3:35 p.m. PDT 04/22/2021
by
Bryn Sandberg
“I will continue to shoot in Georgia,” said the Atlanta-based producer.
Will Packer is burdening Georgia’s new electoral law.
As Black Panther II director Ryan Coogler clarified last week, the Atlanta-based producer at The Real said he plans to keep his productions despite the restrictive Georgia bill.
“It’s a complex issue because most of the people who work in the movie industry didn’t vote for those legislators who put these archaic laws in place,” Packer said on the talk show. “And while I respect some filmmakers who say, ‘I can’t film in Georgia. I can’t go down there and film because it would show support for this lawmaker and support for this government.’ I understand. But make no mistake: the people we hire, the people who work in the industry didn’t vote for these people and these are not their laws. I don’t want to punish any of them. “
Packer reiterated the position of many other Democratic leaders in Georgia, such as Stacey Abrams and Senator Jon Ossoff, who warned against boycotting the state, noting that it would hurt the wrong people. “I’m not moving my productions out of Georgia because the people in Georgia who drive trucks, place lights, do catering, do anything for our movie productions, need those jobs,” continued Packer. “So I’ll keep shooting in Georgia.”
Girls Trip producer also argued that moving the business out of the state would only help Republican Governor Brian Kemp. “The other thing is, understand that the Georgia governor is actually empowered to say, ‘I drove Hollywood out of Georgia. These people are liberal, they lean to the left, they don’t, I have ours Viewpoints so that I, the governor, look strong when I can say these productions are leaving the state, “Packer said, adding that he believes Kemp’s feud with former President Donald Trump will only lead him to renounce his Conservative base to appease More. “Mainly because he has problems with the former president who said he was not strong enough for not supporting his unfounded allegations of electoral fraud. So he’s trying to show that grassroots point: ‘Look what I’m doing . Look at how strong I am and how I manage these other people out of town. ‘”
Rather than moving productions out of the state, Packer suggested that the best way to protest the law is to get people to vote. “In reality, as a community, we need to let our voices be heard. We need to make sure people know we don’t stand for this. We will continue to support the real people there who are we at Georgia, but we won’t let them that they are trying to take us back in time – and the way you do that, you vote, period, “he said. “Remember that too [Derek] Chauvin case, in this trial we just saw where we finally got a minimum of justice, remember the attorney general who is an elected position. So if we don’t go out and vote, we have no one to go and press the indictment and move the case forward to convict him. It all depends. It’s about voting and making sure your voice is heard. “
Filmmakers have responded to the law in different ways. In a comment released by Shadow and Act, Coogler said he would be shooting his Marvel sequel in the state this summer. He said that after speaking with voting rights activists in Georgia, he realized that withdrawing from the state would likely hurt the same people who will be hardest hit by the new law. A week earlier, Antoine Fuqua and Will Smith took a different approach and instead decided to postpone their upcoming slave drama Emancipation. “We cannot in good conscience provide economic support to a government that passes regressive electoral laws designed to restrict electoral access,” the couple said in a statement.