Why is actor Henry Zaga hell bent on ruining his career? Or at least that’s what I asked myself when I learned the young actor is once again facing backlash for his second portrayal of a character from a marginalized community. Fresh off the press tour for having to defend his portrayal of the Afro-Latino Marvel character for the film New Mutants, Zaga is now defending himself and his portrayal of the deaf and mute character in the series The Stand.
Since the casting was first announced in 2019 members of the deaf community have called for a boycott and also started a petition asking for the actors removal and for calling for authentic representation. In regards to the backlash, Zaga wants people to give him a chance at the role because he studied really hard for it. "To me as an actor, I had a lot of work to do and as a human being to open my heart to a culture, to a language and portray as truthfully and respectfully as possible... I think the biggest thing we can do to portray a character like Nick is do our homework and respect, open your heart, open your mind to everything you can learn from people that have lived through those obstacles.”
It should be noted that the series, like New Mutants, is also directed by Josh Boone who is no stranger to controversy, having recently acknowledged how little source material dictates his casting decisions. In defense to the whitewashing controversy that followed Zega’s casting for the New Mutants film Boone said, “My goal was to find the best actor who...was at the least the closest to kind of what I saw in my head for the character. I didn’t care so much about the racism I’ve heard in Brazil, about light-skinned versus dark-skinned.” Sounds like a match made in heaven.
The Stand is now airing on CBS and so far the reviews aren’t nice. Will you be tuning in?
