Gabrielle Union revealed on Jan. 8 while doing a storytime trend on TikTok a secret about her 2000 film “Bring it On.” A storytime challenge consists of an individual speaking directly into the camera, telling a supposed true story that occurred in their life.
In the post, Union disclosed that the Black characters that she, Shamari DeVoe, Natina Reed, and Brandi Williams portrayed in “Bring it On” shot additional scenes for the trailer to trick audience members into thinking they were more involved in the movie.
“Bring it On” follows The Toros, a high school cheerleading squad, that discovered their former captain stole their award-winning routines from The Clovers, an inner-city school’s team.
While describing the trailer’s “snippets,” Union said, “Storytime! So we shot these snippets that you see here after the movie wrapped, because once test audiences saw the movie, they wanted more of The Clovers.”
The actress added, “So we shot these only for the trailer, not for the movie, to make people think we were in the movie more than we were. The end.” As Union’s post circulated on social media, many fans mentioned how production used Black people to sell the film to viewers.
“Yea, they needed the Black faces to sell basically.”
“Production realized real quick after it aired nobody wanted that unseasoned team like that.”
“A.k.a. they wanted the black dollars but they weren’t gonna really put the Black people in it.”
“That’s f’d up! Whole movie about white people stealing black people ish && becoming more successful off of their skin color and privilege. It seems like The Clovers are in the movie a lot but they only have a few scenes. I been saying this. Actors can have a big part in a storyline but only be physically seen once or twice.”
“They been bamboozling black people for funds.”
In addition to the “production” remarks, others expressed how disappointed they were not to see those clips in the original film. One wrote, “I’m kinda upset cus I would’ve loved to see more of the clovers, especially while in their prime.” Another said, “I was so mad about those scenes not being in the movie.”
Neither Beacon Pictures, the film’s production company, or Universal Pictures, the distributor, has reacted to Union’s claims.
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