The business magnate was criticized after saying on Twitter that all Egyptians are white in defense of the whitewashing backlash over Ridley Scott's film.
- Nov 30, 2014
AceShowbiz - Rupert Murdoch comes under fire on Twitter. The business magnate and 20th Century Fox executive takes the heat online after defending the all-white casting of Ridley Scott's "Exodus: Gods and Kings" which will be distributed by the studio starting December 12.
"Moses film attacked on Twitter for all white cast. Since when are Egyptians not white? All I know are," he tweeted, to which a fan replied, "Have you seen depictions of King Tut or other ancient Egyptians? They didn't exactly resemble Channing Tatum." There was also a sarcastic response, "To be fair, everybody @rupertmurdoch knows is probably white."
Aware of the backlash he got from his statement, Murdoch later added, "Everybody-attacks last tweet. Of course Egyptians are Middle Eastern, but far from black. They treated blacks as slaves." He continued, "Okay, there are many shades of color. Nothing racist about that, so calm down!"
Christian Bale plays Moses, while Joel Edgerton portrays Pharaoh Ramses II. The other stars include John Turturro, Aaron Paul, Sigourney Weaver, and Ben Kingsley. The film follows Moses on his monumental journey of leading thousands of slaves to flee Egypt.
Edgerton was aware of the controversy surrounding the casting of all white actors for the principle characters in the movie. He commented on the backlash, "I got asked to do a job and it would have been very hard to say no to that job."
Scott has addressed the criticism as well. The director suggested it was the only way to finance the film. "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," he said. "I'm just not going to get it financed. So the question doesn't even come up."
