Gabrielle Union Has No Regrets About Her Role In ‘Birth Of A Nation’

Believe it or not, Gabrielle Union doesn’t regret taking a role in Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation. Union, who herself is a rape survivor, wrote an op-ed piece after learning that Parker was accused and acquitted of rape 17 years ago.

But despite being frustrated and “disgrusted” by the news, she told HipHollywood she is still proud of the film and the work she has done.

“I hate hypotheticals,” she said when asked if she would have still taken the role if she initially knew about Parker’s rape case. “Because a coulda, woulda, shoulda makes you look amazing. I could look like a saint on a coulda, woulda, shoulda, but that’s not the reality. The reality is I didn’t know, and I took the film because it dealt with sexual violence, because my character was sexually assaulted, and I wanted to show the impact on the psyche and the family as a community of African Americans, and specifically with black women, nothing has changed.”

“I’ve been talking about this for 20 years,” she added of her work to help survivors of sexual violence. “I didn’t just start talking about it a month ago.”