STREAM EXCLUSIVE ORIGINALS

Actress Gina Torres Explains Why She Felt Trapped Being A Latina Woman In African American Roles

The actress says she used a “jedi mind trick” to overcome the challenge as a person of color in Hollywood.

Afro-Latina actress Gina Torres is opening up about her struggles in Hollywood and how she often felt pigeonholed when it came to the kind of roles she was offered.

The Bronx-native, who is the daughter of Cuban parents, says that as an actress she felt like she had “no place” in the Hollywood world, in a conversation with Suggest.

“There was no place for me as a Latina, and then as a Black woman—I didn’t identify as a Black woman, because for me it was cultural. Because, of course, I present Black, I am a Black woman. I am also Cuban,” she shared. “When you’re here in the United States and they ask you to be in a box, and you don’t fit into the box…culturally, it was different. It was not one that I identified with. But to work, to survive, it was something that I had to learn.”

RELATED: Gina Torres Talks Professional Pursuits

A graduate from the LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts made her first on-screen debut in 1992 in  an episode of Unnatural Pursuits. She has also had roles in 9-1-1: Lone Star, Law & Order, Suits, Bones, Riverdale and more.

For Torres, she practiced what she explains as a "jedi mind trick" to fit into the industry when it came to accepting roles as a Latina woman.

“To then learn to be whatever ‘Black’ was, and then feel like I was alienating that other part of myself, that Latina self,” she shares. “To keep myself from just being sad all the time about not being able to fully experience and express the entirety of myself.”

The 53-year-old will next co-star in the Netflix film romantic comedy feature The Perfect Find alongside Gabrielle Union and Keith Powers.

Latest News

Subscribe for BET Updates

Provide your email address to receive our newsletter.


By clicking Subscribe, you confirm that you have read and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge our Privacy Policy. You also agree to receive marketing communications, updates, special offers (including partner offers) and other information from BET and the Paramount family of companies. You understand that you can unsubscribe at any time.