August 6th 2023.
Amanda Abbington has addressed the backlash to her Strictly Come Dancing casting, after viewers threatened to ‘boycott’ the show this year over her previous tweets.
The actress, 49, was the first contestant announced for the BBC dance show this year, and will compete alongside the likes of Layton Williams and oldest-ever contestant Angela Rippon when the much-loved series returns.
However, Amanda soon found herself in hot water as Strictly superfans discovered social media posts she wrote about drag queens. Earlier this year, she reacted to footage from a Cabaret Baby Rave, a baby sensory and cabaret show for parents and their babies aged 0-2 years old.
Following a video of the rave showing a person dancing in boots and a bondage harness, Amanda tweeted that the show was ‘not for babies’ and said that ‘if you think it is, there is something fundamentally wrong with you’.
Taking to Instagram over the weekend with a lengthy video, the Sherlock star insisted she is ‘not transphobic’, as she spoke directly to people refusing to watch Strictly 2023 because of her.
Explaining her tweet, she said: ‘My tweet back in March was regarding a 12-year-old who was doing it in front of adults and it just upset me because I saw a kid, a little kid, a 12-year-old, doing something very over-sexualised and I didn’t think it was right.
‘Personally speaking, I don’t think 12-year-olds should be performing in drag shows in overtly sexual ways because they’re 12 and they need a childhood, it’s nice for kids to have a childhood and grow up and find that out when they’re old enough to really understand it.’
The Sherlock star is adamant that she ‘would support any trans person who is feeling persecuted or not listened to or not seen’. She went on to say she thinks the transgender community has been ‘infiltrated by some people who want to cause damage and want to cause trouble, and pit people against each other’.
Referencing the Strictly boycott, she concluded: ‘I’m sorry if you feel like you need to boycott Strictly for a tweet I made about a drag show, but I don’t think 12-year-olds should be doing overly-sexual drag acts, that’s my personal opinion and I’m not pushing it on anyone else, I’m just saying that’s how I feel.’
Amanda’s son performed in a production of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, with fellow Strictly star Layton Williams having also done the show in the West End. She also addressed comments she made several years ago, arguing that she was ‘ill-informed’.
‘It was a stupid thing to write and I instantly regretted it and I apologise. I did my research and I’m much more informed now.’
Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC One and iPlayer later this year.
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