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By Viviane Faver
The Academy Award-winning actress Halle Berry revealed during an Instagram Live interview that she was going to take on the role of a transgender man in an upcoming movie.
She was immediately met with criticism and swift backlash from the transgender community and its allies for considering the role. Berry also got called out for her misgendering of the character.
This past Monday the actress apologizes in her twitter account:
“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.”
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“I am grateful for the guidance and critical conversations 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.”
Although the general public appreciated her apology, many still criticized that she didn’t touch on the fact that she misgendered the person she was considering playing.
Facing the same situation, actress Scarlett Johansson faced backlash when she was initially cast for the role of trans mob boss Dante “Tex” Gill in the upcoming historical flick Rub & Tub. At the time she addressed the criticism by stating:
“You know, as an actor, I should be allowed to play any person, or any tree, or any animal because that is my job and the requirements of my job.”
She would later apologize in an interview with Vanity Fair back in November, claiming, “I wasn’t aware of that conversation — I was uneducated.”
