The era where Hollywood began noticing Will and Denzel were box office gold but didn't want a black actor sexing a white female lead but didn't want to simply cast a black female either.
So hence you had movies like Man on Fire where any other lead male would've smashed the mom of the kid, but instead her and Denzel just have this nonsexual platonic understanding shyt going on. Latinas became the compromise in a way, as Eva Mendes stayed gettin dug out by Denzel lol.
Bad Boys 1 and MiB 1, any other lead in a big budget flick is going to have the lead female as a love interest, but they carefully skate around it in both cases. But in the sequels, they finally cast black women so Will can actually have a love interest. And similarly, it's cool if it's a latina / call up Eva again
