Danny Trejo Never Heard of Ben Shapiro, Son Says of 'Pawn Shop'

By Daniel Okafor

Danny Trejo had "never heard of Ben Shapiro" before signing on for Daily Wire's "Pawn Shop," and he is contractually barred from criticizing either the commentator or the film, according to his son, Gilbert Trejo.

Gilbert made the claims in an Instagram story posted over the weekend, responding to backlash from fans who accused the actor of supporting ICE and Shapiro's politics. He wrote that the cast only learned of Shapiro's involvement two weeks into shooting.

"I had to explain to him who that is, and what kind of guy he is," Gilbert wrote of his 82-year-old father.

What can Trejo actually say?

Not much, apparently. Gilbert said his father cannot "badmouth" Shapiro or the film, and cannot "walk away without being sued for breach of contract." He added: "He couldn't even release the statement he wanted to."

The elder Trejo did manage one statement to TMZ: "I am a proud Mexican who has always been and will always be a supporter of my community. I am also obviously pro-immigrant. I am not pro-ICE. I know where I come from and I know our struggles. I am an actor. My job is to tell a story."

Gilbert's verdict was blunter. "It's fucked up," he wrote. "He's handcuffed to this stupid project, and swaths of people have instantly turned their back on him without knowing any of the facts."

How did Trejo end up in the film?

According to Gilbert, the pitch came from his father's agent, who described the project as "a complicated story about a complicated time, where everyone looks bad except you, the hardworking Mexican shop owner who just wants peace." Trejo, Gilbert said, "jumped" at the chance to play a good guy. That's a reasonable career move for an actor typecast for decades as the menacing enforcer.

The film's logline frames it as a siege thriller: a young ICE officer, hunted through Minneapolis after a riot, barricades himself in a pawn shop with "a hard-edged Hispanic veteran" and "the man's progressive college-age grandson." The synopsis promises "ordinary men" choosing "between the rule of law and the chaos that wants to burn it all down."

Who wins here?

Gilbert closed with an argument that the controversy itself served Shapiro's interests. Shapiro, he wrote, "got Mexicans to abandon one of their heroes, got his own name to the top of google searches, and made us look like angry fools lacking any nuance. He wins."

That's a bitter read, but it's a precise one. The backlash targeted the actor least able to answer it, while the producer most able to benefit from the noise stays quiet. Whether Trejo's TMZ statement cools the outrage remains to be seen — his contract, presumably, doesn't cover what his son posts.