‘Death Note’ Actor Apologizes For Homophobic Rap

Live-action Death Note actor, Lakeith Stanfield, has been under fire from fans recently for an Instagram video in which he recited a rap with homophobic lyrics. According to Huffington Post, the Instagram video in question has since been deleted.

Lakeith received much backlash for the video, but the actor has since released an apology video for the lyrics on Instagram in which he explains that he was taking on a character and does not shares the views given in the lyrics.

Stanfield, who is most recently starring in Sorry to Bother You, coming to theaters July 6, apologizes and clarifies that he’s “never been homophobic.”

“I make videos all the time, which I usually end up deleting as soon as I make them,” he said in Tuesday’s video. “I assume characters that have different viewpoints and different views on life, and just from different perspectives. Some things my views are in line with, and some things my views aren’t aligned with. And this character that you’ve seen is a character I’m definitely not in line with and I definitely don’t believe those things.”

Stating in the video that “[he] never agreed with homophobic thought or hatred toward anyone for that matter.” Stanfield said, “I’m a person that moves in love, and I wanna promote and continue to push that. Love for all people and all different types of love in every form it takes. I want people to have a clear understanding.”

Death Note fans are familiar with Stanfield for his work as L in the recently released Death Note live-action adaptation on Netflix. The film was released to mixed reactions from fans and critics. For those unfamiliar with Death Note, the original series was created by Tsugumi Ohba, with illustrations by Takeshi Obata. The series is described as such:

“Light Yagami is an ace student with great prospects—and he’s bored out of his mind. But all that changes when he finds the Death Note, a notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami death god. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies, and Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil. But will Light succeed in his noble goal, or will the Death Note turn him into the very thing he fights against?”

Tsugumi Ohba’s original manga originally ran in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump from 2003 to 2005 for 12 volumes. The series has since inspired an anime series, several video games, an animated film, a novel and most recently another live-action adaptation. The live-action film was released on Netflix in 2017 and had a mixed reaction from the Death Note fan base. But there are other live-action adaptations, and even a musical, produced solely in Japan.

via Huffington Post