Milla Jovovich has addressed the controversy surrounding her new movie Monster Hunter.
The sharp-clawed CGI extravaganza was officially pulled from Chinese cinemas this month over a racial slur, with original video game developer Capcom publicly distancing itself from the adaptation.
A scene in the movie sees a white character and an Asian character share a joke about 'chi-knees', referring to a racist playground chant.
Actor Jin Au-Yeung, whose character says the line, recently addressed the controversy on his Instagram page, saying that the reference wasn't intended.
"I felt like this was a scene that was supposed to be a moment for Chinese people to be like, 'Yes!'" he said.
"For it to be flipped upside down like this, it really, really, really is eating at me. But I will say, at the same time, for any body who misunderstood or who thought it was meant to be belittling, I sincerely apologise."
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In the comments of his Instagram post, Jovovich has now shared her own response to the controversy.
"I'm so sad that you feel the need to apologise," she wrote.
"You are amazing and have always been so outspoken about your pride in your Chinese heritage. The line you improvised in the film was done to remind people of that pride, not to insult people."
"We should have researched the historical origin of it and that's 100% on us, but you didn't do ANYTHING wrong," Milla continued.
"It was an unfortunate mistake and the Chinese translation didn't help. We adore you Jin and are so proud to have worked with you on this fun and exciting project and I hope you don't let this get you down man."
Further into her response, Jovovich (who's married to Monster Hunter director Paul WS Anderson) reiterated that it was "our fault for not doing our due diligence and finding the WW2 era rhyme that's caused this uproar".
"We love you Jin," read her parting message.
Related: Hellboy star Milla Jovovich defends movie against its bad reviews
Producers Constantin Film have also apologised for the scene in question in a statement to Deadline.
"There was absolutely no intent to discriminate, insult or otherwise offend anyone of Chinese heritage," the statement read. "Constantin Film has listened to the concerns expressed by Chinese audiences and removed the line that has led to this inadvertent misunderstanding."
Monster Hunter is scheduled for release on December 25 in the US, and in the UK in 2021.
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Reporter, Digital Spy
Dan is a freelance entertainment journalist. Beginning his writing career in 2014, Dan's work first graced the pages of cult publications Starburst magazine and Little White Lies before moving onto Total Film, Digital Spy, NME and Yahoo Entertainment.
In the film and TV universe, he kneels at the altar of Jim Carrey, Daniel Plainview, Mike Ehrmantraut and Paulie Walnuts.
