Rob Latour/ShutterstockNoah Schnapp is receiving backlash.
On Aug. 25, an old video of the 15-year-old actor and his friends singing Lil Dicky and Chris Brown's "Freaky Friday" surfaced online. A few of the lyrics contained the N-word, and some viewers thought the Stranger Things star actually belted out the slur. Soon, the hashtag #NoahSchnappIsOverParty started trending on Twitter.
"Stranger Things being my favorite show and now I'm probably gonna return my posters and merch and never watch it the same way I did before this is actually rly sad. Not trying to be shady but what would ur besite [sic] Caleb think," one Twitter user wrote, seemingly referencing Schnapp's co-star Caleb McLaughlin.
Another added, "Well goodbye Noah Schnapp. You had a good run."
Schnapp then addressed the footage in a statement posted to Instagram and claimed he never said the word.
"Hi guys," he wrote at the beginning of the post. "Recently a video from last summer has gotten out of me dancing and singing a song while singing the word 'neighbor' over the N-word. I would truly never say the N-word and I'm not the type of person. I genuinely have never used that word in my life. Using the word 'neighbor' in that song was just something my camp friends and I did."
He then noted he hoped his followers understood he "could never even think about doing that" and that his friends "also would never post a video or support" him if he "was saying that slur without hesitation."
"I apologize for using a replacement word," he continued. "It is not my place to use one and I should of kept my mouth shut. I understand why it is found offensive and I am so sorry."