After an offensive casting call description for its N.W.A. biopic went viral, Universal Pictures has issued an apology.
The studio released a statement Thursday (July 17) -- which notably clears the filmmakers themselves of any wrongdoing. The statement says, "the filmmakers ... did not approve and do not condone the information in this casting notice. We regret and sincerely apologize for being in any way associated with the offensive descriptions it contained."
The makers of the forthcoming N.W.A. biopic were accused of racism after the casting call, which appears to rank potential applicants by their skin tone and hair texture, was posted onto Facebook by Sande Alessi Casting.
TMZ offered up a breakdown of the mind-blowing casting call descriptions.
The casting agency used an A, B, C, D scale to group the women.
A) "Hottest of the hottest. Models" (open to women of any race)
B) "Fine ... Beyonce is a protoype here" (light-skinned women)
C) African American girls ... Medium to light skinned with a weave
D) "These are African American girls. Poor, not in good shape. Medium to dark skin tone."
When asked about the description, a rep from the agency only appeared to add insult to injury, saying the ad was an "innocent mistake."
The rep also clarified that when it comes to casting the "poor" people, they're also looking for women of various skin tones and body types.
Once the post went viral, with people on Twitter calling it racist, the agency quickly removed it from Facebook.
During an interview with Jet magazine, the agency blamed the controversy on a misunderstanding of the extras' letter grades.
"It is not by any means a ranking of 'A [Girls]' is better than 'B [Girls]'," claimed Kristan Berona, co-owner of Alessi. "It was just an unfortunate mistake in the lettering that has caused us backlash ... [and by] no means intended to be offensive to anybody in a million years."
Whatever the truth is about the A - D "rankings," you'd have to think a lot of people would throw major shade at the agency just for listing Beyonce as anything but "hottest of the hottest." What do you think? Was the agency racist? And were they clueless on Beyonce? Let us know in the comments!
