Peter Andre shocked by backlash over film in which he poses as Jamaican gangster

Peter Andre stars in Jafaican (Ian West/PA)

Reality TV star Peter Andre has said he felt “a bit shocked” at the backlash over a film in which his character poses as a Jamaican gangster.

Jafaican, directed by British-Nigerian filmmaker Fredi Nwaka, follows Andre’s character, small-time crook Garry Buckle, as he immerses himself in Jamaican culture to con his way between London and the Caribbean island nation.

Nwaka said the film would be put on video hosting site Vimeo for 48 hours from midnight on Friday so that people could make up their “own minds” about it, after accusations of cultural appropriation.

Andre, 52, told ITV’s This Morning: “I think what I found strange is that we took a process of nearly three years from starting this to finishing, and we sat with legends like (Jamaican comedian and actor) Oliver Samuels, doing the read over, doing the script and actually filming it.

“And when we went to Judgement Yard, which is where Sizzla Kalonji, reggae icon, lives, and we were invited in there to do this film. The whole process, if there was any point where any one of them said to us, this is not right, don’t it.”

“We would have stopped”, Nwaka interjected.

Andre added: “That’s why we were a bit shocked, because we had all the approval from everyone all the way along, and we laughed, and we did take after take, because we were all laughing when we were doing it.”

The trailer for the film shows Andre wearing fake dreadlocks and speaking with a dubbed Jamaican accent.

He said: “I’m Greek. I’ve said this before, when I see films where they play the stereotypical Greek with the hairy chest and the medallion and the big nose, and they do the accent. I find that hilarious.

“I find (it) offensive if someone’s saying really horrible things about your culture. And so I was a little bit confused, but I understand.”

Mysterious Girl singer Andre also said that This Morning presenter Alison Hammond should act in the sequel.

“We are registering to work on a sequel to this. Different country, different characters,” he told her.