Rachel Butera—a voice actress who plays General Leia Organa in the forthcoming Star Wars Resistance animated series—posted a video of herself on Twitter recently.
But instead of a preview of her new role, Butera decided to mock Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's voice from her Senate Judiciary Committee testimony.
Butera deleted the Twitter video, but not before people saw her crudely impersonate Dr. Ford during her testimony at Thursday's Senate hearing regarding her sexual assault allegation against Brett Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh is Donald Trump's pick for the U.S. Supreme Court.
Here's the video.
Before the video was taken down by Butera an hour after posting, SYFY Wire's Courtney Enlow managed to capture it and upload a copy of it on Vimeo.
"I don't know if anybody is listening to the Dr. Blasey Ford testimony about Brett Kavanagh, but this is how I sound," Butera says in the video.
"I know it's a surprise to even me that I talk this way and I'm a doctor and a grown woman."
"I sound like I'm still back at that high school party."
"I can't help it, I just have this kind of a voice, like a baby, even though I'm a doctor."
News of Butera's poor choice spread quickly online.
In Butera's video, the vocal performer—who also did work for Family Guy—went on to mock Ford's "vocal fry," which is a speech affectation women are often mocked for.
"I don't know why I speak with 'vocal fry', but you can listen to my testimony and hear that a grown woman sounds this way."
She was immediately under fire for making fun of Dr. Ford's speech patterns during an extremely traumatic event. Many people online vowed to boycott the series as long as Butera remained in the role.
Some users addressed Disney, suggesting that Butera's role be recast.
Because the voice actress portrays the same role the late Carrie Fisher created, Twitter made some assertions about how the late actress would respond to Butera's mocking Dr. Ford.
The Daily Dot reported that Butera apologized in a series of tweets.
"I was by no means mocking a rape victim I am 100% on Christine Blasey Ford's side!"
"I am just a vocal impressionist and decided to imitate her voice but it was a mistake. I apologize a [sic] and I believe ALl women."
"I am seriously sorry I honestly didn't think this would offend anyone I just thought I was imitating the voice."
But people noted her hypocrisy when she previously stated that "people only apologize to save their careers."
They also noted Butera chose to include direct references to Ford when she said she was a doctor and was "still back at that high school party."
After all the backlash she received based on her poor choice, Butera's Twitter account is now set to private.
