Eduardo Verástegui has spent the last few years working on changing the negative stereotype of Latinos in the media. After 12 years of working in the entertainment industry both as a musician and an actor, Verástegui decided to dramatically change the path of his career and only take on projects with positive messages. Bella is the first feature film from Verástegui’s production company. The movie follows an international soccer star (Verástegui) whose career comes to a sudden and unexpected end, and how one fateful event changes his life forever.
This is such a passion project for you. Can you talk about why you chose this film as the first film to be produced by your production company?
“You know, when you work as an actor only even though you like the film, after a couple months of promotion you jump to the next one. But this one is more than a film for me. This is my first film that I produced and I acted in it at the same time. It’s a film that is more than a film, it’s a mission. Just making films with a positive message, elevating the dignity of Latinos. It seems before this, Latinos, we have been stereotyped in a very negative way in the media. Always a bandido, the criminal, the prostitute, the gang member and the drunkard, and if you’re good-looking, then you’re the Don Juan Latin lover. In other words, the womanizer, liar. Very few times you see Latinos having the opportunity of being heroes. I’m not talking about heroes like Superman or Spider-Man, I’m talking about the real hero – the everyday hero. The man who comes to this country with a spirit of gratitude, to work, to serve. A man that is honest, a man of integrity, a man of value. A man that is willing to sacrifice everything to help his wife, his children, his friends, his family. You know, a real man.
I think women as well, Latina women – well, right now it’s just women in general – you see them being stereotyped in the media as well. Not all the time but sometimes, they’ve been reduced to objects and just sex symbols and objects. And when I see my family, I see my three younger sisters and my mother, my grandmother, my aunts, my cousins, they are not objects. They are the heart of the family; they are full of wisdom. They are beautiful, smart. That’s when I had this conviction of making films.
First, I made a commitment and a promise that I would never use my talent again to do anything that would compromise my values or offend my Latino community. But deeper than the Latino community, it’s just men in general, women in general. I don’t care where you are, at the end of the day we are all equal in dignity and I think we share the same values, universal values. That’s what I want to bring to the stories that I want to produce. Films that I can bring my family together to see. I can bring my mother and I don’t have to cover her eyes in any scenes.”
Do you see that the stereotype is changing? Have you noticed a difference in the quality of scripts that are out there? Are more Latino actors standing up and doing what you’re doing?
“You know, not really. I think it’s two things. First of all, we have more opportunities, yes. Is more talent out there? Yes. More directors and more actors working, more than before? Yes. But I’m not talking about only the opportunities or the artistic talent value that we can have. I’m talking about the message as well. You can see great films out there with amazing directors with great scripts and everything, but the message instead of really elevating the dignity of Latinos or showing the best of Latinos, I think it’s the same negative stereotype. Now it’s even more dangerous because now you have an amazing film stereotyping Latinos in a negative way.
It’s very sad because you have very close to 60 – we’re almost 60 million Latinos in this country and it’s sad that sometimes they are afraid of us because they think we are what they see in films, you know? All the bandidos and all this. I can talk for myself because for 12 years that was exactly what I was doing. I was set in my career, singing in a boy band and then doing soap operas in Mexico. Well, first of all, singing in this boy band for three and a half years, traveling all over Latin America, and then doing soap operas in Mexico. You know, in Mexico if you want to make it as an actor, you don’t have as many options like you do here. Over here you either do soap operas or soap operas (laughing). You’re stuck on that, so that’s what I did for almost four years.
Then I moved to Miami, the capital of Latin America, to record my first solo album in Spanish. When they were flying me to Los Angeles to promote that album, all of a sudden I was sitting with my manager and behind him was this person who happens to be the VP of casting for 20th Century Fox. Make a long story short, he invited me to do an audition for this film he was working on Chasing Papi. I told him I don’t speak English. I mean, I knew how to count and, ‘I’m thirsty, I’m hungry,’ and things like that. ‘My car is red,’ and that’s it (laughing). But he said, ‘Why don’t you just memorize it and give it a try.’
That film was about a man who’s dating three women at the same time. He lied to them and at that time I thought, ‘Well, I’m going to do this for the opportunity and everything.’ But, again, it was a stereotype that was glorifying that the real Latino man is one that is a womanizer. So I did that film and after making that film, that’s when I realized, ‘Okay, what’s going on here? What am I doing with my talent? Am I really helping or am I just worsening the stereotype and hurting not just my own community but people in general? You’re making films or projects that are glorifying that the real man is a womanizer who’s just using women as objects, and he’s treating himself as an object as well.’ That’s nothing about being a real man in that. I think it’s the opposite."
