Gabrielle Union reflected on her role in the 2000 movie, “Bring It On,” and she cops to the movie’s script being a little “cringey.”
“The script was a little cringe-y, so when they offered me the job, I said, ‘Can we make some changes?’ And they were open,” she told Vogue in celebration of the flick’s 20th anniversary.
“She was like a bad stereotype,” she said of her character, Isis.
“There was a line in the original script that was like, ‘Meow! Me-gonna-ow you! My nails are long, sharp, and ready to slash!’…. Huh? And that girl ends up at U.C. Berkeley? How did girls from Compton talk in their minds? How about we make her a very clear leader where her path to cheer justice is done with more class and dignity but also justifiable anger. She doesn’t need to speak in made-up, Blaxploitation dialogue.”
Union says she’s baffled as to why Isis has gone down in cinematic history as a villain.
“It’s interesting because I once saw this poll someone made of great cinema villains and Isis was one of them. I was like, ‘When the f*ck did I become a villain?’ Why is she a villain? For wanting accountability? Does calling someone out make you a villain? When Black women ask for accountability, no matter the tone, some people hear aggression or rage. They make me the angry Black woman versus someone whose work and intellectual property has been stolen, repackaged, and used to win national championships,” she asserts.
“For some people, there’s no space for Black rage,” she added. “Also when people do their impersonations of me in the role, I just wonder, Is that how I sounded? More people seem to remember the spoof of Isis in Not Another Teen Movie. We never say, ‘It’s already been broughten!’ in Bring It On.”
