Roma star may miss Oscars after being denied US visa
Jorge Guerrero said the US Embassy in Mexico refused to read recommendation letters from a Netflix executive and the film's writer and director Alfonso Cuarón
One of the actors in the Oscar-nominated Netflix film Roma may be unable to attend the Academy Awards after being denied a US visa.
Mexican actor Jorge Guerrero has said he has been denied visas to the States on three separate occasions, despite having submitted recommendation letters from a Netflix executive and the film’s writer and director Alfonso Cuarón.
Roma, which has been nominated for ten Oscars, stars Guerrero as karate-loving militant Fermín.
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In an interview with Mexican magazine Quién, Guerrero revealed that the US embassy in Mexico City refused to read the letter from the filmmakers.
“Specifically, I took a letter and they refused to read it,” he said. “On my second attempt, they said I was going to go work, and I said that, no, I had been invited.”
Guerrero told the Mexican newspaper El Universal that he did not feel “offended, angry or victimised” and he is still hopeful that his visa application will be accepted ahead of the awards ceremony in February.
“I hope that this can be resolved in the best way,” he said. “And I insist that if I don’t go, I’ll still be thrilled. It’s ten nominations, darn it. This doesn’t happen every year!”
In 2017, Donald Trump’s ban on travellers from seven Muslim-majority countries meant that two Syrian people involved in the British documentary The White Helmets were unable to attend the Academy Awards ceremony. The White Helmets went on to win the Oscar for Best Documentary Short.
The travel ban also impacted Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, whose film The Salesman won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2017.
