Actress Halle Berry bowed down to criticism after announcing she was considering taking on a transgender acting role.
Berry first announced she was thinking about taking the role during a now-expired Instagram live on Friday, according to a report published Tuesday by Fox News. The “X-Men” actress backtracked Monday night in an apology shared on social media.
— Halle Berry (@halleberry) July 7, 2020
“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,” Berry said. “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.” (RELATED: Halle Berry Calls Homeschooling ‘A Nightmare,’ Says Her Kids Aren’t Learning Anything)
“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.”
Berry claimed she wanted to “experience” the world of transgenderism during her announcement. Critics reportedly had an issue with the pronouns that Berry used when describing the character.
“[It’s] a character where the woman is a trans character, so she’s a woman that transitioned into a man,” Berry said during her Instagram live, People reported. “She’s a character in a project that I love that I might be doing.”
“I want to experience that world, understand that world. I want to deep dive in that in the way I did ‘Bruised,'” she said. “Who this woman was is so interesting to me, and that will probably be my next project, and that will require me cutting all of my hair off.”
