Sara Paxton
Sara Paxton probably looks familiar to you. She’s a beautiful young blonde, turning 25 in April, who’s done fam-fantasies like Aquamarine, horror films (Last House on the Left, and the much classier The Innkeepers, the crazy-violent Shark Night 3D), guest star spots on TV series and a Lifetime TV movie (Blue-Eyed Butcher). She’s actually part of a musical, Lovestruck, premiering on ABC Family in April (the soundtrack has already been released). And she’s a major part of two high-profile films at SXSW this year, the edgy rom-com The Bounceback and an off-kilter thriller called Cheap Thrills, where she plays a crazy, tattoo’d bad girl.
Sara is also Latina. Born in Southern California, her mother is Mexican and she speaks fluent Spanish–has since birth. And try as she might, she can’t get cast as a Latino character–ever.
One of her early roles in Greetings from Tucson
Sara’s part of a small but frustrated group of actors who simply don’t fit the racial stereotype of “Latino” in all its diversity. She’s done nothing to hide her ethnicity; in fact, she celebrates it. But being blonde, blue-eyed, and unaccented just doesn’t fit the frame.
She isn’t alone. Alexis Bledel (Gilmore Girls), JoAnna Garcia Swisher (Reba, Animal Hospital), Julie Gonzalo (Dallas), Bella Thorne, and Sarah Ramos (Parenthood), share a similar problem. Ironically, it’s a dilemma they share with some actress on the other end of the ethnic spectrum–women of color like Zoë Saldaña, Tatyana Ali, and Megan Good who have an equally difficult time finding Latina roles because they simply look “too black.”
Latina Magazine talked with her last year about the dilemma. They asked her why she’s never played a Latina, Paxton said “I’ve tried! Are you kidding me? I’ve gone on auditions and I’ve been like, ‘You know my family’s [Latin]…I’ve spoken a little bit of Spanish, and they’re just like, ‘Ha ha ha–that’s good!’ It’s a battle she’s not ready to quit, but she admits: “They’re not going to hire the ‘white girl’ to play Latina.”
In Bounceback
A few actors like Sara have managed somehow to bridge the gap. Clifton Collins, Jr. somehow manages to play almost as many Latino characters (as he is currently in ABC’s Red Widow) as he does good-ol’-boy Anglo characters. Zoë Saldaña has somehow managed, since early in her career, to play Latinas in a few key roles, exemplified by her leading role in Colombiana, though she still finds herself playing–somewhat ironically–the ultimate black icon, Uhuru, in the new Star Trek relaunch. Laz Alonso has had some success making his characters Cuban rather than ‘simply’ urban African Americans. But they are clearly the exceptions, not the rule.
Meanwhile, a clear up-and-comer like Paxton remains a victim of casting preconceptions. She, and other actors like her, don’t share some of the common problems that Latina actresses often have, but she has a set all her own. In a way, she’s just as restricted in her choice of roles as her Latina sisters; just in a different and equally frustrating way.
You can follow Sara Paxton on Twitter here, and two of her recent films—the interesting scary movie The Innkeepers, and the infamous horror flick Shark Night, are both available for streaming on Netflix. Cheap Thrills will be released by SXSW later this year; The Bounceback is looking for distribution.
