SCOTTISH film star Gerard Butler is at the centre of a row over the lack of racial diversity among the cast of the epic new film Gods Of Egypt.
The Paisley-born actor has been caught up in the storm that has forced director Alex Proyas and producers Lionsgate to apologise for what is known in the industry as “whitewashing” the cast.
In addition to Butler, the fantasy adventure set in ancient Egypt stars English actor Rufus Sewell and Game Of Thrones actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, from Denmark, as well as Australians Geoffrey Rush, Brenton Thwaites and Courtney Eaton.
The row was started by singer and actress Bette Midler, who took to social media to berate the director and producers.
Midler tweeted: ‘Movie, #GodsOfEgypt in which everyone is white? Egyptians, in history and today, have NEVER been white. BRING BACK GEOGRAPHY!! It’s Africa!’.
Butler has made no comment, but Proyas, who was born in Egypt and moved with his Greek parents to Australia at a young age, responded to the criticism in an unusually apologetic statement.
The I, Robot director said: “The process of casting a movie has many complicated variables, but it is clear that our casting choices should have been more diverse. I sincerely apologise to those who are offended by the decisions we made.”
Joining the director in the statement, Lionsgate said: “We recognise that it is our responsibility to help ensure that casting decisions reflect the diversity and culture of the time periods portrayed.
“In this instance we failed to live up to our own standards of sensitivity and diversity, for which we sincerely apologise.”
Lionsgate describe the film as as an “action-adventure inspired by the classic mythology of Egypt”.
Butler, whose credits include 300, PS I Love You and The Bounter Hunter, takes the role of god of darkness Set, who has plunged the once prosperous and peaceful empire into chaos.
Gods Of Egypt is the latest in a long line of Hollywood films to have attracted criticism for “whitewashing” of characters.
Ridley Scott’s casting of Christian Bale as Moses and Joel Edgerton as the Pharaoh Rameses in last year’s Exodus: Gods And Kings was a target for considerable ire.
Scott defended the casting, however, saying it had been necessary in order to get funding for the film.
Racial miscasting in Hollywood is a not a new phenomenon, or else we would never have seen John Wayne as Genghis Khan in The Conqueror, Laurence Olivier as Othello, or Morgan Freeman playing the Irishman Red Redding in The Shawshank Redemption.
Film history would surely have been different, however, if the English-born Elizabeth Taylor had not played the very Egyptian Cleopatra.
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