Queen Latifah Says 'Let Gone with the Wind Be Gone with the Wind' from HBO Max

HBO Max pulled Gone with the Wind from its library due to its "racist depictions"

Queen Latifah is all for HBO Max's decision to remove Gone with the Wind from its streaming library.

The award-winning actress, 50, told the Associated Press in a recent interview that she supports HBO Max pulling the 1939 classic amid discussions over its depiction of slavery.

"Let Gone with the Wind be gone with the wind," she said.

In Netflix's new series Hollywood, Latifah portrays Hattie McDaniel, who became the first African American woman to win an Academy Award for her controversial role as "Mammy" in Gone with the Wind.

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However, Latifah noted that McDaniel's Oscar win was not as celebrated at the time as many believe.

"They didn’t even let her in the theater until right before she got that award," Latifah said. "Someone came outside and brought her into the auditorium. She wasn’t even allowed to sit in there. And then she had to read a speech that was written by a studio. You know that’s not what the hell she wanted to say."

“Then after that, all she could do was play the same kinds of roles … So the opportunities at that time and the way that those in power in that business were relegating us and marginalizing us and not allowing us to grow and thrive after that was just terrible," the actress added. "And a lot of that is still around today.”

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On June 9, HBO Max confirmed that Gone with the Wind would be removed from its catalog, but promised the film would soon return to subscribers accompanied with a "discussion of its historical context and a denouncement" of its portrayal of black people and slavery.

"Gone With The Wind is a product of its time and depicts some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that have, unfortunately, been commonplace in American society," a spokesperson for HBO Max told PEOPLE in a statement. "These racist depictions were wrong then and are wrong today, and we felt that to keep this title up without an explanation and a denouncement of those depictions would be irresponsible."

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On Saturday, black film professor Jacqueline confirmed in an op-ed written for CNN that the Gone with the Wind would be returning to HBO Max with a disclaimer during the introduction to add "historical context" to some of the outdated and insensitive aspects of the film.

"HBO Max will bring Gone with The Wind back to its line-up, and when it appears, I will provide an introduction placing the film in its multiple historical contexts," wrote the University of California professor. "For me, this is an opportunity to think about what classic films can teach us. Right now, people are turning to movies for racial re-education, and the top-selling books on Amazon are about anti-racism and racial inequality. If people are really doing their homework, we may be poised to have our most informed, honest and productive national conversations yet about Black lives on screen and off."

Directed by Victor Fleming, Gone with the Wind stars McDaniel, Clark Gable, and Vivien Leigh. Adjusted for inflation, the film remains the highest-grossing of all time.