Reality TV star Peter Andre has expressed surprise at the negative reaction to his latest film, “Jafaican,” in which he portrays a Jamaican gangster.
The film, directed by British-Nigerian filmmaker Fredi Nwaka, follows Andre’s character, Garry Buckle, as he delves into Jamaican culture to execute a con between London and Jamaica.
Following accusations of cultural appropriation, Nwaka has decided to make the film available on Vimeo for 48 hours starting Friday at midnight. This, he explained, is to allow viewers to form their own opinions about the film.
Andre, 52, told ITV’s This Morning: “I think what I found strange is that we took a process of nearly three years from starting this to finishing, and we sat with legends like (Jamaican comedian and actor) Oliver Samuels, doing the read over, doing the script and actually filming it.
“And when we went to Judgement Yard, which is where Sizzla Kalonji, reggae icon, lives, and we were invited in there to do this film. The whole process, if there was any point where any one of them said to us, this is not right, don’t it.”
“We would have stopped”, Nwaka interjected.
Andre added: “That’s why we were a bit shocked, because we had all the approval from everyone all the way along, and we laughed, and we did take after take, because we were all laughing when we were doing it.”
The trailer for the film shows Andre wearing fake dreadlocks and speaking with a dubbed Jamaican accent.
He said: “I’m Greek. I’ve said this before, when I see films where they play the stereotypical Greek with the hairy chest and the medallion and the big nose, and they do the accent. I find that hilarious.
“I find (it) offensive if someone’s saying really horrible things about your culture. And so I was a little bit confused, but I understand.”
Mysterious Girl singer Andre also said that This Morning presenter Alison Hammond should act in the sequel.
“We are registering to work on a sequel to this. Different country, different characters,” he told her.
