Netflix’s Purple Hearts is smashing the popularity records on the platform globally as it has been watched for more than 100 million hours.
However, the romantic drama, starring Sofia Carson and Nicholas Galitzine, has landed itself in hot waters after viewers called out the script for its misogynistic and racist themes.
Responding to the backlash, the movie’s lead actress Carson and director Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum the film against criticism.
During an interview with Variety, Elizabeth said, “I hope that people understand that in order for characters to grow, they need to be flawed in the beginning. So we very much intentionally created two characters that had been bred to hate each other.”
“They are flawed at the beginning and that was intentional. In order for the red heart and the blue heart to kind of turn purple, you have to have them be kind of extreme,” she added.
For her part, Carson, 29, said, “Why I fell in love with the movie is that it’s a love story but it’s so much more than that.”
“It’s two hearts, one red, one blue, two worlds apart, who are really raised to hate each other,” said the former Disney actress.
Purple Hearts follows Cassie (Carson) a liberal singer-songwriter who marries a conservative Marine, Luke (played by Nicholas), so she can get health insurance and pay for insulin which she needs to treat her Type 1 Diabetes.