Actress Alexandra Shipp is once again speaking out against haters who say her skin isn’t dark enough to play Storm in the X-Men franchise.
Last year, Shipp faced criticism online after being cast as the black female superhero Storm – a role originated by Halle Berry in the first X-Men films. When her casting was announced ahead of 2016’s “X-Men: Apocalypse” she received backlash because she wasn’t “black enough” to play the superhero. At the time, Shipp hit back calling the entire conversation “stupid”: “This conversation about Storm is so stupid, I’m out…. If I lose my job to another actress, I hope it’s for her talent and grace, not her skin [colour].”
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Now, the 26-year-old is opening up again about clapping back at the online haters.
“[I tweeted back] at people who criticized me for not having dark enough skin for my role in ‘X-Men’ because we’re not going to have this conversation about a cartoon character,” she tells Glamour. “You’re not going to tell me that my skin colour doesn’t match a Crayola from 1970.”
“Growing up, when I was reading the comics, I pictured her looking like me,” the “Love, Simon” actress continues. “For any black girl, for there to be a black superhero, we picture them looking like us. So when I auditioned for the role, I wasn’t like, ‘Oh man, I’m not dark enough.’ I was like, ‘Finally, this is my moment.'”
After all, says Shipp, she’s playing a comic book character, not a real-life person.
“I’m not playing Harriet Tubman with a prosthetic nose and darkening my skin tone,” she adds. “I would never do that.”
The star-studded, Montreal-shot “X-Men: Dark Phoenix” with Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Sophie Turner, Nicholas Hoult and Jessica Chastain is slated to open in theatres in February.
