Actor Will Smith is in hot water for pulling production of runaway slave film, “Emancipation,” from Georgia over the state’s new voting ID law.
Smith, in a joint statement with director Antoine Fuqua, said: “We cannot in good conscience provide economic support to a government that enacts regressive voting laws that are designed to restrict voter access.”
The two added of the Apple Studios film pullout: “The new Georgia voting laws are reminiscent of voting impediments that were passed at the end of Reconstruction to prevent many Americans from voting.”
Nationally syndicated radio host Todd Starnes said their move reeks of “ignorance and stupidity,” adding that they clearly haven’t read the law nor realize other states, like New York and New Jersey, have stricter voting laws on the books.
“This is just another case of absurd double standards,” Tim Murtaugh, visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told the Todd Starnes Radio Show Monday.
“Actors like Will Smith trying to show that’s he’s got convictions by punishing the people who will lose their jobs as a result of him taking this movie away from Georgia, but he was perfectly fine to film a PSA for China, for the release of Bad Boys III. That was fine. So he’s okay with those human rights abuses, but asking people to show an ID to vote, that’s where Will Smith draws the line,” Murtaugh said.
