Erik Edmundson talks to Rosario Dawson about National Train Day and things go off track.

Rosario Dawson was interviewed with Fox News recently about Voto Latino and this year’s elections – you can watch it below!

Actress and activist Rosario Dawson told The Daily Caller that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney can “use” his heritage to make immigration issues “very personal” in the general election.

Addressing the Latino vote, Dawson predicted that Romney will “draw a lot of people in,” but said he faces some challenges because “the Republican Party has really sort of pushed away the Latino vote” in the past.

TheDC asked Dawson, the co-founder of Voto Latino, if Romney could garner support from the Latino community, given that his father was born in Mexico.

“Having his heritage be something that’s going to be really exciting for a lot of people to talk about and be really important for him to be speaking about what that’s meant to him as an immigrant — part of an immigrant family and story, that’s going to be really important and obviously Obama, who’s done a lot of deportations in his administration, that’s another thing that’s going to be something that people are really going to have to pay attention to,” Dawson told TheDC at a Voto Latino event celebrating “Diversity in the Media.”

“But I think The Republican Party as well has really done a lot to kind of really shut down the Latino vote and talking about immigration in such a negative way during the entire campaigning process, not necessarily Mitt Romney himself.”

She continued: “I think he’s going to have to do quite a lot to kind of bring people back on to want to vote Republican… not just necessarily for him because I think he’ll draw a lot of people in, but I think the Republican Party has really sort of pushed away the Latino vote and the Latino conversation in such a negative way that I think it’s going to be very difficult for him to kind of get them on board. So that will be something that he can really use to be able to make it very personal and that’s going to be important for him.”

Dawson said she will not campaign for President Barack Obama or Romney because her organization is non-partisan.

“I get to just be critical of both, which is great,” she said. “I get to represent I think what the real voter is, which is highly critical and not always wanting to be put in the position of voting for the lesser of two evils.”

Another issue Dawson is focusing on is voter registration. TheDC asked her if she agreed with state laws that require individuals to present photo identification at the polls.

“It’s more complicated than that. You know, right now, even during voter registration we’re being told that we have to have birth certificates for elderly people who don’t even have [one], who have never had one. That really takes them out of the process,” she told TheDC.

“Of course we want people to make sure that there’s not voter fraud and all that, but it’s a big fallacy to say we need to change all of these different laws right now and make it so that so many people don’t get to have and exercise their right to vote.”

Dawson, of Puerto Rican and Cuban descent, is best known for roles in Men in Black II, Sin City, Eagle Eye and Seven Pounds, opposite Will Smith.

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Rosario Dawson had an incredibly busy weekend.

On Friday, the actress/political activist was in Washington D.C., for the Voto Latino On Series event. Then on Saturday, the “Sin City” star attended the White House Correspondents Dinner. And on Sunday, Dawson hopped on a train from D.C. to New York and spent the entire trip snapping photos of her journey as part of the “See More On A Train Online Contest,” that encourages people to submit their train journeys via photos as part of Amtrak’s 5th Annual National Train Day.”

When she landed in New York on Sunday night, Rosario invited The Huffington Post over for a chat at New York’s Penn Station. We spoke to the talented actress about her work with the non-profit organization Voto Latino (which she co-founded in 2005 with Maria Teresa Kumar), why you wont be reading about her slamming any presidential candidates in the news, and why she isn’t endorsing any candidate for president.

The Huffington Post: There are more than 9 million young Latinos in the United States, but not all of them are voting. Why do you think that is?
Well, it’s a lot of things. From the things that we’re told from them it’s because people don’t ask them — that’s the first thing they say as to why they haven’t voted for the first time. And the second is because they don’t feel like they necessarily have enough information on the issues. They’re paying attention to student loans, they have opinions on healthcare, they’re angered by the conversation around immigration, they’re feeling the backlash of violence that’s going more and more towards Latinos, because of all of the sort of hate speech that’s been used in so many peoples’ politics.

The more I talk to young people, the more I see how incredibly just full on activists they are. Just because they’re not necessarily voting, it doesn’t mean they’re not doing stuff. They’re organizing. They’re marching and they’re using social media to get their points across. [But] getting engaged as a voter really makes you powerful. If you’re at occupy movements or you’re walking in protests, then you need to march to the polls — you need to occupy the voting booth and that’s really going to make sure that you’re voice and your issues are heard.

That’s very interesting. Often times the media just says: “Young people don’t show up to vote” and they leave it at that.
That’s it, yeah! One of the things we’re really excited about with Voto Latino is that we connect. We have been really great with our messaging and the reason that our organization has grown over all of these years — especially in this economy and with a lot of organizations shutting down — it has been a really amazing thing to see how people have been connecting with our messaging and understanding that when we’re saying ‘it’s your country, represent!’ that we really mean it. We’re really talking to them like they’re Americans and I think that’s the most crucial part — because that’s what they feel like. That’s who they are — including the DREAMers.

They’re like, ‘I’m American, that’s who I am. Why would you want to deport me? I didn’t choose to do this, I was a kid and I’ve been here my whole life. I’ve never been to this other country.’ A lot of the time they don’t even speak the language from the country they came from. We’ve made things about numbers and we’ve really dehumanized and objectified Latinos a lot in our conversations about them. Latino issues are American issues. You go to China, Brazil or India, and they understand that their population is their power. We have the largest and fastest growing demographic in this country and it represents over a trillion dollars worth of money. Why would we want to ostracize that and put that away? There’s nothing to be worried about. If we start working together, this country is going to be in really great shape.

There are some Hollywood actors who have spoken out against presidential candidates. We never hear you doing that. Is that a conscious decision on your part?
Yeah. I remember it was actually really great going to both the Democratic and Republication conventions in the last election. You have all of this stuff that’s said in the media, but when you actually get there and you’re around people, you recognize that there are different ways to think about the American dream, and there are different ways to think about our history and our past. People wanting to fly a confederate flag doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re totally racist — it [may] mean that they recognize their family and where they come from and they don’t want to feel bad about it. They want to be able to say, ‘I’m a good person, I’m willing to move forward, and I don’t want to feel like I have to deny my history to do so.’ Then there are other people going ‘Well, I don’t want to go back to that America, because in that America I didn’t have a voice as a woman or as a person of color.’ And so it’s understandable on their side. We need more diversity of conversation.

A lot of celebs endorse candidates for president. Have you thought about doing that?
No. I’ll vote the way I’m going to vote, but if I’m actually saying I’m serious about your voice being important, then what’s the point of me walking around and knocking on someone’s door and going, ‘OK, I really care about your opinion, but only if it’s exactly like mine?’ That doesn’t really make sense. You know what I mean? And I want to learn and I want to understand where people are coming from, because eventually — that standing president, whoever I’m behind — is not going to be there. Does that mean the next election I’m not going to be interested? I’m not going to vote or not going to care? I’ve already witnessed several presidents in my lifetime and I know I’m going to see several more. And I don’t want to always feel like I have to be behind one person. I’m behind the people.

What is the most important issue for you as a voter?
There are so many right now. I mean, I’m a woman of color in 2012. We’re talking about issues from everything from the war on women’s reproductive health and the economy, which is obviously such a major thing, to access to food, people getting paid fair wages, and the environment is obviously such an alarming situation that we’re not paying the proper attention to. And getting onto wind and solar technology would be so amazing and getting us off this idea of having to have this XL pipeline coming through, or digging for natural gas and destroying our beautiful country — that’s our greatest resource — our people and our land. That’s what we should be investing in.

The people and the land are the biggest things I care about. We should be investing in infrastructure — that’s why I’m doing National Train Day. Why do we not have more high speed train rails? Why are we not paying attention to one of the greenest ways to travel? We could be making incredible railways that could be connecting people and communities, and allowing access to people to be able to do that “staycation” that is so popular right now because the economy is rough. We had 30 million people use the train last year and we can up that. I fly a lot but it’s a really different experience when you’re flying and everything is like a tiny little ant. When you’re actually going through these communities on a train, you really see them. You see the differences in them, you see the areas that are more run down or areas that are more like big cities. And you get to see all of the untouched raw land — like on the train ride over here I saw a deer. You get to see the landscape of the country that you live in. And those are the things that help us be able to connect all of our different kinds of immigration stories.

huffingtonpost.com

Actress and activist Rosario Dawson joins Piers Morgan in studio, detailing the importance of National Train Day

Rosario Dawson is not like other Hollywood actors. Consider this: she’s 32, and in her 20s decided she’d had enough of being judged on her looks, so took to wearing enormous sweatshirts to auditions.

“I’d perform my ass off, and the casting directors would be like, ‘You are perfect for this role, but can you wear something a little less shapeless?’” Her manager would bargain with her. She could wear a roll-neck jumper, he said – but could it at least be a fitted one? “I’m like, ‘Ugh, fine’, but these stupid conversations needed to be had, because unfortunately, don’t believe what they tell you, there’s very little imagination in Hollywood.” She hoots with laughter.

It annoyed her when casting directors asked to see her in more revealing clothes, she says, because she was naked in the film Alexander, “so go to any crazy, sick website and you’ll be able to look at it in slow motion if you like”. Does that bother her? “No, not at all, my point being: then don’t complain, ‘We don’t know what she really looks like.’ Are you kidding?! Do your research. ‘She looks a little fat right now’,” she says, recalling a message that filtered down from some rotten, deluded film executive. “Really? They’re called breasts … There was definitely a period for a couple of years where I rebelled against it. It probably cost me a lot of really big jobs, but I was just so angry.”

I had been worried Dawson would be too tired to talk properly. Earlier in the day, she had called to put the interview back two hours, pleading jetlag, her voice full of mid-Atlantic grogginess. But she arrives at the Guardian on foot, poses quickly for a photo, sits down and she’s away, words tumbling out.

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Rosario Dawson talks about activism with Access Hollywood.

Tune in Thursday, August 18th at 2:30pm EST for a live twitterview with Zookeeper star Rosario Dawson. We had so much fun with our August covergirl we wanted to share the experience with you. We’ll be talking about what she does to stay so fit, favorite foods, beauty secrets and more. Plus, if you’ve seen Rosario Dawson planking all over the place (Missed it? See her plank on Jimmy Kimmel here) and are curious about what the heck she’s doing, tune in, we’ll be asking her just what it’s all about!

You don’t have to have a twitter account to join the fun. Just go to Twitter.com and enter #RosarioDawson to follow the conversation between @Shape_Magazine and @RosarioDawson. If you do have a twitter account follow along and submit your questions to @Shape_Magazine with the hashtag #RosarioDawson. We’ll be asking her your questions during the twitterview. If you ever wanted to ask Rosario something here’s your chance! In the mean time, get your fill of the fit actress here and check out our exclusive interview and video from the August cover shoot.

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