Rufus Hound has been accused of racism for his role of villain Abanzar in Peterborough New Theatre's December production of Aladdin, as promotional images showed the star wearing heavy eyeliner, prompting accusations of 'yellow face'.
The comedian - who found himself at the centre of a race row last year after old tweets resurfaced in which he used racist words - has been accused of wearing 'racist make-up'.
Rufus, 42, revealed he had made the decision to open up about the situation to his followers as he was 'sat here, having a cry and not knowing what to do about it'.
Race row: Rufus Hound, 42, has been accused of racism for his role of villain Abanzar in Peterborough's New Theatre's December production of Aladdin
Tweets seen by The Mirror not only include accusations of Rufus wearing 'racist make-up' but of him contributing to 'a nationwide anti-Asian public humiliation campaign'.
According to the paper, one person wrote in response to the image: 'Panto Season is basically a nationwide anti-Asian public humiliation campaign innit.'
Responding in a string of Twitter messages, the Rufus said: 'Hello. Some days you just feel sad, y'know? Like even though there are plenty of good things, the bad things just feel a bit too heavy.
'Problem is, there's a lot of heavy s**t. The slide into fascism, the planet burning, love not winning in the end. Y'know. F**k I feel sad.'
Make-up: The comedian - who found himself at the centre of a race row last year - has been accused of wearing 'racist make-up'
He went on: 'Let me please say to anyone who has seen the poster for the Panto I'm doing in Peterborough this Christmas…
'I dressed myself and was handed eyeliner to put on, as the final image needed to look forebodingly down. I just tried to make my eyes as menacing as possible.
'At no point did I think it was yellowface or anything near, as the character of Abanazar isn't Asian origin at all. I swear - that's why it never crossed my mind.
'Seeing it now, I get it. I see that, with white actors having so often used eyeshape as a racist dogwhistle, the image resonates with racism for many.'
Response: Writing in response in a string of Twitter messages, the star said: 'Hello. Some days you just feel sad, y'know?'
He added that his 'little old chimp brain here is absolutely lost'.
MailOnline has reached out to Rufus' representatives for comment.
The theatre company behind the production has since changed the image of Rufus to one of him without eyeliner, with a spokesperson telling The Mirror: 'We overlooked an important mistake here. We are sorry for this oversight.'
In January, old tweets from the star emerged in which he used the word 'r****d' in 2011, referred to Ed Sheeran as a 'gay lord' and tweeted racist slurs including the n-word in 2012.
Ahead of the report on his historic tweets, Hound shared a link to tweets originally posted in September 2020, in which he responded to criticism of his posts.
The thread read: 'Hi there Occasionally for different reasons, people trawl through my timeline
