Perfume company Jo Malone has issued an apology after John Boyega was cut from the Chinese version of an advert that he’d helped create.
Last year, Jo Malone debuted a new advertising campaign directed by and featuring the Star Wars actor, which showed him walking around Peckham, where he was born and raised, dancing with friends and spending time at home with his family.
A reshot version of the ad featuring actor Liu Haoran in similar scenes was recently unveiled for the Chinese market, with a Jo Malone spokesperson having now apologised for the decision to remove John from the international clip.
“We deeply apologise for what on our end was a mistake in the local execution of the John Boyega campaign,” they told The Hollywood Reporter.
“John is a tremendous artist with great personal vision and direction. The concept for the film was based on John’s personal experiences and should not have been replicated.”
They continued: “While we immediately took action and removed the local version of the campaign, we recognise that this was painful and that offence was caused.
“We respect John, and support our partners and fans globally. We are taking this misstep very seriously and we are working together as a brand to do better moving forward.”
John is yet to comment on the matter directly, but did reshare a post from one Twitter user who wrote: “This is the ad John Boyega came up with and directed. It is great. Now, this man needs to be properly compensated for the thievery! No apology is good enough.”
He also retweeted a video from a fan highlighting the similarities between John’s original ad and the reshot version.
HuffPost UK has contacted John Boyega’s representatives for further comment.
Earlier this month, John made headlines when he spoke of his experiences as a member of the Star Wars cast, saying that Disney gave “all the nuance” to the saga’s white characters.
He said: “What I would say to Disney is do not bring out a Black character, market them to be much more important in the franchise than they are and then have them pushed to the side.
“It’s not good. I’ll say it straight up.”