Sensitive time, even more sensitive people….
After the trailer for his new movie The Tax Collector released, Shia LaBeouf and director David Ayer had been accused of using ‘brownface’ in the movie as Shia appeared to be portraying a man of Mexican descent.
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In the movie, we can see LaBeouf playing a gangster, heavily tattooed, and speaking with an accent. Some of the people who saw the trailer went to Twitter to speak out against the actor for playing a Latino character when he’s not of Latin Descent.
The Concerns
Most of the people who found it offensive were from the Latino community, and a Mexican TV writer and producer tweeted out “#brownfacing 2020 style” and talked about Shia playing a cholo in a cop movie. Another user directly tweeted to the director and asked why Shia has been cast as a Latino character when they could’ve gone with an actual Latino actor.
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Director David Ayer was quick to respond to these claims and clarified that Shia will be playing a white man who is heavily influenced by Latino culture. Ayer, who is known for movies like Suicide Squad and Fury, talked that Shia’s character is a white boy who grew up in a Latino neighbourhood. He is a Jewish guy playing a white character and will be the only white guy in the movie.
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Ayer further stated that he was a white boy who grew up in a good and had seen whites, blacks, and Asians all working for the hood and everything is part of street culture. He also mentioned that the movie is not a cop movie, and that Shia plays a very specific character and it’s not brownface.
(Cover: Metro)