Photo: Merie Weismiller Wallace / Focus Features
The Italian release ofPromising Young Womanis coming under fire for dubbingLaverne Cox’s voice with that of a male actor.
A source close to the film tells PEOPLE Cox was not aware of who dubbed her, “but provisions have been put in place to prevent this from ever happening again.”
In a statement toThe Guardian, Universal Pictures International said, “We are deeply grateful to Laverne and the transgender community for opening our eyes to a bias that neither we nor many in our industry recognized. While there was no malicious intent behind this mistake, we are working diligently to fix it. We have begun redubbing Ms. Cox’s voice with female actors in our international territories and are pushing back release dates to ensure the correct version is available.”
“We are sorry for the pain caused but are thankful that we can address the situation on this film and prevent similar mistakes from happening again on future projects,” the statement concluded.
The film clip received widespread backlash with Italian voice actress Vittoria Schisano, a trans woman, tellingThe Guardian, “I think this dubbing choice was a straight-up act of violence.”
“It’s insulting,” Schisano continued. “I’d feel bullied if I were [Cox].” Schisano previously dubbed Cox for the Netflix documentaryAmend: The Fight for Americaand was the Italian voice for the trans character Natalie inBig Mouth.
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Universal Pictures International will also re-voice other versions ofPromising Young Womanin countries like Spain and Germany, where a male actor was originally hired to dub over Cox’s performance.
Cox’s breakthrough came from her performance of Sophia Burset inOrange Is the New Black. She became the first transgender person to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in any acting category.
source: people.com
