Australian actor Rebel Wilson has publicly apologised after fans took issue with comments made while promoting her upcoming film Isn't It Romantic.
Appearing on The Ellen De Generes show on October 31st, Wilson, stated that she was "the first ever plus-size girl to be the star of a romantic comedy," forgetting about other stars such as Queen L'atifah, Mo'Nique and Melissa McCarthy. Wilson was not only accused of erasing plus-size actresses who have helped pave the way for her career, she blocked a number of critics who called her out on the statement.
Today, Wilson offered a mea culpa, posting a series of tweets:
"In a couple of well-intentioned moments, hoping to lift my fellow plus sized women up, I neglected to show the proper respect to those who climbed this mountain before me like Mo'Nique, Queen Latifah, Melissa McCarthy, Ricki Lake and likely many others. With the help of some very compassionate and well-thought out responses from others on social media, I now realize what I said was not only wrong but also incredibly hurtful. To be part of a problem I was hoping I was helping makes it that much more embarrassing & hard to acknowledge."
Wilson had initially doubled down on her orignal claims, stating that what defines a rom-com is a "grey area" and questioning whether the other actresses were actually plus-size. US actor Mo'Nique spoke out about the comment. "Let's please not allow this business to erase our talent with giving grey areas and technicalities," she wrote on Twitter. "Take a moment and know the history."
According to US website, , Wilson was accused of blocking a number of critics, especially those who are women of colour. Author Franchesca Ramsey claims she was blocked by Wilson after querying her initial explanation. Pop culture critic Clarkisha Kent, had a similar experience.
Another of Wilson's critics, Kayla Sutton has revealed why she felt the need to speak out. "What prompted me to step in was the fact that many black women and non-black POC were getting blocked for responding to her, while white women were getting very kind responses," she told .
While Wilson has not addressed the accusations of blocking women of colour, she did admit that she needed to listen to her critics. " because I was hurting from the criticism, but those are the people I actually need to hear from more, not less. Again, I am deeply sorry."
