A couple of weeks ago, Robert Pattinson’s epic Details cover profile came out, and the world learned that Sparkles is a vagina-H8TER. That one quote – “I really hate vaginas. I’m allergic to vagina” – will likely follow Sparkles to his grave, and that was the quote most people picked up on. At first. Then they noticed that Sparkles has something of an elephant fetish (cute) and likes to joke about the English dressing up like horses for sex play. Once again, just funny. But upon closer inspection, some people (Twihards and Sparkle-H8TERS) re-read the Details article, and they’ve come across a strange passage that, if you take out of context, makes Sparkles seem vaguely racist. There are some “Sparkles is a racist” articles here and here. I’m going to put the passage up from Details, in it’s entire context:

Some people can have the ocean in front of them and just put their big toe in. Rob wants to swim until he drowns, and he’s going to try to drink it all up before he goes under. His striving is a source of worry because he can’t really tell anybody he wants more: “Please don’t make this about me complaining. Please. I’m the luckiest bastard on the planet.”

He worries he might be selfish. He worries maybe he’s a nonhumanist-separatist-weirdo because his most profound moments have been with his dog. And he worries about whether he can be an actor who can reach the masses and still ask for anything.

“If it exists out there—this invisible-creative-spirit-idea thing—then you’re the medium through which it travels so everybody can touch it. But . . . what gives you the right to be the medium? What gives you the right to claim it? And then get an agent and say I want $20 million and a fruit basket to be the medium, thank you very much.”

“As an actor, you can elevate the human condition or cheapen it. I would assume it’s the same with anything you do—you try to elevate and maybe someday you will.” An actor may indeed have the ability to raise us, but Rob unconsciously starts speaking sotto voce each time he utters the word actor or any variation of it.

Rob, did you know that every time you say actor or acting you lower your voice to a whisper?

He’s genuinely startled. “I do?”

Yes, so quietly it’s like you’re saying Negro.

He laughs, lightens up. “What if we were ‘acting’ like ‘Negroes’? Then we’d be f-cked—we couldn’t hear anything. . . .”

[From Details]

First point: I want to mention: the interview was conducted by Jenny Lumet, who is mixed race. And she was the first one to say “Negro”. Second point: Sparkles was responding to her observation that he said “acting” and “actor” very quietly, like he was talking about something very sensitive, like race. Third point: What Sparkles was trying to say is that if every actor used such hushed tones when talking about acting, no one could hear anything. That’s it. That’s the basic gist of this controversy. I think I have a pretty good radar for racial insensitivity, and this didn’t beep on my radar at all.

Images courtesy of Details slideshow online.