Sandler Says He Wasn’t Trying to Offend Native Americans

Sandler has finally broken his silence on the issue and his response isn’t any better than Netflix’s. You may recall the controversy over how Native Americans are depicted in the movie; about a dozen Native actors and actresses, and the cultural adviser, walked off the set in April, sharing their complaints.

“I talked to some of the actors on the set who were there and let them know that the intention of the movie is 100 percent to just make a amusing movie”, Sandler said. “So hopefully when people see it, whoever was offended on set and walked out, I hope they realise that, and that’s it. It was kind of taken out of context”. They complained that the film was completely offensive to their cultures.

Later, the New York Daily News reported that only four people actually left the set in protest, and Sandler reached out to others to explain the situation, what had happened, and why some people had gotten upset. The names of the characters were outrageous. Another line of dialogue included Sandler’s character remarking to another Native American woman, “Say honey, how bout after this, we go someplace and I put my peepee in your teepee?” “That’s not comedy when it comes to Native American stereotypes because we’re always portrayed as the ‘drunk Indian, ‘ and that’s just perpetuating those stereotypes”. They even claimed that the make-up made them look like an entirely different tribe than the one they were casted in.

Adam Sandler spoke to ScreenCrush, pointing out that the whole thing was just a petty squabble taken out of proportion. He certainly likes to push buttons with his humor.

Directed by Frank Coraci, “The Ridiculous Six” features a cast that includes Sandler, Will Forte, Steve Buscemi, Whitney Cummings, Blake Shelton, Taylor Lautner, Terry Crews, Vanilla Ice and Rob Schneider.

The Ridiculous Six wrapped production shortly after, and the film is scheduled to be released on December 11, 2015, exclusively on Netflix.