Gabrielle Union says she was threatened and followed by a group of 'Neo-Nazis' while visiting 'Game of Thrones' filming spots
- Gabrielle Union details how a trip to Croatia turned into a racist encounter in her new book.
- Union was traveling for a convention when she decided to visit a "Game of Thrones" filming spot.
- The short-lived visit ended with Union and friends being chased out of a bar by Neo-Nazis, she wrote.
In her newly-released memoir, Gabrielle Union details how a trip to "Game of Thrones" filming locations in Croatia turned into a harrowing racist encounter.
"We just wanted to make it out of King's Landing alive," Union said in her book, titled "You Got Anything Stronger?"
In 2019, the "L.A.'s Finest" star was attending an industry convention in Dubrovnik when she and her friends decided to do an impromptu pop culture tour. As fans of "Game of Thrones," the group thought it'd be fun to walk around the older part of the city that served as the backdrop for many scenes in the HBO series.
A bit of hesitation arrived when the Union and her crew encountered a group of teens, making racist comments at them, the actress recalled in her book. But Union and her friends continued on, enjoying the photo-ops during their self-guided tour.
Union wrote that they eventually found what they thought was a gay bar (due to some rainbow decor outside), and decided to go in for some drinks. But it took just minutes to realize they weren't welcome.
"The whole place was covered in racist decorations, like trophies of past kills," Union wrote in the memoir.
Union and her friends realized the bar "was covered in Jim Crow memorabilia," all recognizable as American-imported visuals of "Black mammies and jockeys," she detailed. While in the bathroom, one of Union's friends was called a slur, she recalled.
As Union and her friends tried to play cool, two men lifted their sleeves to show their tattoos of swastikas. When Union and her friends caught the hint and decided to leave, she wrote, they were followed by Neo-Nazis and their threats. At one point, with the "skinheads" still following them, Union saw a cop and thought he might help them, she said.
"He turned. Sneered and glanced at the men behind us," Union wrote. "Then he looked away."
Once Union and her friends had "fled through the gate of King's Landing" (meaning they were finally outside of the old city's walls), she recalled that the men stopped following them.
Union said thinking about the "truth" of the situation was difficult.
"You're outnumbered. And you're not trying to die in a fucking Croatian bar in King's fucking Landing," Union said.
"We think we're post racial but we're not," Union told People in an interview about the Croatia experience. "And that is beyond disappointing. I don't think people understand the violence that comes with racism, whether it's if you're being chased or you're having to watch someone wear blackface to collect a paycheck. It's violent."
This isn't the first time Union has been vocal about her experiences of racism. The same year this incident happened in Croatia, Union was reportedly fired from "America's Got Talent" for voicing her concerns about racism on the set.
As previously reported by Insider's Libby Torres, Union's husband Dwyane Wade praised Union for "standing up."
Union's book, "You Got Anything Stronger?" is available in stores now.