Former "Dancing With the Stars" pro Julianne Hough recently caused an uproar after a photo of her at a Halloween party hit the net. The reason? Twenty five-year-old Hough was donning blackface while dressed as character Crazy Eyes from the Netflix original series, "Orange is the New Black," Entertainment Weekly reports.
Crazy Eyes (real name Suzanne), played by Uzo Aduba, is a woman who develops a possessive crush on the show's man character, Piper Chadman (Taylor Schilling), a middle-class white woman who finds herself in prison for transporting drug money during her college years. The character has quickly become a fan favorite for her fiery, intense personality.
Hough's offending photo, which features the star at a Halloween party dressed in skin-darkening makeup and an orange prison jumpsuit with a longsleeve gray sweater underneath, caused a swift backlash on Twitter. Hough not only darkened her skin, but her eyebrows and long hair as well, and many were quick to point out that if she'd left the blackface out of it and simply dyed her hair, the costume wouldn't have been so offensive.
The star went on to offer an apology on Twitter: "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."
"Too late for an apology..should of thought it through before acting on it," tweeted one user, while others praised her choice of costume, creating further arguments over whether or not she should have had to apologize.
Click here to see more photos of Julianne Hough donning blackface at a Halloween party on Oct. 25.
via Twitter
