Nate Parker is issuing an apology.

The Birth of a Nation director is expressing remorse for the “tone-deaf” comments he made regarding the rape charges he faced as a college student, Variety reports. “The last three years have been such a learning experience for me,” he said at a press conference for his police-brutality drama film American Skin. “I feel like I have gained so much wisdom from people in my circle,” he added.

“Three years ago I was pretty tone-deaf to the realities of certain situations that were happening in the climate. And I’ve had a lot of time to think about that, and I’ve learned a lot from it,” he continued. “And being tone-deaf, there were a lot of people that were hurt in my response, in the way I approached things. I apologize to those people.”

Parker is looking to make a resurgence with American Skin, after the news surrounding his rape charges negatively affected the success of his debut film, The Birth of a Nation.

“I’ve learned, I’m continuing to learn,” he said Sunday (Sept. 1). “I’m 39 years old now. Hopefully, I have a long way to go. The hope is that I can continue taking the wisdom from people who care enough…and help me to be introspective about where I am and what I’ve been through.”

American Skin is in year’s Venice Film Festival. Spike Lee, who is in Venice to support Parker and his film, says that he and the director had a conversation about what transpired in the past. “He explained to me the growth he had gone through, and also the pain, and when he said that, I said, ‘Come on, brother. I’m with you. That’s why I’m here,” Lee said.

“There hasn’t been a film that’s affected me this deeply in a while,” Lee said of American Skin, according to The Daily Beast. He continued, “I said, ‘Nate, if I could help you, tell me what to do.’ And Nate and I also had a private conversation because I had to see where his head was too, because it was no joke what he had to go through. It was a man-to-man, a black man-a black man, brother-to-brother, friend-to-friend talk. There’s an expression, it was ‘100,’ meaning legit. All the way ‘100.’ And I said, ‘Let’s go. I’m in.’”

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