Raquel Welch Was Told to ‘Change Her Hair, Her Look, Her Name’ So She Wouldn’t ‘Come Off’ Hispanic

Raquel Welch Was Told to ‘Change Her Hair, Look, Name’ to Hide Her Ethnicity

12 comments

  1. They also told her to swing her arms when she dances

  2. If they ever make a biopic about her, I nominate Eva Mendes to play her.

  4. Then there is the other side of the coin. I remember Eva Longoria talked about this. She paid her dues, went to college, went to acting school etc. She’d go in for auditions and they’d be like you’re too pretty and not hood enough to play this hispanic character. That’s why she wanted to play Gabrielle Solis as the rich lady.

    Sofia Vergara talked about this too. The only way she’d get jobs was by darkening her hair and getting a tan. I remember she was like “the ass and the accent matched, they just couldn’t understand why I was blonde.”

  5. The sad part is that viewers would’ve been fine with it. It was the awful gatekeepers in the industry that consistently do this.

  6. Well so did Rita Hayworth and she did. Changed her name, dyed her hair, electrolysis on her widow’s peak.

  7. Most ethnic celebrities were told to portray themselves as white (and some white celebrities were told to portray themselves as ethnic)

    Raquel Welch

    Rita Hayworth was born Margarita Carmen Cansino. She even had procedures done to make her less ethnic looking.

    Martin Sheen was born Ramón Gerard Antonio Estévez.

    Ben Kingsley was born Krishna Pandit Bhanji.

    James Roday Rodriguez dropped Rodriguez until 2020 because he kept getting rejected or typecast as a gang member (one director literally told him “You’re so great, but I don’t think I can call you back because your last name is Rodriguez. But I can call you back for this four-line role of a gang member”).

    Richie Valens had his name shortened by his label. He was born Richard Steven Valenzuela.

  8. It really was that bad- my mother is a white passing Latina (brown hair, brown eyes, white skin.)

    She lived in Los Angeles during the early 1970s and despite her being passably white looking, as soon as she started speaking, people knew she was an immigrant. & The 1970s are remarkable for being more open and free culture wise than the 1950s. She still had problems…

    That’s why so many people are disgusted by the recent rise of alt-right culture. People have been fighting for decades for equal treatment, or something close to it…..

  9. judy reyes had a hard time with this because she seemed too black to pay latina roles 

  10. Meg and Jennifer Tilly felt they needed to hide being Chinese until very recently 🙁

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