Machine Gun Kelly declined a role in 'Sinners' to avoid using a racial slur

Machine Gun Kelly (MGK) says he turned down the chance to join Ryan Coogler’s hit 2025 vampire drama Sinners because the audition script required him to say the N-word. Speaking on The Pat McAfee Show on August 1, 2025, the rapper-actor revealed that Warner Bros. had lined him up to read for “the second vampire, the one that eats the family,” but he refused once he saw the slur on the page. He explained,

“Like Sinners, I was supposed to be in that … In the audition he has to say the N-word and I wouldn’t do it.”

Sinners, written, produced and directed by Coogler, opened in U.S. theatres on April 18, 2025, and went on to gross more than $365 million worldwide before premiering on Max in July.

Set in 1932 Mississippi, the film follows twin nightclub owners (both played by Michael B. Jordan) whose juke joint is overrun by supernatural predators. The period horror-thriller was financed and released by Warner Bros. Pictures in association with Coogler’s Proximity Media, with a cast that also features Michael B Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O’Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, and Delroy Lindo.

Why MGK walked away from a Sinners audition

As per an Entertainment Weekly report dated August 1, 2025, MGK said on The Pat McAfee Show:

“There’s been plenty of movies that come out that I go, ‘Ah, I was supposed to be in that …Or, 'Oh, I did auditions for that.'”

The musician, credited under his real name Colson Baker, for acting roles since 2021, added that studio casting wanted him for a vampire named Bert, a Ku-Klux-Klan member who is later transformed by Jack O’Connell’s antagonist, Remmick. The line that ended the audition was a single use of the N-word, and Baker chose not to participate..

Industry observers applauded the stance, pointing out that Bert’s bigoted dialogue is meant to underline the film’s condemnation of Jim-Crow-era racism. Still, Coogler’s script allows only one explicit utterance, which Baker declined, and the part was ultimately played by Canadian rocker-actor Peter Dreimanis. Representatives for Warner Bros. declined to comment on Baker’s story.

Inside Ryan Coogler’s Sinners: Plot, release, and production team

Sinners is a $90–100 million Southern-Gothic vampire thriller set in Depression-era Mississippi. Michael B Jordan plays identical twins Smoke and Stack, returning home to run a juke joint that soon becomes a battleground between locals and a roving clan of undead outlaws.

Principal photography took place from April to July 2024, with Autumn Durald Arkapaw behind the camera and Ludwig Göransson contributing both score and executive-producer duties.

The movie bowed at New York’s AMC Lincoln Square on April 3, 2025, and entered wide release on April 18 through Warner Bros. Pictures. It opened to $61 million worldwide, held strong against competing releases, and crossed the $200 million domestic mark in its fourth weekend.

Warner Bros. later scheduled a streaming debut on Max for July 4, accompanied by a pioneering Black American Sign Language (BASL) version.

The part MGK refused and why it still matters

Bert appears midway through Sinners as a violent Klansman whose thirst for power leads him to accept eternal life from Remmick. The character delivers a single racial insult before his transformation, underscoring the movie’s commentary on hate festering in the American South. Baker explained that uttering the word, even in character, was a line he would not cross.

On The Pat McAfee Show, MGK remarked on his role he was supposed to play in the movie:

"The vampire. They had me set up to do the auditions — it's the vampire, the one that's in the house, so he's the second vampire, and the guy comes and he eats the family up.”

Dreimanis ultimately stepped into the role, joining a supporting ensemble that includes Miles Caton, Jayme Lawson, and Omar Miller. While Baker’s decision cost him a high-profile credit in one of 2025’s most lauded films, MGK told McAfee he still hopes “to be in cinema while I still look young,” pointing to earlier turns in Bird Box and The Dirt.

The anecdote has ignited debate over whether actors should refuse historically accurate racist language, with many praising MGK’s stance while others argue context matters.

Regardless, the story adds another cultural footnote to Sinners, a film already celebrated for merging blues-soaked Southern history with blockbuster horror and cements Machine Gun Kelly’s reputation for drawing ethical boundaries in his expanding acting career.

Stay tuned for more updates.