Discussions about the lack of Latine representation in TV and film often overlook horror – a genre that has seen a surge in popularity among Latine audiences. In fact, Latines make up 26 percent of horror moviegoers, compared to just 20 percent for other genres, according to a recent survey. In recent years, stars like Melissa Barrera have made waves with roles in films like “Scream,” “Bed Rest,” and “Abigail,” while Ariana DeBose recently led Prime’s “House of Spoils.” Another Afro-Latino star who is taking Hollywood by storm and diving headfirst into the horror genre is award-winning actor, producer, and director Elvis Nolasco, who shines in Hulu’s “Mr. Crocket.”
The Dominican American actor best known for his role as Nat Pettigrew in the crime drama “Godfather of Harlem” stars as the lead antagonist and villain in “Mr. Crocket,” a psychological horror about a Mr. Rogers-meets-Freddy Krueger-like television host of a ’90s sing-along children’s show. He kills parents he perceives to be bad, and abducts their kids and transports them to the set of his show. It’s all in an effort to lick his own childhood trauma wounds. The film, which was directed by Brandon Espy, brilliantly centers on failures that come with parenthood, from neglect to abuse, and the impact they can have on an impressionable child.
Nolasco, who also starred in Hulu’s likewise creepy “Carved” this fall, is one of the rare Afro-Latino actors who’s played a horror film villain. He acknowledges the significance of this, and also the importance of actors of color being recognized for their work and artistry rather than always being cast in roles that specifically highlight their identity.
“They were trying to put me in a box just based on my last name or based on my New York or Latino accent, and we don’t do that to the greats like Al Pacino or Robert De Niro.”
“One of my heroes, may he rest in peace, is an actor and activist by the name of Sidney Poitier,” says Nolasco. “Whether it was ‘A Raisin in the Sun,’ ‘Let’s Do It Again,’ ‘Uptown Saturday Night,’ or ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,’ which was a classic movie, I naturally gravitated to Sidney Poitier because Sidney Poitier was a West Indian man from the Bahamas.” Nolasco continues, “His whole history and his whole journey and how he came about in the acting world was, no one cared or bothered to ask why he had an accent or where he was really from. We all [just] focused on how amazing this actor was . . . and so, as an artist, I really embraced that because, in my journey as an actor, they were trying to put me in this box because of my last name or my accent.”
Nolasco is a dark-skinned Black man who was born and raised in NYC by Dominican immigrant parents who arrived in the United States in the 1970s. He’s felt like Hollywood has constantly tried to put him in one box or another; it’s one of the reasons you don’t often hear him talk much about identity. His goal was to model his career after someone like Poitier, who was strictly recognized for his talent.
“They were trying to put me in a box just based on my last name or based on my New York or Latino accent, and we don’t do that to the greats like Al Pacino or Robert De Niro,” he says.
For far too long, Latine actors have been confined to stereotypical roles – the drug dealer, the criminal, the sexy Latina with an exaggerated accent, or the maid. However, Nolasco has followed in the footsteps of Latine pioneers who broke from stereotypes during a time when doing so was even more challenging.
“We had [actor] Rafael Campos, who was Dominican, and nobody knows that. He was in one of my favorite movies, called ‘Blackboard Jungle,’ opposite Sidney Poitier, and he worked in so many different films and in so many different television shows,” Nolasco says. “We don’t have to deny who we are, but we want to be able to be seen. . . . You want to be able to be looked at and not only be looked at but be given the opportunities to be who you are and not have to change your last name.”
Nolasco is referring to a time when many actors in Hollywood had to change their last names, especially back in the ’40s and ’50s, to assimilate and be embraced by a wider audience. Another actor he looked up to early in his acting career was Antonio Fargas, a dark-skinned Black man who was known for his roles in films like 1988’s “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka,” the TV show “Starsky & Hutch,” and the 1976 musical “Car Wash,” and who Nolasco had no ideas was a Puerto Rican from El Barrio.
From the start of his career, Afro-Latino representation in film has been a priority for Nolasco. In “I Like It Like That” (1994), he wanted audiences to see through his character, Tito, that there’s a place for dark-skinned Afro-Latinos in mainstream cinema. And while his role as Mr. Crocket wasn’t explicitly written as Afro-Latino, having an Afro-Latino actor play a villain in a horror film offers the kind of representation the community deserves but rarely, if ever, gets to see.
“I am grateful for the African American roles that have come my way, but I also have a responsibility,” he says. “That’s why in ‘I Like It Like That,’ I made sure that even though all my lines were English, there was one specific line I was going to say in Spanish, like a Dominican or like a Puerto Rican.”
In “Godfather of Harlem,” Nolasco requested that his character, Nat Pettigrew, despite not having a Spanish last name, show signs that he was Caribbean by having him say a few Spanish words here and there and adding in a scene where he’s seen dancing the cha-cha-cha with a Latina woman. He emphasizes the importance of using his platform to open doors for the Afro-Latino community.
“It’s important because we don’t see enough of our stories that are leading or main topic. We all know who Roberto Clemente was. We all know who Celia Cruz was. But for some reason or another, we’re still not seeing these storylines,” he says. “I just believe that it’s a very underrepresented community, and times are changing, so the time is now.”
Johanna Ferreira is the content director for PS Juntos. With more than 10 years of experience, Johanna focuses on how intersectional identities are a central part of Latine culture. Previously, she spent close to three years as the deputy editor at HipLatina, and she has freelanced for numerous outlets including Refinery29, Oprah magazine, Allure, InStyle, and Well+Good. She has also moderated and spoken on numerous panels on Latine identity.
