With Hollywood recently coming under fire for the sheer number of animated series featuring white people voicing Black and Brown characters, as well as the ongoing discussions about diversity and inclusivity in films and TV shows, it’s hard to imagine anyone would be as tone-deaf as Halle Berry appears to be when discussing a new role where she’ll play a trans man. But yet, it seems as if the actress is not only talking about how excited she is to take on the role, but she also is excited to “experience” the world of a trans person.
In an Instagram live video (via Pink News), Berry talked about her role in an upcoming, unnamed film and said, “[The role is] 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.”
The actress continued, “This project got pitched to me right when I was the brink of making ‘Bruised,’ but I so was in the mindset of getting in the body to play that, and I don’t know how long I can play an MMA character, so I had to get that out… but this got pitched to me, and I thought, after I do this movie, that’s the character I’m going to play.”
Of course, it’s unclear what film she’s exactly talking about, let alone when it might be released. But given the blowback that Scarlett Johansson received for attempting to star in a similar role a couple of years ago, it’s likely that Berry isn’t going to get a ton of support for this idea.
In recent years, there has been a big push to hire trans actors to portray trans people in films and TV series. This comes after Jeffrey Tambor earned rave reviews and awards for his role in “Transparent,” portraying a trans woman. From there, the discussion has joined the larger push for more diversity and inclusivity in Hollywood, with studios and filmmakers making a concerted effort to hire diverse and inclusive talent for acting roles and behind-the-scenes gigs.
“I want to experience that world, understand that world,” Berry added. “I want to deep dive in that in the way I did ‘Bruised.’ 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. That’s what I want to experience and understand and 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.”
Needless to say, Berry will likely hear quite a bit of criticism if she chooses to move forward with her upcoming project.
You can see a portion of the discussion below:
