‘Jane The Virgin’ Star Gina Rodriguez ?Creates?? ‘Movement Mondays’ To Bring More Diversity In Hollywood

Jane the Virgin star Gina Rodriguez has recently urged the Hispanic community to support Latino actors and actresses in movies and television with her “Movement Monday” campaign, People reports. Every Monday, Rodriguez says she will give recognition to a Latino artist and make the call to support them. This movement, it seems, was inspired by all of the current backlash the Academy voters are receiving for not nominating any actors or actresses of color for Oscars this year. Rodriguez took to Instagram to announce her “Movement Monday” campaign by posting a picture of Oscar Isaac, who plays Poe Dameron in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

“This is Oscar Isaac,” Gina wrote in the caption. “He is a Guatemalan American actor. This is a picture from Ex Machina directed by Alex Garland and was released this past year. Oscar Isaac, in my opinion had an Oscar worthy performance in this film.”

Benicio Del Toro is also a Latino actor who received critical-acclaim for his performance in last year’s Sicario, and his name has been thrown in the conversation of 2016 Oscar snubs. Gina Rodriguez went on to note that the Latinos in America, over 50 million, must support one another if they want representation on the big screen and small screen.

“I decided to start a movement and speak from the perspective of a Latina American who desires to see more Latinos on screen. There are 55 million Latinos in this country and although we all come from various backgrounds our unity can make a movie explode at the box office or a TV show soar to the highest viewers possible.”

Gina Rodriguez’s Movement Monday’s campaign is setup to inspire the Latino community to come together and make their voices heard. Rodriguez herself has been told many times that “Latinos don’t watch Latino movies. Latinos don’t support each other,” and noted that the statements were true, as sad as it may be. Gina explains that with more support and attention placed on Latino artists in Hollywood, the support will show in the box office receipts and the television ratings, thus, causing film studios to pay more attention to the Latino community and showcase more Latino actors and actors in big budgeted movies.

“Right now there isn’t one Latino that can Greenlight a movie,” Gina writes. “That means no studio will put their money behind a Latino face as a lead of a movie because they don’t believe we can make their money back. The industry sees money, the excuse can’t just be racism. We can make a difference in a very powerful way if we unite our support as one Latino community.”

Jane the Virgin is currently in the middle of its second season on The CW and while it certainly gets praise from critics and press, the ratings do not match the highly positive reviews of the show, as they have been dropping. The Golden Globe nominated Gina Rodriguez, along with the positive reviews, might be enough to convince The CW to renew the series for a third season. But as the current season isn’t over, perhaps the show could pick up its ratings if Rodriguez’s “Movement Monday” initiative strikes a nerve with her followers and the Latino community in America.

“Let us use our numbers and powerful voices to prove we support one another, to prove we can make a box office hit, to prove they need to support all the various Latino cultures in the media,” Gina wrote in her Instagram post. Actress Eva Longoria has also spoken about the topic, telling The Huffington Post that Latino moviegoers and TV-viewers need to support the content to let the studios know that there is a high demand.

You can see Gina Rodriguez in Jane the Virgin on Monday nights on The CW.

[Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]