(Los Angeles) Will Smith’s next film, Redemption, Dedicated to the history of slavery in the United States, will not be filmed as planned in Georgia, in protest of a law recently passed in that state that, according to its opponents, restricts access to ballot boxes for minorities and especially Africans. American voters.
Thanks to significant tax incentives, Georgia has become one of the premier filming locations in the United States in recent years, hosting Marvel films or series, for example. The Walking Dead.
The adoption last month of a text that was supposed to fight election fraud, especially strengthening checks on voter identification by mail, provoked a wave of criticism and called for a boycott in the financial sector. Or players.
Will Smith and Antoine Fukua, directorRedemption, Decided on Monday to join this protest movement. “We cannot give financial support in our heart and soul to an executive who enforces backward election laws with the goal of restricting access to ballot boxes. […] We hope to move our filmmaking work from Georgia to another state, ”the artists wrote in a statement to AFP.
In addition to reinforced identity checks, a text signed by the Governor of the Republic of Georgia also prohibits the distribution of water or food in long lines on polling days and limits the number of ballot boxes set up on the street to leave ballots.
Critics of the law have compared its provisions to so-called “Jim Crow” separatist laws introduced by several southern states after the Civil War to limit the voting rights of African Americans.
Georgia’s new electoral regulations “remind many Americans of the obstacles to the vote that followed the end of the Reconstruction to prevent them from voting”, so Will Smith and Antoine Fukua believe, especially his image. Training day.
In Georgia, the wounds of slavery and segregation are still alive, thanks to the record mobilization that President Joe Biden won in November 2020, especially black voters. Donald Trump, who won the contest in this state, was falsely accused of being a victim of election fraud.
In protest of the new arrangements, Major Baseball announced last Friday that the All-Star Game to be held on July 13 in the Georgian capital Atlanta would take place in another state.
Private companies such as Coca-Cola and Delta Airlines, which provide many jobs in Georgia, have also publicly condemned the law.
Until Will Smith and Antoine Fuca decided, calls for a boycott would not resonate loudly in Hollywood, unlike some angry tweets like James Mangold, who could realize the next installment of Indiana Jones or the actor’s adventures. Mark Hamil as Luke Skywalker in the saga Star Wars.
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