Goodfellas actor Frank Sivero criticized AMC for adding a trigger warning notice to its broadcasts of the renowned gangster film, calling the warning “an insult.”
“This film includes language and/or cultural stereotypes that are inconsistent with today’s standards of inclusion and tolerance,” the warning reads, “and may offend some viewers.”
Sivero believes that the warning notice is not only unnecessary, but also insulting to the director and actors of the film.
“I’m kind of a little bit perturbed in a way, that AMC that even, AMC even cuts the movie completely, you don’t hear the language, they delete the language, so why are they so upset?” he told TMZ.
Sivero added that director Scorsese didn’t start with a stereotypical script but collaborated with the actors to develop their portrayals in the film.
HAPPY DAYS – “The Skin Game” – Season One – 1/18/74 Ron Howard, Anson Williams, Frank Sivero, Henry Winkler (ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
AMC defended its decision to add a trigger warning on the film, stating that it was one of many such notices it began posting during the peak of the Black Lives Matter movement.
“In 2020, we began adding advisories in front of certain films that include racial or cultural references that some viewers might find offensive,” AMC told the New York Post.
AMC is not the only entertainment outlet adding warning labels to historic films. In 2020, HBO placed a warning label on the 1939 classic, Gone With the Wind. And in 2021, the BBC added a warning label to the 1980 sci-fi film, Flash Gordon.
