Hoy En Mi Gente News: Thick-Thighed Dascha Polanco Talks Curves, Latina Hate And Hollyweird Racism
Dascha Polanco Covers Vibe Viva, Talks Body Image, Hate From Latin Commuinity And Diversity In Hollywood
OITNB’s curviest inmate graces the cover of Vibe Viva and shares her thoughts on her body, how she is perceived by the Latin community and what she wants to do to help diversify Hollyweird.
Dascha Polanco doesn’t just love being photographed—she requires it. In a world obsessed with the willowy, caucasian prototype, the Orange is the New Black starlet finds herself clutching at her mujeron thighs and her watermelon ass if only to serve a mean vogue. At the sound of the shutters, la Dominicana – not built to suit a fashion model’s size, but demands your attention just as easy – lets down her hair, sticks out her booty and puckers her highly sought-after bodacious lips. “Y’all want real curves? Then take these curves,” she says, wildly flirting with the camera in nothing but a half open robe.
Holding court inside celebrity photographer Eric Johnson’s New York studio, Polanco ruminates on the nature of Hollywood, comparing it to a pompous bouncer at the door who whips out his “you’re not on the list” punchline when folk like her pull up to the scene. “I’m not a size zero, and I’m very transparent when it comes to that. I’m not your cookie cutter actress. I am full of curves, not sample-sized,” says the mother of three, now wafting her #ismellgood slayage of sparkling top notes and poppy flower goodness. “So the issue with that is a lot of roles are not designed or designated for a Latina. Or a Dominican. Or a woman like me.”
Now thick-skinned and well-acquainted with the long and winding road to the upper echelons of the filmmaking industry, she encounters a different kind of prejudice, and from her own people no less. “Latinos don’t f*ck with me,” says Polanco bluntly, flipping her marooned coils over her bare shoulder. “I mean Latino markets ain’t checking for me until it’s time to pull out that card, because we’re trending or something.”
Which is to say that Dascha’s aesthetics – however coveted by multitudes in popular culture – might not, at any given time, fit the bill for either market. “If I’m not American enough and I’m not Latina enough, then what am I? I’m just nothing,” she quips. But no one around is laughing. Her experience is made palpable everyday by the wave of millennial Latinos living in America who teeter between cultures and languages, negotiating relationships with their homelands.
“The other day I was watching the Thor movie where Natalie Portman plays a scientist and Thor’s love interest,” she explains with gusto and talking hands. “There’s never a movie where the superhero falls in love with a curvy Latina! Or a Latina heroine, you know what I mean? I’d love to play her.”
Dascha’s sentiments arrive in a timely fashion. Just this April, Deadline reported Afro-Panamanian and Mexican actress Tessa Thompson (Creed) will foray into Marvel opposite Natalie Portman in Alex Garland’s Annihilation. She will then transition to the third installment of the Thor franchise as Chris Hemsworth’s love interest.
Sheroes and doe-eyed main squeezes aside, Dascha one day wants to also dramatize exactly what she is: a beautiful, talented, smart Dominican woman with an interesting life to live and a lot to say. She’s in fact putting her money where her mouth is and starting to craft her own material, with hopes of directing in the near future.
“I am obsessed with the creative world. I can draw, dance, act, and I’m going to write—I am writing,” she says matter-of-factly. “I educated myself enough to be able to branch out in different areas and get to work with someone who knows the writing process and create.
Best believe we’re not taking our eyes off of Dascha and her many assets any time soon.
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Images via Vibe Viva/Eric Johnson
