Screenwriter Justin Theroux has responded to backlash over a character deemed offensive to trans and non-binary individuals by LGBT activists.

 
 
Justin Theroux has said he is “hurt” by an online petition to boycott his film Zoolander 2 over the portrayal of a non-binary character.

Last month, the long-awaited trailer for Zoolander 2 was unveiled – which featured Benedict Cumberbatch as an androgynous model. Many commentators have blasted the filmmaker for his “mockery” of non-binary people.

The petition, which now has over 21,000 signatures states:

“In the Zoolander 2 trailer, an androgynous character played by Benedict Cumberbatch is asked by Zoolander and Hansel if he is a ‘male or female model’, and if they ‘have a hot dog or a bun’. Additionally, Cumberbatch’s character is clearly portrayed as an over-the-top, cartoonish mockery of androgyne/trans/non-binary individuals. This is the modern equivalent of using blackface to represent a minority.

If the producers and screenwriters of Zoolander wanted to provide social commentary on the presence of trans/androgyne individuals in the fashion industry, they could have approached models like Andreja Pejic to be in the film. By hiring a cis actor to play a non-binary individual in a clearly negative way, they film endorses harmful and dangerous perceptions of the queer community at large.”

Theroux told the Wrap, “I don’t even know what to make of it, because it hurts my feelings in a way. I take great care in the jokes I write, and the umbrage being taken is out of the context of the scene. I wish people would see the movie first.”

This is not the first time that Theroux has been caught in a controversy over a character in one of his films. In 2008’s Tropic Thunder, he was blasted for Robert Downey Jr donning ‘blackface’ for the portrayal of Kirk Lazarus.