Actress Letitia Wright is speaking out against a story that named her as one of three possible award-season acting contenders with "personal baggage."
The star of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever wrote an angry post on her official Instagram account late Monday about a story in The Hollywood Reporter by journalist Scott Feinberg that indicated she is potentially problematic. The other actors mentioned were Will Smith and Brad Pitt.
"I had to unblock The Hollywood Reporter just to post this. Scott Feinberg and all at this publication. 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," Wright wrote.
The Hollywood Reporter article said Wright went through "a fair share of bad publicity" for sharing an anti-vaccine video on Twitter in late 2020. The story also referenced an unsourced rumor published last year in The Hollywood Reporter that Wright had espoused anti-vaccine views on the set of the Black Panther sequel. The article noted that Wright denied those rumors but added there was a call on social media to have the actress recast.
As for the "baggage" with Smith, the recent Oscar winner notoriously smacked comedian Chris Rock onstage at this year's Academy Awards ceremony. Pitt, meanwhile, was accused by ex-wife Angelina Jolie of being physically abusive to her and two of their children in a recent legal filing.
In its story on actors with "personal baggage," The Hollywood Reporter also brought up sexual misconduct allegations that have been made against directors Roman Polanski and Woody Allen.
Wright wrote about the rumors of her discussing anti-vax views on the set of the new Black Panther movie in her Instagram post. She pointed out that the film's director, Ryan Coogler, and producer Nate Moore have refuted the claims.
"Stop your nonsense. I apologised TWO years ago. 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," she wrote.
On Tuesday, Wright continued coming after Feinberg. After showing what appeared to be Feinberg's missing Instagram account, the actress tagged The Hollywood Reporter's account and asked about the writer.
"@hollywoodreporter where's your guy? He had the confidence to pull me down & put my name alongside men in the film industry with sexual misconduct cases, abusers and said I shouldn't be considered for my performances. Where is your boy?"
She then followed up with a screengrab of the journalist's Twitter account, saying "there you are."
"Now please proceed to leave me alone," she wrote.
When reached for comment, The Hollywood Reporter responded with a statement from its editor-in-chief, Nekesa Mumbi Moody.
"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," Moody said. "We have featured Letitia on our cover and cited her great talent in reviews and look forward to continuing to chronicle her career."
Newsweek reached out to Wright for comment.
Update 11/22/22 1:35 p.m. ET: This story has been updated to include comment from The Hollywood Reporter.
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Jon Jackson is an Associate Editor at Newsweek based in New York. His focus is on reporting on the Ukraine ... Read more
