8 Insane Recent Cases Of Hollywood Whitewashing

3) Exodus: Gods and Kings

If, when you imagine ancient Egpyt, you picture the likes of Christian Bale, Aaron Paul and Sigourney Weaver, then you’ve got it completely wrong. You apparently wouldn’t be alone however, as Ridley Scott made his idea of a fully-white Egypt flesh with 2014 biblical epic Exodus: Gods and Kings.

Telling the story of Moses (Bale) and Ramses (Joel Edgerton), Exodus is like biblical epics of old, in that it replaces any and all of the story’s people of color with white people. As John Oliver pointed out in Last Week Tonight, Scott’s claim that he couldn’t cast “Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such” for financial reasons sort of falls apart when you realize that Joel Edgerton is one of the film’s stars.