Photo: Gregg DeGuire/FilmMagic
Wilmer Valderrama has made a point of uplifting diverse voices in recent years of his Hollywood career.
But the Latino actor, 41, admits that he wasn’t always as aware of Hollywood’s diversity problems. “I was pretty naïve and innocent to the conversation about diversity, inclusion and representation,” Valderrama said in a recent interview withGood Housekeeping.
Valderrama made his onscreen debut inThat ’70s Show, which ran on Fox for eight seasons from 1998 to 2006, playing Fez, a foreign exchange student whose nationality was always a mystery.
“I was really blessed that I was given the opportunity to be Fez onThat ’70s Show,” he continued. “It was my first break. Those first couple of years I was treated like an equal. I was treated like an actor who was delivering the funny. I felt like I was doing my part and I was doing it with the level of integrity that just made me, as a human being, feel good. But I didn’t really understand the magnitude of what it all represented for the Latino community until a couple of years later when people realized I was Latino.”
He went on to explain, “I never really saw myself as a minority. I just saw myself as an actor in a sea of actors, and I think that gave me the edge in knowing that if they did it, I could do it too.”
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Valderrama said he’s proud of himself for what he’s accomplished. “Supposedly, looking at all the statistics, what I did was almost impossible,” he remarked,. “I think that’s the right perspective going into things — knowing that if you prepare the same, if you get up in the morning early like everybody else, why shouldn’t you have the same shot, right?”
In the years since, Valderrama has found inspiration in younger generations making their voices heard.
“It’s beautiful,” he said. “The new generation of Latinos can wake up knowing that they can play themselves with integrity — unlike some of their parents who were told that in America you only speak English or you have to be this or that.”
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Heexplained the importanceof the deal toPEOPLE Nowin 2019, after it was first inked. “For me, it’s about finding those young filmmakers, producers and actors who have an innovative way and a unique way of looking at life,” Valderrama said. “And can they be disruptive to any traditional format out there?”
Wilmer Valderrama/Instagram
Valderrama is alsoapplying these values to parentingnewborn daughter Nakano, 3 months, whom hewelcomed with fiancéeAmanda Pacheco, 30.
“I want her to understand that she’ll grow up in a generation that will be born with a mind that says all is possible because of the ancestors and the people that have been fighting the fight for her,” he toldGood Housekeeping. “And I really hope that she takes advantage of the idea that she’ll have a bigger platform than most of us did.”
source: people.com
