Ayo Edebiri has been praised after she was excluded from Black Lives Matter and MeToo movement question in an interview.
Ayo, 29, has been promoting her latest movie, After The Hunt, with fellow actors Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield at the Venice Film Festival.
The film from Luca Guadagnino has been labelled as a post #MeToo psychological thriller, which led to some questions about this movement and Black Lives Matter from the reporter.
The reporter asked ‘What we lost in the politically correct era’ and ‘What we have to expect in Hollywood after the Me Too movement and Black Lives Matter are done.’
She then directed the question at ‘the two of you, Andrew and Julia.’
‘Well, ok,’ said Ayo, looking uncomfortable.
Julia then asked the reporter to repeat herself, adding: ‘With your sunglasses on, I can’t tell which of us you’re talking to.’
The reporter doubled down again, and she was directing the question just at Andrew and Julia, as she repeated the question, with background noise suggesting she had taken her sunglasses off.
Choosing to ignore the comment, Ayo answered: ‘Yeah, I know that that’s not for me, and I don’t know if it’s purposeful if it’s not me, but I just am curious.
‘I don’t think it’s done, I don’t think it’s done at all. I think maybe hashtags might not be used as much, but I do think that there’s work being done by activists, by people, every day, that’s beautiful, important work that’s not finished, that’s really, really, really active – for a reason, because this world is really charged. And that work isn’t finished at all.’
Fans on social media were shocked that Ayo, the only Black woman in the room was excluded from the conversation. They praised her for her grace and ‘class act’ as she navigated the question.
‘After being deliberately excluded, ayo edebiri answering a question about the political state of the hashtag “metoo” and “black lives matter” movement with poise and grace for ‘after the hunt’ press in venice,’ said Writtenbyayo on X.
‘Turning a tense press moment into absolute elegance,’ said Macariotic.
‘They all handled this so well. Ayo of course by claiming her space & making herself clear that she won’t tolerate this. Julia for calling it out & making them repeat that dumbass question giving them a chance to fix the mistake. And Andrew for immediately bowing out of the question,’ said FaboooLouLou,
Others were disappointed that The Bear actress was put in this position, and was forced to be gracious.
‘One thing we’re not talking enough about: how Ayo Edebiri *had* to be gracious in dealing with this appalling behavior and question because she would’ve been criticized for being “unprofessional” or “rude” or every other dogwhistle in the bag,’ said blewis1103.
The Opus actress has frequently spoken about how cultural shifts have impacted the screen. In 2020, she took over as voice actor for the character Missy in Big Mouth, a Black character that was originally voiced by white actress Jenny Slate.
Ayo was originally a writer on the show, and spoke about how the creators of the show addressed the change, with Slate releasing a statement about why she felt it was no longer right for her to voice the character.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Ayo said: ‘It was interesting then getting to be in the room and getting to actually see how it was dealt with and how the change was dealt with and how the conversation was dealt with.
‘I’ve been thinking about a lot about how so much has changed, like even in my lifetime. Sometimes I’ll watch older movies, and often not even that old, and they’re using slurs that are unbelievable and people are pretending to be people with disabilities and winning Oscars, and you’re like, “Huh?” We discovered that this was wrong and we’ve corrected it.’
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