Adam Sandler Finally Breaks His Silence On ‘The Ridiculous Six’ Controversy, Says The Extras Took It Out Of Context Despite Video Evidence Revealing Otherwise

Adam Sandler is having a tough times these days.

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Speaking to the Associated Press at the premiere of Pixels, Sandler defended the producers of the Western comedy movie, The Ridiculous Six, saying that it was all a “misunderstanding” and the Native American actors took the whole thing “out of context”.

Sandler, who has often done well to avoid any major controversies in his career, found himself embroiled in one when a group of Native American actors walked out during the shooting of his latest movie, The Ridiculous Six. The actors had complained that they were subject to “racist” jokes in the movie, and that the makeup crew were hell-bent on darkening their faces, according to The Daily Mail.

Adam Sandler spoke to ScreenCrush, pointing out that the whole thing was just a petty squabble taken out of proportion.

“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 funny movie. It’s really about American Indians being good to my character and about their family and just being good people. There’s no mocking of American Indians at all in the movie. It’s a pro-Indian movie. So hopefully when people see it — whoever was offended on set and walked out, I hope they realize that, and that’s it. It was kinda taken out of context.”

In October last year, Sandler had signed a four-film deal with Netflix, with The Ridiculous Six being the first to go under production earlier this year. Soon after, a video clip emerged on social media where a group of actors could be seen storming off the New Mexico set of the movie.

Though Adam Sandler is not to be seen in the video, one of the reasons that the Native actors felt so offended was also because a cultural consultant, named Bruce, was not allowed to speak to Sandler. This intensified the agitation of the extra actors, who were already on the edge because of their disagreements with how they were being portrayed in The Ridiculous Six, which as the title suggests, is a satirical take on Western films.

You can watch the video here.

One actress who was part of the protesting group, Allie Young, spoke to Rolling Stone explaining the reasons for her quitting the film.

“I’m full-blooded Navajo and they bronzed me. 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.”

But before Sandler came out in the film’s defense, others associated with The Ridiculous Six had already put forward their stance on the ensuing saga. A Netflix spokesperson said the film was a satire and there was no need for the young actors to get so worked up about an issue as trivial as this.

“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.”

Though there have been contradicting standpoints on the film, we will only find out the truth when The Ridiculous Six comes out later this year. Adam Sandler will hope he can get himself of this mess before his next release, Pixels, hits the cinema screens this Friday.

(Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images)