Netflix Star Defends Controversial New Movie Amid Backlash

Purple Hearts is another hit romantic drama for Netflix, but the movie has earned plenty of criticism for its depiction of a military romance. In the film, Sofia Carson stars as a liberal musician who marries a Marine, played by Nicholas Galitzine, to get health insurance to cover her diabetes expenses before they learn to really love each other. The film also includes misogynistic and racist themes, which threw many viewers for a loop. Carson and director Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum defended the film.

“Why I fell in love with the movie is that it’s a love story but it’s so much more than that,” Carson, who is also an executive producer, told Variety on Aug. 12. “It’s two hearts, one red, one blue, two worlds apart, who are really raised to hate each other. Through the power of love, they learn to lead with empathy and compassion and love each other and turn into this beautiful shade of purple.”

Carson said the filmmakers wanted to show both sides accurately. “What I think I’ve learned to do as an artist is separate myself from all of that and just listen to what the world is feeling and reacting to with the film,” Carson added. “That has been so beautifully overwhelming and so many people have felt seen or are comforted by this movie. That’s all we could want filmmakers and as artists.”

Rosenbaum noted the importance of characters being flawed at the beginning of a movie so they have somewhere to go as they grow. “So we very much intentionally created two characters that had been bred to hate each other,” the Aquamarine filmmaker explained. “They are flawed at the beginning and that was intentional. In order for the red heart and the blue heart to kind of turn purple, you have to have them be kind of extreme. Some of the people that they’re surrounded with are even more flawed than they are.”

Carson’s Cassie Salazar and Galitzine’s Luke Morrow were both ignored by the system, Rosenbaum pointed out. “He’s hurt in a war that doesn’t seem to be ending and she’s slipping through the cracks of the healthcare system,” she noted. Amid these extreme circumstances, the characters “learn to become more moderate and to listen to each other and to love.”

Rosenbaum and Carson also wanted Purple Hearts to reflect how flawed the U.S. is in real life. “I do hope that anyone who’s in any way insulted by it understands that our intentions are very pure, and it’s because we feel like people need to grow and need to start to become more moderate,” the director said.

The film has earned some praise for its realistic depiction of life with Type 1 Diabetes. You’re Just My Type founder Laura Pavlakovich and Dr. Michael Metzger served as medical consultants. A Medtronic consultant was brought in and ended up appearing in the film. Carson learned how “devastatingly unfair” it is for people living with diabetes in the U.S. who can’t afford the treatment they need.

Purple Hearts is based on the novel by Tess Wakefield, with a script by Kyle Jarrow and Liz W. Garcia. The film was released on July 29 and debuted at number two on Netflix’s Top 10 Films global chart. During its first full week, between Aug. 1 and Aug. 7, subscribers watched over 102.59 million hours of the movie.