LOS ANGELES (AP) — Amy Schumer has more to say about her “Formation” video that shows her singing and dancing to the Beyonce song alongside Goldie Hawn, Wanda Sykes and Joan Cusack.
Schumer says in an essay published late Thursday that the video it is not a parody but a tribute approved by Beyonce and husband Jay Z.
“It was NEVER a parody,” Schumer writes. “It was just us women celebrating each other. The video Beyonce made was so moving and I wouldn’t ever make fun of that.”
Beyonce’s video for “Formation” shows the singer sitting atop a New Orleans police car sinking in floodwaters. It also includes images of a hooded black child facing police and graffiti scrawled on a wall that reads “Stop Shooting Us.”
Schumer initially brushed off criticism that her take on the clip was racially insensitive.
“I did not mean to detract any of the meaning from the video,” Schumer writes. “I am of course horrified and sickened by the events that are addressed throughout that video and didn’t see this as minimizing that and still don’t. It was a way to celebrate bringing us all together.”
The comedian said Beyonce’s “Lemonade” album is “one of the greatest pieces of art of our time” and that her love for it inspired the cast and crew of her latest film to make their own “Formation” video.
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This story has been corrected to show Schumer’s essay was published late Thursday, not Friday.
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