Die Antwoord’s Ninja Responds To Rumors About His ‘Chappie’ Behavior, Says His Co-Star Was “Juiced Up” On Steroids

As reviews for Neill Blomkamp‘s "Chappie" made clear, not everyone is a fan of South African rappers Die Antwoord. The presence of Ninja and Yo-Landi Visser were a make or break component for many, and even for some of the people working on the actual movie. According to actor Brandon Auret, who plays the gangster big bad Hippo, Ninja had caused "tension" on the set, and reports from South African press last year suggested the rapper was causing no shortage of problems, even claiming he was written out of scenes (though upon seeing the final film, and how much of a central role he plays, it doesn’t seem like that was the case at all). But now, Ninja has responded.

In a piece over at Boing Boing, Ninja addressed the rumors in his own unique fashion, and offers his own portrait of what he saw on set, particularly when it came to his co-star Auret. Here’s an excerpt: 

So just to be super clear, all the rumors about my ‘terrible behavior’ on set was written by 1 south african journalist, who has written many tabloid-style diss features on Die Antwoord (over the last 3 years) before his big Chappie feature. I have no idea who this dude is, but he seems to have a lil problem with us. some of his other features were called: ‘DIE ANTWOORD – NATIONAL EMBARRASSMENT’ and ‘DIE ANTWOORD – SOUTH AFRICA’S WORST NIGHTMARE’

but this last feature he wrote titled: ‘NINJA – PURE EVIL’ (where all the funny Chappie rumors came from) was the juiciest 1 by far, my boy got really busy dis time :-P….

….i did bump heads a little with Brandon Auret (Hippo) who was juiced up on a copious amount of steroids during filming (to help him stay buff) and so he was on edge the whole time…