Lupe Ontiveros has been acting for decades, having appeared in such television programs as "Charlie's Angels" and "Who's the Boss?" However, in that career, she's played a maid 150 times.
She realizes that she gets a lot of parts because of her "indigenous" look, but she's also against getting parts that just reinforce Latina stereotypes.
She is pleased with one maid role: Rosalita in "The Goonies." The film has a cult following, and 30-year-olds still love that movie and the character.
It upsets her when she goes to auditions and directors want a thick "waddly" accent.
She broke out of the maid role in the 1983 film "El Norte," which she hails as "'The Godfather' of immigration films."
In it, she plays an illegal immigrant working in a sewing factory who takes the leading lady under her wing.
She has a dramatic scene in that film where she pleads with the woman's brother after the woman gets sick.
She was also able to get a non-maid role when she appeared in Mike White's "Chuck & Buck." She auditioned for a role originally written for a white woman.
Years later, when White was casting the show "Pasadena," he debated whether to see Ontiveros for a maid role in that.
He was afraid she wouldn't want to be offered a maid role, but she wanted to work with White again. And of course, she wanted to work.
She points out that the younger generation of Latina actresses have different choices and more opportunities than she did.
She longs to play judges or lesbians or councilmembers. She will get to play a wealthy grandmother in an upcoming episode of "Reaper."
Gina Wilhelm Actress
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