Actress dropped from stage production of ‘The Color Purple’ after homophobic tweets resurfaced
Seyi Omooba was set to play abuse survivor Celie in the Curve and Birmingham Hippodrome production
By Steve Brown
An actress has been dropped from a stage production of The Color Purple after homophobic tweets were resurfaced.
Seyi Omooba was cast to star in a stage production of the popular 1982 novel by Alice Walker which follows Celie who is an abuse survivor who learns to be independent after meeting Shug, a woman who she has an intimate and sexual relationship with.
However, Omooba – who was set to star as Celie in the Curve and Birmingham Hippodrome theatre production – has now been dropped after Hamilton star Aaron Lee shared a screenshot to Twitter where the actress said she doesn’t believe being gay is right.
@Seyiomooba Do you still stand by this post? Or are you happy to remain a hypocrite? Seeing as you’ve now been announced to be playing an LGBTQ character, I think you owe your LGBTQ peers an explanation. Immediately. pic.twitter.com/GK2xbzZYgy
— Aaron Lee Lambert (@aleelambert) March 15, 2019
After the post went viral, Chris Stafford and Nikolai Foster, from the Curve, and Fiona Allan on behalf of Birmingham Hippodrome wrote in a statement: “On Friday 15 March a social media post dating from 2014, which was written by the The Color Purple cast member Seyi Omooba, was re-posted on Twitter.
“The comments made by Seyi in that post have caused significant and widely expressed concerns both on social media and in the wider press.
“Following careful reflection it has been decided that Seyi will no longer be involved with the production. This decision was supported by the Authors and Theatrical Rights Worldwide.
“The audition process, as ever, was conducted professionally and rigorously, led by an exceptional casting director with actors who are evaluated on what they present in the audition room. We do not operate a social media screening process in the casting of actors.”