Halle Berry retired from a role in an upcoming movie in which she would play a transgender character after facing a backlash online.
In a live Instagram interview on Friday, the actor said he had been preparing for the role, but had not been officially cast.
“[It’s] a character where the woman is a trans character, making her a woman who made the transition to a man. She’s a character in a project that I love that she could be doing, ”Berry had said. She added that she wanted to dive into “that world”, probably referring to the trans community.
However, Berry faced a backlash online after mistaking the character multiple times during the interview.
“Who this woman was is very interesting to me, and that will probably be my next project,” he said.
On Monday night, he issued an apology and withdrew from the role, saying that “the transgender community should have the opportunity to tell its own stories.”
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“Over the weekend I had an opportunity to discuss my consideration of an upcoming role as a transgender man, and I would like to apologize for those comments. As a cisgender woman, I now understand that I should not have considered this role, and that the transgender community should have the opportunity to tell their own stories, “she wrote.” I am grateful for the guidance and critical conversation in the past few days and will continue to listen, educating and learning from this mistake. I promise to be an ally in the use of my voice to promote a better representation on the screen, both in front of and behind the camera. “
Berry’s comments caught the attention of the Twitter account for the Netflix documentary “Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen,” which launched last month and examines Hollywood’s portrayal of transgender people and their stories.
The doctor’s account asked Berry to watch the movie to “understand how cis actors like you acting in trans roles have important cultural consequences off-screen.”
After Berry’s apology, the account thanked him for “listening and learning.”
In recent years, cisgender actors have faced controversy over portraying transgender characters. In 2018 Scarlett Johansson was cast as a transgender character in the movie “Rub and Tug,” sparking a backlash from trans rights groups and activists. A week later, she came out of the paper.
