In 2020, we are more conscious than ever about the importance of representation, particularly when casting certain performers to play certain roles. For instance, while once upon a time it wouldn’t have caused much controversy to have a cis thespian play a transgender character — it was only four years ago Eddie Redmayne received an Oscar nomination for The Danish Girl, and that was despite a pronounced backlash — that would not be the case today. Sure enough, when Halle Berry revealed Friday she was considering taking a transgender role, the pushback was so quick and vicious that by end of day Monday the actress had officially backtracked.
This comes from Variety, who reported that Berry had pulled out of the role and issued an apology, saying “the transgender community should undeniably have the opportunity to tell their own stories.”
Mere days earlier she was excited about the project during an Instagram live chat. “[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,” Berry said. “Who this woman was is so interesting to me, and that will probably be my next project.” She spoke about wanting to take a “deep dive” into “that world.”
But that won’t be happening, although perhaps the Oscar-winning actress will still take that “dive,” during which she’ll very quickly learn, if she hasn’t already, that she was misgendering someone who’d transitioned into being a man.
(Via Variety)
