‘Sinners’ Director Talks Machine Gun Kelly Backing Out of Audition Over N-Word

Ryan Coogler is reacting to Machine Gun Kelly admitting he backed out of an audition for Sinners because he did not want to say the N-word.

When Coogler, the 39-year-old writer-director behind Michael B. Jordan’s vampire blockbuster, spoke with Variety at a recent screening of the movie in Los Angeles’ Hollywood Forever Cemetery, he said he felt it was “understandable” that MGK, 35, opted out of auditioning.

“I get it. I know he has a Black daughter and acting is acting, but you have to be comfortable with whatever it is,” Coogler said. (MGK shares daughter Casie Colson Baker, 16, with ex Emma Cannon; he also shares a daughter with ex Megan Fox.) 

Coogler’s comments come more than two months after MGK — whose real name is Colson Baker — appeared on the The Pat McAfee Show in July and admitted his aspiration to act for the screen “hasn’t panned out” the way he had hoped for so far.

“I mean, there’s there’s been plenty of movies that come out that I’m like, ‘Ah, I was supposed to be in that.’ Or, ‘Oh, I did auditions for that,’ ” he said at the time. “Like Sinners, I was supposed to be in that.”

During that interview, MGK said that he considered trying out for a character named Bert in Sinners, a 1932-set vampire story that takes place in Mississippi. Bert, who was portrayed by Peter Dreimanis in the movie, is one of the first two characters audiences meet who are turned into vampires by the movie’s primary villain Remmick (Jack O’Connell). 

“The vampire — they had me set up to do the audition— it’s the one that’s in the house, so he’s the second vampire, the one that the guy comes and eats the family,” he recalled at the time. “In the audition, he has to say the ‘N-word’ and I just wouldn’t do it.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Sinners features an ensemble cast, led by Michael B. Jordan performance as twin brothers Smoke and Stack, in a vampire story that deals with racism in Mississippi during the Jim Crow era. The movie also stars Hailee Steinfeld, Delroy Lindo, Wunmi Mosaku, Omar Miller, Miles Caton and Jayme Lawson.

As Coogler spoke with Variety about the movie, he praised his leading man Jordan’s work and said the actor “stepped it up to another level” in the film. 

“We asked him to do this difficult thing technically, playing two different characters, but it also was a performance that we needed to have the backstory that we had before to pull this off,” Coogler said. “To see him recognized by his peers and other folks in the industry, I know that would mean a lot of him.”

Sinners is streaming on HBO Max now. The movie will also be re-released in select IMAX theaters between Oct. 30 and Nov. 5 in celebration of Halloween.