Acting Coach Lesly Kahn On Tape Telling Student to Pose As Latina for Roles
Someone slipped me this recording of an acting class by an apparently well known, popular acting teacher. Please do not do what she advises here. It is not okay to pretend you are an ethnic minority if you are not. This ( plus the comment about Armenians) is completely unethical pic.twitter.com/XKYJJoFC9o
- Lexi Alexander (@Lexialex) February 25, 2018
Famous Hollywood acting coach Lesly Kahn has gained criticism after a tape of her telling a non-Latina student to pose as Latina to have a better chance of booking jobs and an agent. She told the student in part:
"Just the fact that your name is Rosa Ramirez is gonna get you a meeting. … So you might try it. … Go to the headshot shop and tell them you’re Latin. Wear something f*cking red. Wear some f*cking sparkly earrings. Change your goddamned name, and let’s just do an experiment."
She has "apologized" after the backlash.
This is the other part that was sent to me.
I am shaking.
Our culture is not something for white people to “try on” for fun.
This is beyond upsetting and happens at agencies and studios.
This has to stop.
This doesn’t fix anything. This hurts us pic.twitter.com/VhIcOdobmw
- Dani Fernandez (@msdanifernandez) February 25, 2018
pic.twitter.com/lYVYHfe53X
- Lesly Kahn (@leslykahn) February 26, 2018
Acting Coach Lesly Kahn Apologizes For Telling Student To Pose As Latina https://t.co/IAxai1enpz pic.twitter.com/nirJNGC4qZ
- Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) February 27, 2018
Sources: one, two, three, four