Actor Nate Parker attends the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Grants Banquet at the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons Hotel on August 4, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo : Getty Images/Frazer Harrison)
Posters of Nate Parker's upcoming film "The Birth of a Nation" have been changed to read "Nate Parker, Rapist?" days after reports emerged about the actor/director's rape allegations.
The defaced posters, created by California street artist Sabo, replaces the film's title with "Rapist?" written underneath it and several copies of the altered posters have shown up all over Los Angeles, according to The Guardian.
The original poster of the film showed Parker's character, Nat Turner, with an American flag noose around his neck. The artist told The Hollywood Reporter that he changed the original poster because he found it offensive and feared that it would lead to clashes and violence against white people.
"I was very offended when I first saw the unedited, original poster," Sabo told The Hollywood Reporter. "What it tells young, influential blacks is that their country is out to hang them, that they don't stand a chance so why try?"
Parker and his college were accused of raping a woman while studying at the Penn State University in 1999. Even though the star was acquitted of the sexual assault charges, the case has come back to haunt him after it was revealed earlier this week that the rape accuser committed suicide in 2012, according to US Weekly.
Parker, 36, took to Facebook on Wednesday (Aug. 17) to respond to the young woman's death, saying that he was "devastated" and "filled with profound sorrow" to learn of his accuser's suicide and expressed his regret over not making wiser decisions in his teenage years.
"The Birth of a Nation" was being considered as an Oscar favorite this year after the amazing reception the film received at the Sundance Film Festival. Fox Searchlight, the company behind "12 Years a Slave," picked up the film for $17.5 million.
Fox Searchlight issued a statement saying that they "stand behind Nate and are proud to help bring this important and powerful story to the screen."
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