Few leading men in Hollywood are as gosh darn dignified as Andy García. Maybe it’s the widow’s peak, or the dark, penetrating gaze, but the guy looks like he came out the womb wearing an ascot with a cognac snifter in hand. And while Tinseltown may have him pegged as an old world Italian-American, we know this Havana-born Cubano-Americano is really one of our own.
So now that García’s been officially cast in the role of Mayor of New York City in the upcoming Ghostbusters reboot, we’ll have to see if the team behind the project can swallow the idea of a Latino hizzoner, or whether they’ve gone ahead and typecast García in a more predictable Fiorello La Guardia/Rudy Giuliani vein.
Some might still remember David Margulies’ turn as the pragmatic Mayor Lenny “Get Me the Ghostbusters” Clotch in the original two Ghostbusters films — modeled no doubt after three-term Mayor Ed Koch — and we can only hope that writer-director Paul Feig has given García’s unnamed Mayor just as many memorable one-liners. With a who’s-who cast of female comedians taking over ghostbusting duties from the original SNL boy’s club, he’ll definitely have the raw material for some witty repartee.
But whatever last name they may give his character, we’ll know that García is actually the Ghostbusters universe’s first Latino mayor of New York City. And we will rejoice.