Amandla Stenberg thinks that some people are taking the title Bodies Bodies Bodies too literally.
On Thursday, Stenberg took to Instagram to thank fans for watching her “95-minute advertisement for cleavage,” which is in reference to a review of the film published by the New York Times. The review, written by the publication’s project manager and film critic Lena Wilson, remarked that the campy thriller “doubles as a 95-minute advertisement for cleavage and Charli XCX’s latest single.”
In the now-deleted stories, Stenberg said she reached out to Wilson through direct message and said “ur review was great. maybe if you had gotten ur eyes off my tits, you could’ve watched the movie,” in reference to their shared sexuality.
However, Wilson did not see the humor in the message and shared the screenshot, which shows that she blocked the actress, on her now-private Twitter account to ask if Stenberg also reached out to other critics. She also said, “Always weird when the homophobia is coming from inside the house but this is something.”
Wilson then made a TikTok about the situation and said, “I don’t want this person who has more social power than me to think that it’s fucking okay to do something like this.”
@neilsmom unfathomably weird to get “i don’t want you in the locker room while i’m changing” bullying from a whole other lesbian
♬ original sound - Lena Wilson
Stenberg went on Instagram to dispel the homophobia accusations, explaining: “I thought it was hilarious. I thought because Lena is gay, and I am also gay... as gay people, we would both find this comment funny. I was also curious to know what Lena would say to such a statement. Lena decided to publish it and also says that I am homophobic for saying that.”
While the original review did not name Stenberg directly, many felt that the comment was directed towards her because of the tank top she wore throughout the film. “It's quite surprising the amount of commentary I receive on my boobs,” the actress explained. “I do get tired of people talking about my chest. There seems to be a lot of unwarranted conversation about my chest.”
She further went on to publicly apologize to Wilson, saying: “Lena, I thought your review was hilarious. I thought my DM was funny. I did not mean to harass you. I do not wish you any harm. You are allowed to have your criticism on my work and I'm allowed to have my criticisms of your work. I wish you the best.”
Wilson made another tweet that seemed to clarify the meaning of the initial “cleavage” comment by explaining that A24 objectifies young women, but said that “random men on twitter dot com” and Stenberg took the comment as “Local Dyke Cannot Stop Talking About Boobies.” Stenberg reposted a screenshot of the tweet on her story and said, “I will change my bio to Local Dyke Cannot Stop Talking About Boobies if you will?”
At least Amandla is a good sport about it. Maybe we should all change our social media bios to that for a day?
Photo via Billy Farrell/BFA