On Tuesday, Variety announced that Nick Cannon has plans to direct a movie called She Ball, an indie film about women’s street basketball that will star multiple IRL female athletes from the WNBA, Ball Up, and the Basketball Beauties League — which is all well and good, except for the fact that Chris Brown has also reportedly been cast in the movie.
As a quick refresher, Brown pleaded guilty in 2009 to domestic assault charges filed by his then-girlfriend Rihanna. As recently as this year, another one of Brown’s ex-girlfriends, Karrueche Tran, was granted a five year restraining order against him to protect her safety after she felt threatened by Brown’s response to their breakup.
Considering this history, people are (understandably) wondering what made Cannon think it was remotely a good idea to cast Brown in a movie about female empowerment and women being successful in a male-dominated sport.
— Kelly Vorrasi (@kvknowsherfun) December 19, 2017
“Cannon will star alongside Chris Brown, Cedric the Entertainer, Evan Ross, and Rebecca De Mornay.” pic.twitter.com/o9a58XHvM9
— Not owned by Disney… yet │4th Wall (@TheAceblade) December 20, 2017
Was I hallucinating or did they announce a women’s basketball movie earlier today starring Chris Brown
— Scott Wampler™ (@ScottWamplerBMD) December 19, 2017
Others are confused as to how you create a movie about women’s basketball with exactly zero female directors:
*Nick Cannon enters meeting*
Nick: I’m thinking we create a film about women in basketball
Exec: Shouldn’t a woman be invol-
Nick: Shut up Martha i’m talking, now we need a male lead, hmmm maybe Chris Brown.
Exec: But…Chris-
Nick: Martha if you don’t shut your damn mouth https://t.co/BCZaWoeF9t
— أسود (@NasMaraj) December 19, 2017
“Let’s make a movie about women’s basketball!”
“Awesome! Which women should we get to direct and star in it?”
“Nah. I was kinda hoping we could get an unfunny divorced cheater to direct and have a man best known for beating up a queen to star in it”
“Say no more…” pic.twitter.com/NQVUxekO4d
— Tuxedo Ski Mask (@TheLoveBel0w) December 19, 2017
TBH, in the era of #MeToo, I’m not really sure how they didn’t see the backlash coming in the first place, but that’s a heated discussion for a different time.