Amandla Stenberg, outstanding 23-year old actress whose breakthrough role was playing Rue in The Hunger Games a decade ago, DM’d New York Times film critic Lena Wilson after her unfavorable review of Stenberg’s new film Bodies Bodies Bodies to suggest that Lena was too busy looking at her breasts.
Amandla reached her conclusion because Wilson wrote in her review that, “the only thing that really set it apart is its place in the A24 hype machine, where it doubles as a 95-minute advertisement for cleavage and Charli XCX’s latest single.”
Though Stenberg later stated that she is tired of people talking about her chest, it’s worth noting that Lena Wilson never specifically mentioned Stenberg’s chest.
The DM that Wilson received from Amandla specifically reads, “ur review was great, maybe if you had gotten ur eyes off my t**s you could’ve watched the movie!”
Stenberg received some backlash for choosing to DM a film critic who gave her movie a not-so-great review, though others defended her choice. Most comments were of the “Why would she do that?” type, while others applauded her move.
Here are some examples of the differing opinions on Twitter:
As Lena Wilson publicly showed the DM’s, she stated, “Always weird when the homophobia is coming from inside the house but this is something.”
Lena has since made her Twitter account private.
Amandla Stenberg then responded to the backlash and to Wilson’s accusations of her being homophobic, with a video where she says, amongst other things, “I thought my DM was funny. Lena is gay. I’m also gay. I thought that as gay people we would both find this comment funny.”
Amandla ends the video with a message for Lena. “You’re allowed to have your criticisms of my work and I’m allowed to have my criticisms of your work.” Stenberg also stated, “I did not mean to harass you or wish you any harm.”
Bodies Bodies Bodies, which also co-stars Pete Davidson, was released nationwide in theaters in the United States on August 12 after an exclusive L.A. and New York opening a week earlier, and has received generally favorable reviews, including our own.
On an interesting side note, Star Wars fans are greatly anticipating the Disney Plus series Acolyte, which will star Amandla Stenberg in the lead role. Amandla recently praised the Star Wars fandom.
Acolyte is expected to be released in late 2023 or early 2024, and will take place about a hundred years before the events of Phantom Menace, depicting the reawakening of the Sith.
We look forward to Lena Wilson’s review of it.