Will Smith Is Paying For Fireworks In New Orleans On July 4th

NEW ORLEANS — Actor Will Smith is returning fireworks back to New Orleans for Independence Day.

According to press reports, Smith is footing the bill for the pyrotechnics above the Mississippi River after discovering that the city of New Orleans had scrapped plans for a performance in 2021.

Last year’s fireworks in New Orleans were canceled due to the coronavirus epidemic.

Smith is currently in New Orleans shooting on his latest film, “Emancipation,” which tells the tale of a slave named Peter who escaped from a Louisiana plantation and whose photo of beaten wounds on his back exposed the cruelty of slavery. In the Civil War, he would also fight for the Union.

After Georgia approved a new voting statute that sparked a federal lawsuit alleging that the change was designed to deny Black voters equitable access to the ballot box, Smith shifted production of the film to Louisiana in early April.