Bassem Youssef believes he lost Superman: Legacy role for supporting Palestine
But a source close to the production say Bassem Youssef was never formally offered a role in James Gunn's Superman project
Aux News Bassem Youssef
Bassem Youssef, the comedian often called “the Jon Stewart of the Middle East,” believes he lost a role in James Gunn’s film Superman: Legacy because of his outspoken pro-Palestine stance. In an interview with Salon, Youssef says he had been cast in the film but the role was rescinded shortly after he spoke with Piers Morgan on the subject of the Israel-Hamas war. A clip from that interview went viral in October 2023.
“I was a little bit bitter about losing the role, and I was very sad. In the United States of America, you can talk about Joe Biden, you can talk about Joe Biden, you can talk about Donald Trump, but you cannot criticize a foreign government, which is very sad, you know?” Youssef told Salon. “And then because of that, I was cast in the new movie Superman, and then they told me ‘We changed the script’ after Piers Morgan. And I want to assume good faith. I want to believe that this is true.”
A source close to the production told The A.V. Club that Youssef never had a formal offer for Superman: Legacy. According to the source, the role Youssef was in consideration for was cut from the final draft of the script, which was submitted soon after the writer’s strike ended on September 27 (the deal was ratified by union membership on October 9) and before the Hamas attack on October 7. Though Youssef did send in an audition after the actors strike ended on November 9, the character had already been cut from the film, the source added. (Gunn responded to an IGN story about the character being cut with the comment, “This is accurate.”)
In his Salon interview, Youssef said that he wanted to say “Screw DC, screw Warner Bros.,” but that he understands many in Hollywood have “an emotional connection” to Israel. “I understand maybe the people who are in charge, that took the decision, looked at me and didn’t want to have me. And maybe I understand. If I’m an Arab Muslim, I was the head of Warner Bros., I wouldn’t like a pro-Zionist or pro-Israel to be in my movie if he attacked my people. I understand,” he said. “But… this is the thing we need to dissect. When I attack Israel and attack its policy, I’m not attacking Jewish people.”
The Israel-Hamas war has become a divisive topic in Hollywood. The most notable case is that of Melissa Barrera, who was reportedly fired from Scream 7 in November 2023 for sharing pro-Palestine content on her social media. Earlier this month, Variety reported that Barrera’s representatives at WME and Sugar23 were considering dropping her as a client because she posted a link encouraging followers to donate to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. (This came shortly after the U.S. halted aid to the organization due to allegations that some staffers had ties to Hamas and participated in the October 7 terrorist attack.)
While artists have experienced professional backlash for speaking up in the current political climate, the level of that backlash may depend on their status in the industry. It’s also a murky issue to unpack when films and television shows are constantly evolving, and there can be many other reasons for a star to be dropped from a project. Sara Ramirez of And Just Like That… implied that their pro-Palestine stance might have been behind Che Diaz’s exit from the Sex And The City spin-off, but later reports suggested the character had simply run its course—and Cynthia Nixon, one of the show’s stars, has also been vocally pro-Palestine. Nixon is more integral to the show than Ramirez was, though, and having a little more power in the industry goes a long way. Mark Ruffalo has also spoken up for Palestinians, and he’s nominated for an Oscar this year.
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Is it OK to think that both Hamas leadership and Netanyahu’s administration ought to spend the rest of their lives in uncomfortable confinement in a remote, very secure prison? I don’t know the best path to peace in that troubled region, but that seems like a good start.
Hamas is reacting to 75 of occupation and slaughter, Israel is committing genocide with the backing of the US. If you are a US citizen it is your duty to speak out against the genocide the US is backing and not “both sides” it.
Anyone who thinks “picking a side” is a realistic approach to this conflict is in a fantasy. Give this a read (really, do it! It won’t hurt you to read something you disagree with: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/10/why-israeli-officials-screened-footage-hamas-attack/675735/)Pointing out the real evil perpetrated by Hamas on Oct 7 is is not a violation of anyone’s “duty” and you’re bending over so far backwards to avoid “both sidesing” that you’re willfully ignoring things that should not be ignored. Every moment of this is a tragedy and casting the actions of marauders as “resistance” is an affront to decency, every bit as much as pretending Israel’s massacre of civilians is somehow justifiable or unavoidable.
The final two paragraphs for non subscribers:
To
me the most disturbing section was not visual at all. Like the clip of
the father and his boys hunted in their pajamas, it was upsetting in
part because it showed a relationship between parent and child. The clip
is just a phone call—placed by a terrorist to his family back in Gaza.
He tells his father that he is calling from a Jewish woman’s phone. (The
phone recorded the call.) He tells his father that his son is now a
“hero” and that “I killed 10 Jews with my own hands.” And he tells his
family, about a dozen times, that they should open up WhatsApp on his
phone, because he has sent photographs to prove what he has done. “Put
on Mom!” he says. “Your son is a hero!”His
parents, I noticed, are not nearly as enthusiastic as he is. I believe
that the mom says “praise be to God” at one point, which could be
gratitude for her son’s crimes or pure reflex, indicating her loss for
words to match her son’s unspeakable acts. They do not question what
their son has done; they do not scold him. They tell him to come back to
Gaza. They fear for his safety. He says, amid rounds of “Allahu akbar,”
that he intends “victory or martyrdom”—which the parents must
understand means that he will never come home. From their muted replies I
wonder whether they also understand that even if he did come home, he
would do so as a disgusting and degraded creature, and that it might be
better for him not to.
What happened on Oct 7th happened every day in Gaza before and after October 7th, but it doesn’t get exclusive press screenings (ones only for select press who have to sign NDA’s).
No, it didn’t. This is just not accurate.
There’s no need to go into a giant debate here, God knows there’s enough of that. But check out the Wood piece (it’s not like he’s a shill, and he’s a pleasure to read because he has a sense of humor) if you want.Best of luck, fare thee well, etc.
Lol at calling Wood not a shill.
His writing on settler bullshit in the West Bank is plenty critical. You do you.
Yeah, certainly I buy that Israel’s crimes surpass Hamas’s in terms of total casualties, but it is also true that Israel has never, say, massacred hundreds at a music festival (with the specific intent of killing civilians and only civilians), or used gang rape as a weapon of war, or filmed themselves murdering a grandmother in her own home before posting the video on her Facebook page so her friends and grandchildren see it. Israel commits war crimes, but Hamas is just unfathomably evil; seeing people compare them to Ukraine is sickening.
The actions of the leadership of both sides lead me to conclude that they’re eager to commit genocide against their opponents; Israel is just the side that has the power to attempt it now, so Hamas has to settle for smaller scale but more flagrant barbarism. I don’t know whether there’s anything to be gained in arguing whether systematic genocide is more or less evil than gang rape and slaughtering children, but I do think there’s something lost when we use the evil of one side to shrug off the evil of the other.
Isreal has done those you you claim they have not. They have shot up funeral processions, they shoot and kill civilians on a more than daily basis. Israel and the IDF have a long documented history of using rape as a weapon of war gong back decades. Isreali soldiers have been filming themselves daily for years murdering civilians for fun, and posting about it, parading around homes and businesses of those they have killed. Israel commits war crimes and is unfathomably evil. The same as Hamas. What nice actions would you like for people living under occupation to take? Where over 20k of their people are being jailed (i.e. held hostage) with no legal process, where prior to Oct 7th near 300 Palestinian civilians were murdered/executed simply for going about their daily lives. Where Israel controls everything that goes into and out of Gaza and the West bank. Where Israel attaches numbers to Palestinians as identification. Just what actions in your mind should those people take to fight back and resist against their oppressors? What would be enough to not upset you, you who are clearly being inconvenienced here.
This is a lie.
“What happened on Oct 7th happened every day in Gaza before and after October 7th,”
That’s obviously not true, but even if it were, it would not justify Hamas’s actions.
I think Israel’s indiscriminate bombing has been evil as well. But it’s been really interesting to see who actually opposes targeting civilians for murder, and who only opposes this when those civilians are on the right side of an imaginary line.
lol…
No heroes. Just villains and victims.
Are you American?
Aside from an SNL-based username and citing American publications, what gave me away?
About the most vanilla, Tel Aviv-approved approach to the conflict and the complete ignorance of 75 of brutal rape and pillage and ignorance of the history of settler-colonialism that only living in the star-spangled metropole of that colony bring.
Star-spangled metropole is a good turn of phrase. Tel Aviv approves of the idea that Israeli massacre of civilians is unjustifiable?Idk man, I know that it’s easier to ignore other viewpoints if you assume they’re coming from someone who doesn’t understand, but another possibility is that normal, discerning people might genuinely believe that murdering children isn’t a valid or acceptable form of resistance.I haven’t said anything here except that Oct 7 was monstrous, we shouldn’t pretend that it wasn’t, and that the Israeli response is also mosntrous.
I genuinely want to know what the taxpayers donating $3.8 billion a year to Israel think the situation is like over there for Israelis and Palestinians – like, what did they think life was like before Oct. 7 for Palestinians? How did they think Israelis treated the Arabs? Tel Aviv approves of the idea that Israeli massacre of civilians is unjustifiable?Now, now: Tel Aviv doesn’t think of Palestinians as civilians. Civilians are people, and the correct, IOF-approved phrase for Palestinians is “human animals”.It’s also, by the way, no different to how Irgun operated in the 1940s. And what ever happened to those guys? Idk man, I know that it’s easier to ignore other viewpoints if you assume they’re coming from someone who doesn’t understand, but another possibility is that normal, discerning people might genuinely believe that murdering children isn’t a valid or acceptable form of resistance.You had to clarify “resistance” there, because if you just said “murdering children is bad” you’d have been criticising the occupiers more than the resisters, since, after all, Israel has murdered more children than Hamas ever did. What is the “acceptable” for of resistance for Palestinians?
October 7th was stupid on the part of Hamas – because it was the best thing to happen to the Israeli regime. It’s what they’d been hoping for for ages – after all, Netanyahu had been propping up Hamas for years by allowing the transfer of Qatari money to go through.Remember, despite what Israel wants everyone to think, Palestine (and the West Bank) are occupied by Israel – they’re responsible for it, hence why bombing refugee camps isn’t self-defence. Netanyahu’s strategy was nurturing Hamas, because Hamas was the greatest barrier, in his mind, to a feared two-state solution. Netanyahu and Likud have said so – that if Hamas is strong a two-state solution is less likely. Netanyahu was raised from birth to genocide the Palestinians; his father was a noted fascist. He told Max Hastings in the 1970s that he hoped for another war to get rid of the Arabs, matter-of-factly (and that he didn’t trust the Ethiopian and Mizrahi Jews, because they weren’t white). The attack also works handily for statements like:I haven’t said anything here except that Oct 7 was monstrous, we shouldn’t pretend that it wasn’t, and that the Israeli response is also mosntrous.Yes, it’s good that you moderated it with acknowledging the disproportionate response of the Israelis, but that Israeli response ain’t surprising. October 7 allows Israel to neatly draw a line under, and ignore and shut down, any talk of the preceding three-quarters of a century of occupation, in the exact same way that the US just mumbled “9/11″ in response to any criticism during the War on Terror.
Only problem, what was reported and show in the footage has been found to be a lie.Hamas did attack, however as was later reported, it was not all Israeli citizen that were attacked, as the initial claim was made out to be. That a good number of the deaths came as the result of Israeli security forces themselves. Haaretz, has reported on this and the effort in Israel to have a full investigation has been constantly blocked. casting the actions of marauders as “resistance” is an affront to decencyDo a people living under occupation have a right to fight back against that occupation? If you answer is yes, that your statement is false. There is no decency in conflict, there is no honour. Anyone sitting pretty outside of the occupation really does not get a say in the actions taken.Answering “yes” means that any act taken is valid. One does not have to like or agree with it, but the acts as a means of resistance to the occupation have to be accepted. Oct 7 was horrible and terrible, you can be against the actions with every fibre of your being, however one has no choice but to accept them. It is no different to the actions taken by jewish, french, german, polish etc.etc. resistance groups in Nazi occupied territory who did some pretty horrible things
“Answering “yes” means that any act taken is valid. One does not have to like or agree with it, but the acts as a means of resistance to the occupation have to be accepted.”Um…no? You writing something doesn’t make it true. Everybody’s got a line somewhere as to what they would “accept.” If Hamas raped and murdered your mother as part of their “resistance” I don’t believe for a moment their actions would be “accepted” by you. The fucked up thing here is that the above is not an out of left field internet argument: they literally raped and murdered mothers and killed frightened, weeping children in their homes, face to face.That’s past most people’s lines (as the Israeli bombing and killing of civilians is past mine.) Ask yourself why it isn’t past yours.
How about taking another read of what i wrote this time. You even quoted it and managed to get what i said so horrendously wrong. again “One does not have to like or agree with it, but the acts as a means of resistance to the occupation have to be accepted” No one has to like what they did, one does have to accept what they did as a means of resistance. See how those are two separate things. I dont like what they did, but as a people who have a right to resisting their oppressions i have to accept any act they take. Just the same as all the resistance groups against the nazi’s, i dont like a lot of the actions they took, but i have to accept them none the less. We dont get to sit on the sidelines and dictate to them what is or is not acceptable. Israels actions over the last 75 years have bene past my line, just as Hamas actions have been past my line.
We can just assume that everything Tel Aviv says is a lie. The mass rapes that supposedly happened during Oct 7? Whoops, fabrication. The “command bunkers” under the hospital? Didn’t exist. The “massive dossier” Israel had on UNRWA being run by Hamas? It’s six pages, and anyway, you can’t see it. Let’s not forget the fact that Israel itself used the exact same tactics that it bleats about Hamas using. Irgun and Lehi were terrorist organisations that used terror tactics against the Arabs and British, though Irgun and Lehi were hypocritical – it’s not that they were against occupying Palestine, it’s that they hated that it was the British, not Eastern Europeans, doing the occupying. I am seriously curious as to who decry Oct 7 but also state that Palestinians have a right to resist think is the correct and proper way for Palestinians to resist. Do they really think Israel has given the Palestinian options for anything else?
“Answering “yes” means that any act taken is valid.”No, it doesn’t mean that. That does not logically follow at all. You can believe in resistance to an oppressor without believing that raping, kidnapping, and murdering innocent civilians on the oppressor’s territory is a valid form of resistance. That’s actually really easy! And your insistence that it isn’t is morally deplorable.“One does not have to like or agree with it, but the acts as a means of resistance to the occupation have to be accepted. Oct 7 was horrible and terrible, you can be against the actions with every fibre of your being, however one has no choice but to accept them.”This makes even less sense. Like it’s literally meaningless but somehow also self-contradictory. “It is no different to the actions taken by jewish, french, german, polish etc.etc.resistance groups in Nazi occupied territorywho did some pretty horrible things”Please cite some examples of these resistance movements doing what Hamas did to civilians on October 7th. (You can’t because no such examples exist.)
Who are you, Theodore Herzl’s grandson? Fuck your zionist way of pretending that, since 1948 until last year, no excruciatingly bad things were happening to every gentile in what Britain assigned as Israel.
Yes, God forbid we have any nuance here.
Nuance regarding this topic (for me) implies something completely different than taking the politically milquetoast approach of both-sidesing the current situation, ignoring the history of Palestine and the horrible and horribly immense collection of atrocities (which started in 1948, not last year) that led up to this point. Please listen to jewish holocaust survivors, B’tselem, JVP,… for actual nuance and completely accurate parallels between Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and Nazi Germany’s treatment of their jewish citizens.
So Hamas reacted to 75 years of occupation and slaughter by…perpetrating Octiber 7th, thus ensuring that there would be even more slaughter of their own people?
Seems dumb and bad!
Israel’s brutal reaction is the greatest recruiting tool Hamas could hope for. They’re losing thousands of their fighters but gaining tens of thousands in return, as well as getting the sympathy of Palestinians who would have previously been ambivalent. And if tens of thousands of civilians die in the violence, well, that’s secondary to Hamas growing stronger.
Raping women is a reasonable response to occupation?
Yep, that’s a very reasonable stance to take on the issue. It goes a lot deeper than that, of course, but it’d be a good start.
Dear God, it goes a lot deeper, but how do we get two sides to end generations of cyclic violence? I’ve seen one commentator argue reasonably that any lasting peace has to start with a genuine Palestinian government, a multinational security force keeping the two sides apart, and massive aid to Gaza and the West Bank to build up the Palestinian economy and infrastructure. That’s just the start of the process, and we seem no closer to that now than we were in late October.There’s only so much pressure the US can put on Israel to give up their genocidal offensive and shift focus to an actual peace plan; it’s not like Israel will just give up if the US withdraws support, not when there’s other countries willing to buddy up with the only nuclear power in a crucial geographic region. I know there are groups of Israelis and Palestinians who want to work towards peace; how can we best empower them?
“I’ve seen one commentator argue reasonably that any lasting peace has to
start with a genuine Palestinian government, a multinational security
force keeping the two sides apart, and massive aid to Gaza and the West
Bank to build up the Palestinian economy and infrastructure. That’s just the start of the process, and we seem no closer to that now than we were in late October.”That’s probably right but the Israeli government would never go for it, plus too many other assholes in the region have a vested interest in keeping things the way they are.Europe and the US, but especially Europe, really screwed the pooch on this whole thing.
I don’t really think there is a path to peace but, yes, that is one of the few non-problematic fantasies in which we can indulge.
I don’t really think there is a path to peace but, yes, that is one of the few non-problematic fantasies in which we can indulge.
Netanyahu’s administrationYou misspelled; Every Israeli Government official over the last 75 years and anyone who has eve been a member of the IDF
https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/1758560349001793693?t=S5vp5nVE0TdJYggijdKdBg&s=19
A Superman movie is no place for someone who stands up for what’s right.-David Zaslav, probably
Super what? Don’t care. No, don’t want to see it. Just flush the damn thing, I need a writeoff for a new vacation island.-David Zaslav, quite likely
He does not give off the air of a man who enjoys “downtime”.
Naw James Gunn confirmed this was true.
The article Gunn is saying is “accurate” is about how Youssef was let go before he gave the Piers Morgan interview, so…the opposite of what you’re claiming.
James Gunn here is saying it’s accurate that the man was let go before the comments. Between him and Che Diaz’s actor it all feels very curb to use the actual bad things that happened to those who lost their jobs due to speaking out to plaster over losing their job for normal Hollywood stuff.
I’d certainly think twice about employing anyone who had consented to being interviewed by Piers Morgan.
This was my takeaway.
Reminder: freedom of speech ≠ freedom from consequences.
Also: Correlation is not causation.
Youssef didn’t say it was a freedom of speech issue. He’s just saying what he thinks happened.
Cool story but I don’t think that is the issue here.
Reminder: That phrase really is peak liberal brainrot.
That’s not what this is about tithead
Or, anyone with a mouth is unaccountable?
“I want to believe that this is true,” he said, regarding the script change.Then he proceeds to craft a whole scenario as to why it’s not. That’s next-level pursuit of victimization right there.
US zionists are literally punishing people for speaking out against Israel’s war crimes, my man.
Thanks for pointing out the specific victimization this guy is seeking, my man.
It’s not self-victimization, homes. Self-victimization is “oh noz criticising Israel’s war crimes is ANtiSeMitiC! I am feeling SO UNCOMFORTABLE right now!”This guy was simply making a safe assumption.
My dude. It’s not a ‘safe assumption’ to say that he was cut from a film role because he spoke out against Israel, when in fact the role was eliminated from the script BEFORE the outbreak of violence in October. He knows this, but he decided to go the route of “oh poor me, I’ve been canceled because of what I said!”BTW, ‘safe assumtions’ are safe because they turn out to be correct, and are made in good faith, based on all available evidence. This was the opposite of that. Hope I’ve helped you understand the situation!
OK dawg
True, but have you also considered the fact that you’re a total faggot?
Failed congressional unpaid intern gets offended by something I wrote, lashes out like a 12-year-old boy, film at 11.
Dude don’t feed them. Just dismiss the comment.
Lol keep trying. You’re sooo close to hurting me. You’re doing such a good job. If calling you a faggot is what 12 year old boys do, how old do you have to be to spend the better part of a month spastically posting tranny porn?
BALD AND FAT AND BALD AND FAT AND BALD AND FAT AND BALD AND FAT AND BALD AND FAT AND BALD AND FAT
Seriously though no one is gonna miss you.
It’s time to end it all
Just make sure you do it the most painful way possible k
A source close to the production told The A.V. Club that Youssef never had a formal offer for Superman: LegacyIt’s good to see that the A.V. Club still has sources.
How big a part could this have possibly been? Are we really creating a tempest over what was probably a two-line cameo with the character appearing on a TV in the background of one scene? Or is James Gunn secretly remaking Superman III, and this guy was going to be the Richard Pryor character?
You mean supporting Hamas.
Meanwhile, Gal Gadot hums to herself, content with the state of all things.
Is she humming “Imagine”?
Not even an article update? It’s been hours since James Gunn has responded and that it’s been revealed that the character was scrapped in September, a month before the latest Gaza conflict.
There was nothing political about this and merely a misunderstanding. According to Gunn, Youssef was approached early on if he was interested, but with how writing manuscripts go, his character was erased. They’ve reportedly now mended things.
Emotions are running high and it’s understandable that Youssef might feel suspicious about industry slights these days. The frustating part is media fanning stories like this and not making any corrections or retractions after new details have deemed it false or at least doubtful. It’s irresponsible given how toxic online discourse is nowadays.
From the article above:A source close to the production told The A.V. Club that Youssef never had a formal offer for Superman: Legacy. According to the source, the role Youssef was in consideration for was cut from the final draft of the script, which was submitted soon after the writer’s strike ended on September 27 (the deal was ratified by union membership on October 9) and before the Hamas attack on October 7. Though Youssef did send in an audition after the actors strike ended on November 9, the character had already been cut from the film, the source added. (Gunn responded to an IGN story about the character being cut with the comment, “This is accurate.”)I haven’t heard anything about them mending things, but if that’s the case I agree that it should be added.
I read the mending part on Gunn’s post. Since it’s only coming from one side (James Gunn’s), I made sure to say that the report is at least doubtful and it’s basic reporting 101 to update an online article.
Since I can’t seem to post a screenshot of it (Never change, Kinja). I just copy/pasted here:
There isn’t one word against another. Baseem and I talked and we’re good. I understand how he thought things might be (which he was clear about in his interview), and I told him the whole story.
– James Gunn via ThreadsEdit: Oh wait, Youssef has also said they’re both cool now. And it’s on this same website. Maybe it is time to fix this article.
https://www.avclub.com/bassem-youssef-james-gunn-superman-legacy-clarified-1851267026
I want to like this guy, because everyone seems to love him. But I just don’t find him funny. He comes off very… “try-hard”. Feels like a kind of joke-y caricature of a tv host type person in a movie.I always just kind of dismiss as a cultural difference.Anyway, good on him for speaking out against the Israeli government. It’s bananas that people are being ostracised for that.