COMEDY ACTOR ADAM Sandler has remained tight-lipped after a group of native Americans stormed out of his latest movie, while streaming giant Netflix defended the satirical film.
Actors including Navajo natives walked off the set earlier this week claiming the film, “The Ridiculous Six” — a spoof on the “Magnificent Seven” — was racially insensitive, including characters such as Beaver’s Breath and No Bra.
Sandler’s spokeswoman declined to comment on the storm, referring AFP to a statement issued by Netflix, which has exclusive rights to the actor’s production.
Netflix implied strongly that the native Americans were being oversensitive about what were clearly jokes.
“The movie has ‘Ridiculous’ in the title for a reason: because it is ridiculous,” said its statement.
“It is a broad satire of Western movies and the stereotypes they popularized, featuring a diverse cast that is not only part of — but in on — the joke,” it added.
Among those who walked out was Navajo Nation tribal member Loren Anthony, who is also the lead singer of a metal band, Bloodline. “There were about a dozen of us who walked off the set,” he said.
“I was asked a long time ago to do some work on this and I wasn’t down for it,” he told the Indian Country Today Media Network (ICTMN).
“Then they told me it was going to be a comedy, but it would not be racist.”
“So I agreed to it but on Monday things started getting weird on the set,” added Anthony, who did not respond to an AFP request for further comment.
The film, being made by Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions, also stars Nick Nolte, Steve Buscemi, Dan Aykroyd, Jon Lovitz and Vanilla Ice.
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