Mexican Jewish Actress Ariela Barer Cast in ‘Deep Cuts’ After Controversy
Ariela Barer arrives at Excelsior! A Celebration of the Amazing, Fantastic, Incredible & Uncanny Life of Stan Lee on Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019, at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
Last month, Odessa A’zion’s casting as a Latina in Deep Cuts sparked a conversation online about the erasure of Latine representation. After it led her to drop out of the movie and an open letter penned by Latine talent, we now have a Latina actress who will take on the role. Today (Feb. 10), Deadline announced that Ariela Barer—who is Mexican-American and Jewish—will take the role of Zoe Gutierrez.
“SO excited to be part of this special project with such special people,” Barer wrote on her social media. In a follow-up message, she said: “And a genuine major shoutout to @odessaazion for always leading with integrity and being an absolute real one for as long as I’ve known her.”
Barer is known for her recent role as Mel in The Last of Us’ second season. She’s also known for her roles in films and television shows like One Day at a Time, See You When I See You, How to Blow Up a Pipeline, the reboot of Saved by the Bell, and Marvel’s Runaways. Now, she will take the next step in her career by bringing Deep Cuts’ Gutierrez to life. Deadline also confirms that there will be no conflict with Barer’s ongoing performance as Mel on The Last of Us.
A24’s upcoming film Deep Cuts, which stars Cailee Spaeny and Drew Starkey, is a romance between two music-obsessed twenty-somethings “navigating the messy realities of ambition, belonging, and adulthood over the course of an era-defining decade,” per Deadline. Gutierrez is described as half Mexican and half Jewish, which is why people had a problem with A’zion’s original casting since she is not Latina, though she is Jewish.
When A’zion caught wind of social media users’ comments, she dropped out of the film. ““F*** that. I’m out! I’d never take a role from someone else that’s meant to do it. That SHOULD do it! That’s not me. There are a plentitude of people more than capable of playing this role and I am not one of them. I can’t wait to see who it ends up being,” she wrote online.
Without this online conversation, A’zion probably would’ve kept the role possibly without recognizing the Latine erasure of it all. Thanks to the open conversation and Latine actors spreading the word, Ariela Barer will now be part of the film adaptation. We can’t wait to see her on the big screen.