Well here’s an idea we can all get behind. At Mexico’s Guadalajara Film Festival (FICG), Irish director Jim Sheridan (My Left Foot, In America) joined the growing chorus of global filmmakers who continue to condemn the anti-immigration policies of Trump’s administration. But Sheridan went one step further. Following a screening of his latest short, 11th Hour, which stars Salma Hayek, he offered what he thinks might be a creative idea to try and push back against POTUS 45.
“I think the simplest thing would be to make a movie about a Mexican president of the U.S.,” he suggested. What better way, after all, for art to make a strong plea for inclusivity than to imagine a world where a Mexican-American would be commander-in-chief?
This got us thinking about who could possibly play such a role. Several TV shows have already given us visions of a world that saw fit to elect Latino presidents — in last season’s Veep, for example, audiences got to witness Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Selina Meyer lose the presidency to Laura Montez (played by Andrea Savage). Of course, since Sheridan was being facetious and didn’t really specify what kind of movie he was imagining, we came up with the following rather eclectic list of actors he could consider for the part. And since we wanted to be equal opportunity dream-casters, we didn’t restrict ourselves to Mexican or Mexican-American actors. We have a feeling any kind of Latinx President could make for a provocative film in these trying political times.
Take a look below at these Hollywood POTUS-in-waiting, which include a handful of actors who’ve already gotten a chance to perform in fictional Oval Offices, others who we’d loved to see in such a weighty role, and even a handful of against-type choices we just couldn’t resist adding to the mix. Who’d get your vote?