The first major film has pulled out of Georgia in response to the state’s restrictive new voting law.
The film, Emancipation, stars Will Smith and is directed by Antoine Fuqua. In a statement, the two said that the controversial law is “reminiscent of voting impediments that were passed at the end of Reconstruction.”
According to Variety, the film is based on a true story of an enslaved person called “Whipped Peter,” whose scarred back was photographed and printed in Harper’s Weekly in 1863.
Film industry trade publication Deadline Hollywood says that Emancipation’s pulling out is likely an isolated event, driven in large part by the film’s subject matter and the “optics” of shooting in Georgia. Deadline also notes that political leaders like Stacey Abrams and media executives like Tyler Perry have urged filmmakers not to boycott the state because of the voting law.