AceShowbiz - BlacKkKlansman star John David Washington was embarrassed by the footage of the fatal Charlottesville, Virginia riots which features at the end of his new movie.

In the film the actor son of Denzel Washington plays real-life African-American police detective Ron Stallworth, who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan white power movement in Colorado Springs, Colorado and thwarted a bomb attack on black activists.

Spike Lee's Cannes Film Festival hit features a lot of drama and a few laughs, but it's the footage of a car ploughing into anti-racism protesters during a 2017 rally in Charlottesville, which appears unedited at the end of the film, that has become a major talking point.

The short video, intended to show that racism is still prevalent in American society today, also features activists sobbing in the street following the violence, and a tribute to 32-year-old protester Heather Heyer, who was killed.

The footage brought back feelings of shame and embarrassment for Washington.

"Seeing it on the news, I obviously react to it but we've almost become impervious to this sort of bad news," he tells the Associated Press. "But putting it in this movie, we're taking our time, we chose to be in this theatre, to see a Spike Lee joint. Then this footage is in the Spike Lee joint.

"It feels like it's at your doorstep and you don't feel as distant as if you're maybe watching it on your news feed. Because we trust Spike Lee, we trust his storytelling ability. The fact that he would put this in here makes it a little more real. For me, I was devastated. I was embarrassed, quite frankly, of our country.

"I hope that it has an impact internationally. The language in this film is very hateful language but it's generational, and we're seeing that now that we have got a long way to go. So far the reactions have been great, especially towards the end. People seem to really feel how relevant the story is".