Black Panther's Letitia Wright Blasts Story Criticizing Star's 'Personal Baggage'

It has got to be tricky to be a world-famous celebrity who is a part of one of the biggest entertainment franchises ever known. Besides the glitz and glamour, one must be particularly careful about what one says these days, especially if one is employed by a family-orientated business like Disney. This is even more important if one is expressing a controversial opinion, which can quickly cause a star to be censured or outright fired — just ask Gina Carano, who lost a cushy job on "The Mandalorian" after doubling down on some offensive social media posts, as reported by The Guardian.

Letitia Wright, who plays the sister of T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) named Shuri in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, found herself in hot water in 2020. According to CNN, Wright had shared Covid conspiracies on Twitter, which immediately caused a fan backlash that called for her to be fired. Although she initially defended herself, she eventually relented and ended up deleting most of her social media accounts. Don Cheadle, an "Avengers: Endgame" costar, even had to express his opinion over this issue and tweeted, "i would never defend anybody posting this. but i still won't throw her away over it. the rest i'll take off twitter." From that point on, Wright generally seemed to keep her opinions to herself, but it looks like that has recently changed since she has responded to an article that she claims is inflammatory.

As reported by People, Wright said of her 2020 mistake, "I feel it's something I experienced two years ago and I have in a healthy way moved on. And in a healthy way I've apologized and deleted my Twitter. I just apologized for any hurt that was caused to anybody." Unfortunately, it looks like her previous and now deleted post has not been forgotten. On November 21, 2022, The Hollywood Reporter published an article that listed several different actors and how their personal baggage may affect their chances of winning awards, with the most prominent example being Will Smith and the infamous "slap heard 'round the world." Of course, Letitia Wright was also mentioned in this article for her past comments, which immediately invoked a response from the actress.

According to Insider, Wright took to her Instagram story and wrote a scathing rebuttal to this article, which started off by saying, "I had to unblock @hollywoodreporter just to post this. Scott Feinberg and all at this publication. You're all incredibly disrespectful. How dare you. You mentioned my name alongside men who have been accused of abuse & sexual misconduct. This is vile behavior. At this point a personal vendetta towards me." Although Wright has apologized for her 2020 comments, it seems like the shadow of her opinion still haunts her to this day, though the actress has stated that she has moved on from this controversial moment in her life. However, these weren't the only words Wright had regarding this most recent article claiming that her past behavior disqualifies her from award ceremonies.

Letitia Wright continued her response to The Hollywood Reporter article, saying, "I've done nothing wrong but respectfully refused to do interviews with this publication. Stop your nonsense. I apologized TWO years ago. Remained silent on the topic. You lied and said I continued talking about it with my cast & crew on my set. THIS WAS NOT TRUE. ASK MY PRODUCER AND DIRECTOR. Your agenda towards me is now even more clear. I won't remain silent. Stop your disgusting behavior."

Wright also wrote that she felt like this article represented a personal vendetta against her, which is the second time that she used those words to describe said article. She added that she had received death threats and has had people tell her to kill herself from her 2020 social media post. Since then, she has kept her head down and focused on her acting. Wright then berated The Hollywood Reporter and wondered what was the purpose of putting her name in such a nasty article.

Letitia Wright continued her admonishment of The Hollywood Reporter and said that she and the rest of the cast and crew worked exceptionally hard on "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" and that they dedicated the movie to their brother, Chadwick Boseman. She finished her statement by being completely shocked at the gall of the article, asking the rhetorical question of how dare they. In other words, it seems like Wright does not like being lumped together with currently maligned actors like Will Smith.

In response, The Hollywood Reporter issued a statement to Insider, which said, "I sincerely appreciate the feedback and dialogue surrounding this column. While the intent was not to equate Letitia Wright's situation with others mentioned in the article and we underscored that in the story (which was assigned to Scott), we also understand that some saw this in a different way. We have featured Letitia on our cover and cited her great talent in reviews and look forward to continuing to chronicle her career." This is a rather diplomatic response from the website, though it definitely sounds like they have earned the ire of the famous "Black Panther" actress.