Bassem Youssef is addressing the Superman Legacy controversy after he suggested he was dropped from the DC movie for supporting Palestine.
In a video, the 49-year-old actor and comedian said he wanted “to address the Superman fiasco once and for all because the internet twists facts, words, and basically everything else.”
“First of all, I’m a huge fan of James Gunn, nothing but love and respect for this guy,” he began.
Keep reading to find out more…
He then talked about a day in June 2023, one day before the actors strike, when he got an audition for the new Superman movie. Less than an hour after submitting his audition, he got a call from his agent about doing a Zoom with the director.
“I have a great call with James. He tells me he likes to interview actors to make sure that everybody has good chemistry on set. Everybody in the business knows that this is a great day. You do an audition, in one hour you get the call. It’s an amazing thing. Me and my agents celebrate; the universe is smiling for us,” he said.
“And then months go by. On October 7, I go on Piers Morgan’s show [and] I do two interviews. And then after the interview, right after the strike ends, we get a call from the studio who said, ‘Bassem is no longer with us because the script has been changed.’”
“Now, you see where I can see from my point of view, the timing was bad, even if there was a script change, this looks very bad because a lot of people lost roles because of their political stance,” he said.
Bassem clarified he had not talked about being cut from the superhero movie and “was sad for three days” but had put the issue behind him.
In interviews with BBC, he was asked if he had lost any opportunities for his political stance, and he told the story but said he talked about it with no anger or bitterness, adding, “I tried to be as empathic as possible.”
When things “blew up,” Bassem says he got a call from James who told him that he was never officially with the movie, and he usually does camera tests before filming stars. The actor told James that from his perspective it looks different, which the director agreed with.
“It was just mishandled and the timing was bad. But as I said in the interview, I don’t want to believe there was no ill intention, and I think it was an honest oversight. And I hope it’s true and I hope there was nothing else but that. I haven’t thought about it and I don’t like to complain or victimize myself. I am actually very grateful for the life that I have, to travel and to earn my living by making people laugh,” Bassem added.
Find out what James Gunn said about the situation.
Watch him explain…