Actors Will Smith (left) and Antoine Fuqua.
Getty Images
“Emancipation,” a slave drama directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Will Smith, will no longer be filmed in the state of Georgia due to a new voting bill signed on March 26 by Governor Brian Kemp.
“Right now, the nation is coming to terms with its history and trying to eliminate remnants of institutional racism in order to achieve true racial justice,” Smith and Fuqua said in a joint statement Monday.
“We cannot in good conscience provide economic support to a government enacting regressive voting laws designed to restrict voter access,” they said. “The new voting laws in Georgia are reminiscent of voting barriers passed at the end of Reconstruction to prevent many Americans from voting. Unfortunately, we feel compelled to move our film production work from Georgia to another state.”
This is the first film to be taken out of production due to this legislation.
The new law, which includes a restriction on dropboxes, makes it a crime to provide food or water to voters who are stationed outside polling stations, requires mandatory ID for absenteeism, and creates more legislative control over how elections are held are held. Opponents say these provisions will disproportionately deprive people of color from voting rights.
Since 2008, enticing tax breaks have made the state a film and television production hub, particularly for Netflix, HBO Max, Disney’s slate of Marvel movies and TV shows, and The CW. Georgia has also developed infrastructure for large budget productions and is home to a hugely skilled workforce of crew members, craftsmen and technicians.
Hollywood has debated how to deal with this most recent situation in Georgia. Some have called for a production boycott, while others are concerned that taking the production out of state would do more harm than good. The studios that commented on the new law have largely condemned it, but have not committed to halting production.
“Emancipation,” which Fuqua and Smith are producing for Apple Studios, centers around Whipped Peter, an enslaved person who emancipated himself from a southern plantation and joined the Union Army. He is best known for being the subject of a series of photos, which show the shockingly brutal scars on his back from being beaten as a slave.
It’s unclear what the financial toll will be for moving production of the project out of Georgia, but if Fuqua and Smith, who are both black and big players in Hollywood and internationally, back the decision, there could be more pressure on other productions to leave the state. .