As the new network comedy "Lopez vs. Lopez" airs its midseason episode Friday, Afro Latina actor Selenis Leyva said she's excited about a TV series that wants to change the way Americans see Latinos.
“I definitely wanted to jump on board and be part of what I feel is like a history-making movement right now, with this show,” said Leyva, who plays the former wife of George Lopez and mom to Mayan Lopez. “Specifically during these times, we’re always talking about Latino representation.”
“Lopez vs. Lopez,” which airs on NBC (NBC News and NBC are part of NBCUniversal), focuses on the generational tension between Mayan Lopez and her estranged father George Lopez — who's also her father in real life.
Leyva believes that the show is making television history because it's telling positive Latino stories.
“There’s something about, in casting, when you are Latina, you’re the victim, you’re less than,” she said. “And in this series, no, Rosie is a self-made woman with her own business and she’s a hard worker and so is Mayan. So we’re showing Latinos in such a positive light, and I’m loving that.”
Leyva said that by showing how Latino characters work and live, “Lopez vs. Lopez” is challenging viewers to see “us in a more grounded and well-rounded way.”
But she also called out that the show makes a point to touch on themes that connect with everyday Americans.
The show, she said, poses a compelling question for viewers: What happens when somebody comes back into your life after being gone for so long?
“We’re dealing with mental illness. We’re dealing with what the pandemic did. You know, George’s character in the series loses his job,” she said. “That connects with a lot of people.”
“I’m hoping that people will find that this show is also about redemption. It’s about forgiveness. It’s about making room to forgive people and give them space to make better, to make amends,” she said. “So, we’re going to see the development of that, how that happens, how it plays out, how George and Mayan’s relationship gets better, gets stronger.”
Outside of this show, fans will recognize Leyva as Gloria Mendoza — an inmate at a maximum security prison for women — in the hit Netflix show “Orange Is the New Black.”
The award-winning comedy-drama, she said, changed her life.
“Six months before I got Gloria on ‘Orange Is the New Black,’ I had given up acting,” she said. “I told my team, ‘I think I’m done. It’s too hard to love something so much and continuously be told that you’re not enough, there’s no place for you.’”
Leyva explained that Mendoza was only supposed to appear in one or two episodes, but she then became a main character for seven seasons.
She described “Orange Is the New Black” as a catalyst that helped her get to where she is today as an actor.
She believes that “Lopez vs. Lopez” will do the same for other Latinos in TV and film.
“The success of our show is only going to open doors for more shows that we can relate to,” she said.
Leyva said her father is Cuban and her mother is Dominican, but she was raised in the Bronx among many Puerto Ricans and Mexicans. And this mixed Latino heritage makes her proud to play an ex-wife and a mother in “Lopez vs. Lopez.”
“I have this background that I feel is a little bit of everyone,” she said. “It feels good. It feels like I’m representing a group of people that you don’t necessarily see in roles like this.”
The midseason episode will feature cameos from the original cast of the "George Lopez" show.