"Exodus: Gods and Kings" director Ridley Scott recently revealed that the film's lead actor was less than thrilled when first approached with the role.
Scott said that Christian Bale's initial reaction to playing Moses was "Oh, no," but that Bale's attitude changed once he read the script.
The director and actor had discussed working together six years ago, but had not collaborated until "Exodus." Scott praised Bale's performance in the biblical epic.
"He's always good in everything, but has really matured now and come into his own and is particularly magnificent as Moses," Scott said, Den of Geek reports. The English director also extolled the performance of Joel Edgerton, who plays Moses' adopted brother Ramses in the film.
The biblical figure Moses was a Hebrew adopted by the Pharaoh's daughter, before going on to free the Israelites from Egyptian slavery.
"Exodus: Gods and Kings" was created on a monumental scale, utilizing hundreds of crew members, thousands of background actors, and incredible special effects. Scott said that his other epic film – "Gladiator" – changed the perception of what a film set in ancient times should look like.
"When I decided to do 'Gladiator,' I think there was a lot of snickering," he admitted. "They thought I was going to do a 'sword and sandal' movie, with guys walking around in skirts and stuff like that. What it did was it opened up the whole universe with everything."
While many are anticipating the film's release, others are calling for a boycott of the picture. "Exodus: Gods and Kings" was cast with white actors playing the royal leads, and minorities playing the roles of thieves and slaves in the film.
"It's White Moses Versus White Pharoah [sic] Saving A Bunch Of White Guys From The Other Bunch Of White Guys, None Of Whom Should Actually Be White," read a headline on movie blog site Twitch. There is also a Change.org petition asking people to boycott the film.
The Oscar-nominated director defended the casting choices in a recent interview.
"Egypt was – as it is now – a confluence of cultures, as a result of being a crossroads geographically between Africa, the Middle East and Europe," he explained.
"We cast major actors from different ethnicities to reflect this diversity of culture, from Iranians to Spaniards to Arabs. There are many different theories about the ethnicity of the Egyptian people, and we had a lot of discussions about how to best represent the culture."
"Exodus: Gods and Kings" will appear in theatres nationwide on Dec. 12.
