In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, executive producer and Arrowverse chief Greg Berlanti responded to some of the backlash surrounding the casting of Ruby Rose as Batwoman. Being no stranger to controversy, Berlanti offered some insight to his thought process for these kinds of issues.
Earlier this year, DC fans were excited to hear that not only would Batwoman be coming to the Arrowverse, but also that she would be played by Orange Is The New Black actress Ruby Rose. It seems like a match made in heaven for the most part but all was not well with some fans on the internet.
For some folks, the biggest complaint against Rose wasn’t that she was gay but rather that she wasn’t ‘gay enough’ for the role. To which the actress responded with this quote just before she shut down her Twitter profile:
“Where on earth did ‘Ruby is not a lesbian therefore she can’t be batwoman’ come from — has to be the funniest most ridiculous thing I’ve ever read. I came out at 12? And have for the past 5 years had to deal with ‘she’s too gay’ how do y’all flip it like that? I didn’t change.”
Since those tweets, the production team has remained relatively quiet up until this interview from Berlanti where he had this to say:
“Whenever you’re bringing change about in any form, there are always conversations that happen. I go all the way back to Dawson’s Creek. Twitter didn’t exist, but we would get boxes of letters expressing opinions in all directions from where we making enough change, should we be making more change, or why did we feel like we needed to do these things? It’s always part of the process, so just focus on the story and make the best episode that you can.”
Now what Berlanti is talking about here with respect to Dawson’s Creek was an episode in which there is an on screen gay kiss. It seems a bit tame this days but this episode was from late 90’s when things were different.
Being no stranger to controversy and yet pressing on, Berlanti is all that concerned with these critiques and is ready to forge ahead with the Arrowverse crossover followed by a pilot for a stand alone Batwoman show.
Thankfully, things are different today and for the majority of audiences, both Rose and Batwoman appear to be well on their way to receiving a warm welcome from DC fans.
Batwoman will appear in the Arrowverse crossover in December.
