British-Pakistani actor Riz Ahmed lauded New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for rejecting a film being made on her, titled This Is Us.
The US backed film has been centered on Ardern’s highly-praised response to the Christchurch attacks of 2019. Recently, the film has sparked an intense backlash among New Zealand Muslims, with community leaders criticizing the project for pushing a "white saviour" narrative.
Taking to his Instagram Story on Monday, the Sound of Metal star praised Ardern for not letting Muslims get ‘de-centered’ in their own stories that should be focused solely on them.
Tagging a link of an article about Ardern criticizing the film project, the Academy award nominated actor wrote, “THANK YOU @jacindaardern for being on the right side of this. People are no longer gonna tolerate de-centering Muslims in their own stories.”
Criticizing the project, the new Zealand premier said the project is poorly timed and focused on the wrong subject. She said the attacks — when a white supremacist gunman ran amok at two mosques during Friday prayers, killing 51 and seriously injuring another 40 — remained "very raw" for many New Zealanders.
Ardern also revealed that the filmmakers had not consulted her about the movie. "In my view, which is a personal view, it feels very soon and very raw for New Zealand," she told TVNZ.
"And while there are so many stories that should be told at some point, I don't consider mine to be one of them — they are the community´s stories, the families' stories."
Ahmed’s appreciation for Ardern comes days after he spoke out against the misrepresentation of Muslims in Hollywood as he teamed up with the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative to conduct a study, called Missing & Maligned: The Reality of Muslims in Popular Global Movies.
