Esai Morales Hates Playing "Marginal" Characters But, Like, He's Gotta Feed His Family, You Know?

Esai Morales is booked to play an ex-con in an upcoming episode of Law & Order: SUV and he's not terribly excited about it. That's because, just like every Latino actor that's ever worked in the States, Esai is tired of playing shitty, stereotypical "Latino" characters. AOL Latino recently asked Esai to vent out his frustrations and this is what he had to say:

"This illustrates the problem Latino [actors] have; most of the roles we're offered are those of marginal characters like servants or lawbreakers -- basically two extremes we need to abandon. We deserve to have better colors in between, just normal people." 

But, just like the rest of the Latino actors that pick up on borderline racist roles, Esai has to feed his family, yo':

"I have to feed my family and I have to do something so that people can see me and remember me. A lot of the time there's nothing else. Right now, for example, I'm playing a non-Latino lawyer who's selfish and ambitious. Latinos are good at playing non-Latinos but we always get antagonist roles and we're never the ones 'saving the day.' It's terrible because we have lots of good actors and many audiences don't even know they're Latino."

You is preaching to the choir, Esai.

Click here to check out Guanabee's exclusive interview with Esai Morales.