According to Trejo’s son, Gilbert, the absurdly busy actor (who boasts 488 IMDb credits and counting) was tricked into appearing in Shapiro’s incendiary slice of white supremacist propaganda, with Gilbert telling The Independent last week that Trejo’s agent had presented the film as a story about his heroic pawn shop owner attempting to defuse racial tensions while protecting his neighborhood store. In Trejo’s defense, such subterfuge is reportedly The Daily Wire’s m.o., as multiple Pawn Shop crew members have walked off the set of the low-budget movie once the right-wing rag’s participation came to light.
According to Gilbert, his father is “heartbroken to be framed as representing something he doesn’t,” and is also restrained by his contract from commenting on the film or his association with it. Still, The Hollywood Reporter states today that Trejo is making his displeasure with the film’s cartoonishly bigoted script known in other ways. According to THR‘s “source close to the production,” Trejo is using his position as the film’s focal point to at least stonewall some of the movie’s most offensive elements.
“He couldn’t walk off the movie—he’d get sued,” the source reports. “But he made them change a bunch of stuff. He was like, ‘No, I’m not going to say that.’” It’s a small act of defiance if true, but perhaps the only one open to a working actor trapped in a bad situation. Still, THR does mention that Trejo once did voices for another Daily Wire production, the painfully unfunny anti-woke animated series Mr. Birchum, which sources say the actor only did because of his acquaintanceship with star Adam Carolla. At the very least, this all suggests that Trejo needs to find representation more attuned to his best interests.
