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Almost a dozen Native American Actors have walked off the set of Adam Sandler’s new movie “The Ridiculous Six, ” complaining that it is offensive to American Indians. Boy does it seem like Adam Sandler just can’t get a break these days.
When was the last time that the former Saturday Night Live star had a movie that anyone cared about? His last feature, “The Cobbler, ” was both a critical and box office disaster.
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The comedian, who has on occasion tried to play the role of dramatic actor in his career, has been known mostly for offending people’s sensibilities with all sorts of sophomoric hijinks in his movies. But he has never been accused of offending a minority group before.
The movie, being made for Netflix and co-written by Sandler, is clearly meant to be a spoof of ”The Magnificent Seven.” It is due out in 2016 and of course co-stars Steve Buscemi and David Spade.
The Indian Country Today Media Network reported that the people who bolted the production, which is taking place in New Mexico, included actors, actresses and even the film’s Native cultural advisor and that they were mostly from the Navajo nation. They felt that “The Ridiculous Six” is insulting to Apache culture and uses offensive names for Native Americans like “Beaver’s Breath” and “No Bra.”
Navajo Actor Loren Anthony told ICTMN, “I was asked a long time ago to do some work on this and I wasn’t down for it. 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.”
“We were supposed to be Apache, but it was really stereotypical and we did not look Apache at all. We looked more like Comanche, ” he said. “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.”
Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions has yet to respond. But Netflix released a statement saying, “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.”
