Stardust Author Neil Gaiman Posts Letter From Frightened Actress In Innocence of Muslims Film
Anna Gurji's acting experience in Innocence of Muslims may turn out to be more frightening than any horror/fantasy genius Neil Gaiman ever wrote.
On Monday, the Sandman author posted a letter he received from Gurji on his website, Neil Gaiman.com. Gaiman explained that he met Gurji, who hails from the Eastern European country of Georgia, on the set of Michael Reaves film Blood Kiss, in which he plays a small role. During the first read-through of the script, Gurji read the part of the female lead in the film. "So I've acted with Anna and spent time with her," Gaiman wrote on his site. "She's a good sort."
Under the title, "A Letter from a Scared Actress," Gaiman explained that Gurji, who is portrayed as Muhammad's child bride in Innocence of Muslims, reached out to him to explain how she'd been duped by the filmmakers. Gaiman asked her to write a letter that he could post in its entirety on his site. "The best weapon against lies is the truth, after all," he wrote.
The letter can be read in its entirety at Gaiman's site, but Gurji, who also spoke to the New York Post, and reportedly left a long passage about her experience on her Facebook page, noted that the filmmakers made "no mention EVER...of MUHAMMAD and no mention of religion during the entire time I was on the set." Gurji added: " I am hundred percent certain nobody in the cast and nobody in the US artistic side of the crew knew what was really planned for this 'Desert Warrior'," which was the original title of the movie.
"It’s painful to see how our faces were used to create something so atrocious without us knowing anything about it at all. It’s painful to see people being offended with the movie that used our faces to deliver lines (it’s obvious the movie was dubbed) that we were never informed of, it is painful to see people getting killed for this same movie," Gurji wrote. adding: "it is painful to hear people blame us when we did nothing but perform our art in the fictional adventure movie".
Gurji says she was under the impression that the film was supposed to be "about a comet falling into a desert and tribes in ancient Egypt fighting to acquire it."
Instead four American diplomats have fallen, and Gurji and her fellow actors are living in fear.
Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter.
Follow Movieline on Twitter.