Filmmaker Nakoula Basseley Nakoula who angered Muslims appears with ‘duped’ actress on picture

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula on the set of film ‘Innocence of Muslims’ with actress Anna Gurji. (Nick Stern / The Daily Mail)

Filmmaker Nakoula Basseley Nakoula who angered Muslims appears with ‘duped’ actress on picture.(AA).Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the producer of a film that slanders the Prophet Muhammad sparking violent protests across the Muslim World, has been revealed a day after he was questioned by federal investigators near his home in California. The Daily Mail on Sunday published a photo of filmmaker Nakoula, also known as Sam Bacile, on the set of the amateurish film ‘Innocence of Muslims’ with actress Anna Gurji, who said she was duped by the 55-year-old director. Gurji, who played the Prophet Muhammad’s child bride, said on Saturday she was afraid of reprisals and that she was ‘betrayed’ by the Egyptian-born director.

“I was playing the youngest bride of a character named George,” she said, according to The Daily Mail. “I had no idea George would be changed to Muhammad. I’m locked up in my house. I’m terrified people in the Middle East will blame me.”‘I’m Catholic so they might think I have something against Muslims. I’m taking pills to sleep. I’ve been crying for days. I feel betrayed. My face is stuck on the movie clip. People see that awful film and they see me,” Gurji.

She added: “I was told I was to be Hilary, the young bride of a character called George,’ she said. ‘The film was about a comet that falls to Earth in the ancient Middle East. There are different tribes who think the comet is somehow holy and fight over it. There were supposed to be lots of special effects so a lot of the filming was in front of a green screen. It was super low-budget. I was getting $75 [£50] a day and all my scenes were shot with George against the green screen. I had no idea how it would be twisted,” the actress was quoted by the Mail as saying.
On Saturday, Nakoula, a Coptic Christian, was voluntarily interviewed by federal probation officers at a sheriff’s station in the Los Angeles suburb of Cerritos, said Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, according to Reuters. For many Muslims, any depiction of the prophet is blasphemous. Caricatures deemed insulting in the past have provoked protests and drawn condemnations from officials, preachers, ordinary Muslims and many Christians.
U.S. officials have said authorities were not investigating the film project itself, and that even if it was inflammatory or led to violence, simply producing it cannot be considered a crime in the United States, which has strong free speech laws.
An attorney for Nakoula did not return phone calls and a representative for the U.S. Probation Office had no comment on the outcome of Nakoula’s questioning by officers. Nakoula was ushered out of his home shortly after midnight and into a waiting car by sheriff’s deputies, his face shielded by a scarf, hat and sunglasses. “He was never put in handcuffs ... It was all voluntary,” said Whitmore, who added that Nakoula would not immediately return to his home.Read the full story here.