Director Maïmouna Doucouré revealed she had received numerous death threats over the marketing for her new film “Cuties.”
The backlash following the release of the poster by Netflix was shocking for Doucoré, who hadn’t even seen the poster herself, according to an interview published Thursday by Deadline.
Cuties director Maïmouna Doucouré was unaware of the poster Netflix was going to use https://t.co/5Coj1rfqze
— Metro Entertainment (@Metro_Ents) September 3, 2020
“I received numerous attacks on my character from people who had not seen the film, who thought I was actually making a film that was apologetic about hypersexualization of children,” Doucouré told the outlet. “I also received numerous death threats.”
Doucouré claimed she saw the poster at the same time the rest of America saw it. (RELATED: Netflix Apologizes For ‘Cuties’ Artwork, Says It’s ‘Inappropriate’ And ‘Not Representative’ Of The Movie)
“I discovered the poster at the same time as the American public,” she added, according to the outlet. “My reaction? It was a strange experience. I hadn’t seen the poster until after I started getting all these reactions on social media, direct messages from people, attacks on me. I didn’t understand what was going on. That was when I went and saw what the poster looked like.”
Doucouré claimed Netflix publicly issued an apology for the marketing poster, but also personally apologized to her.
“We had several discussions back and forth after this happened,” the director revealed. “Netflix apologized publicly, and also personally to me.”
“Cuties” debuts on Sept. 9 on Netflix in the U.S. The film won the World Cinema Dramatic Directing Award at Sundance earlier this year.