14 DAY TRIAL // Halloween is that time of the year when many allow their creativity and imagination to take over, coming up with the most amazing trick-or-treat costumes, while others simply bet on the shock factor to get attention. Unwillingly, Julianne Hough found herself in that latter category with her choice.
For this year’s Halloween party at the Casamigos Tequila in Hollywood, the former DWTS pro dancer, singer, and actress opted to go as her favorite character on the hit series “Orange Is the New Black,” Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren.
If you too are a fan of the show, you know that Crazy Eyes is African-American, as also is the actress playing her, Uzo Abuda. Julianne is white, with porcelain skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes, so she wasn’t a match for the costume from the start.
As the photo attached to this article can confirm, Julianne opted to go blackface to get into character, which is considered extremely offensive. Photos available online, of her leaving the party, show her with her dark makeup removed almost completely, so chances are she realized her faux pas while inside, even if it seemed a good idea when she left the house.
Proof that she didn’t think her costume through also comes from Julianne’s Twitter, from which she removed photos of herself in blackface and included an apology instead.
By the time this happened, backlash online had already reached climax, with Julianne being called anything from “insensitive” and “dumb” to other things we could never reproduce in writing here.
“I am a huge fan of the show Orange is the New black, actress Uzo Aduba, and the character she has created. It certainly was never my intention to be disrespectful or demeaning to anyone in any way. I realize my costume hurt and offended people and I truly apologize,” Julianne says.