James Franco to Play Fidel Castro in 'Alina of Cuba' Movie

05/08/2022 03:29

James Franco has booked his next movie role. The 44-year-old actor will be playing the role of Cuban leader Fidel Castro in the upcoming film Alina of Cuba. The movie will star Broadway actress Ana Villafane as Castro’s daughter Alina Fernandez and Mia Maestro as Natalia “Naty” Revuelta, the woman who he had an affair with. Deadline reports that the movie “follows the true-life story of Cuban exile turned social advocate, Fernandez, whose birth was the result of the tryst between Revuelta and Castro. Revuelta sacrificed her and her physician husband’s personal belongings and finances to help fund the start of the communist revolution. Fernandez learned that she was Fidel Castro’s daughter at the age of 10 when after years of secret visits to her home, her mother finally revealed that ‘El Comandante’ was her biological father. Alina grew to become one of Castro’s most outspoken critics, arrested on more than one occasion for trying to leave, and was classified as a dissident forbidden to travel outside of Cuba. Ultimately, she defected to Spain in 1993, an event that drew headlines from every major news network around the world, before she made Miami her permanent home.” The movie is being shot on location in Colombia and production begins August 15. James also had an acting role announced last month, four years after sexual misconduct allegations.