A promotional clip of the film's Italian-language version has caused outraged on social media for the dubbing of the 'Orange is the New Black' star's performance by an actor identified as Roberto Pedicini.
- May 13, 2021
AceShowbiz - Movie bosses have postponed the Italian-language release of Carey Mulligan's "Promising Young Woman" following an outcry over the use of a male actor to dub over Laverne Cox's lines.
The transgender star portrays Gail in the revenge thriller, but fans expressed outrage on social media after a promotional clip of the film revealed Cox's performance had been dubbed into Italian by a deep-voiced actor, identified as Roberto Pedicini.
Universal Pictures International (UPI) chiefs have since apologised for the controversy, and have put the planned Thursday, May 13 launch of "Promising Young Woman" in the country on hold until the audio can be re-recorded with a female artist.
They have also promised to have all of Cox's dialogue in the Spanish and German versions redubbed, as male actors had originally been used to record local versions there, too.
A UPI spokesperson has since told Britain's The Guardian studio executives are "deeply grateful" to the transgender community for "opening our eyes to a bias that neither we nor many in our industry had recognised".
"While there was no malicious intent behind this mistake, we are working diligently to fix it," they add. "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."
The statement concluded, "[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."
Transgender rights activists have noted it's not the first time Cox's roles have been re-recorded for different territories with a male actor taking her place - men have also previously performed her roles in "Orange is the New Black", "The Mindy Project", and "Doubt".
