Georgia, United States.
Actor / producer Will Smith will not be filming his next film, “Emancipation”, in the state of Georgia (USA) in protest of the controversial electoral reform just approved by Republican lawmakers.
“Consciously, we cannot financially support an adoptive government regressive voting laws that they are designed to restrict voter access, “the actor said in a statement to film director Antoine Fuqua on Monday.
In recent years, Georgia has become a center of production very attractive to the film industry due to the tax advantages it offers.
Some nickname this state as “South Hollywood of the USA” and the arrival of creative professionals is one of the reasons given by experts to explain the demographic change they have experienced, which has been demonstrated by the Democrats’ victory in the last election.
According Smith and Fuqua, Republican-approved electoral reform after those elections is “reminiscent of the impediments to voting” that existed on previous occasions and “deprived many Americans of the right to vote.”
“Right now, the country is taking on its history and trying to remove the remnants of institutional racism in order to get true justice,” they argued.
Rejection Film industry it 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 if it wants to do so by mail, imposes more requirements when registering and identifying and prohibits actions such as providing food and drinks voters waiting in long lines to cast their ballots in crowded centers, among other provisions.
The postal vote was crucial in the last general election due to the pandemic and was the former president’s favorite target. Donald Trump (2017-2021), who did not stop criticizing him and considering him, without evidence, a source of electoral fraud.
One hundred American business leaders discussed their response to the list of electoral reforms pushed by Republican lawmakers in 47 states this weekend.