Actor and producer Will Smith refused to shoot his next movie, Emancipation, in the state of Georgia, United States. This is a protest to state electoral law recently approved that restricts access to voting.
“In conscience, we cannot financially support a government that enacts regressive voting laws that are designed to restrict voter access“, said the actor this Monday in a statement with the director of the film, Antoine Fuqua.
It is the largest production to leave the territory than in recent years it has become a very attractive production centre for the film industry, thanks to the tax advantages it offers.
Some nickname this state as the South Hollywood and the arrival of professionals from the creative sector is one of the reasons given by experts to explain the demographic change it has experienced, which was evidenced by giving victory to the Democrats in the last elections.
According to Smith and Fuqua, the electoral reform approved by the Republicans after those elections is “reminiscent of the impediments to suffrage” that existed on previous occasions and that “deprived many Americans of the vote.”
“At this moment, the country is assuming its history and is trying to eliminate the vestiges of institutional racism to achieve true justice,” they reasoned.
The rejection of the film industry adds to the rejection expressed by large companies such as Coca Cola, Apple and Delta, which also operate in Georgia.
According to his detractors, the electoral reform approved by the Republicans limits the right to vote because it adds new requirements in case of wanting to do it by mail, imposes more demands when registering and identifying oneself and prohibits actions such as giving food and drink to voters who wait in long lines to deposit their ballot in crowded centres, among other provisions.
Voting by mail was essential in the last general elections due to the pandemic, and it was the favourite target of former President Donald Trump (2017-2021), who did not stop criticizing it and considered it, without evidence, a source of electoral fraud.
A hundred business leaders in that country discussed this weekend their response to the list of electoral reforms being promoted by Republican legislators in 47 states.
