15 Most Controversial Movie Moments 2016
3. Gods Of Egypt’s Whitewashed Cast
In the latest in a long line of cases of Hollywood whitewashing, director Alex Proyas and studio Lionsgate came under fire when it was revealed that their fantasy adventure flick Gods of Egypt about – you guessed it – Egyptian gods would feature a predominantly white cast. Featuring a Scotsman (Gerard Butler), a Danish actor (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and an Aussie (Brenton Thwaites), the only non-white main cast member is black actor Chadwick Boseman and even with him offering a bit of diversity, there’s still a distinct lack of Egyptian people.
Released in the midst of this year’s #OscarsSoWhite controversy, the film went on to be critically panned and an epic box office flop. Not just because of its largely whitewashed cast – it was a really bad film regardless – but making a film called Gods of Egypt without involving anyone vaguely Egyptian was inevitably going to invite criticism. Comparisons with Ridley Scott’s whitewashed 2014 biblical epic Exodus: Gods and Kings are inevitable, but Proyas and Lionsgate should be given credit where credit is due. Whereas Scott defended his whitewashed casting by saying he needed big (i.e. white) actor names to draw in financers, Proyas and Lionsgate did issue an official apology recognising the film’s lack of diversity before its release. Not that that’s much of a comfort to any budding Egyptian actors out there though.