Celebrity2 min(s) read
Published 10:31 07 Jul 2021 GMT
Will Smith forked out $100,000 to pay for a Fourth of July fireworks display in New Orleans after he learned the city wasn't going to have one.
As reported by the Associated Press, city officials told news outlets that the I Am Legend star had made the generous donation for the fireworks over the Mississippi River.
Per Deadline, New Orleans had already been forced to cancel the fireworks show last year due to the pandemic. This year, it was the city's lack of funds that had initially made the annual spectacle a no-go - until, of course, Smith stepped in.
Sharing her gratitude, Mayor LaToya Cantrell tweeted: "A fireworks display produced by ‘Go 4th on the River’ will take place in New Orleans along the Mississippi Riverfront at 9 pm Sunday, July 4, 2021.
"The gift of city fireworks was made possible by actor and producer Will Smith, along with his company Westbrook."
Smith is currently filming the upcoming slave-thriller Emancipation in New Orleans. The movie was originally set to be filmed in Georgia, however, due to the state's new "regressive voting laws" - filming was re-located to New Orleans.
In a statement from the film's director Antoine Fuqua and Smith released via Smith's media production company Westbrook Inc., the pair said that their respective companies were withdrawing the film production of Emancipation from Georgia "as a result of new voting restrictions".
They said the new law is "reminiscent of voting impediments that were passed at the end of Reconstruction to prevent many Americans from voting."
"At this moment in time, the Nation is coming to terms with its history and is attempting to eliminate vestiges of institutional racism to achieve true racial justice," Fuqua and Smith added in the statement.
"We cannot in good conscience provide economic support to a government that enacts regressive voting laws that are designed to restrict voter access."
"Regrettably, we feel compelled to move our film production work from Georgia to another state," they went on.
According to BBC, Emancipation is the first movie to decide against the state as a shooting location since the passing of the new law.
