After facing backlash over her decision to play a transgender man in an upcoming movie, Halle Berry has apologized and revealed that she no longer will accept the role.
Berry initially revealed she was “probably” going to play a transgender man in her next film during an interview on Instagram Live over the weekend, and in addition to the outrage over yet another cisgendered performer portraying a trans character, she caught some heat for the way she repeatedly misgendered the character when discussing the role. “The woman is a trans character, so she’s a woman that transitioned into a man,” she said. “She’s a character in a project I love that I might be doing.” Berry added that she was interested in the role because “I want to experience and understand and study and explore” that world.
On Monday, the actress tweeted out an apology, writing, “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.”
— Halle Berry (@halleberry) July 7, 2020
“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,” she added. “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 commended Berry for the apology, tweeting, “We are pleased that @halleberry listened to the concerns of transgender people and learned from them. Other powerful people should do the same. A good place to start is by watching @Disclosure_Doc to learn about trans representation in media.”
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