explained to Variety why they chose to cast Pratt in the role. Several have claimed that the choice of actor for the French version of the movie is a much better fit for the character of Mario. He said: “We felt he could give a great performance as Mario. And now that we’ve done about 15 recording sessions, and the movie is three-quarters done, I sit here and say that I love his performance as Mario." https://twitter.com/supermariomovie/status/1578116647893827594
The film also stars  Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad and Charlie Day as Luigi.
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