- Union said she had tried to make her character the "appropriate" kind of Black girl.
- Union told GMA her decision was a mistake, which she regrets.
- "I chose respectability, and to be classy and take the high road," Union said.
"I do think it was a mistake," Union said during an interview on "Good Morning America."
"I was given full range to do whatever I wanted with Isis in 'Bring It On,' and I chose respectability, and to be classy and take the high road."
Union continued to say that she chose to portray her character that way because she thought it would make her the "appropriate" and the correct "kind of Black girl."
"Black girls aren't allowed to be angry, certainly not demonstratively angry, and I muzzled her," she said.
Later Union added that she decided to come to terms with the ways she failed Isis when she revisited the film with her co-star Kristen Dunst and the film's director Peyton Reed during the recent celebrations for the film's 20th-anniversary. And when asked what she would do differently with her character now, Union said she would've allowed Isis to have the full range of human emotions.
"I would have allowed her her full humanity, and part of being a full human is the ability to express rage when harmed," she said. "When you don't really allow yourself your full range of emotion and you muzzle your own emotions, it allows people to think, 'Maybe what I did wasn't that bad.' I would have given her all the anger."
Gabrielle Union also said that she realized her decision to "muzzle" Isis was futile when she saw an internet meme making the rounds last summer, which named popular movie villains, and Isis was listed amongst them.
"I had muzzled her and made her this gracious, decent leader and I was still a villain in that movie," she said. "I did all that shape-shifting for a character, and then I realized I was doing that to myself too. I wasn't allowing myself the full range of my humanity."
Union has written an apology to Isis in her forthcoming book "You Got Anything Stronger?" In the book, she also touches on her marriage to NBA legend Dwyane Wade as well as her personal fertility journey. Time magazine published an excerpt of the book last week where Union discusses her decision to use a surrogate.