Fidel Castro's daughter defends casting of James Franco as her father in upcoming biopic - Entertainment Weekly News

Fidel Castro's daughter Alina Fernández supports James Franco's casting as her father in the upcoming independent film, Alina of Cuba.

The anti-communist activist said "the project is almost entirely Latino, both in front and behind the camera" after Emmy winner John Leguizamo and other Latinx actors criticized Franco's casting, calling the inclusion appropriation amidst the Latinx community's continued exclusion from Hollywood.

"James Franco has an obvious physical resemblance with Fidel Castro, besides his skills and charisma," Fernández told Deadline.

"I find the selection of the cast amazing." The film, based on the true life story of Fernández and her exile from Cuba as a staunch critic of the government and her father's rule, will also star Ana Villafañe as Fernández and Mía Maestro as her mother Natalia Revuelta, the socialite who had an impassioned affair with Castro.

"A guy like John Leguizamo has historically been looked up to by Hispanics as one of America's earliest actors of Latin descent since the '90s and I've always admired him as a fellow underdog," he told The Hollywood Reporter?