Gabrielle Union Has One Regret From Starring in ‘Bring It On’

She addressed her regret in an apology letter to her character Isis.

In her brand new book, You Got Anything Stronger?, which dropped September 14th, Gabrielle Union opens up many wounds in order to connect with others who may be going through similar experiences. And in one section of the book, Union writes an apology to her character Isis from the 2000 movie Bring It On.

“I do think it was a mistake,” Union said in a September 13th interview on Good Morning America of how she portrayed Isis. “I was given full range to do whatever I wanted with Isis in Bring It On and I chose respectability and to be classy and take the high road because I felt like that would make her the appropriate—the right kind—of Black girl.”

Black girls aren’t allowed to be angry, Union continued, adding, certainly not demonstratively angry. And I muzzled her.

“So last summer, it was the 20th anniversary of Bring It On and we’re doing all these panels … and we’re talking about a sequel,” Union continued. “And we’re all like, ‘we should do a sequel, but this time it should focus on The Clovers and Isis and she should be written by a Black person.’ And I realized that I need to come to grips and acknowledge where I failed Isis. When given full control, I made her appropriate.”

So, how would she approach Isis’s character if she had to do it all over again? “[Isis would have] read the Toros for filth,” Union joked. “I would have been like, ‘Yeah, when you had to do your own work, it wasn’t enough. You came in second. Take that L.'”

I would have allowed her to be angry. I would have allowed her her full humanity and part of being a full human is the ability to express rage when harmed.

And Union said she was shocked to find out that Isis was considered a villain even after she had gone through the effort to make her “respectable.”

“I made her gracious, decent, kind leader, and I was still a villain…for making her want accountability for the theft of their work product and the cultural appropriation,” she told GMA. “I did all that shape-shifting for a character, realizing I was doing that to myself too.”

We are so ready to see Isis 2.0 on screen. That Bring It On sequel can’t come soon enough.

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