Wright criticized 'The Hollywood Reporter's article seemingly likening her 'personal baggage' with celebrities charged with assault.
Black Panther star Letitia Wright is speaking out against The Hollywood Reporter's story naming her as one of three actors potentially vying for awards-season glory with "personal baggage."
Wright took to her Instagram page to call out THR reporter Scott Feinberg for writing up a story that appeared to group her with "men who have been accused of abuse & sexual misconduct." The actress included a screenshot of the article and headline, calling the piece "vile behavior."
"You're all incredibly disrespectful. How dare you. You mentioned my name alongside men who have been accused of abuse & sexual misconduct. This is vile behavior. At this point a personal vendetta towards me," Wright wrote. "I've done nothing wrong but respectfully refused to do interviews with this publication. Stop your nonsense."
"I apologised TWO years ago," the 29-year-old added. "Remained silent on the topic. You lied and said I continued talking about it with my cast & crew on my set. THIS WAS NOT TRUE. ASK MY PRODUCER AND DIRECTOR. The film was successful. Your agenda towards me is now even more clear. I won't remain silent. Stop your disgusting behavior."
"I've remained silent as the world told me to kill myself two years ago for a video I posted and apologised for. I kept my head down and focused on my craft. And now I'm at the other side of it," the actress wrote in a second Story. "Here you are, as a so called journalist we are meant to trust, putting my name into this nasty article for what?"
She ended her slides by writing, "The movie is beautiful, impactful and breaking box office. I worked my a** off with my cast and crew to dedicate it to my Brother. How dare you. Did my performance rattle you that much? It was that excellent, huh? I'm still here, still making impact, still creating projects that touch people's hearts and it's not going to stop. Get a life, like for real."
In a statement to ET, THR's Editor-In-Chief, Nekesa Mumbi Moody responded to Wright's comments by saying, "I sincerely appreciate the feedback and dialogue surrounding this column. While the intent was not to equate Letitia Wright's situation with others mentioned in the article and we underscored that in the story (which was assigned to Scott), we also understand that some saw this in a different way."
"We have featured Letitia on our cover and cited her great talent in reviews and look forward to continuing to chronicle her career," Moody added.
Wright's "personal baggage" refers to the controversy stirred by a now-deleted tweet from the actor back in December 2020, where she shared a video of someone expressing skepticism about the COVID-19 vaccine. The video featured Tomi Arayomi questioning the COVID-19 vaccine and climate change, while also accusing China of spreading the virus and reportedly making transphobic comments.
In an apology post at that time, Wright wrote, "If you don't conform to popular opinions but ask questions and think for yourself....you get cancelled. My intention was not to hurt anyone, my ONLY intention of posting the video was it raised my concerns with what the vaccine contains and what we are putting in our bodies. Nothing else."
Then in October 2020, THR alleged that Wright was unvaccinated for COVID-19 and had been vocally skeptical of vaccinations while on the set of Wakanda Forever, citing an unnamed "set source."
A week after the THR report, Wright posted to Instagram that the article was "completely untrue."
"It saddens me to have to address the reports published by The Hollywood Reporter on October 6th 2021. The report spoke about my conduct on the set of Black Panther 2. I honestly assert that this was completely untrue," Wright wrote. "Anyone who knows me or has worked with me, knows that I work incredibly hard at my craft & my main focus is always to do work that’s impactful and inspiring. That has been & will continue to be my only focus."
In a recent interview with The Guardian, Wright addressed the anti-vax scandal, saying that she has apologized and "moved on" from the controversy.
"I feel it's something I experienced two years ago and I have in a healthy way moved on," she told the outlet. "And in a healthy way, I've apologized and deleted my Twitter. I just apologized for any hurt that was caused to anybody."
Although Wright has never shared her vaccination status, others have spoken out in defense of the actress.
In a cover story for Variety, co-star Angela Basset noted that she never heard Wright discuss vaccines while making the film. Producer Nate Moore said the same, noting that vaccination status wasn't "a question we asked of anybody, to be quite honest."
"She never talked about her views either way. We read the stories that I would argue were unfair, because I don't know where they're coming from," he added. "As someone who literally is on set next to the monitor all the time, I feel like I would have heard it."
Last month, She-Hulk star Jameela Jamil responded to a fan that brought up the controversy on Twitter, writing, "It has been *repeatedly* clarified that she is not anti vaccine and that the rumors about her behavior were false. Yes a video was posted early on, but frankly I'm with any Black person who is at least skeptical of scientific experiments, which at first, the vaccines were."
The two other actors mentioned in the Hollywood Reporter article are Will Smith, who resigned from the Academy after slapping Chris Rock across the face during last year's Oscars ceremony, and Brad Pitt, whose ex-wife, Angelina Jolie, claims he "choked" one of their children and "struck another in the face" before allegedly pouring beer on her and beer and wine on the children during a "tense" 2016 private jet ride that led to the actress filing for divorce within days of the alleged incident.
Smith has since released a video in which he apologized to the comedian, calling his behavior "unacceptable" and expressing his deep remorse.
The article seemingly compared the three actors' chances in the upcoming awards season, mentioning other actors and directors who have been accused of, or charged with, physical or sexual abuse but remained relatively unscathed in the public eye, including Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, Mel Gibson and Casey Affleck.
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