Halle Berry Backs out of transgender role for an upcoming film she was intending on starring in after online backlash.
During an interview with hairstylist Christin Brown on Instagram Live on Friday, July 3, the actress shared how she was preparing for the role despite not formally being cast in it.
“[It’s] a character where the woman is a trans character, so she’s a woman that transitioned into a man. She’s a character in a project I love that I might be doing,” She shared.
She added that she wanted to take a “deep dive” into “that world.” In reference to “that world” we assume she means the trans community. Also throughout the interview, she misgendered the character, “Who this woman was is so interesting to me, and that will probably be my next project,” she said.
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After the interview posted, many within the LGBTQ community had much to say to the actress in regard to wanting to take on this role.
Sam Feder, director of the recently released Netflix documentary Disclosure, which chronicles the portrayal of trans people in media, tweeted at the actress: “Often people don’t know what they don’t know. And that’s ok! @halleberry please consider watching @Disclosure_Doc before performing transness.”
Actress Jamie Clayton echoed Feder’s sentiment, asking that she watch the docu and share it. “Please fight for us, not against us. #TransIsBeautiful”
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Former Survivor cast member Zeke Smith had much to say. Smith referred Berry’s people to speak to Scarlett Johansson’s people. “ASAP can ScarJo’s publicists call Halle Berry’s publicists and explain how this is going to go down? Cuz from this little snippet, Ms. Berry should have nothing to do with representing our community.”
This was in reference to Johansson making the same mistake some years ago.
Many in the trans community spoke out and Berry actually listened.
SO after many missteps in her interview, and seeing the backlash over the weekend from the LGBTQ community, the actress announced that she is pulling out of the project while offering her apologies.
In an Instagram post, she wrote:
“Over the weekend I had the opportunity to discuss my consideration of an upcoming role as a transgender man. And I’d like to apologize for those remarks. As a cisgender woman, I now understand that I should not have considered this role. And that the transgender community should undeniably have the opportunity to tell their own stories. I am grateful for the guidance and critical conversation over the past few days. And [I] will continue to listen, educate, and learn from this mistake. I vow to be an ally in using my voice to promote better representation on-screen, both in front of and behind the camera.”
GLAAD applauded her efforts.
“We are pleased that @halleberry listened to the concerns of transgender people and learned from them. Other powerful people should do the same,” they tweeted.
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