Machine Gun Kelly claims he turned down an audition for one of the year’s biggest and best movies – here’s why

Machine Gun Kelly has claimed he turned down an audition for box office smash Sinners.

The 35-year-old singer said that he was supposed to be in the 2025 thriller movie, directed by Ryan Coogler, during Thursday’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show.

“The vampire, they had me set up to do the audition, it’s [for] the one that’s in the house, so he’s the second vampire,” he explained.

He then cited the reason why he turned the opportunity down, claiming: “In the audition, he has to say the ‘n-word’ and I wouldn’t do it.”

Kelly, whose real name is Colson Baker, auditioned for Bert, who gets turned into a vampire by Remmick (played by Jack O’Connell) in Sinners. Bert’s wife, Joan, also gets bitten by Remmick and becomes a vampire. Ultimately, the role of Bert went to Peter Dreimanis.

During The Pat McAfee Show, the “Wild Boy” singer said that he’s always had an interest in acting.

“I had a lot of aspirations to be in movies, but it just hasn’t panned out that way,” Kelly said. “I’m on universal time, though, so we’ll see.”

He described what universal timing meant, noting that the acting opportunities will come when it’s right for him. “The angels will put something in the works,” he added. “Whenever they feel like it.”

However, he acknowledged that he doesn’t want to wait too long to book another movie role.

“I’d like to be in cinema while I still look young. I’d really like to be recruited into a movie while I still got looks,” Kelly quipped.

Kelly started acting in 2014, with his first role in the romantic drama Beyond the Lights, where he played rapper Kid Culprit. However, he later noted that when in the acting business, he wants to go by his birth name, Colson Baker, which is what he did in the Western film, The Last Sun.

“I think it's more just out of respect for the art​​,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2021 about dropping his stage name for movie roles. Referring to the American painter Jean-Michel Basquiat, he said: “If you're looking at a Basquiat piece and you have feelings about him personally, is that fair to the art because of how you feel about him personally?"

“There's music and then there's movies. I don't feel like being Inception in a person,” he added, referring to the 2010 Christopher Nolan film. “Like there's a character inside of a character inside of a character inside of a character. I'd rather it just be me playing a character in one world and then me playing a character in another world.”