Date: 6th December 2000

Hollywood Habla Espanol


In an effort to achieve authenticity in films featuring Hispanic characters or set in Latin American locales, Hollywood filmmakers are increasingly allowing dialogue to be spoken in Spanish and adding subtitles to translate them, the Latino Link Web site reported Tuesday. "I do not want people watching my movie outside this country to think that it is merely a Hollywood fabrication," Taylor Hackford, director of Proof of Life, commented.

The film is about the kidnaping and rescue of an engineer in Latin America. Other upcoming or recently completed films featuring scenes spoken in Spanish include Traffic, All the Pretty Horses, and What's Cooking? Traffic co-star Benjamin Bratt, who is of Peruvian ancestry, told Latino Link: "There is still a lot to do until Hollywood adopts a more multicultural canvas in reflection of the make-up of the United States, where Spanish can be more widely represented."

Source: Studio Briefing