'The Hate U Give' Actor Kian Lawley Dropped From Movie Following Racist Remarks
Kian Lawley has been fired from 20th Century Fox’s film The Hate U Give after a video of the actor that included racist comments resurfaced.
The film company now plans to recast the 22-year-old YouTube star’s role.
“Due to the controversy surrounding his past comments and behavior, Kian Lawley will no longer appear in The Hate U Give. The studio plans to recast the role of Chris and reshoot scenes as needed,” a spokesperson for the studio told Variety.
In the clip, Kian can be heard speaking the N-word and other racial slurs. “We’re all black drinking purple Kool-aid and eating Kentucky fried motherf–king chicken,” he says. (The video, which contains offensive language, can be seen in full here).
Kian was originally going to play the boyfriend of the movie’s lead actress, Amandla Stenberg. Based on Angela Thomas‘ novel of the same name, focusing on race and police brutality, the film also stars Issa Rae, Regina Hall, Russell Hornsby, Algee Smith, Lamar Johnson, and Common.
See Kian‘s response to the backlash on Twitter below.
if u don’t learn from ur mistakes, u can never grow as a person.
i’ve learned a lot & i am grateful to have the power to change. i never want to be who i was yesterday. we’re in a constant battle to become a better version of ourselves, use ur voice as ur weapon.
— Kian Lawley (@KianLawley) February 4, 2018
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