For decades, Hollywood actor Danny Trejo’s bread and butter was playing gangsters, prison inmates and other assorted criminals.
So when he was offered the chance to play a hardworking, peace-loving Mexican shop owner in a thriller with a working title of “Pawn Shop,” Trejo, 82, “jumped at the idea of playing a good guy,” his son, Gilbert Trejo, said on social media.
Now Trejo is catching flak for taking part in what has been described as a pro-ICE movie that is being produced by the conservative media outfit The Daily Wire, which was founded by political commentator Ben Shapiro.
“I am a proud Mexican who has always been and will always be a supporter of my community,” Trejo wrote Friday on Instagram. “I am also obviously pro immigrant. I am not pro ice.”
Trejo gave no indication in the post whether he knew who was producing the movie when he signed on to it, and he closed by declaring: “I am an actor. My job is to tell a story.”
His son, however, insisted that Trejo did not know Shapiro was involved in the movie until two weeks into the shooting.
“My 82-year-old dad has never heard of Ben Shapiro,” he wrote. “I had to explain to him who that is, and what kind of guy he is.”
Shapiro did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Now, Trejo is “handcuffed to this stupid project, and swaths of people have instantly turned their back on him without knowing any of the facts,” Gilbert Trejo said.
“My dad contractually can’t bad mouth him, the film, or walk away without being sued for breach of contract,” he added. “He couldn’t even release the statement he wanted to.”
“His agent described it as ‘a complicated story about a complicated time, where everyone looks bad except you, the hardworking Mexican shop owner who just wants peace,’” he wrote.
Trejo is represented by Gloria Hinojosa, who works for the Los Angeles-based boutique talent agency Amsel, Eisenstadt, Frazier & Hinojosa. She did not reply to an email seeking comment.
The movie, which is being shot in Livingston, Montana, also stars Harvey Keitel — another tough-guy actor who is known to be ideologically opposed to Shapiro and his ilk. He is represented by Stephanie Simon of Untitled Entertainment. She, too, did not respond to a request for comment.
So it was not clear whether either actor was aware of the synopsis of “Pawn Shop,” which now appears on IMDb, before they signed on to it.
“When chaos hits the streets of Minneapolis, a young federal agent is left alone after his partner is seriously hurt and must find a way to survive an increasingly dangerous situation,” the IMDb page says. “Seeking shelter inside a neighborhood pawn shop, he becomes trapped with a traditional Hispanic father and his progressive college-age son, forcing three very different men to confront fear, conflicting beliefs and a crisis that tests their courage and humanity.”
The film set has been the site of numerous protests after behind-the-scenes video appeared to show the movie will have a sequence based on the fatal shooting of Renée Good by an ICE officer in St. Paul, Minnesota, in January.