Halle pulls out of trans role after online row
HOLLYWOOD star Halle Berry has pulled out of playing a transgender male in an upcoming movie after becoming the latest target of online outrage.
She faced a backlash after saying she “might” be playing the role but then apologised on Twitter, admitting she should not have considered the part.
Halle is the latest celebrity to have run into controversy following author JK Rowling’s war of words with trans activists.
The Monster Ball star, 53, said: “I should not have considered this role.
Backlash
“The transgender community should undeniably have the opportunity to tell their own stories. I am grateful for the critical conversation over the past few days and I will continue to listen and learn from this mistake.”
Halle outraged her critics when she revealed last Friday she was being considered for “a character where the woman is a trans character, so she’s a woman that transitioned into a man”.
She said: “It will require me cutting all of my hair off. That’s what I want to experience and understand, study and explore.
“It’s really important to me to tell stories, and that’s a woman, that’s a female story – it changes to a man.
“But I want to understand the why and how of that. I want to get into it.”
However, she failed to use the correct gender pronouns when describing the character, which quickly led to an angry backlash.
Transgender activist Serena Daniari criticised Halle on Twitter for incorrectly categorising the transgender male character’s story as a female one.
She wrote: “It absolutely is not a female story, it is a story about a man.
“And why is the aspect of physical transition the focal point for her?”
Ms Daniari further stressed that being transgender is more than just a change of haircut. She said: “Cis people’s understanding of trans issues is really myopic.”
Cis, or cisgender, is a term for people whose gender identity matches their sex at birth.
The now controversial project was pitched to Ms Berry while she was “on the brink of making [the film] Bruised,” the star’s directorial debut.
Harry Potter author JK Rowling had been criticised for her comments about trans people.
She was also criticised just days ago when she described hormone therapy and surgery for young trans people as “a new kind of conversion therapy”.