Actor Rob van Vuuren has been labelled a sellout after apologising for a “blackface” character he played in one of Leon Schuster’s movies.
This after Showmax dropped nine of Schuster’s movies for being “racially insensitive”.
Rob - who appeared in Leon’s 2013 film Shucks! Y our Country Needs Yo u - tweeted that he was “deeply ashamed”..
“I wish I could say that I didn’t know any better at the time, but the truth is that I did. I made all sorts of excuses for myself at the time to justify doing it. I pointed to the diversity of the demographics of Leon’s audience...” he wrote.
I did blackface and I am deeply ashamed... pic.twitter.com/Yv3eY0UvoS
— Rob Van Vuuren (@RobVanVuuren) June 21, 2020
And the funny man took hectic flak for it on Facebook.
Riaan Fourie said: “Hulle gaan jou nie plek gee in die parliament nie. Jy kruip verniet gat.”
While Johann van der Schyff rekked: “ Slapgat liberaal. Wil weer gat kruip. Plaas hy sy goed vat en f*k off. Ons het nie sulke ruggraatlose mense nodig nie. Hoop hy word volgende aangeval!”
In response to the attacks, Rob, 44, says: “My apology does not seek to condemn nor condone Leon or his work. I do not believe it is my place to do that.
“My personal experience of Leon is that he is a deeply empathetic person with an immense love for South Africa and all of its people.
“I am also very aware that there are scores of people of colour who love Leon’s movies. Again, it is not my place to validate or negate their feelings.
“My apology is meant for those that have been hurt by my actions and to acknowledge the fact that I had misgivings about doing ‘blackface’ and that by choosing to do it anyway, I betrayed my own sense of morality.
Rob says he especially apologised to his coloured daughter, Bijou, who he and his wife Amy Humphrey adopted.
“On a very personal level, I am apologising to my daughter. I am not telling anyone how to feel about my apology, I am just telling you how I feel.
“I am acknowledging that, by my own standards, I made a mistake and that I am willing to learn and grow from that mistake,” he says.