Prison Break's Dominic Purcell apologizes, says 'Vancouver Gulag' Instagram rant was sarcastic
An Australian actor who took to his Instagram account to criticize Vancouver’s rainy weather and homeless population, going as far as calling the city a ‘Gulag’ (we think he meant to say ‘Ghetto’), has retracted some of his statements and issued an apology.
On Friday, Dominic Purcell made another Instagram post saying his “acerbic sense of humor has always raised an eye brow” and that “the sun doesn’t shine [only] four days a year.” A blurry logo of the City of Vancouver was used as the post’s image.
“Big #apology to the people who took #offence to my recent rant,” he wrote. “I actually think #Vancouver is a #beautiful city. I was being very #sarcastic and unless you know me it would appear in a very different light.”
This follows a post made last week when he said local governments “turn a blind eye” to the mentally ill and homeless and rather focus their efforts on construction and foreign investment. By this morning, the rant racked up over 20,000 likes and more than 1,000 comments, including many comments criticizing the actor for doing nothing and failing to know the issues and provide context.
The controversial post ended with the following: “Be sure to check out Hastings street not as pretty it’s where you get to see a very very real part of Vancouver. Ps. Can wait to read the hate comments I get. Haha.”
But the latest post seemingly addresses the backlash that he has received since last week’s rant.
“I was merely trying to bring light to the homeless and mentally ill who roam #hastings st and for that matter every other major #city in the world ( which I did say),” Purcell wrote.
“Nothing would please me more to bring light to a problem that can have an affect on helping the homeless and mentally ill. What I do see is a blind eye to the homeless and a big eye to construction serving foreign investment groups???”
The 46-year-old has been in Vancouver for nearly a year filming two television series. He has a main role in CW’s Legends of Tomorrow, and earlier this spring he began filming Prison Break‘s revival season alongside Wentworth Miller.