Will Smith and director Antoine Fuqua announced that they are moving their high-profile film “Emancipation” out of Georgia due to the state’s controversial new voting law.
“At this moment in time, the Nation is coming to terms with its history and is attempting to eliminate vestiges of institutional racism to achieve true racial justice,” Smith and Fuqua said in a statement. “We cannot in good conscience provide economic support to a government that enacts regressive voting laws that are designed to restrict voter access.”
The big-budget film, which sold to Apple Studios in a deal reportedly worth over $120 million, stars Smith as Peter, a fugitive from slavery traveling north from Louisiana; the film was set to start filming on June 21, 2021.
“The new Georgia voting laws are reminiscent of voting impediments that were passed at the end of Reconstruction to prevent many Americans from voting,” they added. “Regrettably, we feel compelled to move our film production work from Georgia to another state.”
The move is the latest in reaction to the state’s voting law, recently passed by the legislature and signed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. The bill is one of many GOP-backed efforts in statehouses nationwide to restrict voting access in the aftermath of former President Donald Trump’s false claims that there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, which he lost. There was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, a statement backed up by a number of officials, including Trump’s former Attorney General William Barr.
The Georgia law adds a photo ID requirement for voting absentee by mail, cuts the amount of time people have to request an absentee ballot, and limits where drop boxes can be placed and when they can be accessed. It also bans people from handing out food or water to voters waiting in line and allows the Republican-controlled State Election Board to remove and replace county election officials while curtailing the power of the secretary of state as Georgia’s chief elections officer.
More than 100 top executives and corporate leaders gathered online this weekend to discuss what to do in response to changes to some state voting laws, according to reports from the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.
A number of companies and their leaders have spoken up on the issue in recent weeks. While Republican lawmakers — such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) — have derided such action, many activists and others say big business hasn’t gone far enough.
“My advice to the corporate CEOs of America is to stay out of politics,” McConnell said at a news conference in his home state of Kentucky last week. “Don’t pick sides in these big fights.”
“Corporations will invite serious consequences if they become a vehicle for far-left mobs to hijack our country from outside the constitutional order,” the Republican leader continued, warning companies there could be risk if they wade into other political issues, such as climate change or gun violence.
Major League Baseball announced that they are moving the All-Star Game and the MLB Draft out of Atlanta in the aftermath of Georgia enacting the new law. Georgia-based companies Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola also issued stinging rebukes of the measure.
In response, prominent Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, called for the boycott of the league, as well as Coca-Cola, Delta, and other companies, including JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, UPS, and Merck.
More than 350 different voting bills are under consideration in dozens of states, according to a tally from the Brennan Center for Justice.
Because of its generous incentives, a number of film and television production companies have set up shop in Georgia, from Tyler Perry to Marvel Studios, but some filmmakers and stars, such as “Logan” director James Mangold and actor Mark Hamill, have vowed to boycott the state due to its restrictive new voting measure.
Perry, who urged the Department of Justice to investigate Georgia’s law, which he called “unconstitutional” and said hearkens back to the Jim Crow era, urged people to “please remember that we did turn Georgia blue and there is a gubernatorial race on the horizon – that’s the beauty of a democracy.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
