Peter Andre accuses critics of 'not knowing what they're offended by' after they condemned his Jamaican accent in 'profoundly disrespectful' new movie - as it goes on release in the UK
Peter Andre has slammed critics of his new film for 'not knowing what they're offended by' after it was dubbed 'profoundly disrespectful'.
In Jafaican, the Australian singer, 52, sport dreadlocked hair typically favoured by Rastafarians while starring as Gary Buckle, a con artist pretending to be a Jamaican gangster.
While faking a West Indian accent, the character must master Jamaican culture in 21 days in order to execute a fraud which will help him pay the £35,000 he needs for his grandmother's care.
But the film, which Peter believes is 'funny', was not met with anything like the reception its producers would have hoped for as fans branded it 'tone-deaf' and 'disrespectful'.
In his first interview since the film's UK release on Wednesday, Peter has defended his first starring role and accused critics of 'not knowing what they're offended by.'
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The 52-year-old told Judge Rob Rinder and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown on the Jeremy Vine show: 'I think there are three types of people.
'There are people that get offended about anything. There are people genuinely offended and their voices should definitely be heard - I always think that - but you've also got an area of people that are offended, but when you ask them what they're offended about, they don't know.'
Peter too mentioned the fact that he suffered racism during his younger years as a Greek boy emigrating Down Under.
'I'm a Greek kid that grew up in Australia in the late seventies,' he said.
'We were picked on, we were called greasy s**t. I mean, even our teachers used to call us that. We went through horrific racism.
'Now when I watch a film about someone playing a Greek guy with the curly hair, the big nose, the medallion, the hairy chest, and he's coming up and he's doing the Greek accent, I find that hilarious.
'If someone is saying something horrific about our culture, I find that racist. So for me, I feel things are a bit muddied. You know, this is comedy. I'm acting in a film. I loved it. It's the kind of films that I loved watching when I was growing up.'
Peter attended Jafaican's trailer at the Gold Coast Film Festival on May 9 along with his co-stars looking suave in a black tux.
The film released in the UK on Wednesday exclusively at Odeon, with Peter arriving for its London premiere supported by his family.
Attending the VIP private screening at Genesis Cinema, Junior, 19, and Princess, 17, walked beside Peter and posed for photos on the red carpet.
He looked smart in a beige linen blazer, which he teamed with a matching pair of trousers and and a white shirt.
After watching the movie, or its trailer, a number of fans took to X to express their views about Jafaican.
They wrote: 'Peter Andre pretends to be a Jamaican in his new film Jafaican? Lost for words',
'Peter Andre starring as the lead character of a film called JAFAICAN where he's pretending to be a Jamaican and wearing a dreadlock wig is not something I was expecting to see in the year of our Lord 2025 but here we are...',
'Jafaican is one of them films that is soo bad that is unintentionally can be funny. There was one or two moments that were funny but it was so c**p that it actually landed. The acting was ridiculously awful. Wasn't boring tho. He did it for his dear old man',
'The film was really entertaining funny, well-paced, and most importantly, it respected the culture. No forced clichés, just an authentic vibe. It felt like the team behind it actually cared about getting things right.'
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