Green Book subject Tony Vallelonga's son responds to film's 'white saviour' criticism: 'I wasn't out to cure racism'

The son of Green Book subject Tony Vallelonga has responded to criticism that the film falls foul to the “white saviour” trope.

Vallelonga was discussing the film with director Peter Farrelly and lead stars Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen, when he commented on the “attacks” he’s received in response to it being made.

The Oscar-touted film, which has been nominated for five Golden Globes, charts the journey of African-American jazz pianist Dr Don Shirley (Ali) who befriends Italian-American bouncer Tony Vallelonga (Mortensen) after hiring him as his chauffeur during a 1960s tour of the Deep South. On the trip, Vallelonga’s eyes are opened to more extreme cases of racism in these southern states.

“I’ve been criticised before [but] this has been harder, because it’s personal," Vallelonga told Deadline. "There have been attacks on my dad and who he was, and attacks on me personally.”

He continued: “What I tried to do was show, through these two people, how we’re all the same, and can come together on a very simplistic level. I wasn’t out to cure racism; I’m just saying this is what happened to these two men and it shows the baby steps toward people coming together. I wanted people to see that and feel good about it.”

In recent months, Shirley’s nephew has branded the film “a symphony of lies”, expressing anger that nobody consulted with him ahead of the film being made. Moonlight star Ali has since issued an apology to Shirley’s family.

However, Vallellonga defended his decision to keep it from them, stating that the man himself told him not to do so.

“Dr Shirley said, ‘I don’t want anything else about me in there.’ He didn’t want to tell me about his family. He could’ve had 10 brothers and sisters, and my father didn’t even know that. He didn’t want me to have information about aspects of his personal life. He granted me the right to tell this story of this time between him and my father, nothing else, and he specifically told me, ‘Don’t contact anyone about me. What I’ll tell you will be enough. No one was there but me and your father, so no one can even give you any information about what happened in that car.’”

He added: “I respected the man’s wishes. I didn’t contact anyone because he adamantly told me never to do that, even after he passed away.”

Shrley’s nephew claimed that he only discovered Green Book was being made after spotting an Instagram post about the film by Ali in January 2018. He went on to tell Shadow & Act that he found it “hard to believe” that his uncle gave Vallelonga permission to write a film based on the experiences depicted in the film.

He criticised the film for portraying his uncle in a “deeply hurtful” manner, stating that a scene suggesting he was estranged from his family was “100 per cent wrong”.

Green Book is released in the UK on 1 February.