Netflix tells Native Americans offended by Adam Sandler to lighten up

Adam Sandler is filming a new movie called Ridiculous Six, a spoof of Magnificent Seven, and to do so he’s hired some Native American actors to portray Apache. Assured that the film had hired a cultural consultant and “would not be racist,” the actors instead found that, in their opinion, it was racist as hell.

From Indian Country Today Media Network:

“One thing that really offended a lot of people was that there was a female character called Beaver’s breath. One character says ‘Hey, Beaver’s Breath.’ And the Native woman says, ‘How did you know my name?'”

“They just treated us as if we should just be on the side. When we did speak with the main director, he was trying to say the disrespect was not intentional and this was a comedy.”

Ridiculous Six is swerving away from cinemas and instead launching exclusively on Netflix, which is why Netflix are jumping into the fray to tell Native Americans that it’s, like, totally not a big deal, you guys.

Via Deadline:

“The movie has ridiculous in the title for a reason: because it is ridiculous… 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.”

Well that’s real nice, Netflix, but what about the diverse cast who just walked off your set because evidently they felt they weren’t in on the joke? Apparently they feel that those stereotypes aren’t being satirised at all.

Words by Jake Cleland