20th Century Fox has announced the dismissal of YouTube star Kian Lawley from their upcoming film The Hate U Give and have planned to recast his role after a past video resurfaced of Lawley that included racist comments. The 22-year-old was set to play Chris, the boyfriend of Starr Carter played by Amandla Stenberg in the film.
The film is an adaption of Angela Thomas’ novel of the same name whose plot revolves around race and police brutality. Issa Rae, Regina Hall, Russell Hornsby, Algee Smith, Lamar Johnson, and rapper Common star in the film as well.
In the video that resurfaced, Lawley is seen using the N-word and other racial slurs as well as offensive language as well as he says, “We’re all black drinking purple Kool-aid and eating Kentucky fried mother–king chicken.”
Lawley responded to the backlash as he tweeted, “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.”
