YouTube Star Loses Role In Film Over Past Use of the N-Word by Complex News
If you've made a video using racial slurs in the past and become famous, chances are quite high that said video will come back to bite you. Hard. YouTuber and Teen Choice Award winner Kian Lawley has been removed from the upcoming film The Hate U Give, after a video of him using the n-word surfaced in late January, according to Deadline. A spokesperson for Twentieth Century Fox Films said in a statement, “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.” The sad irony is that the film, based on the 2017 novel of the same name, is racially charged to begin with, having been directly inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement. Written by Angie Thomas, the book centers on 16-year-old Starr Carter, a young girl pulled to activism after witnessing her unarmed best friend be killed by the police. The book straddles between Starr's poor, black neighborhood, the white prep school she goes to and her delicate balance between the two. Hate's main star Amandla Stenberg, who plays Starr, is herself a young activist who has been vocal about injustice, diversity and racial inequality throughout her career. Lawley was set to play Starr's boyfriend, Chris, but those scenes are now set to be scrubbed from the film. Subscribe to Complex News for More: http://goo.gl/PJeLOl Watch 'Complex Live' on Go90 here: https://www.go90.com/shows/11cHKK3D2iU Check out more of Complex here: http://www.complex.com https://twitter.com/Complex https://www.facebook.com/complex https://www.instagram.com/complex/ https://plus.google.com/+complex/ COMPLEX is a community of creators and curators, armed with the Internet, committed to surfacing and sharing the voices and conversations that define our new America. Our videos exemplify convergence culture, exploring topics that include music, sneakers, style, sports and pop culture through original shows and Complex News segments. Featuring your favorite celebrities, authoritative commentary, and a unique voice, our videos make culture pop.
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