YouTube star Kian Lawley will no longer play the supporting role for which he was originally cast in a Twentieth Century Fox movie inspired by ‘Black Lives Matter,’ The Hate U Give. Instead, he’s apologizing for a past video in which he used racist slurs.
In the video, a younger Lawley, sitting on a bed with his laptop, uses both the n-word and refers to black stereotypes in an offensive sound bite about “drinking purple Kool-aid and eating Kentucky fried mother***king chicken.” He’s since apologized on Twitter, after the video drew public attention on Sunday.
Lawley also issued a statement to Variety about the offensive video: “Words have power and can do damage. I own mine and I am sorry. I respect Fox’s decision to recast this role for The Hate U Give as it is an important story, and it would not be appropriate for me to be involved considering the actions of my past.”
The Hate U Give is an adaptation of Angela Thomas’s young adult novel of the same name. The movie stars Amandla Stenberg (The Hunger Games) as Starr Carter, a prep school student who witnesses a police officer murder her best friend. It’s a commentary on the policing of poor, black communities, in which there’s certainly no place for a white actor who’s been known to use the n-word. Lawley was set to play Carter’s boyfriend in the film.
Stenberg’s co-stars include Regina Hall (Girls Trip), Common, and Issa Rae, who gained fame through her YouTube series The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl and now stars in her own HBO series, Insecure. George Tillman Jr. (Men of Honor) is directing.
Fox is now looking to recast Lawley’s role, but the company has yet to name a replacement.
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