Penelope Cruz, working with INTERPOL’s “Global Fashion Division”, is prominently featured in the new trailer for Zoolander 2.
Cruz’s character explains that she used to be a swimsuit model, but could never transition to the world of high fashion modeling because of her … assets. You’ll see the joke, check out the new international trailer below:
Zoolander 2 is slated for a February 12th release. When the first trailer dropped last month, it was met with some backlash from people who said it featured transphobic jokes.
Here’s how an online petition put it:
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.
Online buzz for the sequel to the incredibly popular original film has been pretty solid, both good and bad. Can Penelope Cruz serve as a big enough draw?
Cruz can also be seen doing work for Apple, appearing in a new ad for Siri: