Orange Is the New Black Star Laverne Cox Speaks Out About Julianne Hough's Blackface Costume

Netflix star said that the DWTS' alum "seemed to be completely unaware of the historical implications going in"

By Jenna Mullins Oct 30, 2013 12:03 AMTags
Julianne Hough, Laverne Cox, Orange is the New BlackDevone Byrd, PacificCoastNews; Netflix

In case you've been in a sugar coma for the past week (we know you've been eating the candy meant for trick-or-treaters), Julianne Hough, in what her brother Derek Hough told us "wasn't her brightest moment," went as Orange Is the New Black character Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren for Halloween in blackface. Obviously, this didn't settle well with...basically anybody.

Hough quickly apologized on Twitter, and while the actress who plays Crazy Eyes, Uzo Aduba, hasn't responded to the controversy, her costar Laverne Cox is speaking out.

Entertainment Weekly spoke to Cox at Monday night's TV Academy event celebrating LGBT characters, and while she agreed it was flattering of Hough and her friends to dress up as the cast for Halloween, she certainly did not approve of the Dancing With the Stars' alum's choice to do blackface.

"I think it's great she likes our show. Crazy Eyes is my favorite character besides mine, too," she told the site. "But it's really interesting that she doesn't seem to understand. It's historically tricky in this country to re-create blackface. I'm not opposed to someone having their form of expression, but she seemed to be completely unaware of the historical implications going in, and I think that's problematic. If you want to make a choice like that, I think it's important to understand the historical context you are walking into."

She adds about people honoring Orange Is the New Black for Halloween: "It's so amazingly flattering. I don't know if that's a sign that you've made it, but it's wonderful."

Hough posted an apology on her Twitter last Saturday, insisting she was a huge fan of the show and of Aduba's. "It certainly was never my intention to be disrespectful or demeaning to anyone in any way," she wrote. "I realize my costume hurt and offended people and I truly apologize."

After Monday night's episode of DWTS, Derek talked to us about the backlash against his sister.

"She's so apologetic. She's so, so sorry and I just hope that we can all forgive her and move on," he said. "She's my little baby sister and she's the sweetest thing ever. She is just beyond beside herself."

Orange Is the New Black is currently filming season two in New York.