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When we first heard about the movie Little, like many we thought what could possibly go wrong in a film starring Issa Rae, Marsai Martin, and Regina Hall? But when the flick debuted in April, we saw one of its missteps immediately. In a scene near the start of the comedy, an odd joke is delivered by Hall’s character when she mistakes a young girl in the hallway of her building for a boy and then asks whether the child is transitioning.

Almost immediately, one of the show’s co-writers, Tracy Oliver, spoke out to explain that not only did she not write the joke she was “disappointed” by it’s inclusion in the film. Interestingly, when we spoke to Hall last week about her upcoming role in the Shaft reboot due in theaters Friday, she confessed that she was the person behind the joke.

“I didn’t find that joke offensive so for me the joke was not….,” Hall said, as her voice trailed off. “I don’t know how people took that but for me, I wrote the joke. I stand by it.”

The admission seemed odd considering news that circulated just weeks prior about Hall’s refusal to tell a joke about Whitney Houston. But when it comes to deciding who’s fair play in the comedic landscape, the 48-year-old said, “I think sometimes humor is about interpretation.”

“I’m not really careful with humor. That joke didn’t really have anything to do with anything, I’m just, you know, a big Whitney fan but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t make a joke about someone else and I did, you know what I mean? That one was just of a more sensitive nature.

“It’s hard for there to be caution around humor,” Hall added. “I would never make fun of one particular group, but comedians just talk about everybody. That’s what creates edge so I’m not one that’s all about being apologetic for humor. But I’m also not one that’s about being nasty either.”

Do you get what Regina Hall is saying or did you think the trans joke made in Little falls under the nasty category? Check out our full interview with the actress in the video above.

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