Although Antonio Banderas has led a versatile onscreen career, he experienced ethnic stereotyping and typecasting early in his career.
The Oscar nominee recently recalled being told he could only play “bad guys” due to Hispanic ethnicity, which is why he’s proud of breaking out of that box with his roles in the Zorro and Shrek franchises.
“They said, you are here, like the blacks and the Hispanics, to play the bad guys,” Banderas recalled to The Times. “The problem was a few years later I had a mask, hat, sword and cape and the bad guy was Captain Love, who was blond and had blue eyes. Even more important is Puss in Boots, because it’s for young kids. They see a cat that has a Spanish, even an Andalusian accent and he’s a good guy.”
After Banderas originated the voice role of the swashbuckling feline in Shrek 2 (2004), also appearing in Shrek the Third (2007) and Shrek Forever After (2010), as well as his own spin-offs Puss in Boots (2011) and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022), he said last year that he had not yet been invited back for Shrek 5, premiering June 30, 2027.
“I’m not so far, and I’m not being called for that,” Banderas told Parade. “Puss in Boots did very well. Number two got a nomination for the Oscar, and the movie behaved beautifully at the box office. But I am totally satisfied with the five Puss in Boots that I did. I don’t know what is going to happen in the future. Maybe they [will] call me tomorrow.”
Puss in Boots (voiced by Antonio Banderas) in ‘Puss in Boots: The Last Wish’ (2022) (Universal Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection)
The character was influencer by Zorro, whom Banderas also played in The Mask of Zorro (1998) and The Legend of Zorro (2005).
