CAA Drops YouTube Star Kian Lawley After His Firing From ‘Hate U Give’ Over Racially Offensive Video – Update
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UPDATED, 4:27 PM: Sources confirm to Deadline that CAA has parted ways with client Kian Hawley, the YouTube personality who role is being excised from 2oth Century Fox’s movie The Hate U Give over racial comments he made in a video that was posted online.
PREVIOUSLY, February 5: Fox said tonight that YouTuber and H8TERS star Kian Lawley will be wiped from its upcoming film The Hate U Give after a video surfaced in which he uses a racial slur. Watch the clip below.
“Due to the controversy surrounding his past comments and behavior, Kian Lawley will no longer appear in The Hate U Give,” a spokesperson for Twentieth Century Fox Film said in a statement. “The studio plans to recast the role of Chris and reshoot scenes as needed.”
In a bleeped 12-second video posted on YouTube, Lawley is seen apparently using the N-word at least once and likely twice, along with some NSFW language. (UPDATE: The video has been taken down from YouTube.)
The video was posted on January 26, and social media backlash was swift, with many posters demanding that he be fired from The Hate U Give. But he did have some supporters — including some who took out their anger on Hate U Give creator Angie Thomas, who tweeted yesterday:
Feel free to love your fave. But know that there is a TON of pain associated with this, more than you know. If I subtweet, I subtweet. I do what I want on my Twitter because yep, I'm a grown woman.
— Angie Thomas Doesn't Control Movies (@angiecthomas) February 5, 2018
She later wrote:
The past two weeks have been hell for me, but I'm the enemy. Y'all. I've been trying. You just don't know.
— Angie Thomas Doesn't Control Movies (@angiecthomas) February 5, 2018
That tweet came several hours after Lawley posted this:
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
The Hate U Give stars Amandla Stenberg as Starr Carter, who constantly switches between two worlds: the poor, mostly black, neighborhood where she lives and the rich, mostly white, prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Regina Hall, Russell Hornsby, Issa Rae, Sabrina Carpenter, Algee Smith, Lamar Johnson and Common co-star.
Lawley played Starr’s boyfriend, Chris. He was a late addition to the film, which shot in the fall in Atlanta.
Lawley is a three-time Teen Choice Award winner — twice for his online videos and Choice Movie Actor, Drama, last year for his role in Before I Fall. He also was a nominee for Entertainer of the Year at the 2016 Streamy Awards.
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