Photo by: Frazer Harrison/Staff
Gabrielle Union shared a bombshell about her 2000 film Bring it On on Jan. 8 while conducting a story time trend on TikTok. Union’s story time involves speaking directly into the camera and recounting an unknown fact that the film’s production used to gain more viewership.
Union revealed in the post that the Black characters she, Shamari DeVoe, Natina Reed, and Brandi Williams played in Bring it On shot additional scenes for the trailer to give the impression that they were more involved in the film.
“Storytime,” Union exclaimed. “So, we shot these snippets that you see here after the movie wrapped, because once test audiences saw the movie, they wanted more of The Clovers.”
The cult movie follows The Toros, a high school cheerleading squad, find its former captain stole their award-winning routines from The Clovers, a team from an inner-city school.
Source: Universal Pictures / Universal Pictures
“So, we shot these only for the trailer, not for the movie, to make people think we were in the movie more than we were,” the 49-year-old actress shared. “The end.”
Many fans commented on Union’s post on social media about how the production used Black folks to sell the film to audiences.
“Yea, they needed the Black faces to sell basically,” one fan stated.
Another person said, “Production realized real quick after it aired nobody wanted that unseasoned team like that.”
Other fans pointed out how production of the film focuses on how a predominantly wealthy White cheerleading teams steals and appropriated a Black cheerleading team’s cheers to become more successful.
“That’s f’d up,” one exclaimed! “Whole movie about white people stealing black people ish && becoming more successful off of their skin color and privilege. It seems like The Clovers are in the movie a lot but they only have a few scenes. I been saying this. Actors can have a big part in a storyline but only be physically seen once or twice.”
Source: Universal Pictures / Universal Pictures
Others voiced their disappointment that the clips were not included in the original film, in addition to the “production” remarks.
“I’m kinda upset cus I would’ve loved to see more of the clovers, especially while in their prime,” one person expressed.
Union’s claims have received no response from either Beacon Pictures, the film’s production firm, or Universal Pictures, the film’s distributor.
Neither Beacon Pictures, the film’s production company, or Universal Pictures, the distributor, has reacted to Union’s claims.
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