Rupert Murdoch Defends White ‘Exodus’ Cast & Stirs Racial Backlash On Twitter
Amid criticism that Fox’s new Moses sword and sandal epic Exodus: Gods and Kings is too white, 21st Century Fox CEO Rupert Murdoch took to Twitter to put cynics in their place. The film, directed by Ridley Scott, stars British actor Christian Bale as Moses, Australian thesp Joel Edgerton as Rhamses, Emmy winner Aaron Paul as Joshua, Sigourney Weaver as Tuya and John Turturro as Seti among many others. In an interview with Deadline’s sister publication Variety, Scott also defended Exodus’ white cast by saying, ““I can’t mount a film of this budget, where I have to rely on tax rebates in Spain, and say that my lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such…I’m just not going to get it financed. So the question doesn’t even come up.”
Baffled by the outcry over Exodus‘ white cast, Murdoch first tweets:
Moses film attacked on Twitter for all white cast. Since when are Egyptians not white? All I know are.
— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) November 29, 2014
That comment triggered a locust swarm, such as these jabs back at the CEO:
More diversity doesn't come from all white casting @rupertmurdoch. That's not how this works.
— Mikki Kendall (@Karnythia) November 29, 2014
I used to think that capitalists like @rupertmurdoch were knowingly racist. Benefit of the doubt. Now I see they are just sadly ignorant.
— Troy (@troyisMAJOR) November 29, 2014
Prompting Rupert to say:
Everybody-attacks last tweet. Of course Egyptians are Middle Eastern, but far from black. They treated blacks as slaves.
— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) November 29, 2014
Well, that didn’t really solve anything, so Murdoch tried to quell the Twitter uprise with the following:
Okay, there are many shades of color. Nothing racist about that, so calm down!
— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) November 29, 2014
This triggered a conversation with a Swiss black with the Twitter handle @hanlovelle, who griped to Murdoch, “Do you even attempt to make films more diverse?”
@hanlovelle making more diversity in films? Yes, and I want to see more Latinos too. More diversity everywhere, so get used to it.
— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) November 29, 2014
To which @hanlovelle rested her case by exclaiming, “I won’t believe you until you cast me in one.”
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