Gabrielle Union Regrets Not Allowing Her ‘Bring It On’ Character To Express Anger: I Failed Isis

Gabrielle Union Regrets Not Allowing Her ‘Bring It On’ Character To Express Anger: I Failed Isis

Gabrielle Union‘s Bring It On role was huge for her–but she has some lingering regrets over how she portrayed her character, Isis.

Earlier today (Tuesday, Sept. 14th), Gabrielle Union‘s new book–You Got Anything Stronger?–was released. In the book, Gabrielle Union reflects on her breakthrough film role, Isis in 2000’s Bring It On.

While her role was well-received, Gabrielle Union shared that she has a couple of regrets over how she played the character. While promoting her book yesterday (Monday, Sept. 13th), Gabrielle Union revealed:

“I do think it was a mistake. I was given full range to do whatever I wanted with Isis in Bring It On, and I chose respectability. To be classy and take the high road. I felt like that would make her the ‘appropriate,’ the ‘right’ kind of Black girl. Black girls aren’t allowed to be angry, certainly not demonstratively angry, and I muzzled her.”

She added:

“I realized I need to come to grips and acknowledge where I failed Isis. When given full control, I made her appropriate.”

When asked what she would’ve done differently with her Isis character, Gabrielle Union stated:

“Read the Toros for filth… I would’ve allowed her to be angry. I would have allowed her her full humanity, and part of being a full human is the ability to express rage when harmed. When you don’t really allow yourself your full range of emotion and you muzzle your own emotions, it allows people to think ‘Maybe what I did wasn’t that bad.’ I would have given her all the anger.”

She also revealed that, while she attempted to tone down her Isis character, many still consider her to be a villain within Bring It On:

“I had muzzled her, I made her gracious–like this decent, kind leader, and I was still [considered] a villain in that movie for making her want accountability for the theft of their work product and the cultural appropriation. And I was still a villain.”

What do you think about Gabrielle Union’s statements? Comment down below to let us know!