Gabrielle Union was a guest at this weekend’s virtual American Black Film Festival. During the Minding Her Business panel she talked about the hardest things that she has experienced throughout her 20+ year career in Hollywood.
Union has been vocal about why she left America’s Got Talent after accusing the show of having a toxic and racist work environment. She also recently spoke about the lack of diversity in hair and makeup on set. During the panel, Union talked more about the emotional turmoil caused by her leaving and calling out AGT, including how it affected her team. Here are a few quotes from the panel:
“Probably the ‘AGT’ of it all was so surprising and so heartbreaking and so frustrating and so unnecessary. That would be probably the hardest part (of my time in the industry),” she said during the discussion, moderated by Raymone Jackson, national diversity officer at Morgan Stanley.
Union, 47, has been vocal about her experiences at the NBC reality competition, including her accusations of a toxic, racist environment on the show’s set, following her and fellow judge Julianne Hough’s exits last year after one season.
Union said other difficult aspects of the “AGT” situation were “it feeling like such a public flogging and just standing in my truth and standing on the side of employee rights and knowing there’s a better way of doing business.
“But that whole process was really brutal and knowing that I brought my team into that, it just sucked,” she said.
“We face a lot of rejection in this business,” she said. “Anytime someone says yes to us you get so excited because we don’t hear yes that often, and sometimes those yeses are masking a host of trouble and problematic behavior. … Perhaps you don’t want to be someone’s racial guinea pig.”
The last few years have felt like a reckoning in Hollywood. Many, especially women and BIPOC, have been exposing the underbelly of the industry and standing up for themselves.
What I love about the transformation Gabrielle has gone through is her willingness to stick her neck out and stand up for herself. In doing so she is creating a path for others coming behind her. I am not surprised that Hollywood struggles with racism and sexism. The more celebrities expose the issues from the inside the better. We cannot change something we ignore.
I believe her when she says the process was brutal. Racism and just talking about it is exhausting and brutal. Needless to say, Gabrielle has definitely made folks over at NBCU uncomfortable and I hope she continues to create new opportunities for others through her production company. As more women and BIPOC continue to create production companies of their own or get into the director’s chair, like Ava Duvernay, Nia DaCosta, and Patty Jenkins to name a few, we will see more diversity in Hollywood films and the storytelling will actually reflect reality.
I applaud Gabrielle for standing up and speaking her truth. Hope there are better things ahead in her future and career.
Love that gray outfit she’s wearing.
It’s good to speak out if you can and have the platform to stand on. Unfortunately many others can’t speak up if they want to continue working in hollywood, so it’s good that Gabriela is doing the heavy lifting.
“Perhaps you don’t want to be someone’s racial guinea pig.“ is such a heartbreaking statement. Hollow attempts at diversity by tokenising BiPoc are so harmful. I’m still shocked at the abuse Nicole Behare suffered on Sleepy Hollow. Time & time again black
womxn are expected to tolerate systemic abuses of power.
Totally agree with you, Oya about how we can’t change what we ignore. I think womxn like Gabrielle Union, Nicole Behare, Thandi Newton & many more are doing important work by calling this toxicity out! However us white people need to actively listen and then take steps to dismantle racism. It’s unacceptable to profit off a black womxn’s work and then treat her like a sacrificial lamb when it’s convenient.
Nicole Beharie was the BEST thing about Sleepy Hollow too, by far. They treated her so very poorly. I’m glad she felt able to speak out about it recently, and I hope better things are ahead for her too.
I stopped watching when she left.
Aisha Dee from the The Bold Type recently spoke out about being a lead actress on a TV show for four seasons with no one able to work with her hair! How does that happen??? And why does it feel like such a risk for her to say something? (We know why…)
Aisha also made excellent points about plotlines for her character that don’t honor who she is. She has the support of her two white co-leads & the network (Freeform) has said they’ll try to do better.
Aisha’s character has been revolutionary – a biracial woman falling in love with a lesbian Muslim immigrant from the Middle East. Hopefully they’ll do better by Aisha & her character.
Thanks for covering this topic, Oya. This is a time of big change in so many ways. I hope we come out the other side with a new, better normal. Gotta put our hands on that moral arc of the universe and keep bending it toward justice.
Staying quiet has never benefitted anyone but the ones comfortable with the status quo, so kudos to her for speaking out continuously. It took a long while for the complaints against Ellen to be taken seriously and they are only just now seeing some changes. People like Terry Crews does a disservice to those affected by abuse or hostility as they deligitimise the complaints being made.
I applaud Gabrielle for sharing her story and am so sorry that she endured it. The toxicity of studio heads is so rampant. Real change must come with more BIPOC and women sitting at the table. And as consumers we must demand these changes and hold them accountable.