Diego Luna’s accent in Rogue One, where pride meets cynicism
By Victor Landa, NewsTaco
This was the headline that caught my attention today:
‘Star Wars’ actor Diego Luna did not hide his Mexican accent — and Latinos heard it loud
It’s from a story in the Washington Post that gushes over the fact that Mexican actor Diego Luna played his character in the latest Star Wars saga film with a Mexican accent.
[pullquote]He played the part with a Mexican accent because that’s how he speaks English.[/pullquote]That’s great! Really.
I identified with that part of the story because it’s what the Latino daily and NewsTaco are about – authentic and unapologetic. The Post story is about Luna’s character in the Rogue One film, an intelligence officer with the Alliance named Captain Cassian Andor:
“It wasn’t just that a Mexican was on screen, or even that an actor was speaking in a Mexican accent. It was the unexpectedness of the role. There was no particular reason Cassian was Mexican, or why he shouldn’t be. He just was.”
Yet, it’s not like Luna made a great effort to use his natural accent.
He played the part with a Mexican accent because that’s how he speaks English. So the story isn’t really about Luna’s accent. That’s just how the Post saw it and framed it. The real story is couched in the quote above – the accent just was. Just as U.S. Latinos just are, part of the fabric of U.S. life and culture.
So on one level I feel pride that an actor with a Mexican accent played a part in a major U.S. motion picture with no need to explain his accent in the plotline – it just is.
On another level, the attention the role and the accent purposely lacked in the film has been added in the media reports about the lack of an accent. And a frame is forced on it that way.
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It happens often when journalists personalize stories and end up turning their example into a protagonist. In this case the story is about Perla Nation and her father Pablo Perez who watch the movie and are moved by the blatant accent. They identify with it and find their place in the film, and by showing us that moment of identification the story becomes another in the long list of the immigrant experience saga – not about the inclusion breakthrough in Hollywood.
That’s when my cynicism broke through as well.
The next step is to show mainstream media how their point of view is still regressive, and misses the point.
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[Photo by Festival Internacional de Cine en Guadalajara Guadalajara Film Festival/Flickr]
